Life As Nick Starr

Yesterday, despite coming down with a cold (and I have officially lost my voice today), I started a new consultant gig with a company down in Sarasota, Fl. It isn’t that far from St. Pete, but there is the Sunshine Skyway bridge to cross, which is quite the impressive bridge. I’ve decided to just stay down this way instead of the long commute daily.

Yesterday was the first day and from what I saw of the job, it is quite simple and something I can do no problem for the next 4-6-8 weeks. This is also the highest paying job I’ve ever had as well, so it will help in my move fund to San Francisco/San Jose, which I play on doing once this job has ended.

Last night I played poker at the local dog track down here, which has the best looking poker room in all of the Bay area, and ended up walking out with an extra $350. I still plan on going back to Pinellas as I have a few items from Amazon being shipped, and the new Apple Bluetooth Headset looks quite impressive, and hit store shelves yesterday.

As far as I can tell there is little to no 3G coverage down here, so my 3G+ card from AT&T isn’t the most useful, but there are always coffee shops with WiFi. Well, until later, take care.

Well this will be my 3rd trip to Orlando in 6 weeks. I really like being able to get away from everything that is familiar here and feel like I am on a mini-vacation. There’s a spot in Orlando called Old Town, that I went to with my Aunt/Uncle & Grandparents after my Great-Grandmother’s funeral back in January. It’s setup with all the olde-timey shops, etc and is a pretty cool place to hang out, watch a vintage car show, and have some great food.

The first time I went was for a poker tournament, but now its turned into a mini getaway.

Even found a few good spots to sleep that are isolated. So, today I went and got my hair done (was going to do it tomorrow but because of this trip I went today). I saw Jen Holloway, news anchor for Bay News 9, getting her hair done at the same time.

(Time Jump)

So, I’m back from Orlando, and a bit under the weather. I had a good time, as many of you might of noticed from my twitter updates. I didn’t leave till Sunday night (typically leave Sunday afternoon), so I didn’t get back to Tampa until WAAAY late, and barely got any sleep that night.

I did make it to Disney’s MGM Studios, which was remarkably less enjoyable this time around, then when I was a child. There just didn’t seem like a ton to do there, I had done everything by 2pm, and left at 4pm (after riding Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s Rocki ‘n’ Roller Coaster another time).

Check out all the pictures in this Flickr set.

This post was started on Friday as I was leaving for Orlando, and finished after I got back.

I “live” in the Tampa Bay area currently, and it is getting to be quite hot. During the day it is barable, mainly because everywhere I go has AC. In the car at night, it just isn’t possible to run the AC all night long. I don’t want to have my windows down, due to bugs getting in or anyone that might be walking by. It isn’t that hot outside at night yet, and there tends to be a breeze, but I don’t benefit from that being in the car all night long.

Last night I woke up 3-4 times to turn the AC on full blast for a few minutes to cool down. I’m not wearing my typical mock turtleneck and bluejeans at night, but rather slip into shorts and a mock turtleneck t-shirt.  I can’t think of any ways to get cool at night without having the windows down.

I was thinking about that headband thing from the 90’s that had fans in it to cool you down, but can’t seem to find it online anywhere. Anyone have any suggestions? I’m thinking of staying at the Hostel I stayed at on Clearwater Beach more often (well I haven’t been there but that one weekend).

When I do get a truck (which keeps looking further and further way), I am going to make sure it has screened in windows in the bed topper, so this won’t be such a problem.