Every start of a new year, it is a weird feeling to write a different year on documents and such. It is even weirder to write years in a different decade. As with most years, the prior year seems to have flown by.

This month, I celebrated my one year anniversary at Cuyahoga Community College. I think it is wonderful to work with not only a good team. But, it is also inspiring to know you have a part in helping educate and improve the community. I still like going to work each day and I look forward to many years to come.

I know that I should post more often. Heck, I completely missed the month of September. Maybe it has been because I have been using Twitter to do status updates. At some point, I want to write an application that will update all of my social networks. However, as I would be probably be the only user, I have not been too motivated to create such an app.

Besides, I spend a good chunk of my day writing web apps now at work. I think it takes the fun out of it if I did the same after work. It is funny that before I landed a job a Tri-C, I had turned down another web development job. At first, I thought it was because I did not want to do web development full time. Over time, I have come to the realization that I just did not want to work for that company.

For those who have not been following me, I have recently become the Senior Programmer / Analyst in the Office of eLearning & Innovation (eLi) at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Two weeks ago, I went on my first business trip for the college. It was to Blackboard World (BbWorld) 2009 as well as the Developers Conference (DevCon). Since I have a few colleges as well as Blackboard users following me, I figured I would write a blog entry.

I started working at Tri-C (Cuyahoga Community College) last Monday as a Programmer/Analyst in the Distance Learning department. So far it has been a fun and interesting experience. The first day was spent on orientation. About a dozen of us new employees were doing orientation that day. Human Resources helped fill out forms. We talked with Parking, Payroll, and Benefits. We also viewed a few videos about the college.

I hope everyone had a good holiday. Unlike most years, Rachel and I actually dressed up and went out to celebrate. It is the first time since our wedding since she has worn a dress! She looked wonderful in it. She will probably post the pictures we took on her site.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas or whichever holiday your family celebrates. It has been a crazy past couple of weeks. Pizza Hut finally contacted me about our past dining experience. They sent me a couple of coupons for free pizzas. In addition, the regional manager contacted me and gave me a $25 credit for my next order. That is fine, just as long as their products improve. I am not going to eat a crummy pizza even if it is free.

I go in to work today like normal. But, it was taking an awful long time to log into the network. I got down on my hands and knees to trace my cable back to the switch. Everything was connected as it should be and I was getting activity lights, but my network connection was still down.

Recently, Window & Door Magazine awarded my employer, GED Integrated Solutions, the 2008 Crystal Achievement Award for "Most Innovative Machine." It was for our i3 Smartload Welding System.

It was a snowy morning this morning. It is probably a good thing that I woke up earlier than usual. We had nearly a 1/2 foot of snow. I figured that I would be late to work. However, when I looked at my watch as I was approaching my exit, it indicated that I would be a bit early.

Once I was on the surface streets, something seemed out of place. As I was passing through an intersection, I realized that there was no traffic light. There was a traffic light at my next turn. However, the street where I work was devoid of light.

I am still on my business trip in PA. The bed was comfortable enough, but I did not get a good night sleep. It was probably in the forties last night when we got in. I was hoping that the room would be a bit warmer than that. I was unprepared for the inferno I received when I opened the door. Someone must have left the thermostat stuck on 90.