Sean McGrath

Christmas 2008

2008-12-13T22:51:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures of the kids from my work Christmas party.

A Fresh Face

2008-12-11T13:34:00.001-06:00

Not only did STATE receive an upgrade at the head coaching position (with the hiring of Dan Mullen), they also received an upgrade in helmets. Check out the new hats:

A plan I can believe in

2008-09-03T20:20:00.003-05:00

I have been a big fan of T. Boone Pickens for years (especially because he is very passionate about his college football). I think he has a great idea on a quick way to decrease our dependency on foreign oil. I am in the electric utility business, and we push "green power" and renewable wind generation. This is a very viable source of energy in the US. Please watch this video and see what Boone has to say.

Vacation 2008

2008-09-01T19:38:00.006-05:00

This year we took our vacation at the beach. We stayed in Orange Beach, AL and had a great time. Mattie had fun laying out and boogie boarding. Timmons really liked playing in the sand and in the water. The hardest part of the entire vacation was coming home.

Football Season

2008-08-31T18:24:00.004-05:00

The kids attended the first Corinth football game on Friday night. This was the first game that Timmons has been to. He had a lot of fun. He couldn't keep his eyes off of the band, probably because we were sitting right by them. Mattie cheered with the Junior Cheerleaders and did a great job. She had remembered all of the cheers from cheer camp this summer. Corinth won 35-0 and looked pretty good in doing so. I just wish Mississippi State was as good.

I'm Outee!!!

2008-05-07T14:40:00.004-05:00

Schoooooooooool's out for eva!!!!! Can't you just hear the song right now. I took my last final on Monday night. Now I'll be able to regain my life.

My sister's have been on me to update the blog with some pics. So here are some new ones.

Challenging Year

2008-03-12T21:53:00.002-05:00

This year has been a very challenging year, at school, at work, and at home. Many life lessons have been learned. I've learned that the tough decisions truly are the hardest to make. I've also learned that no matter how bad your day goes, your family will be there to love you unconditionally when you get home.

Wearing Down

2007-11-11T20:03:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm starting to wear down a little in school. I have almost completed 27 hrs out of a total of 33. I am so ready to get this over with. I have to say that I've learned a great deal about business matters that I wouldn't have learned in my small company of 60+ employees. I've learned a lot about entrepreneurship, both on an individual and corporate level (intrapreneurship). I've found that I can attribute my success at work to the fact that I have been very intrapreneurial since my first day on the job. I have always looked for ways to streamline and automate processes, and have been very innovative in my problem solving approaches. I have also learned more through my economics and quantitative decision analysis classes than I could have ever imagined. Who knew linear programming was fun? Brooke says that she didn't marry a nerd, but I guess she's stuck with me now. But, as the semester is winding down, I find myself being worn out. It's just as if a monkey is constantly on my back and I'm always thinking about the work I'm going to have to do when I get home from work. May can't get here fast enough. It was very satisfying to get my degree audit in the mail on Friday. To see that I'm scheduled for graduation in May brought a smile to my face.

Halloween

2007-11-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

We had a fun time last night. Mattie went to a few houses, but really she just wanted to go back to the house and sit on the porch and pass out candy. She likes to see what everyone else is dressed up like. Timmons fell asleep when we were trick-or-treating. We didn't have as many kids come by this year. Still had a couple hundred, but nothing like years past. Probably because it was on a church night and a lot of the local churches had things going on. We still ran out of candy at 7:45 though.

Business Trips

2007-10-25T16:21:00.000-05:00

So I'm in Gatlinburg for the second consecutive week. Last week was for an Accounting and Finance meeting, this week for a Utility Technology Conference. My family was with me last week, but this week I'm by myself. I miss them very much. Hope to get home to see them soon. Lil' Tim just had tubes in his ears two weeks ago and he seems to be doing much better now. Mattie is a ball of thunder. She has so much energy. So much, in fact, that she keeps getting injured. Well, going to eat........

New Site Design

2007-09-10T22:28:00.000-05:00

OK. It's been a while since my last post. In my defense, I've been very busy with work, school, kids, etc. While I've been away from my blog, I have been able to update my website. I used phpnuke, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Still learning how to tweak it like I want to. I like the built-in user security that comes with the package, but as far as customizing it like I want, I'm going to have to dig a little deaper. I'd like to dump the site into dreamweaver and see what I can do with it from there. If I'm not entirely happy with phpnuke, my next step is to go to wordpress, which seems like it's a little more customizable.

Accounting and IT Merger

2006-02-09T10:03:00.000-06:00

I've got my dreamweaver site up and running. Although it looks pretty plain right now, I plan on incorporating some php and mysql into the site. I'm learning things about web development with this site that I never knew before. I guess when all you do is accounting work all day, it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for web development. I think that by doing the little things like maintaining your own website, creating your own databases, etc. helps to make me a more well rounded employee. I know it may not seem like it to some managers, but when an employee in, lets say accounting, learns about php and databases and how to create a dynamic site, it will actually make for a better company. You see, accounting and database management are essentially linked together. Today, you cannot have one without the other. I think that we will see a trend in the next ten years. Accountants will need to be acclimated into the world of DBA's. If you are an accountant and you do not know SQL, your job will be hindered. If you can't write a basic SQL query and your own Crystal Reports, you may not have a job. Accounting is about gathering information and sorting it into a meaningful presentation. Ironically, database administration is about gathering information and sorting it into a meaningful presentation. So doesn't it make sense that in the very near future you will have a crossing over of accounting and information systems?When I look at my job now, I really think that 80-90% of my job is information systems, 5-10% accounting, and 1-5% supervisory. Although I guess you could say that the supervisory is blended in with the information systems and the accounting, since 60% of my job right now is fixing errors in either the database or a general accounting error. Bottom line.........as an accountant, don't think that you won't have to know this stuff.

Dreamweaver Site

2006-02-08T15:23:00.000-06:00

I've got my dreamweaver site up and running. Although it looks pretty plain right now, I plan on incorporating some php and mysql into the site. I'm learning things about web development with this site that I never knew before. I guess when all you do is accounting work all day, it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for web development. I think that by doing the little things like maintaining your own website, creating your own databases, etc. helps to make me a more well rounded employee. I know it may not seem like it to some managers, but when an employee in, lets say accounting, learns about php and databases and how to create a dynamic site, it will actually make for a better company. You see, accounting and database management are essentially linked together. Today, you cannot have one without the other.

I think that we will see a trend in the next ten years. Accountants will need to be acclimated into the world of DBA's. If you are an accountant and you do not know SQL, your job will be hindered. If you can't write a basic SQL query and your own Crystal Reports, you may not have a job. Accounting is about gathering information and sorting it into a meaningful presentation. Ironically, database administration is about gathering information and sorting it into a meaningful presentation. So doesn't it make sense that in the very near future you will have a crossing over of accounting and information systems?

When I look at my job now, I really think that 80-90% of my job is information systems, 5-10% accounting, and 1-5% supervisory. Although I guess you could say that the supervisory is blended in with the information systems and the accounting, since 60% of my job right now is fixing errors in either the database or a general accounting error. Bottom line.........as an accountant, don't think that you won't have to know this stuff.

New Flash Site

2006-02-01T23:45:00.000-06:00

Check out the new flash site @ http://seanmcgrath.net.

Mississippi State Football

2006-01-31T07:50:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to figure out why MSU did not go after any quaterbacks this year? After all of the struggles last year, you would think that they would try and bring in a junior college guy. With Omar Conner now at wide receiver, Mike Hennig is the only option State will have this year. This doesn't seem to be any better option than last year, even though Hennig did gain some game experience. While he did get extensive playing time, when Hennig was in, our offense was even more anemic than when Conner was calling the plays. I still don't understand why State didn't make a play for Matt Malouf from Oxford. It seems like State thought that he was a lock at Ole Miss all along and that they didn't have a shot at him. I guess Schaefer changed all that when he signed with the Rebels, making Malouf's decision to go to Memphis even easier.

Finally, a website!!!!

2006-01-30T19:25:00.000-06:00

So, I finally bit the bullet and purchased a web domain. I decided to go with 1and1 as the host, since they seemed to be the cheapest thing going with the necessary options. Until I can get my dreamweaver site going, I have thrown together a make shift site using 1and1's website builder. Although not very powerful, it allowed me to get a web presence without a whole lot of work. I hope to have things up and running with the dreamweaver site soon.