Cory Collier

First, let me publicly announce something: SXSW was worth my time, and I did love going. I learned a few things about myself though, that I’ll remember for a long time to come.

First, while I love people, I cannot hang out with anyone for very long. This isn’t to say that I don’t love my friends who I hung out with at SXSW. I have some amazing friends, who likely saw an uglier side of me in Texas. That’s a shame, and I cannot express my apologies to them enough.

Second, celebrity fawning is just as much of an issue in tech circles as it is anywhere else. The very things I despise about Hollywood culture are very prevalent in the Valley culture as well. Anyone that knows me, knows how I absolutely despise treating people as anything more than that.

A funny thing happened while I was there however. Continue reading »

I don’t even know how to begin to talk about everything that’s been going on since the last time I’ve written here. My buddy got married. I’ve dealt with server issues (again). I’ve been promoted. Some stuff I can’t even talk about!

I’ve written since Matt and Suzanne were married, but I’ve yet to write about it. I was the best man, so I guess I’d be as good as anyone to say something about their wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. Matt and Suzanne are a great couple, and it’s been awesome to watch their relationship grow to what it is today. I’d do just about anything for those two, and I couldn’t be happier for them now.

I was promoted to Product Manager of MemberFuse lately too. If that sounds serious, it’s because it is. I’m the one in charge of the direction that product will take. I’ve recently gotten pretty hooked on what ning is doing, and I’m considering using them as a platform for MemberFuse. We’ll see if Sterling and Derek will buy into the concept, but I’d rather not re-invent the wheel.

Server problems…. Grrrrrrr……

Last Thursday, I noticed all of the sites on one of my servers were down. I tried to remote into the server, but I couldn’t. So I RDP’d to another server on that network and performed a remote restart. The only problem was, the server wouldn’t restart. I had the client ship me the server, and after a couple hours of tinkering it was apparent that someone had sabotaged the server.

That’s a long story, that I’ll probably write about later. The short version is: it’s fixed, and I’m using Wordpress now. For those of you who had left comments before, they’re gone now. I’m really sorry about that :/ The client’s sites are going to take some time to get back to full capacity, but I should have the base of it done tonight.

Last Saturday night my wife and I had our housewarming party. It’s been about 4 months since we moved in, but with getting settled, crazy projects, and other stuff going on in life, we finally got around to having the party just now. Overall, it was a good time; minus a few minor details.

My dad showed up around 11am. I had invited him the week earlier, but I really didn’t expect him to show. I’m super-glad that he did though. Not only is dad a lot of fun to be around: He’s super useful as well. I was able to get a hell of a lot of stuff done before the party, that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. Many thanks to dad!

Bill and Amanda were the first to show up to the actual party. I was a little upset they didn’t bring their XBox360 and Rock Star. We spent some time at their place the week before, and had a great time with that. I even had my buddy Austin bring his drum seat and sticks just for it. Oh well.

Chris and Kiel came after that, then Shandyn and Eric, Greg and his wife Nevin, my buddy Matt, then it gets nuts.

My workout partner Tony came with his wife Mardi. They got us a bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label. I was pretty stoked about it, as the picture shows:

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also show the picture of Tony’s wife Mardi, with my wife, Melissa:

I was really stoked that Greg made it out. I’ve mentioned it before, but I feel like I could talk with that dude for days. We’re sorta on the same wavelength with tech stuff. Outside, but sorta in …

My buddy Austin showed up with his girlfriend Jen. They’re easily some of the coolest people I know. Austin was the best man at my wedding. I’ve known him since the 6th grade. He’s a nutbag, and he’s a Death Metal drummer. We used to rock out in industrial parks when we were underage. Awesome times… Jen is pretty much the female version of him. I guess it could also said that he’s the male version of her?

Taylor and Jason made it out as well. They’re a lot of fun to hang with. The only time I’ve ever been maced was hanging out with Jason. You know you’ve had a full night when local cops are telling you how to deal with a face full of mace. That reminds me, I’m supposed to be working on their website.

Of course we were all blessed with the presense of the amazingly talented Bender . I give that guy shit all the time, and I plan to continue. Bender usually tells a joke for us when we’re in a social setting with alcohol. So, after a few rounds, we started chanting ‘Bender’, and demanded either a joke, or shotgun a beer. Bender chose to shotgun Coors Light. Gross. Anyway, I should give him credit for some of the work he’s doing for an upcoming project of mine, Florida Death Metal.

Here are a few more candid shots of the good times:

That one is Melissa’s sister Megan, Kristina, Lisa, and Melissa. The following is a good one of Krista’s baby, Kaydon:

That’s a really good segway to the next part of the story. I had a moderate amount of alcohol to drink that night. However, I guess I didn’t know exactly how much I had.

To say little of it, I had too much. I wound up very sick the next morning., incredibly sick. Austin thought it’d be funny to talk smack about it all, and throw stuff at me. That super sucked, and I wound up starting the worst round of vomiting that I’ve ever had. I even punched a hole in the wall next to the bathroom. Melissa was pretty pissed about it all, so I’ll have to fix it.

I spent all Sunday either throwing up, or sleeping. It was a total waste of the day. Melissa was awesome and stayed around to take care of me. It’s a shame that I allowed myself to get that sick, but it’s great she was around to help me get out of it all.

I shouldn’t let that overshadow how much of a good time I had the night before. There was a great collection of the some of best friends that I’ve had the opportunity to every have.

So a whole bunch of us got together and had a few drinks, a few laughs, and made a lot of good memories. It was really good to see everyone. I’m reminded of why I work so much, and why I love being alive. I have the best friends and family I could ask for.