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News - Archive 2007

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My "news" posts are more of a "brain dump" than anything else. If you're looking for sentence structure, or even a coherent thought, look elsewhere.

2007-11-18

It's only been a couple weeks since my last post, however a lot has happened in both life and projects, so here's another. Who knows, maybe this'll get me on a roll and I'll start posting more often.

On November 2nd, after nine and a half years, I was officially laid off from my position at Western States Mortgage. For the first time since I was delivering news papers at age 10, I found myself unemployed. Lucky for me, I saw it coming and started looking for a new job about a month or so ahead of time. Well, truth be told, I have been looking for a new job at a leisurely pace for at least a year now.

We have all heard, "you can't see the forest from the trees". My personal interpretation of this is, "you can't see the sheer magnitude of crap your in while you're standing in it". Everyone has told me how much I complained about how miserable I was at Western States, but I was hesitant to look for anything better because "the evil you know is better than the evil you don't". I was stuck in a rut of comfortable pain (after finally seeing Hellraiser 1 and 2 this takes on a whole new meaning). This was finally the "kick in the butt" I needed to get the hell out of that place. Kind of like a bad break up, you just need to do it, and you'll quickly learn you can stand on your own.

On to better news, I've got a new job. Thanks to the hardest working recruiter I've heard of (if you are interested in contact information, -let me know-), I have a new job. For the last three weeks, I've had two or three interviews a week. Some went really well, and some were dismal failures. In the end, the whole experience went from painfully scary to remarkably encouraging. Of all the opportunities made available, I finally chose a Level 2 analyst position with one of Microsoft's Live Meeting teams. I finally get to prove my skills in an enterprise environment that encourages growth and education. My first day is the 26th, and I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it.

Now, on to my projects. I have built a most enormous work bench, to cover the dogs' cages. Upon completion, I will finally have a place to work on projects without covering the dining room table in plastic and paint. I will take pictures soon, for those so bored they are interested in seeing a table.... Yeah... because I'm interesting....

I'm still painting my Warhammer stuff. It is taking me WAY too long, but the results are astounding. As usual, I'll take pictures when I think of it. After reading the manual, I'm even more motivated to start playing. I'm having more fun than I could have ever predicted. Thank you again Joe!

Thanks for listening to me regurgitate my most recent encounters with "life, the universe and everything".

-Todd

2007-10-24

Thank you to everyone that made it out and made the inaugural UFC and Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza a success! Another "Thank you" to everyone else that carved a pumpkin. I'm So glad I wasn't the only one.

It was great to see some friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. Met some new people, that I'm sure we'll see again. Romy even brought most of my movies back ;).

The fights were fantastic. High pace and huge action all night. The only exception being the Tim "the maniac" Silvia Heavyweight bout that seemed to drag on. It's always a good fight night when one of them is called because the doctor can see the guy's skull. I believe I've found a new UFC hero in Anderson Silva after his trouncing of Rich Franklin.

I'm SO sorry for my puppy's poor attitude. I'm not terribly sure what got into him. We've had many gatherings in the past and he's never been an issue. The only thing I can think of was our foster dog, Jake, that he's had around to play with for the last two months was picked up Saturday morning. It's sad that he's been looking all over the house ever since.

We didn't actually end up playing any Halo. I think we should set up a Halo specific event in the near future though. Those have always been fun. -contact- me if you are interested in such an event.

Also, once every other month or so, we are going to try and set up a table top game night. In addition, there has been some interest in a monthly movie night, that rotates from location to location. More details on both to come soon.

I suppose I should return to my job search. Once again, it was great seeing everyone, and look forward to seeing y'all again soon.

-Todd

2007-05-21

Here's the haps:
Our house this Saturday, the 26th.

BBQ action starts at 5pm - we'll have hotdogs, beer and some other choice beverages. Bring something to share!

UFC starts at 7pm if you want details about the fight go the UFC website : www.ufc.com (How can you NOT want to watch when there's some guy called the "Assassin" fighting the "Dean of Mean"?) Its UFC 71 - Chuck "the Ice man" Liddell vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Feel free to swing by for one or the other and friends are welcome but please let us know ahead of time if you can so we can plan food and what not.

Maybe Halo or board games before or afterwards?

Dogs welcome, no young kids please since there will be drinking involved! (Some of my friends are not kid appropriate when tipsy. :oP)

If you need directions, or more information, you can call or go -here-.

Let us know if you are interested!

Thanks,
Todd and Ruthie

2007-05-16

Hello! Hello! Hello!

It's time once again. Memorial Day weekend is nearly here, and wouldn't you know, there's a UFC fight. Sounds like a great opportunity to gather some friends relax and have some fun.

Here are the details: Our house around 5:00 or so, potluck some sort of snack, food (not necessarily the same as 'snack), beverage, alcohol (not necessarily the same as 'beverage'), game, etc.
I'm going to try and hook up some Halo2 action as well. Nothing huge, as I only have access to a couple 27" televisions in additional to the 52" in the living room. If any of you have an xbox and/or a copy of Halo 2 you could bring, it could be some fun.

I will certainly post more updates as they become available. We look forward to seeing everyone again.

-T

2007-04-23

Damn... Well, it's been a while. Maybe I should give y’all a morsel of information, and an update on how things are going in life away from work.

For a start, THANK YOU to everyone that made it out for the BBQ last weekend! It was wonderful to see our friends in an environment conducive to socializing. We should do it more often. Ruth and I are working on coming up with ways to make that happen. The UFC BBQs seem to be pretty popular, and we will definitely continue to do those. We are curious if there is any interest amongst our friends in starting a monthly “game night”. Please give us your two cents -here-.

As most of you that came over last weekend can attest to, Fenris is getting big. 65 lbs at just over 6 months old isn’t too bad. He has moved passed geometric pooping (ask Ruth, apparently it was amazing) to destroying any paperwork he can get a hold of when we’re not home. I suppose if I was bored and couldn’t open doors, I’d destroy whatever I could as well, so I really can’t blame him.

Hopefully I’ll be racing RC cars again soon (YAY, tax return!). Since the track closed near my house, I’ve been looking at other places and finally have made a decision to move up from electric on-road racing to Nitro off-road racing up at -Peel-It Raceway and Hobbies- up north. I am crazy excited to get back into racing again. Let’s hear it for hobbies that don’t involve sitting in front of the television! I will be posting pictures when I get them.

In website news, I’m just getting time to work on it again. I like the overall look and feel of toddgilman.com. Now I just need to work on content and functionality. Maybe entice people to check it out again. Hopefully I’ll at least get the “pictures” pages working again. I’m also hoping to put a calendar up soon, to keep everyone aware of what’s coming up (house parties, BBQs, birthdays, etc.). We’ll see if it actually happens, but it’s a good idea anyhow. ;)

Once I get this place “up to snuff” I’m going to revamp -www.ruthandtodd.com-. It’ll be a little while, but it desperately needs to be done.

For those of you who didn’t already know, I grew bored of -myspace- and considered deleting my account for quite some time. Once I got a message from some random high school person requesting information about our reunion, the choice was clear. If anyone is interested in getting a hold of me -here- is my info.

Archived news posts

2007-01-01 through 2007-12-31
2006-01-01 through 2006-12-31
2005-01-01 through 2005-12-31
whenever through 2004-12-31