Personal on

Travel Tips from a Frequent Traveler

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 03:53:42 +0000

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” This year alone I have been in 12 countries and accumulated over 500k miles of travel and want to share my tips and tricks to make us better citizens of the globe. I want to provide some tips from my many days on the road. It is my hope this transforms you from clueless tourist to world citizen.

**Learn the basic language – **The quickest and easiest way to make connections with people is to approach them with their native tongue. You will be surprised after being a few places how easy it is to pickup “Hello and Goodbye” and “Please and Thank You”

Field Marshal Nick

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:37:21 +0000

I always have thought personality tests were somewhat goofy and inaccurate. I took one this morning and it was scary right:

ENTJ – Commandant

The single word to describe your type is fieldmarshal or commandant. You also belong to the larger group called rationals. You love to organize others in matters of logic. Even as a child, you likely naturally assumed the role of leader in groups. You share your personality type with 2% of the population. When you lead, you are more concerned with policy and goals than rules and regulations. You have a tendency to become a workaholic. You are impatient with repetition of error. You are friendly and outgoing, though. You don’t mince words and willingly share your many strong opinions.

How NOT to Dispose of a LoveSac

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:12:03 +0000

The LoveSac or Oscars Bed

As a single bachelor living alone, I thought it prudent to purchase a 6′ LoveSac. Craigslist revealed a seller in the local area and using my buddy’s Blazer I headed out to get the thing. I am not sure people understand just how BIG a lovesac is. It took Bruce and I the better part of 30 minutes to get the thing from the Blazer into the house. All the while he is cracking jokes about touching my lovesac and how big it is. He is the older one for the record.

Left Facebook and “Why you should too”

Sun, 16 May 2010 05:40:30 +0000

The amount of banter on the topic is extensive, but there really are good reasons to leave Facebook. When I started dabbling in Social Networking back on the BBS days there was always a desire and reason for anonymity. It could have been for the illegal activities going on or for the fact people just didn’t want to over expose themselves. It was around the time AOL picked up some steam that sharing really became trendy. There were extensive pushes to kick AOL off the grid for the amount of anonymous data leaked from their pipes, but that was not enough to place controls on the system. As I joined sites like Friendster, Jaiku, etc. there were always controls in place for the amount of information I could share and what people could share about me. That layer of control allowed me to keep tabs on my personal identity and persona. I left MySpace and Hi5 since everyone told me “Facebook is way more secure,” but at the time I was unable to join due to no college affiliation. That changed and I joined…

Tourist in my Life

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:20:44 +0000

I love Parks and Recreation. What started as Office knockoff has really grown into its own. A clip on last week’s episode made me stop and go hmmmm….

What struck me is I hear some of those same things from my beloved friends and family. Deep down I know the missed holidays and dinners must make it appear that I am just leisurely exploring their lives. I am hoping that with the change in jobs that I will have the opportunity to be a part of this world and not simply a tourist.

Bearded Nick

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:13:46 +0000

Being a military brat and dude I really never had the chance to grow facial hair. This past holiday break, while not serving to provide the full 2 weeks as promised by my company, allowed for me to grow hair out. Limited folks showing up for work gave me the opportunity to really perfect that hacker look with jeans, funny geek shirt, and scruffy beard. As with trail-mix, eventually you are left with just cashews and I had to shave for work. What a great opportunity to not only attempt the beard, but even the goatee and mustache! Results below in chronological order and yes I was in the shower.

Decade in Review

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:47:41 +0000

2000-2009 A life in Nick

As I listen to all the decade review podcasts and read the looking back websites, I wanted to do the same. My website obviously will only be interesting to those to know me and useful for looking back in 2019 when the internet is piped directly into my brain. My goal is to do this in sections and bulleted form. This makes it quicker and frankly my brain thinks that way:

Weekend Update

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:24:49 +0000

What appears to be a world littered with twitter messages and facebook status message updates, I thought it appropriate to update those who care enough to read. I have neglected the communication I often share with everyone due to the constraints of time and sleep. Given the choice to ensure a rigid routine or talk to you all late into the night, I am selfish and choose sleep and eating. Sorry, just the caveman in us all.

Long Time

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:07:55 +0000

It has been awhile since I have posted here since work started blocking my website (BLOCKED FOR HACKING TUTORIALS – Seriously!) and I wanted to make sure I captured my current projects:

VMware ESX Cluster
Ubuntu 9.04 Bug Reports
Cross architecture compiling
Ducati! Thats it for now, expect some HOWTO on the stuff above here soon. Except for the Ducati part. The HOWTO is pretty simple, twist throttle and smile :)

The air I breathe

Sat, 31 May 2008 13:17:51 +0000

I have my chillout playlist on as I sit comfortably in the Sky Harbor Airport. Today I packed up all my things and put the mini cooper on the back of a truck. It is official, I am heading home. Home is such a groggy term for me lately and this situation only serves to expound upon that. It seems like a few days ago I first moved out here. Very few realized why I took the slot here for a quick move and in search of true honesty I am going to type it up.

I pushed for the move to AZ for a few months to get out of the small Alabama town where the memories hid. The house, despite me living alone there, was filled with memories of a past time I longed to forget. It wasn’t a painful memory that put me on the airplane that day, but rather the constant memory. In my life I have such a horrible habit of running away from situations that force me to admit weakness. Waking up in the morning directly following my Sign of the Cross is the mirror review. I do my best to puff my chest up high and put on the battle armor for the day. I relish the opportunity to display my manliness to the world abound. Admitting that there is a morning that I awaken and am scared to look in the mirror showcases the fact I fake the relishing.

Today I awoke from a bed in AZ, tonight I will lay myself upon a pillow in AL. While the flight is nothing new, the mentality I now posses in my head is totally different. I have learned that memories are just like the air we breathe, no matter how much air you suck in, air will always be here. To expound on that slightly, memories will always surround you. There will be times as you walk down the road and take a breathe that reminds you of a past time. What I learned over the past few months is that holding your breathe only forces you to take a deeper breathe when you release. Memories are nothing to hide from. Instead of forcing myself to run from the time I had so desired to forget I am now going to breathe it in. I have so much air to breathe…so much to learn…