I've never felt more alive and ready for action

I feel like I'm just living on top of a cloud. I am just as excited as I've ever been at the prospect of my own life.

I hope others around me can pick up on my good vibes and their own day's are a little better for it, because I'm really radiating positive attitude right now. You would too if you were me :-)

Europe... ahh, what a place. I could explore and get lost there and never go to the same place twice! And could there EVER be a better companion for the road ahead than my beautiful woman? I think not! Life is on it's way to being a story that I can tell and other people actually listen and say... "wow, that was hella cool, I wish I could... " :-)

I feel good, I feel healthy, I feel alive, and I want to spread the joy! Oh yeah, I feel LOVED by my family, my girl, and my friends, and nothing feels better than that!

100% cornball, that's my way of thinking, but I'm smiling and bouncing and feeling good, so you can't knock me! Maybe you'll try it yourself! You are what you tell yourself, so tell yourself that you're awesome and today is great and you wouldn't change who you are or your life in one single way! If you don't love yourself, who else can?!?

OK, enough, take my vibes and run with it!

Wednesday Thoughts

The due date is fast approaching! I'm soon to be experiencing something new and different. I'm not that guy that is all "I'm sooooo excited!", but even I'm starting to get butterflies and it's really starting to hit home that I'm doing this.

Germany is going to be an awesome place. I can't wait to see what it has to offer me.

Really what I'm excited about the most will be our opportunities to travel around Europe. Just get in the car for the weekend and take off! Get on the train and go somewhere! I'm really excited for this!!! And there couldn't be a better person to do it with than Kathi, the best girlfriend a guy could ever ask for!

There is still alot to accomplish, lots of details to take care of... but I'm so ready!

Dead Wrong - Notorious B.I.G. - Eminem lyrics

There's several different levels to Devil worshippin: horse's heads,

human sacrifices, canibalism; candles and exorcism

Animals havin sex with 'em; camels mammals and rabbits

But I don't get into that, I kick the habit - I just,

beat you to death with weapons that eat through the flesh

And I never eat you unless the fuckin, meat looks fresh

I got a lion in my pocket, I'm lyin, I got a nine in my pocket

and baby I'm just, dyin to cock him

He's ready for war, I'm ready for war

I got machetes and swords for any faggot that said he was raw

My uz' as, heavy as yours, yeah you met me before

I just didn't have as large an arsenal of weapons before

Marshall will step in the door, I lay your head on the floor

With your body spread on the bedspread, red on the wall

red on the ceilin, red on the floor, get a new whore

Met on the second, wet on the third;

then she's dead on the fourth - I'm dead wrong

Thursday Thoughts

Today, I feel good. I feel better about the way my life is progressing. There are still alot of improvements to be made, but truth be told, if you stop improving, it's probably cause you're dead or the most boring person ever :)

Losing all this weight has made me feel so good about myself. I've proven to myself that I can do the hardest thing possible, and do it well! Being on WeightWatchers and having a plan of attack (using their system) has definitely given me the right tools to get it done, but it still came down to me and only me. I love the fact that I can look in the mirror and say "yup, I did it, 100% all me". No one picked up the fork for me, no one told me I "had to eat this or that". It definitely feels good to know I made the right choices most times and that I'm seeing results for it! I can't wait for my girlfriend to see me! If she loved me when I'm pudgy and cute, she'll flip for her skinny, sexy boyfriend :-)

I've stopped talking about my finances because... well because the systems I've put in place are working! Most of my payments are automated and everything just pays itself. It's pretty awesome :-) I love that I hardly have to think about it more than a couple of times a week, at best!

I'm going to Germany! I'm going to take a cursory visit to check out the country, see the place I'll be living in, and of course, to spend time with my lovely Kathi. It's a short visit, only a week, which is not what people normally do when traveling to Europe, but hey, I think its totally worth it and I can't wait to see Kathi. Almost 6 months apart has been terrible!

Nothing else to report... just happy, loving life, and excited to see my love again!!!

Love when things go good!

A moment of frustration just adds clarity to my situation.

My frustrations have come strictly due to work. Mostly just frustrated because the things that I wanted to happen with this job never panned out. I'm doing work that I'm simply too good for. I don't mean that in the derogatory sense, but in the sense that I've trained and have experience in WAY more than I'm doing. I feel like an experienced, certified mechanic who's stuck doing oil changes at your local 10 minute repair shop.

But again, with frustration comes clarity. If there is one thing that I know, for a FACT, is that I AM A SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR. I am not Helpdesk. I am a Systems Administrator doing Helpdesk work. This week, I've come to realize that my next job, no matter how long it takes, or where, or when, will be with either the title of Systems Administrator or Windows Administrator. No middle ground, no half ways, nothing. Sys Admin or bust.

The only exception to this would be the for the chance to get a sponsored job in Germany. I'd be willing to stay in parallel with my career as it is for the opportunity for a guaranteed job. It's going to be hard enough getting a job, so while I'm certainly applying for, trying for, and gunning for a Systems Administrator job in Germany (which is essentially a promotion to a new job in a new country where I don't speak the language), the realist in me says "take the job that comes your way, get your foot in the door and get over there... THEN you can have some wiggle room to do something else." If time were no factor, I'd only try to get the Sys Admin position, but I miss my girl and I want to get out there already :-) so any job will do, basically!

I have to say though, I'm feeling real good right now because I'm moving in the right directions. Because I've set a goal for myself, I actually have something to look forward to, something that is achievable and I can reach for. Once the decision was made in my mind to move to Germany, my path and my options all seemed to come into focus. I see where my career needs to go, I have plans in motion to get myself out to Germany, and I'm getting things done, and more importantly, getting them done right.

Challenges, problems, frustrations... these things are my teachers and they help me to grow. Without them, I'd never have the opportunity to prove that I can BEAT them! Win your challenges, overcome your problems, and work thru your frustrations. You are only a better person for it... and I'm a better person now for it as well!

What else you got for me life? Think you got a challenge I can't win, bring it on, I dare you!

My mind is set!

I'm going to be doing it... September... love knows no bounds and my love is waiting for me!

Now that I'm decided, I feel a certain empowerment. I'm becoming less hindered by negative or non action. Now that I know what I want, I can feel myself leaning in the direction(s) it takes to get there.

Alot of you know what plans I'm talking about, some of you don't... but for reasons of my own, I won't be divulging further details in blogs or facebook at the moment... but soon enough, everyone will know what I'm doing... just protecting certain interests!

But I'm excited... the chance at practically a new life is something that most people can't, or maybe won't, consider for themselves. A few years ago, I thought my life was decided and that it wasn't going to do much else... kinda boring really! Now, life has NOTHING but possibilities and adventures waiting for me! No longer will I be that guy who envies other people's exciting lives, but I'll have my own life that OTHERS will envy! And I'll have the woman of my dreams on my arm!!!

Thanks for all the support and love. I know it will be a challenge to live out my dream, but hey, if it was easy, would it be as worth it??? Probably not!

Here I come baby!!!

I highly recommend this Personal Finance Book

I want to recommend a book I've recently read that has helped me out considerably to better understand, and more importantly, take control of my personal finances and investments.

The book is called "I will teach you to be rich" by Ramit Senthi. Now, before you let the title of the book trick you into thinking this is some get rich quick scheme, you can throw that out right now. Ramit's personal definition of "rich" is varied and not based on literal money in the bank. You're "rich" when you have money for the things you want in life and money for your future, not by how many zero's are in your bank account.

If I ask you these series of questions, and you answer no or I don't know to most or all of them (or if yes is the bad answer, haha), then I am speaking directly to YOU when I say read Ramit's book and finally come to understand your finances and how you can take control!

Do you know the details of your checking\savings\credit cards?
- Are you paying yearly fee's on your checking account?
- Do you know the interest rate on your savings account?
- Are you paying yearly fee's on your credit cards?
- Do you know the APR on your credit cards?

Are you saving or investing your money?
- Do you know what a 401K account or a Roth IRA account is? If yes, are you investing into one?
- Do you think that "investing" means buying stocks? Do you think you can't invest?
- Do you know how to automate your accounts to invest in a "set it and forget it" fashion?

Do you know where your money is going?
- Are your high interest credit cards being paid reguarily?
- Do you keep a budget or do you know when all your bills are due?
- Do you know how to cut costs and save without having to be that guy that never buys Starbucks again or never goes out with friends?

And the most important question of all... are you actually doing something about your finances? Or are you like most of the rest of us and, rather than do at least something, you're not doing anything at all, or at least very, very little.

I can answer all of those questions about myself and my finances and feel very good about my answers. Since reading Ramit's book, I've had the APR on my two credit cards reduced (from 14% to 12.5% on one and from 12% to 5% on the other... and I made only one phone call to each credit card to get my APR reduced!), I've setup a high interest online savings account. I've started a RothIRA account and rolled my old 401K account (that is not receiving any more investment dollars) into it and will soon roll my other 401K account into that as well. I've cut costs in my daily life, but yet I have more money than ever. Ramit's book has taught me what I needed to know about personal finance... the different parts, the descriptions, the "how-to's", and the goods and the bads. I've learned, most importantly, that you don't need alot of money to save for your future and you don't need to bust your balls maintaining it. Save for what you want and cut out the rest!

I started reading Ramit's blogs on his website (same name as the book) and I was instantly interested because of his directness, his good advice, and the fact that Ramit talks like someone I feel I might know personally and about things that directly relate to my life. He doesn't talk or sound like some boring, stuffy old finance guy, and he knows what's happening in our, younger, daily lives. So when I saw his book was coming out, I pretty much knew I had to get it and finally get some understanding of what's happening to my finances... or I might say what was NOT happening to them.

If you're sinking in debt... if you're trying to invest for your retirement... if you're planning to save money for a wedding\downpayment for a house\vacations... then Ramits book "I will teach you to be rich" is the PRIMER for your financial future. This is the book for all of us who just want to know more about our money and how to make it work for us!