Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Star Wars: As Told by the Non-Watched-It Person

Haha. Greatest title ever.

Basically, this video showcases a girl who is retelling the entire star wars trilogy, except that she has never seen it.

It's great, because she really isn't all that far off.

Enjoy.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Friday, January 9, 2009

I'm Nuts

 

To those of you who know me, this may not come as a surprise. I'm nuts. I'm a little looney. I have some strange tendencies, and sometimes my thought processes only seem to make sense to me. It's weird. And a touch hard. But hey, that's how I am. Something's gotta keep me conscious.


Therefore, when I sit in my audit staff 101 training (NO, I am not audit staff. I'm advisory staff. But as advisory, I'll be doing some auditing, so it is invaluable to speak the lingo and know at least the theory behind an audit) that all I can think about when I am sitting there are control weaknesses. They present a business process, a software suite, an account, a flowchart, anything, and I can think only of the ways to break it. The ways to find exceptions. The ways to circumvent. That's my mindset when it comes to these things. That's how I know I'm in the right place: I think like an auditor. I think like a security guy. I think like the person who is trying o break the controls. Therefore, being able to audit and check them is a very valuable part of my job.


I think I'm good at business process redesign as well. Why would I say that? I like it. Is that weird? I like looking at an overall process and finding the problems with it. I like analyzing them, comparing them to best practices, and redesigning them to be more efficient. Adding in technology, teaming, and all the other considerations only heightens my excitement. I'm weird. I really am.


The other thing I think about: Diet Coke. Hey, a guy has got to stay up, right?


So, it would appear that I'm in the right profession. Congrats to me.


My bachelor's degree posted today. Hopefully my Master's will post tomorrow.


I have a great life.


OH YEA! And I have a new couch. It's awesome.


Until next time.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

It's Been too Long ...

So much has been going on in my life over the last 6 weeks or so, and I've been so limited on my time to get online and write some good posts. So, I'm back, and better than ever.


I'm broadcasting from a new home now, and find myself located in the wonderful Silicon Valley in California. I live just a little south of downtown San Jose, and find myself in an excellent location for my future job and the traveling that I will have to do with my new job. My wife and i moved in officially on the 20th of December, but have been all around the bay area and central valley since we moved in. We came back for good as of January 2nd. I need to run down some of the activities that we did.


December 19 -- The movers arrived at our apartment in Provo, UT and moved us out. As the movers arrived, the snow did as well. It snowed like crazy, and resulted in "white-out" (meaning that visibility is essentially zero) for a while.We planned to move out to California that day, however, we just knew that we couldn't. It was weird though, because the people moving into our apartment after us arrived as our movers were finishing up, and were going to stay. We had paid up through January, and needed one more night. They were nice -- they said we could all stay there together. (/sarcasm) Not a good situation. The landlady was behind us, but the new tenants couldn't really take a hint. So we slept with my sister and brother-in-law that night and then moved out to California on the 20th.


December 21 -- Checked into our new apartment. Beautiful, close, and fun. We were really excited about it.


December 24-25 -- Christmas with the Ozbirns. That's my wife's family. It was a lot of fun spending time with them. Her brother, who recently joined the army rangers, was home for the break, and it was nice to finally meet him. That's right, I hadn't met him until then. But we all had a wonderful time, and we really enjoyed waking up in the morning and spending some great time with the family. I really do love my in-laws, and am truly enjoying spending time with them. It was very much fun.


December 25-28 -- With my parent in Santa Rosa. We had a fun time on Saturday for McKenna's baptism as a member of the church, and then we also had an "open house", more of a holiday party that people could drop in and see us. it was a lot of fun, and we had a good time meeting people and learning more about those people that truly love us. It's really thrilling and we are glad that we can be there and have these people that really care about us.


December 28 - Jan 2 -- Honeymoon in the Napa Valley. My parents kindly lent us their timeshare in the napa valley, a 850 square foot 1 bedroom suite with two televisions, and a two person in-room whirlpool. Oh yea, the showerhead had 5 heads. It was seriously amazing. Helped me design my future shower in my home. On Tuesday, we drove into the city and had a wonderful dinner at Scoma's in San Francisco. Believe me, it's as good as it sounds. We then went to the Orpheum Theater on Market Street, and watched an incredible rendition of Phantom of the Opera from the second row. Lindsay even saw the tag on the Phantom's cape. It was really fun. On Thursday, we went to dinner at the Celadon restaurant, where I got the "kobe flat iron steak with yukon gold potato gratin, broccoli rabe and blackberry sauce". IT WAS AMAZING! I loved it. I recommend this restaurant to anyone, just remember to call for a reservation first.


Anyway, that's the last couple weeks in a nutshell.


We are almost moved in completely, and we just bought a new couch. Photos will be coming your way soon.


I'll be back frequently now.


P.S. I start work tomorrow. Work at 8 a.m. Sigh. More news later!