Mr. and Mrs. Tommy and April Raffay
Mr. and Mrs. Tommy and April Raffay. These two got married on June 25th, 2005. I have pictures up on jason-moran.com now. Also, if you want to add more, you can go here to upload some of your own pictures to my website.  ¶ 8:44 AM 0 Comments

  Tommy and April and Batman How hot was this weekend? Walking around in a suit in 95 degree weather on Saturday almost did me in. Good thing you were worth it Tommy. I have a few pictures from the Raffay wedding up on my website. Anybody else can upload their original pictures there, too. I'll work on getting the full collection of pictures with comments on the site later this week. I also went and saw Batman Begins after going to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith last week. I'm pretty sure Batman Begins was the best movie I've seen this year. Kelly thought it was a little creepy, but it had everything I had hoped for: great character development, good action, decent drama-based story, believeable characters, and a tie-in to Batman 1 (the one with The Joker). It even explains how Batman's wings work and how he managed to get such a cool suit. Katie Holmes character could have been written a little better, but that mediocrity wasn't enough to affect how good the movie was overall.  ¶ 9:51 AM 4 Comments

  Just One Of Those Days... ...that a girl goes through. So, it's still pretty early in my day yet I can't wait for it to be over. Things are not going well at all. I have been living in my North Olmsted house for almost a year now. In that time I have been pulling out of the garage and quickly turning my wheel to get my car over to the right every day. This habit was formed because we usually have an old beater parked about 10 feet behind my car that I need to evade, and the driveway is actually 8 feet over to the right of where I park my car. Usually I click the garage opener button and hurry to my car. Before the garage door is even open I'm in my car and starting it up. I put it in reverse to the right, then about 5 seconds later I look behind me to see how much more/less I need to turn to the right.

So, today was no different. Well, except for the fact that for the first time ever Kelly parked her car directly into my reversing path. It was so strange that when I heard the crunching sound I didn't even hit my break because I had to look to see what it could possibly be before I decided to finally break. We just bought BOTH of these cars a couple of months ago. My car must be made out of some space age plastic, because I have no dents. Then again, some of my paint is missing and I have some of Kelly's paint on my car. Her car is definitely worse. I had to pull the metal (now pressing against her tire) out so that it was in the generally correct position. I pull some rubber lining and tried to mush it into the right spot. I took a step back and it didn't really look much better to me.

I wish I was done. Well, the next problem isn't quite as bad. I was driving in to work yelling at myself for doing the same thing I've done for 300+ days straight (and not changing my behavior to check for that car). Next thing I know I see my exit on the turnpike coming fast. I was in the speed lane, and I tried to get over, but there were 3 semi-trucks, a minivan, and a pickup who were all plotting against me. Dangit, I missed it. Then I start thinking...oh crap, this is the turnpike. I don't really know this area at all yet. Plus the exits are like 15 miles apart. Plus I'll owe more money at the next exit. This took me almost a minute at 60 MPH to work through. I suddenly decided to pull over. Next thing you know I'm in reverse at about 40 MPH trying to get back to my exit. I had to cross over an entrance ramp backwards and under a bridge which really didn't have any space on the side of the road for my car to be backing up.

Anyway, I'm finally here at work, but I just realized that I forgot to bring a lunch. I suppose I can go out for lunch, except that adds 45 minutes on to the length of my work day. Oh, by the way, I have to admit that Kelly asked me to pull her car into the garage last night. I told her not to worry, nothing would happen to her car just because it was sitting in the driveway instead of the garage.  ¶ 7:35 AM 10 Comments

  The Pros and Cons of Working With Computers I want to preface this by saying it is only natural for humans to network and to keep a few key people in your back pocket to bring out when you get into a jam. You might have a car buddy that will help you to fix your broken down car. You might have a plumber friend to help you when your house suddenly starts to flood. However, I work in the very wide open space that most people simply label "computers".

That giant region is where the real problem lies. What is it that I do with computers? Most people can't really pinpoint it because it is a bit out of their expertise. I am a computer programmer. What does a computer programmer do? I sit at a desk all day (unless I am in a meeting), I usually get to wear jeans or tennis shoes in to work, and I compose program code to make the computer do something of interest. I use compose because most people compare programming to a musical composer or an artist's mural. It is technical yet very artistic.

Anyway, how does programming have anything to do with answering these questions:
1. My computer is slow! Why am I asking you this question?
2. I need to install <<insert random hardware>>, can you help me?
3. I'm gonna upgrade <<insert random hardware>>, what is the best?
4. My network is all flaky! Can you figure out what is wrong?
5. My computer crashes every 7 minutes, what's the deal?
6. I have AIDS! (Well, some computer virus), holy crap!

How does a computer programmer know the answers to these questions? I don't know. It's like asking a bank teller what stock to invest in. Just because that person handles money doesn't mean they know how to invest your money to make large gains in the stock market. Also, I am proficient (read: barely okay) at graphic design. So, why do people ask me to make marketing websites with static content? That's like seeing a mechanic and asking him to race your Indy car. Sure, he could race it -- but he'd definitely not win and probably crash.

Anyway, most of you still don't know what I'm talking about, but I have heard one good piece of advice (thanks Andy): When somebody asks me (a programmer) to do something that is outside of my sphere of expertise I can kindly offer my free legal advice. No I am not a lawyer (IANAL for the 1337 speakers). Basically I don't know how to do what you are asking of me, so I might as well offer something else I don't really know about.

Anyway, I suppose I do know more than almost all of my friends, so I won't stop them from asking me questions. As long as they don't assume that I'm the supreme expert and they don't assume I will do it completely out of the goodness of my heart. Well, I might from time to time...but when you get asked to do this stuff as often as I do, you can't give it away for free every time.
  ¶ 7:40 AM 4 Comments

  30 Boring Things Everybody Knows About Me 1. I blog at jasonmoran.blogspot.com
2. I have all 10 toes
3. My name is Jason
4. I'm from Cleveland, OH
5. I'm married to Kelly
6. I am a hero
7. I read news for nerds at Slashdot
8. My website is www.jason-moran.com
9. I have friends that blog
10. I have an internet connection
11. I am a human being
12. My face contains a nose
13. I write in English

...well, I have 13 going on 30. It is really hard to come up with 30 things that everybody knows just by skimming over my blog. You know what? I think the 30 not boring things that you might not know about me list would be way more fun.

Oh, P.S., I got the upload portion of that little picture program working now. It also displays slightly smaller pictures, although you can click on them to get the high quality originals still.  ¶ 8:25 AM 7 Comments

  Camping Is Fun I like camping. Well, I think it depends on the definition you use for camping. I don't mean backpacking. I like the camping where they have flushable toilets and hot water showers and air mattresses. The trip I just went on this past weekend was one of those. It was what is becoming a fairly regular "couples camping" trip. I think we had something like 9 couples there with about half of the couples bringing their kids (the rest, if I wasn't clear, didn't have any kids to bring).

Besides being about 5 degrees too cold to swim we had perfect weather. Just warm enough to be comfortable yet cold enough to sleep okay at night. Thanks to Donna for planning out the weekend for us. My favorite moment was looking at the sidelines of the ultimate frisbee field and seeing a whole squadron of wives holding digital cameras to photograph their husbands huffing and puffing up and down the field. NERDS! Well, I don't know whether to call everybody nerds or just call the situation very cute.

I took some pictures and I know that most of the other people took plenty of pictures, too. I have set up a section of my website to host the FULL QUALITY original photographs. I programmed this page yesterday so that I could host full quality pictures and throw them on my website in a matter of minutes. This page will suck (load really slowly) unless you have a broadband internet connection. For now you can go to http://www.jason-moran.com/pictureShow to check out the existing pictures (and download them to print out yourselves) if you want to. The next step will be to add an upload button to the page. I want my friends to be able to add 5 or 6 of their favorite full-quality pictures to each of the categories. That way we can all share high-quality (printable) pictures with each other.  ¶ 12:03 PM 8 Comments

  What Face Do You Show People? Seriously, even to your best of friends, how much of you do they get to see? People don't necessarily want to see very much either, so I guess that's why you don't hear any complaining. As long as things can be dealt with, everybody puts on a cheerful face and throws that smile at everybody they run into. You don't always see the smile, but that's only when things are bad enough to spill over into regular interactions with people.

How many fights do you have with people that nobody else ever finds out about? Everybody has something really weird about them - and most people would prefer those pretty strange things to be kept a secret. Me? Here's one. When I'm sitting somewhere barefoot I curl my toes up and rest the weight of my legs on my toes. What about addictions? If you are addicted to something socially acceptable then things are alright. I wonder how many alcoholics go to church and won't even admit to most of the people there that they have ever touched a drop. It would be funny if a machine was invented to pull a rank out of your head from 1 to 1000 on how much you like somebody. Oh, it would pull out two numbers from 1 to 1000, one for how much you generally like somebody, and one for sexual attraction. Then, somebody took the machine and showed it to everybody so they could see what number you had assigned to them in your head. Well, those numbers would break down a bit due to the ladder theory, but that's neither here nor there.

Growing up Catholic I thought Catholics were terrible people. They are no different than any other religions. Oh man, how many people at any church, or even my own church have slept around? I seriously don't think it's like that one girl, or maybe those guys that only come to church to pick up chicks anyway. I bet you it's a major percentage...probably double digits. I almost know enough myself to make the percentage that high already.

Anyway, I usually try to wear my emotions on my sleeve and I don't change into a different person when I am among different crowds. I try to show my true self as much as possible, maybe even too much. Even then...you just don't get to see very much of me.  ¶ 9:40 PM 7 Comments

  Death By Blogging Blogging is already decaying my life force. I'm not even a week into this whole thing and my productivity at work has returned back to it's norm. No, norm is not a good thing. See, at most jobs I work hard until everything gets comfortable at which point I spend 1/3 of my time talking to others, 1/3 of my time playing games, and 1/3 of my time working. I'm already down to only spending a third of my time on work, and I haven't even played a single game in over two weeks (even at home!). To go from 4 hours of games a day to none is just crazy to me.

I've completely replaced gaming time with blogging. Between this site (my main one), the www.myspace.com/jasonmoran account I signed up for, and my original FaceBook account (only supported university students can sign up) - we are talking hours a day here. Not to mention the fact that I sit there and refresh every page and check everybody elses blogs about 12,000 times each day. Plus I find a new blog every day. You are simply not cool unless you go and sign up for a blog.
  ¶ 1:53 PM 2 Comments

  More On This Hero Business So, how weird is this? I received prayer today from a bunch of intercessors and among the things that were said is something that I find to have improbable timing. They said:

"You are to be a HERO to young people (especially those that don't quite fit in). I can see an S on your chest like Superman."

You know, that's the second time somebody prayed over me with the "S" on my chest like Superman concept. I wonder what it means to be a Superman in God's Kingdom?  ¶ 9:45 PM 8 Comments

  Jason, You're My Hero Turns out I'm a hero!

My little buddy TJ had to write a paper about his hero. He didn't want to do a ho-hum paper about somebody he didn't know like Superman, Michael Jordan, or MC Hammer. So, he decided to pick somebody he already knew to be his hero. Now, the classic/romantic pick is to have your grandpa or a parent be your hero. Once in a great while you will hear about a high school teacher/coach who had a huge impact on shaping a troubled youths future. I can only imagine in what terrible ways I have influenced TJ, but for whatever the reason he has chosen me as his hero and the topic of a college essay. Thanks TJ! I feel like that is quite a compliment.

As an aside, we played volleyball up at Baldwin Wallace last night with a bunch of people that are roughly in the 20 Somethings group (or at least age group). The last person to show was Curt Staver. About 2-3 games later we were ready to call it a night. Who was the dirtiest? I mean beyond compare, at least 10 times more dirty than anybody else? Curt Staver. That guy loves to play in the dirt. I had to drive his new truck back to his house with him in the back so he didn't leak mud all over the interior.  ¶ 7:37 AM 0 Comments

  JMDC Updated I have finally updated jason-moran.com. It was very long overdue. See, thing is, Kelly really digs spending time with me. I work and travel to and from said work, and that takes up most of my time. Outside of that I usually like to eat some sort of dinner. At night, not unlike many others, I sleep. I actually sleep at least 7 if not a full 8 hours each night. The extras that I regularly partake in are tanning and lifting at Bally's on many night of the week. At this point, I have something like 2.5 hours left before bed. I haven't even worked in yard/house work, events, weekly meetings (like church, alpha, homegroup, poker nights, etc). Needless to say, if Kelly and I even have enough time to pop in a movie before getting ready for bed then I consider that a full day.

Now, when am I supposed to do all of the things that I want to do? Not to sound too selfish, but I just plain like to do things. I like spending time "with the guys". I like video games. I like my personal space and time that I never get. I like messing around with my computer. I like updating my website and taking pictures and downloading cool stuff. Sure, I still get to do some of this stuff from time to time. It just doesn't seem like I ever have enough time to spend on the things I like. I'm also not complaining about Kelly. Kelly sometimes thinks that I would rather be doing any of those things than spending time with her. Not true. Ideally kelly would like to do maybe 10% of that stuff and we could share some time doing those things together. The thing is, I don't think she likes any of it. It makes it hard when everything that makes you happy makes your spouse not happy, because then (at least in my experience) you are also not happy.

I don't know, I'm just frustrated. I really need to figure out how to have a 27 hour day, because that would fix everything.
  ¶ 11:30 AM 11 Comments

 
The newly married Keith and Tabitha Bandi  ¶ 8:36 AM 1 Comments

  Keith and Tab's Wedding Keith and Tabitha were wed to one another on May 28, 2005. The whole day was elegant and joyful, and I will be the first to say that I had a great time. It was one of those currently rare sparky moments in which pure fun and energy flows though my veins. I find that I have more sparky days the more in shape I become and the less sleep I have. It's some sort of inverse function of BMI (body mass index) and hours of sleep. Anyway, I have finally posted the pictures of the Bandi wedding which can be found on the jason-moran.com website. Follow this link to get to Keith and Tab's pictures.
  ¶ 8:33 AM 0 Comments

  My First Post I have been waiting and waiting for a non-nerd friend of mine to get their own blog. I told myself that I was not a natural blogger, yet I could not call myself a nerd without finally creating my own blog. So, finally, now that Angela has created her own blog, I can sign up for a blog. The only surprise is that I have decided to use Google's blogger instead of my long time favorite LiveJournal.

Anyway, I'm sure this will be yet another fad for me. In another 6 months I'll be posting useless news about once a month.  ¶ 8:30 AM 6 Comments