Life Stuff

Since last we met, I've started the new job. Also, I've started looking for another new job. This one isn't working out. It kind of sucks that that it isn't working out, but at least I realized it sooner rather than later.

I never got around to blogging about the second concert I had seen. It was Morrissey at Constitution Hall. It was a great show, but now it's too late to really blog. I'll just say that due to some cosmic fluke we ended up right against the stage for almost the entire concert and that I ended up with a piece of Moz's Dolce and Gabbana shirt and a drumstick. Oh yeah, I also hopped up on stage and was tackled by security. Luckily, a couple people captured it and put it on YouTube (I'm in the red shirt--about a minute into the first vid and right at the beginning of the second):



Lastly, I just found this photographer on flickr who shoots a lot of photos of dogs. I'm not much of a dog person, but for some reason, I love a lot of her shots--particularly this one:

Check out the rest of her stream.

Note: It's been the busiest month ever, with a ton of cool or big stuff happening. I've gotten way behind in posting, so I'm going to try to crank out a couple entries in a rapid-fire manner. We'll see if I actually get beyond this one...

After working for Newsletter Holdings for just over 10 years, I'm moving on to a new job.

My new company is Need to Know News where I'll working as a Linux systems admin in their DC office. I'm pretty excited as I've been wanting to focus more on the Linux side of things for a while now (I do both Linux admin stuff and web development at my current job). The new office is a block from the White House, which is pretty cool. I've never worked in the city before, so that should be cool. To the surprise of most people I've told, it should actually cut my commute significantly. I'll be able to slug directly in to 14th street (office is on 15th) or to the Pentagon which is about 6 minutes from the stop a block from my office. The company and people seem pretty cool and they're doing some interesting cutting-edge type stuff. So, it looks like it'll be a challenge and fun.

On the other hand, it's pretty hard to be leaving NLH. It's been a great place to work and I've got a lot of great friends there, who I'll really miss being around on a daily basis.

Here's the email my boss Franco sent around announcing my departure. It's got me all choked up (seriously).

All,

After a long tenure as Chief Contrarian & Microsoft Covert Operative in the IT Department, Ben Rasmussen has decided it is time for him to graze on greener pastures.

Ben has been with Newsletter Holdings for over 10 years, spending time in Prescom, KCI Fulfillment and finally landing the dreamy position in IT that made him the legend that he is. I think it is safe to say that he will leave a vacuum of knowledge and character at NLH. Saddest of all will be the members of the Newsletter Holdings Conversational Pugilism Club. They lose not only a co-worker, but also their star arguer on every topic imaginable.

Ben's last day will be next Wednesday. Until then you may stop by to wish him well and, if you're lucky, you may just hear his rarely uttered "I disagree!" one last time.

-Franco

... sniff

I hate when I get behind in my blogging. I always feel I have to do a 'what's been up with me?' entry before I can do any 'real' entries. So, here's that entry...

• My 'new' bike (the rusty, old one I recently bought for $2) was stolen. Grrr. I'm going to call Metro and see if they have any bike lockers available before I get another bike.
  
• Gary and I shot a wedding last Saturday. Gary had been the second shooter on a wedding a couple weeks ago, but this was my first. With 30 people in the wedding party, 200 guests, the bride being 90 minutes late, the wedding coordinator walking out 30 minutes into the reception and no organization whatsoever (not to mention me using some new equipment that crapped out halfway through the ceremony), it was truly a trial by fire. Definitely a learning experience. I haven't had a chance to go through the photos (mainly due to the fourth item in this list), but I'm hopeful that some of them will be good. Gary's got a few of his up here.
  
• Shooting a wedding really made me aware of the limits of my current equipment. So, I'm investing in a new camera (a Nikon D200) and some other gear. I'll use the new one as my main camera and the D70 (my current camera) as the second/backup camera.
  
• I've been agonizing over my photo business's website for a couple weeks now. At one point, I was happy with the design, but then I grew bored with it. I wanted something that was visually appealing, but still simple and somewhat minimalist. I've been through two or three variations on the design just in the past week, but none of them really struck me. They all seemed too simple and, well, blah. Tonight, I gave up on tweaking what I had, threw it out and went a different direction. I'm finally (and really) happy with it. Check it out. In related news, I'll probably be adding a blog to it in the next few days.

On Saturday, we went around to a bunch of yard sales. My main objective was to look at bikes to replace my recently-stolen one. I found one at the second or third sale we stopped at. It looked as if it had been neglected but working. The tires were flat and the handlebars are pretty rust. There's also some rust on the seat post and a couple other spots. I asked how much and the lady held up two fingers. I assumed she meant $20, but no, she really meant two dollars. This was one of those "just get it out of my house" type yard sales.

Yesterday morning, I found that my bike had been stolen from the rack. Guess I needed a better lock...