Ducks!

Posted on May 3, 2014 by David

I know out in the country it is not uncommon to have animals up on your roof. Chickens, roosters, even the occasional dog gets up there. I however don’t believe it is that common for an animal to be on your roof in the city.

Now let’s be honest when Ashley and I don’t have to work on Saturdays we like to sleep in a little late. Like we’re shooting for 8:30 or later to get out of bed. Well today that didn’t work out so well as we were awoken by a strange sound from outside.

As anyone who has met my wife knows Ashley has a big heart and a special place in said heart for animals. Especially hurt animals. Earlier this week she heard a duck and looked out to see that there was a mallard with a hurt foot hobbling around with his mate. A little background on this pair, we’ve seen them in the cul de sac before and like having them around. So when Ashley saw that the mallard was hurt she wanted to help him. After calling animal control they told her she would have to catch the duck before they could help.

Well she certainly tried. She spent half an hour trying to trap our fowl friend for fixing. She chased him all the way to the senior living center where there is a pond that we’re pretty sure they and their flying friends reside. This was Monday or Tuesday.

So back to Saturday. We’re laying in bed and we start to hear our feathered friends. I’m thinking that they are down by the creek and just being loud. We keep listening and both of us were amazed at how close these ducks sounded. We finally decided to get up and see what was causing theses ducks to be so fussy. Ashley looked out the bedroom window down toward the creek and I looked out our little decorative window that leads to the office. I then told Ashley to bring me my phone NOW! This is why…

He was up on our roof! No wonder we had been woken up. We don’t need roosters in the city when we’ve got our water fowl. Ashley and I were both amazed and quite surprised. I have to believe he was taunting her saying “Come on, try and catch me now. I’m up on your roof and there is NOTHING you can do about it! Who’s all quacked up now,huh?”

Nov 4th. Kiva, what is it and why do I support it.

Posted on November 4, 2013 by David

If you have followed me on twitter or facebook for a while you may have seen one of my invites to join Kiva. I found Kiva late in 2011. I can’t remember quite what I had been searching for but I remember seeing something on twitter about micro-finance and how it was helping change the lives for the poor in astounding ways. I took that opportunity to check it out and I’m glad I did.

Kiva was founded in 2005 by Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley. This little site setup to allow people to loan $25 or more to a person halfway around the world has grown from $3500 in loans to almost half a billion dollars in loans now in 2013. There are more than 1 million users on Kiva and the repayment rate is amazing. 99.00% of loans made are repaid in full. I can vouch for this aspect of loaning. I have had a 99.95% repayment rate in my experience and that 0.05% loss was due to currency exchange.

While numbers are all well and good the way that Kiva stands out is the way they make the loaning process personal. Each person applying for a loan tells a bit about their personal story and why they are applying for the loan. A builder in Peru may be taking out a loan to by more materials to help finish a project. A woman in Kenya might want a loan to buy more goods to sell at her shop so she can help her children go to school. A young man in Thailand could take out a loan to buy parts to fix his motorcycle so he can deliver goods. There are all sorts of reasons people request loans on Kiva. One thing seems to stay the same though. Everyone is looking for a hand up not a hand out.

I have made over 80 loans on Kiva now and I can say that it seems like everyone I have lent to is absolutely hardworking. If you’re interested in finding out more about Kiva click here and if you’d like to get started loaning with me go here. Kiva will even let you make your first loan for free. What are you waiting for? Go out there and change the world.

-David

P.S. – Did I mention that Kiva is a Charity Navigator 4 Star non–profit? That is the highest rating and means you can trust they are working to accomplish their goals.

Nov 2. The Joys of On Call

Posted on November 2, 2013 by David

There are many jobs out in the workforce that require you to be always available. Being a network engineer is often one of those jobs. Thankfully for me it is only once every 8 weeks now that I have to be ready and able to go fix an issue that arises.

When I first started into the I.T. field I thought being ‘On Call’ would be this awesome experience that would help me grow as a technician and engineer. I’d be out at all hours of the night fixing the problems that others didn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t. I would come to the customer’s rescue and their internet or networking problems would be solved by my cunning reasoning and technical prowess. I’d be the hero of the day.

Turns out that being ‘On Call’ was and is not really quite like that vision I had as a young engineer. For probably 4 or so years now I have been part of a rotation at our office to be the ‘On Call’ tech for the week. The number of people in the rotation has fluctuated being as low as 4 at one point and as high as 8 or 10. We would each take a week and answer any after hours calls or questions that came up from the phone techs who work the later and/or weekend shift. Usually the calls and pages from our monitoring equipment would stay pretty low in good weather, as the majority of our calls came from weather related damage to gear or the electrical grid. If weather turned ugly though expect a high amount of calls and possible dispatches.

In recent memory I’ve had an on call shift that was anything but pleasant. A rather nasty storm rolled into Kentucky that caused quite a bit of wind and rain but also caused some issues with the local power grid. Now being ‘On Call’ I have always wanted to get the customers service back up and working as soon as possible but I can only fix equipment that I am capable of fixing. Lexington’s power grid in a storm is not one. That storm however caused enough other headaches for me that I did have to solve. There were around 7 or 8 customers that were down because of the storm and a Point of Presence with at least a 2 or 3 more that didn’t seem to want to transfer data out a backup link.

After going around to the different sites and finally re-routing traffic for our PoP when I got to the office that Tuesday I already had around 24 hours posted for the week. Now I would like to say I fixed all the customer issues by myself and that I didn’t require anyone’s assistance. That would be a lie. I had help from several members of our wireless team, one of which stayed out till 10:30 on a Saturday night to help me fix an issue. The truth about being ‘On Call’ is that while you will be the first person to answer the phone and start working on the issue you don’t have to know everything about everything. Knowing who to go to for help is one of the most important aspects of being ‘On Call’.

B.E.D.I.N Begins Now!

Posted on November 1, 2013 by David

“What is B.E.D.I.N?” you ask. Well it is Blog Every Day In November. It’s not quite got the ring that NaNoWriMo has but it’s close. I am going to try to blog every day in November, hopefully on a different topic each day.

I am hoping that I keep blogging more after November but we will see what happens.

There are going to be plenty of topics this month from things I want to do one day to the causes I support to random musings.

Today is just the start so check back each day and hopefully there will be a new interesting topic for you to discover! 😀

Our charity:water September campaign update

Posted on September 29, 2013 by David

With September coming to a close the chance to be part of the charity:water September campaign is also running out. Charity: water has chosen India as the country this year to partner with to bring clean water to the people there. Ashley and I have committed to help provide water to at least one family and we’re asking our friends and family to help us support a second family.

Right now we are about half way there. The chance to get onboard with a fundraiser for the September campaign may be ending but the chance to help us bring water to India runs till the end of the year. So if you want to help us and charity:water bring water to the people of India here is your chance. If you want to stat your own campaign here you go.

Thank you so much for helping us bring water to those in need.

My Ashley

Posted on September 8, 2013 by David

My wife mentioned something to me the other day that I found a bit surprising. She told me that the last post was the first time I had mentioned her in the blog. It turns out I had mentioned her once before but it was in passing so this post I’d like to tell you a bit about my wife.

This is my Ashley…

We have been married for a year now and let me tell you she is awesome! I can laugh with her and talk about serious matters and just be myself with her. I haven’t been able to do that with anybody else. She makes me smile when I’m down and listens to me rant when I’ve had a bad day at work. She jokes with me and cuts up on a regular basis. She cooks dinner with me and will sit and watch sometimes as I play video games. She is just awesome to be around.

On top of that she is beautiful! She has this wonderful red hair that I absolutely love. She had it very long for a while so she could donate it to a charity that makes wigs for people who have lost their hair do to chemotherapy.

She cut off her hair shortly after the wedding and it looks just as awesome. She’s also got these amazing green eyes that I could gaze into for hours. And if you have met my Ashley you know that she has a smile that can light up any room.

She’s willing to talk psychology with me, the field she graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelors of Science in last December I might add. I’m proud of her for sticking through it and passing her classes. She’s willing to talk politics with me from time to time and she keeps me in check when I go overboard a bit.

But all of these things pale in comparison to her compassion. If you know my Ashley you know she is one of the most tender hearted people you will ever meet. She cares for all sorts of things from plants to animals, but the thing she cares about most is people. God put in her a bit of Himself in her compassion for the hurting and oppressed. What she really wants to do in life is help people. She just hasn’t decided how best to do that as a career yet.

God has really blessed me with a wife like Ashley. I don’t think one could fine a better partner in life for me. Here’s to many more years together with the love of my life!

Water for India

Posted on August 25, 2013 by David

September is here! It is my favorite month. It is my favorite month for many reasons, not the least of which is my birthday. This September I also get to celebrate my first wedding anniversary with my beautiful wife Ashley. 😀

September is also a start month for many activities. Football season usually starts in the beginning of the month. And what is football without half time and marching band. Brings back too many memories to name.

September also starts a fundraiser each year for a non-profit that I have had the honor of partnering with for several years. That non-profit is charity:water. charity:water started as a birthday idea for/from Scott Harrison, the founder. He and I share the same birthday, September 7th (though a few years apart). Every year charity:water kicks off a campaign to raise founds for a certain area of the world.

This year to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary Ashley and I are partnering with charity:water again to bring water to India. For $450 water can be brought to one family in the Indian region of Orissa. Ashley and I are committing to sponsor 1 family. We’re asking our friends and family to help us sponsor a second. Together we can bring clean water to 2 families. Here is the link to the charity:water site where you can learn more, and you can see our campaign here.

I’ll be updating more as the month goes by. Thanks for stoping by and thanks for helping to make the world a better place. As John and Hank Green say DFTBA!

A new little lamp

Posted on June 3, 2013 by David

As my wife and I have been looking at furniture for the new house we’ve been to a lot of different stores. We’ve seen lots of expensive items and several cheap ones too. There have been a lot of stores that had stuff that was just way to modern or post modern for my taste.

However we did stumble upon a lamp that seemed interesting. It was made out of iron pipe and was a nice sturdy desk lamp. Unfortunately the store wanted something like $150 for it and we don’t usually like spending that kind of money on a lamp.

Thankfully though my wife works at a hardware store. I told her I could build that lamp for less then what the store was asking. This was Saturday that I told her this and by Sunday I was convinced that I could make a more illuminating piece.

We ventured off to Lowe’s and an hour and a half later emerged with a bag full of fittings and pipe. Once home I cleared off the table and got to work.

After fiddling with everything for an hour I had to run back to Lowe’s for another piece of pipe. Once back we realized that there was no electrical tape to be found in the apartment. Another quick trip to Walmart for electrical tape and crazy glue and within a half hour I had a completed new lamp.

There may be some modifications to the design in the future. Currently there is no on/off switch. It is just plug in and let there e light. Also the bulb I got for it is brighter than maybe necessary so that may be toned down a bit in the future.

All in all though I think it is a nice little lamp for much cheaper than if I had bought it new. Plus this has my own design in its creation and not something that anyone can just go buy from a store. A more unique piece if you will.

T-615 Fashion Show

Posted on May 3, 2013 by David

Emily and Lauren the founders.

The BRANDED bracelets.

Chris and Lauren rocking their T’s.

Some info about our presenters.

The Wilberforce shirt.

Now for the male models.

The first models.

Lauren and Emily starting us off.

Here’s where you can get updates on the fashion show tonight. Some music by Sydney Cubit to start.

Some new work on the site

Posted on May 3, 2013 by David

So today I’ve been doing some work on the site here. Not a lot just trying to get everything to post here on the site and link to both Twitter and Facebook. You would think that working for an Internet Service Provider I’d be able to get this solved in no time. Well we will see if that is the case. I’m hoping to post more often and might end up disabling the Facebook and Twitter integration after a while if it turns out to be really annoying. Anyway off to the T-615 show shortly 🙂

DRBlanton.com

My little site…

Ducks!

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Nov 4th. Kiva, what is it and why do I support it.

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Nov 2. The Joys of On Call

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B.E.D.I.N Begins Now!

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Our charity:water September campaign update

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My Ashley

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Water for India

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A new little lamp

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T-615 Fashion Show

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Some new work on the site

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