Stephen Bruington

Sadly, I've decided to leave posterous and go [back] to WordPress to host my blog. I find the customization options available with WordPress much more in line with what I'd like to do with my site. Also, I'm using WordPress to host my entire website, not *just my blog.

The content on posterous will remain, as an archive, but my current information will be found at www.stephenbruington.com. At the moment, my website data is here: http://stephenbruington.com/blog, but I'm about to move it to the index page of my site.

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to your comments on my new site.

Stephen Bruington

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Brian Tracy wrote a book called 'Maximum Achievement' and in it he explains the power of saying, "I like myself". This, and many other phrases are, or can be considered positive affirmation statements. I have to agree, there is real power in speaking these words out loud. I have decided to develop, and post my own list of positive affirmation statements:

I like myself.
I respond positively to negative situations, circumstances and information.
I am a successful father.
I am a caring husband.
I weight 170lb.
I run every day.
I play the piano.
I am financially independent.

The list is endless of words you could say to help boost your feelings of self-worth. These words, when spoken aloud will begin to work on/with your subconscious mind to create the ideal you. If you feel a little down about yourself, or would like to feel better about yourself, begin by saying, "I like myself" out loud, at least 10 - 20 times a day.

The point is to come up with a list, and read the list aloud, with conviction. You say these words, to yourself, with belief and purpose. In my example, above these are not all currently true. I'm not financially independent, but I plan to be. It's not quite as effective if I were to say, "I will be financially independent", or worse "I hope to be financially independent". Your PSAs need to be present-tense, positive and they will work. Do not use negative words, like "don't, not, wouldn't, can't", etc.

Try it. Develop your own list, or (at the least) try saying "I like myself" every day. Post your comments below and be sure to tell how it's been working for you in your life.

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(I apologize for the implied explitives in the title of this post, they were, however, necessary.)

Admittedly, a better title might have been "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify", but either way - my point is it's time for me to rein in some things in my life and "trim off the fat". I'm all over the place, so much so that a friend on Twitter made a comment about my far-reaching social networking appearance (not influence), and asked how I manage to maintain it all. The truth is, I don't maintain much of anything, anymore, or ever have. I need to close a few accounts, delete a ton of email addresses and K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid).

At one point in time I had the grand idea of creating an email address, for every account, everywhere on the internet (the unnecessary commas have been added for an intentional...momentary, but rather obnoxiously...long...pause). I chose to use the prefix "i83." to begin each address, for example: i83.facebook@gmail.com. This email, of course would be used as my login/contact email address for...you guessed it - Facebook! I also had, among others, i83.itunes, i83.redbox, etc. (You don't even want to know how many there actually are...nearly 2 dozen.)

I admit, I'm a little OCD and I'm having a hard time coming to grips with actually deleting, and discontinuing the use of these email addresses. It feels "clean", and it made sense to me when I did it, albeit I can't remember why, but I'd like to think it was a reasonable idea. It is, however difficult to remember whether or not I'm using a custom address, or stephen@bruington.com, which is my personal, 'everything else' email address.

In order to simplify I feel it's necessary to cut down on the number of accounts I have, but do not (for many reasons) maintain. I have written about, and even tried this before: http://blog.stephenbruington.com/tag/migration, but this time will be different, right? ;)

Here's the thing, I have accounts at places I know nothing about. Yep, little old me has probably already been to your website and established a username/password, etc. I've been on, logged into and/or used these, and many more: blip.fm, last.fm, facebook.com, twitter.com, bebo.com, orkut,com, linkedin.com, friendfeed.com, posterous.com (Haha! Thanks for hosting my blog.), wordpress.com, tumblr.com, livejournal.com, typepad.com, typingweb.com, plaxo.com, rememberthemilk.com, stikkit.com (which, by the way was the BEST ever note, memo, sticky message website...ever), gmail.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com, flickr.com, photoshop.com, gmx.com, meebo.com, AIM, Skype, ICQ, myspace.com, and many, many others. Wow!

Do I really need all that stuff? No, I don't. I know I don't, but I think I have a problem...an addiction. I would like to keep the following:

Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, tumblr, posterous, flickr, Skype, Photoshop.com, and maybe a few others. I could write a book about all these sites and why I've used them, but I don't think anyone would read it. In fact, if you've made it this far you're either my wife (thank you Sweetheart), or crazy!

C.Y.A. - yes, the 'A' stands for what you think it stands for. I don't have a real good reason for using it as part of my title other than the fact that the internet is filled with identity-stealing goons and...quite frankly, I'm exposed. I need to CYA and get rid of a lot of these sites with my information. If you've made it *this far, please do not SPAM my email inbox. I realize I posted my email address to the world, but I don't believe anyone will use it to contact me anyway, so what the heck.

That's it. I need to consolidate and do away with a lot of useless accounts, and unused (by ME) websites. Thanks for reading, I'll let you know, at a later date what I decide to do, and how the cleanup is going, and/or turns out.

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Earlier today I received call from a woman speaking on behalf of her daughter. It turns out her daughter is 25 years old, has cerebral palsy and is a Medicare beneficiary. I immediately "warmed" to this woman due to the soft spot in my own heart for people touched by cerebral palsy. (My daughter, who is 8 years old, has cerebral palsy.)

I followed Medicare, and UnitedHealthcare policies and procedures while gathering information on both the mother, and her daughter. I wasn't able to speak with the daughter, at the time so I had her mother provide me everything I needed and we proceeded to discuss plan benefits.

We found, in her area, a PFFS (Private-Fee-For-Service) plan that would meet 'the daughter's' needs and determined we could complete enrollment today. I finished documenting her account (in our Customer contact/management system) and was just about to begin the enrollment when I realized, I haven't spoke with the daughter!

Just before the enrollment I put the mother on hold and asked for help. It turns out that 'the mother' does not have POA (Power of Attorney) and as such we would have been unable to enroll her daughter in this plan. (Normally I would give her my phone number, and extension and have her call be back. It's important to note that UHC does not operate "normally". At this point, I'm NOT ALLOWED to give out my phone number and extension on inbound sales calls. Which means if I don't close the sale, I lose it.)

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It's really, *REALLY hard to believe that Sarah (Crawford) and I will be married this Saturday! Ours is a funny story, the details of which I'll get into at another time, in another post and perhaps on another blog. For now, I want to let the world know - WHY?

When we first "met" (on Facebook, actually we already knew each other, I promise to post the whole story later) Sarah and I both felt like there was something special between us. We spent our time "together" on Facebook, GoogleTalk/Video and on the phone. We were able to see and hear one another, but we couldn't touch. I had always believed that touching someone made all the difference, now I know that's not necessarily the case, at least not for us.

I used to tell Sarah, "This is our fairytale." I dreamed that life together would be...well, perfect. It turns out that life throws FAST, curve balls, hard and neither of us was prepared. I'm happy, proud and elated to report that we're fine and we've weathered MANY storms together.

Okay, back to the question - WHY?

I am marrying Sarah Crawford because...

...she believes in me, even when I don't believe in myself.
...she forgives me when I make mistakes, and forgives again, and again...and again.
...she's there for me when I'm sick, hungry, tired, needy, clingy, angry, sad, happy.
...she's beautiful.
...she makes me feel so good [about myself] through compliments and encouragement.
...she's trusting - she trusts me.
...she stands by me in any [and every (crazy)] decision I make.
...she's willing to let me try new things, even when she might not understand my reason for so doing.
...she loves Jennifer (my daughter).
...she has faith that I'll meet her needs, and provide for our family in the way that our family needs.
...she's an excellent cook.
...she truly loves me, unconditionally.
...she's willing to do whatever it takes to make this marriage, our life together - work!

That's why I love Sarah (Crawford). (Visit our tumblog here - http://bruington.tumblr.com)

I love you Sarah. I hope after reading this you know how much I love, and care about you. I'm so grateful to have you in my life. I smile when I think of all the fun times we've had together. I look forward to many days, weeks, months, years ahead with you, and our family.

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Below is a set of CSS color codes generated on my iPhone using the app, "Color Oven Lite". I like this app because it allows you to choose 1, base color, and the app then generates complimentary colors and suggestions for where to use them.

I'm currently overhauling 1, and building (from the ground, up) 2 websites. I find this little app incrediby useful, and plan to use it to either generate, or help inspire the color themes on each of my sites:

stephenbruington.com
iContactCongress.org
mayberrymill.com

@charset 'UTF-8';
body {
background-color : #293999;
}
p {
color : #182159;
}
h1 {
color : #060919;
}
a:link {
color : #3A51D8;
}
a:visited {
color : #4F5A99;
}
h2 {
color : #767B99;
}
h3 {
color : #031999;
}

Sincerely,

Stephen Bruington

540.238.0880*
stephen@bruington.com
www.stephenbruington.com

This message was drafted on Apple's iPhone 3Gs and delivered to you
compliments of AT&T.

*Google Voice number.

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This is what happens when UnitedHealthcare puts you on their "Outbound Dialer Campaign".

This agent is now border-line psychotic and will require life-long mental health therapy.

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I've been interested in web development / design for over 10 years. I've dabbled, dawdled, played and did a little here and there, but nothing fancy...ever. I know a little HTML, I've gotten much better at CSS, but from there my knowledge terminates. What's missing? PHP, MySQL, ie: server-side programming.

I'm working on a major project that will require an extensive MySQL database with heavy PHP scripts running on all pages of the site. I once took a seminar on MS Access which taught me a little about relational databases, which turns out to be important because that's the 'heart and soul' of MySQL.

I found a book, "PHP in a Nutshell" which I plan to get my hands on soon. I'm hoping this book will help launch me into a whole new world of understanding and website development. My site idea requires a great deal more knowledge and experience than I have currently, so here goes nothing.

I'll post a vague summary of my project in the near future. For now, check out my other project here.

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Okay, so my little brain has recently become inundated with ideas. The 1000 Ways Project is just one of many, but an important idea to note/describe.

It's no secret that life is hard, and relationships [can be] harder. Sarah and I talk regularly about needs, spending time together, appreciation, etc. I decided it would be a great idea to come up with 1,000 different ways to say, "I love you". Rather than just listing these ideas, I decided it would be fun to call my idea/plan the '1000 Ways Project'.

The 1000 Ways Project is basically a year-long project to come up with 1,000 different ways to say, "I love you". I felt that tumblr.com would be the best blog site to use for this project, so I setup 1000waysproject.tumblr.com. Every day I post 3 new ways to say, "I love you" which fall into 1 of 10 categories. Each post is tagged with '1000WaysProject', 'i love you', '(category)' and the date in the following format: mm.dd.yyyy.

I've not only created the tumblr site, but a Gmail address (1000waysproject@gmail.com) and a Twitter account, @1000WaysProject. The Twitter account is used to post a link to the daily (3 post) page, for example: 1,000 Ways to say, "I love you." Day 4 of 365 -http://bit.ly/24njdo #1000Ways #love #life #relationships.

I'm having fun with this, and that's all that matters. It's really helped me develop a better appreciation for Sarah, and relationships.

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