Troy Alford's Blog

Vision...

Troy Alford — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:14:00 EST

Today was one of the most enjoyable days I've ever had at "work." My whole team came in for our first monthly counseling - an opportunity to talk to each individual employee about what their job entails on a day-to-day basis, what they like, what they don't, what training opportunities there are available to them, where the expansion of the company and the department might provide avenues of growth and so on. Every person I talked to was energetic, excited, eager to be here and really positive about the atmosphere and the working environment. I've never felt so uplifted at work - in a management role or otherwise. What a great group of guys I have... We also went out to lunch together, as a group, on the company (Pizzeria Uno rocks) and then had a departmental meeting talking about the 10-year plan of the business and what it means for everyone. Immensely positive, and great feedback. I love my job. :)

Long Time No Write!

Troy Alford — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:28:05 EST

A lot to report since my last update... Greatly enjoying the new job that I wrote about in my last post. It is very different from what I was doing previously - 90% of my time or more is spent on managerial tasks now (budgeting, planning, employee issues, purchasing, etc) whereas I previously spent over 90% of my time writing code. I can't say I am disappointed in the change. :) My team is wonderful. I really enjoy working with everyone in the department. Not only did I fall in on a couple of really good employees, I've since had the joy of being able to add 3 more - all of whom are a pleasure to work with, but are also very capable in their knowledge and ability. In addition to the changes to the actual team itself, we've started working on an in-house software platform that will totally revolutionize our business. No more paper files, no more spreadsheets - once we implement our solution for the company, we'll be completely digital, online and interactive - and that's just the starting point. It's the most enjoyable, most broadly scoped project I've ever worked on, and I really love the challenge of putting together so many moving parts. On the down-side... I came across this clip on the web earlier today, and it's sad how true it is. :( That is, in the end, a huge factor in why I enjoy my work so much. Our company is focused on truly changing the bottom-line for the salt of the earth, and that is very noble in my mind. I really enjoy knowing that every day our recommendations and assistance help improve the quality of life for farmers across the country. Anyway... /rant off I am going to resolve myself to actually get the other portions of this site working again soon. I want to post my pictures... I'm sadly behind on making a new graphic each week... I want to get back on-schedule with that creative portion of my time. I've spent far too many weeks playing World of Warcraft - it's time to do something more useful with my free time. :)

New Office, New Job!

Troy Alford — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:55:34 EST

So... I haven't been writing here as much as I had intended. It is time to fix that. :) I am, in fact, writing this post from my new office! As of the 1st of January, 2008, I have taken over as the Director of Information Technology for Agri-Business Solutions. :) This promotion comes with not only a nice pay raise, but also the joy of my own office, a company laptop and the ability to make departmental level decisions regarding computer hardware, software and personnel. :D So here I sit, enjoying my new office - and finally having a relaxing day of mostly downtime - unlike the past week and a half, which has been full of madness in preparation of a product launch. I had never had the true appreciation for the struggles of upper management until I was given the opportunity to experience them myself. I now understand. :) On another note... I had an absolutely wonderful trip to California over the holidays. Spent Christmas with my mom, travelling around the San Francisco area and seeing the sights - and then flew down to San Diego to hang out with my buddy Chris for New years. Great people. :) More soon, when I find the time. :)

PS3 Goodness!

Troy Alford — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:28:07 EST

So, I finally took the plunge. :) I bought myself a PS3. Grandma sent me a $100.00 money order for X-Mas, and a note that said "I never know what to get you kids, so I'm sending money. Use this for that present you've been wanting for a while but wouldn't normally spend your own money on." ... I read that, and immediately thought of how many times I've said "I'd just buy a PS3 if it were about $100.00 cheaper..." Well :) that money order made it so - and now it's sitting next to my TV in my living room. ;) That said... here are the things I love about my PS3 SO far. :D

Wireless Controllers!
It plays my copied DVDs!
NINJA GAIDEN Σ
Mortal #*$&ing Kombat!!!
It has the same awesome, simple, intuitive interface as the PSP
It can act as a media server once it's connected to my network! :D
I can play things like Mortal Kombat ONLINE :D :D

Srsly! Go bai nao! Best system evarrrrr!!!

New Wiki :)

Troy Alford — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:17:09 EST

After much time and effort trying to track my current RPG sessions using pencil and paper - and much frustration trying to flip pages to find a specific detail about an NPC, or a piece of information about an item, I finally bit the bullet and computerized the game. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a free online tool for exactly this purpose, and just spent something like 7 hours adding all of my current game notes into my new Wiki site at ObsidianPortal.com. Over the next few days, I will continue to add more information into this incredible resource. I am really excited to have a place to log all of the creative juice that I've been putting out for this game... sometimes it really seems like a lot gets wasted due to a lack of recording notes and things. Once I get the system down, I think I am going to suggest this method to all of my gamer friends. :) Then we can all give a big [finger] to pencils and paper forever! :P

Life, love and the pursuit of happiness...

Troy Alford — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:04:40 EST

Well... what's the point of having a blog, if you don't really write about anything? Tonight I decided to truly stop the yo-yo with Tiffany. After several months of knowing her, I think she's a wonderful girl, but that we're just not right for each other. As I look back at it now, I think that we've both always known that... we just don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. There are ways that I want to be treated that are foreign to her - and I'm sure the same is true in reverse. Still... after several months of being very close and intimate, it feels strange to just pull away now. On the other hand, I've had several really good dates recently. A very sweet girl named Prairie and I went to a movie together a few weeks ago, this past week I took a pretty engineer named Jess out to Rizzi's, and this weekend I am looking forward to seafood with Rhonda. All of it has been very nice, and it feels good to be back in the dating scene, meeting people and trying new things. ... Something serious has been bothering me for a while now, and I'm not sure what to do about it. When I left the Army, I had told myself that if I kept anything that I had learned, it would be to take life slowly and not stress about little things... but it seems like the more I get back into civilian life, the more I find myself feeling stressed. My problem is that I don't even really know where the stress is coming from. My job is great, the people I work with are wonderful, the friends I've made are awesome... I love my apartment, my car, my new furniture, etc... but - it feels like something is missing. It feels like there's something in my life that just... isn't. I thought for a while that it was a business of some sort... and I threw myself into BookWise - which I still think is a great company, and an incredible opportunity... but, I find myself burning out on it. Maybe that's a personal failing... but it's also the truth. It feels like I'm constantly in it by myself... that I don't get support from the other people I try to involve in those kinds of ventures, and then I wind up getting discouraged and moving on to something else. I think what it really is that's missing is a partner... and - I don't say that from the standpoint of loneliness, because honestly, I don't feel lonely. What I do feel is afraid - that I'm falling back into old patterns of introversion and apathy. I want a partner who can keep me motivated, like I want to keep her motivated. Someone to just spend the day with, and not feel like that time is being wasted, you know? Maybe one of these beautiful women I'm taking out will become that. I sure hope so. We shall see. For the moment, though, it's 3:10am, and time for bed. Night night.

A new look soon...

Troy Alford — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:33:38 EST

I am in the process of integrating some of the controls from the obout control suite into the site. http://www.obout.com Not only are their controls great, both in appearance and functionality - but they also offer them at no cost to low-budget projects (like this one, which I don't profit from at all). :) Seems like a good deal to me. ;)

New Icons and more!

Troy Alford — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:59:14 EST

Hehe... I just added these 4 icons, and rewrote a bit of the code that does my icon displays... and thought I would share them. ;) [grab][rock][point] and my personal favorite... [finger] I also rewrote a huge portion of the Code Examples page, adding a transparency effect, fixing the scrolling, adding edit ability, reworking the display, etc. Lots of progress tonight. :) Resized all of the pages so that they work on screens as small as 1024x768, too! Backwards compatability ftw!! I think I'm going to remove the "Log In" form from the front page, and then go to bed. Goodnight. :)

Emoticons!

Troy Alford — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:32:16 EST

Tonight, I added emoticons to the site. :) I think they're really cute... and I am sure that over time, I will again start to add a number more of them. In the original iteration of this website, I had a hundred or more... things like chickens and ducks and bowling balls - all sorts of funky little icons. I loved them. :) Unfortunately, that version is likely long since gone... and I don't think I even have any copies anymore - so my icon library will take some time to rebuild. I also added an RSS feed tonight - which has been a goal for a while. It was surprisingly simple to do, too! ^.^ Not that I necessarily think anyone will ever use it... but - it's there, in case they do. Now that I actually have a blogger going, too - I think it's about time that I start actually writing in it... ...unfortunately - now that I've said that, I really don't seem to have anything to say... so - I guess I'll have to put some thought into it, and update soon. Also - if you're the type who really loves me, don't forget to look at my Christmas List which I'll be keeping up-to-date. ;)

Christmas List

Troy Alford — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:35:45 EST

I keep thinking of things that I might like for Christmas - and then they just kindof disappear out of my head... so - I've decided that I'm going to make a list here in this blog post. If anyone out there is interested in getting me something for X-Mas - here are some things I'd like. :)

Invader Zim (any season - on DVD) <3

Grey's Anatomy (any season - on DVD) [cd]

Ninja Gaiden for PS3 (if I had the game, I might buy the PS3) :D