A Scattered Brain

Wow! I’ve traveled more in February than I ever have in the past. Three trips in three weeks (the first two already documented below). This last and final trip was to Elekta’s Atlanta headquarters for a Project Manager’s meeting. The meetings went well and were worth the time in general. Whether we needed to have them during the middle of 4th quarter (by far our busiest team) but now I am back in the office for the foreseeable future and ready to hit the ground running.

One very good thing is during my time in Atlanta, I was able to have some Chick-Fil-A! It was as good as always and I would have really been upset to go to Atlanta and not have some Chick-Fil-A.

I’m finding that travel really takes all of your energy in general. All of the trips have been short (1, 2, and 3 days) which makes for a lot of flying time in a short period and I’m worn out. Getting sick in the middle didn’t help either and I felt hopeless while away and having the rest of the family sick as well. We’re all getting better so it looks like we’ve turned the corner.

On a different front, I will soon be announcing the launch of the Stanton family web site. I’ve found a good content management system to use and have started to build some pages. I hope to officially debut it during the first week of March.

Take care everyone and have a great weekend!

A semi-live blogging event.

Here was how yesterday was supposed to go:

• 4:00 AM PST - Get up and head to the airport.
• 6:40 AM PST - Fly to Houston and arrive around 11:35 AM CST.
• 1:00 PM CST - Attend Kick Off Meeting with a client.
• 3:00 PM CST - Conclude meeting and head back to George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport (that has to be the longest name for an airport around) .
• 6:30 PM CST - Fly back home to Vegas.
• 7:30 PM PST- Arrive in Vegas and go home.

This would have made for a quite long day with about 10 hours of travel for a 2 hour meeting. If only it could have happened that way.

Now for the real story:

• Throughout the night - Wife and baby were sick with colds and fever. We all had rough nights sleeping.
• 4:20 AM PST - Got up and went to the airport.
• 6:40 AM PST - Fly to Houston… so far so good.
• 11:00 AM CST - Announcement overhead stating that there are storms in Houston and we have been requested to hold over San Antonio for about 30 minutes. No big deal at this point. I’ll still have time to meet my colleague and get to the meeting.
• 12:00 PM CST - Announcement overhead stating that we have been requested to hold for an additional 30 minutes. This makes things really tight but ok. Ah, but the message wasn’t over. After a brief pause, the pilot announced that we don’t have the fuel to stay up for another delay and we are going to land in Austin. Day ruined.
• 12:30 PM CST - Land in Austin. Call work colleague and tell him I won’t make the meeting. He had already seen the re-route and was ready to go by himself. While we are waiting on the tarmac to get refueled, I was able to call home and found out my wife was going to take our son to the doctor for his cold. I really hoped all was well and couldn’t stop thinking about them. If I had known that this would have happened, I could have stayed home and taken care of them rather than fly half way across the country and back (dressed up nicely at that).
• 2:00 PM CST - Get in line to take off to Houston. Decided to start writing this out on paper to pass the time. I’ve had nothing to eat or drink today, not even water.
• 2:10 PM CST - Announcement that we will be able to take off at 2:40. Not holding my breath.
• 2:53 PM CST- We have liftoff! Should be 31 minutes to Houston.
• 3:35 PM CST - Touchdown! At this point, at least I’ve had one small glass of ice water. My plan was to eat at the airport and then try to find my way back home.
• 4:00 PM CST - I look on the flight board and see a 4:10 flight back to Vegas. I don’t think I can make it in time but I also don’t see any other Vegas flights on the board (including my scheduled flight) so I skip food and try to make this flight. SUCCESS! I’m on my way back home, even if without food.
• 4:35 PM CST - I’m in the air and heading home. I am so hungry I could eat a horse. Not sure exactly when I’ll get home but I’m glad this long ordeal is almost over. I watch Gladiator to pass the time.

I made it home around 6:00 PM with Burger King in hand. Such a long day with no real purpose. I’m glad it’s over.

NOTE: My apologies for the inconsistency regarding time (sometimes using present tense sometimes past tense). I knew I was switching back and forth but don’t want to worry about fixing it.

After about 2 years of blogging (less than regularly at times) on MySpace, I have decided to move my blog to a more permanent home.   This is nothing against MySpace and without it I probably would have never started to blog or have any desire to do more web development at all.

I have recently decided to create a family web space.  I have a grand plan and hope that it will serve as a long time portal for my family to share news/pictures/videos and also allow for family members to have their own web pages if they so desire.

I’m starting mine out with just a blog.  I have taken the time to copy most of the posts from MySpace (not including comments) and will remove the MySpace entries in time.

So, Spencer, where is this new blog of yours so I can keep track?  That is a wonderful question and I’m glad you asked.  The new blog is called (until I come up with a better name) A Scattered Brain.  My hope is to continue or even expand my posting and with a dedicated blog, I believe that will be easier to do.  I still have a bit to learn with all the capabilities and options but I’m excited about the future of this blog.

Greetings all and Happy New Year.

I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday season.  Mine was very nice and it was awesome to experience Connor’s first Christmas.  I’m sure in the years to come I will love getting to see Christmas through the eyes of a child once again.

This year I have a couple resolutions:

1. Continue to lose weight.  I’m about 225 right now and would love to get down to around 200 by the end of the year.  I know I won’t be able to change my eating habits too much but will try to eat at home more and exercise regularly.
2. Blog more.  I know that you all have been eagerly waiting a new blog from me for months so this year I plan to write a bit more and have some ideas for running topics.  I will start doing a “game of the week” (or month or whatever) which will be a link and review to usually simple but fun online games.  Look for the first one next week.  I may also try to get back to more regular bowling updates as well.  However you can always visit here to see the list of scores and records for my team.

I wish you all a terrific New Year.

Well, I’ve been a father now for 2 weeks and it is amazing the transformation that is happening in me.  First, I never knew I could love as much as love both my son and my wife.  Just that feeling alone is enough to bring a tear to my eyes.  I honestly don’t know what I would do without either of them now.

The first few days were quite surreal.  Even after we got our son home from the hospital, it still didn’t fully set in that he was mine, and furthermore, that he is my responsibility for years to come.  Over the last week that realization has set in and most of the time I feel like I’m ready, but there are other times when it scares the heck out of me.

One of the biggest adjustments is the lack of sleep.  One thing my wife and I both love is our sleep.  We knew that when our son came that would all change since they have to eat every 2-3 hours for a while which means little sleep for all of us.  At times, it has hit me like a ton of bricks and I find myself in a bit of a fog most of the time.  Hopefully I’ll adjust to the lack of sleep soon; I’m sure it’ll happen just as he starts to sleep longer, huh?

Probably the biggest impact this has had on my is a much greater respect for my parents.  For the most part, I’ve always gotten along with them and since I’ve been on my own for the last 12 years, my relationship with them has been great.  Having a child of my own though has helped me realize all that my parents did for me that I never knew nor could I have understood prior to having a child myself.  I also know that all of our work now won’t be understood until our son has a child of his own.  Makes a lot of other parts of life seem so insignificant.

Overall, the last two weeks have let me feel nearly every emotion: joy, satisfaction, fear, love, love, and more love.  My life will never be the same.  My priorities are completely shifted, and finally my life has a true purpose.  I won’t be defined by my success at work.  I won’t be defined by any of my hobbies.  I will be defined by my job as a husband and most importantly as a father.  My success or failure will be made apparent through my son.  I know I will make mistakes, I’ll lose my cool, I’ll get frustrated.  But I can also promise this.  I will do my best to be the example my son needs and deserves to have in his life; just as my father was to me.

Thursday, March 1st, 2007 will go down as one of my all time favorite days.  So many good things happened to come together on one day, it was almost too much to handle.

First the two small things; I got a brand new (FREE) bowling ball.  A friend of mine ordered one online and it came with a free ball that he gave me.  It took a while to come in, but it came and it’s getting drilled up now. Woo Hoo!  The second smaller item is my new computer came arrived.  It’s a new Intel Core Duo (2.4 GHz) with 2GB RAM, 19-inch wide screen monitor, 500 GB hard drive, Windows Vista Home Premium… ugh ugh ugh (think of the Tim Allen “Home Improvement” grunt).  I was only able to unpack it yesterday but tonight should be able to have some fun setting it up and getting it up to be our main computer.

The next great thing was some quality family time with my brother-in-law, my wife’s aunt and grandmom.  We had a terrific steak dinner and then played Yahtzee and a little Wii Bowling.  Tons of fun and I haven’t laughed that much in a long time.

But now for the important information and by far the most exciting part of the day.  We had our ultrasound yesterday.  That was the most amazing thing; to see the head, arms, legs, and spine of our child was breathtaking.  My wife and I listen to the heartbeat regularly, but to see it was a completely wonderful experience.  We also got to find out that we’re having a boy!  Now to start to think about names and how to decorate.  I can’t wait to be a daddy.  We’re also due the exact same day as one of my grandfather’s so if it happens, it’s a nice circle of life completion.

One final cool thing from yesterday is last night I got to feel the baby kick for the first time.  I guess he was fairly active for my wife; but I only felt one or two flutters, it was still cool nonetheless and was a great end to a nearly perfect day!

So, I got a response from Coinstar and it was a quick turnaround. Even though I will get my fee back, I was more pleased with the fact that they are working on software upgrades to prevent this in the future. Here is the response:

Dear Mr. Stanton,
First let me apologize on behalf of our company for your experience with our machine. We are aware of circumstances where this type of error occurs, and have a software release ready for deployment that will result in the desired scenario you stated.

Unfortunately, with equipment on any communication network, these types of network outages do occur, we are also working hard to minimize the occurrence of these events from the network perspective.

With that said, we would be happy to reimburse you for the fee that was deducted from your transaction. We feel it is only fair that since we failed to provide you the product you chose, we should be accountable for the failure.

If you would please send me the address you would like to have a check mailed, I will ensure we get a check produced for the $5.29.

Sincerely,

Dave Cramer

Coinstar Customer Service Manager.

It even got escalated up to the manager quickly. So, maybe Coinstar doesn’t completely suck, but I’ll still think twice before using them again. Especially since Nevada State Bank has free coin counting even for those who aren’t customers of the bank.

Below is a letter I just sent to Coinstar regarding an experience my wife and I had last night. I am so angry that this happened. NEVER USE COINSTAR for any reason is my only advice.

Greetings,

First let me start that I expect some kind of response to this letter… not repayment or any other physical handout, but at least a non-form letter response from your company regarding/explaining your response to the following situation.

My name is Spencer G. Stanton. My wife and I had what turned out to be $59.43 in change and since we had noticed that Coinstar machines allowed for the purchase of gift cards WITHOUT any service fee, we decided to try one out for the first time. We went to the Coinstart located at the Albertson’s on the corner of Eastern and Horizon Ridge in Henderson, NV.

The process seemed very easy and straightforward; we started out by picking an Amazon.com gift card and proceeded to insert our coins. The final total came to the above mentioned $59.43. After all of the coins were processed, we were given the message that it may take a minute or two for our card to be processed and we could hear the modem dial out somewhere.

After about 2 minutes, the machine came back with a error stating that it couldn’t process the request for an Amazon card at that time. However, instead of giving us any other options (a different kind of card, for example) the machine stated that it was printing a cash voucher. This would have been fine, except that in the printing of the cash voucher, your machine proceeded to charge the ENORMOUS 8.9% that you charge for changing cash into cash. That left me with a voucher for $54.14, a loss of $5.29. One of the reasons I had never used a Coinstar machine in the past was the service charge; the idea of transferring to something other than cash for no service charge was the only incentive for using Coinstar at all. As far as I remember, there was no warning of any kind stating that cash would be used in case of the inability to issue the card. I would have seen that as a red flag and probably would not have continued my transaction.

As this was my first use of a Coinstar, you can be assured that I have no plans to ever use one again. I feel that this may not have been some technical error, but rather a thinly-veiled bait and switch. If it was a mechanical error, or in the case that gift cards can’t be given out at a specific time for any reason, the ONLY acceptable option is to give the cash voucher and waive the 8.9% fee. I’m not so upset that the card wasn’t available, but rather that I was given NO OTHER OPTION but to take the cash voucher with the fee attached. This is a completely irresponsible way of handling difficulties at the machines.

I like the idea of converting change into other, more usable options so long as there isn’t a charge involved. If I had been given the option of even taking back my change rather than accepting the finance fee, I would have taken my coins back and transferred them some other way.

Again, I expect a full, personal response to this letter as well as a plan to fix this kind of problem in the future. Thank you in advance for your time.

Sincerely,

Spencer G. Stanton

I will post their response, if any. I still can’t believe we got screwed like that. Have a great weekend and go Purdue!!!

Ok, so I didn’t quite win a new car, but I certainly got one yesterday.  My Saturn was starting to get to that age where things were going to start going downhill quickly.  A 5 year old American car, that’s what you expect.

So, it was either a $700 repair to fix the exhaust system or purchase a new car.  I’ve been wanting a new car since Kylah got hers last year so I finally decided to spring for it.

Spencer, what did you get?  I know all of you are on the edge of your seats so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.   I bought a 2006 Nissan Altima 2.5SL.

This thing is loaded to the hilt: leather seats, 6 CD in-dash Bose stereo system with 6 speakers, heated seats, trip computer and gas mileage information, storage galore, HomeLink (the ability to open garage doors from the visor instead of the remotes), 175-HP 4 cylinder engine, and massive seating and trunk space.  I had originally wanted to look at the 6 cylinder version but they didn’t have any and once I started driving this one, it had the power I was expecting out of a V6 but only in 4.  Oh, and it’s a gorgeous navy blue with a beige interior; very classy.

I also got a pretty good deal.  I was able to get the interest rate down to a measly 3% as well as getting near blue book on my trade.  They kept coming back with things that were just a bit high and I kept on saying I’d come back a different day because I’d have to discuss it with my wife.  Eventually they finally made the right push to give me all that I wanted (low interest and high trade value).  Of course, once they did, I said that maybe I could call my wife instead of going home to talk to her; I’m so sneaky!  All in all, not a bad deal and boy do I love that new car smell.  I’ll just have to be careful not to get any tickets as this thing has pep to it.

It’s nice to have a new car again, even if it does come with a payment.  Of course, this is the kind of car that should last a very long time (or so I say now; and yes I know the next car is Kylah’s)!  Yippee!

Hey all, just got sent this nice link that shows some interesting facts surrounding your birthday.  I don’t buy into all that life path stuff, but still some cool parts:

Birthday Calculator

Check it out. Here are some of my highlights:

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2443300.5.
The golden number for 1977 is 2.
The epact number for 1977 is 10.
The year 1977 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/18/1977 and ending 2/6/1978.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Snake.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Elk; your plant is Mullein.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Mesore, the fourth month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 20 Sivan 5737.

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 10 April 1977.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 10 April 1977.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 23 February 1977.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 29 May 1977.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 5 June 1977.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 13 September 1977.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Sunday, 3 April 1977.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 22 February 1977.

As of 8/8/2006 11:32:24 AM EDT
You are 29 years old.
You are 350 months old.
You are 1,522 weeks old.
You are 10,655 days old.
You are 255,731 hours old.
You are 15,343,892 minutes old.
You are 920,633,544 seconds old.

Sweeeeeet.  Almost, 1,000,000,000 seconds old