Oh, good Lord. Taxes are finally done. Can I get back to my life now?

It has been eons since I posted here, and a lot has happened to me. A lot of it won't be shared here for the sake of privacy and, well, sheer time-saving reasons. But I will promise you this: No chinchillas were injured during the writing of this entry.

So let's start with January. I filed for Corporate status for my business, and am now the manager of Brickworkz LLC. I hired a lawyer, who advises me to remind everyone that I'm an employee of Brickworkz. Saying "I am Brickworkz" implies that I am personally liable for business decisions, and could be held personally accountable.

While I respect the importance of the protections of the law, I have to disagree (at least on the lack of personal responsibility angle). I get why liability is important, but really, come on- why can't we be held responsible for our actions? I am not in business to hide from people. I'm in it to create relationships with customers and profit while making people's lives easier.

It was LLC protection that kept me from getting my final paycheck with Mobilistings back in 2005. I fought hard, even filing suit, but nothing could tap me into their checkbook because of LLC protections. That bastard kept everything he owned by "leasing" assets from the company to another LLC. He took his lawyer's advice, which is probably what my lawyer would have recommended too- but this guy screwed a lot of people. Work without pay is called slavery. The LLC protections made things seem like cheap lawyer trickery, and it pissed me off. I don't like that part of the protections of corporations.*

*As a PS to this story, I got my money back. I called the man a failure of a human being and a disgrace to professionals, a mockery of leadership and some other choice phrases. ...came up with them on the fly over the phone too! Not bad! : )

I'm sure in another day or two I may change my tone though. I am currently managing a large-scale upgrade for one of my clients. This project involves a 3rd party coming in to do the nitty-gritty work. Failure is not an option. Yet, the chance of some data loss is possible. We're going to run a backup first to ensure that all will be safe... but the pressure is on, as I feel somehow my reputation will be lumped in with the 3rd party. Time to work my technology management skillz.

It seems like everyone's building or moving in to a new house! My parents are selling their place now, and are building at the same time. Their new house was custom-designed, and it should be fantastic. They've got the roof on now, so it's really coming along. We'll move them in the fall.

Jeff and Olivia are building... well, THEY aren't building but people are building for them. : ) Their house has really come along- it'll be a few more weeks before things are fully done and we move them in.

Chris and Jennifer officially closed on their house today. I'm actually leaving in a few minutes to go help move them in. Seems like everyone moves in a two-year cycle or so. 'Cept me. I've put my feet firmly on the ground here and am following the mantra of Dave Ramsey: "Live like no one else so you can live like no one else" Check out some of his philosophies. I firmly believe in a bunch of them.

So welcome to Richmond, Jennifer. Everybody else, stay the heck where you are, damnit. Or at least hire movers. ; ) Just kiddin.

Kinda. : )

We've been hearing a lot from Mike in Baghdad. He sat on two different former thrones in one of Sadaam's palaces... the first was made of velour. The second? Porcelain. Pretty cool to say you've sat on the same commode as an International War Criminal.

...and if you want my take on Milosovic, he got out easy. A heart attack in a jail cell is just too quick for a man to die who is responsible for the direct torture and murder of thousands in attempts of ethnic cleansing. I hope our govt. had something to do with it. Yea, I said it.

Wow- a militant Brian tonight.

Anyway, hang in there Mike- keep learning stuff and keep on kicking ass out there. I'm really proud of you.

Things are picking up for my business, which is good. I'm getting in to making more websites, something I hadn't done in a while. The first was my own, a new site for my company. I took some time last month to start building my portfolio with LEGO mosaics. I'll have something to announce soon. Just a few more adjustments to make...

The 10k in Richmond was great. Our biggest turnout proved to be a good time for everyone. The city was booming with people. 20,000 people showed up for the race. This one was one of the better ones. I was impressed with my results, since I wasn't expecting to run. Herd mentality kicked in when the gun sounded and everyone around me started running. I just started running like Forrest Gump and didn't stop until I had gone a mile. When I had walked mile #2, I started running again and did almost another full mile. I ran into the finish as well- this was all unplanned (and believe me- not rehearsed.) Seems like all I did in the weeks prior to the race was eat, sleep, eat, play with LEGOs, eat, sleep, eat...

Well, the inner athlete came out. And he's been out since April 1 too. I've blown the dust off my older pair of running shoes (the ones that got me started running three years ago) and they've already taken me farther than I ever expected being so out of shape. Yee haw.

So watch out world. There's a new sheriff in town.

*Oh, and please feel free to comment below. I'm testing the waters with comments again, since the spam is finally dying. I'd love to hear from ya.