Returned to the Motherland

So a short while back (about 7 weeks) we landed back in the US of A. It wasn't a very eventful trip , which is a great thing. I was disappointed by my Least Favorite, Least Helpful organization as all my taunts and pleas didn't render a single agent at the airport to meet me. (Though they can now track my very whereabouts via my GPS enabled mobile phone.... I guess I wouldn't make a secret agent after all). The most eventful time was being told after I conned the shuttle driver to take me to pick up my dog that I had to go to the Customs office to retreive him and had to pay a 30.00 cash fee from the shipping company when I didn't have any US currency in my wallet and they wouldn't take credit card (DUMB)!

Once we got Zane from the shipping company (3 hours after we landed and as usual I slept just about zero minutes on the plane), we were off to my parents place in Orange County, CA. I then had about a week to settle in and adjust to the time change before I started my new job (which is going very well thanks for asking).

There have been a few other things have have occured lately, but I can't spill the beans into one blog post that's long over due, I need to keep my topics to myself so that I don't run out of ideas. (Translation: I need to go watch the Ireland vs All Blacks and then All Blacks vs Munster game before my twitteries spoil the fun (Looking at you paulninja and mikeforbes)

Yes, Oliver, German beer is nice , found a nice supply of Spaten (Munic Lager and Oktoberfest lager) at a local shop. It's also brewed AND bottled in Germany, so I'm sure there is heaps of sugar in it ;) .... Nice to have an imported beer brewed and bottled in the country that exported it unlike that other "green" beer that's brewed in Otahu (spelling?)

-S

Peculiar, people are.

I'm sure we've all heard it said about a million times "You're invading my personal space", but there is also space that we don't realize exists. That space is our "comfort zone", it sits quietly there with us hardly taking notice that it is effected by things outside of our control.

They funny thing about our comfort zone is that we don't want it to be upset, just like if you were tip toeing through a den of 100 sleeping (very hungry) lions, 100 of them whom you don't wish to awaken. We don't realize is that the majority of our comfort zone is not controlled by us, but by those we allow inside of that zone. The unpleasant effect of a bothered comfort zone is a bit of a lashing from those whose zones you've upset. That lashing can take many forms, withdrawing friendship, becoming grumpy, neglecting relationships, anger, pain and I'm sure a bunch of other emotions. Most people tend to realize at some point that they may not be acting in a fair manner, though others may not get it at all.

When we decided to move to New Zealand the last thing we expected to have happen was to be hurt by those who we shared many years of our lives with. It wasn't easy to deal with and frankly wasn't the experience we were hoping as I shared my dream of Living in New Zealand (it had been a dream since I was 8 years old). "Here have a stomp on it, maybe you want to wipe the left boot with the mud on it as well. Go on clean it all off."

Eventually most came to terms with the fact we were leaving our shores to a foreign land (some I don't think were convinced until they realized we weren't going to change our minds), their comfort zones eventually regrew where we had created holes. Some apologized for their behavior, others didn't and still some remained clueless.

Fast forward 4 years, having been a bit wiser about the comfort zones of others and my own effect upon them, I prepared myself when I started to let people know about our decision to return to the US.

Yet again I've found myself on the nasty end of upset comfort zones, because I've made a decision that created a hole. Some may say "Well Scott if you wouldn't keep upsetting them, then it wouldn't happen", there in lies the problem, I'm not one to just sit still, or mill over something for days on end before making a decision. Instead I prefer to decide and jump in with both feet, sort out the finer details along the way. It kinda of plays into what difficulty I had with the task in High School "Plan out where you'll be in 1 year, 5 years and 10 years", I barely had till the end of the week planned. I much prefer to live on the wind a bit. Life's too short to worry about where you'll be in 5 or 10 years. Just get in there and have a crack at it, if it doesn't work out so what, you gave it your best.

Life has a habit of sorting out where you'll be in 5 to 10 years on it's own, so may as well enjoy every bit of it you can.

Vision greater than 20/20

Seems the launch of GeoEye-1 was a success. As much as I would like to believe that such an event, owned by a corporation, is something beneficial, the other side of me knows that corporations can't be trusted especially when greed and money are involved. Rarely are the motivations pure and for the benefit of humanity. More than likely it will be used as a puppet to the government or perhaps providing your information to agencies with inappropriate reaches.

Corporations can't be anthropomorphous. I've personally been let down by a number of corporations pledging to be moral and ethical, at the end I've been left standing waiting for the fulfillment of their pledges and found the corporations off on their endeavors having left their promises behind.

As much as I would like to think the Google guys mean well, they have a responsibility to their share holders, yes some would argue that their share holders are what allowed them to fund such an to, but yet you can't discount that using their share holders money is not for benefiting those share holders. It may not be true yet, but one day Google could sell out to the government and that would be a bit Brave New World-ish to say the least. I hope that never happens, but with technology as it is today and the governments of the world more and more concerned with the removal of personal freedoms, it could possibly help us on the journey to a time with a single world currency, a single world government and the death of personal freedom.

Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Kids know too much

Last week (or maybe it was the previous week), we were sitting around the dinner table. Talking about the fact that Jenn is pregnant again.

I know this next question was coming at some point, but I wasn't ready for it. Christine asked "So , Mum? , How did you get pregnant?" and this point I couldn't see myself, but I knew I went white as a sheet. I don't want to talk to the kids about this stuff, especially at the dinner table. This is the stuff horror movies are made of. Almost like a dream where you're trying to run away from the "bad guys" or monsters and you can never run fast enough.

My tongue felt like it was all swollen and there was a gianormous lump in my throat, just about to choke me. Doing the only thing I could , with sweat on my brow, I glanced at Jennifer, hoping she was going to say something profound. I swear the clock stood still, even though it was probably one second. Then the silence was broken and the answer came. ....... Though it wasn't from Jenn, it was Zack and he responded with absolute certainty and confidence as if this moment was rehearsed a thousand times. "They Humped!"

Jenn at this point could do the only thing that she could, turned away to "pretend" to tend to Nathan , when in fact she was laughing, though no sound was being made, though the glance she gave me and the trembling of her torso as she laughed gave it away. Though in her retreat from battle, left me all alone with the attention of the loin fruit. Luckily for me, Christine said "Ewwww" and Zack said "They kissing humped!" (whatever that means)....

I thought I was white before, but I in fact it wasn't till then that I was completely and utterly defeated and dumbfounded. How do you respond to that? Uhhh, ummmm... Well,... There isn't a response, you just have to accept that your 7 year old knows more than you think they do.

Tribute to a funny bugger.

Recently, I found out I'm going to be a father again, which is of course exciting.

Though one of my soon to be ex-coworker keeps harassing me with comments such as "What are you going to do, there are no more names to choose from!", "Geesuz, how many is that now 5?!". Cheeky bugger! Same dude who will be crying on the day I leave "Nooo Scott, don't leave me, you're my most favorite sysadmin. What will I do with you? My heart is breaking!!!!!"

Don't worry though Spudooli, I won't forget your kind words to the Courier guy "What the F@#K do you want?!", or the Beer deliever guy "Bout F@#$king time you showed up" and other comments such as "Compulsary hop-ons 3 times a year! Oh and Tuesdays.". As well as your infinite wisdom "You don't have to do it all yourself, get the bitches to do it." Not to mention your kinds words with my leaving, "Why are you coming to get coffee with us.... quiter!", "Hey, you, what was your name again?!" and the recent favorite term "Bagpiping".

I can almost read the words in the Farewell card now.. "BYE!!!, Dave."

Going to need to change my blog's title.

Four years ago, my wife, two kids (now it's three) and I set off to move from the USA to New Zealand. The entire journey started with a dream of an 8 year old boy "One day I'll live in New Zealand" something that as I grew older the dream was chucked into the pile with "Astronaut", "Police Officer", "Fire Fighter", "Fighter Pilot" ( oooh some day I WILL learn how to fly, probably not supersonic though ) and there is rot until I read a book about Dreams, and that everyone has Dreams, yet few accomplish them. The reason for that is that most don't go out and grab their dreams. Well, I had decided that wasn't going to be me, so with courage and a bit of fear I called Jenn and said "What would you say if we sold everything and moved to New Zealand", to my astonishment she said "Yes". 3 months later we were in Auckland Airport, funded by the sale of all our possessions.

Fast forward, to 4 years 2 months later, and here I am. Sitting in my living room (aka lounge) sitting here, casting my thoughts on what has transpired the past 4 years, the new experiences, the old, the pain, the joy, the pride knowing I've accomplished a dream of mine, and my family was willing to accompany me. The four years haven't been easy, it's been hard being away from family members, grandparents, uncles, aunts and the like. A new found appreciation

So, it's with a bit of a sadden heart that I have to announce that we are leaving New Zealand, and returning to the USA. Our reasons are to be closer to family, the kids miss the grand parents and we do as well. Unfortunately and fortunately , I've already landed a job (and a nice one too) and are scheduled to start October 1, which doesn't leave much time for us to get our things in order and packed up. Not to mention spend as much time with friends that we possibly can. It's all a bit of a whirlwind at the moment.

Will I be back? I hope to. We're fortunate to have Permanent Residency in New Zealand (indefinitely) and I don't want to give that up. My time in New Zealand has been wonderful, something I wouldn't trade for anything.

I know, lets rip off the taxpayers then score a contract

Reading BoingBoing.net tonight, I saw something that gave me a great idea. Using this guy's tactics, we could steal billions from the Taxpayers, then contact a separate part of the government to have them award me a lucrative contract. NOT!

In other news, the sky is falling, squirrels are roping triceratops and you have six toes on one foot.

Rate of Failure

The other day, I had a conversation with Spudooli about something obscure. We strayed our conversation around to the topic of failure.

Spudooli mentioned that something was a bit bucket of fail. To which I mentioned it was a big container ship of fail. In fact, there's another container ship of fail. What's that? oh Look another Big Ole Supa Container Ship of Fail. What do you know, Another big ole.. Succe... Nah.. FAIL!.

One thing the US has done well is NOT let the Terrorist's Fail. They have success from the paranoia, aka FEAR that the Government has helped instill. After 9/11 I remember Bush on the television stating "we will not let them disrupt our lives". Surely I'm not the only one that thinks that the "authorities" are over doing the whole terrorist prevention/detection thing. Come on guys, have a look around, rethink it, make it more efficient, don't let fear own you. Be reasonable, use common sense.

New set of lenses

Tonight, the family was watching Men in Black 2, which is a most brilliant flick. A part in the movie where they need to discover about the Light of Zartha, they run across a Movie Rental Clerk (the actor is Tobias from Arrested Development, and I'm too lazy to google his name). After Agent J neuralizes the poor bugger, he tells him to get contacts because "those glasses pick up cable television they are so thick".

Fast forward 3 and 1/2 hours, I sat here in this spot stressed out (for a number of reasons that I won't yet go into) and listening to music and scanning the deep crevasses of the Interweb , (Ok , not really, I was just reading some RSS Feeds to help solve my recently rampant insomnia ). Little did I know what was stalking in the shadows. Waiting to pounce, and then unexpectedly and with much fury it pounced, lodging it's most dangerous part into my heart.

At that moment I had a "revelation", "realization" or just friggin woke up to the fact that for a number of years over the last 15 I have taken my family for granted. I suspect I didn't noticed it at first was because it was a subtle change, as soon as my epiphany was reached, it quickly moved over for it's poison -- regret.

To my family, Jenn, Christine, Zack, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Paul: I apologize for my very short sightedness. I was too wrapped up living life to take much notice of you. Something I am ashamed of and regret to the fullest. I can not take back what's occurred in the past, though I can make new memories from here on out and that is my pledge.

The odds are stacked against me.

Some of us at work have been playing WeeWar. Of course all of this is during breaks. My opponent is a German, and I think he's trying to get back at me for World War 1 and World War 2. I'm the blue player and he's the red one.