Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in markforensis' LiveJournal:

Friday, June 17th, 2005
7:43 am	Ode to the Democratic Leadership Howard Dean and Richard Derbin thank you for making me see what the democratic party has become. While I am not a member of the Republican party just yet, you are making the decision to switch very easy. Your constant rhetoric of hatred and negativity that has not been visually opposed from within your own party has shown the true colors of the party. I may not agree with every stance the Republican party supports, but I am finding myself on the same side more and more as you move further and further to the left. So long, I will see you guys in 2008, oh well maybe not. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, April 15th, 2005
4:49 pm	How did I get here? I was sitting at a party last night, and it hit me all of a sudden. I am friends with some very valuable people and have contacts that alot of people would love to have. My current group of friends here in Miami include a South Beach Club owner, the CIO of a very large national company, a fashion model, 2 attorney's each a partner in well known law firms, a founder of a few successful internet companies, and a few very well established investment bankers. This is not to brag, but a statement of fact. Years ago I would have loved to have had these contacts to use in a business environment. But now that I am friends with them, I find I do not see them as contacts, but friends. I go on trips with them, play poker with them, hang out with them, have dinner with them and their wives, and find that we almost never talk shop. I cannot see myself trying to exploit my friendship in order for personal gain. I value the friendship to much to get business involved. We give each other advice and support each other during tragedy. Then I ask myself, When did I become an Adult? I can't be an Adult, I am too immature, then I remember that I have accomplished more than I thought I would have by this time. I had been a division head at a Fortune 1000 Company and I started a new company from scratch. To think about it now, I only accomplished these things by being defiant and going after what I wanted with determination. If I wanted a promotion, I aggressively went after it and did not take no for an answer, and at Royal Caribbean it let me go from Assistant Systems Traineee when I was first hired to become Shipboard Systems Manager/IT Operations Manager within 6 months. In my company I deal with vendors all the time, they try to sell me programs which I feel are over priced, e.g. $2500 per license of a program that would allow me to be able to control my OCR servers from a master Control program. Well that would have cost me about 10 grand plus 2.5 grand a year for updates. Well, I said screw it and decided to write my own program to do it. 26 hours later (and a lot of Caffiene) I had not only written a program which had that functionality that I wanted, but I also learned how to improve my basic workflow at my company which allowed me to increase productivity by 25% while reducing labor costs. Maybe I'll clean up the program, give it a user interface and sell it for a reasonable price... Sometimes I feel that alot of people settle for buying something pre-made like software and complain about the high price and/or lack of features but do absolutely nothing about it. If I feel something is missing or overpriced I either find someone else to do it better or cheaper, and if that fails try to do it myself. End Rant. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 26th, 2004
7:22 am	Kerry, bad for my Business and Employees. At my small business, I employ 22 people now. I am hiring 3 more in the next few weeks. Bush and his tax incentives have been good to help me grow my business. The lowest paid employee still makes 20% over Minimum wage PLUS 100% company sponsored Health and Dental Benefits, paid vacation and flex time so they can continue going to school. Kerry wants to raise the Minimum wage to a point that will be over the lowest salary at my company. This is bad for business, at the very least I will not be able to hire more people, and probably have to reduce or eliminate benefits. In order to keep a competitive employee compensation package I would have to raise prices, which would make our services less attractive to clients, or keep less employees and outsource offshore. Personally I do not care about how Europe views us. I believe that if we do the right and Moral thing from our perspective and then they cannot deal with it, then screw 'em. They are the same ones who let Hitler come to power in their midst. We will always have our friends and our enemies, it is just that the positions that will switch around. Japan was once an enemy and is now an ally. Russia was once an Ally then an Enemy and now an Ally again. I do not take my cues on who to vote for from other nations. Now, I usually vote Democrat, but this time I am probably going to vote Republican. I just don't trust Kerry. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 18th, 2004
11:34 am	Been Busy,,, Well it has been a while, where do I begin? The past few months have been hectic to say the least. We opened up a sales office in Minnesota. We are in the process of opening up in Georgia and Texas as well. My brother is getting married in a couple of weeks. I am looking again at buying a house and adopting a couple of dogs. Went on a few dates, nothing really stuck. Grew a Van Dyke, people say I look good with it, so it may stick around a while. How does life suddenly change from going out all the time and not caring about work until you get there the next day to worrying about all the things youy have to do the next day, week, and month? I have basically been a hermit for the past couple of months except for my 3 trips out of the country. Costa Rica and Dominican Republic are beautiful BTW. I need to go and meet some new people. My friends here are good, but I need some more spice and excitement in my life. Maybe I'll go to Vegas next month. -Mark (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
11:35 pm	Mute weekend Well this weekend I was pretty much a loner, I set out to do absolutely nothing, and that is exactly what I did. Now my question is doing nothing on purpose actually doing something, thus defeating the quest to do nothing? Now I am pondering my trip to Vegas next month. It is not costing me anything as everything is being comped by the casino, but those turn out to be the most expensive trips. Since I do not currently have a g/f I am wondering if I should even go... I have a trip that my company is sponsoring to the Dominican Republic in May for some potential clients, and a Bachelor Party in either Costa Rica or Bahamas to plan for my brother. Besides that, I am trying to get to Israel sometime this year, so I can live without Vegas, but I do love the city. So my next question is should I stay or should I go? Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: Finger Eleven - Just one thing (Local Miami Band) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004
4:23 pm	A-Political Lunch Well, today was semi-eventful. I started out leaving to have lunch with my brother, Len, and ended up having lunch with 3 high powered Attorneys and a Senator. We had sushi on South Beach, and it was as good as it was expensive. It was interesting and reminded me that people are just people. We talked about the same old things. My brother's wedding, whether Kosher food at a wedding is important for religous reasons or just because you don't want it to look like you don't have kosher food at a wedding, and the planning of bachelor parties. The Senator, who shall remain nameless, told us of the times when he was a sitting Judge and a few funny stories about some of the cases he presided over. Who knows the day may get stanger yet. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 22nd, 2004
6:58 am	Yassin is dead... thank you Now I don't revel in the fact that Sheik Yassin, is dead. But I am glad he is no longer breathing. He was truely an evil man who I consider responsible for the death of hundreds of innocents. I hope this is a lesson to those who would murder innocents and claim self-defense. Even if you preach murder, you will be targeted. Having barely escaped, not one, but two Hamas homicide bombers when I was in a high school study program in Israel, I feel strongly about this. What had I done? What had the children that were shopping in the Diezengoff mall in Tel-Aviv done to have their bodies filled with the nails that the bomber had strapped to his body? Why did my one of my friends have the body parts land right next to him, scarring him for the rest of his short life? I have only questions, no answers today. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 14th, 2004
6:00 pm	Wasted Weekend Well Friday was spent, we drinking and gambling. It was fun, and felt great to be reassured that I had friends that would drop what their doing on a moments notice to go celebrate my B-day early. Saturday was spent nursing a nice hangover. Pasta was made and it was good. Sunday, I slept and wrote a new program to increase efficiency at work, then I slept. Now I awaite the Sopranos with moderate anticipation. Damn, I need a girlfriend! Dating is hard enough right now, especially since I am bound to a promise I made to my father before I passed. So I need to find a nice jewish girl. Easy in Miami right? Wrong! During the Week, I work 12 hour days, during the weekends I catch up on sleep. On the Weekends I do go out, it is usually with my Partners' and my friend Ana who also works for us. If we go to club on southbeach, sure we get in and probably never end up spending less than $1000 between us, but we tend to stick with our established friends, besides I can't hear a damn thing in those clubs over the music. My last few dates have just been scary. Somehow I always seem to end up with someone that either complains about everything and hates to work, and are to selfabsorbed to leave a 5 second window in a conversation to let me get in a word. Being shy by nature is also my curse. So approaching women in Bars or Clubs is always a difficult proposition. Well thats enough of a rant for today. Cheers (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
3:42 pm	First Entry Well... I did it. After lurking for over a year at a few friends' sites I finally created my own. Here are my non-linear thoughts for the day: Well today is business as usual. Bidding on some large projects that can hurl my company forward towards greater profitability (Yay!). As well as tweaking some programs I wrote for my office. We spent a couple days this week working with our Corporate Accountant, if you thought personal taxes were a pain, Business taxes are even worse. Well Smallville is a re-run and so is Enterprise. Thankfully my Tivo's are chock full of World Poker TOur and Chapelle Show. (2 Comments |Comment on this)