Jmilley.com Obligatory Blog

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Got my Business Card preview today… It’s soon going to be Official, I’m a Software Engineer!

Life is Moving Fast

So much has happened since I last wrote anything… My days as a camera store employee, construction labourer, being a bachelor and using the Metrobus are over. Actually most of that happened in the last couple weeks.

Myself and Jessica got married on August 4th, after about 18 months of engagement… that went well and we had great time, I’ll be posting photographs as soon as I get a moment. Several weeks before that we found out I got a new job, a career actually, at Stratos Global Communications. I’m actually a Software Engineer now. So since that was starting this week, we knew we needed a car to get back and forth to Donovans where my job is, etc. Jessica’s parents were awesome and loaned us (which is now payed off) the money to purchase our first car, a 1997 Mazda 626.

So long story short life is coming at me very fast.

The new job is great so far, just had my first couple days and I’ve been doing the typical getting settled in things, getting my computer set up, phone, keys, etc. and of course trying to figure out what it is I’m supposed to be doing. I’ll let you know if and when that happens

So things are progressing nicely, we can actually start thinking about making concrete plans for when she graduates next spring. We’re no longer hanging on unknowns. I’m still hoping to finish my Masters program, and Jessica wants to start hers as soon as she can. We might be in the market for our first house once Jessica gets a full time Job after graduation. Who knows what the future holds, but I’m happy with the present.

I’m still doing some camera work on the Side, right now I’m working two photography gigs, cluing up the Tely 10 road race photos, getting orders sorted, etc. and just this evening we started shooting the H.O.G. Rally for the Harley motorcycle owners group. It should be a fun weekend.

So, this was a big post for me, hopefully I can get the motivation to continue this

Stuff Happens

Life is moving on, work is going well, I’m teaching every second Saturday. This is Jessica’s birthday weekend, the big Two Five tomorrow. We’re going to Montanas this evening with her Parents, should be interesting anyway.

Thursday myself, Dave, Hanz and Leigh went out to Boston Pizza. Just hanging out and shooting the shit.

We went out Friday with the gang, hung out at Dave’s place for a while and then headed down to O’Reillys for a while, met up with some more souls there. It was fun times, decent music and good beer. After that we headed over to the Celtic Hearth for some late night grub. Little bit of a hangover Saturday, made the first hour or so of work annoying.

I’m dreaming up some ideas for projects to take on… I’d like to come up with a commercially viable idea. I’m bouncing one around my head for a wireless device. I’m going to look at starting a photography business as well.

On another note, is anyone looking for an energetic cat? Guiness is driving us nuts. She comes with everything you need.

More to come.

Jon

plans, etc.

So we’re finalizing the plans for the wedding, August 4th, 2007 at 2pm at Gower St. United. This past week or so we’ve got the bridesmaids dresses picked (I had very little to do with this) and the flowers… next it’s the cake and the invitations.

Gotta finalize my half of the guest list for sending out invitations now, should be fun…

I’ve just finished editing the photos from my latest photo shoot with The Neighbourhood Strays , a belly dance troupe whos members include friends of mine. Jenn asked me to do the shoot for their upcoming website redesign. I’ll be posting some photos soon.

I want to start doing more work like that. I got to get my portfolio filled up and get something on the go with that.

Well thats it for now,

Later,

Jon

It’s 2007… a big year coming up

So it’s now 2007, and this promises to be a big year. It’s now less than 7 months to my wedding day (August 4th) and the plans are coming a long swimmingly…

Christmas was good, even though the holiday was brief. We spent our first Christmas together at Jessica’s parents home. It was a good day, but a little strange not being with my own family. Then on Wrestling Day (Boxing Day I mean) we drove to Grand Falls to see my family. On the 27th we drove to Pasadena to see my Grand Parents, and then to Burlington for a breif visit with Jessica’s Dad’s parents. That was a lot of driving, but it was good to see my Nan who broke her hip a few weeks before Christmas, and it was good to meet Stan and Marie (Jess’ Grand Parents). Then the 28th we drove back to St. John’s because Jessica had to work.

For New Years we went out to a friends place in Topsail… Amazing house, and great times with friends… Photos here : http://picasaweb.google.com/jmilley/NewYearsNicks

I’m working on upgrades to my website and looking at setting up a photography business on the side. For the moment I’m working part time at Newfoundland Camera, I’ve been selling cameras (and accessories, and developement, etc.). Soon I’m going to be teaching classes in beginning digital photography.

Heres a list of the websites that are being really helpfull in my exploration of photography:

• http://www.dpreview.com — Great camera reviews and discussion forums.
• http://www.nikonians.org — discussion forums, articles, etc. excellent resource
• http://www.bythom.com — Pro Photographer, reviews, articles, etc.
• http://www.strobist.com — The bible of Off Camera Lighting (small strobes) (with discussion forum)
• http://www.photographytips.com — Lots of articles on various topics
• http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm — Pro Photographer, tech tips, reviews, etc. (take some of with a grain of NaCl)

Thats a few… of course Google is the best resource…

More updates later…

Check out http://jonmilley.com for more business info.

Jon

Mono, Backs, Weddings, Apartments, Jobs and Cats

Old entry I forgot to post:

So, I’m in Grand Falls - Windsor right now writing this… Missing Jessica who isn’t joining me till Saturday here. But first I’ll back track the story a few weeks…

So 4 weeks (or so) ago I started to feel a cold/flu coming on. I developed all the classic flu symptoms and figured going to the doctor was just going to end with me getting antibiotics that I (mistakenly) thought I did not need. 2 weeks later I’m still suffering with it and it’s affecting my school work, my personal life, professional life, etc. Then one day I wake up with a 100x worse sore throat and I cannot eat, it hurt (alot) to drink even water. So I went to the nearest open clinic and saw a young doctor who said strep throat, 4-5 days with these antibiotics and your be fine.

Two days later that was not the case. I was worse (alot worse) friday evening and I went back to the clinic, but it was really really slow (not one patient came out or went in for more than a few miniutes, and I got fed up and left) next morning I’m there waiting for it to open and get a perscription for different antibiotic and then they never worked.

By Sunday after 4 days of eating a very liquid diet and being sick I was much sicker that I had been before.

So I went to the ER and long story short I was admitted to St. Claires where I stayed a week and ate much liquids.

My back has been aching a bit today, that has me worried… but it’ll force me to be more concious of it during the run up to the wedding.

Next on my update agenda is the back… It’s been acting up lately, not to the point of can’t handle school work for even 5 minutes, but since I’m THE photographer at the wedding (more later) this weekend I need to be in 100% condition. so tomorrow I’m paying (literally) a visit to my chiropractor.

So My Uncle Wayne and his fiance are getting married this weekend. Initially they had asked me to do the photos… At first I declined and said I didin’t have the gear (which I didn’t at the time) and they hired a “pro”. He ended up backing out a few months before the wedding cause he got accepted to the RCMP training program.

So the question came back to me about can I do it… I’d amassed a bunch of equipment of the the interveining months and I felt I could do it.

I’ll post more (and photos after the stress hangover is gone on Sunday.

More on the new apartment (columbus terrace on crosbie rd) in a later post.

Next friday I start a new job selling cameras at the local camera repair/sales shop. Just 2 shifts a week (friday and saturday). I might also have some christmas hours lined up at the other camera shop that could see me working as many as full time hours or more.

Our kitten guiness is so cute! heres a link to a small photo album.

Thats all for now!

Jon

I have been to the wilds of Wisconsin

So I spent 5 days in Wisconsin with my Fiancee… It’s still strange to me to say that, but I’m so happy to be getting to say it
I had an awesome time down there, spent some time at the camp Jessica works at and got to see what that was all about. It’s good to have a better appreciation for what she does, and how busy her time is.

We spent some time in Stevens Point, a bigger town near where she works, went shopping and ate out there. Spent a night in Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin, and did some shopping and went out for supper and a couple bars. It was her friend Erin’s birthday on Saturday and we celebrated that with her.

The big thing we did in Madison was get a tattoo… we both got a small celtic trinity knot on the back of our lower right calf. It’s small and tasteful, and was a good bonding experience.

On the drive back to the camp on Sunday, we encountered a crazy thunderstorm… the rain and hail was so bad that nearly everyone on the 6 lane interstate pulled off the highway.

I think everything is going to be great, I’m feeling much more at peace and relaxed than I was before I went.

I’m looking forward to the rest of my summer, even though I’m going to be really busy with my masters research.

Jessica will be home in 36 days, that doesn’t seem so far away now. I’m going to be housesitting for her parents for the first 2 weeks of July, so that should be great, and I’ll be having a few BBQ parties for sure.

Later days.

Jon

Life update

So, Jessica has been in Wisconsin for the past couple weeks, and it has been rough. I’ve been feeling quite down, missing her a lot, not really enjoying school, being under the weather and generally lonely because I’m now alone in my own apartment.

But I decided I had to do something to change this. My feelings have been a real drag on our relationship, and I was afraid I was going to irreparably damage what we have. She means the world to me, and I don’t want a mere two months to interfere with a lifetime of happiness.

So I’m going to Wisconsin. The monetary cost of going will be a drop in the bucket in light of cost of not going. I don’t think for a minute we would have ever considered breaking up, we are perfect for eachother, but I wouldn’t want any sort of a bad experience to taint our feelings from here on out.

I’m trying my best to keep my spirits high, and counting down 9 days rather than 53 is definently bouying my spirits. We do talk a fair bit, but it’s scattered and impossible to schedule, so it was hard to look forward too. this milestone in 215hours is very easy to look forward too.

So I’m flying out of St. John’s at 5:20am on the 21st, and I will be in Milwaukee by 9:20am local time. I’m renting a car and driving the couple hours up to Almond, Wisconsin where the camp Jessica is working at is located. So I’m anxiously counting down to lunchtime (central time) on June 21. I will be there for 3 nights, then a night in Madison and then one last night at the camp before I fly out of Milwaukee at 6:30pm on June 26th.

In exchange for permission to visit the camp, and staying there I’ll be volunteering some time doing maintenance work, etc. Hopefully I’ll get to spend a fair bit of time with Jessica those first few days while she is still working, if not it’s going to drive me nuts

Anyway, wish me luck and good times in Wisconsin.

The other big news in my life is that we have decided on August, 2007 for a wedding date. So far not too many details have been ironed out, but we’re looking at an outdoor garden wedding and reception at Jessicas parents house. My uncle Garry will officiate the ceremony, he’s a Pentecostal minister, and my cousin Erin will be doing a solo, so it will be a very family oriented wedding.

Life moves on, and things I never thought would happen in my life keep coming fast. I’m constantly amazed I found someone like Jessica, and now that we are getting married, I’m so gratefull for all the things that brought us together.

Love life and live each day to the fullest,

Jonathan

I got Engaged!

***This is a repost from my MSN spaces account***My life is such a juxtaposition of High and Low right now, High because I asked my girlfriend Jessica to be my wife on Friday, and low because my new Fiance had to leave this morning for 8 weeks.

So the story of the engagement… It all began just 4 months ago, I met this wonderful woman a few years my junior. We met in a roundabout way thanks to the wonders of the Internet, and began chatting on MSN a while before we met. We had so much in common, including discovering that our circle of friends and aquaintences over lapped at a fairly high rate. So we had our first date on January 27th, at the Casbah and then O’Reilly’s Pub.

Barely a week later I knew I wanted to start a serious relationship with Jessica, and we began what became a whirlwind romance that took us to May 26th, seeing eachother nearly every day, and never for a moment getting sick of one another. That afternoon I came home for lunch and we were chatting and what not, the topic of marriage had come up before and we both really knew that we were perfect for eachother and would eventually want to become husband and wife. So that afternoon Jessica brought up the topic once more, and said she would like to get engaged before she went away. Not really being serious about it, so I said to her that I didn’t see it happening this soon. I said I never had the ring, and said she should meet my parents first (they are living away on the mainland), etc. etc. So I said no, I didn’t think it would really happen this soon.

Lies… I went back to “work” and instead went to the mall, purchased the ring I had had on lay away, and then made my way over to her parents house. After we chatted for a while, had a cup of tea, etc. I told them the reason for my visit. I was planning to ask their daughter for her hand in marriage, and wanted to ask their blessing for me to do this. They of course said yes, and after some hugs hand shakes, shed tears, and a shared drink we parted ways with plans in motion.

We had previously made plans to go out for supper with her parents that night, as she was leaving in a few days and wanted to spend time with both myself and them. So at 5:30 I pick up the ring from the jeweller, and make my way to pick her up, then pick up her parents. We are at the Bally Hailey golf club at around 7pm, have a fine meal and a nice glass of red wine. Afterwards, while we are enjoying our tea and coffee I say to her father, “Bruce could you take a photo of myself and Jessica before the evening moves on?”. As he gets the camera out, and Jessica moves closer to me to pose for the photo, I take out the ring box and get down on one knee. Before I can even start what I was planning to say Jessica teared up and kept asking “Are you really?” “Are you really?” “Is he really?”, you get the picture.

I start into what I wanted to say, pausing for Jessicas tears (of Joy). “Jessica, we’ve only known eachother a short 4 months, but in this time I’ve come to know you better than any other person in my life. You are my best friend, and my soulmate. Would you make me the happiest man alive and be my wife?” There were lots of tears (by all four of us) and happy laughter from her parents. We were causing quite a scene in the restaurant and after she said yes and I was slipping the ring on her finger, we got a standing ovation and a round of everyone tapping their glasses. The Golf club gave us a complimentary bottle of chanpagne, and the rest of the evening was made up of celebrating and calling friends and relatives.

Afterwards we went down to O’Reillys, the site of the second half of our first date. We listened to some irish music, got a congratulations announcement from the performer (Dermot O’Reilly) and danced a couple dances. met up with friends, and had a great evening.

Thats the story of how I went from a lonely 26year old to an engaged 26 year old who’s happier than he’s ever been, in just 4 short months.

However Jessica had commited to work for the summer in Wisconsin at a camp for underpriviledged children. So even though she never really wanted to go and no one, especially not me, wanted to see her go she left this morning at around 5am for 8 weeks of summer in the sun and being a camp nurse. I’m sure she’ll have a great summer and I will concentrate on my work and fill up my time wisely.

Thanks for reading, I know it was long winded, but I am sure some will appreciate the details.

Jonathan

Life gets flipped turned upside down.

Things are getting shaken up. After living at 48 MHD for 15 months and sharing it variously with 8 people I can’t take roomates anymore. I’ve always shared homes all through my University career, but finally I can’t do it anymore. I’m soon going to be 27, working on a Masters degree, I have a girlfriend that I love, and who loves me, I need my own space.

Having my home be a major source of stress and upset in my life has been having big effects on the rest of my life. I just want to move on and have a place I can come home and kick up my feet and know noone will be upset if I don’t do the dishes today, or don’t shovell till next week. Somewhere to call my own and to know I’m not answerable to anyone else.

I don’t have any desire to share a home with anyone again till I’m ready to settle down with the one I love. I feel strongly that that persone will be Jessica, in a couple years when we’re both finished with school and are ready.

It’s a little less than 33 days before Jessica leaves, and 120.5 days till she comes back. Thats so soon, and so far away…

Well, I have to end this now. I really never got much work done today between being sick, being agravated, and worrying about finding a new place to live, not to mention the dozens of other things running through my head.

I wish I could blink and have a new place to live and have it be august 5th.

Jon