How many people do you know who constantly live on the laurels that "When I was eight years old, I was tested as having a 146 IQ" ??? I find it to be disgusting and vile that someones largest achievement in life was something that they did before they were even able to vote.

I mean, come on people... Get out there and make a life for yourself. Sure, you may have had an 11th grade reading level in the 4th grade, such a shame that you never rose above it.

The same goes for all of you jocks out there. So you made the winning touchdown pass at your last highschool/college football game. What do you want, a bozo button??? Yes, I am opinionated, yes, I can be harsh, but I think that we all need to do the best with what has been given to us. If you want to rest on the laurels of your "Glory Days," don't go expecting any credit from me.

The way that I look at it is this:

1. Go out of your house and live an interesting life.
2. Meet new people who didn't grow up in the same cookie-cutter house like you.
3. Don't be afraid to leave the borders of the state you live in. TRUST ME, you won't fall off the edge of the planet.
4. Just because someone doesn't look like you, talk like you, or live like you, it doens't mean that they are in league with Lucifer.
5. Your mom and dad weren't right about everything, and if you ask them, neither were their parents.
6. If you use a derogatory racial slur in front of me, I will kick you in the nuts.

Okay, I think that I have made my very opinionated opinion made. Thus sayeth the Broch.

Here is hoping that everyone has a wonderful weekend.

This week has been an absolutely crazy mess of SQL Server disasters, .NET server mayhem, and now today, a FRICKIN VIRUS!!!!!! Tomorrow is my Friday, Hooray for that! Thank God that I didn't do anything silly like give up beer for Lent. Beer is, after all, proof that God loves us and wants us to feel good.

I think that this is going to be a good weekend to relax, not worry about work, and to turn off my cell phone. Oh yeah, drink beer as well. I think that spending some serious qt with someone special ;-) is in line as well. Did I forget to mention having a couple of beers?? Hahahaha, that is definitely on my mind right now, so I think that I will. Im open to new kinds of beer right now, and Samuel Adams is not even going to be on that list (Sorry Soda.) For some reason, I can't stomach it. Newcastle is near the top of the list right now, along with Guiness and Bud Light. Yes, I know, Bud Light shouldn't be so high on the list when you think of the others including Paulaner.

I just received some "We are gods" figures that some companies like to share about their bottom line...

I have a few questions to pose to the powers that be. What else do you figure into your bottom line there??? Sure, you may have increased net profits for the year, but how the hell do you sleep at night??? How many of your employees are taking anti-depressants as a direct result of your initiatives to grow company profits?? How about the increase in the use of sick time for anxiety or related illnesses? When was the last time that you set up an interview with a random person in the working rank, to have them come in your office and tell you how things were going? If your company conducts exit interviews, how are they going, and what have people had to say? If there is a consistent theme, do you dismiss it as sour grapes, or are you willing to do something about it?

Yes, I realize that some people who read here are the big kid in their sandbox, and none of this is geared towards you whatsoever. Nose, I respect the hell out of you for what you have done, and I give you big props for foraging your way into the business world. It is a scary place out there!

My point is that there IS a different way. No, I'm not talking about any huggy-touchy-feely multi-level marketing plans who hold cult-like inspirational meetings that are practically required, yes, Quixtar, Im talkin about YOU!!!!! I have had friends get sucked into their cult, and have lost their asses. Whoa! Did I go off on a tangent there or WHAT??? Can you tell how opposed I am to multi-level-marketing?

Yes, though, there is a different/responsible way to run companies. Nose is a shining example. I have to give my bro a plug here.... Nose started and runs Andrews Companies Inc., an IT consulting firm in Indianapolis. He and his crew can do it ALL!!!

Enough said, my rant is over.

This week at work a co-worker presented me with the opportunity to own a piece of Rock and Roll history, a 1999 Fender American Stratocaster. Not one to pass up a bargain (It is a SIN after all!) I made a deal with him, and carted it off to its new home with me. With a fresh set of 10's and some minor setup, it has some serious tone that sends chills down my spine. Ah, retail therapy at its finest!

Actually, I have no need for retail therapy right now, life is really AWESOME right now, and it keeps getting better. Good things are afoot in Brochs little world, I can't complain about much right now!

One of my all time favorite movies is Jerry McGuire, for a variety of reasons. The character, Jerry, that the movie focuses around, is a great role-model of what it means to be a man, at least in my eyes. There are several facets of his personality that I find to be idealistic, especially the fact that he, in every instance, chooses what is right over the "Bigger and better deal." The mission statement that he wrote, distributed, and ended his career with a large sports management firm was the first instance of this. The second instance was when he decided to end his relationship with the cold, callous, vindictive, yet really hot woman, and followed his heart to marry the woman that chose to leave her career with the same firm to come help him start his business.

Where am I going with all of this?? Ill get there, I promise. Over there on the side of this weblog, you can see a list of what I call my "Daily Oxygen." Those are others weblogs that I check with every day. Some of them I found totally by chance, some of them I found by following links on others sites.

I have always wondered if someone who had Jerry's ideals and beliefs would start up a business, just how well it would do. This would have to be a business where operations would be based on sound financial decisions, but it would also be a place where the employees would come into the office every day with a huge smile on their faces, and actually be excited to be there, feeling a personal stake in everything that they touched.

One day, a few months ago, I followed a link off of Julies weblog, where she was congratulating a couple on their engagement. The link took me to the personal website of Aaron, who is the president of Wondermill Webworks, a small internet company located in Victoria, British Columbia. Fortunately, the night that I wondered across the website, I had about an hour to kill, so I read the site from "Cover to cover." If ever there were a dream employer, Wondermill would be it. In an effort to not mis-quote or mis-inform, I would just like to highly recommend that all of you take a few moments out of your day and go on over to www.wondermill.com and check out what they are doing. If you only have time to read a little of it, first read about the history of the company, then their online employee manual. I would encourage, though, that you take the time to read the entire site.

For an opportunity to work with people like they have, I would gladly take a fifty percent salary cut, just for the opportunity to witness and interact with a group of individuals who believe so strongly in what they do, and why they do it. It isn't all about the big dollars, fame or fortune, rather quality of life and happiness.

Hats off to you Aaron, and all of the folks and Wondermill as well! I don't have a fancy online award to hand you, nor would anyone care if I did, but do know that what you are doing up there in Canada is being noticed and noted.

While trying to subjectively profile my co-workers, I realize that I work in a barnyard of mediocrity. Is this what I want from my life, or even worse, what I can even begin to accept as my daily existence??? It surprises even me that a company would reach so far into the barrel of applicants to find some of these people.

During my hiatus from posting here, I began to realize just how much the information super-highway kept me in touch with the reality that is the world going on around me. Among some of my favorite peeps out there, I have to give shout outs to the good people of Orange County, California, as well as those of you in the Bay area. I am in serious need of updating my links, as some of my favorite reads have been changing. I still check in on most of my regulars, but there are some really great reads out there that I need to link to, as you folks rock my pants! Among these are the writing genius of Derek Powazek, the wonderful stories over at the Fray, and one of my huge goals for 2004, attending Burning Man.

This year is going to be a fantastically exciting one for me. Last year was a transitional year, learning who I was again. Along the way, many of you helped me discover who I was shaping into being, and helped me realize that some of my seemingly neurotic ideas were perfectly normal, and that I am just who I am. Hey, if you guys can deal with that, I guess I should be able to do the same. As I was saying, this year is going to totally rock my face. I am sitting with an entire months worth of vacation, and am putting together a plan of how to use each and every moment of it. I think that at least a week of it needs to be spent outside the borders of North America. One week is going to be spent at Burning Man, and then there are another two weeks to be dealt with.

There are some really cool things going on "behind the works" as well, and Im feeling really good about that as well.

Only 214 days until Burning Man, gotta start planning!

Occasionally Hollywood will shock us and put out a movie of epic proportions. Yesterday I saw a movie that would most assuredly fit the bill. As most of you who come here regularly know, in the past two years I haven't been big on posting reviews of movies, music, or much of anything for that matter. This is mostly due to the fact that I think that most of what is out there is total crap.

This story hit very close to home for me, as it was a story of a man trying to identify and have understanding with his father while he still had the chance. As someone who lost his father during that "Awkward" phase of early adulthood, the movie hit me very hard.

Big Fish appealed to the same side of me that Harry Potter did. Deep down inside I am still the 8 year old little boy would would love to live in a world where we don't have to worry about the things that complicate adult life. The film bases itself around the magical and mythical world of childhood storytelling and how sometimes truth is actually stranger than fiction.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't continue reading past here, YES, this means YOU, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, ;-).

The part of the movie that I relate the most to was at his fathers funeral. The cast of characters that he has heard about his entire life shows up and is there to help celebrate the wonderful and beautiful life that belonged to Edward Bloom. My fathers funeral was very similar, and as the crowd flowed in like high tide, I realized just how many people my father touched in his all too short lifetime.