My good friend and your co-host here needs your prayers.  Kevin Tofel unexpectedly lost his father yesterday and he needs our help. He’s in my thoughts in this difficult time and will you please join me in wishing Kevin and his family the strength to help each other through this trying time. Life can be hard at times, and this is certainly one of those, but we are here for you, Kevin.

I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin’s father, and he was a sweet man. It’s obvious that Kevin didn’t fall far from the tree and if you’d ever met his father you’d understand why Kevin is a great guy. My meeting Kevin’s father was just like meeting Kevin himself, first over Skype and later in person; he was a nice man and very proud of the work that Kevin does here.  He told me that with a big smile on his face.

You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers, Kevin. Be there for them so that you all may get through this together. I’ll keep things going here but know that this is just a gadget blog and not important in the overall scheme of things. Your family is what really matters and may you all get through this together. My heart is heavy for you and Barb and your kids.  Peace be with you my friend.

This is a totally selfish post but I want to welcome to the world my new granddaughter, Serenity Lyn.  Serenity came into the world on 12/04 and mother Morgan and baby are doing fine.

Sorry for the seemingly off-topic post, but when you think about it, my wedding this past weekend is actually very topical. Long-time readers know that my then-girlfriend and now-bride has everything to do with my writing on this site. All of my writing in fact, both on-line and in print. At the risk of rehashing a little and contrary to popular belief, I didn’t wish to to be technology writer when growing up. I actually still haven’t grown up, but I did find the path to what I do today largely due to Barb’s support, guidance and planning. When I discovered that this is what I want do for my career, I took a risk and huge pay cut from my 15-year Information Technology career. Barb supported that move, both emotionally and financially, until the stars aligned, and that’s the main reason that I have the privilege to write for you. It’s that simple. I won’t bore you with any more details, but for newer readers that didn’t follow this journey until recently, I wanted to briefly share some of it.

The wedding was generally low tech, although I was able to put some real-time updates and photos on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed. Between those networks and the community comments here, Barb and I are humbled and overwhelmed by the joy and warm wishes sent our way. For that, we’re very grateful. And we have to give a very special shout-out to James, Matt Miller and Dave Zatz. They took time out of their schedules and trekked in with significant others from Texas, Washington, and Maryland to share the special weekend with us. After the jump are just a few pics, including a rare one of the MobileTechRoundup podcast crew and family. Thanks again for indulging my personal post. Now it’s time for me to get back to work as the mobile technology landscape is changing by the minute!

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Folks might have seen Barb’s comment yesterday, but I wanted to take a minute to let everyone know that we’re home from the hospital. Actually, we got home on Tuesday afternoon, but we’re just now easing back into a normal schedule. I had hoped to be online for a bit yesterday, but there were so many loose ends to tie up that it just didn’t happen. As it is now, all of those hourly vital sign checks through the night have played sheer havoc with out sleep schedules, so we’re a little out of whack.

Aside from that, with some quiet rest and recovery Barb should be near 100% next week. Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers… challenging times like this truly bring out the best in this community!

Just a brief, personal note to pass along. I’ll likely be a little scarce around these parts for at least the next day or two. Barb, my fiancée, woke up early Thursday morning with a headache that brought her to tears. After a few days of trying to manage the pain unsuccessfully, we hit the E.R. of our local hospital yesterday afternoon. After a CAT scan and blood tests didn’t turn anything up, a lumbar puncture did. We’re working through viral meningitis and will likely be here in the hospital until Tuesday.If you can spare a warm thought for Barbara, I would appreciate it. Oh, before anyone thinks this is a totally off-topic post: I wrote this using the TypePad client in my iPhone. The hospital is pretty protective of their air-space and won’t let me fire up my EV-DO modem for the UMPC. Now it’s back to figuring put how to drink my WaWa coffee with this goofy surgical mask on. My most humble thanks in advance for your thoughts and understanding.

Sorry for the lame "Jerry Maguire" reference (the "Flipper" speech), but the weekend is near and I tend to get goofy as we approach Friday night. I’m actually not leaving Twitter entirely, but I’m consciously migrating much more of my attention to FriendFeed and I wanted to briefly mention why for a few reasons. For one thing, I’m humbled, not to mention surprised, that over 700 folks are following me on Twitter. I don’t exactly understand how you do this… I keep looking back quickly every now and again, but never catch you following me. Nevertheless, Twitter says you’re there, so you must be. Unless Twitter is down… which is another one of the reasons I’m moving away from it.

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This is a heads up as there will soon be big changes coming to Mobile Tech Manor!  You might say it’s the biggest change of all as Mobile Tech Manor is actually moving to new digs in a week or so.  Yes, the family and I have decided to take on a new house and we’re quite understandably excited about it.  It is bigger and better and more suited to our needs so we jumped at the unexpected opportunity to jump ships.  The new Mobile Tech Manor will be better suited for all the blogging and gadget testing that I do and it will only mean better things to come for you readers.  There will likely be a few days during the move that finds me in between locations but that’s what EVDO is for.  Wish us luck with the big change. 

With this tweet a year ago today, I left behind my 15-year, corporate Information Technology career. I also left a chunky paycheck, hence the pithy post title, but I seriously wouldn’t change a thing. This year has been one of the most enjoyable in my working life. This has been an interesting “leap of faith”. Many of you expressed support and well wishes when I finally came out of the closet and announced myself as a full-time blogger. For that kindness and the many supportive remarks over the past year, I sincerely thank you.There’s also no way I could have taken this path without Barb’s support. She helped me devise a two-year plan so I could make this attempt and she’s shouldering more of our financial burden as I find my way. When we both had steady paychecks, we split the home expenses 50-50, but it’s been more like 70-30 this past year. I’ve operated in the red each and every month, but slowly and surely the amount of red is decreasing. Since so many people have asked me privately, I should point out that I funded this attempt on my own. In essence, I “bet on myself”, by taking some funds from retirement and channeling them into my business account. If it doesn’t pan out, I have other retirement vehicles and of course, it will be back to the job pool. I’m hoping of course, that doesn’t happen.Thanks again to all of you, because without the readers and the conversation here, I wouldn’t have a personal anniversary to celebrate today. As I’ve said to a number of folks via e-mail: without the readers, my writing has no purpose; it’s just a bunch of words at that point. My sincere gratitude goes out to you all! Thanks too to James for allowing me to participate with him on a topic that we’re very passionate about.Aside from the humbling feeling knowing that I get to be a small part of so many people’s lives, I hope you can find some strength, hope and resolve to take risks in your own life. Don’t wait around and let life happen to you: go live it!

I spent my morning working in Starbucks, but have been off the clock all day after that. Unfortunately, my father was let go from his state employment position and I’ve attempted some damage control with him at his home. Luckily, he’s just nine miles away. I normally try to find worthwhile mobile tech items to write about all day long as this is my full-time vocation. Guess that makes you folks my bosses? Oy!Regardless, I’m glad I had my UMPC and EV-DO card with me as my father doesn’t have Internet service in his home. We actually just moved him to the house in February, where he lives alone. I’d been harping on him to get some web service, but it didn’t happen. Since he has no access to his work e-mail, which was his only e-mail address, we were able to quickly set him up with a Gmail account. Thanks to some phone calls and networking, his first e-mail is already in with a potential job opportunity. If you’re a person of prayer and can spare one for him, I’d personally appreciate it. In any case, he’s working on the list of “to-do’s” that we came up with and I’m back on the clock. I’ll make up the time to you, so please don’t dock my vacation time, ‘k? Thanks.