Losing your job affects you. It makes you question your comfort, your skills, it makes you ask is this type of job right for you, whose fault was it, what can you do better next time?

I’m a confident guy, I’m not perfect but I am the perfect example of someone who believes they’re Superman and cannot be harmed.

But when Databanq let me go, I was rocked and it took me several weeks to figure it all out and then soon after starting the job hunt again MindComet found me and it’s now been over three months. Here are a few things I’ve learned from MindComet and about myself.

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Years ago at college I wrote a very vivid, politically incorrect, and extremely explicit blog post entailing my frustration at an ordeal Comcast had put me through concerning pay-per-view charges which kept appearing on our account for no reason.

Today I’m not going to do that to T-Mobile, though I am beyond frustrated, beyond angry, beyond belief that T-Mobile is acting this way. They’re rated the top cell phone carrier for customer service and yet I’m facing the third dead phone of theirs in just 5 months.
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At first I was shocked I had missed the news that he died given that he’s an idol to me, Don LaFontaine passed away on Sept. 1st which is while I was at Dragon*Con and so the headline slipped by. I still hold secret dreams of doing voice overs, movie trailers and such and for that he’s an icon to me.

Your voice will be missed, the movie trailers will be worse without you sir.

Watch the short video about Don after the jump.

And remember, Heaven’s got a new announcer for St. Peter.
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It took most of yesterday for Gmail to acquire all my emails from the google app hosted email, it was downloaded in batches varying in size ranging from 150 emails at a time to 250. But I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to only have to check 1 place for the vast majority of my email.

Another interesting thing took place yesterday, I got home and took my contacts out (as is my routine) to let my eyes rest. Normally I just go without glasses and just deal with my astigmatism. Well last night I was struggling to read the satellite tv guide on screen so K brought me my glasses. I put them on and all was well. I was able to get to watch the Bears vs 49ers game, and then put in The Rock on DVD. » Read the rest of the entry..

It’s a topic that has been lightly touched on several times over the years. The tales of families trying to regain control of deceased family members emails or blogs etc, but it has never been put forth that a serious solution is needed.

With the passing of mom, I was lucky in that she used the same password for everything and that I knew the password. Allowing me to go in and take care of things, archive emails etc. For example, my family has a little used family mailing list through YahooGroups and I wanted to reclaim control of it for our use but I didn’t want the red tape that would be required to get through for them to take care of it. So I instead logged in as her and switched control as needed.

There is something eerie about logging in to her email or to her yahoo groups and seeing the pile of messages from her knitting group, or things like that. I was struck with the question - do I remove her from these groups? Or do I let her account sit there? It’s a very deep and philosophical question.

On the one hand, many probably don’t even notice the idle account on the list, but on the other hand I don’t want mom’s email address continually getting these emails because there is a sense that you should take care of these sort of things, just like stopping mail to a vacant house. Gmail will continue to expand her box and it’s unlikely her account will ever fill up, but there is just something about it that bothers me.

So how should sites like Google, Yahoo, Facebook or Myspace handle the death of members? What about World of Warcraft players or other MMOs? Or on an even more important level, how about domain registrars? It must be a solution which is fool-proof safe from pranksters as well. Is it simply a procedure for handling the submission of death certificates?

The libertarian in me cries out in pain as I consider this suggestion: Is it something the government should regulate? I need to think more about this.

I got teary eyed listening to him sing. I can’t wait to follow this kid in the coming weeks.

This weekend makes it a year since mom died and the week has gotten progressively more and more difficult. It’s coming on the back of working 16 out of the past 17 days (including weekends) and so my body, brain, heart and soul are just exhausted.

Tomorrow K and I will make our way up to Atlanta for a family gathering, we’ll pick up my grandmom on the way and we’ll be there through the weekend.

If you’re a friend in Atlanta, it is possible that Saturday night I’ll be looking to go out but more than likely this is a weekend wholly devoted to family and I won’t see any of you. My trips into Atlanta seem to echo this trend frequently and I’m sorry, but this more than others holds true to this meaning.

Sunday will be a memorial service and the actual burial of mom’s ashes at a plot in Roswell. It is just a family event, so no details are forthcoming.

Thank you all for your support over this past year.  It’s been tumultuous and has had many highlights, of which K has been a shining star, I don’t know how I would have survived this past year without her by my side.

That being said, I still miss mom each and every day. Many many times something has happened and I’ve wanted to pull out my phone to call her, only to remember that I can’t.

photo credit: Tom Purves

Last night I finally did something I had been meaning to do for K for a while. We went by Whole Foods and snagged two nice pieces of New York Strip. Marbled and just looking delicious. I threw them in the fridge while we took Mattie to the dog park for a while.

I have a goal of continuing to further my grill-fu and it seems to be working.

Yesterday I did our steaks on the grill which I’ve borrowed from my dad and they were so tender we cut them with our butterknives. Here’s how I did it, step by step, largely gained from Alton Brown (or AB, as real fans apparently refer to him.)

1. Pull out the steaks and allow them to warm to room temp.
2. Douse in olive oil and cover both sides liberally in sea salt (aka kosher salt). - When I say cover liberally I mean it. Don’t just sprinkle it on, I was pouring it in my hand and dumping it over the meat.
3. Wrap in cling wrap and let sit for 20-30 minutes.
4. Start grill and heat to approx 300 degrees (my grill has a temp guage) the truth here is that heat is up to you. Just don’t put the steaks on a cold grill.
5. Put both steaks on and start your timer. My cuts were 1.5 inches thick, to give you some idea of size for comparison when it comes to time. I follow the 3 minute rule, as explained below.
6. Put the steaks on, cover with lid and leave for 3 minutes. Then come out and flip the steaks, rotating each 90 degrees. You’re aiming to only flip them three times. You want to leave the meat well enough alone! Seriously! You don’t need to continue to move these.
7. After another 3 minutes I flipped the meat (do NOT rotate this time.)
8. After another 3 minutes flip and rotate 90 degrees again. This allows you to hit both sides twice in perpendicular directions and get the nice criss-cross of grill marks.
9. Pull the steaks off and give a small cut for done-ness. If all is well, cover them and let them sit for a few minutes to cool. This was a tip from AB and I don’t honestly know what difference it made but they sure did taste fine.

This timing is aiming for the medium level of doneness. When I checked the meat I thought I had overdone them but they came off perfectly! K and I sat down at the dinner table and enjoyed a damn fine meal.