Part of the joy of being me is the constant ingesting of wine. It’s not always fine wine, but better-than-3-buck-chuck. Most of the time.

How is it that something in nature can so easily be turned into an amazingly intoxicating solution? The mind boggles. It boggles even more at the casts of thousands that turn their nose up willingly to the fermented goodness in the name of morality or righteousness.

Aside from the arguably insane eschews, I think the Catholics and Episcopalians (know as ‘Catholic Light’) have the right idea. Communion is by far my favorite right of passing. I didn’t learn to appreciate wine from my delinquent juvenile friends. Nope. I learned it by worshiping Jesus and drinking out of the chalice held by Father Stevens.

If Jesus were alive today, he would own and operate the most amazing vineyard in the world. In fact, he would have the advantage of being able to harvest rainwater, perform a little magic trick, and have caskets of fine aged wine. Try THAT, Mr. Beringer.

My appreciation of the grape is constantly growing. It seems I cannot find a bone in my body that doesn’t yearn for the delicacy. It is in fact my weakness. Who knew that would be my destiny? As a child, I always saw myself as a purveyor of fine electronics in adulthood. How I am grateful (as my wife undoubtedly is)  that didn’t actually come to fruition.

Finding your passion in life is something that we all must do, or be forced into an adult life of mediocrity. There is no wrong answer for a passion (unless it’s illegal or hurts people). Your passion should give you joy, no matter what it is. Depending on your ambition in life, it may even bring you a very easy paycheck.

Off to the store to find some new wines to try at dinner this evening!

Gregster’

Apple released their new iPad which is nothing more than a souped up iPhone with a big (10″?) screen and home-grown processor.

Forgive me if I’m not jumping up and down in excitement. Neat idea, people with excess cash will buy them.

Back to work…

Gregster’

After cleaning off a rather nasty fake-AntiVirus off of a family members computer last night (for the 2nd time!), I’m convinced that this is not a glorious age for computer security.

One thing that runs common in all the infections I’ve seen lately: Internet Explorer. Every one of them. I’ve stopped asking people now if they want Firefox and I’ve begun installing it, migrating over IE favorites and setting it as the default browser. Not that I don’t like the occasional job fixing a malware infested computer (the money is nice), but it gets old and isn’t what I would like to be known for. I’d rather my small customer base like me because I keep their computer running for longer periods of times between virus infections.

I’m working from home this morning. The insulation company is coming by to insulate a pipe in the attic that froze earlier in the winter when we had some obnoxiously cold weather.

Tonight, Bets and I are going over to a good friends house for Wine and SUSHI! Not just any Sushi, but homemade by our friend! I’m super excited. I’ve never had Sushi prepared anywhere but a Sushi Ya.

Off to productivity-ville!

Gregsta’

It’s Monday again. Learning little lessons about how owners at my company want to work and it amazes me to no end how much they differ from each other. It’s downright maddening. I’ve never realized until how much each of them is an oft stubborn island of proprietary methods of working. Makes standardizing a periling task.

It’s led me to drink a 1/2 cup of coffee. I haven’t had coffee in 3 weeks.

Anxiety and overwhelment are frustrating as all hell.

Gregsta’: Monday in E-fect.

Thanks to my friends Ann and Brad, I was out bowling last night until just past midnight. Mind you, I SUCK at bowling (and refuse to learn how to properly bowl,) but it was still lots of fun.

Sunday is always a day of mourning for me. I mourn the weekend being over in a few hours, the death of my social life for the next 5 days (yes, it rises from the ashes on Friday,) and the curious lack of sunshine to get me in an even better mood.

Winter is not, shall we say, my best time of year. I find myself wanting to overeat, sleep and generally be as productive as a rock. I’ll get all jazzed up in the late summer and early fall, but by the time mid-January rolls around, I’m just ready to hibernate. I hear some people don’t have this problem. Must be nice.

Lunch time in effect!

Gregsta’: Sunday Edition

This weekend was almost picture perfect. No schedule to speak off, Steak dinner Friday night, a nice brunch with the family on Sunday, a country side drive and a trip to the grocery store. Perfect!

But, then there was the going out on Saturday and Sunday night. Too much fun. It’s time to cut back on all the going out. It’s really starting to affect my mood.

I’m on self-imposed lock-down this week.

Gregsta’

It’s now the second day of having no help at the office.

It’s days like these that I am reminded why I have a helper and why I’m a generalist.

Gregsta’

One of the unique phenomenons that blogging has created is the ability for anyone, regardless of anything other than basic technology skills, can publish.

This has, of course, let to the diluting of the publishing world. Perhaps not as noticeable with larger outfits, but it certainly has created a lot of noise below.

It’s amazing to me that the ratio of what’s published to today to what one might consider great works of literacy seems to be on a downward spiral. We may as well be considering ourselves a society bent not on greatness, but on accessibility.

Is it democracy in it’s purest sense? No censoring or gagging amongst the masses of bloggers?

Not really. It’s just the nature of an overwhelmed information outlet. Nobody is really listening. You, the average-joe blogger are transmitting on a dummy load.

So, to the 4 or 5 people that read this site, just know that I know that you’re the only ones watching. I do this for me and you, but not to reach a larger, discerning audience.

After all, I don’t have much to say that’s a great work of literacy.

I can barely spell, let alone make a complete sentence.

Gregsta’

It’s probably no coincidence that I’m starting on one big goal of mine for the past 10 years on the dawn of a new decade.

I’m tired of being somewhere between 240-250 lbs. It’s not a healthy weight for me. I’m also tired of the heartburn and acid reflux that come with the vast majority of foods that I eat. I’ve come to dread eating large portions of rich foods. Somewhere between 180 and 200 is where I see myself as healthy.

Some inspiration came watching the most recent episode of Good Eats (starring the food uber-geek Alton Brown). The guy lost 50 lbs over 6 months by just cutting out the vast majority of crap, leaving in a few pleasures here and there. It’s not dieting (which I for one believe is a big fucking dangerous joke). It’s changing your lifestyle to better match what your body needs.

We’ll see how it goes. I’m not setting this as a “resolution”, but rather as part of my motto for the year. The part that says “Make it happen.”

Gregsta’

2009 was a bastard firehose of crap for just about everyone. I’m still baffled how Betsy and I came out unscathed by it’s fury. Well, okay, we had our share of poopy situations, but nothing like some people we know.

Everyone knows someone who lost their job, took a pay-cut or furloughs. Everything went downhill fast.

If you weren’t one of the many who was drenched by the firehose of 2009, you may be wondering to yourself – ‘will 2010 be the year I get hosed?’

The answer is probably a resounding ‘yes’.

Few, other than successful business owners and critical staff, are going to be immune from the fire hose of 2010. The difference is, I don’t think there’s as much crap loaded up in the tank this time.

If people are smart (I know I’m going out on a bit of a limb here), they’ll start working on their strategies for either maintaining what they have or reinventing what they need and want. Christmas this year I saw more examples of families with long traditions of buying presents change over to new (perhaps temporary) traditions of buying few if any gifts and focusing on craft made gifts instead. It’s not a bad thing, frankly.

When I think about sustainable economies, the first thing that comes to mind is micro-economies – cities, metropolitan areas, small towns, etc. There was a time when almost everything you needed came from within your community. Now, most of the businesses we patronize are part of large conglomerated companies that are not community driven. A Walmart, Safeway, Kroger, McDonalds, Texaco – these are all big business. Yet, for some reason or another, we rely on them in ways that would never happened even 80 years ago.

It’s scary to think that we’re likely to see new horrors in 2010 come out of that fire hose. My predictions:

• A major food supplier/chain will systematically close up and cut off a significant part of the nation from food. After a government bailout that lines the pockets of the debtors and owners, the supplier/chain will still go out of business only to have the pieces picked up by many smaller entities.
• One of the big auto manufacturers will shut down, not be acquired, for good. My bet is on Ford.
• Healthcare workers will be in demand in ways we’ve never seen.
• Taxes will skyrocket for everyone, including well-to-do companies adept at avoiding taxation. Many will move overseas. Others will simply cease to exist.
• Medical insurance costs will shock and surprise everyone. A violent uprising against the largest insurance companies will lead to several deaths and calls to congress for immediate action to fix the failed medical bill.
• The US will invade Iran, despite the promises made by President Obama in his election campaign.

That’s just what I’m more than 50% certain about. It’s all just guesses, anyway.

Gregsta’