As I look at the calendar today I see that it is already mid-December. The temperature has dropped to unseaonsably cold levels here in Texas and it will be Christmas and then New Years before we know it. As I get older I feel as though the cosmos are spinning faster causing time to go by faster each year.

I can remember being a child and feeling that a year lasted such a long time, but now as an adult I feel as though every time that I wake up in the morning another year has passed us by. I suppose that if one were to try and put some logic behind it they might say that at this point in my life I have many responsibilities between my family and work. My childhood on the other hand was full lots of downtime and I was left trying to find things to do or even better what trouble I could get into. This comparision of having nothing to do versus having everyting to do might give someone the illusion that time is going by faster since they have less free time now compared to when they were a child. Then again this is just a theory and who has time for theories anyways.

This past year has been like most past years with many peaks and a few valleys. I find myself becoming more cynical as I get older so I tend to spend more time looking at the missed opportunities of the past year rather than focusing on the highlights. This blog is a perfect example of one of those missed opportunities. I had intended to spend more time writing and sharing things that interest me, but the speed at which the year traveled overtook me and so as the end of the year comes closer I am left with a blog that has only a smattering of posting for the year.

As I said during the beginning of this post, the new year will be upon us before we know it. What the coming year brings is anyone’s guess and I’m not ready to make any predictions yet. Nor am I ready to make my resolutions for the new year. Instead I’m going to reflect on the past year to myself and cherish the good times that I had and the successes that I have achieved. My life over the past year has been very blessed and I have a lot to be thankful and grateful for. Many people have had a tough year and somehow my life has avoided those obstacles.

Finally I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May all of your wishes come true this holiday season and I truly hope that everyone has a great year ahead of them. Hopefully the cosmos will slow down a bit so that we can all take the time to enjoy life just a little bit more.

Well the roller coaster ride is nearing an end. With just a little over a week left in the season my Texas Rangers have all but been eliminated. There is still a very small chance we could make the playoffs but the odds are not in our favor. The Rangers had a great year and I should really be happy with everything that they have accomplished. This season had a lot of high points when we thought they were going to do it and a lot of low points as the team fell apart. If they can build off this season and become more consistent next year they should be in the playoffs. Hopefully this won’t end up being on of those season that everything came together just right for them to make a postseason run and next year the team completely falls apart. It’s really late and I’m just taking a break from other assignments to post this quick message. There will be more posts soon.

I work full time for the Texas Rangers Baseball Club in the front office. This year is my 6th season working for the team and every season we have asked for just one thing from the team, meaningful baseball games in September.

As I write this the Rangers have just taken 3 of 4 from the Blue Jays and moved to within 3.5 games of the Angels for the division and 2.5 games of the Red Sox for the wild card. This is it. These are the baseball games we have been hoping for.

Part of my job envolves preparing for the post season if it should come our way. The things that need to take place just for the wild card games to be played in Arlington take months of planning, so even though we are not going to the post season yet we need to be prepare.

Emotions are the hardest part of a pennant race to control. With every win and every lose brings with it a roller coaster of feelings. I want to be cautious about the post season because as they say, there is still a lot of baseball to be played. At the same time as I prepare for the post season and see the logos everyday at work I get excited and hope that this young core of players can pull it off. This will be the first of many posts over the next several weeks that will hopefully have a great ending.

A year ago I decided to start writing a blog. I was going to use this as a tool to improve my writing skills and increase my online presence. Things started well and I made a couple of posts, but then like most people that start a blog I stopped posting. I’ve been using Twitter some lately and even that I don’t update enough. So I’m going to try this again. There is no way that I can expect myself to be a power blogger, but I should be able to knock out at least one post a week. I’ll even give myself credit for this one which I’m typing on my iPhone.

This is just kind of a personal therapy post. Just about a year ago I made the decision to return to school and get an A.S. degree in Computer Programing and Web Design. My plan was and is to complete this by taking classes on-line through my local community college while continuing to work my full time job. The fall semester came and went fairly easily. The classes were pretty basic computer stuff and things were slow at my full time job. I was able to get everything done that I needed to and spend time with my family.

My second semester was much more challenging. The 2 classes that I took were more challenging and required more of my time. Things also really picked up at my full time job and I found myself working 6-7 days a week and 10-14 hours a day just at my job. I was pushed past the point that my mind and body could take. My school work suffered, I got behind at my full time job, and I had no time to spend with my family. This was a very rough time for me and I’m glad I made it through it.

Currently I am taking a summer class, my work load at my full time job is moderately busy and I am trying to make as much time to spend with my family as I can. The past weekend I was even able to spend 3 days away from school and work and go on a small trip with them. I am taking an elective class that should be easy but is challenging only because I haven’t been able to get excited about the topic. Next month will be a true challenge for me as I am taking a second summer class that is only 4 weeks long and the first week of it I will be on a family vacation. This is one of my classes towards me degree so I need to do well on it and at the same time I want to be with my family while on vacation. This will be an interesting challenge.

So I have just finished my second semester in my return to college. Four courses down and a lot more to go before I get my degree. I really wish that I could take more then 2 classes at a time but as I learned last semester working a full time job and taking classes can be very difficult. At one point this past semester I had to put in extra hours at work and this resulted in me getting behind in both classes, missing some assignments, missing some tests, and ultimately resulting in my final grade of a B in both classes. Now I know that a B is a perfectly acceptable grade. It’s just knowing that had I not gotten behind I probably would have gotten an A in both classes.

The programming class that I took was much tougher than I expected. The theories and concepts of programming were not hard to grasp. What really slowed me down was the math in the programming. I had to come up with complex formulas for things like calculating the distance traveled by a projectile based on the angle of launch and speed traveled. Honestly I wasn’t really expecting that much math to be involved in a beginning programming class. It’s really making me lean more towards the web design part of degree.

I’m getting a couple of weeks off here before summer starts, just taking 1 class then. We are getting some work done around the house right now and I’m trying to relax a little while I can. I just finished reading The Pixar Touch and I think I’ll get one more book in before the semester starts. Also I really need to spend more time with this blog. Twitter has been my main thing lately. http://twitter.com/rueprecht

I’m not really sure if I should be impressed with this or feel bad for the person that dedicates their life to training their goldfish to do tricks. Anyways here is the demo video and the link to the store in case you want to buy it.  http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/adca/

Why isn’t this playing near me?

Since I can remember I was fan of Major League Baseball. I’ve never gotten into any of the other pro sports leagues. Yes, I will watch some football on TV and I go to a few hockey games. I know the basic rules, but I can’t tell you many of the players or which teams are good and which teams are bad. Baseball has been my sport and I love watching it no matter who is playing.

Steroids in baseball has changed things for me. I was raised with good values and I don’t think people should use illegal drugs, I don’t think people should cheat, and I certainly don’t think that people that cheat and are caught should go unpunished. People have argued with me that the use of the types of steroids that baseball players were using before 2004 was not cheating because there was nothing in the rules that stated they could not be used. My argument is that it was illegal to posses those drugs without a medical reason and a prescription so to me any other use would be cheating.

So why am I writing about this now? The story of steroids in baseball has been around for a while with stars like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds falling from grace. Today comes the news that Alex Rodriguez failed steroid tests back in 2003. I am not a fan of A-Rod’s but I have respected him as being the best player in baseball. He was the guy the that was going to break Barry Bonds tainted home run record and bring honor back to the achievement that once belonged to Hank Aaron.

Now I don’t know what to think of Major League Baseball. How many of the players that I have cheered on over that years have cheated and used steroids? I have the same feeling now that I had as a kid when I found out that wrestling was fake. Shortly there after I stopped watching wrestling. Wrestling now markets itself as entertainment and not a sport so if it’s fake that’s OK with me. Deep down they are not trying to fool anyone into thinking they are something they are not. I still don’t watch wrestling anymore.

Baseball is supposed to reward players that work hard and have the talent to play the game. The cheaters have taken that honor away from them. As a fan of the sport as a whole I feel cheated not by the individuals that cheated but by the fact that these players have been caught and not punished. The league claims that the players are protected by the union and they cannot be punished. This is a sport, not an auto factory so I don’t agree with that. Union or not, the commissioner has the responsibility to uphold the integrity of the game. If that means doing things that would lead to lawsuits and possibly rip apart the league as it stands today then that is what needs to be done. The only people that will be upset about these actions are those involved, the players and owners. The fans of baseball will understand the situation and respect Major League Baseball for cleaning up the sport. People need to be shown that their are consciousness when you cheat.

Today I am extremely disappointed with the state of  Major League Baseball. If baseball doesn’t do something about itself then I don’t know what future it has in my life. I am not going to let my son idolize cheaters and I’m not going to watch a sport where it’s best players are not allowed to be rewarded because others around them are cheating. Records need to be erased and those with any knowledge or involvement of cheating in the past or currently going on need to be punished. I hope that Major League Baseball gets the message because I would hate to lose it from my life.

I’m writing this more or less just to update my blog. When I decided to write a blog I started it without really knowing what direction I wanted it to go. I knew I didn’t want it to be just another personal diary for the world to read and I knew I didn’t want it to be something that just links to other peoples works. It’s been almost 2 months since my first post and I still don’t know what I want to do with this. I want to create compelling content that is of interest to some people, but I have not discovered what that content is yet. Time has not been my friend either. Having a family, working full time, and taking classes online doesn’t leave much time for this. I’ve had a lot of ideas of things that I want to write about, but they all require me spending time doing more research on the subjects that I just don’t have. I don’t want my posts to be just thrown up there. If I’m going to write about something I want to make sure I do it properly. So hopefully I can figure out what I’m going to do or how I’m going to do it soon because having this blog and not updating it is driving me a little crazy.

P.S. Why does the WordPress spellchecker think blog is not a word?????