I share articles on Facebook about opposing Minnesota’s proposed “Defense of Marriage” amendment quite often, and now that I’m engaged to be married myself, the relevance of this issue strikes even deeper. I recognize that there are emotional, moral, and religious dilemmas surrounding the issue. For the purposes of my argument here, I’ll stick to strictly the constitutional aspects surrounding it. If you support the “Defense of Marriage” amendment, and by that I mean plan to vote “yes” on November 6th, please take a moment to read.

Read more →

I just got back from an amazing and much needed vacation at Club Med’s resort Turkoise in the Turks & Caicos islands.  This was a bucket list item to take a vacation by myself.  I also knocked off the scuba diving challenge as well.   I chose Turkoise based on a recommendation from a colleague and booked it rather impulsively with out much research so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.  I had use-it-or-lose-it vacation and had to take it between projects so I needed a place that I could travel to by myself and still have a good time.  When I read that Turkoise was an 18+ resort that catered to solo travelers and friends groups, I was hooked.

I honestly didn’t know much about Club Med prior to the trip.  I expected to get some guff from my friends when I mentioned the resort, but got little.  In my mind Club Med was a dated chain of resorts that was all the rage for the twenty-some baby boomers in the 80′s and was still primarily occupied by those baby boomers today.  I couldn’t have been more wrong!  There was a large variety of age groups, and I had no problem finding some fun young travelers to hang out with.

Read more →

My blog is currently going through a transition period as I transfer my domain and site hosting from GoDaddy to NetworkSolutions.  I believe most of the textual content of the blog is intact, but some of the media may not be available.  I’m working to correct this.

Last week I read about GoDaddy CEO, Bob Parson’s African vacation during which he shot and killed an elephant, then poses wearing GoDaddy branded clothing.  The video also shows villagers slaughtering the elephant wearing bright orange GoDaddy shirts and hats.

While I’m far from a PETA activist, this whole scenario just really bothered and I decided to end my 10 year relationship with GoDaddy.  I understand that there are reasons for animal management.  I’m not going to preach on the morals of whether or not this elephant was destroying the livelihood of the village – it was the manner in which it was performed that bothered me.  Bob Parson’s would like us all to believe that he was helping the village by killing the elephants.  With his billions of dollars he could have found a better way.

From the video, to the photo-shoot after, this was clearly just a rich man getting his trophy kill.

I picked up my dog Scotch exactly one year ago today.  I met the breeder in the parking lot of a motel in Alexandria.  Scotch, who didn’t make a peep in the breeders car from Texas to Minnesota, made the most horrible whining noise the entire hour drive back to my house… and then through the entire night!  I ended up sleeping on the floor next to his crate for the first three nights because it was the only thing I could do to calm him.

He almost didn’t make it with me a few times!  Puppy hood is a stressful time for owner and pup alike.  I wasn’t sure if I could hack it.  Eventually he got into a routine of relaxing during my work day.  I’m extremely thankful for my mom, roommate and friends who have helped me out over the past year!  I’m glad this is one April fools that turned out well!

Three weeks ago, I had lasik surgery at North Suburban Eye Specialists in Minnesota.  I could not be happier with the results!

I started wearing glasses senior year of college.  I noticed I was starting to get headaches when reading or using the computer, and someone suggested I get my eyes checked.  Turns out, I was near sided in one eye and far in the other, which was the reason for the headaches.  Getting glasses was like an epiphany!  “You mean everyone could read that sign from that distance?  You mean you can actually tell that’s Josh walking in from across the bar?”  I just assumed everyone saw as blurry as I did!

Read more →

Since 2007, each year I have picked a new skill to learn.  When ever possible, I tried to get professional guidance in learning it – consider it my own personal Made.  Over the years I have done guitar, singing, salsa/swing dancing and boxing.  Dancing has been by far my favorite of these skills so far, and the one I have used the most.  Boxing was the shortest of my endeavors.  I learned rather quickly that I don’t enjoy getting punched in the face, and that it would take far more training ($$) and time that I wanted to invest to get to the point where getting in the ring wouldn’t just be a self-promoted-pummeling.

This years challenge:  Baking.  (Sub challenge: Maintain my current weight at the same time!)

Read more →

When I started this blog back in 2007, my goal was to create a 100% technical blog.  Posts would be on what ever technology I was using at the time, and continue to evolve as my programming skills grew and adapted over time.  The blog eventually faded away with small posts every few months.  When I resurrected  the blog back in November, my goal was one post a week.  It didn’t matter what the theme was – the goal was just to write.  While I’d love for more of these posts to be on programming, the challenge is finding new things to talk about in that area!  Right now I’m learning iOS development by working through The Big Nerd Ranch Guide to iPhone Programming, and while its incredibly interesting and a great learning tool, its difficult for me to pull out topics to write on that wouldn’t just be duplicating information from the book.  So, for the time being, expect more random posts on whats going on in life.

I’m writing to you from a small log cabin off peak 8 beautiful Breckinridge Colorado.  I’m actually on vacation, but thought I’d post this quick while it was still fresh in my memory.  If you have had problems not being able to connect to protected WiFi networks on your iPad because of an incorrect password you are certain is right, this may help.

The cabin comes equipped with DSL internet access from a combo modem and wifi router.  There is no other computer set up here, so you are at the mercy of the gods to figure out how the router was configured.  My brothers MacBook Pro had no problem getting online with the provided password, but my friends iPad and mine refused to connect.  Despite typing in the password absolutely correct a number of times, it continued to give us “Password Incorrect.”  I tried a number of ways to get our iPads online – including hooking up our own Airport Express to the router to try to create our own WiFi hotspot, but nothing worked.

Luckily my brother had his Macbook Pro which had no problem connecting to the WiFi.  I opened up System Preferences, Network, clicked on AirPort and the Advanced button.  This gave a list of all the wireless networks he has connected to in the past.  I found the one I was having trouble connecting to, and clicked on the little edit pencil icon.  This will give a small window with the network name, the type of security and the password starrred out.  By clicking Show Password, it gave me the numeric value of the password.  Typing this value as the password on my iPad finally allowed me to connect to the network.

I’m guessing this has something to do with a 64 or 128 bit WEP Key, but as I’m on vacation, I’m not going to do all that research right now!  If you happen to know the exact correlation, or perhaps how one may be able to figure out that number without needing another laptop, please leave a comment below.

Figuring drawing has been a staple of any fine arts programs since man began drawing on cave walls. If you have ever taken traditional fine arts class, odds are you have sat staring at some poor soul in their skivvies, or more likely, nude. Having been the student in this situation many times, I’ve always wondered what it feels like to be on the other side of the easel.  Thus the reasoning behind bucket-list item #23, Pose nude/semi-nude for an art class.  Last night I finally marked it complete.

A friend of mine is a professor at a local art school and needed some extra models for his classes.   He told me that it wasn’t an all nude class, but I should bring form fitting clothings – like bike shorts or jammers.  Having swam competitively for nearly 10 years, I still had some old drag suits handy, and I figured standing around in front of people in one wouldn’t be all that awkward.

Read more →

Preface: I am not a member of the Minneapolis branch of Events and Adventures, have never attended an event and cannot comment on the actual value of the club or its members. Under normal circumstances I would not post things like this, but after being left with such an insulting and sour taste in my mouth, I felt I had to write about the sales tactics used to recruit new members. Although I have not found bad reviews about the Minneapolis branch, I have read several bad reviews about other Events and Adventures franchises, so I encourage members of the Minneapolis branch of Events and Adventures to comment about their experience with the club below.

If you live in Minneapolis and listen to the radio, odds are you’ve heard about Events and Adventures. They claim to be the Twin Cities premier network for singles.  Being single and not having much luck with the internet scene, I decide to give them a call. One of the first things I ask about is membership fees.  I am told Events and Adventures can’t discuss membership fees over the phone (red flag number one). I make an appointment for an in-person interview for the next day.

Read more →