A Shift in technology?!

To give some insight, I have been using a laptop as my primary computer while I was in my last two years of college as well as the past year.. I think it may be a good time to go back to desktops. Also recently I flirted with purchasing a powerbook. While I would still love to own one, now is not the right time, as I do not have the necessary $$$. Fortunately, I came to my good senses and did not purchase one.

Well for the past 18-22 months, I have been wanting a new laptop. I had been waiting for intel's sonoma platform to become available. Now that it is available, I still havent been able to justify the purchase of a new laptop. Part of the problem is that I just got a new P4 desktop. Its pretty nice and I find myself spending more time on the desktop (it has a 19" LCD as well) than I do on my current laptop (14.1" screen, 1.6 Ghz Pentium M). Currently, I am also trying to save for a new car and a nice one time payment on some student loans. So I don't really want to move money away from those goals. So what I am thinking is starting to use desktops again because

1) I have a laptop from my job
2) I would probably get an additional LCD monitor
3) I plan on upgrading my video card to a Nvidia 6600GT graphics card
4) Also plan on getting an external 300GB HD

So in conclusion it looks like its time to ditch the laptop platform.

It looks like its time for me to go back to desktops.

The next question will be is: "Is it time to have more than one desktop :)"

In Milwaukee and going home tommorrow!

Right now I am in Milwaukee on this major project with a team of about 8 other people. The team is great. The team is really having a good time and gelling together as a team. We went bowling yesterday and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We are looking at going paintballing next week. Unfortunately, I will not be attending. I am flying back to Des Moines, Iowa to do recruiting at Iowa State. I am looking forward to going back and visiting my old college stomping grounds.

Tonite, I also gave my cousin who lives in San Diego with her husband, a phone call. I am planning a trip to California to visit my family out there in March or April. It depends on the locations where I am at on this project. We had a good conversation and I am really looking forward to going.

I am getting to bed much earlier tonite. Hope all is well with everyone.

So its been a long time.....A long post to get caught up!

So what inspired me to get back to this blog??? Well I have a friend, March, who recently started blogging and it reminded me (and inspired) that I have this floating around. I think this could be useful again and although I have less time than before, I should probably try to make time. I also apologize for this long post and will try to keep them shorter in the future.

Ok, I know, its been forever since I have posted to the blog. So I guess I should update on what has happened since June. In June, I was on an 8 month internship with IBM in Rochester,MN...hoping that would lead to a full time job offer. It did not. Fortunately, while still working for IBM, I was doing a bit of job searching myself (cause I had a feeling that no offer was going to be made) and I found a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Security consulting practice. It was pretty much a roller-coaster ride when PwC made the offer. I basically had a couple days to think it over and I had to give them an answer. Everyone that I knew was extremely happy I had finally received a full time offer (I was too!). I accepted the offer and immediately went to 4 weeks of training in Orlando, FL. That was great, especially since I had never been there.

In florida, I got to meet with other new or recent hires to the firm and do some networking along with some training. I also went to Walt Disney World and MGM Studios. I had a blast at both!

Ever since the middle part of September, I've been busy with work and done a bit of traveling. Alot of the work we have done is sarbanes readiness work. This is where we will go in and do management testing for our various clients. Anywhoo, its not the greatest work, but I have been exposed to alot of technologies such as the AS400 and various flavors of unix. The places I have been to so far is - Milwauke, Wis., Chicago, IL., and a couple of small towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin. So far I don't mind traveling, I just wish that I had some Elite status on the airlines to get those free upgrades!

Currently, I am involved with a major sarbanes project for a client with global locations. This project has 8 people and 2 partners involved from the firm. It certainly is a big project. I will be spending alot of time in Milwaukee and some time in either South Carolina or Canada. I would prefer South Carolina because its warmer. Who knows, maybe next time I'll be one of the folks going overseas! :D

So what's changed now that I have a regular job -- I guess to say ... alot. I am trying to be more disciplined with my finances. I am saving more. I have started saving for a car, but am going to delay that purchase even longer if possible into 2006. I just don't want to see all that money I have saved being spent to much at one time. Plus I like all the interest!

Another change is I am in a new town yet again! I moved from Rochester,MN to Minneapolis,MN. Minneapolis is a much better town but I know very few people here. I am going to try and meet more people. I would definitely like to join a gym (like I did in Rochester) and start playing racquetball again. I am also trying to stop drinking pop! I have cut back, but it will help once I stop buying it :).

Finally, I am starting to set goals. Things like advancing in my career, losing some weight, saving money, opening a ROTH IRA, and getting out and meeting people are the top of my list.

One last thing -- currently I am planning a purchase of my first apple computer ever. I do own an iPOD and I think its an amazing device. I am looking at the 17" Powerbook and will probably purchase within the next few weeks. Check them out at www.apple.com/powerbook ...They trully are amazing devices.