Today I am officially changing my MSN handle to simplify my life. I should have done this about 8 months ago but I kept putting it off. Today it is official.
The address previously used which was @dotnetpimps.net is no longer going to be valid. From hence forth it will be the following:
For those of you on my contact list, you’ll be getting new notifications shortly.
I’m sitting in the Memphis, TN airport waiting on my flight to return home and I decided to fire up my laptop to check email only to find out the sky is falling and it is snowing in Mississippi! Why? Well, I just received an email from the MVP program at Microsoft awarding me the MVP award for 2008 in Visual Developer – Client Application Development. It truly is an honor to be recognized for this award. I’m speechless. Thank you Microsoft and a big thanks to Rafael Munoz my MVP Lead.
I look forward to seeing all the other MVPs in the program at various Code Camps, conferences and user groups starting this Saturday in Birmingham and then at DevLink in Nashville the following week.
A few months ago I wrote about my rekindled love for fishing. In a few days I will be going on the ultimate fishing trip to Michigan where the great Salmon Hunt of 2007 will take place. I know you’ve seen the Discovery Channel where they show the salmon running up the rivers and how big they are. Well that’s where I’ll be fishing next week except we’ll be in a boat on Lake Huron since it is illegal to catch the salmon in the river. However, while they are in the lake before going up the river, they are fair game.
About eight guys from work and myself will be heading to Rogers City, MI on September 27th to kick things off. This is one fishing trip I have been waiting on for several months and as the days inch closer my dreams of catching 30lb Salmon are about to come true. Here is a map for those that like myself had no idea Rogers City even existed. 
With a six hour flight and then a five hour car ride I had to purchase a fishing rod holder for the trip. I didn’t want my rods and reels to get busted during travel. I went to the local sporting goods store here (Big Bucks) and picked up a Frabill Pack-a-pole model 7000 hard case. I haven’t traveled with it yet so I can’t give you a review of it, but it does hold four rods and reels and has a place to put tackle.
Since I am in Mississippi, the biggest shock on this trip is going to be the change in weather. I know it is going to get cold, especially at night and the possibility of rain is pretty high. Knowing this I picked up a Frog Togg Pro Sports Suite just for the occasion. Even if I don’t catch fish, I am still planning on staying dry.
Since this is my first trip to ever go salmon fishing, I am relying heavily upon my co-workers who have all gone multiple times. I was especially curious about what they used for bait. Turns out they mainly use 4-5 inch suspending crank baits. I picked up several Smithwick Suspending Rogue five inch lures at the local sporting good store as well.
| Smithwick Blue Luminescent |  |
| Smithwick Tiger Roan |  |
According to legend the Tiger Roan is suppose to be unbeatable during the day and the glow in the dark one is unbeatable at night. I don’t care as long as I catch fish! When I get back to civilization I hope to have enough pictures to choke a good mule so stay tuned!
I was filling out a document during lunch today for a speaking engagement. There were the typical questions on the form: name, email, phone, bio, session abstract and personal photo. Nothing major, I have all that easily available. The next question it asked for was a personal logo. I scratched my head, personal logo. Hmmm, I don’t have one. A quick search revealed this link about them but this is the first I’ve heard of one. Am I officially un-cool now? How many geek points does this cost me because I don’t have a personal logo? Not wanting to lose my geek points I quickly went back into the archives. I mean way back to the “ZorKa” archives.
For those that have only known me recently, I used to have a blog that was called “ZorKa”. For those that would like more clarification as to what ZorKa stands for read this and to get the full history read this. ZorKa was an alias I used throughout the Internet. I still have friends in certain circles that call me ZorKa and some newer friends that mix with the old friends have no idea why they call me that. The reason I stopped using ZorKa and created this blog branded with my personal name awhile back is because ZorKa is actually my web hosting company that I’ve owned since 1997. I needed to separate the company from the personality. I sleep better at night now knowing I have a true separation.
I tell you this because it does tie into the personal logo quandary I’m in. In the mid 90’s I created what I guess I would call a “personal logo” for ZorKa using The Gimp (open source Photoshop for those that don’t know). After much digging around I finally found it on my server. It is truly a work of art (cough cough) and is the ONLY image I’ve ever drawn from scratch by hand with a computer program. For now, this will have to do to fill the void for my personal logo. Geek points are now restored.
The only problem is when I shrunk it down to the 32×32 required size, it looks like crap. Thus, I’m posting it here so everyone can enjoy it to its fullest. Drum roll…….. I give you the all mighty ZORKA!
The other night I came in and decided I was going to burn the stumps in my yard. I am sick of looking at them and mowing around them. My John Deere lawn mower hates driving in circles, as does his rider. Officially, I have waged war with stumps in my yard. I grabbed a can of gasoline and soaked them down. Took a match, lit it from about 10 feet back and threw it toward the stump. POOOOOOOOF! Instant stump burning. Here are some pictures of my stump burning escapades.
This tree was killed by the hurricane. I had to finish cutting it down about a month ago. May it rest in peace. Once this stump burns out, this area will become my new pit. I’m taking some red blocks and building a wall around this area and adding a man made grill. Instant BBQ pit. Great for cooking dogs and burgers. Who needs charcoal!
Smaller stump. It didn’t have a chance but has proven to be a worthy adversary. Turns out there is a very large hole under this stump. I have yet to touch bottom on it.
The largest of all the stumps. About a three feet in diameter pine tree stump. It was also a victim of the hurricane.
Once all said stumps have burned I will be taking my tiller and tilling the ground, leveling it, then placing some centipede sod over the top of it. When all said and done, you’ll never have known a tree once lived there.