As those of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen, I was at a conference early this week in Coralville, Iowa. ITEC stands for Iowa Technology & Education Connection. This conference was about technology as it pertains to education in Iowa schools. Right up my alley!

Yeah, it's been a while but I want to try and give this thing a go again. However, this time I have a plan.

Wow, what a trip. Tricia and I had been looking forward to Dragon*Con for a VERY long time. We had no idea what to expect, and I’d say it was everything I could have hoped for and so much more!

I’m going to start the story of our first Dragon*Con on what I’m going to call “Day Zero”. This is for all the time we spent before leaving getting packed and ready to go. It will also go into our adventures on the road trip to Atlanta. The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon and head east through Iowa. We would stop off in Des Moines to visit our friend Dave and pick up a couple details Tricia needed for her TIE helmet. After that, it would be off to West Branch, IA to pick up Chris Andrews, aka CAndyman. The three of us would then make the long haul all the way down to Atlanta, GA.

Well, I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. However, to make up for it, I have a whole series of blog posts that are going up soon. These blog post will document our trip to our first ever Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA!

So much happened over the weekend I'm going to break it down day by day. I do have all the pictures uploaded from our camera and CAndyman's photos. They are completely unsorted, unlabled, and thrown into a big pile. They can be found here. However, if you want to wait, I also have an album for the "Best Of" D*C 2008 where I'm going to put all the good ones. Once I have that sorted out I'll post that link too. So, watch this space for lots of Dragon*Con 2008 goodness!

Ya know when someone mails you a package from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or whatever, and you get that awesome tracking number that you can use to see where your package is at? Yeah, what a joke.

The guy who mailed my new helmet mailed it out via UPS and gave me a tracking number for it. The day it shipped I checked the site, and it had a departure scan from San Diego, and it was on time to be delivered August 5th. That's tomorrow, and the site has not updated at all. From my experience, I'll have the package in my hands before I see the site update. Why do they tease us with this live tracking number? All I know is that it's somewhere between here and San Diego. That's not really any more than I knew if I didn't have the tracking number.

I know, I know, I'm just impatient and anxious, but DAMN! Why do they tease us by making us think we'll be able to follow the package on it's travels from the shipper to my front door? Ugh, oh well. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have it and the wait will be over!

For the longest time I have wanted something of a logo for my web site. I always had an idea what I wanted, but my lack of artistic ability limited me in actually being able to create it myself.

Well, yesterday I was explaining to someone what I wanted to do so I went out and found some images on Google to show what I had in mind. Much to my surprise I found almost exactly what I wanted.

With my novice skills in PhotoShop, I was able to take the pieces I found on Google and put them together to make exactly what I wanted. I even learned how to make him animated like I wanted! So, without further adieu, say hello to Mister Vertigo:

My brother Bradley is home from the Army for a short time before he ships out to Korea, so the immediate family got together for a laid-back shindig. It was the first opportunity Jason has had to meet some of my extended family!

Just a couple of random thoughts today.

Well, we went and saw The Dark Knight last night. All I can say is WOW.

You MUST go see this movie. In fact, if you haven't already, go do it RIGHT NOW. I don't care what you are doing, seeing to see this movie is MUCH more important. Trust me, once you see it you will agree.

Even if you don't know anything about Batman, this movie is a must see. It's that damn good. In fact, I will go on the record as saying that I think it's the best movie I have ever seen. And this is coming from a guy who wears Stormtrooper armor.

If you are still reading this it means you aren't going to see the movie. Go! NOW!

Well, my first week at the new job is over. Hopefully, it will be the first of many, many more. I know you have all been dying to know how my new job is going. OK, maybe not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway!

To sum it all up in a single word: AWESOME!