Last night we had a quiet night, well… I say quiet, we actually did a bunch of work.  Then afterwards we ate and collapsed on the couch.  My wonderful wife got me a laptop for X-mas (I think it is because she didn’t want me using hers anymore), so I was on my laptop and she was on hers.  We are nerds like that.

So we are chilling, nerding out and I have been working on a post which is basically a recap of last year and so I started reading Double Danger from the beginning (Jan. of last year) and realized that I actually had forgot most of it and really enjoyed reading it.  I would read a post out loud to Shala and we would laugh, then I would find another and read it.  This went on for a while, then I just read to myself pretty much up to present day.

Now I haven’t ever done this, I’m sure most of you have – but it was kind of cool.  Lots of the stuff I had forgot, some made me laugh, some seemed forced.  Overall though, I was impressed.  Watching it grow, watching it change into what it is today.

Here are a few things that I found that some of you have read, but if you haven’t in a while (or never have), check ‘em out:

Double Danger Dogs Diary: Vol. 1

8 Tips To Kill Your Procrastinating Ways

The Wienerschnitzel Adventure

7 Reasons Bald Is The New Black

Double Danger’s Perfect BBQ Tips: How To Smoke Pork Ribs

Lastly, I ask you…

Have you read your own blog today?

Tags: Barbeque, Double Danger Dogs Diary, Perfect BBQ Tips, Personal, Self Help by James
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Like it or not, it looks like the holidays are upon us.  In fact, the first holiday just went whizzing past.

Remember that turkey smell a while back… that was Thanksgiving.

Coming back to you?  Oh well, you probably didn’t miss much anyhow.  Some of your family slept, some watched football and the ones that were left looked at circulars out of the newspaper (you know you did… or were you asleep?) in preparation for Black Friday. 

Black Friday… the day where people die for the love of shopping.  Not cool.

My goal is to give you some advice to keep you alive through the bigger of the two holidays… Christmas.  Sorry to my Jewish readers and any other holidays I don’t cover… I am not familiar – so feel free to do your own survival guide if you are offended.  Because I don’t really have the time or the knowledge to pull it off.

Turn your head and cough.

Ok – maybe that wasn’t the best header.  But the point is that you need to be on your toes during this season and stay away from that flu bug, sneezing kid or “stomach bug” friend you have calling you.  The worst start to the holidays is catching a cold.  Dealing with the holidays can be hard enough, but to do it while you are under the weather… dumb.

I know you can’t prevent it all, you are going to get that sniffly-nose at some point or that nagging cough… but curving it before it becomes a problem is the key.  The minute you get that twinge in your throat, or that burning feeling in your nose (you know the one, HOW CAN A NOSE BE SO CLEAN IT HURTS?!?) – you have to take action.

Some folks live by Airborne, some just take a HUGE dose of Vitamin C… each have their assigned haterz (yes, I say haterz – wh-wha-what?!) that will argue with you for hours on end.  I won’t argue.  If it works for you, get after it.  I do the Vitamin C thing, so – to each their own.  Like I said… don’t fight with me about it.  If you have a better option, throw it out there.  My Grandpa used to just liquor us up (hot tottie style) and wrap us in blankets and make us sweat it out.  Wait… that was my wife last night – just getting me drunk.  Never mind, everything is a bit blurry.

If you have a good insurance plan – head to the doc… if you have a bad one… ask a friend for some drugs.  Not those kinds of drugs, or those kinds of friends.  Wait a second… what kind of drugs do they have?  Call me.  Let’s hang out.  Let’s be friends.  Let’s be friends with your friends. 

I got off track.  Your friends ARE cool though.  What I was trying to say was that you should ask around to see if anyone has any left over meds.  I know people say you shouldn’t take other people’s meds… but I call those people – RICH.  Leave the poor to do whatever we have to do to remain healthy.

Another great way to stay healthy is to avoid sickness all together.  You could lock yourself in a closet until Jan. or Feb.  That works wonders… AND you will be one of the few that actually LOSE weight during the holidays.  A true win-win situation.  Seriously, you know where the flu hangs out.  Where kids hang out.  Schools, businesses, malls and myspace.  So try your best to avoid these like the plague… that was a sickness joke thingy.  And no matter what your Mom told you… you can’t get sick from wet hair.  You just get a cold head.  Which, I guess isn’t all that good either – but it isn’t the flu.  Do some research MOMs… geeze.

If at all possible, shop online.

Ever heard of anyone dying online from a stampede of shoppers?  Nope.  WHY risk your life for a Elmo and 2 more inches of TV for your bedroom?  Get it online.  Quit being a sucker.  People have been slowly coming around to internet shopping (for Christmas gifts) over the past few years – enough to now deem the day after the Black Friday weekend… CYBER MONDAY!  I don’t think it has the exclamation point after it in most cases, but I added for a dramatic effect.  I roll like that.  Sometimes.  But really though – the internet isn’t going to steal your credit card and use and abuse it on porno/online casinos/drugs.  And even if it did, what would make it any different than what you normally do with your credit card?  I mean how would you even tell it wasn’t legit charges?

Shopping online is something I have done for years.  There is just something about beating the rush, using the tools the internet gives you (Froogle, Nextag, Ebay) and coming out looking like a genius that you can’t put a freakin’ price on.  How often do you get a chance to shop in your underwear?  Not often enough if you ask me.  Here is your chance!

Underwear shopping rules.

Although shopping in your undies is the coolest part, the second coolest part is the discount codes you can find online.  Pretty much every online store has a spot to put in discount codes/coupon codes and so you have to take advantage of that.  You are thinking… “I don’t have any codes though – so how would I use it?”  Don’t be dumb.  THE INTERNET HAS THEM STUPID!  Just go searching.  Want one for Lowe’s?  Go search Google for “Lowe’s discount codes”.  You need one for Amazon?  You know what to do.  It might not be but 10%, but seriously… come the holiday season, every penny counts.

Of course you can shop online and have them ship it, but I will tell you another tip when you are shopping online.  IN STORE PICKUP.  If you really want to piss off the world… and when I say “world” I mean “people that shop in REAL stores in the REAL world instead of online” then you should order something online and then go pick it up in the store.  It is so much fun to walk up to the customer service desk and walk out with your items instead of having the “shop”.  Or at least it is for me.  Then I like to go walk besides people shopping for the same item and say – yeah I just picked that up.  See?!  Then kick them in their shins and run off.

That is what the holidays is all about right?

Don’t fight with your family, stay jolly-ish.

You might hate the way your brother-in-law picks on you or how your Mom just can’t stay away from the wine cabinet long enough to open presents… but the holidays are not the time to confront them.  People travel miles upon miles to be with their families and then spend it pissed off at each other.  Not cool at all.  You have to respect people during the holidays, you just have to… so deal with it.  After the new year, you can call them and tell them how stupid they are…  but not over the holidays – let it slide.

If you have to fight, try to do it drunk.  At least that way you will have an excuse and maybe worst parts will be forgotten out of drunken stupor alone. 

Who am I kidding – pretty much everything is done drunk during the holidays… so I would say fighting has about a 90% chance to be done while drunk.  It is just simple math.

Give something else besides Pixos or Converse.

Sometimes we forget that Christmas is about giving.  Unless it is what someone else is giving to us.  Or that laundry list of presents you have to buy for the kids in the family, the boss or mother-in-law.  But giving can be so much more than that.  I always try to help out charities and such if I can or throw money in the bucket for the bell-ringers come the holidays.  Personally the local charities mean more to us (Shala & I), simply because it can go to our community and really make a difference that we can see over time.

There is a feeling you get when giving to people that NEED things more than we do – that you can’t top.  It truly is the Christmas spirit in my mind.  The food is good, the family is great – but helping out your fellow man is what it is all about.

And Jesus.  Don’t forget that dude.    HA HA HA – HO! HO! HO!

***Updated (from Heather)

Get silly with silly string.

Our family does silly string on Christmas morning – in the living room, so you can’t run very far when being attacked by 6 different colors of sprayed string flying through the air, thus ensuring a big colorful mess & much laughter & getting frustrations out. It works well for us. (Come to think of it, randomly spraying people with silly string would be a grand idea…)

What are a few tips you have about surviving the holidays?  Share them with us, and we will do our best to include them.  Shoot us an email or leave it in the comments area and we will add it accordingly.  If you enjoyed this post – subscribe to Double Danger.  Also – be sure to follow Double Danger on Twitter – TWEET!

Tags: Funny, Make A Difference, Personal, Self Help by James
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This question creeps up in my brain from time to time.  Honestly, it is usually during the trying times that it creeps up most.  This being one of those times I suppose.

A little backstory.

10 years ago, I had no aspirations to do anything involving computers.  NONE.  At. All.

I tell this story all the time to clients and potential employers to show how easily I picked up the talents I have now…

I didn’t use a computer until I was 19.  I mean I played on them when I was little and I typed up a few things in school – but for the most part I didn’t “use” one, unless forced – until I was 19 or so.  I remember buying it and thinking you just got on it and it already had the “internet”.  I pulled it out of the box and hooked it all up (using the instructions of course) and sat there thinking…

“Wow… the internet.”

What an idiot I was back then.

Once I got the internet hooked up (dial-up), I didn’t really know where to go or what to do.  I was so amazed, but didn’t know really what I was amazed by.

After getting my first computer, I guess it was about 2 more years before I even began using it for anything.  I remember buying a program to make music and playing around with some friends on it.  I thought I was something else. 

Of course I chatted, emailed… downloaded music and everything else people did on the internet.

It wasn’t until I went to school for 6 months or so for networking that I realized I could probably make money off my computer skills.  Part of the program had me doing Word/Excel/Access courses and I aced those tests with ease.  Before long I noticed that I wasn’t learning as much as I thought I should be from the school and so I left.

A dropout.

Sue me.

I got a job right before leaving the school though at a .com in our sister city.  This propelled me into the career I have today.  The one I wonder if it is right for me sometimes.

Development always came easy to me.  Design, marketing… hell anything to do with online business just seemed to click in my brain and with little to no effort I could come up with elaborate creations that either I could put in place myself, or with some help from some fellow nerds.  So I never question that part of it. 

I am an innovator.  A leader (by birth).

I just wonder if I am leading and innovating in the wrong industry sometimes.

What keeps me going when I have doubts?

I would lie if I said it didn’t have something to do with money.  Everyone has dollar signs tattooed on their right wrist.  But I also would lie if I said it was the only thing that motivates me.  I have worked in web development for pocket change.  I have done work of my own (like this site here) for no check (besides Adsense).  I love seeing things come together.  I get that giddy feeling when I finish a website or project and see it working and people using it out in the field.  It is hard to explain.  Imagine if you built houses and when you got done with a house someone moved in that had never owned a house before and you got to watch them (not like a stalker) using the doors, opening the windows – kids playing on the floor… all the things you built and put into place.  That feeling.

I saw people in our line of work (Medical) struggling to do day-to-day tasks, and with our software in place – it is a breeze.  I think of all the paper we are saving, trees that are spared because of our paperless system.  I hear customers telling me how they did all their work and went home at the end of the day and played with their kids.  They tell me how much that means to them and how before the system was in place, they spent 2-3 hours at the end of each day working on paperwork – the same hours they now get to watch a movie with the family or getting that much needed rest.

Not to mention the fact that this system allows for the documentation of home health therapy visits for older folks that might have broke a hip, or need speech therapy.  I know that our software doesn’t do the therapy or help the old people in the same way the therapist does… but I can’t help but think that I aid in helping someone’s grandpa get back to their old self, or it gets someone’s grandma back in the kitchen cooking that pie they love so much.

Yeah, I guess that keeps me going sometimes. 

What makes you want to scream and pull out the hair you don’t have?

I’m bald… so what.  Doesn’t mean I don’t hit a wall sometimes and want to pull my tiny lil baby hairs out.  A lot of you that are in the same industry as I am in (IT), realize that everyday could be a disaster at anytime.  Whether it be an update that Microsoft put out to secure a vulnerability or someone had an accident that knocked out power to your main server… shit happens in our industry.  I have to say that 80% of the time it has nothing to do with anything I did, it just starts at random.

So they teach us to have backup plans and backup plans to those backup plans and exit strategies, contingency plans and anything else you can think of to get the eff out of a bad situation.  This is great, but the problem is that sometimes you can’t produce or even phathom the things that go wrong and you end up with your pants down.  At church.  On stage.  Singing Amazing Grace.  For the mayor.  And his family.  And yours.

This is when I contemplate whether people at Whataburger or Wal-Mart ever have the same problems.  I know I should be happy to be in an exciting job that sends me across the U.S. to visit with folks and have drinks and live up each experience in each city.  I should be happy to be the boss, leave if I need to – not clock in… you know the “perks”. 

But those perks come at a price.  Those folks at Wal-Mart don’t have boxes of cereal calling them at home going…

“HEY – you put me in the wrong shelf and someone just bought me at a discounted price!  What The EFF!”

Or an angry customer doesn’t call the Best Buy employee that sold them the wrong connection for their HD TV, and now their kids can’t watch Cars for the 50-millionth time this week.

Nope, I doubt it happens.

And let me get something else off my chest here.  I do my job, I do it with as much customer service as humanly possible.  Last month, 2 days before we were flying to Miami to go on vacation, we had a problem with a new customer we set up in New Orleans.  Instead of saying to hell with it, I’m going on vacation – I manned up and flew to New Orleans the next morning and then flew back the same day after getting them up and going.  That is how I do business.

I say that to say this…  I can’t seem to get a decent amount of customer service these days if I wave a 50$ bill over my head and say…

“THIS GOES TO THE PERSON THAT WANTS TO DO BUSINESS, THE RIGHT WAY!”

We order pizza and the guy doesn’t bring cheese & peppers after we asked specifically for that several times.  We go to the grocery store and sit at the self check out for 10 minutes because the person “monitoring” it isn’t paying enough attention to notice we have an invalid weight for an item, and need assistance.  The list goes on and on…

I know each job has its own set of rules and obstacles, but seriously… I program in a foreign language, several of them.  I make things that are brodcast across the globe if need be.  I make that gadget you hold in your hand and it does all the cool things you want it to.  I book your reservations online using code.  I get those documents from your computer to a big computer and allow for someone else to get them and everyone get paid in the process.  I make sure the accounting is handled.  I generate those reports you need.  I MAKE MAGIC.

And you can’t get the pickles on my effin’ burger.  PICKLES!

Why I think I could quit and still be happy or stay and be happy as well.

I have done a lot of jobs in my short life.  I love to build things.  I love working with my hands.  I don’t mind sweating and getting dirty if need be.  The same design concepts that are used in my line of work is also easily converted into many other fields.  I could build houses, work on cars, manage businesses, market products or just brainstorm in a think tank.  I could do any of these things and still be happy at the end of the day.

My Grandpa showed me a lot of things in life and I could go on and on about them, but one of the most important things I learned from him is that you can do just about anything and make ends meet and be happy.  My Grandpa had his own business fixing lawn mowers.  He also worked as a night watchman for the school system in a small town for 20+ years.  He retired through the school.  He eventually closed his shop.  But by then, he over 10 or so rent houses that he worked on and kept up – so he was more than busy.

It showed me that if a man doing something as simple as night-watching, and something he actually loved (working with his hands on lawn mowers & houses) could make an honest living and be happy while doing so… there is hope.  Hope for a programmer.  Hope for me. 

Hope that my doubts aren’t in vain, hopes my reasons for continuing on aren’t in vain either.

***Update***

So… do I have a Home Depot story to tell pointing out both the good and bad sides of customer service.  Let me get it together for an actual post – but man… perfect timing.

Tags: Personal, Self Help by James
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