January 1, 2005 was eons ago.   I was eight months out of college, still working at the job I got in High School to make the loan payments.   Last January was a big downer for me.   Job Search '04 went on so long I re-named it Job Search '05, and while WFTX in Florida seemed promising last January... none of the openings there panned out (or even existed!).

2005 was different things to different people, especially for those in New Orleans!   As for myself, 2005 was defined simply as: "New York's Last Stand."   Several things happened (or began to happen) in the first two months of '05 that led to my decision to move out of New York, my big event of the year.   The self-kicking for still working at Wendy's was bad enough, but my Shift Supervisor responsibilities began sliding back to Crew work.   I threw what I could into looking for work inside and outside of New York, but anything that wasn't crumbling under my feet was just doing nothing.   Of course, if you asked me then where I was working, I would've said "Love 96.1 FM".   The radio station helped a little... for my bank account (I was recovering from the Supra's expensive and bumpy start) and for my sanity... but I needed something solid, something real.

When my stepfather, John McLellan, left his job at WFTX he gave me another shot at a job there and also something I could use in any case.   John took over production at First Assemblies of God in Fort Myers, and said I could come down and do camera whenever I wanted.   Now there was something to do, but I'd have to move and give up both jobs in NY.   The signs seemed to be pointing to Florida, and after little inspiration I decided to give New York one last try (so I couldn't kick myself later for missing out on anything).   In the spring, I neglected all of my personal projects (including maintenance of egrabow.com) and put every resource I had to the Job Search.   While the one interview I got in Manhattan was lovely, it too went nowhere.   In the last month before my "deadline", I realized that...  I didn't want to work in New York anymore.

My self-imposed ban on EG work was lifted with a vengance in late June/early July, as egrabow.com's index page and "Stuff Page" had signs announcing the number of days until I left New York.   My creative work for Wendy's (over more than 6 years!) went on display, and I modified a slogan Blockbuster Video recently used for my own ends.   The numbers "7/9/5" represented my last day at Wendy's and printed with them... "The End of Uhhhh, The Start of More".   After coming home on my last day, I took down the Wendy's page and replaced the "NEW YORK RESIDENCY ENDS x DAYS" signs with one that you see just before driving off Staten Island...

"The Start of More"?   It could've been the start of me being broke and jobless!
It took a lot of prayer, but this felt right.   The trip down in the Supra was surprisingly uneventful.    I began at the church immediately, and it felt good to be behind the camera again.   Job Search '05 continued, without the time-eating hassle of an existing job.   I had at about three months before the money dried up, but it didn't take one.   On August 2nd, "Global Prospects", a telemarketing firm in Fort Myers, became Job #5.   It was a Part-Time job and one that I didn't want long (cause telemarketing sucks sending or receiving).   Much to my relief, the search ended only two days later... on the bullseye. Post:

Job #5 is out... WHAT???   Job #6 is SOOOOOO IN!     Posted 8/4/05
Job Search '04/'05 officially ended today... with COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you tell I'm excited?  
After a brief run with Global Prospects Inc. (who became Job #5 on Tuesday), the title of Job #6 and the "winner" of this job search has given to WBBH-TV in Fort Myers.   On Monday, I begin as a Full-Time Production Assistant... friggin' awesome!!!
Was moving to Florida a good idea???   Heck yeah!   Bite me New York!
Coming soon to EG... my apartment search!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you tell I'm excited?

With the Job Search out of the way, the apartment search began.   I found a saturated market with a three month waiting list.   Fortunately, the new job gave me access to an unlisted opening when the main sports guy moved to Salt Lake City, and I got to move in with his crazy retired-sports-guy-but-not-retired-crazed-USC-fan roommate, TOM JAMES!

Oh yeah, some other stuff happened, too!   My niece, Sabrina Waurio was born on July 12.  Post:
Sabrina Analise Waurio - my newest niece!      Posted 7/17/05
She was born to my sister Sommer on Tuesday, July 12th, as I was driving down.   I'm gonna be her cool uncle.   She's so precious and I'm pretty sure she's the first newborn I've held in my arms (but not the first baby).   May the Lord bless this new family (which I happen to be related to).

The yagi antenna I got in 2003 came into use in May, I had the antenna for two years, and used it for about eight weeks.   The logs are up on my DX Page.

I switched to Earthlink when I moved out of Massapequa (since cable internet access wasn't gonna be free anymore).   Post:
Spam is up 8,000%           Posted 10/3/05
New phone number.   New e-mail address.   New spam.   (Lots)
   I've never received a telemarketing call on my cell phone (I don't think they're allowed to call those anyway), and my old egrabow@optonline.net only received a very manageable trickle.   Now, though, I have a new ISP and a new landline phone to access it through...   and both are being used extensively by people trying to sell me junk!   Even better, I was getting spam before I started giving out my new e-mail address!   As for the new (unlisted) phone number, I've only given the new number to my family!!!!
   I'm hoping the "spam" level goes down as I put myself on a few "do not call" lists.   Still, though, I know how to use my delete button.

Hurricane Wilma knocked power out for a week and I scored some overtime.

My cell phone went missing.

And... love961.com fell into the control of an evil supervillian.   (or just a guy named Peter Elia)   Post: Click!

It was my first professionally done website and, until Wednesday, it was my biggest client.   Now, there is *a* love961.com right now (check it out if you like), but it's not my work.

I went online to do some work on the website that evening only to find my files inaccessible and the homepage totally different... I even recognized the work.   After ten minutes I discovered that the DNS had been changed.   Now, as far as I knew (since no one told me anything, not even after the fact) the DNS had been hacked and it was then my duty to put it back where it belonged, but first I thought I should call the station and find out what the heck was going on.   Charlie, the Program Director (or "PD") who was always a pleasure to work with, told me that he hadn't heard anything and would ask for me (he also said that he wasn't getting e-mail, hmmm...).   After his show, he found out and was the one to break the news to me.   Okay, it's business, I get it.   Do I think it was a mistake?   Absolutely.   (and I say that as objectively as possible)

The management/ sales (same thing) at the station never cared about the website.   They agreed that every station should have one, including ours, so I was able to earn some money launching love961.com, but I could never get them to utilize it to increase sales.   In fact, it took months for many members of the staff to even find out that we had a website, the GM and GSM were really not interested in using the stations new marketing tool.   I finally decided not to waste my time with them and to stick with the on-air staff, who were returning my calls and giving me feedback as well as web content.   In comes a new jock, who had worked for years doing websites for Clear Channel's radio stations on the island and in Manhattan.   He was only there two months, but made a good advisor to myself and the PD, sitting in on our weekly meetings, helping me with software, and doing some light website work.   Then he left to work in the IT department of AIG in Manhattan, telling me that they might soon need more people there and maybe he could give a name to sent the resume to.   After a few months of attempted e-mail and phone calls, he seemed to be just another dead-end network contact.   Back then, I was trying to "network" my way into a job.

Not long after he left, though, he proposed a new design to the PD and myself.   Naturally, I checked it out thoroughly (he had actual webpages, not the Photoshop mock-ups that I'm guilty of) and decided that a lot of things worked and a lot of things didn't.   I soon decided to integrate parts of his design into a new proposal of my own (which I had him in the loop on).   I was practiced now, we knew how listeners were reacting to our website, and I always believed in taking new found knowledge, wiping the slate clean, and starting from scratch to ensure the best possible results.   The PD loved it and I made some extra money.   At this point, my more experienced friend seemed to drift into the shadows...

Oh, the Lord had given me a great imagination.   The new design went up in June and was nothing short of a work of art.   I really tried to get into the listeners heads and give our station the best possible impression, this was something we were gonna use and use a lot, and I was ready.

Now on to the present... surely someone as experienced as this guy can do better?   Err... no.   The site is almost identical to the mock he pitched in April, with all the good, the bad, and the ugly.   Several of our unique and increasingly popular features had simply been discarded, and what was there didn't necessarily work.   This new, ***super*** experienced webmaster left the on-air staff and listeners high and dry (to say nothing of myself).   Charlie had to call him first to get his e-mail back online, well after the start of business that day (the point when the new webmaster should have called them first to get e-mail back up).   Every staff member with a "@love961.com" address had to find out on their own as there was no communication that things had chaged.

So, does ten years of experience make someone better?   It should.   But the way I these guys work, I'd put six months of my experience up against someone else's ten years... any day.

These images are copyrighted, though I consider my name to be in the public domain.

On the heels of my drive to New York came a Category 3 hurricane.   It was a Cat 5 with record-breaking low pressure in the eye before it hit the Yucatan Peninsula, then regained substantial strength in the too-cool-in-October-to-support-a-major-hurricane gulf waters, hit south of here as a strong Cat 3, didn't weaken much over land (she was moving too fast)... then regained what it did lose in the cool Atlantic waters.   Yeah, Wilma definitely wanted to prove she could be as big and bad as her sisters Katrina and Rita.

Thank Jesus, Fort Myers didn't take much damage.   A tree here, a sign there... oh yeah, the power lines!   Looks like Florida Power and Light wasn't keeping up with their inspections... and I don't think a Category 3 should be able to knock out power to most of south Florida for almost an entire month!

I now know the other side of hurricane fatigue.   Before, watching Katrina, I got tired of seeing pictures of the devistation. (now, with the devistation only 50 miles south and east of here, that fatigue didn't set in)   The other kind of fatigue occurs when you want to get on with your life... clean the debree, turn the power on, and lift the curfews.   My fatigue kicked in after only 3 days, when life in Fort Myers had almost returned to normal, but some of the traffic lights were still out and local neighborhoods were still without power (mine included).   Businesses that did have power had to close early because of the curfew, so I had to drive 10 miles north to eat on my 8PM dinner break.

I was fortunate.   We never lost water, the cable was on when power came back (after 5 days), and the phone came back after 8.   The apartment is fine, the Supra is fine, the town is fine.   The guys out east, tho, are looking a longer interruptions, ruined crops and such...   They are in my prayers.

The day after my landline phone service came back on, my cell phone service lost a vital component... the phone.

With my dad down here and a suddenly bad alternator in my car (how's that for timing?), we went out to get one.   Sears, auto parts store, chinese restaurant.   I know I had it in Sears, but I noticed my holster was empty when we got home.   I tried calling it but the phone was off!   I never turned it back on after leaving the station the night before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   In two days it hasn't been found at any of those three stores, or in the truck, or outside fallen on the parking lot, or in the apartment.

OK great, so we met all four requirements for me to lose this phone:

• The phone had to be turned off, I forget to turn it on about a third of the time after leaving the station or church.

• The holster had to let the phone slip out, which rarely happens and only when I brush against something (this usually prompts me to make sure I'm still wearing the phone anyway)

• It had to fall on grass and/or I had to *NOT* hear it crashing onto the floor/asphalt below.

• It had to fall in a place where no one would find it within 36 hours (like along a nature trail, except OOPS... I was only in populated areas!)

The moving-of-my-stuff to Fort Myers, FL is complete (it only took a packed Supra, Alero, and Tahoe to haul it all down!).   And now that my lights are back on, it's time for some heavy-duty unpacking and organizing.   I still have some addresses to update, too.

New phone number.   New e-mail address.   New spam.   (Lots)

   I've never received a telemarketing call on my cell phone (I don't think they're allowed to call those anyway), and my old egrabow@optonline.net only received a very manageable trickle.   Now, though, I have a new ISP and a new landline phone to access it through...   and both are being used extensively by people trying to sell me junk!   Even better, I was getting spam before I started giving out my new e-mail address!   As for the new (unlisted) phone number, I've only given the new number to my family!!!!

Promises made, deadlines pushed back, stuff coming up.   I'm thrilled to say that with the move (mostly) out of the way, job found, and apartment moved-into, I now have a lot more time for program development.   Version 2.0 is going to make 1.5 look like... well... like all those non-Wake Up! Pro alarm clock programs out on the 'net.   Trust me, users, you won't recognize a lot of it, it's a total re-design (only the splash screen and settings window are recycled).

With any luck, I can release the beta version before the month is out.   Stay tuned.

After a month long apartment search, I found a condo through a contact at the new job. (sweet!)

This is a nice two-story job with a small balcony and a window that beats the heck outta my old basement window!   My roommate is Tom James, who used to do sports for WBBH.   Wait'll I show him around the website...

Now I just need to get the rest of my stuff down from New York!   My goal is to have everything by Thanksgiving...

A year after the release of 1.0 (and totally out of the blue), KeyPrint version 1.2 has now been released!

Due to me NOT conducting a job search, I now seem to have a lot more time for recreational stuff, like programming.   Expect Wake Up! Pro 2.0 and TermTable 1.0 within the next two months.   Yeah!   I think I mean it this time!

KeyPrint 1.2
Wake Up! Pro 1.5

Job Search '04/'05 officially ended today... with COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you tell I'm excited?

After a brief run with Global Prospects Inc. (who became Job #5 on Tuesday), the title of Job #6 and the "winner" of this job search has given to WBBH-TV in Fort Myers.   On Monday, I begin as a Full-Time Production Assistant... friggin' awesome!!!

Was moving to Florida a good idea???   Heck yeah!   Bite me New York!

Coming soon to EG... my apartment search!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you tell I'm excited?

Looks like we have a winner!   Or do we?

Spherion is a local placement agency I signed up with today, now they got me working Food Presentation at the local (Cape Coral, remember???) BJ's.   The position is just for a week, but it does put some $$$ into my fresh new Wachovia account (that bank is app #JF05-40, by the way).   This does technically make Spherion Job #5, but it doesn't phase the job search.
 

Friggin Awesome!   Here's me on camera 1 at "The Silverdome" in Fort Myers, FL.   Here's what replaced "staff" at Love 96.1.   Now I just need to replace Wendy's...

She was born to my sister Sommer on Tuesday, July 12th, as I was driving down.   I'm gonna be her cool uncle.   She's so precious and I'm pretty sure she's the first newborn I've held in my arms (but not the first baby).

After a slow job search in New York, I've decided to make the move south.   After the July 11th move, I will be starting volunteer work in the media department of a major Fort Myers church.   It was a tough decision to leave New York, but I believe it to be the right one (both professionally and spiritually).

My phone number and e-mail addresses will not change immediately.

Some of you may have noticed that this website was not available over the weekend.   Big lesson: keep track of your e-mail address!

I registered egrabow.com for two years in 2001 and renewed for two years in 2003... then I moved and changed my e-mail address.  Now, I did update the address when I moved but I wasn't very thorough, the result was that my notice got sent to the defunct address and I didn't receive it!   Now, I apologize for the inconvenience since many people use this site regularly, specifically the Logo Gallery . (linked file is no longer available)

Don't worry about it happening again, I renewed for five years this time.   By 2009, I hope to have a more organized Inbox.

One last VS for the road.
It's almost a certainty that I'll be moving to Florida soon.

I have been putting some time toward TermTable.   Buxx will continue to sit on the fences (and possibly be renamed).   I've decided that KeyPrint will expand beyond phone numbers in v2.0, and it will be re-named CipherDin (a name that I stole from a short lived project).

Lately I've been receiving a lot of feedback for Wake Up! Pro.   From the beginning I knew I wasn't alone in my morning plight to get out of bed, now I'm glad to hear that others are using the program for the same reasons I do, and it's working!   I find this very inspiring and (like I said above), I hope to get started on 2.0 soon so I can cram more features into a friendlier package.

Is it just me, or is time the only thing that goes fast once you've graduated college?

In the last year, I've begun working at Love 96.1 as Webmaster and Driver (for the station vehicle).   While that's great, it's not a full time replacement for Wendy's.   Sure it's tough sending out resumes while working 50 hours/ week, but it's long been top priority.   I'm disappointed that I've not received any job offers yet, I was hoping to launch my career in Manhattan and thought I should give it a chance (since I already live nearby).   Now I am determined to move on with my life, even if it is not in the direction I thought.   The status quo has got to go.

As of right now, I am being considered for two positions at WFTX-TV in Cape Coral, FL.   Getting an editing position at a major TV station would mean a lot of things to me (and would benefit WFTX).   As I type, a blizzard is falling in the New York Metro Area (one which I had to drive through!).

The long anticipated Wake Up! Pro 1.5 has been released!   This version includes two new views (and the ability to run with no view at all), plus a few other nic-nacs.   This version took a lot longer to work on than I thought, mostly because I was trying to make "Literal View" a skinned form (an elaborate window on the desktop) until I decided to give up on it.   Maybe in a future version.

Linkback is also up and running, I found five pages that qualified so far.   My qualifications for sites are:

• Not already listed on the regular EXIT 9 page

• Not a search engine, or something resembling a search engine (link created by a human being!)

• Not a forum (the AVCA has accumulated a lot of links this way)

• Not vulgar or otherwise offensive

Linkback is meant to encourage other sites to link to me.   If you have a website and would like to "trade hyperlinks", throw me an e-mail and I'll give you an exit on the Linkback Spur!