10.  I learned a lot about php, mysql, SEO, html, java, web design, social networking, webtraffic, and a lot of other geeky stuff that’s come in handy in my job and in my personal life.  Sometimes, just doing things is the best learning tool.

9.  When my dad passed, a college friend of his emailed me and said he liked my dad and was sad to learn about his death.  This guy didn’t know me, and I didn’t know him, but I like to think we helped each other heal there too.  He probably felt like he got his message across and got to say good bye, and I got a picture of my dad that I didn’t have before.  Good stuff.

8.  Can you believe people have asked me to give stuff away on my blog?  Heck ya!  I love free stuff.  I love giving away free stuff even more!

7.  When Kallie and I got married, I started doing a genealogy of her family.  After one her relatives found my blog doing a search for “Sealock”, he found my site and we ended up matching our family trees together.  Fun!

6.  This has been a journal and diary for me in a lot of ways.  I’ve gotten lots of entertainment looking at past blog posts and not remember saying those things.  Dreams, rants, or even saying things that other people said is a lot of fun to revisit.

5.  Back in the fall of 2007, I got asked if I knew of a LEGO artist in Pittsburgh.  I said no, but asked if I could help for what they were looking for.  Long story short, I was asked to teach a after school program to some 20 elementary kids.  I’ve taught the 6 week sessions twice and I love it and am so grateful for that opportunity!

4.  When I first started blogging, there weren’t many people out there blogging about their personal lives.  As it caught on, pittsburgh area bloggers started networking with one another.  I certainly have not gotten as close as many of the others have gotten to each other, and that’s largely my own fault, but I still feel connected to them and have gone to some meet ups to socialize.  ONLINE FRIENDS TURNED 3D ZOMG.

3.  Separate from just seeing the history of my thoughts, just being able to express myself, or type out my ideas is therapeutic and calming.  As the blogging platform gets better, it becomes easier for me to type up ideas instead of mulling them over in my head or possibly forgetting them.  I’m able to create drafts, schedule posts, and it’s no longer a chore, but an outlet that I’m able to make work for me.

2.  I’ve lost contact with friends over the years.  Sometimes, those people find me again through my blog after not knowing how to get in contact with me.  Even people that I was only acquaintances with in the first place has stumbled upon my blog and sent me a message letting me know about the small world scenario.  It’s funny when it happens.

1.  You reading this.  Honestly, it’s nice to be able to share my thoughts openly, and then people know how or what I’m thinking and respond back.  It’s kind of like an open invitation to a conversation with me; something I’m not good at anyway.  I’m not afraid of people who know too much about me because they stalked me on my blog.  If that’s how they like to spend their time, who am I to judge?  It’s creating the real world connections that make this blog so fruitful, for me.

Growing up at my dad’s house, we had an above ground pool.  I think it was about 4 feet high and 24 feet wide.  We loved when the water got low, because that meant that  Jay Gillis was coming over with his water truck to fill it up.  He’d take the hose from his truck, hook it up to the rim of the pool at an angle, and flip the switch on his truck to send gallons of water rushing into the pool, enough to create a decent current for a whirl pool.  It was awesome.

Mr. Gillis was more than our water guy, he was sort of a family friend.  His daughter, Janna,  went to school with us at Bentleyville Wesleyan.  Jay was a quiet guy though, and I think that’s why I enjoyed him so much.  When he would deliver water for our cistern, he’d go sit on our porch or play with our dogs, and I’d go out and hang with him.  Sometimes, I’d take him something to drink.  I didn’t want him to be out there by himself.

Anyway, after my parents had split, and my brother had died, our church attendance was sporadic at best.  One summer day, we did go to church, and Jay was there.  When the pastor asked what good news anyone had to share with the congregation, Jay raised his hand and stood up.  He said that he had delivered water to us the day before, and it just brought him so much joy to see us kids playing and laughing.  I was so stunned to see the quiet guy I admired so much speaking up to everybody about us.

What’s so great about that memory is that we were able to bring him joy.  I know he’s still around, and we have a few degrees of separation socially, so he may stumble across this, but Mr. Gillis played a big role in the happiness and maturing of my childhood.  He was a man that I respected, appreciated, and enjoyed.

What motivates you at work?  Are you never happy unless you get more money?  Do you just want to have freedom to set your own workload and deadlines?  Or is it the opposite in that the more your accomplish tasks, the more you’re happy to work?

Last year they didn’t have the class, but after 2 years, I walk back in to the class, see a few familiar faces, and all of them remember me.  They asked me if I’m bringing back in my large LEGO man I brought in for them last time.  They remember the class and what we did and want to know if we’re going to build a solid block of LEGO again to stand on.  Kids can be awesome.

I’m 28 as of the publishing of this post.  That’s close to 30.  I’m getting older.

Every year, I can’t help but reflect on my life; what I’ve done, what I wish I would have done, what I did, what I wish I didn’t do, What I am, and what I used to be, and everything in between.  Normally, it’s very depressing.  Is it healthy?  I have no idea, but I think it’s all relative to what I do with that information afterward.

This year, I have created a list of 30 things I want to do before I turn 30.  I’ve designed the list to be achievable, and inline with what my current vision of my life would be in a natural progression to 30.  In this manner, it should serve 2 purposes:  First, as goals, that I’ll strive for, challenging myself to complete.  Second, when (if???) I finally reach 30, I’ll be able to compare what I wanted today, with what I want when I’m 30.  Have they changed at all?  Have I changed at all?  Maybe these goals that I set when I was 28 are no longer important to me when I am 30.  It’s sort of like a time capsule in that sense.

I’m going to use the category “life long goals” for updates to the list, even though it’s a departure for how I’ve been using it.  I’ll update the list with dates and links to the blog posts as they’re completed.

Here’s to life, and never accepting it as ‘done’.

I was inspired to recreate the Pittsburgh Penguins logo in LEGO bricks on Sunday.

It took about 2.5 hours from start to finish.  I started off with just making the yellow triangle in the back to figure out what scale I would be able to achieve with the pieces I have.  I knew I wanted to make it a little more 3D, so I started with the white belly next making some 2×4 white pieces stick out so that they would lend to the structural integrity of the hockey stick.

Here’s the original logo that I used to replicate:

You can see that there’s no good way to duplicate those gloves, so I just made a few phalanges-like collections surrounding the stick.

For a quick turn around, I’m happy with it.  There are a few things that I could easily do to improve it, but I’m just starting out to get an idea of where my strengths are naturally and what I will need to work on.

You can watch my flickr feed for more pictures and updates – www.flickr.com/photos/sixf00t4/sets/72157624043323210/

Probably very much to do about the pens loss last night to the montreal canadiens in game 6, I had a dream I was playing in the game.  I was the stand-by goalie, and we were down 3-4 in the second when I was put in to replace Fluery.  I was amazing.  So much so, that I deflected a shot so hard that it flew directly into the other goal to tie the game.  Yes, I’m that powerful.  Then, in the third period,  I was on offense.  For some reason, I was also frozen in the ice at the waist down, at about half-rink.  With about 3 seconds left in the game, I busted out of the ice and skated to the net, caught a pass and directed it right into the goal to win 5-4.  It was great, I was so shocked, people were so happy with me, but we all understood that it was just a fluke and that I’d go back to my normal life after the game. 

Watching J’aime’s kids the other day, gave me an idea.  I call it KidCom.  It’s a device, much like a watch, that your kids wear.

In it’s simplest form, it just has the time on it and you can set alarms on it that say things like "1 hours before Daddy gets home", or "it’s almost snack time".  It’s to help highlight and grow the anticipation for the important and happy moments in their days.

There are a few things you can do to extend the functionality.  A web interface or desktop application to record your own voice and have it say messages on certain times.  Or you can change settings remotely if you’re going to be late.

It could be integrated with a gps for locating your kids, or even some sort of 911/call home functionality for emergencies.  I think the simpler the better these days when it comes to technology…especially when it comes to kids…which makes me feel old…I’m going to go play with LEGO blocks now.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey
I asked for help that I might do greater things
I was given infirmity that I might do better things
I asked for riches that I might be happy
I was given poverty that I might be wise
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men
I was given weakness that I feel the need of God
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life
I was given life that I might enjoy all things
I got nothing I asked for but everything I had hoped for
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered
I am among all men most richly blessed

Had a dream about a video game last night.  It was a free roam world, 3rd person, kind of like the game Black & White.  All the characters were animals and you had to interact with them to learn "concepts" like trading, communication, hiring, etc to get things done.  The point was just to create a community that worked together and you got to chose how they worked together, whether through strict government policies, violence, friendly favors, etc.  It was a very cartoonish and humorous game.  The animals were very personified.

So that was the extent of the dream, and then I started thinking about this more and fleshing it out.  As far as names for the game, the first thought was "Orgz" since it’s catchy and could be short for ‘organization" or "organisms".  My next thought was for a sub-title, which was something like "All animals are created equal.  some are just more equal than others."  Which is an obvious lending from the book Animal Farm  by George Orwell.  Then, you’d have to consider the legal ramifications, but it would be a great opportunity to base the game on the book and just call it Animal Farm.  You could use all kind of quotes from the book like "2 legs are better than 4".

You could pick from a few animals as your character, each with their own personalities and benefits:

Duck – Everyone’s friend since they are in the air, water, and on land.  They’re pretty emotionally unstable and irational though.  They also can’t do much hard labor.

Horse – Very stern and a strong laborer.  Things are the way they are because they should be that way.  Not cooperative or open to change or creative inovation.

Dog – Smart and analytical.  Able to organize (herd) everyone to action by motivation (not fear).  Sometimes distracted by leisure instead of work.

So the goal of the game would be to run a farm, but it’s really more of town exchanging goods and services.  Like, the pigs have bacon to trade, you don’t actually kill the pigs for their bacon, you talk with them and work out something in exchange, like X amount of mud for Y amount of bacon.  Keep the pigs happy, and they’ll give you more bacon.  you could even get a little more complex about designing the layout of the farm.  Keep the cats away from the muddy pigs so they’ll chase the mice out of the barn.  A sense of humor will determine the success of the game, so you have to put in a lot of witty things like being able to open a petting zoo for money, but none of the animals like being extorted like that (form of prostitution).  Or humans coming in and offering to outsource your cow production items like milking, meat packing, etc.  Cows would be really stupid in the game.  Really stupid.