So Long, Farewell

Well this is it.  Post number 52.  

I have now successfully created new content for this blog every week for the past year.  Not trying to be too boastful but I think that's quite an achievement.  I believe it was around July or August I made the decision to do this for a year and as of today I have officially done it.

That being said, this will be the last weekly post.

It may not appear so but making a new one of these every week is actually quite a bit of work.  Some weeks it's much easier than others but thinking of an idea, writing, editing, taking pictures, choosing pictures, editing pictures, etc takes a fair amount of time.  If I'm going to be putting in the time to make these posts, I want them to be interesting to me.  Nothing terribly exciting is happening right now and so it's not as fun to create new posts at the moment.

That being said, I don't want this blog to die.  

So what's next?    I'm not going to be posting every week but if something new/fun/exciting happens, I will put something up.  That could be in a few days or it could be in a couple of months (hopefully something new/fun/exciting happens sooner than that).  I'm headed to Colorado in less than 3 weeks so that will likely be next.

I'm also going to stop with the stupid song titles because that was a horrible idea for so many reasons. 

Even though this isn't goodbye, I do want to say a big thank you to the people who found the time to read and interact with me through this blog.  I continued writing it after leaving Colorado because I wanted it to be a way to keep in touch with people (which sort of worked) and went from there.  It always makes me happy when someone mentions they read something on here.

Thanks again for reading.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Birthday

Short one.

My birthday was on Monday but the main celebrations happened on Saturday last week.  A few people were able to meet up beforehand for some pre-celebrations and then we headed downtown to Jones to meet up with others.  It ended up being a very fun night of dancing and festive beverages.  

I believe this is stolen from Shawn.

On my actual birthday, I had a relaxing morning/afternoon and then had to go into work for a short shift.  After work, I grabbed a few beers with some coworkers and had lovely chats about crazy travel stories and future plans.  Delicious cheesecake followed with the parents.  What a great birthday day/weekend!

Best coworkers ever.

Thanks to everyone who came out and/or sent me a message wishing me happy birthday.  I truly appreciate it!

In other news, I brought this up last week but I finished the Serial podcast and can't stop thinking about it.  Please listen to it so I can discuss it with more people.

That's all for now.  Bye.

The Waiting

Riding public transportation to work requires lots of down time.  It takes me about 40 minutes with ride and waiting time to get from point A to point B.  To fill the stretch, I listen to lots of podcasts.  I recently ran out of episodes on my go-tos and needed something new.  I heard multiple people rave over a series called Serial and decided to give it a try.

The waiting is the hardest part

I'm a little late to the party but I finally started listening to the podcast.  It's through NPR's This American Life and came out in October of 2014.

The synopsis on the website says:

"On January 13, 1999, a girl named Hae Min Lee, a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, disappeared. A month later, her body turned up in a city park. She'd been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for the crime, and within a year, he was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Adnan’s friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae's body. But Adnan has always maintained he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Some people believe he’s telling the truth. Many others don’t."

"Sarah Koenig, who hosts Serial, first learned about this case more than a year ago. In the months since, she's been sorting through box after box (after box) of legal documents and investigators' notes, listening to trial testimony and police interrogations, and talking to everyone she can find who remembers what happened between Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee fifteen years ago. What she realized is that the trial covered up a far more complicated story, which neither the jury nor the public got to hear. The high school scene, the shifting statements to police, the prejudices, the sketchy alibis, the scant forensic evidence - all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person’s character? How can you tell what they’re capable of? In Season One of Serial, she looks for answers."

Each of the 12 episodes explore a different aspect of the case.  I haven't finished the series yet but was hooked after the first few minutes of episode 1.  If you're looking for something fun and interesting to listen to, I highly recommend.

That's all for now.  Bye.