Pencils in the ceiling is a site I have been considering for several years. But setting up a blog is something that takes time, and it seemed there was always something more important to do. Well it seems there will... uh, always be something more important to do. So I just stopped doing the other things and spent the last few hours cranking up and dusting off the PencilsInTheCeiling.com domain blog. And in case you wonder, it was not completely random that I decided to do it now. I was helped along in my motivation after reading a blog post by Steve Pavlina called "How To Make Money From Your Blog"

 

As a programmer I have been haggling with what platform to use. Most articles I have read on blogging have recommend using .php/mysql based WordPress. I was not looking forward to working with MySQL or .php. I don't have anything against either .php or MySQL. However, I am a Microsoft professional, (whatever that means) and I don't relish the thought of having to expand into technologies at this point. Also the coffin was closed after reading that WordPress does not work with SQL Server which I find difficult to believe.

So deciding to use a .NET blog based on SQL Server was an easy choice. Fortunatly .NET has two platforms that are both free, subtext and blogengine.net. I decided to go with blogengine.net for no particular reason.

Soccer, Katrina, Outdoors Oh My... A Few Topics Covered in Pencils In The Ceiling

I was married in 1992 to an associate professor at medical school in Louisiana, though she was still in undergraduate school when we met. My wife has been grooming herself for her career since she was in high school, yea she is the straight A's study all night type. I however, have had varied interesting careers, from restaurant manager to cable guy to oil field worker and to programmer. Not a comprehensive list and certainly not in that order. Oh and and lets clear up one thing, I have been in a single career for the last 10 years, so no, I am not a job jumper. It just took me a while to find a career that I loved. My move from "renaissance man" of many jobs to computer programmer overlapped subtly. Just as the Internet was on the horizon, around 1993 I was working as a restaurant manager. During my free time I started creating my own web pages. I created alot of them, spending hour after hour honing and merging my creative, typing and html skills. As time passed, I was good enough to find a job doing this, the site I created is http://www.valuebin.com. The site is still up today!

Though this is the abbreviated version of a three year journey, suffice it to say, I never doubted I could make a living doing this. As a side note, if you want to make money and you are the creative, engineering type, then software is a great field. I should know, having tried most others... did I mention I once worked at Wendy's?

I also volunteer and would love for you to find something that is worthy of your free time.

Here is a rundown of a few things that I do. I have coached a soccer team for over 7 years now, we began when they were age 6 and now the boys are 13. I volunteered during hurricane Katrina, my wife and I worked at an evacuee shelter in Shreveport, La where we saw some interesting and disturbing things, like amazing family reunions and even a Richard Simmons story. Sounds like a joke coming.. So what do Richard Simmons and Hurricane Katrina have in common, yuk yuk yuk. Also, we hosted a family of three from New Orleans for a few months, and became fast friends with them. Lastly, a deep love that I have of the outdoors has led to whitewater kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, geocaching and camping.

Finally, hope and goodness will probably be a common theme in many of the posts you will see. I have been a glass is half full personality since I can remember. I used to get called smiley in school, not great, but better than the math teacher the kids called beady balls. His eyes were small and close together, but he was an excellent teacher. So I try and find a positive twist in almost any situation, so the posts will be tinted with an aura of optimism.