Mike Hillwig dot com

Maybe its me who is wrong here, but come on… I really have a problem with this. From the way I look at it, anybody who would turn away someone like me as a friend must have a problem. I’m a great guy. I don’t mean to pat myself on the back, but I’m a great person. Eh. Things like this happen, right? It’s just more drama. But it will pass. It always does. 

I will say THANK YOU CAROL! The lesson learned here, and hopefully it will rub off on some of these Pittsburgh queens, is DON’T FUCK WITH ME!

 As you can see, I’m working on a new design for the Website, specifically the PhotoJournal. I’m actually taking down to just my journal, I think. I want less focus on the pictures and more focus on me. A while back, I mentioned that I bought a book called Hard Landing: The epic contest for power and profits that plunged the airlines into chaos. I’ve not been able to put this book down. There is a great quote from my hero, Herb Kelleher while speaking to Bob Crandall, American’s CEO, joking about a Dr. Ruth spoof: “Remember, Bob,” Kelleher said in a squeaky, accented voice, “size isn’t everything.”

Okay, so there are a few pictures….

Sarah turned one year the end of July. I can’t believe that it was a year ago that I was jetting from Charlotte to Pittsburgh to be with my family for this incredible event. Anyway, Darcie had a little shindig at my parents’ house to celebrate the event. 

As you can tell, she wasn’t thrilled with this new experience with lots of people and this cake thing in front of her. Enter the way cool uncle Mike. I get her laughing and playing with her cake. She had cake all over her!  You’re welcome, Darcie.  *grin*

After much bantering from me, Darcie took Sarah into the pool. She loved it. It’s like a big bathtub, and Sarah loves that. But Sarah’s had a lot of ear troubles, and she’s had to get tubes in her ears. Darcie needs to put earplugs in the baby’s ears or be really careful. So for now, swimming is a limited activity.

Meet my new friend Joe.He’s a computer geek too. But like me, he’s a cute geek. He’s starting his own design company. I think we’ll end up working together on a project for a friend of mine in Philly.

I’ve resolved that I’m moving out of my apartment before the end of the year. While I love the location, I hate it too. Its just too loud up here. I’m on one of the cruisiest streets in Pittsburgh, and the stone street doesn’t help at all. I’m trying to work with my landlord, and I really can’t afford to bit the bullet and pay out another deposit. My landlord in Philly is still screwing around without returning my deposit, which would pay for two months rent here. Its time to send him a certified letter. I hate doing shit like that. I hate to sick my friend Peter on him. Money is just kind of tight right now. 

Well, this is the first entry in the new layout of the Journal. I’ve decided to pull it out of the Lotus Notes/Domino format. I want to go back to basics and internet standards. I’m still composing in MS FrontPage for now. I just think its a superior HTML editor. That’ll change, eventually.

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Monday, July 24, 2000

Older than Dirt

I’ve mentioned before that my dad’s family is huge. My mom’s side isn’t all that big. I really don’t know the extended family in terms of my grandmother’s brothers and sisters. I’m kind of glad. They remind me of what happens in repressive rural western Pennsylvania. In other words, white trash. My grandfather’s side was really small. It was just him and his sister, and she moved to Arizona in the 1950’s. Her name is “Aunt” Dee Dee and she was in to visit my grandmother. This meant mandatory family funtime. My mom was hosting dinner, and I was “invited” to attend. When you get “invited” to attend mandatory family fun at my parents’ house, attendance isn’t optional. So I went to keep my mom happy and to see the baby. This picture, left to right, is Matt, myself, Darcie and Sarah, Grandma, and “Aunt” Dee Dee.

I’d been complaining for weeks about this. It’s not that I didn’t want to go home, but I had to take an afternoon off work for this. It takes me close to two hours to drive from work to my parents’ house, and this for someone that I hadn’t seen in ten years. Frankly, I was okay waiting another ten. Gee, I sound a little cranky about this. I kept telling my dad that he had dirt in his front yard that was younger than this woman. Why did I want to see her? But enough about the lady who’s older than dirt. Lets talk about things that are important to me: Sarah,and me.
 

This kid is growing SO fast. It had only been about three weeks since I’d seen her last, and she’s now walking on her own. It’s created a whole new set of challenges for Darcie, but that’s the fun of it.

She’s taken a liking to her Uncle Mike. And that’s okay, because her Uncle Mike adores this child.

She might be close to her Uncle Mike, but Sarah sure looks like her mom. I have to say that its refreshing to see a picture of Darcie on a bad hair day.

As it was time for all of us to go home, Darcie was trying to round up Sarah and her toys. You could tell that Sarah was getting tired. She really started to fuss. Darcie picked her up and she quieted down for all of about fifteen seconds. Sarah reached out her arms for grammie. My mom took the child and once again, she quieted down, for about thirty seconds. She finally reached out her arms for Uncle Mike. I took my princess in my arms and she quieted down. And she didn’t fuss again. I walked her out to Darcie’s car and tucked her into the carseat. That’s all there is to it. I have the touch of the favorite uncle. *cheesy grin*

So what else is going on? Not much. I was supposed to go back to Nashville to meet up with Marc and Timm again for Tim’s birthday, but plans got changed. Not only that, US Airways cancelled my flight. I’ve reached a threshold with US Airways. One of my new favorite websites is UNTIED.COM. It’s a place where you can complain about United Airlines. So soon, you’ll find a new site to complain about US Airways. Look for USSCAREWAYS.COM soon! {title=Older than Dirt} {template=main} {datestamp=200007240405}

Monday, July 17, 2000

Xodus

“But I see Timm and I becoming very good friends. We have quite a bit in common, and he’s SO off limits to me. It’s that boyfriend thing, ya know?” Hmmm… I wrote those words just over a year ago. I never realized how true they’d become.

It’s been a long time coming, but it finally happened.

As many of my readers know, I hang out at Xodus Projects quite a bit. Marc and Timm are totally cool guys, and I’ve wanted to meet them for over a year now. The first details are in my entry called New Addictions. I flew to Nashville to meet up with Marc, Timm, and some of the gang from their site. I finally got to meet Adam, and I’ve introduced Jason in the past. Oddly, I didn’t get any pictures of Randy. Added bonuses were getting to meet Brett, their roommate, and Tim, one of their new friends.

These are our hosts, Timm (left) and Marc (right). Notice the heart-shaped reflection above them. Kind of cool, yes?

This is me with Timm. He has such a beautiful smile. He’s a complete sweetheart, and he’s a great guy. His cute southern accent is adoreable.

This picture, while its of Timm and I again, prove that you should never go shopping in an airport after a few drinks while waiting for a delayed flight. Do you know how many people have told me that I look like Charlie Brown. It’s the round head and the stupid stripe on the shirt. Grrrrr…. Notice Timm’s Xodus Boy t-shirt. It comes from a site unrelated to theirs. Check out http://www.xodus-usa.com. It’s dope stuff your parents will hate. Make sure you tell them that a friend of Marc and Timm sent you!

This is their friend Tim. He’s a really nice guy, and for only being 19, he totally has his shit together. Never mind the fact that he’s damn good looking. Tim and Timm are becoming really good friends. I was joking that they’re never apart, so you have three M’s. So we just started referring to them as 3M.

This is Adam. He’s a doll. The boy types faster than I do, and that scares me. He’s really sharp with UNIX security, and he helped me lock down my Solaris machine quite a bit.  Oh, yeah, Adam is damn cute!

This is Brett, their roommate. He has a boyfriend, but he’s a lot of fun to hang out with. We spent quite a bit of time talking. We talked about everything. He’s a cool guy. I see why Marc and Timm like him.

Did I mention something about Adam being cute?

This picture cracks me up. You see, Timm isn’t all that tall. He’s probably 5’6” or something. Well, we were getting ready to go out to a club, and he had on these shoes that made him a little taller. They were joking around, now that Timm was taller than Marc.

These are just some other random pictures from the weekend:

So my prediction was pretty acurate. Timm and I have become good friends. But here’s where I missed the boat… Marc and I have become closer. We chat online almost daily, provided our workloads allow it. What’s really cool, though, is that we don’t talk about sex. It seems like most of my chats with other gay men tend to take a sexual tone. Marc and I don’t do that. It’s really great.

I really like these guys. I can’t wait to see them again. {title=Xodus} {template=main} {datestamp=200007170803}

Monday, June 19, 2000

Sarahfied

I know, I know… I haven’t updated my photojournal in ages. Well, there just isn’t a lot to tell. My life has become kind of boring. Maybe I’m a little less of an exhibitionist now. I’m not sure. My Aunt Lisa had a little family gathering with her family and that of her boyfriend, Mark.  Most of the weekend was about the baby, though. She’s getting SO big.  This whole entry is about the baby, and there isn’t a whole lot of text. But let’s face it. Not many of you actually read this stuff, do you?

When I got there, the baby was just getting up from a nap.

She was being really fussy, and the only person she’d let hold her was Grammy.

When we finally got away from the rest of the crowd, she decided she’d like to play with her Uncle Mike.

When I got up Sunday morning, there was a baby on the couch with me. Darcie had spent the night at camp with Matt’s brothers, and she got up early and came to my parents’ house.

Sarah’s starting to become mobile. She can’t go more than a few steps on her own, but she’s able to make it if she has something to help her stay up.

Domino has become pretty adept at avoiding the baby. It’s funny.

As I’ve said before, this girl is so close to her grandparents. My parents are really good with her, too. I’m really seeing a side of my mom that I haven’t seen before. She’s just so patent with Sarah. My dad has become more loving than I’ve ever seen him.

I think Sarah is going to be really smart. She loves it when you read to her. In fact, she won’t let you stop reading to her.

Houston, we have a problem. Sarah is learning to climb the steps. My parents have had to put in a gate at the bottom of the steps.  It’s funny, but Domino protects her at the top of the steps usually.

Now is this gurl a ham or what? She’s funny, and she knows how to make nice with the camera. She’s certainly gotten that from Darcie.

She’s such a ham. She’s got my facial expressions, and that’s going to be so much fun when she gets older. I’m looking forward to this.

Did I mention that she loves her pap?

I have to say that, if for no other reason, this child makes me glad I moved back to Pittsburgh.

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Monday, May 29, 2000

Life After Lotus

This has the potential of turning into a really long piece of prose. Be warned. If you actually read this whole thing, you have less of a life than I do. *grin*

Let me start off by saying that Don and I went to Germany last week and you’ll find no pictures yet.  I’m still slightly phobic about losing my digital camera. I did take it, but very rarely did it leave my backpack. Most of the time it stayed tucked deep into a pocket where it wouldn’t get lost. I did take my cheap 35mm and a lot of film. I took about five rolls of pictures. I sent them out for development, and I’m supposed to get them back on a Kodak picture CD. I’ll do a Germany recap then.

We flew from Philadelphia to Frankfurt on the new US Airways A330. We didn’t sleep much on the flight. It wasn’t because it was a bad flight, in fact just the opposite. The personal entertainment system on the new US Airways A330s is simply superb. The system has something like 100 hours of programming—very cool. The food was also quite excellent. You have to understand that we flew Envoy class, the international business class product from US Airways. Given the chance, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  Take a look out the window and see what I saw. Isn’t that an awesome view? Now you see why I love to fly? It just gives a whole new meaning to being above the clouds.

I’d accepted a position doing intranet development, and I knew it would be an okay move to get me back into the burgh. It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, but it would be a place to start. It was only a six-month project, so I could deal with that. Knowing this, I was able to focus on getting ready to leave for Germany. Or so I thought… Three days before I left for Germany, I got a phone call. Actually, I got an e-mail too. They were both from guys at the same company, Weirton Steel. It turns out that the woman who replaced me (who is also the woman that I had replaced) had left the week before, and they were looking for someone to take her (my old) position. They asked if I would be interested in coming back. Hmmm… This is a tough one. Its really tough when you consider that I almost e-mailed my old boss there asking if they had any need for me. But instead, they called me.

While all of this is going on, I’ve come to the realization that I have nowhere to live in Pittsburgh. So I called Alyssa, my landlord from my last two apartments in Pittsburgh, explaining my situation. She tells me that she has absolutely nothing avialable until July. However, her two brothers-in-law also own several rental units in Pittsburgh, and she said she’d find something for me, even if it was temporary. That would give me a chance to get here and get settled, waiting a few months to find a place I really liked. I thought that was a plan. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had to find a technical consulting company to represent me at Weirton. I basically had three options: the first was the company that I had just accepted a position from. The second was my former employer, and we all know what kind of drama that turned out to be. The third was a different company, but they didn’t impress me.

Ultimately, it came down to money. Who could offer me the best benefits with the best money. I think I made the right decision.

Do I miss Lotus? You bet I do. I miss the people, and I miss working with some very cool technology. However, I was worn down and burning out. It showed. I think my love of travel was my own worst enemy in more than one way. I really miss Carol. She’s been a ray of sunshine in my career, and I owe her so much.

Did I do the right thing? I think so. Will I regret it in the future? Maybe. Will I be happy going back to Weirton? Lord, I hope so.

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Thursday, May 11, 2000

Inauguration

I should have called this entry "Lightning Round" as things are moving really quickly right now. I imagine that not everything is going to make sense. Things are moving and changing faster than I can write. So give me time and I’ll get all of the details out in the next few weeks.

On May 4, US Airways launched a new dimension in transatlantic travel, and I was there to witness it. All of the details can be found in the US Airways Press Release.  This aircraft is just plane huge! It competes with the Boeing 777 on many fronts. It can’t fly quite as far as the 777, but if I’m not mistaken, it can still do Philadelphia to Moscow. That’s impressive.

Beyond the fact that I’m an airplane freak, this is the same type of plane that Don and I are flying to Frankfurt next week. Right now, US Airways has one in service with the other coming into service this week. I’d be thrilled if we were on a brand-spanking-new one, but heck, even if its a couple of weeks old, I’ll be fine with that.

I’d been getting a few complaints that there weren’t any pictures of me recently. Pun lease! But I’m all about positive feedback, so here I am. Granted, I look like total shit, but here I am.

Now for some good news. On May 8, I had to fly to Pittsburgh for a couple of job interviews. They went well. I can’t say much beyond that. But I certainly got an offer, and it’s firmed up my position that I’m moving back to Pittsburgh. More details will follow. When I was in Pittsburgh, I saw something strange at the airport. This might just look like any other plane to some people. However, the trained eye will note that this is a 737-200 that’s operated by Southwest Airlines. Yeah, it’s not in their paint scheme. However, it’s one they use for charters. That’s a good sign for Pittsburgh!

Even though money is tight, I found something that I absolutely had to get. This is a Handspring Visor, similar to a Palm Pilot. I don’t know how I lived without it before.

This one didn’t cost me anything. However, my cell phone had 124 hours on it, and it was starting to crack. I called AT&T Wireless, and they sent me a new one. Can you believe I’ve only had that phone six months? Phew….

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Monday, May 01, 2000

Changes

Well, I apologize. The past week has been pure hell, and I just didn’t get my photojournal entry out last week. So this week is a combination of two entries. A lot has happened, and I’m just not sure where to start.

I’d been spending the past few weeks in Charleston, SC. Lotus had sent me to worse places, for sure. I think the top of that list is either Smallbany, or even Paoli, PA.  But I’d been kind of stressed out. I knew that spending Easter weekend at home would drive me insane. So I went to San Francisco for the weekend. I have to admit that part of my reason for going was to cash in on the double miles that US Airways was offering. I’ve earned enough Tier miles that I’m guaranteed to hit my Dividend Gold status when Don and I fly to Frankfurt in a few weeks.

I finally got to meet my net chat pal Ian this trip out. We just missed each other when I was there for SF Pride. OMG! This guy is totally adorable. And he’s such a nice guy. He really has a sensitive side to him, too. I won’t share all of his secrets, but he’s a sweetie.   By the way, Ian came into SF from Sacremento just to hang with me for the weekend. Isn’t that cool of him?

Don’t let his cute looks fool you, though. Ian can be a bad boy, too. *grin* He showed me the stuff that you don’t see when you visit SF as a tourist. Everyone just goes and does the Castro thing. Well guess what… There’s some place called SOMA, or South of Market. The places are a little seedier, and it was SO much fun.

One of my main goals in going to SFO was to visit the Ghirardelli Chocolate factory. I thought it was in Ghirardelli Square. I was wrong. It turns out that they moved it several years ago to a city across the bay. Ghirardelli Square is a very historic spot in San Francisco, and I spent a very cool Saturday afternoon there. Unfortunately, I got the top of my shaved head sunburned. Needless to say, that didn’t make me too happy.

I just don’t do clubby clothes. It’s totally not my style. Well, Ian and I did some shopping on Friday, and low and behold, I found myself wearing clubby clothes. This is me, debuting the new shirt. It’s really cool, and it cost me a few bucks, but I like it. Well, I liked it. My opinion went slightly downhill when I realized that it’s dry clean only. But I’ll live with that. I guess.

What’s the big deal with the cable cars? Why does everyone insist on doing those when they visit San Francisco. I’ve been to the city at least a half dozen times in the past two years (with another trip planned for SF Pride 2000) and I’ve yet to ride one of those things. I understand that they’re historic and all, but so are so many other things in this country. I just don’t get it.  It’s one of those things my mom would just insist on doing if she ever visited out there.

Friday night, Ian and I were out causing trouble, cruising from bar to bar and club to club, and who should we run into but Andrew, aka TygerBoi. Andy has got to be one of the coolest net chat pals I’ve found yet. He’s such a nice guy, and just darn cute. He’s been seeing Ira, his current boyfriend for almost six months now.

I guess I should mention that about the time we ran into him, Ian and I were both pretty drunk. Nah, we were just wasted. I hadn’t drank that much in ages. It was fun to let go. It was even greater knowing that we were a short hop from my hotel. So we didn’t have to worry about driving while we were drinking.

I was flying back to Charleston, and I did something that I usually hate to do. I was on the last flight of the day. Well, it wasn’t exactly the last flight. But the next flight was nine hours later, and it was a redeye. So I had to get to the airport a little early. I didn’t get to take many pictures, as I was doing something else in the US Airways club, which I totally forget now what that was. But I did get a decent shot of this Southwest 737-700.

I guess I should mention that I flew out on an Airbus 319, and it was fantastic. The flight was very smooth, and the aircraft was very comfortable. Coming back, I flew on a B757, shown here. This is one of my favorite aircraft in the US Airways fleet. You can see a seatmap on the US Airways website. What’s really cool is that Continental flies these from Cleveland to London’s Gatwick. I don’t know if I’d want to fly that far on a single-aisle aircraft, but if I were, this is the aircraft I’d want to fly.

The woman sitting beside me on the flight home was very cool. Her name was Deb, and she’s an executive for LendingTree.com. They have very cool commercials. I was a little dressed up, but she wouldn’t let me take a picture of the two of us because her hair was slightly rumpled, or so she thought. Deb was great to sit beside, especially since she has a way small bladder like me.

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Monday, April 17, 2000

Prized Posessions

A while back, I mentioned that I had met US Army Col. Cammermeyer. Well, she’s now hosting a show on GayBC.com. While I try not to be materialistic (as I trip over the three computers in my house), there are a few things in life that I hold very close to my heart. One of them is my grandfather’s 35mm camera. The other is my February 1995 issue of Out Magazine. But it’s special to me for a reason.

You see, this one features Col. Cammermeyer. When I met her that day, I asked her to sign my copy. And she did.  She wrote: Mike - Thank you for your kindness. Margerethe Cammermeyer, 28 Sep 95.   It’s something I’ll hold close to my heart for a very long time.

I spent the last week in Charleston, SC.  The customer project is pretty cool, and Boss Ross came down to present some stuff to the customer. I’d never heard him do any type of presentation before. He’s really impressive.    However, I’ve been running too hard. I need to slow down. All I want to do lately is sleep.   That partially explains why I’m keeping this entry so short. It also explains why I’m going to get away next weekend. I’m going to be off to San Francisco to relax. My schedule is a little crazy.

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Monday, April 03, 2000

Baby Cam

I wish I had a lot to say. I just don’t right now. I’ve been working quite a bit, trying to finish off the Philadelphia project that ended up in Boston. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the northern burbs of Boston, and that’s wrapping up this week. Actually, I expect to be done on Wednesday. What’s next? Well, I’m hearing rumors about me going to Charleston, SC for a bit. You won’t hear me complain about that one too much. When you think that US Airways is offering double miles right now, I’ll be raking in some big ones by taking the connection through Charlotte. I’ve been told that this project will require some travel throughout the US, so I’m a happy camper right now.

Eastwind Airlines (no longer in business)737-700	US AirwaysFokker F-100

You wanna know what I really did this weekend? I slept… and I did a lot of it. It was wonderful. The spring cleaning will continue, but it didn’t this weekend. It was more of a shopping weekend, and it was all about me. =) Baby Cam!

I wasn’t sure if buying my sister the web cam for her computer was a good idea or not. Now, I think I made a really good move. About every other day, a get a picture in my e-mail. I absolutely love it.  It’s really hard being away from my family and the baby. At the same time, it’s just as difficult to go to my parents’ for the weekend because I have things I have to do in Philly. It’s really difficult to adjust to living in Philly when I’m not here. It’s a tough situation, but getting the pictures makes it easier.

We need to work on their digital photography skills, but I appreciate getting the pictures I do.  I was chatting with Darcie on AOL and had to mention to her where the focus knob is. She was wondering where that thing was.  We’re not doing a live baby cam just yet. Once Matt & Darcie get their cable modem, we’ll figure out how to get the live baby cam going. .