My Blog

Disclaimer: This blog is for my own personal thoughts. If you don't agree with what I say, too bad, it's my website. In the immortal words of Cartman "I don't care, I do what I want!" You know you've seen the episode, Cartman as a troubled teen, Butters with balls on his chin, classic Southpark right there. Anyways this is just my opinion; I could be wrong. And Dennis Miller is the one in the 500lb gorilla costume.

Thursday, August 25, 2005 - 11:16pm

What's happened in the last 4 months? Lets see. I proposed to Kate. She said yes. She spent most of the summer planning the wedding. I've helped a little here and there. Mostly in the cake-tasting and registry shopping areas. If you haven't received an invitation yet, it's probably because we don't like you. Just kidding, we're not getting married until next May so we won't send them out for months yet. If you want to check out the site Kate setup for us just click here. It includes cool details of how I proposed. (Guys, take note: it worked well for me.) Well she's back in school, I'm still at Sunbelt, and Lise is still a dog. So everything seems to be about normal. Now I just need to figure out what I want for my birthday.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 7:02 pm

Wow, has it really been this long since I updated this? Well no one reads it anyways, so it doesn't really matter. Let's see, where was I? Right, I've been working at Sunbelt for almost two years, first as a helpdesk rep and now as a SQL DBA and .Net Developer (officially). Unofficially, I do a little of everything: networking, Windows Server admin, design and deploy a new Terminal Server environment, answer questions, solve problems, etc. The pay sucks, and now they've screwed me on my raise. So, I'm looking for something else. I'd really like to do more server/network administration or researching, designing, and implementing systems with packages such as SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or BizTalk Server 2004. I love learning new stuff and solving problems with it.

In other news I bought a house back in December. Marcus is my housemate. He bought a Roomba. Lise is afraid of it. Kate is finishing up her first year in vet school; I'm very proud of her. Jen is home and living with the 'rents. I sure don't have a lot to say considering it was over a year and a half since my last post. Big things are afoot, I believe. The next few months are gonna be interesting.

Monday, September 1, 2003 - 8:01 pm

Well it's the end of Labor Day weekend and I've had a pretty good one. I'm sitting here watching DS9 (on DVD). I got the first 2 seasons on DVD last week. Marcus got Soul Calibur 2 for the XBox (and I can actually beat him much easier than Dead or Alive 3). Kate was here this weekend. She's a little too obsessed with KOTOR, but she's even better at beating Marcus at SC2 than I am. My new furniture will be here this week and Kate is taking my old furniture since Emily took hers when she moved out. My 23rd birthday is next week. No big plans at the moment, but who knows.

Monday, August 4, 2003 - 3:51 pm

Well a lot has changed in the last month. I got a job at Sunbelt Rentals working on their helpdesk. It's a good job and I really like the people. I am having a LAN Party this Friday; let me know if you want to come. I don't know what else to report. I'm addicted to KOTOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) thanks to Marcus. Marcus, who I haven't seen in a week. Way to disappear. That's about it.

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 - 4:37 pm

Wow it's been a while since I updated this. Let's recap. I've sent out mailers to people who I've worked for before. I haven't gotten much response yet. I'm updating my company website to include tips, etc. which I hope will help. Claude and Saunders got married last weekend and it was very nice. I'm so glad they finally got together. They leave for Germany tomorrow for 2 years. I've moved my web server to a separate box which should be more secure. I'm having problems with my server and I'm probably going to have to wipe it soon. I just replaced the power supply, in case that's what's causing the problems.

Marcus, Mike, Thomas have asked my help on writing a game. ::Flashback to 11th grade:: This one is much more attainable than the previous one. We'll see.

I still haven't finished unpacking yet. Partly I need to buy more storage. Partly I just haven't been motivated to do it. I've gotten the office pretty organized and the kitchen. You know, the important stuff. Well I've got some more work to do. Hey, anyone read this? Doesn't matter, just wondering.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - 2:06 am

Well I've moved to Charlotte, I'm firing my consulting back up, and it's taken Time Warner a week to make my cable modem work. After 4 visits and some rewiring, they got it working. And then the cable went out for the neighborhood. Gotta love irony. Well I'm off to bed, I just wanted to update this. I'm going to get the new version of help.jonathanwentz.com up soon and send out mailers. If you need some computer help, please email me at help@jonathanwentz.com or call me at 341-9458. If you want to hire me full time, check out my resume. It will also be updated soon (now that I can get online). G'night all.

Sunday, May 25, 2003 - 4:28 pm

OK, it’s bitch time now. I’m sitting in the wonderful Chattanooga Airport (with it’s 5 gates, no kidding) waiting for my 2 propeller plain to arrive to take me to Charlotte. The vending machine made me buy two packs of M&Ms, I paid .75 for a can of sprite, and above all the security guy was apparently bored and decided to have fun searching me for metal and explosives. Oh yea. I really need internet access through my cell phone. Well I don’t need it, but if I say that to myself I tend to get it sooner. Here I am bitching into my laptop listening to my iPod, complaining that I can’t get internet access. I love being me. I’ve been reading more of The Salmon of Doubt and the more I read, the more I realize how much of a genius Douglas Adams was. I really need to be working on my website for my company so that I can send out mailings before I move, but instead I’m writing this blog entry.

So Jen graduated today (yay). I’m so proud of her. She’s worked hard over the last 4 years to get this far and she’s going to Appalachian State in the fall. Now she has to make it through the summer at home. ::dramatic chord:: It’s going to be harder than you think, unless of course you understand my family dynamic. If you don’t, please ask; I’ve got some great stories.

The service today was nice, except that it was a eucharist service outside with bugs. (Eucharist service = includes communion) If anyone asks me what religion I belong to, I’d say Christian, Methodist to be specific, but by tradition primarily. I wouldn’t say that I am devout, or even a believer, but I do have faith. Faith is what I believe is important. If you stand back and look and listen to some of this stuff, it can seem kind of silly (as I was watching these Episcopalians doing their thing. I don’t have anything against them or their beliefs, by any means. I just don’t know that I believe the same things. There are definitely things I don’t understand. On one side is the scientist part of me that wants evidence and proof (or at least a justifiable theorem or two). On the other is my faith. What do I have faith in? That’s more difficult. God? I don’t know. Jesus? No clue. Sometimes I have these 13^th Floor notions that if there was a God, it would be more like a system architect than a deity. The new Matrix movie throws those notions into the fray, but that isn’t what has gotten me thinking about this. Why do I have faith? That’s an easier question to answer. There are a couple of reasons, mostly experience. Specifically it has to deal with Mom’s death, and her beliefs prior to it. (Wow, “Dante’s Prayer” just started, my iPod’s random likes to play with my emotions.)  So where was I, oh yes, faith. I noticed a profound change in her beliefs (or at least in what she said, how long she had them, I cannot attest to) after my grandfather (her father) passed away. She had her first seizure shortly after that (December and January), which may have had something to do with it too. I never really heard mom say much about Jesus, maybe that’s why I find it a little uncomfortable. She had the occasional word about God (his plan, etc) but nothing wrathful. The primary message I got from her was in regards to angels. Like I said, to my best recollection, I started hearing about them after my grandfather’s death. I rationalize it now as a way of coping with loss (not that it makes it any more valid, but as a reason to draw attention to it).   I say that (to refresh, dealing with loss -> angels) because it’s true for me as well. It made sense, and still does, as a way of dealing with the pain. The thing that gets me through is my faith that she’s somewhere better now than when she was in the hospital bed. So that’s why I say I have faith, but am not religious.

Well it’s 5:00 now and hopefully my plane will be here soon. The one from NY is arriving now (here because as I said before, only 5 gates). Sorry for the babbling about faith and death and stuff, but I’m in a transitional phase of my life, as are a lot of people that are close to me (Jen, Kate) and it gets me into these moods. I’m glad I’m doing this now and I wish I had started one of these back in high school. I don’t know if it’s my personal experience with memory loss or just a natural instinct, but I have been described as a pack rat. I like the term archiver. I have oodles of hard drive space because I can’t bear with deleting things. I have all of my papers from MP and State, organized by school year. I have all of my email from my primary accounts (except for spam and non-delivery reports, etc). All my email. From MSN (the original one), VNet, Prodigy, RR, NCSU, elantis.net, and jonathanwentz.com. It’s not all in my inbox, I have it archived too. By year. It’s obsessive, I know. Well I need to find the bathroom here in a min before my plane gets here. Lets hope it’s on time, I don’t have much free time in Charlotte to make the connecting flight to Raleigh. Funny note before I go. The package of M&M’s I just finished is part of a contest. The inside label has been modified to be more PC. It now reads “Sorry, this is not a winner. Thanks, and please try again.” Do you remember what they used to say? That’s right: “Sorry, you are not a winner. Please try again.” Apparently these M&M contests were causing people to be depressed by the insult included with your package of looser M&Ms. Somewhere at M&M-Mars there was a meeting about this. That cracks me up. Not really. I’m not feeling very crack-up-able right now, but on another day it would. People keep making deliberate steps over my power cable. Like it’s going to jump up and bite them. Ha. Stupid cretins. I’m starting to sound like Mike or Marcus. I have to stop. Bye.

Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 4:37 PM

OK, so I'm standing in a Cheeburger Cheeburger in Chattanooga waiting (too long) for my order. I'm here for Jen's graduation. It's actually a nice town. The aquarium looks cool. My suite at the Residence Inn is almost as big as my new apartment. I realized on my taxi ride how much I like trees, especially groups of them. I'm not so much for the pine or evergreen variety, more for the hardwood/oak type. I like the shade, the way they arch over a street that's been there for most of a century.

11:42 PM

Well since my last entry, we've graduated, Todd has moved out, I’m moving on the 4^th. I’m excited about having my own place. Graduation was … interesting. Phil Donahue was the speaker, apparently he was pretty controversial, but I couldn’t really hear him (being on the floor where there are no speakers). It wasn’t actually a graduation speech, just liberalist propaganda and rambling. Dad and Meb walked out during it. The Computer Science graduation was nice though. The party was a lot of fun and it was good to see everyone. Well I need to turn in since Jen’s graduation is in the morning. Congrats Jen, BTW. Well g’night all.

Thursday, May 8, 2003 - 10:03 PM

Well I turned in my project CD for my Network Project today so it's all over. Now I just wait for graduation. It's kind of surreal, I don't really believe that it's here. Well I found an apartment in Charlotte, Archstone Reafield off of 51. I'm moving sometime the first week in June. Now I need to find movers. Kate still doesn't know what she'll be doing, or if she does she hasn't told me. She's not feeling well and is back in Charlotte; she wants me to go back tomorrow when I finish with my work. I haven't decided whether I should or not.

Monday, May 5, 2003 - 11:28 AM

Don't you hate it when someone is supposed to call you back and they don't, or friends who don't have cell phones. Anyways, I'm sitting at home in Charlotte waiting for a call about an interview. I need to go find an apartment too. I'm hoping I can meet with this guy early enough that I can find an apartment and head back to Raleigh today. If it gets to late, I'll have to wait until tonight or tomorrow. I was all hoping to play some Metroid Prime, but I left my Game Cube power adapter at my apartment in Raleigh. Ah well. Lise is staying with Libby and Phill while I'm here; it's her first time away from me. I hope she slept last night.

I am so ready to start my life. I feel like I've been tied down and I'm just about to break free. I still have a few things to do to graduate, though: the Network project, a history final, and an English assignment. The Network Project is almost complete, the English assignment will be easy, and hopefully the history final won't kill me. Time will tell.

Friday, May 2, 2003 - 1:06 AM

So much for doing this every day. Weekly is as best as I'm gonna do at the moment. Of course I'm not even sure anyone's found this yet. It's for me anyways. So I have one more class left at NC State, and it's History. Figures. We gave our project presentation today and I think it went well. Then I found out that the job I was hoping for at PDS wasn't going to work. They apparently want someone with classroom experience who'll understand the teachers better. I think my 17 years of classroom experience (as a student) would be pretty damned good, along with the fact that I've been supporting teachers since 6th grade. Ah well. It looks as if it's going to take a while for me to find a job so here's the plan: I'm going to get an apartment in Charlotte, move back there at the end of May or early June, and start my consulting back in full force. I know there are a lot of people in Charlotte who've wanted my help and I just haven't had time when I come home for the weekend. I'll keep looking, and hopefully along with the consulting I can network and try to find a job that way. I want to run my own business full time some day, but I'm not experienced enough to handle enterprise clients now, only home and small to medium sized businesses. I'm working on getting my consulting website up at help.jonathanwentz.com. Pretty clever, huh? Get it? Help...Jonathan Wentz...dot com! Anyways, it gets the point across. If you're looking for some computer help, please email me at help@jonathanwentz.com and I'll be glad to answer your questions or setup an appointment.

Kate is upset that I haven't really tried to stay in Raleigh, and I completely understand. It's going to be rough adjusting to being that far apart. I just find more reasons to go to Charlotte than stay here. When I started the job search, there was nothing up here. There's still nothing up here, except for a bunch of out of work IT people. Charlotte is a better market, and I can do my consulting in the mean time. I can't just sit here with no income when I can be making money and networking with people. I also really want to move back to Charlotte. I have roots there; I want to get involved in the church again, and with Scouts.

I can't believe school is almost over. It seams that every year it moves faster. The first year at a new school always goes slower than the last, but never as slow as before. This is the first time in my life that I haven't known what I was going to do, and it's kind of scary. I find myself making more lists than ever now! I've gone through a pad a month, I think. I want to say than you to every one out there who's helped me over the years, through Mom's illness and death, through the last 5 years, and everything. I have a whole bunch of great friends and family who've been there for me countless times and I've neglected to keep in touch as well as I should. Once I know what I'm doing (at least in the short run) I'm going to write everyone. I'll probably forget some people, and I'm sorry in advance. Right here, right now, I do want to thank a couple of people: (When did this turn into an Oscar speech?) My parents, my family, Libby, Kate, the Bremsers, the McIntosh's, Circle 14, the 4 Hearts, Mike, Claude, Brook Smith, Joyce Schuler and the 98-99 Chamber Choir, Dot Gaglione and the Mustang staff, Pat Nixon, heck half of the faculty at MPHS, and the Departments of Microbiology and Toxicology at NC State. That's not all necessarily in order and I've left out a whole bunch of people, you know who you are and I want you all to know I appreciate everything you've done for me and for my family over the last 22 years. Well enough of the sappy stuff. I've got to go to sleep. G'night all.

"May your heart sing forever / Where the sea meets the river / And start it all over again" - The Battlefield Band

Friday, April 26, 2003 - 1:51 AM

So I've been meaning to start one of these for a while now. This is by hand at the moment because I want to write my own blogging app. Let's see, it' Friday and boy has it been a long week. This week alone I had a history paper, a business proposal, a presentation for that proposal, and the last draft of our networking project due. BTW, you got any questions on IPv6? I can help. Well I've got one more week of school left. Wow. I thought it was two. Luckily I only have one exam. I don't have an exam in Network Projects, just the CD with all of our materials and final report on it due. Kate is in Charleston at a Flyball tournament. She left today around noon, but she hasn't called me. She always forgets to call to let me know she's safe. I worry, I get it from the Archibald side of the family. My mom worried, my aunt Libby worries, my grandmother worries; I picked it up over the years along with the ability to talk forever without taking a breath.

I'm still looking for a job in Charlotte after graduation. Todd and I have to move out of our apartment by June 11, but that should be enough time. Todd starts summer school at UNCC right after graduation so he's moving on the 21st. I'm really looking forward to moving back to Charlotte, not that Raleigh is bad, mind you. I just feel more at home there. I want to start going back to MPUMC, maybe be a Scoutmaster again. I miss my friends and the people I haven't gotten to see over the weekend breaks I get now. There are so many people I need to look up when I move back. If some of you happen to come across this blog, and you know who you are, email me.

There is so much stuff to do before graduation, I can't believe it sometimes. I haven't been to work as nearly often as I've needed to this semester because of class. When Joyce says that CSC 402 will take up all of you're time, she's not kidding. It's a great class though. Other good classes I've taken: CSC 216 - Advanced Programming Concepts (Java) with Lake (he's not here anymore), CSC 405 - Computer Security with Julie Starr (she's leaving), HI 321 - Ancient and Medieval Science and Technology with Sylla, MDS 301 - Science and Technology, MA 241 - Eng. Calc. II with Moody Chou, CSC 226 - Applied Discrete Math with Bitzer, CSC 246 - Op. Systems with Funderlic, and CSC 379 - Ethics with Joyce Hatch. Teachers to avoid: Nelson, Chapel, Athavale.

Well it's getting late and Lise is staring at me like she wants me to turn the lights out so it's off to bed for me. G'night all.

Hit Counter