A New Beginning
Once again it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. The reason for this is pretty simple, it could be described as a complete life upheaval.
Over the last few months I've been caught in a huge internal strife over where I wanted to go with my life. With the failure of the dbXML Group I found myself completely lacking in any desire to work for somebody else again. There are just too many compromises that must be made and I've worked for far too many people who are just incompetent.
As a consequence of this I decided to make what is easily the most dramatic alteration in my life ever. I've ended up returning to school with the ultimate goal of obtaining a PhD in computer science. At the same time I'm also starting my own consulting business. The result of this has been the loss of just about everything that had kept me going for the last seven years. My Girlfriend of seven years and I broke up, our house is going up for sale, my dogs are staying with her, I've moved to Tucson and have now shifted into the mentality of being poor.
Oddly, despite the complete upheaval in my life, I'm happier then I've been in several years. My (now ex) girlfriend Patty and I were always better friends then we were lovers and fortunately that friendship still exists. I was unhappy with things, she was unhappy with things and those who knew me were not at all surprised by this event. The strain of my indecision about my life was just too much, and once the decision was made it was clear our paths were going to diverge.
Sadly the most painful loss for me is my dogs. I have two dogs a golden retriever named Faust and a black labrador named Bartok. Patty also has a beagle named Joplin. In a lot of ways I think the dogs were what held us together as long as we were. They were like kids to us and our lives really reflected that. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring the dogs with me and they're staying in Scottsdale with Patty for the time being. Faust and Bartok were truly my best friends and I miss them even if they could be annoying at times. The current plan is for me to move again in six months or so that I can at least bring one of them down. Not sure if that will happen or not.
Anyway, all of this is done now and it's time to try to get back on track with what is effectively a new life. As such I'm renaming this site again and removing the focus on technology. Of course my main interest is still technology so who knows if I'll ever write about much else, but I wanted a new name.
The new name Bright Eyed Mister Zen is inspired by the name of an album by Kelly Joe Phelps (KJP). If you've never heard of him and like the blues or acoustic music you should definitely check him out. He's about the most phenomenal slide guitar player I've ever heard and his overall artistry is amazing. There's just something magical that can only be obtained by a single person accompanying them self on guitar. Anyway, the name of the album is Shine Eyed Mister Zen and KJP explains what he meant by it on his site. For me the concept of building walls is not what I want, I've done that enough already. I want to break down the walls and look outward to see what can be found in the world while simultaneously looking inward to attain enlightenment through introspection. So for me Bright Eyed Mister Zen means a search for mastery in life through deep introspection and a broad world view. This meshes well with my increased focus on original research and general quest for knowledge.
5:20:51 PM 
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Xindice (Formally dbXML)
