It is difficult to believe that another month has already passed. Fortunately, we did not experience too many problems. As usual, we had our ups and down. But, it averaged out in the end. For example, we received a nice federal refund this year. That was quickly spent on repairs to the truck.

I am still waiting for my degree. If I can get a student loan or scholarship for about $7,200, I will be able to get my degree. It is so frustrating to be unable to receive my degree due to a lack of money. It is equally frustrating not to be able to start a new degree.

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.