Month: August 2008

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More Dorkiness

It’s well established that I like all things tech. Thusly, it should not surprise you that when Chris Hillman talked me into getting a Facebook.com account, I originally balked, but soon caved.

Now, I’m enjoying it, especially the little piece where you can update your “status”. And now, since I have gotten the Facebook App for the iPhone, I can mobilly update my status whenever I feel the urge.

Which made me think… perhaps there would be a way to incorporate that information into my blog…

Well, scan your eyes to the right, just below the picture of your glorious author. What you will find there is my current facebook status. Fun right?

What this means for you is even if you don’t have facebook and add me as a friend (or if you do, go here: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason_Haberman/1300160722) you can still see my status. Even better, there will often be at least a little something new for you to see on every single visit, as I am tending to update that thing multiple times a day.

Cheers!

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The Season Has Arrived

So far this year, I have been so incredibly lax in my writing of Boise State related blog posts.  It is personally upsetting to view my paltry record since the first of the year.

Since January 1, I have posted a grand total of 5 pieces that even mention Boise State.  That is absolutely pathetic.

Of course, I have been a little busier than normal this past 9 months… what with the new job, buying and moving into a new house, and that pesky little wedding and honeymoon thing.  Makes me tired just thinking about it all.

It makes it all the worse when you realize the sorts of things I had to blog about in that time.  I mean, we saw us lose horribly to East Carolina in the Hawaii bowl.  The first time in 5 years we aren’t the defending WAC champs.  Long time radio voice Paul J getting unceremoniously dumped on his ass after 36 years of service.  Not one, but two underclassmen declaring for the NFL and both getting drafted.  Construction and completion of the new SkyBox addition on Bronco Stadium.  The blue turf was replaced with a better alternative and the “crown” was removed from the field.  The coaches selecting a red-shirt freshman to start at QB for the first time in program history.  Whew.  How the hell did I miss most, if not all of this?  Oh right… the “busy” thing.

Now, it’s game time.  We are 28 and a half hours away from kickoff vs the vaunted Bengals of Idaho State.  I feel strangely detached so far.  I could probably name a total of 12 of the 22 starters on both sides of the ball, but no matter.  We’ve got real games going on.  Time to buck up and enjoy the hell out of things.

I will say, if you want to see football season hurry up and get here, all you have to do is get insanely busy all summer and BANG… it’ll be here before you know it.

I can’t guarantee I will pick up the pace of Boise State pieces.  All I can do is say, I WANT to write more.  If that happens, then great.

Game on!

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Some Wedding Goodness

Since we have just returned back to the real world, I’m just now getting around to some things about the wedding. Enjoy.

First up, those of you who were there, might recall the infamous “cell phone” moment that occurred just as Jess was saying her vows.  What you might not know, if you didn’t hear the scuttlebutt about it after, is this…  It was my father’s phone.  Wait, it gets better.  See, he handed his phone to my mom to hold in her purse, yet did not remember to shut it off.  Of course, it rings at the most inopportune time.  So, mom is apparently fumbling through her purse to find the damn thing, but not being the most technical person, she can’t turn it off, so she’s gotta hand it to dad to finally get it off.  The whole time, I did not dare to look over at what all the commotion was least I lose my mind.  Little did I know it was my own family in the front row!

Now, it would be one thing if it was just a nice simple ring.  But nooooo… Dad’s gotta have this festive marimba type tune that keeps playing and playing.  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself below… My favorite part is when it gets even louder as mom successfully removes it from her purse.

In other wedding stuff news, I have uploaded a bunch of my own photos to our shared flickr.com account.  I know a few of you have already added your pics to the pool and I thank you graciously.  For those of you who haven’t, I’m going to keep reminding you until you do it.  As always, if you need the login information or help, just post a comment or email me and I’ll get it to you.

You can view all of the latest pics here:

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a art series.  I call it “The Decline of John – In Pictures”.  It is a three part series, each one shows the effects of alcohol and emotion on a best man at a wedding.  John, I love you, and I love these pics.  Enjoy!

Part 1, The Decent
Jason's Own Wedding Pics

Part 2, The Fall
Jason's Own Wedding Pics

Part 3, The Finale
Jason's Own Wedding Pics

That’s all for now… there will be much more to come in the near future.

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Aaaaaand We’re Back

I suppose I should post something here to let everyone know that we made it back in one piece.

Maui was absolutely amazing. We didn’t want to leave, but real life beckoned. Thus, we are back and hard at work trying to catch up.

Somehow when we were gone, all of our flowers and herbs died and our lawn was taken over by weeds and crabgrass. The house is still a wreck from having 50 people over Sunday after the wedding (namely the floors are disgusting). We have piles of laundry and the office is full of all those gifts everyone was so kind to give us. Hooo boy… thank you cards…

The travel day was exceptionally long. Story to come. This morning was also a little rough on me as my body still on Maui time, which meant my alarm went off at 3am.

But all things being equal, it is still very nice to come home. Now, we get to get on with our normal lives and don’t have to think wedding 24×7.

I will get pictures of everything posted asap. And speaking of pictures I know there were more of you who took photos at the wedding/reception who still need to post them to the flickr account. (View the pics that have been uploaded here: http://flickr.com/photos/habermans/) Please email me if you need the login information.

It’s nice and cool outside and football is 4 days away. LIFE IS GOOD!

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We Made It

On the LanaiAfter some, shall we say minor travel difficulties we have arrived at our destination. Upon arrival, the Westin attempted to screw us, but Jess lubricated the way and got us just what we needed.

Now? Heaven.

Last night was an amazing dinner on the beach watching the sun set. Today I have a surprise for Jess at noon, and another awesome dinner paid for by some of our friends. The decompression has begun!

Ahhhhh…. Maui.

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Someone Call Delta IT Stat

I’m typing this out on my iPhone in airplane mode for posting later but wanted to get this down.

Delta needs better IT guys. See, we roll into our plane to take us to Maui and I am exceptionally excited to see the seat back screen entertainment system. I’ve never been on a plane with them before. How sweet! TV, movies, games, music. A veritable cornucopia of entertainment choices, and me with 6 hours to play with it all!

Not so fast, smart guy. While we can navigate menus and see everything that’s available, the minute you choose anything the damn thing locks up then goes through the entire reboot process. A process that takes over 5 full minutes, by the way.

So, we get nothing. But wait, it gets better. Not all seats are having the problems. In fact, there are at least 5 people I can see from my seat enjoying all the goodness to be had. A few watching Kung-fu Panda or Ironman. One lady is already onto her second chick flick. I’m sorry but that friggin sucks. Yeah, I know it’s a minor deal in the grand scheme of things, but still… To sit here trapped and teased is torture. Some people with working screens are even choosing to not use them! I think that in the interest of fairness they would turn them all off. I could deal with all of them being down better than just mine.

So while Jess snoozes I’m banging out a blog post. Hillman, this thing is running Red Hat Linux, and part of me can’t help but think you could troubleshoot this thing. Maybe I overestimate your skills but at this point I’m desperate. We have 4 more hours of time to kill! Even though I know it doesn’t work like this, I’m holding out hope it will somehow magically fix itself.

Thank god for the iPhone.

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Married!

Well, we’re done. Literally and figuratively. Jess and I are partied out, hung over, exhausted, yet very very happy.

Big, big, BIG thanks to all who made it to the ceremony and reception. You all made it 10x better than we could have imagined.

We’ve got family over and more on the way, so I’m off to more mingiling.

We set foot in Maui in exactly 27 hours and 17 minutes.

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Wirestone – Year 1

Wirestone LogoIncredible.  In the middle of everything else, today marks my one year anniversary with “The Greatest Company In The Worldâ„¢”, Wirestone.

I have to say, this past 365 days have been far and away the most rewarding of my professional career.  It is remarkable to work for a place that you would bend over backwards for because you feel that they would bend over backwards for you.  I have worked 15 hour days and 70 hour weeks.  And I would do it again, if that’s what was asked.  I am not alone in this assessment either.  Just recently, some friends worked an entire night to get a project done.  That’s dedication, brother.

The thing is, they make you feel appreciated.  That your work is important, and in turn, that makes you want to bust your ass.  Especially coming from Hewlett Packard, where the idea of “employee worth” was thrown out the window YEARS ago.  It doesn’t take only pay or perks, although important.  It takes gratitude.  A feeling of self worth.  Wirestone has got that down in spades.  This comes from having amazing people who are engaged and excited from the top all the way down.

There is an interesting phenomenon here.  There have been a multiple people who have left Wirestone, seeking greener pastures, only to come sprinting back once they see how other places are run.  Sometimes, within the same week.  The only explanation I can give is that people who have been here awhile can forget just how good we have it, and going somewhere else brings that fact into stark reality.  I, having spent 8 grueling years at the declining HP, have no such delusions.  I know there is no other place I’d rather be than here.  (which makes me work all the harder).

Here is the email that my direct manager Mike sent to the whole Boise office this morning:

Jason Haberman is 1 stoner-year-old today.

Its hard to believe he’s been at Wirestone a whole year already, and equally hard to imagine how we got along without him.  Anyone who has had the chance to work with Jason knows about his great work ethic, dependability, attitude, and incredible hot metal skilz. These positive traits, plus many others are what keep Jason in high demand – to the point where I get requests from other offices for him by name.

Thanks for being part of our team Jason, and good luck with your wedding!

Mike

It has absolutely been my pleasure.

And after a week in Maui, I’ll come back charged up enough to take on the world.

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Wedding Week – Part 2

Now its really ramping up.

Tuesday

After another uneventful day at work, Jess gave me some “time off”. This is a thing that I get being an introvert that she totally understands. She went to her parents house and was mingling with the arriving family. Meanwhile, I was off the hook and was able to go home and chill out by myself. Recharge the batteries. I love being by myself and it is always a treat for me to really just spend that time to get geared back up. So, thats what I did. After I picked up the printed programs on my way home (which look amazing, if I do say so myself) I ate a little dinner… watched a little olympics… played a little NCAA Football 09. You know, normal stuff.

She came home and we did a little wedding stuff… just more organizing and whatnot. We were in bed by about 10.

Wednesday

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. Jess was actually off on Wed, so she was able to get a lot of last minute things cranked out. I was still working however. After work, I went over to her parents house for dinner with the entire family in from out of town. It was nice to meet everyone, but I’m not great with names to begin with, so I think I forgot them 3.4 seconds after I was told. But, the good thing is I’m good with faces, so I know who the are, just not who they are. I was still kinda wiped out from work, but it was fun.

After that, all of Jess’ cousins in town and siblings came over to see the house, have a couple drinks and play a little Rock Band. It was almost like an impromptu party since we had 10 people there (including us). But it was a lot of fun, and they all left around 9:30. Jess and I basically went straight to bed after that.

So far we’ve had but a taste of the insanity that is to follow. I can’t believe it’s already here. December 1st seems like it was so recent, but we’re talking over 9 months ago.

Just under 60 hours to go.

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Wedding Week – Part 1

This is it.

I’m sure these next few posts will be short on creativity, long on just what is going on, and are mainly designed for me to remember this whole process  But, there is no reason you fine folks out there can’t come along for the ride.

Saturday and Sunday:

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday designing all of the printed materials for the wedding.  Programs and whatnot.  This was time consuming because I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to that sort of stuff… finding just the right font and getting the layout just right, so on and so forth.  So, after several hours of that, my eyes were crossing.  I broke only to get my hair cut and to set up the fancy new flickr account.

Sunday afternoon I also spent some time digging crabgrass out of the front lawn.  We never actually got weed and feed down on the lawn this year, and it looks like shit.  But we have been a bit on the preoccupied side lately, so I guess everyone will understand.  Unfortunately, I was a dumbass and spent about an hour bent over at the waist.  Now, my hamstrings are punishing my for my stupidity.  I’m hobling around like a schmuck.  Good times.

Monday:

Monday at work I was not too busy at all.  Which I suppose is a good thing, but at the same time, it didn’t make the time go very fast.  Everyone here at work is super cool including my boss, who I know has directed work away from me leading up to this whole shebang.  Thanks Mike.

The evening was spent with our running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  Jess was doing an awesome time cleaning the house.  I spent time vacuuming and fixing some printed stuff a bit for the printer.

I don’t know, but this “brunch/open house/gift opening” thing that is at our house on Sunday is kinda… um… inopportune.   I mean, we are trying to get everything assembled that needs to go down for the actual wedding… get everything we need to take for ourselves to stay the wedding night in the hotel… not to mention to start getting things prepped for a week in Maui.  On top of that, the house has got to be spotless since so many friends and family (many of whom haven’t seen it yet) will be coming by.  It’s all a bit much.  The stress level is rising hourly.

But, she really got stuff cleaned.  I assembled some of our electronics to take on vacation and various other little things.  After a long hot bath trying to limber up my stiff legs, we both crashed into bed about 10pm.

I’m gonna have to find some energy stores here soon.  Although, I’m sure I’ll fly through the actual events on sheer adrenaline and booze.  The best part is once things are happening, I can stop thinking about and planning them.  Sounds great to me.

More to come.