It's Just Us….

Birthday Celebration for Samuel Pittman this Saturday 2/21/04

6PM Meet-n-Greet at Sam’s in Clinton Township (19 mile Rd & Hayes)

7PM Dinner @ Macaroni Grill on Hall Road in Sterling Heights

After Dinner Celebration back at Sam’s featuring Glenn Lewis in concert (DVD).

Please RSVP by Friday, Feb. 20th by emailing samuel@thepittman.com

For whatever reason I thought I would explain my computer setup at home… Maybe some technical minded people will read this and say “so what – mines better than yours!” 🙂

1 – Custom-built (by yours truly) desktop system: AMD Athlon 750MHz Slot A processor, 768MB PC100 SDRAM (memory), DVD-ROM drive, DVD/CD Burner, Studio DV/AV Video Capture Card, modem, audio, webcam w/video input, USB scannerk, zip drive. Windows 2000 Professional with 260GB of storage (2 internal ATA 100 hard drives), good AGP 2x graphic card, Lexmark USB color printer, and more…

1 – Toshiba Satellite Laptop: Pentium III 1GHz running Windows XP Home Edition & Red Hat Linux 9. Built-in 10/100 ethernet, DVD-ROM drive, floppy, USB, optical USB mouse, Linksys 802.11b wireless ethernet card, large screen, infrared, video output (composite/s-video), 368MB PC100 memory, etc.

1 – Dell Inspiron Laptop (work laptop): Pentium III 1GHz running Windows 2000 Professional. CD-ROM drive (boo), 512MB PC100 memory, Cisco 340 wireless ethernet card, optical USB mouse, etc.

1 – iPAQ 5455 Pocket PC running 2002 version of Pocket PC. Built-in 802.11b wireless networking and built-in Bluetooth

1 – Playstation 2 with Network Adapter and Wireless connectivity to the network for Online Play. Utilizes wireless ethernet bridge.

Networking: 3Mbps/768Kbps high speed internet connection, 802.11b Wireless Network with all laptops, the iPAQ, and the Playstation 2 connecting via wireless connections.

1 – HP 802.11b Wireless Printer (sweet)

5.8GHz Uniden Cordless phone system to avoid interference with 2.4GHz 802.11b wireless network although my GE microwave leaks enough signal to degrade wireless performance significantly when its being used.

I stay on top of all of the network stuff and security measures to keep things on point… Next enhancements will likely be wireless media streamers pipe audio/video from the desktop to the home theatre setup 🙂

What’s next? That’s the big question surely to have a big answer right? I’ve accomplished all the basic things – car, home, job, respect, admiration, and so on….Or have I?

This year I continue on many of my uncompleted endeavors to write yet another chapter or two in the book of my life. With work I have taken it upon myself to increase my responsibility to a level that surely will keep me more than occuppied to the fullest for 8-10 hours a day and also give me the opportunity to show how someone that’s committed to producing can get the job done. The most interesting aspect of this will be taking on the support responsibilites of two Mexican Ford assembly plants. Probably within the next month I will be heading to Mexico City for a couple of weeks marking the farthest I have ever ventured into Mexico and really out of the U.S. (not including Canada). I’m excited about the opportunity and look forward to the challenge but I believe it will be quite an experience.

The Pittman Inc. needs a little CPR to get its heart beating again as I haven’t moved it forward like I should be doing in a while now. It’s definitely not dead but rather requiring my focused attention to hit milestones in its planned growth. My plate has been filled with a variety of tasks that must be closed out in order to focus my energies into a balanced # of areas with laser sharp percision.

After achieving my CWNA (Certified Wireless Network Administrator) certification last year I recently began studying for the CWSP (Certified Wireless Security Professional) certification. I’d like to attain it within the next couple of weeks and then move my attention towards training others in my office to help them achieve the certifications as well. After the CWSP I will most likely use free time to make another big push with my TPI if I haven’t already.

Recent moves to better my financial positioning have taken longer than expected to manifest but nevertheless plans are still progressing which is all I can ask. I still have 4 years to retire so if I hurry I should still make it in time – lol. 🙂

The birthday is coming up soon and I’m thinking that a trip to Paris is make-happen type of thing to do around then. With the Valentine’s Day specials they running to Europe right now I should be able to get there reasonably and enjoy myself although it would probably be a solo trip.

Speaking of trips, there seem to be quite a few of those lining up – Mexico, Florida, Texas, Missouri, and others… Should make for a decent amount of new pictures to add to the photo gallery. I still need to add recent pictures from New Years in Toronto & Niaga Falls.

On the social side things are growing more with more opportunities to attend a variety of events and my knowledge of Detroits social scene growing. Recently I met a friend at The Key Club which was a great experience on a Friday night. They featured a live band performing jazz and older R&B hits from the likes of Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and others. The atmosphere there was perfect as well. Spring and Summer are really right around the corner which I’m looking forward to. I expect much to change for me going into the summer and ideally all of it will be for the better. Detroit offers a wealth of things in the winter but even more in the summer with all of the concerts, parks, festivals, etc.

Next weekend should be interesting as well. I’m driving up North with a few fellow Audi owners to participate in an “ice racing” event. This style of event allows you to really see how your vehicle behaves on extremely slippery conditions and gives you the opportunity to build driving skills you couldn’t anywhere else. With the Quattro all-wheel-drive and a set of new winter performance tires I’m ready to go!

Well I’ll guess I’ll close this post for now…

Well it’s been quite some time since I really felt the urge to contribute more to this site…. Over the last couple of months I must say I’ve really come to terms with a lot of things while reflecting on the past year.

I made it… I survived… I lived… I cried silently in the dark more than anyone will ever know… I laughed at moments when all of my funny bones were seemingly broken… God really wanted me to grow in many ways this year because he carried me through the kind of things you can’t choose to walk through…

I met some wonderful people, some shady people, some here today gone tomorrow people… I even met some people who just genuinely really excited me but then I also met some people who left me struggling to hide my dissapointment.

I wrote a lot…some of it people found inspiring…most of it I could never share. Everything I do can’t be for others. A lot of my writings, thoughts, prayers, etc will only come to light when my work here on earth is done and all of my personal belongings are sorted through.

I’m really rambling because my eyes are heavy, my body is weary, but yet still I press forward to do something…anything…everything…that I can while I can…

…. …. …. …. ….. …. Good night all and thank you Jesus for giving another day.