Update

Hello all. Just a quick update. Mom is hanging in there. She's finishing up her third of four chemo treatments. After the last one, she'll have to schedule the surgery to remove part of her liver. She's not looking forward to it, but she's a trooper.

As far as the job hunt goes, I interviewed with a publicly-traded software company last week for its open PR Writer position. I felt like the interview went well and I got a call today to schedule a follow-up interview next Wednesday, so that seems like a good sign. I'll keep you all posted!

- C

Another update

Just a quick update on my mom's condition. She started her second chemo treatment today. She will be at the halfway mark of her chemo after this one is done. Then, on to the surgery, which we will get more information on in the weeks to come. So far with these treatments she hasn't been too sick, just exhausted. I'll post more when I have it. Thanks for caring!

- C

Life update

Greetings blog readers! Just a quick update, since it has been so long. I'm still on the job hunt - sent out several more resumes just this week.

More importantly, things are not going great with my mother's health. She found out about a month ago that her cancer has returned. She starts chemotherapy again this coming Monday, so we're hoping she gets through that without too many problems. After two months of those treatments, they are planning to do another surgery to remove the cancerous part of the liver. We're hoping that this will take care of the cancer and she can go back to living her life.

That's about it from here, sorry for the lack of updates!

- C

So, here it is ...

Some of you already know this, but I ended up leaving my position as director of communications a couple of weeks ago. I am once again on the job hunt.

After about three months at the organization, I came to the conclusion that the message and goals of the group did not fit with my beliefs and I could not in good faith continue to be the mouthpiece for something I was against.

I have a couple of irons in the fire regarding work already. I just wanted everyone to know what was going on with me. Thanks, as always, for your continued support.

- Cory

The new job

Well, I thought it was about time for me to do a post on my new job. I've been there about a month now and things are going great. I actually feel like I'm doing what I went to school for now. My official title is director of communications. I have my own office, a laptop, cell phone, corporate card, etc. I have an assistant director, an intern and I'm hiring a second intern.

As far as what I do, it is somewhat of a small organization (22 people I think) and you end up wearing many hats, but my main duties are all relevant to public relations and communications, which is awesome. I write a lot, which is a big change from the previous job. We have two monthly newsletters, a small weekly e-newsletter and about eight quarterly specialized e-newsletters that we produce. I've been working on a powerpoint presentation I'm doing for our board meeting in a couple of weeks. I've fielded several media calls and have been working with several outdoor writers associations in relation to their annual conferences.

There is going to be significant travel involved in the position, and I'm very happy about that. I figure I'm single and don't have any kids, so what better time than now to see the country. So far I'm scheduled to visit Tennessee twice, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania this spring and summer. In fact, I go to Nashville for our board meeting a week from Tuesday. I then fly back on Wednesday afternoon and turn around and drive 2 1/2 hours to northern Ohio on Thursday for a four-day convention up there.

It is so nice to feel like part of the world again. I really enjoy the people I work with so far and I think I found a really good place to work - finally!! Thanks to all of you for your continued well-wishes as I went through the trials of trying to find a position.

Work so far

So far, so good on the job front. I've been really busy already in my two days there. I can tell this is going to be a pretty hectic job, but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm going to a four-day conference in northern Ohio in the middle of April and I'll likely be going to North Dakota for a couple of days for a conference in late July. So far I really like the people. Everybody seems to work hard, but they still manage to laugh and have fun. This job is a lot less structured than my previous job, so it is a bit of an adjustment. I'm going to have to be spot on in my time management and multi-tasking. I managed to move some stuff around in my office and make it more "mine" today, so that's kind of nice. Just wanted to update everybody on the progress so far.

The rollercoaster continues - I've accepted a job offer!

I accepted a job offer this morning and start my new position on Tuesday. I'm the new Director of Communications for a non-profit that protects the rights of outdoorsmen.. This job is infinitely better than the one that didn't work out a few weeks ago.

I just wanted to let everybody know and thank you all for your support and well wishes during this trying job hunt. I guess things do work out for a reason.

Life is a rollercoaster

Well, I wrote the blog last night saying I was going to accept a job offer this morning. I called and spoke to the owner and told her I was going to accept when she started with "I don't want to sound like I'm reneging, but" and I figured out immediately that I wasn't going to be working there. She said that she'd been thinking more about it and she didn't feel like she was able to offer the type of position or pay that I would need and she thought I'd be bored with the job because I'm overqualified. So, basically, she snatched the job out from under me. She did say that a couple of her clients are looking for people right now and she was going to pass my resume on to them because they would be able to offer a higher level job with higher pay. I sure hope having her pass it on works out because I really need a stinkin' job!!! I must say I'm kind of in shock right now - I've never just had the rug pulled out from under me like that before.

I'm accepting a job offer

Just to let everyone know, I went to a job interview for an account coordinator position with a small travel public relations firm in the north part of Columbus on Monday. I interviewed on Monday, was given a writing/editing assessment on Tuesday, turned it on Thursday morning and was offered the position on Thursday evening. I'll be calling back to accept the position later this morning, so I will soon be in the world of the employed again.

This is a very small PR firm. There is the owner, me and an intern. That's it. I'll be doing press release writing, editing, event planning, database upkeep and other things. I'm looking forward to the experience for sure. This firm specializes in travel/tourism clients, so that should be pretty interesting.

Well, I really just wanted to let everyone know that I've finally found a job. Hope you all are doing well!

- C

Excellent News

My mom had three-month PT scan a couple of weeks ago and her three-month CT scan this morning. She's been pretty upset over the possible results for the past few days. She had her appointment with the oncologist after the CT scan this morning and everything is all clear! I just wanted to let everyone know that all is well! That's all for now.

- Cory

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Well, I woke up this morning to a bit of a surprise. There were about three or four inches of snow on the ground. Now it is probably up to five or six inches, but it seems to have stopped. The weather folks said we'd probably get a bit of snow overnight, but I didn't expect this much. It sure does make for a nice view, but I could do without the cold that comes with it.

I've basically been inside all day (with the exception of getting the mail) so at least I haven't had to drive in it. My brother's normal 25 minute commute to work took him about an hour and a half this morning, so it did slow things down out on the roads. He said there were cars that had slipped off the road all over the place.

Well, that's about all I've got right now. I did take a couple of pics of the snow and they are below, so enjoy!

- C

Hello!

It has been well over a month since I posted last and for that I apologize! Blogging just hasn't been on my radar much for some reason. I have done some interesting things since Oct. 17 - the last time I posted.

There was Thanksgiving for one. That's always fun. It was nice to spend the day with my extended family and to see the Cowboys beat up on those Jets from New York.

Another fun thing for me was a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. About a year after I left my old job, the company decided to merge the editorial operations into three operations bureaus. One of those bureaus is in Albuquerque. I have several friends in management at that office and they asked if I'd like to come help them out for a couple of weeks during their busy period.

Seeing how I still am unemployed, it sounded like a really nice deal - two weeks in sunny New Mexico, visiting with friends and getting a paycheck, at least for a couple of weeks.

So, I agreed, hopped on a plane to Dallas and from Dallas another plane to Albuquerque. My first night I had a nice dinner with a bunch of the folks I used to work with. It was nice getting to see friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

I did get to stay at the Marriott for 13 nights, which was cool. My rental car was a nice gray Ford Mustang, which was also cool. Meals were on the company, so the steak dinner was a player a couple of nights. There was a casino about two miles from the hotel and I went there a couple of times and left about $100 for them to remember me by.

As far as the work goes, I did work two 40 hour weeks and it was nice feeling like part of something again. I enjoyed working with my former co-workers and enjoyed getting to work with and getting to know all of the people there that I didn't already know. They seem to have a really good team in place.

I guess that's about it for now. I am planning to do more blogging for the rest of the year - let's call it an Old Years Resolution!

Update on my mom's condition

Sorry for the lack of posts - haven't had too much to talk about lately. I do have an update on mom's cancer situation however. She finished up her chemotherapy in early September. She then had a CT scan which showed that the spot on her liver had shrunk to about half the size it was when they began, which was excellent news. They then had her do a PT scan, which actually detects cancerous activity, rather than just showing a picture of the liver. She went in to see a surgeon and her oncologist on Monday to see how they would proceed. When she spoke to the oncologist a couple of weeks ago he pretty much told her that they would probably want to do another surgery to remove that part of the liver or do what is called a radio wave ablation, which essentially means they would insert a needle into the suspect spot on the liver and burn that area out with high frequency radio waves. So, she was pretty much expecting a surgery or at the very least some sort of procedure to be coming up soon.

Well, here's the good news - the surgeon said that he's not convinced that the spot is actually cancerous - he feels like it is the scar tissue from the last surgery in April shrinking down. He said that to him, the PT scan did not show it to be cancer. Basically, he all but said that he feels she is currently cancer-free. He said at this point they just want to watch it, so she goes back in for tests again in late December. He said that if things are clear still at that point, he'll have her come in every three months after that for tests. So, she basically got news that was better than anything she could have expected.

It is like a weight has been lifted off of her and she seems so much happier now than she has been in quite a few months. So, with continued prayers, we will hope that this cancer stays away for good and is defeated! Thanks to all of you for your support, love and well wishes! It is all very much appreciated.

A much needed visit with friends

Well, my trip to Texas has come and gone. I got there on Wed., Sept. 5 and left on Sun., Sept. 9. Not a long enough trip in my opinion, but what can you do? I really, really enjoyed my trip. I got to see a lot of friends. Of course seeing them all makes me realize even more how much I love them and miss them!

I spent pretty much the whole time with my former roommate. On Wednesday I got to see the new house of one of my best friends from high school and visit with him and his family and another high school buddy. I also rode in my first police car (no I didn't get arrested - my friend is in law enforcement). On Thursday I went to happy hour and got to catch up with nine of my former co-workers. On Friday night I spent an evening of pizza, booze and games with another of my best high school friends and several of her friends. On Saturday I attended the wedding of another of my best friends from high school with my former roomie and the high school friend I hung out with the night before.

All in all, it was an awesome trip and I have awesome friends. I hate being 1,000 miles away from them, but they and I know that this is where I'm supposed to be for now. There were quite a few friends I didn't get to see, but hopefully next time I'm in town I'll be able to see them as well (maybe more than four days next time?).

Finally - an update!

Hello my loyal readers. Please accept my apologies for the lack of communication. Just haven't felt much like writing anything lately I guess. Still no job, so nothing to write about there.

Mom's doing okay. She's got one more chemotherapy treatment left and then they will do some scans to see what remains of the tumor on her liver. Depending on the size (they're expecting it to be very, very small since the last scan showed it was shrinking) they have a couple of options for the next step.

They can either do surgery and remove that part of the liver or they can do a radio wave ablation, which basically means they put a needle through the skin, into the liver and they send high frequency radio waves into the tumor, essentially cooking whatever is left of it. The surgery would mean another week or so trip to the hospital and the normal possible complications with a surgery. With the ablation you generally don't even have to stay at the hospital overnight and it has a good success rate, so that's what we're hoping for and what the doctor is expecting to do at this point. So, that is basically all good news.

I am flying to Dallas on Wed., Sept. 5 for a few days of visiting for the wedding of one of my oldest, dearest friends. I'm excited about getting to be back in Big D for a little while. When I was growing up, my family would frequently vacation in Ohio so we could visit with our extended family. We lived in Dallas and everybody else lived in Ohio. Needless to say, our vacations were basically like being drawn and quartered. We had x number of family members trying to drag us in x number of directions. I've found that this is going to be how it is when I return to Dallas from now on. It is still two weeks until I come down there and I've already got a burgeoning schedule. It's all good though - I absolutely want to see as many old friends as possible. I miss everybody tremendously.

My brother is moving up here to Ohio in the middle of September. A few days after I return from Dallas, my mom and dad are flying down there to finish packing up his stuff and they are renting a u-haul to drive his belongings up here. I think it'll be good to have him here. I'm looking forward to having someone a little closer to my age around. My brother is five years younger than I am and we've never been especially close (not that we didn't like each other - just never had much in common), but in the past few years it seems that we have been getting closer and close, which is a good thing. He's also bringing his miniature pincher, Bowser, who is awesome, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Well, that's really about all I've got at this point. Hopefully I'll do a better job at keeping everyone updated in the future. Thanks as always for reading. Hope this blog finds everyone doing well!

- C

A night with Pauly Shore

Last night I had my first experience with a comedy club. Not sure why it took me until the age of 31 to go to one, seeing how I love comedy and all. I found out about a week or so ago that Pauly Shore was doing one night of shows at the Columbus Funny Bone and thought to myself, "Self, this is actually someone you've heard of so it might be a good opportunity for you to make your first trip to a comedy club." So, I got in touch with my cousin that lives in Columbus and he said he'd like to go, so we reserved tickets to see the Weasel - Pauly Shore. One great thing about Ohio is that it is completely non-smoking in public places, so I didn't have to sit in a smoke-filled club all night. That being said, lets get to the show itself.

They started off with a local comic (whose name I didn't get, but that is really neither here nor there). He was actually pretty funny and he was only on stage for about five minutes. Next came out one of Pauly's comic buddies from LA. He started off slow (the crowd really wanted Pauly, so he had to endure a few less laughs than he probably would have normally gotten) but by the end of his routine he had gotten a few laughs out of the crowd. His portion of the show probably lasted about 15 minutes.

Pauly (sorry for the awful zoomed camera phone image above - it was the best I could do!) then came out to some strange country entrance music. He got on the mic and said that he had requested hip hop entrance music so he could pop lock his way out to the stage. He left the stage and told them to play his hip hop music. They accommodated him (clearly this was part of the show) and he pop locked his way back out to the stage. Pauly's act was probably about an hour and 15 minutes long. Now, as is the case with most comics, Pauly's act is not for the easily offended. There was a lot of sexual humor and he does George Carlin proud with his language, but honestly, that is to be expected with most comics today. Besides the sexual humor, there was a lot of self deprecating humor about his former status in Hollywood compared to today. He said that people often ask him why he doesn't do more movies and he told the crowd that he'd love to do more movies, but nobody is asking him to do them. He had several jokes about his former movie co-stars and other Hollywood types. I actually found Pauly to funnier than I expected. I would give his act 4 out of 5 stars. If Pauly Shore comes to your town and you are a fan of comedy, I would recommend checking him out.

So, I found my first comedy club experience to be quite enjoyable and I'm planning on keeping an eye on the Funny Bone web site for future acts that I might enjoy.

Update on my mom

Mom went in for a CT scan on Monday so they could see how the past two months of chemotherapy have worked on the small spot on her liver. She went in this morning to see the oncologist for the results of her test. He told her that the spot is shrinking, so the chemo has been effective. He said they would do two more months (four treatments) of chemo and then look at it again to see where to go from there. If it is not gone at that point, it sounds like surgery may be an option again, or they can insert through the skin a needle-like device that shoots high-frequency radio waves into the cancer and can kill it. Hopefully the chemo will take care of it all and we won't have to worry about another surgery or the radio wave thing. Mom sounded upbeat when I spoke to her on the phone - I'm sure it makes the rigors of chemo a little more bearable when you know it is doing its job.

Movie Review: Transformers

I loved the Transformers as a kid. I watched the cartoon - I played with the toys - I went and saw the original Transformers movie in the theater in 1986. That being said, I initially wasn't looking forward to this movie - in fact I wasn't even sure I was going to go see it. I don't like Michael Bay for the most part and from everything I had heard about the production of the film, he was destroying the history of the franchise I loved.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, I loved this movie. After seeing trailer after trailer for Transformers over the first part of the Summer I realized that I really couldn't avoid seeing the movie as I had originally planned - it was going to be too big for that. Transformers was everything the Summer blockbuster action film should be - I mean really, it is huge robots beating the crap out of each other - who wouldn't like that? The premise of the movie is that the evil Decepticons, led by the maniacal Megatron want something that Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) has so they can use it to destroy Earth. Meanwhile, the heroic Autobots, led by the noble Optimus Prime need that same item, but for reasons of good. Besides the obvious large robots, there are car chases and some pretty decent acting to be honest. I appreciated the performances of Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel among others.

However, the biggest star to me, a longtime TransFan, was Peter Cullen. I know, most of you ask, "Peter Cullen, who the heck is Peter Cullen?" Peter Cullen is the original voice of Optimus Prime from the 1980s Transformers cartoon and he reprises that role in this film. The movie starts off with narration from Cullen and from that moment I was hooked.

The creators of the movie had plenty of little nods to the old-school Transformers fans. While Autobot Bumblebee was originally a VW Bug, he ended up being a Chevy Camaro in this film due to licensing issues. However, during one scene in the movie, Bumblebee destroys an old yellow VW Bug so Sam will take him home rather than choosing the Bug. It was little things like this that made this movie fun for fans like me.

I will go on record to say that there WILL BE a sequel to this film - it has made far too much money and was left far too wide open at the end for there not to be. There are literally hundreds of characters for them use in future films. I give Transformers 5 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Well, I went to see yet another of the movies from this summer of the sequel. Live Free or Die Hard brings us the further adventures of hard-luck NYPD detective John McClain (Bruce Willis). This time McClain spends most of his time in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Maryland and somewhere in West Virginia (yes, West Virginia).

In this, the age of the internet, it was only a matter of time before the Die Hard franchise upgraded to version 2.0. No longer are we worrying about people taking over office buildings or airports or even New York City - this time we worry about the terrorists unraveling the entire fabric of the United States using the internet and all of the intertwined computer networks of the country. And of course, it is up to McClain to save the day yet again.

Also starring in Live Free or Die Hard are hacker sidekick, Matthew Farrell (Justin Long); McClain's daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead); king bad guy, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant); super hacker, Warlock (Kevin Smith); and bad ninja girl, Mai Lihn (Maggie Q).

Now, as far as the movie goes, I loved it, but be aware, I love this entire franchise, even Die Hard With a Vengeance, which a lot of people said was crap. First off, for those of you with kids, this movie is rated PG-13, but I thought it deserved an R rating for the violence, so be warned. This is clearly your typical summer popcorn flick, with lots of killing, gunshots, explosions and unbelievable action sequences. That being said, if you are into the above list of topics, like I am, go see this film immediately - you will not be sorry.

There is a good story in the movie, the acting is on par with the rest of the Die Hard franchise and I guarantee you will laugh throughout the movie - after all, that's part of what the Die Hard movies are all about! I give Live Free or Die Hard 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

First off, I admit it, I'm a comic book geek. Most of you that know me, already know that, but I wanted to throw it out there before putting forth my review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Now, that being said, I kind of liked this movie. I saw the original Fantastic Four movie two summers ago and honestly, I didn't really like it - I was bored with it in fact. This time around they didn't have to go through the background of each character, so they were able to focus mostly on the story and the action, which to me is a good thing.

This chapter of the Fantastic Four saga introduces two new characters to the viewers - the Silver Surfer and Galactus (well, kind of - he is pretty much just a big cloud in the movie as opposed to the ginormous planet devourer comic book readers would recognize). Silver Surfer is really pretty cool in this movie and it was nice to have the villain be someone you could actually sympathize with (as opposed to Dr. Doom - who everyone should just hate all of the time).

As far as the acting goes, you get what you expect in my opinion - average acting. I thought the CGI was really good and the script was average. I do believe there will be at least one more of these movies (especially since it pulled in over $57 million in its first weekend). I'd recommend Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer to anyone that likes or knows these characters, otherwise, I'd say skip it. I give the movie 3 out of 5 stars.