See ya Later, Cuddle Time

The Beard has a myriad of skills. I've documented some of them here. Some he's acquired in the Boy Scouts. Some on his mission. Some from varied education and vocational experiences.

First he was going to be a pilot.

Then he was going to be a professor of religion or seminary teacher.

Then he was going to open a Rita's Italian Ice in St. George with his favorite mission companion. {Fun Fact: their mission president beat them to the punch and opened the first Utah Rita's in Midvale a few weeks ago! This is an old photo from when we went to the Grand Opening. Go try it. It will change your life.}

Then he was working on a history degree, planning on going to law school afterwards.

Then he did BYU's Media Music program for a while.

But none of these were his THING. 

Thankfully it wasn't that he was lazy or stupid - he's so smart and could do ANYTHING, and has tried tons of options. It was just that he honestly didn't know what to do. Did that make us feel better? NOOOOOOOO! Just kidding. It did. A little.

But now we can laugh and laugh because HE FIGURED IT OUT. The Beard's favorite thing to say is "I'm realllllllly good at the internet." And he super is. He's always been so interested in all things technology, and he's thought about doing that for a long, long time. His last two jobs have been SEO and he liked it, but knew he wanted to do something more challenging.

Finally, this last spring he came across these boot camps that teach developers how to code in Ruby (don't ask me what it is or what it does, all I know is it's a coding language that Twitter and other cool, modern websites are built with). They are intensive 3-4 month programs for 8+ hours a day, and the closest one was in San Francisco. He started preparing and we started planning for it, thinking he'd apply this fall and who knows after that. I didn't love the idea of sending my husband to San Fran for months with a bunch of computer nerds.

The DevPoint Labs Development Bootcamp just fell right into his lap. And by that I mean we'd been praying for insight and guidance and Heavenly Father answers prayers and has a plan for us. Several big companies in Utah teamed up to start a bootcamp just like the ones in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and other big cities, aimed at training developers in the new coding languages that tech companies DESPERATELY need.They have multiple companies lined up to hire people right out of this program, including Zappos. Which would mean discounted shopping for me. Obvs I'm excited about that. He's excited too - spending lots of time looking at jobs in St. George and Phoenix, practicing coding nonstop and networking with his program peeps. You can read The Beard's Student Spotlight for the program here.

I could bore you with the details of how every tiny thing fell into place - the meetings, the random connections he had in the industry, paying for the program, getting the hours off at work he needs to go to this program (afternoons/evenings until 8 pm EVERY NIGHT. Yikes.), even the people who are already lining up interviews with him for when he completes the program in December. Suffice it to say that I've never seen him more sure of and excited about anything in his life, except maybe the release of The Hobbit last winter.  This is IT, you guys.

He starts today, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He's going to work almost full time at his job, go to class until 8 each night and most of the day on Saturdays, AND deal with crazy little me on his off hours. Here comes 2.5 months of super intensity! That means a lot less of this:

So anyone who wants to be my gym/cupcake/library/Netflix/girls night buddy to fill those now husbandless hours - I'm taking applications at dholdy{at}gmail{dot}com. I won't make you cuddle with me and Glen Coco unless you want to.

Sometime, Always, Never - How to Not Be an Idiot in the Blogosphere

Ok so this Sometimes, Always, Never isn't about a fashion faux pas. Sorry. But this topic has been showing up on multiple blogs and it IS Friday. Therefore, Sometimes, Always, Never returns.

My friend Sierra posted about this.

Life of Bon posted about this. 

Even a dance/fitness tumblr I follow posted about shutting down her ask box because everything she was getting was rude or stupid, even though she makes workouts and inspirational posts FOR FREE.

I am lucky to never have had an issue with rude/stupid/retarded comments on my blog, and wouldn't mind if I did. A girl once complained about a post we wrote on BYU Style back in the day when Katie and I were writing for it, and we just LOLed and LOLed over it. No harm done.

Despite all logic and humanity, blogging has somehow become a controversial issue. Blows. My. Mind.

To me, blogging is such a small, insignificant part of my life. I really like to write and I love reading blogs, but if my blog went away (Natural Disaster, Apocalypse, Electronic/Internet failure) would my world end? NO. It's just a fun thing to add to my life.

Logic would conclude that Blogging is this:

1. Someone has a site where they post their thoughts, ideas, outfits, recipes, opinions, intelligence and stupidity.
2. You DO NOT have to read it, they owe NOTHING to you, and it's not real life anyways. 
3. Reason would dictate that there is no possible reason to leave nasty comments, belittle others, complain about a blog or  even read it in the first place. Yet here we are. 

Without further ado.... How to Not be an Idiot in the Blogosphere.

SOMETIMES

Blog. Yes, you read that right. I firmly believe you should only blog SOMETIMES. Do not blog every day unless you are being paid to, or unless you want to lose touch with reality. Seriously. No one has a life so interesting that it requires everyday documentation.

Comment on blogs. If I tried to comment on every blog I read, even just once a week, it would be a colossal waste of my time. I only comment on posts that really touch me or relate to me. Just like you wouldn't try to talk to every single person at a big party, you shouldn't try to be part of every single blog on the interwebs. Come on.

ALWAYS

Follow what you love and unfollow what you don't. Don't be afraid to unfollow a blog or delete a subscription. Don't feel bad. This is your life. Don't waste it reading things that make you mad or sad or don't really contribute to your life.

Contribute positively. We all love a good b**** fit post. But the majority of your internet contribution should be positive, that includes comments and content you follow.  

NEVER

"I'm such a bad blogger!" Is blogging a sport? Is blogging a competition? No. Blog when and how and what you want to. If you're doing what you love you are a "good" blogger.

I take it back. If you don't know how to use the English language appropriately you are a "bad" blogger.

For the love of everything internet, do NOT make your blog your personal journal. No one cares. Sorry. But we don't want to know how many times you had to change your little one today or how you slept last night.

General Authorities have commanded us to keep journals. I get that. But if your journal is your blog you are missing the entire point - keeping things sacred.

***If you are leaving a mean comment, complaining about a blog, or getting angry about a post:***

You are the idiot we are referring to.

You do realize that it is THEIR blog, correct? And they they write it for THEM? Not you and your selfish little life.

So stop typing. Close that comment thread. Unfollow that blog. Log off your computer. 

No one will miss you. Trust me. 

If this is offensive, feel free to unfollow me. I recognize this was a mean ranting post. You have every right to choose what to follow and I have every right to write anything I choose. I'll take my own advice and get over it. Promise.

Because my value and self-worth are not determined by your comments or the number of followers in my right sidebar.