Yes, I am finally back to blogging! And I think my blog is back too! It took a minute there to get it back in working condition and truthfully I’m not sure if it’s even there YET, but I think it’s pretty close. (#):)

So a lot has happened since we last spoke but I have a pretty good feeling that this time I’m going to be back for a good little while. First, an explanation as to why I’ve been gone for so long… Basically a LOT has been going on – Thankfully I don’t think any of it is bad stuff, but it has definitely been stuff that would keep me from blogging on a consistent basis. Because of that, I thought it would be better if I just took a little vacation while I got most of my affairs in order. Here’s the short list:

• I no longer am working for the man! Of course this could change any day, but for now I have my freedom.
• I have been working A LOT on my huge secret project and actually just “finished” the first incarnation of The Dude Registry!
• I replaced all the speakers in my car (but since they’re greatly underpowered the work is just beginning).
• I had a SAW marathon leading up to the SAW VI and had a blast doing it.
• Am really in full swing with my web design company and have created a lot of good work.
• Had the first real Halloween with the kids.
• I got my first 1000pt 360 game under my belt courtesy of Batman: Arkham Asylum and followed it up with The Prince of Persia.
• And finally, I fell in love with Twitter all over again.

You know, I’ve really missed blogging and it has really become apparent lately that I have time to write again. I’ve played with the new Droid phone, did some research on car amps over at Crutchfield, and played some cool games in between… But trying to sum up all these experiences in 160 characters over on Twitter is just no bueno. I can do better than that! And I’m not really sure who is reading this blog anymore, but I’m gonna try and go out with a bang in 2009 and get the readers back up! Who’s with me!?

But you know, I think there have been “good” reasons for that. I’ve been actively working with clients with my web design company, got a great site up recently that I’m pretty proud of and I’m putting the “finishing touches” on my super secret big project soon to be unveiled!

And what is perhaps the biggest news yet, I am not working a 9-5 anymore! That’s not to say that I’m making enough money to support me and the family yet, but hopefully I can make it work so I don’t have to go back to that horrible world anymore! Now hopefully all of this means that you will be seeing some more posts from me, but who knows if that’s really going to be happening because the thing of it is, (while I’m not making any money), the kids have been taken out of daycare which means I’m seeing a lot of them, and my FREE TIME is not seeing a lot of me.

So I guess stay tuned true believers and make sure to follow me on Twitter!

Web Design – As many of you know, I’ve really been trying to push my web design efforts. And though the website doesn’t show it at the moment, I’ve actually been getting work in and turning out some decent stuff. I think at the moment I’m working with about 4 clients and hopefully when I close them out I’ll be able to stop for a second and redesign that website for future business.

Final Fantasy XII – If I get a free second these days, it looks like I’m using it to play Final Fantasy XII. Last check I think I was about 60 or 70 hours in and even on this second go around, it’s just so fun! And trust me, even though it’s on a previous gen console – It holds up.

My New DSLR – I don’t know that I made a big fuss about it, but I recently bought my first DSLR and I’ve been going to town with it. Mostly taking pictures of the kids but also of other stuff too. With any luck I’ll get on here at some point and tell you a little bit about it and post some pictures too.

AdSense/SEO/Affiliate Sites – One of the other things that I’ve gotten into lately is making MFA sites. To be honest, “Made For AdSense” sites leave a bad taste in my mouth because I feel there’s a connotation on them that the sites are void of quality. I’m trying to change that and in the meantime brush up on my SEO skills.

Blu-Ray – I’ve also been enjoying some Blu-Ray movies as of late. Don’t expect any reviews on here, but you may see a comment from time to time.

And that’s it for now. I’m desperately hoping I find the time later to do a proper post but I’m not holding my breath!

If You Didn’t Know…
Don’t be sad because I didn’t tell many people. Unfortunately, I had to tell my wife because there was just no way I could explain away the fact that I wasn’t receiving a check twice a month. ha ha. And not to throw my 9 to 5’s business out there, but my furlough was a result of being on the wrong end of a lawsuit, and big clients not paying because of the worsening US economy.

So when I got the news that I was to be furloughed (with a few other co-workers), I was dolling out the high fives! I was def burned out at work, was tired of the commute and just wanted some time to work on a lot of my side projects. Thankfully during the time off, I did just that. The biggest thing I did was prepare some proposals for potential web design clients and even work out my first paying contract. So that by itself is deserving of applause. Additionally, I also did a lot of work for my new super secret affiliate marketing project which I couldn’t be any more excited about.

Working With Kids
It had certainly been a while since I had worked on stuff from home with kids and it was not easy for a long time. It probably took a good month into my vacation to finally figure out how to be productive with them but when I did it was a really a great thing. Being able to get work done on your schedule WHILE being able to spend copious amounts of time with your kids is definitely a really cool thing and one that everyone should be lucky enough to do. Of course for most of us that’s just a pipe dream since the 9-5 inevitably gets in the way.

Back to the Grind
Yesterday was my first day back to work. I was summoned back a couple weeks ago with an e-mail out of the blue that really just said, “Bush, great news – We’re ready to have you back!” When I read that, I started grinding my teeth. Nightmares of commutes, timesheets, and bosses all started flooding back. BUT, what could I do? My kids need to eat and my mortgage needs to be paid. So as I said, I went back yesterday and tried to make the switch from home life to work life again.

It was difficult to say the least but it was made easier by my awesome co-workers who seemed very happy to have me back. Let it be said that even though my 9-5 itself is not the bees knees, my co-workers are a bunch of very cool and talented people. So after I was welcomed back, one of the guys at work said offhandedly, “Hey, did you know you’d be working for free?” And I joked back that “Yeah, I’m the new intern.” Well, we go out to lunch and they start telling me how they’ve had to hold off on cashing their checks because apparently the company didn’t have the money to pay them.

Are you kidding me!?
I then inquire as to why our System Admin wasn’t back from furlough yet and I was told that “[he's on the fence about coming back because he's not sure why he should if the company can't pay him]“. At this point, I’m feeling a bit hosed. Oh, and did I mention that I had to take a $3000 pay cut too? I kept wondering if I would’ve come back when I did if I had knew that the company was still having these big money problems as a result of the lawsuit in December. I just don’t know. But I’ll say this – With my boss not telling me about these problems in his “welcome back” e-mail… If my paycheck doesn’t go through in two weeks I may just have to take another sabbatical.

Jobs. Ugh.

If you’re in the same place I was in, feel free to check out this post from Matt Cutts: and it wouldn’t hurt to also look at this one from the always supportive Andy Beard! Oh, and in the event that you DON’T want to read those posts, here’s the summary on how to remedy this problem:

• Remove yourself from paid links on your site.
• Take down your paid links or nofollow them.
• Think about removing those paid link pages entirely.
• Think about removing the code on your site linking to paid link companies.
• Go to the Dashboard in Google Sitemaps and click the link on the right that reads, “Request Reinclusion”.
• Tell Google you’re sorry, what you did, what you did to fix it, and why it will never happen again.
• Give me a high five.

Obviously the release of this game continues Capcom’s continuing plan of adding as little as possible to old games and then releasing them anew as if they reinvented the wheel. Excuse my sarcasm but we all knew that this was going to happen right? And now that it has… *shrugs* Look – Widescreen mode, online play, all characters unlocked from jump… Who cares?

I mean, I’m as big a fan as you’ll find for the game but what about something new Capcom? New moves? New functionality? New CHARACTERS? A tease for Marvel vs Capcom 3? How about anything? I guess that’d be too much to ask. Well don’t think that I’m saying I won’t get it, but I certainly won’t be in a rush… Especially when I think about how much of a dream Street Fighter IV was with the 360 controller. *rolling eyes*

Even still, my physical therapist was none too thrilled that I was doing a 5K but he thought it probably wouldn’t be a damning event so he didn’t forbid it. Besides, this was a team event and if I had bailed I don’t think that the 3 other people on my team (including my wife) would’ve been too happy with me.

Dirty Fun
The Runamuck isn’t your normal race in that there are obstacles like walls in the middle of the race, and numerous times during the race you have to either wade through a waist deep lake or have to run through ankle deep mud pits or both. Cool huh? One of my friends told me about the race, and I thought it would be a fun little one to do with the wife so we signed up. Consequently, the friend who told me about the race tried to sign up for it the night before and couldn’t get in. *rolling eyes* (#):)

For me, I thought the race was a ton of fun! Admittedly there were probably too many people doing it because since the trail was kinda narrow in places and every time there was an obstacle, there was a huge backup and everyone had to walk. For me though, this was great because my therapist wanted me to walk 2 minutes for every mile anyway. Everyone on my team had a good time too and most of them either completely fell into the mud pits or dove into the lake and tried to swim across (meaning they got really muddy). And during the race there were a ton of girls who would just start wrestling in the mud so it was def a fun atmosphere.

The Aftermath
With the weather being beautiful, (sunny and 85), I could’ve stayed out there on the field all day! I think we finished the race at 11ish, and another heat was leaving at that time PLUS you had the costumed heat leaving later that day PLUS you had 5 live bands which I would’ve loved to stay for. Unfortunately, half of my team doesn’t really like music (yeah you heard that right), so my ride pretty much got out of there 10 minutes after the race was over. Thankfully though I DID get a chance to see some awesome costumed racers including the Smurfs and the cast of Mario Kart! Oh, and in case you’re wondering – My knees feel money which bodes GREAT things for the rest of my 2009 race season!