Another month rolls by...

And has it ever been busy! Okay, it has been busy, but I think I said that for the benefit of the one or two people that actually read this so as to explain why I haven't written anything in a month.

Anyway, things are taking major turns in my life. The company I work for now is having issues...major issues. Combine that with being on call 24/7, getting phone calls in the middle of the night over a first aid issue, putting 500 miles per week on my car just going to and from work, and the fact that my old boss called me up offering another position with Insource... and it seems that Divine Guidence is trying to make itself heard. We'll see.

Heidi and I are both sleep deprived and irritable. Her due to Summer School at UNCC... me due to those middle of the night phone calls and leaving the house every morning by 4:30 am. I think we both may calm down after we get the house back in shape. We have trashed the upstairs trying to get new carpet in the Master bedroom. Now that it's in, we have to move everything back, rearrange the furniture and move things around other places as well. The next project is painting "The Cave", the bonus room over the garage. We picked out a moss green color that goes well with the green in the couch.

I am looking forward to July. Heidi and have many things planned for us to do together and with other couples. It's going to be a fun month!

Of course I have to get through June first....

Too Much going on...

I was reminded the other day that blogs need to be updated...so much for getting my thoughts down on a regular basis, huh?

So what's been going on? Name it. Work is crazy. As a Safety Guy for a manufacturing company, I have my hands full. It seems that there is no end to people placing themselves in harm's way. We have addressed the majority of unsafe conditions, yet people are still getting hurt. The morale in the plant isn't that good, and all the activities that I am having folks do doesn't seem to be making a differnce. Time to try something new. As with all new things, new takes more time initially.

The Knightly Order of the Fiat Lux is going strong. We have a number of new members (Squires) and I look forward to our ranks of Knights growing even larger. For those of you that have no idea what the KOFL is, let me summarize: It is a non-profit, fraternal organization that provides educational activities that in turn raise moneies for special needs children. We wear armor, fight, do demonstrations (Soft sword and live steel) as well as provide community service to specific organizations.

I hope to be able to update this site more frequently, but I ain't promising anything. Heidi (my wife) is back in school to become a teacher, and got Straight A's this semester at UNCC. Chancelor's List. I am so proud of her for all her hard work and dedication.

Also started playing SOLAR, Shadowmoor campaign. I love it. It helps that most of my friends from the other game I use to play are there as well. Still fighting Two-handed.

Well, that's it for now, I have to go tell people how to be safe. I hope I can update you guys on more later.

New Year, new..well..almost everything

Sometimes you just gotta take a chance. And I have. Boy, have I...

I took a new job, stepping out of my comfort zone and into a new environment. I now work for a plywood company as their safety coordinator. The job is challenging, and presents an awesome opportunity. It is about an hour's drive away from my home, and that can be a downer for someone who has never had to drive more than 20 minutes to work before. On the bright side, the Charlotte Mecklinburg Library has a number of great books on tape...or cd... and that makes the ride better.

The LARP I've been playing for the last 2 years is having some financial troubles, and may not operate this year. Again, might not be so bad as there is another larp that is close by and may work out until one of the previous larp's founders is looking to start a new larp in about a year. He even asked me to be on the Board of the new non-profit. I'm still unsure of that due to the demands of my new job, but we will see how it goes.

The job I have would be a bit easier if there wasn't so much political, "Us vs. them" crap going on. I think we all want the same thing, to do business well and safely, but the way it's being carried off is not how I envisioned it. I'm still only in my first month, so maybe when I can get my vision expressed, it will settle in.

And, I bought a new car. Nothing extravigant...but at 41 years old, it is the first new car I have ever owned. Taking on a car payment and additional insurance obligations can be scary, too. I guess I just need to have some back up plans in place to feel more secure.

But, I guess this gets you up to date on what is going on in my life. Not that anyone reads this... :)

At the Faire...

My brother and I as our TALAN characters: Aridreki (me on the left) and Kiarr (my brother Heath, on the right)

Holiday Rush

I was thinking about the site today, and realized that I hadn't written anything in almost a month! How time flies when you are harried as a deer on opening day!

The Holidays (The set between the middle of November until the First of the New Year) are very hectic times. My parents are divorced and remarried and then there are my wife's folks. Travel, travel and more travel. I am luckier than most as all my relatives live in North Carolina. But still...3 hours here..then another hour there and then 4 hours back make for a very long day, not to mention the time spent visiting.

Then you add the expense of the gifts you are expected/required/feel obligated to purchase.

I do not know how my parents ever managed it. I don't have enough money to buy who I want to buy for let alone who I am expected to buy for.

You know, when you hear of people saying they are getting away from the commercialization of Christmas, and remembering what it is all really about? I like that. Not because I am that religious, but because it sure would be cheaper!

LARPing as an escape..

I mentioned in a previous post that I enjoy LARPing. I participate in a "boffer larp" called TALAN (http://www.talanlarp.org). I am a stick jock. That is to say, my character is a warrior, and decides issues with his sword. These weapons (swords, axes, maces, hammers, staves, etc) are usually made with pvc and foam. When describing my LARP weekends to "normals" I will describe it one of two ways: "Running around in the woods and beating each other with plumbing supplies", or as "A medieval , interactive, improvisational theater with no audience but the participants". Both are accurate.

This Saturday, TALAN will be having a one-day event (we are not having winter games this year) that will take place in Concord, NC at the home of a couple that play the game. On Sunday, the group (well, almost all of them) will be going to the NC renaissance Festival, just a few miles down the road from where we are having the TALAN event. It is the last day of the festival, and will double as my birthday celebration.

TALAN provides me with an escape. A chance to be someone else. Or, in my case, let the barbarian in me out. If you have never experienced a LARP, I highly recommend it. We have players from 14 - 54 in our group and there is something in the game that appeals to everyone with an imagination. If you don't think this happens where you are, go to Shade's Larp List (http://www.larplist.com). There you can look for larps in your state. Also, Ebay is a great place for costumes and accessories. Type in the word "larp" in all categories and you'll be amazed how much is out there.

Anyway, I need to get back to work so I can have time to enjoy this weekend!

New to this blog thing...

I was reviewing my little piece of cyberspace, and realized that I haven't told you much about myself. So for those of you interested (and those of you who have stumbled in), here is a bit on who I am...

My name is Barton Jones. I am a Workplace Safety Professional with Insource Safety Associates, an Occupational Safety and Health Consulting firm headquartered in Charlotte, NC. I am 40 years old (until November 16, 2005), married to a wonderful, if at times difficult, lady named Heidi. We live and work in Charlotte, NC, the city in which my wife grew up.

I was born on a Monday, at 5:11 pm, in Smithfield, NC, at Johnston Memorial Hospital. My father and mother agreed on my name out of a baby book to keep from naming me after the men in my father's family. My name means Barley Farmer. Yeah... That's what I said, too! That, and they didn't think about school kids trying to rhyme my name. I let you figure that one out.

I grew up (from 1 until 18) in a suburb of Durham, NC called Parkwood. Parkwood has since been annexed, but it was a really cool place to grow up. It is right on the edge of the Research Triangle Park (my Dad worked for IBM for 32 years) and it was about 20 minutes drive to either Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I left the Triangle area to attend college at UNCG, in Greensboro, NC. Well, to be honest, my High School sweetheart moved to that area after we graduated with her family, and I wanted to be close. Of course, a week before I started college, she broke up with me. Serves me right.

Anyway college was fun. I was a founding member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity chapter on campus, dabbled in campus politics (I was a Poly Sci major), and worked my way through school with the help of my parents. I liked the social scene there. What guy wouldn't... seven girls to every guy...and all the guys weren't straight. In fact, I liked it a bit too much, taking my time graduating. Actually, I did a couple co-ops and took a couple of years off and graduated in December 1993. Oh, and I forgot to mention I had gotten married in September of 1990 to a young lady named Kathy Brown. We got a divorce in 1994 because she had a hearing problem. That part in the ceremony where they say "forsaking all others"? She didn't hear that.

In any event, I stayed in the area working with an Insurance company, then a stint as a bartender at a pub called Chumley's (own by a friend of mine), then with a recruiting firm. After I left the recruiting firm, I secured a position with a start-up software company called TogetherSoft (now part of Borland Software) as a Corporate Recruiter. I was with them almost 3 years. It was during this time that I re-established a relationship with a young lady I had dated in Greensboro, (Heidi) and we were engaged and then married. Of course, a month after our wedding, I was laid off.

I went back into safety with a large commercial agricultural firm in Virginia, but we moved back to North Carolina, and Charlotte, when my wife's father had to get a kidney transplant. At least that's the story. The real truth is that neither one of us could take the multitude of accident responses I had to leave for in the middle of the night. That, and walking around in hog waste all day to do my job just got to me.

So, here we are in Charlotte, NC. I have to admit that it provides a great deal to do and see. But what I spend most of my time doing as a hobby is larping. I play a boffer larp in Raleigh called TALAN (http://www.talanlarp.org) I am a Northman (think Thirteenth Warrior) named Aridreki. (Now you see the reasoning behind the site address) I wear real armor and wield a boffer weapon, made by either my buddy Chip Rose (one of the owners of the larp) or one purchased from Greg at Iron Liege (http://www.ironliege.com). It is a great deal of fun and I have met many great people though it.

Some of those that I have met include the members of my second fraternal organization. The Knightly Order of the Fiat Lux. I'll talk more about them in my next post. Right now, I have to go make sure that the roast isn't burning.