Now there’s obviously more to it than the poor racing. In the past three years I’ve seen the Carl Edwards win, and literally the most exciting part of the race was when he destroyed his car celebrating. Last year, Jimmie’s win produced absolutely nothing exciting. Same this year, though I watched the end of it from the comfort of my recliner, beating the traffic and leaving the crowd behind.

Speaking of the crowd, let’s start with that. For the past two years, I’ve never seen a more worthless group of people at a sporting event in my life. Last year, my problems mostly stemmed from someone throwing, what appeared to be, a full can of beer at my truck as we left. That was fantastic and I had to replace my windshield as it left a lovely crack. That alone was enough to make me not want to return for another NASCAR event.

Alas, reluctantly, I bought tickets again for this year’s All-Star Race. We had fantastic seats this year, sitting right on the finish line, at a fantastic price. So where does one even begin with the problems of the crowd? First, I encountered the wonderfully rude creatures sitting at the end of the aisle, who basically refused to move when I asked them to excuse me. I could already tell this was going to be a blast. It didn’t help that it looked like it was going to rain for an eternity, though that isn’t the speedway’s fault.

We settled in, had our cooler, and moved to where we had empty seats on either sides of us. We made it through driver introductions and things looked like they’d go quite well. All of the grandstands are now non-smoking, which obviously means absolutely nothing to the vast majority of NASCAR fans. I’ve grown up enjoying NASCAR, but I’ve got to say, the stereotype that has been perpetuated is true, as most of the people I’ve encountered are nothing short of rude. So, with us feeling kind of down under the weather, and impending rain, the “fan” in front of us decides it is a fantastic time to light one up, without any consideration for anyone around him in the “non-smoking” stands.

So we moved. What’s the point in saying anything to the person when half the other fans in the stands are doing the same thing? The rest of the fans that aren’t smoking are so unbearably drunk that they’d probably start a fight with you just for mentioning how you don’t appreciate someone else’s smoke being blown directly into your face.

To put it frankly, Bruton Smith charges $50 a ticket or more, seats you with the most vile creatures the world has ever seen, and doesn’t make any patron follow any kind of rules. That’s a fantastic recipe for success. Perhaps there’s a reason people aren’t showing up for the races. It’s because the crowds have turned into brainless idiots. I’ve been to races for a large part of my life, and I’ve grown up living around Charlotte Motor Speedway, but I see literally no reason to return. There’s almost nothing that could bring me back. I refuse to be around a crowd that follows no rules and has no respect for their fellow fans.

So Bruton, feel free to move the fall race out of Charlotte. Other than a few drunk, slobbering idiots still wandering along Highway 29, I’m not sure anyone will care. I know I certainly won’t, and I certainly know you won’t get another penny for me for the pathetic on-track product, and grandstand product Charlotte Motor Speedway produces.

I made one tweet about this and stated that suicide is a coward’s way out, and I fully stand behind that. Suicide solves absolutely nothing, other than exercising your own personal demons. It ends your problems, sure, but it creates way too many problems for family and friends, who are left to wonder what they did to drive you to this point, and if this act could have been prevented.

The memorials and praise is fine for the man. He was a good person on the racetrack and had a sterling reputation amongst fans and those he interacted with. However, it seems difficult for me to sympathize with a man who feels his only escape from his problems is to take his own life. To me, that’s the same as waving the white flag and running from the battlefield.

We call people that retreat from the battle cowards. There’s millions of people likely in much more plight than Trickle was, and they’ll never pull the trigger on themselves. People have too much pride and too many people counting on them to kill themselves. The fact that Trickle went out as a coward, means he was nothing more than a coward. He doesn’t deserve our praise and our rest in peace words. No man that kills himself for nothing more than selfish reasons deserves nothing positive.

His family is left with the grief and pain of his exit. His friends are left wondering what they could do to help. Even the police operator that answered his call now has to deal with the grief of knowing she could have said something.

And I’m supposed to feel sorry for him? I’m sorry, but I can’t feel sorry for a coward’s way out.

The county has purchased 22,597 Lenovo X131e Chromebooks. This is a monumental undertaking and has required the addition of temporary staff to prepare these notebooks for use next year. We have tested the Chromebooks extensively, including pilots at various locations.

Overall, I believe the county will be happy with the Chromebooks once they overcome the learning curve. After briefly testing the Chromebooks, I washed my hands of most of the testing and our the systems were handed over to our project manager. From there, he has worked to create a schedule and plan for the summer changeover.

From an enterprise standpoint, Chromebooks present a number of interesting issues. For one, the always-on, cloud connectivity means that users are almost always pulling data off of the Internet. Without the proper infrastructure, this can prove disastrous. These metrics are impossible to capture, and makes much of this network utilization gain a mystery.

Due to federal and state guidelines, we are required to filter each and every machine that we own, including when they leave our network. Because of this, we will route the Chromebooks back through our DMZ to our Sophos web filters. The Chromebooks work well enough with PAC files, but not fantastically.

This has likely been my largest task with the Chromebook deployment. I have worked closely with the team here and Sophos to attempt to scale out our filters to support this number of users. We are going to see quite an increase in traffic as we expand our 1:1 initiative from grades six through nine to grades six through twelve.

As the school year draws to an end, I’m quite antsy to see how well this goes. We’ve got a lot of work to do this summer to make this successful, but I’m certainly looking forward to the task. It’s always exciting to do something new.

As a side bar, Stone Theaters is incredibly nice. We’ve long visited Stonecrest off of Rea Rd. in Charlotte, but with this new theater being so much closer to where I live, I’ve begun going there for every movie. Not only is it closer, but it’s very nice, from the cleanliness, to the service, to the quality of the theater. I highly recommend it, if you’ve not been there yet.

Now on to the movie. For a review, really all I can ask is what? The fact that this is based off of a true story makes it comedic in a sense, though the fact that these crimes actually took place is a bit disturbing. Ultimately, after reading the actual notes for this case, the movie leaves a bit more to be desired. For one, there’s some pretty large factual differences in the movie, and the timeline of the movie is a bit off. I won’t spoil the story for anyone that plans to see it, but there are discrepancies in how the movie portrays the events.

Overall, it was an enjoyable flick, with some action and comedy sprinkled throughout. It certainly is not one for younger kids and I’m not sure how many people I went with actually enjoyed it. I thought it was decent, not exceptional or anything spectacular, but for $5 it was perfectly enjoyable.

On to my favorite part of the night. I received an email around midnight from Bank of America detailing irregular activity on my account. I had recently made a rather large purchase, though not really out of the ordinary for my account, and not overly large, certainly not enough to cause concern. Regardless, I assumed that’s what the email was about. I checked my account balance briefly, saw that I did have a fairly small charge, and figured I’d check closer today.

Oddly enough, I had forgotten about it this morning, assuming it was not a huge ordeal. I received a text from my mom stating that my credit card had been used in three purchases in Pennsylvania and that Bank of America had called to report the fraud. Now we’re getting somewhere.

So I called Bank of America, went through their rigamarole or proving that I was indeed the one and only Gregory Phillip Ellis. Fantastic. Then the questions began, “Ok, there’s a charge in Pennsylvania for $205 at a Wal-Mart, was that you?” Well, of course not, I’ve never even been to Pennsylvania and don’t particularly see any reason to ever go. She mentioned some other charges made in Pennsylvania, obviously none of them related to me.

So, my card has now been canceled and my account completely removed from association with my online account. I’m not exactly sure how many charges were made or the exact damage, but of course Bank of America and Visa are going to take care of those issues for me, as one would expect them to do. I find it particularly perplexing that both mine and my parents cards were compromised, on the same night, in the exact same state.

To me, there’s only two possible theories. Either the person used a magnetic card reader on some device in this town that I visited, using my Bank of America card to pay. This is unlikely, because I rarely use my card, and it seems that the card would have been used closer to home. This seems pretty much like a database infiltration and dump. It’s disappointing to me, though not surprising, that Bank of America would not alert their customers of a database intrusion in a timely manner.

However, these are only my assumptions and my possible assumed disappointment is negated by the fact that Bank of America alerted me to these charges, is taking corrective action, and made sure that my card was denied any further charges that evening. For that, I’m certainly thankful.

Unfortunately the low lending rates lead to other problems. Our savings aren’t increasing at the rates they previously did, and our ability to get debt inducing loans is much easier. Personally, the best savings interest rate I’ve been able to find is about 1%, through Barclays Online Savings.

Savings accounts aren’t sexy though. Not that I need my money to be sexy, but earning 1% on $10,000, yields a whopping $100 a year. That’s easy money, and it’s free money. It’s FDIC Insured, so you’re exposed to absolutely no risk at all, as long as the bank and the FDIC do not simultaneously fail. If they do, there’s more than likely going to be concerns that are much greater than money.

Last year, I used Sharebuilder and made my first foray into the stock market. It was certainly an interesting learning experience, and at the time, showed me my tolerance for risk and losing money was not very high at all. I sold a few stocks at the first sign of a downward swing, including selling Sprint (S), which I bought for $2.34. Today, Sprint trades for $7.24 and marks probably the biggest regret I’ve got when it comes to trading. However, it’s always easy to armchair it and say I should have kept it, but the truth is, at the time, there was no clear indication Sprint was on the verge of having competing offers for purchase.

I dabbled a bit with a Roth IRA through Vanguard’s Star Fund (VGSTX), and purchased some individual shares in Bank of America (BAC) and Cisco Systems (CSCO). All three of these moves produced money for me. Being young and inexperienced, I sold all three, including the Roth IRA, willing to accept the penalty on the earnings. Through my employer, the State of North Carolina, I receive a fantastic retirement package, so there’s not a huge loss in not having a Roth IRA. My earnings on BAC and CSCO were fairly small, but it did amount to a few hundred bucks, and I felt happy with having made some money and getting out of the market.

Fast forward to 2013 and a different mindset has taken over for me. I’ve found that I really like the earnings growth and potential of the market. In general, it is possible to grow your income 7-10% a year through the market alone. This presents a fantastic option, one that is clearly much better than the 1% I receive in a savings account, though there is also a much greater risk. This risk, however, can be mitigated with some solid research and planning.

I began my latest plunge into the market using TradeKing. From a price and customer service standpoint, TradeKing blows away Sharebuilder in every measurable aspect, and if you’re interested in getting started with the stock market, I certainly would recommend TradeKing. My decision making began the same way it did last time, to simply find a stock that could produce growth. Initially, I found Activision (ATVI), most well-known for the Call of Duty series. Most likely, this was not the greatest investment decision ever, but I did, in less than two months, produce a 2.5% gain, which is greater than most savings accounts will produce in a year.

I sold ATVI and shifted my focus to dividend stocks. Since then I’ve purchased shares of General Electric (GE), ConocoPhillips (COP), Ford (F), and Duke Energy (DUK). Overall, in just a few months, I’ve produced, collectively, another 2.3% on these investments in unrealized gains. I’ve gone from short-term positions to looking at long-term positions that produce income growth through the usage of dividends. At present, my dividend yield is at around 3.7%, which is pretty substantial growth for a year. With an average risk, or beta, of 1.0, I’m minimizing my potential for losses in the market, while maximizing my potential for earnings through dividends and reinvestments.

I plan to continue investing as the year drags on, and I plan to stick with this plan for the foreseeable future. The way I see it, investing is a fantastic way to grow income, especially when stocks with solid foundations are chosen. I continue to diversify my holdings and looking for ways to minimize my risk, while maximizing my earnings potential. To that point, my next investment may be in telecommunications, with Verizon (VZ) or AT&T (T). I’ve also considered, very heavily, getting back into the technology sector with Microsoft (MSFT), or Intel (INTC). All of these companies pay dividends and have a history of success, though the dividend yield for VZ and T are much greater than MSFT or INTC, and therefore are most likely in the lead for my next investment.

Disclosure: I am long COP, DUK, F, & GE. I have no positions in ATVI, BAC, CSCO, INTC, MSFT, T, VGSTX, or VZ, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
 

Summer 2010 was one of the largest turning points in my life. It’s odd how a large part of your life can be impacted by such a short period of time. Certainly, one can make a mistake that alters their life forever, but generally I’ve lived steadily, never bouncing too high or falling too low. In college, I’d done both. I met a lot of people in college, about none of which I keep up with anymore, but for four years, we certainly had fun. By the summer, I was taking my last few classes, and I hit my personal low. Graduating college is an amazing accomplishment, and I’m thrilled I was able to do it, but something about it felt so hollow. It may have been because about a month earlier I’d finally gotten rid of the worst thing that ever happened to me, and it seemed nobody wanted to hire me at twenty-two, and my prospects for meeting anyone pretty much went out the window.

Things were set in motion that summer. Things that haven’t stopped since. If you believe in luck, then the last three years are nothing but an amazing roulette wheel for me. By October of 2010, I’d landed a job with Union County Public Schools. I graduated high school there. I certainly never anticipated I’d make a living working there, but alas, that’s what happened. Now it came to my attention pretty quickly that working women seem to enjoy trying to find someone for you when you’re single. That wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea, as I’m not the best guy when it comes to meeting people. It just isn’t my strong suit, and I always just played everyone’s invitations to meet someone as jokes.

Somewhere along the line, in 2011, I let my guard down. I was right on the verge of being promoted within my department and moving to our central office. Maybe it was my older age, maybe it was intuition, or maybe I just didn’t care anymore. Sara’s mother told me about her. And then she told me about her some more. She showed me a picture, and this piqued my interest. But still, it felt weird for me, and nothing something I was comfortable with, so I acted on nothing, and I wasn’t planning on it.

Then, there’s October 2011. It’s hard to believe this all stems from Summer of 2010, but it does. Without that period of time, I have no idea where my life would be, but I know for a fact it wouldn’t be what it is today, and I’d have missed out on the absolutely amazing people in my life now. On October 1, 2011, I received an e-mail from Sara’s mom. This seemed fairly ordinary, as I still routinely mailed back and forth with people from the school location I worked at when I first began my job.

However, unlike any other e-mail I’d ever received, I got a phone number. I think, if through work, or any other avenue, you can win over a girl’s mother, you’re probably a pretty decent guy. This made me feel good, like maybe nice guys do eventually get ahead.

So I texted Sara. A lot. And we met at Olive Garden for lunch. I don’t remember the exact date, though I know it was in Fall, because Georgia was playing that day. Maybe that’s why we did lunch. Maybe I wanted less pressure. A lunch isn’t a date, it’s just lunch, and it didn’t feel so hard. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind, but I went through with it, and met her that day.

I was fairly certain she’d never speak to me again after that lunch. For probably the first time in my life, I was absolutely relaxed with a girl. I was myself. It may have been because I was finally of the age where I didn’t care. I wanted to impress her, certainly. But I also wanted to just be me and see where that got me. In past relationships, I never felt comfortable just being me. If you know me, being myself means I was acutely sarcastic, witty, and took most of the lunch with a tone that probably would make most people run for the hills.

Not Sara though. We texted on and off for a while. We hung out some, but never anything solid. I was wishy washy. My last relationship made me think I’d prefer to just go at this world alone for a long time. I wasted Sara’s time. I provided her with no reason to talk to me. I gave her no incentive that I’d ever come around. I’m certain she talked to other guys and looked for a relationship elsewhere.

Days would go by without talking. Then they turned to weeks. Months. I’d scroll through my phone, see her name, and wonder what could have been. Sometimes, as if someone was guiding me, I’d stop on her name and send her a text. We’d talk a while, then out of the blue, I’d just stop. There was never a rhyme or reason, I just never was sure what I wanted. I never wanted to drag someone else into a relationship with me, especially when I was never sure what I wanted.

Summer of 2012 came. Two years from when I had graduated college. Two years from overcoming obstacles in my life that I thought were greater than me. I talked to Sara again, and again, and again. There were no gaps this time.

Probably the moment that won me over was when I was sick. I’m almost never sick, and this particular day I used a sick day at work. Mind you, I’ve only used two sick days in three years, with one being a funeral. There’s a knock on my door, and it’s Sara, knowing I’m sick. Not only did she come over, but she brought freshly baked, homemade cookies. I don’t think any girlfriend in my past baked me anything, ever. I was absolutely astounded, especially considering we weren’t even in a relationship.

Summer came to end and Sara went back to Appalachian State University. Distance can be a killer, but we kept talking. We made plans. We attended a Georgia football game together. By this time, I felt like I loved this girl, but I could never tell her that. It wasn’t long after the game that I told her we were “basically dating”, which was apparently not acceptable. Basically isn’t good enough. And she was right. There was me, right at the tip of a relationship, and I was still scared to jump in headfirst.

We did though. I put the demons of my past behind me. I gave a relationship a chance, and my life hasn’t been the same since. We haven’t dated overly long, but it feels like we’ve been together for years now. I can see a change in me. I’m just generally happier, and I can see the future more clearly again. Things that I thought mattered most, don’t really matter. It’s all about the people you have around you, and I couldn’t ask for a better person to navigate this world with.

So I’m living the good life again. Maybe it’s because I was guided to someone great. And I’m starting to believe again, that just maybe, good things do happen to good people.

“Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

We had fun though, but we always do. It’ll take a little more than five, or six, inches of snow to keep me from hanging with her! Alright, well, it’s time to start the week.

Today, Jarvis Jones declared for the NFL Draft. Jarvis Jones has been the epitome of what it means to be a junkyard defender. Last year he led the SEC in sacks at 13.5. This year, Jarvis had 14.5 sacks, eclipsing David Pollack for the single season school record. Jones also became the single season leader in tackles for losses.

Most draft experts have Jones as the top linebacker in the draft class, and some, like Mel Kiper Jr., have Jarvis as the best available player in the draft. Bulldogs fans would certainly agree. There were games this year where Jones simply took the game over and single-handedly put the ‘Dawgs in contention to win. Most notably, the games against Missouri, and the then third-ranked Florida Gators.

Jarvis Jones may have started as a Trojan, but he finished as a damn good Dawg. There were games this year and last, where the only reason I wanted to see our defense on the field was to see Jarvis Jones line up and make a play.

We’re not very far into this testing phase, but I did want to make at least mention the few issues we’ve had. I’ve reached out to Google’s Enterprise Support regarding the problems I’m about to describe, but I’ve yet to hear about any possible resolution, or even if these are known bugs.

Enrolling the devices seems pretty simple… when they’re first delivered. However, I attempted to “powerwash” the computer and then re-enroll it into our enterprise. Enrolling the device means it becomes managed by our domain and we can set policies to control the laptops. Powerwash is the term that Google uses to describe resetting the machine back to the factory state.

To get the devices to re-enroll, I had to turn off OS verification and boot the laptop in developer mode. I then took turned OS verification back on and booted the laptop back into verified mode. That’s not good when you consider a mass deployment and needing to refresh these machines each year. This is not a major ordeal if you just take the laptops out of the box, enroll them in your enterprise, or have them automatically enroll. It is a major ordeal if you plan on powerwashing these computers each year.

The other issue we’re currently encountering is that users in a sub-domain are not affected by any policies. I would suspect this has to be a known bug, but I’ve not found anything on it. Because of our set up, we have multiple Google Apps domains. We have our main UCPS domain, along with a student sub-domain. In Google App’s Chrome OS settings, you are able to specify different settings for these different subdomains, but the settings seem to only apply to the primary domain.

This is just some of what I’ve encountered in very limited testing. If and when I hear back from Google’s Enterprise Support, I’ll add to this so as to not leave this post incomplete or without the correct information.