But here I am, writing something.  Does it mean anything? No.  It’s just mid-morning on a Friday, and I’m trying out an offline WordPress writing app (MarsEdit), which is pretty fantastic.

Hrm, what’s been new with me? Not much, really.  MJJ Designs has been doing great.  Staying busy there, which is nice.   The house is coming along. Still a long way to do with decorating – hanging up pictures, shelving, etc.  But we’ll get there.

I’ve also started hitting the treadmill again.  Trying to do at least two miles a day Monday – Friday.  My legs burn like hell because I’m so out of shape, but I’ll get there.  My goal is to run a 5k before the end of the year.  I doubt I’ll actually be able to do it, but I want to try.  Up until last week I’d never been able to run a mile without stopping before.  So it was a nice accomplishment when I actually managed to run the entire time.  It was only a 15 minute mile, not the fastest ever, but it was something I was proud of.  I’m down to about 13 minutes on my mile now, and plan on trying to get up the 3 mile distance at that pace.  Then if I feel adventurous I can try speeding it up a bit.  My goal isn’t to break any land speed records for the 5k, just to finish it.

Plus running is getting me away from the computer for an hour a day before lunch. And probably doing a lot for my health, too.  I’ve gotten overweight over the last few years, and want to get back down to my fighting weight, as they say.  Not that I’ve ever fought anyone, but that’s the saying.

That’s pretty much it for me.  At least for now.  Oh, and if you have anything to do with it – please let the Bruins win the Stanley Cup this year. I’d appreciate it.

Let’s see, what’s happened?  Well, we bought a house for one. A nice yellow one, with lots of room.  So much room, in fact, that not only do I get my own office, but I get a music room for my drums and guitars, as well.  That’s pretty exciting.  Once we’re completely done unpacking everything I’ll put up some pictures of the inside.  Soon, I keep telling myself that it’ll all be done soon.

It’s been almost 7 months since Lasik, and my eyes are still near perfect.  The dryness isn’t as bad as it has been for the first few months. I can go days without any eye drops now, but still eventually need to drop some in.

I’m so uninteresting, I can’t even think of anything else to write.  Sorry for the disappointing post. At least it’s something, right?

My eyes have settled in quite nicely. I can see things like I never thought I’d be able to see things.  Night time vision is still a bit blurry when it’s really dark, but that’s getting better as time progresses.  They say that I’ll be completely clear and healed in another 8-10 weeks.  I look forward to that.

The holiday season was good. Lots of time with family. Lots of good times in general.

I’ve been working on a redesign for MJJ Designs’ website. Should be done in a couple of weeks.

Finished up some sites for clients recently, they’re in the portfolio on MJJ Designs, if you’re interested.

My contract with BU was up, then wasn’t, then was, then wasn’t. I still don’t know if they’re going to continue the contract or not. We’ll find out in a few weeks.

Christine and I have been working hard on the Kindle site (here), and made quite a bit of money over Christmastime.  That was nice.  We’re looking for a house, and hopefully can get one when our lease is up in June.  So we’ll see what happens there.

Other than that, it’s just life as usual. Nothing else noteworthy to report.  But yes, I’m still alive, and for those of you who stumble upon my site here, thanks for coming back.

There’s been a lot of questions since there, so I’ll do my best to answer them.  Also, in the future if people stumble onto this page, maybe it’ll answer some of your questions:

• No, it’s not painful to be zapped in the eye with a laser.  It is a bit painful when they put the clamp on your eye, and apply pressure while cutting open your cornea.  It feels more or less like someone’s punched you in the eyeball.  It goes away after an hour or so.
• No, you can’t immediately see after the surgery’s over.  When you sit up from the chair, it looks like you’re under water.  That goes away (mostly) after your mandatory 5 hour nap after surgery.
• Yes, my vision is perfect now.  At least that’s what they’ve told me. According to my morning after test, my vision is now 20/20.  It’s still a bit foggy around bright white things, and Tv/computer, but it’s getting better each day.
• Yes, I could technically have gone back to work the day after surgery. But why risk it. I took a long weekend, and should be more than fine on Monday to go back full time.
• There are a metric ton of eye drops you have to put in pre and post surgery.  Every hour I have to put in artificial tears, every two hours some anti-inflammatory medication, and 4 times a day some antibiotics.  If you don’t like eye drops, you might not want to get this surgery.  I didn’t know about all the drops until the morning of. (Yes, after I’d already paid.)
• It’s still an expensive procedure.  After a discount I got, it cost me just shut of $3500.  However, there are cheaper procedures you can get done. I got the “CustomVue” surgery from The Lasik Institute in Burlington, MA.  Dr. Sheth did the surgery, and was fantastic.  The cheaper surgery that the Lasik Institute folks have available is as cheap as $650 per eye. (As of the time I’m writing this.)  The “CustomVue” I got also comes with a lifetime guarantee. If my sight goes bunk at any point, I can have the surgery done again for free.
• Yes, you go blind temporarily when they’re doing the surgery.  My eye sight went completely black for about 10 seconds.
• Yes, you can actually see when they flip the sliced part of your cornea away from your eye.  It goes from clear to blurry pretty quickly.
• Yes, the laser makes a scary sound. (Similar to the first time you hear a tattoo gun. It’s that scary.)
• Yes, the eye drops they make you put in give you a metallic taste in your mouth.  You get used to it.
• Yes, I’m glad I did it.  Once my vision crisps up, I’ll be 100% glad I’ve done it.
• The laser itself is very quick.  My left eye (which was worse than my right) took two blasts. 8 seconds, and 6 seconds.  The right eye (which was the stronger of the two) took one blast, 8 seconds.  All in all, I was in the chair about 8 minutes or so.  (A few minutes for prep, then the slicing, then the laser, then done.)
• My eyes are incredibly bloodshot right now.  The pressure they apply with the clamp, to make it so you can’t move your eye, can cause bruising. It’s normal.  It doesn’t hurt anymore, though.
• If you’re thinking of having LASIK done, and have the financial means to do so.  Just do it.  While the surgery is something I don’t want to do again in my life, it was definitely worth doing it once.

I’m still recovering, but getting to the point where I can function.  I can look at the computer screen for more than ten minutes now, without having eye pain.  I drove on the highway today for the first time since the surgery, and it was a trip.  Being able to read things far away is pretty awesome.

I’ve been playing “Can you read that?” with Christine since my eyes started healing.  I’m determined to find something that’s far enough away that she can’t read it, and I can.  So far, I’ve failed.  She has some damn good eye sight.

Other than that, life’s just chuggin’ away.  Keeping busy.  Did all my holiday shopping today, wrapped all the presents and placed them under our mock-tree. (We didn’t buy one, we just designated a spot on our floor that we were going to stack the presents.)

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Uninteresting, I know.  C’est la vie!

Another new year brings all sorts of new things, for a lot of people. New Year’s Resolutions are a big thing, of which I made quite a few, and am doing okay 6 days into the year.   That’s a good thing.

I’ve begun the official job hunt yesterday.   Now that the end of the year’s happened, more people will be filling open jobs, and I’ve got to get one pretty soon.   As much design work as I’ve been doing the last 6 weeks, I’m getting pretty bored sitting at home all day.   Hopefully something good comes along soon.

As you may have read in an earlier post, I’ve been typing up buttloads of lyrics over the last few months.   I’m about halfway done.   I think, at last check, I had completed the J lyrics.   And am going alphabetically. So it’ll be a while longer before anyone can get to that page, and read some of them. (Unless Google already indexed the hidden page, and you happen to search for something I’ve written about.)

There’s still been no update on the Peerflix/LiveUniverse situation.   I’m giving them to the end of the month to contact me to pay me, or I’m going to Channel 5′s “Buyer Beware” to see if they’ll do a piece on the situation.   From what I’ve read, there’s at least 60 people that have been vocal about being screwed out of money.

We launched the new design on MovieSnobs back in late December, ahead of schedule. I think it came out pretty nice, and there’s a bunch of new feature which I’m proud of.   It may look pretty similar to the last design we had, and that’s intentional.   It’s just more streamlined now, with more information, and a better UI to help find stuff faster on the site. (At least I think so, anyway.)

That’s about all I can update on my life right now.   Not much else is going on in the life of me.

I’ve taught myself how to build websites, fix electronics, work with computers, and countless other things that I’m proud of.   I sometimes feel like I’m too hard on myself, always striving to be better at things, and I get angry when I fail.

I’ve started thinking about these things lately, not sure why. I just look back on all the years that have come and gone, and wonder where they went.   Time really does fly.   Christine and I are about to celebrate our 5th anniversary.   It’s been an amazing five years, and I can’t even imagine how it went by so fast.

Time really does go by faster when you’re an adult.   I’m not complaining, having time go by faster has helped me make it to Thursday of this week already.   Though, now that I’m looking at the clock, the time’s ticking by, minute by minute by minute.