Leaving a legacy is the thing that I think so many people miss. Most folks think that you need money to leave a legacy so that folks will notice. I say that if your actions are such that of a servant leading others, then your legacy will be all the more true.

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The other day I popped on Facebook and noticed in the stream of thoughts that are displayed something in Shannon Bray's postings that caught my eye. For those of you that don't know Shannon, he's a thoughtful guy that's darn sharp in the SharePoint field. What he shared was something that definitely hit home for me - the Wounded Warrior Project.

While I won't get into details of how it relates to me, I cannot stress enough how much we owe to our wounded warriors. The Wounded Warrior Project is definitely an organization that has well intentions and works to help those that have given so much for us as Americans in terms of our freedoms and liberties.

I urge you as Americans to do the right thing and support our Wounded Warriors through either the WWP financially or with your time through volunteering at one of the numerous events throughout the country. They have given on our behalf so selflessly, why is it that we find it so hard to give back something to them?

Take a moment and check out the WWP web site and consider how you can support...

The Wounded Warrior Project - http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

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This afternoon I met up with my buddy Joel and introduced him to one of my favorites, Eggspectations. Definitely fun times to catch up on life from the past few months and exchange a few laughs. When we excited though I had to smile when I saw the car converted reindeer parked near Joel. :)

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So first impressions, it's definitely decent and the barista even served it up in a snazzy mug instead of just a paper cup. How's that for finesse?

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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Do you ever wonder about how our lives get so convoluted with different activities, projects that we volunteer to help out with, relationships, family, mud? Well, there's only one way to get through it all - cleaning up :)

Nevertheless, like other aspects of life, there always seems to be a catch - something that prevents us from keeping life in perfect working order (and if everything is in perfect working order, man your life has gotta be boring... try some espresso roast coffee to liven things up ;)). So I encourage you - start cleaning up on a regular basis, not just once a month.

The mantra doesn't stop with cleaning though, keeping your skills in tune through regular practice - definitely key. Exercise, another great area - you can't just throw yourself back into the gym after not having been there for weeks or you'll end up with tendanitis or something like that ;)

Take care, live it up and get soapy!

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Have you ever had one of those days where you just shrug your shoulders and can only laugh? Well, I had one of those moments a few weeks ago when I received a package from Despair.com. Yes, I know that the title of the site is well, despairing, but it's hilarious with their "demotivator" posters and what not. Well, outside of the awesome poster and postcards, they have mugs that you can order that are imprinted with one of their demotivational ideas.  So when I received my package I was stoked and excited about my "Quality" demotivational mug.

The mug came nicely wrapped in bubble wrap, but there didn't seem to be much padding in the box that was a bit larger than the mug... well, apparently it bounced around quite a bit and the handle broke in transit. After sending a tweet to the Despair Twitter account and an e-mail with a link to the picture of the mug above on Flickr, they had a new mug on the way - this time it came actually intact.

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So back in May of 2004, I bought a brand spanking new Nissan Maxima SE. It had 79 miles on it from test drives and having been transferred from Maryland. I felt this appropriate since I like the number 79.

Over the past 7 years, I've driven this car as far west as St. Louis, Missouri; as far south as Tampa Bay, Florida; and as far north as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; as far east as Chincoteague Island, Virginia. It's been a trusty car, protecting me from pot holes that were the size of small craters, from snow, sleet, ice and hail, keeping me cool all the while ('cept for last Summer when the condenser had to be replaced).

Nevertheless, she's passed the threshold of 140k miles this week - most people are probably wondering why I've held onto this car this long. All I can really say is that it's been a quality vehicle and there's been no reason to get rid of it - besides do I really want to have a car payment?

So the question now is, do I replace her, keep her driving to 200k and re-evaluate or do I ride her til the wheels fall off? Thoughts? recommendations?

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So over the past few months there have been a few items that I find myself taking everywhere with me.

The first of which is an Atlanta Braves fitted baseball cap. Yes, that's right, I'm a Braves fan... I miss the likes of John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Tom Glavine, but still follow them regularly - so much that I even have an mlb.tv account to replay games in the evening when reading or out and about.

The second item, my "Remove before flying" tag that I keep handy.  Yes, I know, I'm not someone that you would think would be carrying this... anyway I acquired it from the Air and Space Museum, Dulles extension where they have tons of aircraft (including an SR71 and a Space Shuttle). It comes in quite handy at times as something to chat about.

Lastly, my trusty LegoMan LED flashlight.  Where'd he come from you ask? Well, my buddy @joelsef had one that was a few years older that I decided I would imitate because it reminds me to be a kid at heart and not let myself get disuaded by the realities of life that tend to cause us to not be innovative or creative.

So what do these things mean to me? They remind me that life is about interacting and enjoying one another's company - not just about being the top dog in a technical field or having the most resources. They also bring me back down to earth and remind me to have fun :)

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I keep reminding myself that somewhere out there, there are palm trees
and it's sunny (and I'm wearing sunscreen) and there's a gently breeze
to keep us nice and cool... alas, for the time being I suppose I'll
just have to look at the pretty trees that appear hear and there
randomly.
For anyone wondering it's been a dreary day in Virginia which is unfortunate :-/
Seriously though, it's Spring time and the sun is out, it's time to be
like every other human being and get some vitamin D induced by
sunlight! (but be sure to wear sunscreen!)

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So on various occassions, individuals that I work with as well as friends tend to ask the question, "When do you sleep Dan?"  And I really only have one answer - "The weekends"

This seems similar to Rob Lowe in the movie Thank you for Smoking when he's asked, "When is it you sleep Jeff?" and he merely replies, "Sunday"

Why is it that I tend to sleep such odd hours? Good question, I'm still trying to figure that out - I personally blame it on my heart wanting to move to Tasmania :)

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So I told myself earlier this year that I needed to slow down and stop letting life slide by... and I figured that one good way would be to start sharing little tid bits of the world that I live in.

So earlier today, whilst wandering about the neighborhood, it caught me off guard but it dawned on me that we've pushed through a few months in this year already - I wonder how many folks have kept their new years resolutions at this point... Nevertheless, looking about, it made my chuckle a bit in that there are petals everywhere! Fortunately the pollen hasn't started coating the car but I'm gonna guess later this month there will be a definite need for keeping the car cleaning...

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So it's a Sunday evening and I'm looking for a little something to perk up my listening comprehension skills while working on some mindless technical configurations... so I wander over to Amazon's MP3 store for a little entertainment. The first thing that comes to my mind... The Firesign Theatre's "I think we're all bozos on this bus" radio theatre.  Mind you that the last time I checked it was available only on LP... well Amazon has done it once more in conjunction with Sony and released the MP3s for this.

The quality is in stereo! I don't remember listening to this in stereo on my Sony Walkman years and years ago... perhaps I just hadn't recorded it through a stereo cable from the record player. Nonetheless, looking at the page on Amazon's MP3 store, it made me scratch my head seeing that the album was $9.99 or... $0.99 for each MP3... note that there are only two tracks on this album so the total cost is... $2. :)

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So several years ago I bought a 24" widescreen Dell monitor refurbished... about a year ago I decided that I'd add to it and get a second 24" monitor... also refurbished. Both great monitors, no dead pixels whatsoever. The only issue that I've run into, the WPF2407 doesn't have a DisplayPort, so I'm stuck with good old DVI whereas the WPF2408 is pretty sweet with DisplayPort.

While the monitors are basically identical, the monitors stands aren't quite the same - close, but not perfect. So what can you do to perfect things and get your monitors are on the same level? Introduce the Planar AS2 - http://go.usher.cc/ik9DlG. It's quite sweet to have the monitors level and actually higher than the stands that are provided for by Dell. If you're looking for a mount for two monitors that are 24" or less, definitely consider the Planar - worth the money, easy to put together, solid and sturdy. Now to find the perfect chair...

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So while I realize that it's the ninth of April and the average
temperatures are a little bit warmer, I have to say that I don't
really mind the gentle bite to the air. Yes, that's right, I don't
mind it being 51 degrees outside - quite a bit nicer than the
sweltering heat of the dog days of Summer where I wonder if the air
conditioning of my car will actually cool the car down or not.

Anyway, a few days ago we had some wicked thunderstorms press through
the overnight... the blossoms from the trees in the neighborhood
decide that they wanted to "spread their wings" and there remnants of
the petals seem to be all over everything. Needless to say it's nice
to see "life" starting to return after yet another bleak Winter - just
have to hope that the pollen doesn't knock me down too much this year.

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Even better are some of the guys that are here really "impressing the ladies" with their amazing language and life stories.

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