PERSONAL 520

SPIRITUAL 416

LDS 312

BOOK OF MORMON 237

SCRIPTURES 154

STUDIO-JOURNEY 129

RELIGION 112

LINUX 79

COMPUTERS 65

LIFE 60

GENERAL CONFERENCE 46

GENTOO 39

MISCELLANEOUS 37

MUSIC 37

PROGRAMMING 33

CARS 29

MICROSOFT 23

FAMILY 23

AUDIO 21

I LOVE MY JOURNAL 18

FUN 15

CHILDREN 12

CURRENT EVENTS 10

NATURE'S WAY 10

VIDEO 9

DRM 9

CONEXM 7

BABBLINGS 7

PROVO CITY CENTER TEMPLE 6

FRIENDS 6

HEROD THE FINK 5

GAMES 5

COMPUTER HARDWARE 5

DRUMS 4

HAND OF GOD 3

ADVERSITY 3

KDENLIVE 3

AUDIO HARDWARE 3

GENERAL INSANITY 3

STUDIO 3

THANKS4GIVING 2

CATS 2

MY JOURNAL 1

POETRY 1

FOREVERGREEN 1

EVERYDAY THOUGHTS 1

GOSPEL 1

PARENTING 1

YOUTH CONFERENCE 1

CHURCH NOTES 1

POLITICS 1

Okay...  Wow..  A pretty huge amount of stuff has been going on.  I've been writing about it in my personal journal, but some of the stuff shouldn't be public, so I'm writing this as a supplement for those who care.

Man...  Where do I even begin.  Awhile back, I posted a couple of private entries about an interview I had with a couple of guys starting up their own Internet-based company, and they were interested in bringing me on board.  Holy cow.  Things have definitely progressed since then.

To start, the business model of this company (the company is called Conexm) is amazing - the people running it seem very cool, hard-working, interesting, movtivated, and moral people.  It doesn't get any better than that...

Well, yes, actually it does.

You see, I've worked for "small businesses" before, and it seems like everything about this new company isn't small.  It's hard to describe with words, but the experience the owner has, and the business sense of his partner, make the possibility of Conexm succeeding, much more than just a reality.  Hopefully it'll be at least a very good move for my career.

When I initially heard about the employment position, I was interested, but highly skeptical.  The more I talked with my boss, the more interested I became.  It got to the point where both me and my wife needed to know if this was the right move for our family.  We both prayed and pondered over the benefits and risks of making the move.  I was in this spirit, working on my computer when Sarah came down, holding Sam, and told me, "I just needed to tell you that I really think you should take this job.  It feels like you should take it."  I talked with her a little bit, and then continued working on whatever I was working on with the computer, when she said, "It's actually pretty overwhelming, this feeling.  I really think you should take it."  The funny thing about this was, I hadn't even got an offer from them yet.

So, through a bit of trepidation from the things associated with working with an entrepreneur, we finally got an offer, and both me and my wife were dumbfounded.  It was more than gracious.  Let's just say, if things work out with Conexm, I'll be hoping to work there for a long, long time.  As our family was, while I was at Nature's Way, we lived comfortably, and happily.  This has the potential to allow us to do a bit more for others.

Now, a bit about why I even considered quitting Nature's Way...  Suffice it to say, and to make a very long depressing story as short as possible, Nature's Way was merged with another company called Enzymatic Therapy.  They had the upper-hand, so they did what all companies in their position do:  They fire people.  To keep people from jumping ship right and left, Nature's Way offered a severance package to those who chose to stay - and it was a package unlike anything I had seen before.  Very much worth it to stay because of it.  Anyway...  Enzy decided to hire me, instead of lay me off, and that - believe it or not - was a bad thing.  They use microsoft products exclusively.  All their code is in C# on the .NET framework.  Not for me.  So, after realizing that Nature's Way in and of itself was disintegrating, there really wasn't any reason for me to stay.

It's really hard to get the following point across to people who don't know what working at a company like Nature's Way is like, but, it was all about the culture and the people there.  Sure, we made money, and had a good business model, but there were programmers working at NW who had been there for 30 years - and not just a few. 4 people of our 6-person team had been there more than 10 years.  If you know anything about the technical sector of the marketplace, that should blow you away.  I rarely hear of people staying in IT positions with the same company for more than 5 years.  I would have stayed at Nature's Way for the rest of my life.  Such a shame that it's now practically defunct.  In the space of 6 months, it went from a place where an eye-shot of 90% of everyone working there loved their job, to a place where nobody smiled much at all, and there was only one topic of conversation in the cafeteria.  When I announced my resignation, both my immediate manager, along with the CTO of NW congratulated me, and were sincerely happy I had found something else.  Man, what a freakin' shame.

So, yes, my first day at Conexm was last Monday, and they don't even have an office yet.  It's very stressful, because they have me learning programming concepts I've only heard about, and I'm feeling that I need to perform at the top of my game 100% of the time in order to "make my keep", as it were.  Hopefully I'll get things in order, learn what I need to learn, and start kicking some major bootie.  There is a lot to do, and not a lot of time to get up to speed.

Also, as you most likely now know, I bought an iPhone, and have been loving it.  Yeah.  Great little device.

Anyway...  Lots of changes going on in not too long of a time span for the Jones family.

And although it feels stressful, and is quite risky, I still have a feeling that this time, again, it will be for the better.