Victory and Defeat

July 6, 2009

2009-07-06T20:14:00.002-05:00

Ran just short of 3 miles I think this morning. I ran with a friend on a track, so we did not keep up with how many laps, but it was about the right amount. I am constantly reminded that we have to live like no one else, so we can live like no one else. Dream Big...Do Big.

July 5, 2009

2009-07-05T20:59:00.003-05:00

Well, that was an awesome weekend. On Thursday morning I did not run. This was in preparation for Friday. On Friday I had a day off work because of the fourth, so six of us from church went up to a mountain called Old Rag. It is about a 8.5 mile mountain excursion. I would call it a hike, except that there are several parts where we had to jump over crevices and climb up short distances of rock face. We have climbed this mountain a couple of times, but it is still very fun. One of the guys had his Father-In-Law with him, and that was pretty cool. I got a chance to talk to him most of the way up to the mountain and learned a lot about what he does and what he would do if lack of time and money were not a deterrent. I was impressed with how clear his definition of what he would do is. I mean even down to the city and he described the beaches and what he would do everyday. Of course, He did not explain how he was going to make that dream a reality, so I am looking forward to his next trip out here so I can help him with that. Who knows, might even get a chance sooner then that. Also, we had a good friend of ours from France with us. He is a missionary in France that our church supports and he was able to take the day and spend it with us climbing part of God's creation. It was a beautiful day, with just enough cloud cover to keep the sun off our backs. I had more then a few opportunities to talk to him about information I have been digesting lately. At one point I was discussing things I was learning about Capitalism and Socialism in America and he went ahead and actually completed the thought of the speaker I was referencing. You know you have something right when a misisonary from another culture says the same thing you just heard on a CD the week before. On Saturday I got up and was able to get a 3 mile run in. Followed by mowing the lawn and some reading. Julie worked on her herb garden. In the afternoon we went to a church picnic and had a great time with friends. Then around 8:30 we went to my parents house and shot some fireworks. It was a little funny to me, because my dad was really bothered by the fact that the laws say we can't even have sprinklers(of the firework kind, not the water kind) in our own backyard. The firework laws here have been around for a while, but recently got ridiculously tight. My dad was going on about the government should not be able to tell a man what he can and can't do in his backyard. If he makes to much noise and the neighbors complain, there are laws for that. If he burns someones house down or sets their lawn on fire, there are laws for that also. He just seemed frustrated about the way the government was headed. I told him it was going to be OK. I know a group of people that are going to raise up a generation of leaders and set America on a new path of awesomness. So, this morning(sunday) it was raining and I did not get my run in. Blargh. It is ok though, because tomorrow I am going to go running with a friend. I gave him some important information to listen to this morning at church and when I saw him this evening he had already listened to it and was haveing his wife listen to it next. I am pretty sure that when I see him in the morning I will have some more information for him to listen to. I might even have some "snake oil" for him to drink as well. :) As a new week begins I've defaced the mirror in our main living room with dry erase marker. Can't get away from not accomplishing my goals if the whole household can keep my accountable. Dream Big...Do Big.

July 1, 2009

2009-07-01T20:50:00.002-05:00

Figured I would just drop both day's runs into one post. The 30th was 3miles. Ran 10min, walk 1min, and so forth to finish it out. This morning, same distance, but I ran 1.5miles and then walked for about 1.5min, then ran out the other 1.5miles. Working my way back to a decent showing. Also still posting some pretty slow times, but those will pick up.
Work has been meh lately. I've been avoiding some of the more difficult customers. I know I'm suppose to be closing out these calls, but I haven't been performing properly. Well, all that ends tomorrow. I tried to close out some of the calls today, but tomorrow is the day I really get my butt in gear. With a three day weekend coming up I need to get these customers off the table and clean up things. Also, we have a VERY big project that we are going to start on in the next 2-3 weeks, so I need to have made some major strides before then.
I got no-showed on my follow thru. Oh well, it happens. I'll try and meet up with him this weekend, but I'm not sure how that will turn out. Between now and then I really need to apply the things I'm ready and hearing and get to steppin. I'm ready to make a big 'ol mess, I just need to get out there and do it. Dream Big...Do Big.

June 29, 2009

2009-06-30T08:21:00.002-05:00

Missed out on posting my details from yesterday. So, I will post them this morning. I ended up running 3 miles. It was grueling. It took way longer then it should have and at the end I felt like I was barely going to be able to finish it. But I did. As long as I keep moving forward I always get through the pain and discomfort. The finish line is there. If I start the run it is there, if I sleep in it is there. The finish line is not going anywhere. All I have to do is not quit the run. All I have to do is keep moving forward, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. If I don't get up to take that run, that distance is still there. It does not go away just because I did not start my run. It does not go away because I quit half-way through. My run ends when I reach that goal. Dream Big, Do Big.

June 28, 2009

2009-06-28T20:24:00.002-05:00

This morning I ran about 4 miles. Took me 48 minutes. So, that is 12 minute miles. I really have to cut down my time on those and up my distance. I think the big slow down is the walking I'm doing. I'll have to start cutting that out so I can just get straight runs in. I'm pretty sure that will drop my times back down to 10min miles. Then I just have to up my speed training and I'll be set. I didn't talk to any prospects today, but I did get some reading in on the handbook. Wow, I'd read most of it once before, but now that I'm actually going to use the information in there it makes more sense. Hoping I can get some face time with some couple tomorrow night. Julie works so I'll be flying solo again. Hopefully once her part-time kicks in we can start working together on this. Until then...Dream Big, Do Big.

June 27, 2009

2009-06-27T20:26:00.003-05:00

Today was a good day. This morning I got up late, but I still put in my run for the day. I'm pretty sure I did more then 4 miles, but less the 4.5 miles. I'm not really sure because I was pretty delusional there at the end and I just remember ending up at home. It is nice living down in The Fan, there is plenty of tree cover so I can run in the shade a good bit and the roads are vacant enough that running in the road is not to dangerous. This evening I met a new friend. I'm pretty sure he has the stuff to become a millionaire, if he wants to. I don't think he understands the goals we have in mind for our future yet, but if he hangs out with us long enough he just might catch on. Its pretty amazing when a person can go from being scared of picking up the phone and thinking no one really likes him to sitting in a McD's and talking about someones future. Tomorrow I plan on running 4 miles in the morning(a new route down some different streets) and following through with a prospect I talked to on Wednesday night. I'm also looking forward to confronting a couple that has been on our "worried to talk to" list. We're going to make this happen and we are going to take as many people along with us to their goals as we can. Dream Big, Do Big.

2008-12-31T10:56:00.002-05:00

Ok, here we go... In 2008 I was able to get a couple things done from my Resolution list.

3. Run a Marathon.
8. Change the way I think.
9. Read books that will change the way I look at the world.
10. Learn to remember people's names.

I did not get to go shark fishing, nor did I manage to make some of the bigger goals. That is ok, because now it is time for 2009. The plan this year is to shorten my list and to get it all done. Also, this list is no longer a set of resolutions, this is my 2009 To Do List. On top of that these are going to be in the present tense, as if I'm completing them.

1. I am crossing the finish line of my second marathon. I made it in under 5 hours.
2. I'm playing the guitar for my wife, in a park.
3. My biblical knowledge has grown because I spend time everyday reading my bible.
4. On top of my daily bible reading, I have also improved my knowledge in the area of finances, relatioships and personal growth by reading books that cause me to change the way I think about life.
5. I have become confident in my skills as a buisness owner, and have helped many people achieve their personal goals and dreams.

There, not to many things to get done in 2009. I'll keep these in the forefront on my mind so I can get my To Do List completed in 2009.

2008-11-06T14:39:00.002-05:00

So, my trip to the Grand Caymans went alright. And my trip to a private island in the Bahamas went alright. Now, I'm just waiting for my trip to the Virgin Islands. Of course, between now and then I'm running a marathon. On November 15, I'll be running 26.2 miles. I'm definitely intimidated, but I know I'm going to finish. As a matter of fact, that is really my only goal, to make it to the end. I would like for my time to be under 5 hours(considering I ran a halfy in just under 2:05) but ultimately I just have to not stop and I'll make it to the end.

2008-10-05T16:25:00.002-05:00

Well, I normally don't post this often, but I just had a very interesting lunch. So, I go down to the hotel bar/restaurant and I order my lunch. I eat my lunch and I'm waiting for my bill. Well, all this time there is a man sitting at the bar talking up the bartender(a woman). He gets up from his seat and walks over to me and says something along the lines of "We know each other." My response is "Do we?" He then responded with, "My name isn't Dewey." At that point I thought he was just playing some bar game with me, you know, like a word game where he drops little clues to get me to say the key phrase that wins the game. Well, I think I was wrong. It appeared to me that he had been drinking for a while and that he was very upset about his job situation. Anyway, what I want to ask is that people say a prayer for my bar friend. I don't know if he knows what he is going to do with the rest of his life. Based on what he said he had just lost a pretty good job opportunity and now doesn't know what to do. So, anyway, thanks.

2008-10-04T17:59:00.004-05:00

This is shaping up to be a very active off season for me. Here I am again, uprooted and moved into another country for a week. I'll get an oppertunity to meet new people and discover a culture that is at this point a mystery. Of course, the whole driving the on the left side of the road is really messing with my mind. I'm glad I didn't end up getting a rental car. Pretty sure that would have ended poorly for everyone involved. So, right now I'm reading this book about the cash flow quadrent. The chapters I'm reading through now are detailing different types of investors. So far the book has been eye opening about some of the ways I think and act with my money. Next week, after I get home, we plan on working out a budget. In the past, every time we have tried to write up a budget the ends have not met. Because of these unbalanced budgets we have mostly just winged it every month and somehow things seem to work out. Well, this is not good enough anymore. When I get home we are definitly going to list out all of our debt and all of our spending. We can't know where we are going if we don't know where we are beggining. Also, we plan on growing our wealth, not just our incomes. This will involve becoming educated investors who understand how growth of assets vs. growth of income. It is going to be long road, but we will be able to give and provide for more and more people all the time. I'll admit I have the selfish ambition of not ending up on the 45year plan and instead am looking forward to the 3-5 year plan. I'll also admit that once our debt is paid off we plan on living inexpensivly and supporting missionaries, orphanages, adult education, along with other things that I don't even know are possible yet. It is going to be an exciting adventure and I'm looking forward to it.

2008-09-24T17:26:00.002-05:00

Pretty good turn-around this time. Only about a week between posts. So, running update. On Saturday I ran 16 miles in 2hours 56minutes. I've worked it out and if I can 8 miles every 90 minutes I can finish my marathon in just under 5hours. Now, I'm not setting a time goal, just a secondary goal. My primary goal is to finish. Any time will be fine, but if I can break the 5hour mark that will be awsome. Well, this week I'm in Boca Grande, Florida. For work, really. This kicks off my 2 month onsite bonanza. I'm currently reading How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing Withe People. I've read it before, but it is really good. I always need a reminder about these kind of things. The interesting part is that this book from 1956 says very similar things to another book I read recently about having a heart at peace. The book(something about Anatomy of Peace, I think) talks about a heart at peace vs. a heart at war. The difference is seeing people as people. What I'm interested to find is that many other books I have been reading same similiar things in a different fashion. If we recognize that man has a creator and that we are made in His image then we also can come to the realization that other people are the same. This realization puts us all on a playing field. The common needs and desires are in all of us. The great part of all of this is that we can go back even farther then 1956 and see this same teaching. The Golden rule plays this out exactly. Do for others as you would have them do for you. Realizing this provides amazing confidence when dealing with people because I know that they just want the same thing I want. To win. Now, winning means different things to everyone. This is why life is such an adventure. Creating Win-Win situations is such a rewarding experience. I get what I'm looking for and they get what they are looking for. Ultimatly the best outcome. If there is a Win-Lose situation then that can not be sustained for an extended period of time. Eventually even the Winner feels the loss. Hmmm. I didn't mean to come around to this, but since I'm here, this seems to be what we are experienceing with our finances as a country. For a period of time there was a Win-Lose situation. The finance companies win by creating a market and flooding it with ready to expload loans. The average leasee buys in, thinking they are also winning but are actually losing, it just takes a couple of years to realize it. Now the "winner" is losing because everything is falling apart. Win-Win or no deal this needs to be the way buisness, and life, is done but people are selfish. I need to work on getting over my selfishness. That is what this really comes down to. I need to grow with my self-control.

A wakeup call to myself

2008-09-16T16:27:00.002-05:00

So, here I am again. Several months with no information posted. No updates, no pictures, nothing. If someone was to stumble across this they might think I had given up on the internet and bought 100 acres of wilderness in the upper northwest. Built a log cabin and setup a self-sustaining community where we grow our own crops and hunt our own meat. Well, if that was your guess then you were not to far off. Well, except that instead of upper northwest we live in Virgina. Oh, and instead of log cabin we live in an apartment. Also, instead of growing and hunting we go to Wal-mart and Target. Besides those three things they would be absolutly correct about my life for the past 5 months.
Last Saturday I ran 16 miles. That's right, if you want you can go back wipe your eyes and read that again. 16 miles. At once. It took me about three and a half hours, but I got it done. The run was not to bad either. Actually, it was a lot of fun. I have been continually amazed over the past 5 months at how much running my body can actually stand. I have been running 4 days a week(Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) with my longest run being on Saturday. If you must know I'm training for a marathon. On November 15, 2008 I will be running in the Richmond Marathon. When I signed up it asked me for a finish time and I put in 5:30(yes thats hours). I'm hopeing that I can drop my time to under 5:00 but moving out here to has seen my ~10min miles drop to ~12min miles. I have really worked hard the last two weeks to get closer to the 10min mark, but it has been slow work. I'm definitly planning on continuing to run after Nov. 15. Then, my distances will probly get shorter(more like 5-8 mile runs) but I definitly want to keep up the 4 days a week. One of the unforseen benefits has been the weight loss. Well, not really weight loss, as I'm still around 210, but more like fat loss. Every time I run my pants fit less and less. I started having to buy pants with a 38 waist(before the running) but now I have trouble keeping my 36s up with out my belt and that just looks funny.
Well, I'm hopeing to have more to say here. Stuff about books I've read or lectures I've listened to. Probly not so much about politics, but maybe. I am certainly a product of the system when it comes to that. I do not do a lot of investigating and I definitly feel strongly about certain things so some working that out might end up here. Well, until next time(hopefully not 5 months.) Peace.

2008-04-14T13:37:00.002-05:00

Been a while again. I think that aiming for a schedule is a little past me for the time being, but I'm still going to try. Tues, Thurs, Sat. Yeah that sounds good. Now you might wonder why those days. Well, for now, those are my running days. Yep, thats right, running. Like in a marathon. Well, not this week, but before the end of 2008 my goal is to run a marathon. Right now I can't make it very far. Me and my little brother have been running 2-4 times a week and we have been putting down about three miles a day when we run. This last week was our first actual race. It was the M.A.D.D. Dash here in Searcy and it was a really good time. Our race time was 30:10 so that made us feel good. Earlier in the week we had been talking about aiming for 35min for our race time, so it is nice to see that cut by 5. The official time, which I will hold to, is not completly accurate. While we were running we came over a hill and there was a woman lying in the grass crying. She had been hit by a car. AHHHHHHH. So, we didn't know what to do, there was a guy helping her up and we stopped for a minute, but she just kept saying that she wanted to finish the race and she did with about 30 seconds on me and my brother. Kinda embarassing, but I figure we stalled for atleast 10-15 seconds while we thought about getting a phone or calling for help before she started running again. Appartenly some car just drove by and hit her arm with the rear view mirror and just kept going, didn't stop. We were so focused on the left, right, left, right, that we hadn't been paying attention to any of the cars that were passing us. Yeah, little asian women are hard core. This week I'm in Florida. Well, ok, I'm at the airport right now, but until Friday I'll be in florida installing, training, having anxioty attacks. You know, the usual. So, I plan on finishing my book on Robert E. Lee and my Dr. Rohm book as well. So, thats my plan and I'm sticking to it.

2008-04-05T22:21:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty fired up right now. We just got back from a leadership seminar and the couple that were speaking tonight were phenominal. They really spoke to where I am in life and where I want to be going. Talking about things they have dealt with that I see too commonly around me that I don't want in my life. Wow, amazing. But its late, so I think most people I know who would want to hear about it(and even those who don't) are mostly asleep preparing their minds for church tomorrow morning. Anyway, I had some extra time at work this morning and because there were no customer to work with I got to put in a couple of CDs and I took some notes on what was being said, so I figured I would do some thinking and writing about the notes I took. Oddly enough the CDs I was listening to were predomintly about finances. I just grabbed four of them before I left my house because I had about four hours of work to do. The first thing I have jotted down is pretty funny because until I think about it, most of the time I'm stuck in thinking about things a certain way. I know exactly when my pay day is. I know when they get my check in the main office and when they send it to me. I know what my base pay is and I know what bonuses I got for the month. So, my payday is one day a month. Now, my expense day is every day of the month. When my cc bill would come in I would be suprised every month. Over and Over, everytime it would catch me off guard. Oh crud is it that time of the month again? Good gravey, did we really spend that much on the card this month. Once it is pointed out to me it seems rediculous that I was doing this, but its true. Everyday was my expense day, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. With all of these expenses one has to wonder what the solution is. Well, odviously the answer is make more money. They only problem with that is easily found in my own personal experience. I now make more then double what I started making with this company 4 years ago and yet every month we barely scrape by at the end of the month and I wonder, how is that possible, I made more money this month then ever before and we're still broke. Well, the answer isn't in making more money, it is being more responsible with the money I have. You can actually look at your expenses as potential income. Income from an expense? How can that work? Well, think about it this way, when you get a raise what is the first thing that happens to that money? Taxes. So, for every dollar you make on a raise only $.66 makes it into you pocket. Now, if you were to cut back your expenses then every dollar you save is a dollar in your pocket. Its actually a better return to cut your expenses then to get a raise. Now, I'm sure there are some situations where this isn't the case, but for me it defintly is. So, I have gone back and I'm catagorizing our expenses for the month and I'm going to cut back on unnecisary things, like a $.50 can of DR.Pepper at work in the afternoons or going to Sonic during Happy Hour and getting a gigantic Strawberry Limeade. Building the discipline to cut back those temptations is not going to be easy. But I'm going to do it. As I was listening to the cd go on about saving your way to wealth I decided to call my wife and let her know about my new conviction. I didn't call her to guilt trip her because I can't go out and tell anyone to live their life a certain way if I'm not living that way. It just doens't make sense. So, I'm cutting back on my expenses to create more money at the end of my month for saving. What things are you going to cut out to help you build a legacy?

2008-04-03T09:15:00.003-05:00

For the last month my reading habits have basically been focused on four books. The first book I've been working on is The Bible. One of my New Year resolutions is to read the New Testament once every three months, for a grand total of four times. I don't know why, but I figure the first time I read through it I might see some new things and just read through it to get it done. The second time some more new things, but I already have the whole picture in mind so later scripture can influence my understanding of early scripture. Hind site is 20/20. Then the third/fourth times I read it I can really focus on some deep learning that hopefully will stick with me. Then next year I plan on working through the Old Testament. Not sure where things will go from there. Anyway, the second book I've been reading through is called Leading the Consumer Rebellion. It is about building communities of loyal customers who make a majority of their purchases online and how some simple concepts can save them money while still creating profit for everyone involved. Pretty exciting stuff to realize that we are on the verge of a new market place that has the potential to change the way every day business is done in America. I had planned on writing about some of the specifics of what I was reading, but my laziness got me. So, that might be some food for my posts over the next couple of days. The third book I actually ended up reading twice, just because it is the manliest book ever written. I'll even include a shot of the cover for you to prove how manly it is.OK, maybe not so manly, but still an incredible read. Its also pretty short so if you were to dedicate an afternoon to it then I think most people could knock it out. If not in one day easily two afternoons of dedicated reading time. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be writing about that at some point as well. The fourth book I spent the last month reading was called The Centurion Principles. It goes through history picking out military leaders who were above/beyond their time and their position. Some of them are examples of how to work with people or be direct and there are also a couple of how not to act. One of the 'how not to' guys is a general type from the civil war and every time things go wrong he blames it on the weather or not having enough men or the grass was wet or his tea had to much sugar and so on(naturally I exaggerate on this, but you get the idea). So, the example there is how you can be in charge, but you have to take command and use everything to your advantage, even the negative things that are happening around you. So, those are the four I was working on last month. This month, wow, I also have a couple of books I'm working through. One is about Robert E. Lee, another one is about training to run a marathon. Still another one called What to say when you talk to yourself and a fourth one(for if I finish the others) called Good to Great. I've had a book suggested to my by one of my mentors called The millionaire next door(or something like that) that I'm going to pick up in the next couple of week and give that a whirl in the future some time. So, what are you guys reading??????

2008-04-02T11:02:00.002-05:00

In our last episode.... Good gravy I wish I could get some consistency in the things I want to accomplish. Its been almost a month since my last post and I know every single person who reads this has been sitting on pins and needles wondering what bizarre and amazing thing I'm going to say next. Well, there is no reason to fear for I'm back. Didn't really go anyway, just let my old thinking sink in, but I went to a meeting last night and I'm pretty fired up. So, on my last post I had a response asking me where I was applying this personal revolution and whom was getting the benefits of my budding leadership skills. Well, that is a question that has a large answer. The easiest changes to see would have to be in my living room. The way I treat my wife. The way I have learned to love her by completing simple tasks that bother her. When she walks into our house she sees all the little things(shoes by the door, coat on a chair, dirty cups in the sink) and those bother her. I walk into the house and I see empty couch, lonely computer, refrigerator of unprepared food. We see different things. I can honestly say that most of the time I walk through the kitchen and I don't even notice the counter or sink or dishwasher or floor or any of that because it doesn't matter to me. But, I have begun to revolutionize the way I treat my wife. I haven't stopped saying nice things or holding her hand or kissing her on the cheek or calling her Princess. I've just added on things, like picking up clothes that are lying around, making sure my dishes make it into the dishwasher or at the least are rinsed off in the sink. Little things that she has been asking me to do all along but I haven't been listening to her. The crazy thing is the more I study about personalities and relationships the easier it is to understand both of our needs and I actually understand how/why she reacts to me the way she does. I'm glad I have started studying now. There are so many people I have meet that say "I wish we had read this book 20 years ago when we were first married." Its exciting to be ahead of the curve for once. Outside of my house the leadership skills I am cultivating are helping me with work. Again, it has been amazing how easy it is to work with people when you stop listening to what they are saying and start listening to what they are saying. What I mean, is that by growing my understanding of personalities it becomes easier to listen to what a customer is saying and understand it from their point of view instead of only seeing things from my nice comfy chair in my office. By putting a priority on by-passing my own intentions I am able to better understand my customer and where they are coming from and work towards the goal they actually have in mind, no matter what they are telling me on the phone. Also, I am trying to slowly teach those around me to do likewise and build up actual re pore with the customer so they trust us to have their best interest in mind. Besides home(my relationship with my wife) and work(my relationship with my customers and co-works) I've definitely begun to push myself at church and with my friends. On Sunday mornings during our service we have a time where they have us all stand up and greet the people we don't know around us. It use to be that I dreaded this time. Stand up, turn around, say hello to people who won't even remember you next week and will keep asking you if your a student, blah blah blah. Wow, did I dislike when we had to do that. Well, now its not so bad. I've started to take the mind set of "If its to be, its up to me." I want a better experience, I'm going to make a better experience. So, I've begun working on being the one to introduce myself first. Its uncomfortable, annoying, even painful for me at times, but I'm enjoying the change in the overall meet-n-greet experience. With some of my friends I've started noticing the negative in the conversations I use to participate in freely. Both language and content seem to have taken a rather interesting turn, but when I think about it, I'm pretty sure things have changed more in my life for the positive instead of the other way around. Also, when I'm hanging out with my friends I have started noticing the way I talk, and it is a lot. I have a tendency to repeat thing multiple times while I'm telling a single story. I tell the story and then give an example or continue to elaborate to get all of the finite details in as quickly as possible. See, right there i did it again. This bothers me and I'm working on not talking about myself so much, because honestly people don't find me as interesting as I do. On this front I have made one major change, I don't keep talking if I'm interrupted. If something disturbs the conversation I am taking part of(most likely a monologue at this point) and the other person doesn't ask me to continue I don't, I just let it go. Most of the time I can see this coming, but so far I can't seem to help myself. But I'm working on it. Always working on some part of myself so that I can be better tomorrow then I am today.

3-6

2008-03-03T21:51:00.002-05:00

As I was reading on Saturday I came across a quote I thought got me thinking. Philip Crosby, author of Quality is Free, writes, "There is a theory of human behavior that says people subconsciously retard their own intellectual growth. They come to rely on cliches and habits. Once they reach the age of their own personal comfort with the world, they stop learning and their minds run on idle for the rest of their days. They may progress organizationally, they may be ambitious and eager, and they may even work night and day. But they learn no more. The bigoted, the narrow-minded, the stubborn, and the perpetually optimistic have all stopped learning. " What gets me about this quote is that this describes exactly where I was a year ago. I was at a point in my life where I had created a small form of comfort with the world around me and I had stopped learning and growing. I was in a comfort zone of mediocrity and didn't really care to get outside of it. In April of '07 I meet a group of people who had been in the same place that I was and had decided they could no longer live the rest of their days with their mind running on idle. They stepped out of their comfort zone and by doing so forced themselves into a learning cycle. Once we reach a level of education that we feel comfortable with, most people stop learning. I have been amazed to realize how many people don't read another book after they graduate from college or high school. They just stop with their personal education. I began to realize that I was the same way. The only books I had read since college were related to the fantastical world of Harry Potter. Besides the going-ons of Harry and the gang, I also knew A LOT about shows on television and what was going on in movies. I spent so much time on filling my comfort zone with items that would maintain my level in life instead of stepping out of my comfort zone and raising my level in life. I began to see how by changing the things I was exposing my mind and heart to I could change the way I thought. My changed thoughts could drive changed actions and build new habits. If I worked diligently on my actions and habits I could someday come into a new way of life. But there are things to be careful about. As I step out of my comfort zone I have to be careful that I do not begin to build another one around myself again. I have to continually step out of what I am use to and be driven by a hunger to know more and to grow more. I have to keep myself slightly unsatisfied with what I know and how I live. Looking past my present situation to bigger and better tomorrow. At the end of the quote it describes a couple of types of people who are stuck in their comfort zone. I'm not so sure about that, but I do know that I was relying on cliches and old habits with my brain running on idle for the rest of my days. As I keep reading I am making a pledge to refuse to let my brain run on idle. A pledge to keep my motor running.

3-5

2008-03-02T23:43:00.003-05:00

I am beginning to recognize a pattern in my blogging habit. I apparently wait until right before I drift off to sleep and then decide I'm going to write something. I guess I can work on that tomorrow. So, at church this morning the sermon was about the church as the body of Christ. Of all the points that were made one struck out at me. Uniformity is different then Unity. Uniformity is being forced into a mold that you don't fit. It is being told that you have to shape up or ship out. Stop thinking for yourself and listen to only those in command. Unity is about people having far reaching goals and dreams in common. Having a burning desire that pulls a group together despite their differences and creates an environment of safety and well being. Manipulators create groups filled with uniformity. Leaders create groups driven by unity. Unfortunatly, from the outside it is sometimes hard to see the difference. Escpecially when a group is so driven by their unity that those outside can only see uniformity. Groups that strive to create uniformity will grow stale hollow men and women who parrot the same things over and over. Breathing stuffy air from creating so many mouth-breathers living within the box. Groups who are full of unity will grow into a diverse garden of individuals seeking the best solution for the common goal. Sucking in the fresh air of the mountain tops and striving to go even higher.

3-4

2008-03-01T21:03:00.002-05:00

A week ago I was introduced to two seemingly benign questions. Over the past week I have been able to ask these questions repeatedly and the answers seem to point to the way things are. The first questions is If you were to describe yourself, would you describe yourself as more outgoing or more reserved? This seems like a simple question, but some people seem to waver on which side of the fence they land on. And to tell the truth, most people have both in them. But, if you were to give an answer right now 51%/49% what would it be. The second questions sits on top of the first. If you were to describe your self, again if its difficult 51%/49% and you can change your answer, would you say you were more task oriented or relationship oriented. Wow, see two very simple questions. Except that when these two questions are used in tangent they actually begin to display a lot more about you then you might at first think. The answers to these questions splits people into four different personality groups. Outgoing-Task, Outgoing-Relationship, Reserved-Task, Reserved-Relationship. Of course, we all have a little of each quadrent in us. Sometimes we are more Reserved-Task to get something done in a very detailed fashion but other times we are more Outgoing-Relationship when at a party. The interesting part about these questions is that for the past week I have asked myself these questions about all the new people I met while I did on-site training for a company in Minneapolis. One of the employees what Outgoing-Relationship and he was boisterous and vibrant and a little crass. The other office employee was Reserved-Task and she definitly had a right way of doing things that was about to be completly turned topsy-turvy. Knowing the anwers to the two questions for these trainees I was able to mirror their attitudes and mode of communication in order to have the most effective training. It was a very real way to experience the different personality types and get a feel for working with two very different types. Oh, and with the Task/Relationship break they view building new relationships very different. The Task people feel that there must be trust before there can be relationship. The Relationship people are the exact opposite and feel that there must be some relationship before trust can be built.

3-3

2008-02-28T23:19:00.003-05:00

I'm tired. Worn out even. Its late and I want to go to sleep. It seems like it would be a good idea to get into bed and close my eyes, but I think I'm going to put a little bit of thinking in before I pass out. The thing with thinking is that our imaginiations run away a lot of the time. I have that problem. I naturally go toward negative thinking. Most of the time I'm worying about things that don't even come to pass. As a matter of fact I have to say that all of the time I'm thinking about how things can go wrong. Even the most mundane things snowball into utter catastraphes in my mind. This drives a cycle in my life. Negative thoughts lead to negative actions which lead to negative results which fold back into proof for my negative thoughts. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I am successful or how many times I prove my negative thoughts wrong they are always there. I think this is what drives me to quit so many things in my life. I get excited about things and then I quit. I just let them go by the wayside and get dusty and then theres another thing I couldn't stick with. So, I'm working on positive self talk. Actually, the only reason I'm even writing this tonight is because I talked myself into it. There are so many things outside myself that are trying to get in my way of success, so why should I try to stop myself. Why should I believe the lies I tell myself. Starting a positive cycle of Thoughts/Action/Results is the best way to defeat myself. Getting bigger then the obsticles I have in my way. I can the just step over them and run into bigger obstacles. So, upperward and onward, and sleepward.

3-2

2008-02-27T21:55:00.003-05:00

So, after my first day at the marina here things are going really well. We were able to get everything installed on all of their machines so tomorrow should be smooth sailing. I also like their merchant services. For the first time every it seems like this marina has a credit card processor who actually cares about them as a customer. I'm amazed. Normally it is worse then pulling teeth to get the cc stuff taken care of but it was so simple today. Then I had chinese food for dinner. Beef Lo-mein or something like that. Best egg roles I have had in a while.
Soooo, do you remember those vin-diagrams from when you were in school as a child. There were two things(ex. Wearing Pants and Being Happy) . Then the teacher would draw them up as circles and they would overlap(except in the example I just gave they don't really overlap). Anyway, This pas weekend I saw a vin-diagram that is part of a paradigm shift for me. In the first circle was Preperation and in the second circle was Opportunity. The part of the diagram where the two circles allign was shaded in and labled Success. The speaker went on to talk about how if the Preperation circle is too small then it doesn't matter how big the Opportunity circle is, they won't overlap to give you success. A revolution is what happens when a group of people are frustrated with the current situation. They are determined to thrash against the status quo to create ripples and tears in the rules others have setup to step out and create something new. It must be know that a revolution is going to be uncomfortable, sometimes down right painful, so get your whinning out first because when the firefight starts there is no time for complaining. You have started to rip free from standard that has been placed on you like a thick blanket. A revolution is not an overnight success. It takes time. It takes failure. It takes getting back up again. I'm reminded of Rocky Balboa. In the movies he failed round after round after round. Getting knocked down and bloodied up. People from the crowd yelled at him and told him to quit. If it was the previous champion, Mr. T, the russian or any other challenger, no one ever seemed to believe Rocky could win in the ring. But Rocky believed. He more then believed, he knew it was his destiny to walk out of that ring a champion, time and time again. He failed so many times during each round, getting knocked to the ground and beat to a pulp, but with all the technical mistakes he made he kept doing one thing right. He kept getting up. Any type of revolution, be personal, political, or economical, will take time to reach victory. The only way for a revolution to fail is for those fighting it to quit. I plan on finishing a marathon sometime this year and from what I hear there is a thing called a runners high. A point where the runners body kicks in and the endorphins take over. The runner begins to enjoy the pain and find it comforting because the body will release massive amounts of pain killers. The same is true of a revolution. As you get the hang of the changes being made you begin to enjoy the journey instead of worry about left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. You being to crave being outside your comfort zone. Those endorphines kick in and you are flying high. As you begin a revolution it is important to know that there will be critics telling you not to rock the boat. Telling you that you can't make the changes, that you can't make the difference. Be prepared for them to say things that cut deep, to your very heart even. Be prepared for critics to show up in the forms of firends and family. Be prepared to see a critic in the mirror looking back at you some mornings. It is not easy to fight a revolution. If the thought of critics turns you off then do nothing. Live the status quo life and don't break lose and soar high. Even though critics are trying to pull you down, don't worry you can still find the positive in them. If the things they are saying are true then check them out and fix what you need to and move on with your revolution. Don't stop running. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. If the critics are spewing lies then ignore them. Let them fall to the wayside and strive forward toward the crown. As your revolution grabs hold in your everday life continue to learn. Growing your horizons so that your next level will never be enough. Learn to learn because that hunger will drive you to break through. Feel the hunger and grow your knowledge so that you are prepared for the oportunities that are going to show themself to you. You don't know what you don't know. So open your eyes and see the world in a whole new light as you step out and start the good fight.

3-1

2008-02-26T12:04:00.002-05:00

This last weekend I went with my wife to St. Louis for three days. I know there are more the a couple people I know living there and I'm sorry that I didn't get an opportunity to see ya'll, but we spent the entire time at the Edward Jones Dome. So, if any of you were downtown this weekend and were suddenly swarmed by a lot of people wearing suits and red ties. Sorry about that. I ended up taking about half a legal pad worth of notes, which is less then usual, but I still think I got a lot of good information that I need to review.
I'm deciding to become a ferocious learner and this is the place where I'm going to try and work out the stuff I'm learning. For instance, this week I'm reading a book called Launching a Leadership Revolution. It sits pretty high on a couple of best seller lists and I have met the guys who wrote it. I read part of it once, but got distracted by other things in my life. So, this week on my business trip to Minneapolis I am going to read it all the way through. I'm also going to try and write about the stuff I'm reading so I can work it out on paper. A lot of the time my mind works things out that don't make sense but once I say them or write them out I realize how wrong the thoughts were.

P.S. The guys who wrote that book Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward have blogs at http://chrisbrady.typepad.com/ and http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/ They have some really amazing stuff about leadership stuff and update their pages almost everyday.

2-4

2008-01-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

Obligatory post so that I don't blow my attempt at posting everyday for the new year. Tomorrow is saturday so hopefully I will have some time to jot some things down.

2-3

2008-01-03T22:37:00.000-05:00

Another day, another dollar. Or something like that. So, I've been using this website pandora.com and I like it a lot. It lets you select a band or song and based on the music genome project it selects more music for you. You then have the ability to Yes or No the music that is plays and it creates a unique radio station for you based on your preferences. It is pretty cool. So, today I read Matt 7:6-9:30. These are the worst breaks for doing this ever, but as I read along the breaks won't mater as much because I will start re-reading sections and things will start fitting together. Well, these couple of chapters finishes up the sermon on the mount. Normally this section feels really long, but no so much this time. I think the story of the centurion is a favorite of mine. Some where he came across the teachings of Jesus and realized that there was power not only in his spoken word, but also Jesus' actions. This early into Jesus' ministry this roman was able to see that Jesus had some awsome powers. I doubt I would have been as open minded or open eyed as this man. The part that strikes me is that we don't even know his name, he was just another soldier, yet here I am ~2000 years later writing about it in little electric 1's and 0's. Wondering about his family and his job and how he went about day to day. He left an amazing legacy of faith with only a 30 second conversation. 30 seconds. I hope I can live a life that will leave a legatcy of faith, even if it takes more then 30 seconds.

2-2

2008-01-02T22:54:00.000-05:00

*ACK* The second day in and I almost didn't make it. That was a close one. Well, now I'm tired and don't feel like writing about anything today. Sooo, today I read Matthew 4:25 - 7:5. Interesting stuff. It includes the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. There are a lot of good teaching in there about a lot of things. I know that there are plenty of people who have done lots of stuff on the beatitudes, so I'm going to skip them this time around. Maybe in three months I'll write about them. What caught me as interesting today was 4:17. Jesus says Don't think I came to destroy the law, I came to fulfill it. That is an odd thing to say. Nothing in the red text up to that point sounds like anything that has anything to do with the law. Then he starts to talk about the permanency of the law. Just sounds like people have already started to talk about him behind his back and spread rumors, even at this early stage. I think there was something that got my gears going, but I can't remember it now. Maybe tomorrow I'll write at the same time I read. maybe.

2 - 1

2008-01-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, that was a crazy year. All sorts of awesome stuff happened and I would sit down and write it all out for you, but that would take me a year. Then it would be 2009 and I would not have very many memories about it except that I had spent a year writing a blog entry about how much fun I had, new people I met, and debt I paid off. So, you may have noticed the title of this entry, 2-1. The 2 represents that this is my second attempt to write every day and the 1 is how many days in a row I have written. I think I'm going to try and keep this up for a while. I'm not big on naming thing, never named anything I wrote for school growing up, but I do like to name pets. Usually odd names that reference things I find fascinating, but am not really as knowledgeable as I like to think I am. So, 2008, what are my 2008 goals. Hmmmm. Well, one is to read the New Testament four times. I know that sounds like a lot, but it only involves about four-and-a-half chapters a day, and that is definitely do-able. I also want to write down my thought for every day and then I can go back and have four versions of my thoughts for any given day. I think that is what I am going to do in this space everyday. A little of blah blah blah, this is my everyday just like everyone else life and a little these are my thoughts. Ok, so I'm going to number these out so I don't write a paragraph for each one.

1. Read my bible everyday - Complete the New Testament every 3 months.
2. Re-distribute my weight.
3. Run a Marathon.
4. Go Shark Fishing in Florida.
5. Go Turbo 12.
6. Stop watching TV.
7. Write everyday. Read a dictionary.
8. Change the way I think.
9. Read books that will change the way I look at the world.
10. Learn to remember people's names.
11. Create a Daily Do List For Success and stick to it. Four items to be reviewed every seven days and two items to be review every day.
12. Modify my eating habits to reflect my desire to be around past the age of 28.

There I think that takes care of that.

So, today I read Matthew 1-4:23 and I had a couple of thoughts. The first thing that got me thinking(and writing the entry to begin with) was when Herod killed everyone two years old and younger. When Jesus and his family come back, is he the only one in his age group that is around once he comes back? I know that they started out in Bethlehem and ended up in Galilee but I don't know how far spread Herod's power was. So, I'm not sure how far the killing of all children new born to two was. The second thought I had was in 3:2 about John the Baptist and he said Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and then in 4:17 Jesus starts his ministry and says Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not knowing Greek I don't know if that is actually the same phrase that is used. Anyone know? I'm looking at you Mark.
Third and finally, who is this prophet they keep referring to? 1:22, 2:5, 2:17, and 3:3 all talk about the prophet and what he said about the birth of Jesus. 4:14 talks about Isaiah the prophet, but I'm not sure the other verses mean Isaiah. Ok, well, I just started looking up the rest of those verses and they do appear to be from Isaiah. Hmm. Well, learn something new everyday.

#105

2007-06-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

So, I'm in Phoenix right now. Actually, I'm on my way to Burbank and we aren't even going to de-plane. I'm sitting here and can get internet access. Crazy. Later.

#103

2007-05-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

Jerry Falwell aparently died today. Earlier this morning actually. And while I didn't know him personally, I have read many a hatefull things about him today. Rejoicing and Dancing. Singing and spitting. Seriously people, he made some pretty outragious claims but some of the comments I have seen are really creepy. Most of these are from self-proclaimed good people who frequently blame Christians and religion for all the ills of the world. Its just about crazy. Anyway, I'm headed down to LR tonight. I have a meeting to go to and it should be a good time. The speaker has done some pretty impresive things with the buisness I am trying to get going. So, there should be some reaffirmation and encouragement. Oh, and we are going to get some awsome sweet BBQ. I forget the name of the place but it pretty much rocks my face. I ate there once for Man Night a couple of months ago and it was really good. So, in conclusion I beleive there will be rainbows out shortly. The rain is starting to stop. No really, we just a good bit of rain here this afternoon.

#102

2007-05-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Mark - I know you think my numbering is off, but it is not. I posted twice under a couple of number and other numbers got skipped. When I come in to the blogger site it tells me how many posts I have made. Because I can not count, that is the number I go by. Could be wrong, but I do not think it is. Oh well. At least its getting me to post again.

Today is Monday. Some people are down on Mondays because they signify the statr of a new work week for most of us. All the work stuff that we didn't finish last week is still there waiting for us. Whatever I did not finish on Friday afternoon is sitting there patiently for me to come in and devour my soul. The weekend is barely enough time to relax(haha) and get things done. So, I am getting out of my job. Not this week, but soon. I have a side business that I am trying to build here in Searcy but so far to no avail. Mostly due to my lack of commitment. The thing with commitment is that I can say anything and I can think anything and I can want anything, but until I write it down it does not really have a good chance of happening. I am going to build this buisness and I am going to get out of my job. I am not going to be a wage slave and I am going to help people find purpose in their lives.
Our parents taught us a way of life since we were children. Study hard, get good grades. Why? Well, getting good grades means you have learned important things. Like what? For starters, Algebra is very important. Having the ability to calculate the area of a triangle will surely save peoples lives some day. Really? Save lives you think? Hmmm, ok I guess so.Oh yeah, and good grades will get you into a good college. Wow, a good college, that sounds fantastic. What will happen there?Oh, in college you will learn more things.

Meh, this is the problem I have with writing things out online. I get bored with them. I would love to carry the conversation out to the end. It involves the participants discussing the value of a good traditional education and how far it will actually get us in life. Except for all the things they don't teach us about life. The US Department of Labor is perdicting that by the time I am ready to retire(more then 50 years from now) I will have to work a 20 hour work week inorder to keep living. In a matter of days I will go from making a living that cares for my wife and me down to one-half or one-third of what we were getting by on. Currently, I have little confidence that the government will be in a position to help us out by then.
Can you imagine sitting at a desk for 50 years answering phones, giving computer assistance? How long will it be before the new guy comes in and takes my place. Right now I am young and cheap-ish, but for how long. Every year there are newer, more up to date, cheaper, and better looking(this one is probably not true) tech guys out there trying to steal my job. So far my company has not been able to find them.

#101

2007-05-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

CLEAR.....thwump......beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.CLEAR......thwump.....beeeeeeeeep.
Doctor, give it up. Its gone.
NO, I'M NOT LOSING ANOTHER ONE. YOU WON'T DIE ON ME DARN IT.

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FWUAAAAH -
Doctor, its alive, you did it. WOOHOOO.
WELL, THATS WHAT I DO.

#100

2007-03-24T19:28:00.000-05:00

First I would like to congratulate myself on 100 posts. Woot. Now onto the show.

Day 3 - March 11
The wakeup call came early. 3:15 so we could be ready when our taxi got there at 4:00 so we could make it to the airport for our 6:30ish flight. Wow, what a whorl-wind adventure it has been and we haven't even made it to France yet. We get up and get everything in order. Make it down stairs and the taxi is their waiting for us. We load up and tell him we have to stop off at a bank/ATM to get the money we need to pay him. He drove us away from the airport and toward the ATM. When we got there they were not going to let The Princess use her card. I then tried mine and also got shot down. Well, all we have is Euros so now we are in a delima. Luckily our taxi guy was real great and called the hotel to ask what the exchange rate was and how much in Euros it would be for the ride. The guy calls back and tells him and we are on our way to the Heathrow airport to fly to Paris. I did a little math in my head to make sure it at least sounded about right and we were set. We entered the airport, check-ed on the kiosk and waited for a person to show up to take our bags. Not so stresfull this time, because there was no one there to take anyones bags so we all just waited in queue until people showed up and then we headed deeper into the airport where we found a bastion of American Style Sanity: Starbucks. Again, all the numbers look the same as in America, you just have to multiply it by 2.5 to see if it is really worth it. We ended up with regular coffe and begals. The flight loaded up and we were off. No extra events to hold us down. Oh yeah, to add this real quick, I saw about 20 guys in our 24 hrs here that reminded me of Mr. Bean, they are everywhere over here. hehehe. When we landed in Paris they made an announcment reminding everyone that there was DEFINITLY NO SMOKING in the airport. The rules had recently changed and the made sure everyone knew that there was no smoking. Our arrival in Paris was relativly un-eventful-We landed, we got our luggage, we walked down to the RER B(the train into Paris) and got our tickets to head on out. Well, the tickets don't like Americans and when you say you want 2 tickets the machines all think you want a 2-way ticket. So, after The Princess entered the train terminal I couldn't run the ticket through to get in. I had to go back to the desk and get them to exchange my left over 1-way ticket for another one that would work for me. Hurray. Now we are on our way. As we were nearing Paris, two men entered our train car. The first was a nice looking man who carried an accordian and started to play. Shortly after, another man comes running in with a full bass and starts strumming along. It was actually very good and I wanted to film it for YouTube or something, but I also had just spent a ridicullous amount of money to get here and was being stingy with what we had left. So, we did not tip them or video tape them. I felt a little guilty for this, but not for to long. In Gard d'Nor(the North Train Station) we figured out the direction we needed to take to make it to Gard l'Est(East Train Station) and headed out. The first sight we got to see inside the city limits of Paris was a Sex Booth place with Private booths for 1euro=1video. Well, there you go I guess. From there(the train station not the sex shop) we headed south and east and made our way just fine. Our trip was a little slow, but we were carring several bags and had not really had a nights sleep for several days. Once we arrived there the office for buying tickets was closed. Closed on Sundays read a sign. Well, what now. We sat for minute to gain our composure and then went to the local ticket box. He told us we had to go around and outside to find the other ticket spot and we were able to find it eventually. Now that we had tickets we wanted to take a quick look at the area we were in and just walk around a little bit. So, we asked about lockers for our luggage. Oh yes, the lady says, they are at Gare d'Nor. So, back up the hill to the train station we started at to drop of our luggage so we can enjoy the 3 hours we have before our train leaves. Back at the North Train Station, a girl is standing there looking dishevled and she just keeps saying Speak English. So, I say yeah sure to wich she holds up a sign that basicly says, I am from hungaria my mother is here for two months, blah blah blah, give me money. I told her no(again, we did not have a lot to spare) and start to walk she follows, please please. I answer no sorry. At this she says I'm pregnant. Well, that is probly not good for your child, but I'm sorry no. She turns away. During our trip I see this girl atleast 5 more times and she is doing the same thing the whole time. You might think the is cruel of me, but you will soon learn why I didn't give money to any of the beggers there. Then we headed down to this little river in that district and it was really really nice. All the Frenchies out walking around for a Sunday stroll. Kids everywhere very relaxing and nice. I have some pictures that I will post of this, there was a little tent city down by the river. So, back to the North Train station to pickup our stuff and then on to the East Train station to catch our ride. We get on and there is plenty of room and it is a very nice train for riding 4 hours in. Very nice. After a while the ticket guys come by. Everyone else seems to have a single ticket for everyone in their group, not us, we only have one ticket for the both of us. It does have both of our names on it so I am only a little worried. When the guy gets to us he asks us if we live in France. No. So he explains that we were suppose to Validate the ticket in Paris and that usually it is a 10euro fine for each person. Just like the taxi, this guy is really nice and he doesn't charge us. Now we are finally in Strausbourg. Except we don't have anyway to contact our friends there because the phones don't take money. Thats right, the phones in France don't take money you have to have a special calling card to use for it. Well, we didn't know that at the time so we wandered around like crazies trying to figure things out. Finally got a card, made the call and our friend came to pick us up. While we waited we headed over to a McDonalds. I only mention this because they have these nifty little ham&cheese stars for the kiddies. The word for ham is jambon and the word for cheese is fromage, so natuarlly the stars are called Jambon et Cheese. Of course? A short car ride and we are home, where we eat a fantastic dinner and spend quite a good amount of time catching up on things. One of the things I learned in this conversation is that France is Socialist. Part of what this means is that the homeless people get paid more then minimum wage for being homless. This is why we no longer felt that twinge of guilt for not giving them our money. This is also why all the homeless people have tents. Tents everywhere, on the sidewalk in the park, all over the place. Crazy tents.

Well, we have successfully made it to France and are in Strausbourg about to go to sleep so I am going to divert from the rest of the story and work on taxes. I'll be back shortly to continue this ramble of our adventures.

#99

2007-03-24T18:50:00.000-05:00

Day 2 - March 10
Now that we are at Gatwick we have a little bit of a delima. So far we have been flying on NWA and everything has been good, but from here on out we are actually going to fly Air France. This is because from Gatwick they are the only people who fly to Strausbourg, which is on the French/German boarder and our hopefull destination for our stay in France. Anyway, the delima is the fact that we have landed at the North Terminal and need to go through customs to get our bags and then proceed to the South Terminal and check them back in for the Air France flight. No big deal. I have flown into/out of several foreign countries before for work(bahamas and panama) and there is no way they have better customs then England does. So, we start walking down the hallway toward customs so we can get a move on and maybe find some lunch. We round the corner and there are about 2,000 people in this gigantic line for customs. It actually filled the entire roped line in the main room, up a large ramp down a hall the length of the first room, down another hall and around a corner where we finally found the end of it. 2.5 hours not looking so long anymore. So, we waited. The people in front of us were really nice. At one point, The Princess had to get out of line to go to the bathroom and I was holding our place, but then it hit me that I had to go as well, and this was not going to wait. Luckily they were very understanding as I shuffled down the hallway to the bathroom, Julie came back and everything worked out well. Finally after about 2hours we get up to the desk and get our passports stamped. Hurridly we rush into a larger room with about 10 different luggage dispensers and peoples luggage everywhere. I scour the room, but any signs that our flight had been here were gone about 90 minutes ago. So, we start to hunting for our baggage. The Princess was actually able to find them pretty quickly while I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Now, on a mission we are trying despratly to make it over to the Southern terminal in the 4 minutes before the plane takes off to try and stop it somehow so we can make it on. Unfortuantlly, when we arrived at the Southern Terminal no one there had ever heard of Air France and had no clue where it was. So we wandered around for a minute and finally came across some one who said, follow that sign around the corner. Around the corner we go and we find a single check in location with no personell and it is odviously shut down for the day. I look around for a second and ask someone from another airline who I should talk to. They point me to customer service desk. This is the point where we find out that our tickets are now null&void and that we can not exchange/refund/modify/anything them and will have to purchase new tickets. Huzzah. It only takes us about an hour to finally find the next flight to Strausbourgh. Sunday night at 7:30. Hmmm. We work with the rep for a couple more mintues and finally come up with a plan that will have us on a flight to Paris at 6:00 in the morning. From Paris we can get train tickets or something to get us to Strausbourg.
One more catch. The flight to Paris is not leaving from this airport, but is actually leaving from Heathrow which is about 45 minutes away by bus. Fantastic. So, we kick over to bus over to Heathrow and then have to find a hotel, dinner, and a taxi for the next morning. The thing to remember through all this is that we only have Euros because the plan was to end up in France where everything is in Euros. So, here we are in England looking at 2 plane tickets,2 bus tickets, 2 dinners, a hotel room and a taxi, all in pounds. Luckily, The Princess had one of her cards with her and they were nice enough not to shut it off. I on the other hand had been quickly cut off by the Credit Overlords before even making it onto the flight to Gatwick. Another thing to remember when you are travelling overseas. When in England everything appears to be the same price, example: A hotel room 90, a plane ticket 105, a bus ticket 19, a decent dinner for 2 30. The kicker comes when you realize you have to convert each pound into 2.5 dollars. So, your hotel becomes 200, plane becomes 250 and so on. Yep, that was one expensive night in England. When we finally made it to our hotel we just crashed and slept for 3 hours at which point we went to walk around trying to find something to eat. The only thing was a british pub that was not serving the full menu so we ended back at the hotel for an very expensive, not very good dinner.

#98

2007-03-24T18:30:00.000-05:00

So, it has been a while. About a month I guess since my last real update. Well, work is still about the same. Life here in the booming metropolis of Searcy is pretty good. I guess the big news is we spent last week in France. Yeah, France, the one on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. For reals, that one. So, I have decided to work on recording our little intercontinental adventure here for those who read this. I am thinking that I will split up the posts so 1post = 1day. This may cause some problems to start with, but should line itself up after the two days/posts or so. Anyway, here goes nothing and if you do not want to read about France, then stop reading here for a couple of posts and come back when I start talking about a new buisness oportunity that might just get you out of debt and home from you job in 2-5 years.

France Day 1 - March 9
We have a tendency to wait till the last moment on things. Because of this we waited until this morning to finish packing and cleaning the house. I still had to go by the office and print off some tickets/itteneraries and pick up some batteries, but beside that we were set. While I was printing everything off at work, I realized I had the departure time wrong in my head and we actually needed to leave our house about 30 minutes earlier then I thought. Not a problem, just had to hurry things up. On the way to the airport The Princess played with the Learn French program on my computer and reviewed some words and whatnot. It was an enjoyable ride over to Memphis and we actually arrived at the correct time we needed to be there. We entered the airport, walked up to the check-in screen, got everything done and then waited for someone to take our bags. We waited, and waited. Then we waited some more. I ended up taking about 45 minutes for them to finally take our bags. You might think a couple things at this point 1.I am exaggerating, which I can guarantee you I am not because I looked at my watch several times because I couldn't beleive how long it was taking. 2. What a big line it must have been, and again you would be wrong. There was actually very little of a line. Because it was an international flight we had arrived 2 hours early, with what I thought was plenty of time to spare. We would soon find out, 2 hours is never enough time when going over seas. Both of the lines on either side of use kept getting called up and their baggage taken. Several times people would walk up, do the computer check-in and have their bags taken before they even finished. The whole time I am standing there, very menicing, in awe that I have been waiting for 20 minutes with no help. The the real kicker came down. When someone finally decided that our line was good enough to be assisted, they decided to start at the back of the line, so everyone behind us(who arrived well after we had already checked-in) went in front of us, said they were sorry to us and went on their merry way. Again, this would be come a regular event in our grand adventure. After we got through security(only a couple of minutes) we had less then an hour till our flight left, so that meant they were going to board in about 20 minutes. We hurry down to the food court for lunch(haven't eaten for 6 hours) and grab a burger and fries. Because we ordered the Large fries so we could split them everyone around us ordered and left well before we got ours. Then we went to the gate, ate, and boarded our plane. No more drama. We landed in Minn./St.Paul and walked around for 4 hours while we waited for our next flight. Ate at a restaurant that didn't have nachos and then got on our plan to Gatwick, England. The flight was alright, we had the two seats togther on one side so we could fall asleep and not get all weird on people. Also, each seat had its own video screen so you could select from a plutera of movies/games/music/maps to watch. I ended up watching Stranger then Fiction, Deja Vu, Rocky Balboa. These were actually three pretty good movies. We then arrive in Gatwick and deboard the plane with 2.5 hours to reach our next flight.

#97

2007-02-22T01:35:00.000-05:00

So, yesterday was my birthday. Huray, I am 26 now. Good Gravy that is old. Ok, maybe not really, but that is way close to 30 and THAT is way old. Anyway, thanks for the birthday wishes from those sent them and for those who didn't, well you are a jerk, ha, so take that. This is kind of random, but I received an email from JetBlue today. As some of you may now, last week the airline company had a rough time with the weather up northeast and there were some serious delay/cancelation issues. Well, today I received an email from them about their unprofesional buisness practices last week. This is pretty neat, but what is great is that I didn't even have a flight with them last week. I got on one of their mailing lists a while back for some free stuff and they just wanted me(and everyone else they have email address for) that they are sorry and have institued a Customer Bill of Rights. I had heard some talk about this on the political side, forcing the airlines to create one of these but JetBlue went ahead a actually did something about it. If I didn't have to fly Delta for work then I would give JetBlue a try and see how different it really is. Well, it is late and I have work in the morning, just like the rest of you. Maybe.

#96

2007-02-19T20:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I have been up to a lot of nothing really. Preparing for our trip to France in March, having a birthday party, sleeping, eating, you know the usual. So, I have two purposes for this post tonight. #1 - Netflix #2 - Tagged. Well, with Netflix they have started allowing online viewing of movies. It only works in IE so that is a bummer, but the rest of it is pretty good. You log into your account, select the Watch Now tab and then click the Watch Now button under the movie. They don't have all their movies setup right now, but it is my understanding that they are hoping to have all of their customers setup for online watching by July and the movies available are a very limited selection right now, but they are updating them on some sort of schedule I would imagine. It takes about 30-40 seconds to start the movie, but then it is seamless all the way to the end. The detail suffers a little, but most of the time I can't even tell. I also watch LOST, Prison Break, Heros, Jerhico online and all of them have really big trouble with keeping up and time is wasted waiting for the next secition to be prepared but this has not been a problem with any of the movies I have seen online. Also, you get 1 viewing hour per $1 you spend on your monthly rentals. So, you still get however many DVDs AND an hour/dollar you spend. It works out pretty good.
#2 - So, Mark Adams tagged me for this thing where you have to list 6 strange things about you. Well, here goes nothing.
1. I suffer from a very minor case of Trichotillomania.
2. I suffer from Male Answer Syndrome. This means I take two things you said and I make up a third logical thing and pass it off as truth. Some might call this lying, but I usually tell people I have no idea what I am talking about afterward.
3. I love to eat corn dogs. I mean it is an unnatural love for the sweet sweet corndog.
4. I also love BBQ. Actually, I just enjoy eating in general. More then I should, I love to eat food and good food is even better.
5. I like cartoons. I get up early on Saturday morning to watch them because there are no other cartoons on the rest of the week(no cable) and that is the only time.
6. I struggled to fill out this whole list. Does that count as strange? How about my paralizing fear of heights. Yeah, that can work for number six. Like, when we went to the Grand Canyon, the close I got to the edge the lower I had to squat until I was flat out on the rock just to peak over the side.

#95

2007-02-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

I know it has been more then a little while since I have posted. I have meant to really I have, but I have been haveing some conflicts at work. Maybe I will write about them later. I just wanted to short post that I now have instant viewing available with my Netflix. Basicly, I can watch up to 15hours(dependent on plan) of movie,tv, whatever they carry on my computer every month. This amount is going to go down, because I just shifted my plan to a lower amount. This does not effect my two at a time DVD check-out at all. Anyway, back to the grind.

#94

2007-01-25T22:02:00.000-05:00

So, I have a couple of shows I like to watch. LOST, HEROS, Prison Break, JHERICO. Basicly the heavy hitter for each network. The great thing about that is they are all available online. This week Prison Break and HEROS started back up so tonight I also caught up. Apparently, I missed an episode of HEROS in the fall. This explains why I have not understood half the posts I have seen about what is going on. Well, I got both of those episodes out of the way and am good to go now. Not much else going on. I am keeping up with the bible reading. We are in Exodus now and it is pretty interesting. Sometimes I get bored because it is the same stories told a million times, but sometimes I really enjoy the history of it all and wrapping my mind around the sheer awsomness of it all. Random-I took one of those online meme things about bible knowledge and I got a 100%. Of course the questions were like What was Jesus' mother's name a)Sue b)Mary c)Chuck E. Cheese D)The Hamburgler. Other side of my brain just kicked in. Tomorrow night there is a concert at the campus here in town. Robert Randolph and the Family Band. We hit up his website and they sound pretty good. Unfortunatly tickets are $15 a shot and we are flat broke at the end of the month. I am working on a budget, but it is a slow process of forcing ourselves to conciously live within our means, instead of doing what we can while we have dollars in the bank. Later.

#93

2007-01-24T23:53:00.000-05:00

I am watching PotC:DMC or Pirates of the Carabiean:Dead Man's Chest. It is much better the second time around. I enjoy netflix and I am really looking forward to when they hook me up with the movie on-line deal. I think everyone is getting switched off of DVD's and onto online viewing by July or something like that. I still haven't seen Heros or Prison Break from this week. But I do have tomorrow night and friday night. Not much else going on. We went to a bible study tonghit. We are going to watch these videos by this guy Rob Bell. He is a post-post modern something or other. We watched one of his videos tonight and he talked about a guy with a megaphone standing on a corner going on about hell and damnation. He talked about how God is Love and Love is what Jesus is about. The most important comand being Love God and the second is love your neighbor. So, Loving your neighbor is loving God. He goes on from there and it was pretty interesting. It was just me,my wife, and Jim(the guy who's house we were at) so we talked about a lot of different things and it was a good time. Well, later.

#92

2007-01-21T22:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I am failing at posting everyday.But that is ok because I don't really do anything exciting on a daily basis. Unless you consider successfully eating a meal without getting any food on yourself. But even then, I wouldn't post every day. So, tonight I am watching abc/cbs/nbc on my computer. Trying to catch up on shows because they all start up this week. Well I just stumbled across this show on cbs. It is called The Papdits. Think Borat on tv and with a wife, two kids and a mother in law he wants to die. Oh and they are from India. This show is crazy. Nothing over the top, but they say things that are a little off. It is a little funny. Well, night.

#91

2007-01-16T21:07:00.000-05:00

So far this year I have been keeping very good record of our finances. See, our landlord likes to get his check on the first of the month. At the lastest the fifth. After that there are fines and he reports us to the credit bureau, blah blah blah. We are such good tennats that I think he would actually let us go longer then five days if we talked to him about it, but hopefully we won't have to. Well, the past two months he has been waiting until 15th or the 20th to deposit the check. This causes a problem because I have been doing all my bills online and the checks don't process the same, so I miscalculate thing. But not this month. I am using Microsoft Money 07 to keep track of things. So far it has been working out well. Anyway, that is what I am working on tonight.

#90

2007-01-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

Nothing of any real importance to say. We got none of the cold snowy weather that the rest of the mid-america is dealing with. That is nice because we still have electricity. This is not so nice because I still have to go to work. The customer I worked with last week called today and I had to walk them through some things that could ahve saved them tonds of time yesterday if they had just sent me an email. Oh well. I really have nothing to put here. Blah blah blah.

#89

2007-01-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

I am home now. It is nice to sit on my couch and stuff. I have been playing basketball in the city league here and until last week we had not won a single game. During the four weeks we did not play over christmas, two guys quit, we got two new guys and last tuesday when we played we had a substitue or something so half of the guys we had there were new. Well, apparently it was a winning combination, because it was our first win. I was not able to make it to thursdays game because I was in california. This morning I saw Joshua Lundin at church. He made a funny face at me and then went the other direction. My two logical options are 1. He caught a wiff of something funny and thought it might be his pants 2. He had no idea who I was and only barely recognized me. That is ok. I understand how it is. Jerk. :) Anyway. It is time for bed. I need to catch up on some sleep still. I spent the afternoon working on our finances instead of sleeping so I figure I will do that now. Night.

#88

2007-01-13T01:14:00.000-05:00

I just read a very interesting article about wireless powersupplies. Very informative on a subject that has been studied since we have had a control of electricity.

#87

2007-01-13T00:56:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently I have a hard time posting everyday when I am travelling. Luckily, Sacramento airport has free wi-fi with access to the internat. This is very nice at it has given me something to do from 8:30 until around 11:0 when my flight leaves. Actually this could be the single best cross country flight to ever occur in the history of man. Usually the red eye out of California is a completly full flight. Tonight it is almost full. As a matter of fact, when I arrived at the airport only four seats were available. The super crazy thing is that all four of them were emergency exit seats and three of them were together. So I took the whole row, potentially, to myself. I will have a row of emergency exit seats on a full flight. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Also, on my second flight. Emergency row again. This is sooo gona be a sweet set of flights. There is a funny thing about California. Aparently they don't like to sell me gas here. See there is an gas station here on site at the airport but both times I have been here the network has been down and they will not take credit cards. How am I suppose to expense things onto an expense account if I can not use a credit card. Silly California, Credit Cards are for the rest of the States. I also have some more picks of adventures.

The first picture is where I had dinner last night. IN AND OUT BURGER baby. That is a sweet sweet delicious amazing delectible meal of fantasticness. I love it. MMMmmm. The second pick is Diablo Mountain. It is a mountain that dominates the skyline of the delta, which is where I have been this past week. Apparently the "island" I was working on didn't exist until the 1930's at which point they built some levy's and told the water you can only go so far and then all the dirt dried out a little. So now the whole island sits about 15 feet below river level just waiting for the levys to blow and drown the whole thing. Kinda like the dutch, excpet I think they had dykes not levys. Later

#86

2007-01-11T01:04:00.000-05:00

So, California is a nice place. Apparently I am south of Sacramento this time. Last time I was north of Sacramento. Its different. The people I am working with seem alright. I am working with the marina and with our reseller, so things are going smoothly. Here are some pictures that I have taken so far. That first pick is how the airport handles unclaimed luggage. The second pick is my dodge durango, or as I like to think of it my own personal eclipse maker. The third shot is a pick of my hotel room. Fourth is a shot one of the many vineyards out this way. So, that is all I have right now. I will write more later.

#85

2007-01-08T18:48:00.000-05:00

I am writing now because I may not have much time later tonight and tomorrow I expect to not have Internet access for most of the day I think both Atlanta and Sacramento have WiFi at the airport but you have to pay for it, so I might just download that demo for the Left Behind game. It has four hours of play before you get the cutoff. Oh well, we will see how far I can get in that time I guess. Although my layover is less then an hour so I will be hauling but to get to my second flight. Oh well. I have a good amount of peace today. I was able to handle the ridiculus customers and their issues/questions/imaginations very well today. I am a little less positive about the new hire situation. It may be that there is some disagreement about who to hire for the open spot, but that will get filled eventually and so on and so forth. I have a basketball game tonight and I just hope that we don't make fools of ourselves to much. I really expect to get slaughtered. Personally I can only hope to keep myself from dying of wind exhaustion. I was starting to get some steam there before the four week break of eating and sleeping and not running everyday like I wanted. Maybe next week I can get that going. Oh well, once basketball is over I am all over picking up TaeKwonDo or some other form of martial arts here in town. That will be sweet.

#84

2007-01-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

Yowza McBowza. I missed my post yesterday. I think maybe I won't make myself post one on both days of the weekend. I mean, if I do then great. I will make it a goal, but we will see what happens. So, what is there to know about our lives. Well, Thursday night we made it down to LR and were able to deposit my paycheck. Apparently when we moved they cut my paycheck inorder to compensate for the office rent and so on. This is not a big deal to me because I had originally suggested this, but they never brought it back up and I had no idea this was happening until I was home for christmas. They told me my paycheck was going backup to my original amount and completely caught me off guard. Again, this doesn't bother me because our company was tight in the budget at the time and now we are not tight, but I can easily see how someone could walk out the door if they found out that for four months they had been making about 10% less each month. They are taking a look at their finances now and I should find out about a real raise sometime this month or next.
On a sad note the woman who owns the house we are staying in died on Dec. 27. It looks like one of her children will inherit the house and they will either keep it or sell it. If they sell it then our landlord will probably buy it. We do have a 24 month contract so legally we don't have to worry about getting kicked out or anything. We talked shortly about making a bid on the house, but I am a little weary of that because then we would have to become Arkansas residence and that could throw some kinks in things. So, I doubt it will happen, beside we don't really have the funds to handle it right now.
Part of why I didn't post yesterday was the fact that we went down to LR again with Sean and Joe. We went and saw The Prestige which is a movie about magics. I LOVED IT. I thought it was amazing. The whole movie is out an out of sync time line and ends out super crazy crazy sweet. Then we ended up at T.G.I.Friday's and we split one of those 3 course meal deal and had plenty of goodness. THen we headed off to BaN for some coffee and book reading. We didn't end up back home until after 12 and into bed and asleep around 1. It was a good time.
That about does it for this weekend. I am headed off to California this week for work so I will post how that goes and that is that. Later.

#83

2007-01-05T12:24:00.000-05:00

So, my paycheck finally arrived. Well, I use the term arrived very very loosely. At 5:05 when I called UPS they told me that they would get intouch with the local hub and then the hub would call me. So I wanted. At 5:37 I received a call from said hub and after a brief discussion, in which I was very polite, they told me they would get a hold of the driver and find out what had happened. At 6:10 when I called they told me that the driver had delivered it to my front door.
me - Front door?
ups - Yes he placed it inside the screen door.
me - What screen door?
ups - You don't have a screen door.
me - No I do not have a screen door.
ups - Hmmm.
me - Ask him if it was the Board of Realators building.
ups - Oh, he may have delivered it to another house on the block.
me - Wow, thanks.
So, apparently the driver decided that my address, which is clearly on the envelope and clearly on the building, was a suggestion. I had to truck on down the street in the rain asking people if they got my paycheck. Finally found it. The driver had dropped it off three hours earlier. Thanks UPS, thank you very much.

#82

2007-01-04T18:26:00.000-05:00

So, here I am. Waiting at work. What am I waiting on? My paycheck. See, my rent is due tomorrow at the latest, I have an electric bill that needs to get paid, a water bill, a phone bill and UPS decides that I work at a residence. Oh wait, this is a freaking OFFICE BUILDING. Good Gravy I just want them to show up so this day can be over. It has been a stresful new year so far. Our customers have been ridiculus this week. Oh, and next week is just that much better. I fly to Sacramento on Tuesday to begin three fabulous days of installation and training. I enjoy the trips, but not all the time. I have very little idea about what I am getting myself into most of the time. I just show up and go from there. Very hap-hazard. I was hoping to get out of here at 5 today so we could go to LR and catch a movie or something, deposit my check, pay my bills and so on, but no. I am just stressed out. meh, eventually it will show up. I hope.

#81

2007-01-03T19:15:00.000-05:00

Ah, it is time for the daily obligitory post. So, today was pretty rough in the office. One of my underlings has decided to quite. Now, this is nothing new, but what is new is that instead of accepting his resignation as of Jan. 12th we are taking it as of Dec. 31. So, we are short a guy unil we get a new guy hired. Luckily they have been interviewing a couple of people and are making some good headway in that area with several potentials showing themselves. This makes it hard for a little while, but the potentials seem to be very good. I had several training sessions today. It was crazy. I need to keep track of these things a little bit better. I was able to work with several customers to make them happy again, but I am one man. Ok, enough of the drama. For Christmas we got a digital camera. While in Nashville, at my brothers wedding, I may have left the CD and several cabels in the hotel. I am going to call the dealer sometime this week and see if I can't get an additional cd package. In our living room we are putting up a ceiling light. It looks nice and will definitly add alot of light to the room. Maybe I will get a picture of it. Hmmmm, not much else to say. I have kept up with daily bible reading so far(wohoo), daily blog posts, and I am constantly working on a budget to get us out of debt as much as possible by the time The Princess is out of school. Who knows what we will be up to then, so the more we can get rid of now the better. Oh, and her school loans. Yeah, that is gonna be realy pretty. Fortunatly she got a scholarship and it makes it almost the same price as going to a state school. Later

#80

2007-01-02T10:16:00.000-05:00

So, this morning is full of catching up at work. Nothing really going on. I kind of want to write a little synopsis of Christmas and so on, but I probably won't. There is this group, the ACLJ(American Center of Law and Justice), that has a radio show that I catch sometimes. On Friday they were talking about the Military Chaplins and how currently they are not allowed to use the name of Jesus when praying. Well, on Friday it sounded like Congress was going to pass a bill that would allow them to use the name of Jesus again. Sounds ridiculus, there are several kinds of chaplins in the military, there are Catholic, Protostant, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. How can you tell a person, anyone, that they are no longer allowed to pray to their god. Also, during this whole time the Jewish and Muslim chaplins were not getting any of the fire about their prayers. Anyway, it looks like that is all taken care of now. The other item they were talking about was the kidnap/abortion clause. From what I understand, it is legal to transport a minor over state lines, without the gaurdians permission, in order to give the child an abortion. Hmm, taking a minor over state lines, well know that sounds an awful lot like part of the definition of kidnapping. Oh, I see, if you are kidnapping someone to give them an abortion then it is ok. Also, take into account that my 18 year old brother who graduates from highschool in the spring, can not take peptobismol with him to school without being sent home. I just do not understand the left side of things sometimes. Later.

#79

2007-01-01T19:22:00.000-05:00

Ok,so it is the 2007 and he we are. Somethings have changed, some things haven't. Well, instead of a year in review, which would have been appropriate yesterday I think I am going to try a year in pre-view. I have several goals for the next year. These items might even be called resolutions. So, without further ado......
THINGS THAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN 2007, or MAYBE NOT
1. I am really looking forward to writing a thoughtful post everyday. Sometimes it will be politics, sometimes it will be what is going on in my life, and so on. This should up my posting from 78per year to around 356per year.
2. Start taking TaeKwonDo lessons. I have some friends doing this in VA and I wanted to start but didn't have the time or money. This last week, the accounting gave me my first of two raises. This one gets me back up to the amount I was making before the move.
3. Go to France. This may seem like a large ticket item, but really we already have tickets and are starting plans so it is not as impossible as it may at first seem.
4. Be Active. This involves getting off my less skinny butt and going out and doing things. Right now this can be covered by the city basketball league. This might also be taken care of by learning to play the guitar or working on creating a video game or a hundred other things beside being depressed and self-loathing.
5. Create a budget. We want to try using Microsoft money or maybe QuickBooks. We have copies of both lying around. I think we will probably use the MSMonies though because it was designed for use by families. That is probably what I will be doing tonight.
6. Be a better husband. This involves a lot of things. I think the whole being active will help out with this. Also, because The Princess is a student we get free counseling so we have an oportunity to work out things not just between ourselves but baggage that we may have brought into our relationship from our parents(which is like most people).
7. Continue to work on my blog and make it presentable again. After I switched over to Blogger Beta, or whatever, I lost all my format stuff and so far I have been less then persistant in continuing to update it.
8. Read my bible through in a year. I have a group that I am in on LiveJournal that goes through the bible in a year and they talk about what they have read everyday, so I am hoping to work through that and actually have some intellegent conversation about the scripture. Over the past three years I have become very un-educated when it comes to the scripture and I am really looking forward to fixing that.
9. Work on my netflix queue. Updating and keeping track of the movies I watch in and out of my queue.

Ok, that is all I got for now. I have a couple more hours to work with before I go to bed. Later.

#78

2006-12-30T11:02:00.000-05:00

I am in Nashville,TN today. My little brother is getting married and that is just crazy. Later.

#77

2006-12-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

So, we went to a Christmas party tonight. If was one for the MFT program so I knew only three people there. Well, ok, technically four I think, Me, The Princess, Holly and Becky. I guess I also knew Jim and his wife and maybe one or two others. Ok, so eight tops. At this party they have a tradition for first time visitors. They have to sing, in front of everyone. So, me and The Princess get up and we do our number. We chose to sing a jazz number called Moon Faced and Starry Eyed. I hate doing things in front of other people. Anything where I have to speak in front of a large group, I hate it. The more I know about it before hand the more it eats away at me. It burns in my belly sending the nervousness to the outer reaches of my body. Days of building up tension. When we start the singing portion of the evening my heart starts to race, my hands go clammy, and I start to sweet a little. It is all I can do to keep myself from vomiting up everything I just ate. Argh, I hate this. Even afterwards it is still there, it did not go away. So, I left. I had to get out of there and away from all those people. I am feeling a little better now. Not much, but a little.

I am not the man I once was. I am not the man I want to be.

#76

2006-12-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Well, work has been going ok. The only problem is that one of my lackies has decided to quit. I need to definitly find a replacement and quick. So, Josh and anybody else, please send me a resume tonight. Tomorrow morning I am going to put something in to the IT department at HU and see if what comes from that. I called over to the Computer Science department, but they said that it sounded like something that was better suited for the IT department. Oh well, that is what you get some times. Yeah, well, not much else is going on here. Just waiting for Christmas and all the travel that entails. Later peeps.

#75

2006-12-06T17:12:00.000-05:00

So, here I am chillin at work. I will write more tonight. Promise.

#74

2006-11-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

ark_keeper said...

Death of a blog. Tonight at 7.

Ok, so maybe I have been a little negligent with my blog. That is ok, right. I mean it just sits here like an obedient little dog who waits, and waits, and waits for the master to come home and I am definitly master of my domain. Or something like that. Anyway, this has been a hectic month for me. This will be the first Saturday that I am at home in November. Err, except that it will be December. Oh sweet. Friday night we are soooo going to LR for Dinner and a Bank Deposit. Maybe we can squeeze in a movie as well. I do not know what is playing this weekend, but i know a nice theater and a great BBQ place to hit, so maybe that will be our plans for this Friday night. Ok, maybe not Friday night, it depends on when I get my paycheck. The company has to mail me my check, but they should get them in the office on Thursday and then get mailed out to me, hopefully I will get it on Saturday. Then we can go and deposit my check and The Princess' christmas money and eat some dinner and watch some movie. Yipee.
What else have I been up to. Well, there was the trip to Puerto Rico(ok, almost the last time I rub that in your faces). Then the next weekend I drove up to Lexington for a volleyball tournament at UK that we lost. Of course there was the other team that we beat so we were not the losingist losers, but still we did pretty bad. Also, there was the team that, well, let us just say that they were fond of the company of men. We figured that gave them an unfair advantage, you can have a very tight nit team when you have all that bonding going on. Anyway. In Lexington there is this restaurant called Rafferty's and it has the best steak ever. So, even though we lost at volleyball, we won at eating. Then this past weekend we were in South Dakota to visit my in-laws. I like my in-laws. They are a nice family who, for the most part, get along pretty well. We eat a lot when I am up there and the past couple of times we have gone out shooting. Boy, do I like to shoot guns. I am always a little timid when I start because I do not remember what all the buttons are for and what order I have to do things and I do not want to kill anyone, because that would be a bad holiday. Well, now I am back at work, just working away. Well, I think it is about time for lunch so I will talk at you later.

#73

2006-11-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, well, it has taken me until today to get caught up with my catch-up list. So finally I am now almost caught up. In celebration of this feat, I am going to upload a picture of the Yacht club I was at.

Hurray, now you can look on in amazment with the knowledge that I spent 9 hours a day in their office after which I hurried to my hotel room where I continued to work. Staying out of the sun and staying in the A/C. What a great way to experience Puerto Rico.

#72

2006-11-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well, I am back in the great 48 today. I survived four days of terror and misinformation and I hope I came out on top. This was probably the most difficult installation/setup I have ever done. ***Warning I am about to whine and complain about my stressful week in Puerto Rico*** First, my companies software requires QuickBooks(QB) to run. Because of this all of our customers have to be running QB. Well, this new marina was a new installation and they will be transferring all of their info, by hand, into the system. Well, Intuit,the company that makes QB, decided to screw me and not send my the installation codes inorder to install this important software. So, I get there and I install our software and wait for the codes. Oh wait, when they said they were shipping them to us over night last Friday, what they really meant was that they were going to set the box on a table and do jack. That is ok though, because we were able to get a new set of codes over the phone and I was able to have everything installed by the end of day one. On Day two I discovered that QB now has a brand spanking new database manager that needs to be installed to make everything work properly. Well, no one told me. Oh yeah, and the installation did not run properly, so I had to hack around in the admin tools to fix the bad install. The second hurdle of day two was the virus software NOD32, which is a very impressive virus software, but it kills the communication that QB does. Again after several hours on the phone with Intuit we finally got it working. Day 3, we start some training. I go through the property managment side of things and everything kinda work ok, except now our software will not open up on all of the workstations. Fantastic. So I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure that out. Several hours on the phone with intuit later, the office assitant tells me that there is an update for QB. Ok, this is the newest version(7.0, as in 2007) and this is actually the 3rd update so far. Wow, R&D people, R&D. well, we get that all worked out and on the fourth day I sat down with two of the people and we went through and answered their questions and trained as much as I could***Thus ends my stressful week*** After we were done in the office last night, we went out to eat. The first place we tried was a little Mexican restaurant downtown. Well, that restaurant no longer serves food. That is ok, and it does not stop us from getting our drink on. Well, ok I guess it was on, but we did have a margarita. Then we headed over to another mexican restaurant and ate some seriously good food and had another margarita, but I went with the strawberry variaty. Let it be know, that I do not typically drink, but there is just something about being in a foreign country and when I am not in America is the only time I have ever really had a drink, so these margaritas were more then enough to get me giddy. Then back to the room to call the wife, go to bed, wake up, eat leftover mexican food and head home. Except my plane flight was not scheduled for today, but for tomorrow. Blessedly, I was able to change my first flight time to today for no extra fee. My other three flights were scheduled for today, so it was a good thing that I was able to change it. For future reference the Orlando airport has free wireless that if full access, you do not get this in Little Rock, Atlanta, or Cinncinati, which are three airports I frequent. If I can remember I will post some pictures from my trip. Mostly of my planes, I think my next flight is a 747 or something, it has seven seats across and is probly the largest plane I have been on. Atleast until my next trip(Dominic Republic???) or our trip to France in the spring. Man, I really am blessed. Oh yeah, I think I am going to start learning Spanish. The reason for this is the fact that I feel like I am suppose to speak spanish. I will try to expain. When in spanish speaking countries I pick up a couple of the common words, Buinos Dias, Hola, Como esta, things like that. The problem comes when I try to use them, once I get to the end of the words I know, there is nothing and it is a pretty sick feeling to want to say something but have no words and no way to make up words(which I do ALOT). Anyway, I am going to try to watch a movie with sub-titles, I think my laptop speakers went out on me. Grrrrr. Later.

#69

2006-11-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, I am still here in Puerto Rico. I am watching tv and I have seen some interesting things. On one station there is rooster fighting. I mean this ESPN of the islands or something CRAZY. On the other station I now know the terrible things serveral senators have done in kentucky and georgia and idaho through the commercials of their competitors. A nice little mix of mainland and island. Later.

#69

2006-11-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to post and let everyone know I am doing ok here in PUERTO RICO. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I think it was 80 something today. Very nice day outside. Anyway, I will take some pictures of stuff with my phone and post them when I get home. I think I have to pay for internet access here at the hotel, so I will probly not post for the rest of the week. Ya'll have a good one. I know I will. HEHEHEHE. Hey, I am watching president bush in Arkansas in Puerto Rica. Now that is funny.

#68

2006-11-01T10:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, this post is mainly for Josh and Noah. While I was speaking to my boss yesterday, he asked if I knew anybody in the area(meaning VA) that would be good for hiring. I said I did not know, but would put feelers out. Then I said, wait you mean here here or there here. Oh, he replies, I guess here here and there here. So, hook me up you two, I left my fax number in your comments. I do not know if you can, but can you delete those comments after you send me that info. If it is possible, I want my number sitting around as little as possible. If not, then that is ok. Or, if you are not looking for anything in the job market. Also, this has the potential to be a pretty perminant job(if it is even available at all, it is possible my boss does not even remember the conversation). I mean like a retire from job, or at the least wait until our staff doubles before leaving us in the dust for a greatter and better kind of thing job. Of course the whole, only having an office here for two years, might make that interesting when it all comes down to it. Also, I can not guarantee that I will be working with this company for that long. I have no intentions of quiting, it is the farthest thing from my mind, but you never know what tomorrow will bring. Anyway, I will talk to you guys later about this. Do not get your hopes up, this is only the scarcest of chances that anything will come from this, but I have to strike while the iron is hot.

#66

2006-11-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, I do a fair amount of internet browsing. I am also a ginourmous LOST fan. So, very frequently I come across things on the internet that combine these two. That is why I have brought you here today. This is kinda spoilery for last weeks episode(incase you havent' seen it), but it is pretty funny. Also, I did not do this it comes from http://www.wheelchairromeo.com/. I am in no way endorsing any of his/her other material, but the LOST comic he/she puts up on saturdays is usually pretty funny. Ok, here we go.

Well, scratch that. I guess you will just have to be satisified with a link. So, without further ado, The Lost Scene from LOST

#67

2006-10-30T00:33:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I spent some money and I got a data cable for our phones. This main reason for this was so I could hack the phone and figure out how to put ringtones on there. I can, with some software, splice mp3s so they are the proper length, but I can not get them as ringtones, yet. This is a lead up to the fact that I am going to be able to post pictures off my phone. So, here is a first of hopefully many, but not to many, picture posts.

This is my office. You may notice that it is very blue carpeted. That is ok, because on Casual Friday, I am usually not wearing any shoes. Hurray for being the branch manager.

This is a picture of Pocky at Wal-mart. Not really important.

Almost finally, here is a poor picture of The Princess.

And finally, what I did on Thursday to waste some time. This did not come off my phone, but from the good people at HomeStarRunner and a little effort from myself. The two guys are suppose to be holding a sandwich.

#65

2006-10-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

It has been a pretty good weekend. Both days were beautiful and I was able to get out of the house and be in the beauty both days. If you do not know, this weekend was homecoming weekend here at the local university. Because of this several of my friends were in town. Also, they do this thing in the GAC where all the social clubs have a booth and the alumni can come by and see what their old groups have been up to. See how they have changed for the better or for the worse. Well, I got a call from my boy, who shall remain nameless at this point, that he was over there and so were some other friends(B and Rach). So I put some clothes on a trundeled over there in order to see them. Well, I went inside and ended up stopping by the ATE both and seeing the new guys. It was a definite ego boost for me, because when I told them my name they were like, wowzer mcbowezer you are that guy. A definite ego boost. Oh and thanks to whoever laid down some great legends about me. Unfortunatly, there was a down side. Some young upstart by the name of twinkie beat my minor date record. He had ~1070. Well, they did have a football game during the week and I know that helped him out a lot, but all is fair game during rough week, so I congratulate you twinkie. So we talked for a little bit and I gave the current president my phone number because I still live here in town and I just sit around alot of the time. Maybe something interesting will come of it, maybe not. But it was nice to meet the next gen and to see that they were still all sitting at the table getting a face full(of food you pervert), just like we would have been :) Then I headed outside, because that is where the three amigos were standing, in search of some old faces. Ahh, it was good to see B and Rach again. We decided that it would be a good time to head on over to Charlie's. I had a good time at Charlie's and enjoyed some really good super pizza. Then I played some PirateKing'sOnline and uped my guy a level while killing off the next guy in the quest. Then we went to the musical. I have never seen Fidler on the Roof, but it was not to bad. The singing was not the best, the musicians were not the best and I do not think it was the best musical I have seen, but I was twice as long as a movie and only a dollar more. Then today, we got an extra hour of day light savings time. HUZZAH. We went to church at Cloverdale and I think that is probably where we are going to go while we are here. We really have not felt at home at any of the churches we have go to so far here in town. The closest was Covenant, but with the snake handeling I think it was a little much. After church we were catching up on Prison Break when Tony called and I went to go play some basketball over at the Academy. The Princess has two papers that she has been working on and they are due soon, so that is where a lot of her time is going. After I sucked at basketball for an hour and a half, I went home and read a book and ate dinner. Then it was off to our Sunday night bible study which was nice, if not a little unguided this evening. We talked about finances and other struggles that a newleywed couple comes across. Mostly they were issues that me and The Princess have worked through, but I thought it was potentially encouraging for the others. Now I am home and writing about all the glorious things I did this weekend. Oh, by the way, if there is anyone in LR who might have a place where one might sleep/stay this saturday night please let me know. It would also be nice if one could get a ride to the airport at 4:30AMish because I have a flight that leaves at 6:00amish, I think. I will have to double check, but that is going to be a long, multicultural day for me. It has been my experience that flying into the country is much more stressfull then flying out of the country. This is probly due to the fact that I fly into toursit areas and they do not care what you bring with you, but America cares what you bring back. Man, customs is intimidating. Although, I think it might not be so bad this time because I am going to an American Territory.

#64

2006-10-23T09:58:00.000-05:00

Well, let us clean the dust off of this one. Good gravy I have been out of it for a while. I apologize that I have not posted on here for several weeks. Needless to say, you either decided I was dead or figured I was in some kind of funk that was causing me to veg out infront of my computer the moment I walked into my house every evening. Well, the second one is more accurate. I have been in a bit of a funk, maybe it is because there is less sunlight during the day or something. I do not know. Anyway, I got a data cable for our phones so I should be able to drop some pictures in here soon. I am still trying to figure out how to upload a song so it can become a ring tone, but I will get it eventually. Nothing else really to say right now. Just working away in my office. Slaving away for the man. Oh yeah, I am going to be slaving away for the man in Puerto Rico in two weeks. Yep, my hotel is a casino, but really I am going to look for a decent arcade, maybe they will have DDR there or something, I know the last time I was in a foreign country I spent more on the arcade then the casino.

#63

2006-10-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

I do not know if I have mentioned this before, but I am a LOST fan. So much so, that I got up early this morning to watch it online, because there is a serious church conflict now that we are CST. And church takes a priority over a tv show. Anyway, I am going to try and watch it again this afternoon/evening and I will probly write out my thoughts here. So, back to the grind.

#62

2006-10-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

I am at work. Huzzah. The nice thing is I got paid today. Not only did I get paid, but I got PAAAIIIIDDD. Which, basicly, means I got my reimbersment check for my first month in this office. Now I just need to figure who's grubby little hands I need to put next months check into. Then it will be good. So, the last two weekends have been pretty nice. Two weekends ago Josh was here in town for a fish fry at a local church and since he was here we hung out all day on Saturday. We went to Bobby's for breakfast, and let me tell you, I do not think there is a better breakfast on the planet then Bobby's. And one of the great things about it is that the restaurant is smoke free. Does it make a big difference to me, no not reall, I would eat their even if it was not smoke free, but it was nice. And the biscits and the gravey **Dies**. Then to ThackerLand where I ended up buying a hatchet and forgetting to buy a bat. Oh well. We then hit another flea market, Hastings, GameStop, the other game place and the Tractor Supply Outlet, where I got a rake and a pick-ax. We then watched Kiss,Kiss,Bang,Bang which was hillarious and then it was time for Fish Fry. So josh wondered out the door and our good friend Scott came by very unexpectidly. He dropped off a couple of books and then ate dinner with us and we went to go see Monster House, which was actually pretty creppy good. I made it through the week and we got to finish off Fruits Basket, that is one crazy anime and apparently the first season only covers the first eight managa, so there might be a second season on down the line. I also watched Man on Fire which was a decent movie, but I feel that it was a meh performance by Denziel, it just did not do it for me. I also watched the first DVD of the FireFly series, pretty good, I enjoy it, reminds me alot of Hercules and Xena, but better. ALso, I love the space shots where the camera zooms in and out to get better focus. It is the simple things that impress me. Then this last weekend on Saturday we ended up at Gilliam Farm where it was Free Day and they had beef stew, chili, hotdogs, BBQ and all sorts of desserts. The big attraction was that you could pick all the Muskadines that you wanted. And I did, I brought home none of them. That was followed by driving to Bentonville and then Jonesboro to spend time with some friends and eat some really good steak. Sunday was church at Pineview, both times we have been there now have been guest speakers. I am begging to worry, we had really hoped to find a church that we could become very involved with. We want to take it seriously and give as much as we get, but so far we have not been able to find that place. We are doing a bible study on Sunday nights with a group of people from Covenant, and that is nice, but I think we might visit the West Pleasure Church of Christ this week, followed by a trip out to RoseBud Church of Christ. Hmm, I wonder if Church is suppose to be capitalized or not. That might offend someone. Oh well. So, that should catch everyone up on what is going on in our lives. I am working on creating a budget this week. Based on our expenses since we moved here, we should be able to find out if I can do some extra things, or if I need to get a part time job.

#61

2006-09-30T14:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, it was a long week and last weekend was a blast. I will write out a detailed post later. I just wanted everyone to know that I am still alive.

#60

2006-09-22T10:20:00.000-05:00

I am listening to the radio here at work this morning. Ahh, I enjoy the solo office experience. Sure, it gets a little boring in the late afternoon, but really, it is a good experience. So, the radio, every now and again they run some news shorts to keep all the listeners up to date. Well, they just said that McDonalds is looking at possibly making their Breakfast menu and all day thing. *DIES*. Holy Crud, bacon/egg/cheese McGriddles anytime of the day. Danger Will Robinson. We could be in trouble here. Also, I am starting TaeKwonDo(sp?) on Monday. Yep, I am going to get off my butt and learn something while I am here. Make myself a better/in shape kind of person instead of the circle of a man I am right now. Ok, maybe not a circle, but I am up almost 70 pounds from when most everybody saw me last. Again, that brings me up to an almost acceptable weight, I guess I was kinda skin and bone at one point, well, there is definitly more of me to love now. Wait, I did not mean it like that, stop being dirty. The Princess has a girls day out tomorrow, so I will probably be at home tomorrow desperate for something to do. Vacuming and cleaning the house.
I like Fridays. I have decided that the midwest branch is going to have a casual Friday. This means that during the week I wear my typical office attire, pants(usually jeans, sometimes slacks), a button down shirt, and some nice shoes. Then on Friday I get to wear whatever I want. Like today for instance, I am wearing a GATA shirt, some jeans and sandals. I think this will keep me from slacking off the rest of the week and keep me on mark for not losing my job. And I do not want to lose my job.
So, apparently there was some conservative radio guy here in town yesterday. He did his t.v. and radio show from the campus. My boss listens to this guy and when the radio guy said thanks to the school he was like KWAAAA, and then he called me and told me this morning about it. Crazy, I had completely forgoten about it. I think he may have had a lecture as well, I was kinda hoping to go to that. Oh well. I wonder what is playing at the rialto this weekend.
Speaking of movies. Netflix, yeah, ok, why does it take three days for my DVD to get there and one day to get back. What is the deal with that? I think it is because they do not get our mail from house until four in the afternoon. I am going to start dropping them off at the post office in hopes of it getting out of S-town quicker. We will see. So, We rented Akaale and the Bee, Sentinal, Sybil, Fruits Basket vol 3. AatB was really really good, I think I mentioned that before. Also, The Sentinal was a pretty good suspense, to bad they revieled everything to early and the end was meh. Sybil, I watched this once in high school, it is about multiple personalities and The Princess needed to watch it for school. Then Fruits Basket vol 3., we watched this last night. For half of the first episode I could not figure out why they had changed the voice actors and that the voices were so very very wrong. Then The Princess pointed out that we were listening to it in Japanese and that we had watched the first two vol. in English,wow what a difference. That series is getting crazier and crazier, I do not know if I can handel the fourth DVD, but that should be the last one and it should be here shortly. I hope, mail man move fast. Um, I think that is all I have for now. Love and Peace.

#59

2006-09-16T22:10:00.000-05:00

So, it is the weekend. Yesterday my wife calls me at four and asks if I think we should go camping this weekend. Sure, I guess so, camping is not so much my thing, but I usually have a good time when I go. So, She gets a hold of some friends and we head on out to Heber. Of course It is around 6:30 when we leave Searcy, so we get to Heber around 7:30 and, well, it is pretty dark by then, but we did find a nice spot, put up the tent found some burnables, made a fire, cooked dinner, paid for the night and went to sleep. Not to shabby for getting in so late. Then this morning we went for a hike around the trails, cleaned up, packed up, and went swimming. Then we headed home arriving back here at around 1:45. Not to bad of a weekend adventure, of course our weekend was not over yet. We still had to build a fence for our dog. Off to Lowe's it is. Oh yeah, before we left for Lowe's we had received a phone call about pudding or something. Apparently a good friend of ours is/was in town this weekend, but we missed him, maybe. Of course I tried to call him back, but no response, so I let him know that it is rude to leave a message and then not be available when the message-e(the one receiving a message) gives a call back. But, unlike most of my customers I know, use the message machine, just leave a note saying anything. Anyway, at Lowe's we picked up the fencing and the poles and the tie-ons and were headed home. We built a fence and are almost done, but apparently we have a large slab or cement in one part of our yard, possibly an old pattio under several inches of dirt, that is causing a problem. Our first movies from Netflix showed up yesterday, so I got to watch one of them this today. Akeela and the Bee. It was actually a really good movie. The Princess had already seen it and said she liked it a lot, so I figured I would use our first movie as a "peace offering" but I came to find that I really enjoyed it as well. It gave you that excited suspensful feeling in your chest, but it was clean. Like when you go watch a professional game of some sort and one of the teams is important to you. The time is running out and it is a tied game, so tense and so exciting. Very enjoyable. I thought the acting was very good as well, sometimes kids actors are not so good, but she did alright. Earlier this week we also watched Turtles Can Fly. It is a foreign film about a little town in the middle east just before Desert Shield/Storm. It has nothing to do with the war and is actually very sad to watch. Interesting and intriguing, but sad. One part I enjoyed is the fact that none of the actors have ever been before a camera before. It is really funny, because one of the kids yells all his lines. hehe. Well, I guess it is time for bed. Good night and good luck.

#58

2006-09-13T16:39:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for NetFlix today. After being in Searcy for almost two weeks, I realize that I am going to have a large amount of usable time on my hands. That, and the fact that our television gets about one and a half channels have combined to drive me to try the two week free trial. Oh, and that one and a half channels is split up about sixty-fourty between ABC and FOX and depending on the time of day, the type of car that is driving down the road and if my neighbors decide to eat dinner at their table sometimes FOX comes in better then ABC. Another way I plan on spending my time is either with Guitar Lesson or TaeKwonDo or something else, I do not know yet. I still need to get around town and see what the different places charge and class times and things like that. For Guitar Lessons I just have to find someone who is willing to teach me. Oh yeah, and a guitar. I figure those probably will not be to hard to find. I also have thought about taking up Golf, but I think it can be pretty expensive to play and you have to buy your own clubs. Of course ThackerLand could definitly help with that. Oh sweet ThackerLand. Anyway, if anyone else is on NetFlix and wants to friend up I would be more then happy to share my opinons and what not. Of course if no one wants to be my friend I will just talk to myself. Alot. Just like my day in the office, except I will be at home, or on a street corner with a cardboard sign. Whatever.

#57

2006-09-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

Ah, Monday. Let us see, what is different this week. This week, there is much less early morning coffee in my system, there is much less background music, and the walls are all white. But, I don't get odd looks from the staff, my internet connection is a bit more predictable, and I have a fax machine. Now that my office is setup I will be spending a lot less time running around Searcy and a lot more time sitting in my office staring out the window at Mi Ranchito. I sure hope I don't get fired in the first month. :) Of course, I still have plenty of work to get done, and I am hopeing to actually get some programming finished. The communication between this office and the main office is still a little shaky, but I am sure we will work something out.

After this weekend, I think I am going to start working out. I kind of have to ideas in mind. Either hook up with the Rock Gym or possibly TaeKwonDo(sp?). It really depends on how much each costs and what the times are and blah blah blah. But I really want to get off me duff and work out.

Oh yeah, I sort of have a gotee, but really it is just a trial bases kinda thing. Not sure how long it will last. I might be able to get a picture on here. I just need to get a hold of a mini-usb cable. Walmart here I come.

#56

2006-09-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Midnight Oil this morning, Underground this afternoon. If you stop by I will probably say hello. Maybe not, I might ignore you completely. I am wearing an stripped orange shirt and I am ten feet tall, according to some high schooler sitting on a couch over there. Anyway, tomorrow I should be getting my phone number and DSL. Hurray, then I will be settled into my office. I hope.

#55

2006-09-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

Right now I am at Midnight Oil. Sitting outside on their balcony, enjoying the nice fall morning and a grande cup of coffee. But really, I am working. Working, working, working, oh the horror that is my life. For real though, I want to get into my office, but there is no phone there and no internet access till Friday at the earliest, and what happens in the office yesterday? Three customers call in and start yelling and complaining and hanging up the phone on people. Yeah, great, now I have to help rehab these people from the coffee house and I am sure everyone here wants to know their financial problems that have been going on for months and just now started telling us. Well, ok, maybe not just now, maybe one of them was from a month ago and the other one has never been satisified with the software and the third was expecting a call back last week on an issue. But still, I am sitting at midnight oil, working, hard. No, really I am. Well, except for this post. Well, back to the coal mines. :)

#54

2006-09-04T14:04:00.000-05:00

And I am Home. WHEEEE.

It was along grooling drive, then my brother and pre-sister-in-law came to visit. Then we went to a wedding of a good friend. At this wedding I saw several people that I knew when I was in school. I also saw several GATA girls. I think? Because the wedding was on campus the Aramark staff was there, and I think it can be safely assumend that several of the girls on the Aramark staff are GATA. I also met a guy who knew me, but whom I had never met. Oddly enough, he knew me as shiny pants guy and never knew my name until Saturday morning. Ahhh, my college escapades live on. MUAHAHAHA. THen dinner at Charlie's and some more hanging out with my brother. Sunday involved us going to church. We ended up going to the late service, so it was some really nice singing, but the preacher was overly aggressive, raising his voice un-necisarilly and then makeing everything real quiet like. Not my cup of tea, but we are planning on trying the early service, class and sunday/wednesday nights before we decide to go somewhere else. Today, I mowed the lawn, spread pesticides, watered the pesticides and I am now sitting in Midnight Oil drinking a Mr. Blonde Milkshake, mmmm, definitly a favorite of mine. ALso, working on paying some bills, as our phone orders have been screwed up and they keep sending us the wrong phone and we have no DSL on our phone bill. Silly phone company. Hopefully we will be able to get that handeled tomorrw, when their offices are open. Well, I have to go dig a hole and clean the gutters. I'll write later, when I can steal internet access again.

Oh yeah, does anyone know if there is really free wi-fi in the parks???

#53

2006-08-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

Not so busy as bored. Today is the day MLKJ gave his famous speech. Here is a picture of it. or maybe not. Wheee. I will try to break out of my boredom/depression to put up a decent post this evening. Maybe.

#52

2006-08-22T08:20:00.000-05:00

Ten more days until I get to see The Princess again. I am glad I am not in the military because I think I might just go crazy without being able to see The Princess for that long. I have a secret plan though. I plan of suprise for The Princess. MUAHAHA, she will not see it coming either and then BLAHM, SUPRISE. I hope she likes it.
For all the years that I was in college and for the time before and after that we travelled west on I-40, we have always gone one path. Drving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Well, this last time that we went, we decided to drive through the Smokey Mountains. Yes, they are both part of the Appalachian Mountain Range, but every state calls them something different. Arkansas calls them the Ozarks, but I think ultimatly the mountains are all the same range with different names for different sections. Also, in Virginia I think they have named a lot of the mountains. Why? I do not know, but it makes hikeing a little more directional. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that this new path goes through North Carolina. And North Carolina means CHEERWINE. So, part of my evil cross country adventure involves stopping to get several bottles of CHEERWINE. For those that do not know, CHEERWINE is a carbonated beverage with a slight red color and a nice cherry taste. Not too cherry, but just enough. It is sooo good. Well, The Princess has never tasted the joy of CHEERWINE, so I intend on picking up a couple for me and a couple for her. I am so considerate, and humble too.

#51

2006-08-18T10:27:00.000-05:00

From time to time something amazing happens. Sometimes it is a little invention that changes the lives of evreryon on earth. Other times it is a giant machine that throws itself into outer space. But this weekend an amazing thing is happening in Cinematography. That amazing thing is Snakes on a Plane. Ok, not really amazing, but I still will probly wait for this to be on DVD and for someone else to rent it before I watch it. I say all this inorder to preface a discovery I made in BlockBuster yesterday. This little gem of the cinema: Snakes on a Train. Wow, just wow. With all these snake movies you know some poor snake out there is makeing more money then me or you. And there is some little snake that is looking up to these rich mouse eating snakes and thinking thats the life instead of going to snake school and doing his snake homework. And then he gets in trouble and starts stealing and biting people and it is down hill from there. Poor snake, and it all could have been stopped if they had just not made these snake movies.

#50

2006-08-18T07:59:00.000-05:00

I have two weeks left before I get to see The Princess again. I am not sure how people handel that when it is months and months of not seeing your wife/husband. I know that she is busy all day, so she probably does not miss me as much, but shoo, all I do is work and watch movies so I definitly miss. Speaking of movies, I have watch a couple this week. I am trying to get all the crappy sci-fi/fantasy movies out of the way so The Princess will not have to watch them. OK, last night was Underworld:Evolution and that was pretty good. There was one movie before and luckily they ran a 10-15 catchup at the beginning of this movie. Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don't, but I appreciated it this time. I was confused most of the movie as is, so I am glad I actually knew who was what atleast a little. I also watched RV. Which, for its terrible reviews, I enjoyed as a light comedic family togetherness movie. Some of the acting was really bad, but hey, I could not have done any better then those kids so I am not going to penalize them for that. Wednesday, I watched Aeon Flux, which again, I liked even if it did not have the best dialog. On Tuesday, I watched InsideMan. Had some interesting story going on and some crazy camera stuff. I liked it. Yep, that is about all I have done this week. Work, movie, sleep, repeat. I can not wait for the thirty-first. I will be on my way, to the glory land. Some people do not like Searcy, but once I switch my pace of life from big city to not so big city, I will be just fine. Slower food, slower traffic, slower talking. Taking your time, it is going to be ok, because we will get there when we get there. Ahhhh. Oh yeah, there is a new coffee place in Searcy. The Underground. I think it is the only business that is open on Sunday's before 11:36(that is when churches get out). We were able to grab some coffee and a bagel there before my flights left last Sunday Morning. I think I might go back there. Of course, the other option is in my back yard and has a Mr. Blonde Milkshake, which I have been craving for the past two years. mmmmm, that is going to be one sweet, sweet, drink.

#49

2006-08-17T08:19:00.000-05:00

I have a meeting in fifteen minutes and I am just waiting for it to start. I have to call a customer and handel some issues they have been handeling. Of course, it is always possible that they will not be up yet. They are in California. Blekch, my coffee has not kicked in this morning.

#48

2006-08-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

I am going through some folders on my compture here inorder to clean out some old stuff and reorganize my info and I found this. No where to put it, so I figure I would upload it and then delete it from my box here. There may be more of this on here somewhere. Later.

Stairing down the wood paneled hallway, into the bright light,
Burns my eyes as if I had grown old in the dark.
The hallway stretches out of my reach and beyond my grasp,
I am tossed to the side dirty, broken, and torn.

What has become of the strength that I held in my fists?
Where has my white armor gone?

OH GOD, When shall I at last lay sight to the fields of thine paradise,
Running free from pains and tears.
Partaking of your sustanance and becoming revivied to the very marow of my bones.
Breath the life into my heart,Father, and encourage me on to fight the coming storm.

Where has my strength gone?
What has become of my white armor that I held in my fists?

Bring me closer to the edge that I can understand where the past has lead us.
Unlease the chains that crush my decrepid body down, remove me from this burdened state.
"Push on till the marow", you wisper, but the morning has already come and the sights sicken my soul.
The degenerate has slipped beyond its natural bounds and it is now called pure.

#47

2006-08-16T07:45:00.000-05:00

Alright, so the rest of our trip was long. Saturday took forever and we finally got to the house at two on Sunday morning. So, anyone who thought they might be able to help, thank you. Anyone who drove by or walked by or anything, thank you. And anyone who happend to take our dog for a walk and never even get to see our beautiful faces, thank you and I will probably do something nice for you in return. Like maybe a million dollars or possibly a post card.
Yesterday we had a big office meeting. I thought this was to tell everyone in the office that I was going to be leaving. No, this was to tell everyone in the office that the sales guy had been removed and that one of my tech guys would now be transfered into sales. After we finished up discussing that, we discussed opening a new office to help our customers in the lower mid-west. Arkansas, to be exact and whom do you suppose they are going to choose to run it?????? ME. Yeah, that is how they are going to spin it. Works for me and I think they can probably use it to help with contracts here. Kind of like a bartering chip or something. So, the move at the end of the month is fast approching. Two more Mondays, two more Tuesdays, less then three Wednesdays, three Thursdays and two Fridays. I have been calling The Princess a couple of times everyday. She seems to be getting a lot done. They unpacked the kitchen, painted the bathroom, painted the hallway and did generic cleaning type things. The house is not in the shape we left it. It is still in the square shape, but the floors on the inside are not so well maintained. The landlord came by and said he would find a new refridgerator, that is nice of him. Also, he said he would try and get someone to come take a look at the floors.
Yeah, so I have had people look at my site over one hundred times. That may not seem like a lot to some people, but to me it makes think someone out there might care about me mumbling about my life. Someday I might even go on a rant, or say something important. Or I could brighten your day by telling the world about my crazy adventures and my zany office experiences. Of course, in an office by myself, I am not so sure how zany those adventures can get. Anyway, I started mentioning this because of some of the hits I have gotten. They are from different contries completely. Poland, Sweden, Argentina(twice, same city), Hungary, and the UK. I realize that these are probly spam something or other trying to steal my info, but I still like the idea of someone in Europe checking me out. Of course, none of them ever came back, so they must not have liked what they saw, crud. Probably has something to do with my greek name. Master of Horses.
I apologize that I am kind of random this morning, but I am working out some work tension. I have some customers that are on my case about delays that can not be helped. Oh well, I realize it is not about me personally and that they have problems with the development schedule, but I just keep thinking about VISTA.

#46

2006-08-14T08:57:00.000-05:00

MMMMOOOOOOONNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, Fist to the face. After this weekend, I can not wait to really be moved back to Searcy. Ok, so our story leaves off with the hero riding off to pickup The Princess and her cavalcay of carrier camels. I left work around one and we left here before five. I guess we had some extra stuff to pack and getting the trailer hooked to the truck. Also, The Princess wanted to take a nap, seeing as how she was the only one on the contract. That was ok with me, I had to go by the cabel company and drop of their modem. There is no way I am going to let them gig me with a modem fee. Not this time Comcast. Then I headed over to the truck rental guy to see if I could add my name to the Driver's List. I could, He did, I paid and drove away. Now, it is time to leave. We drive and get to where we are going. A little later then we hoped, but not to bad. We actually stopped off and Daniel and Cheree's place in Charlotte, NC. They are remodeling their home and it looks good. I really like the paint in the bedrooms, but The Princess tells me it is that way so they can put molding up across the top. Now for Saturday. We left Charlotte at ten. We had originally talked about leaving at four or six or maybe at the latest, eight. But, no it was ten. And that just started Saturday, but I am way to hungry to work on this anymore. later.

#45

2006-08-14T00:24:00.000-05:00

The Princess has moved into our new home. And I am back on the East Coast. I will post More on our crazy traveling weekend later.

#42

2006-08-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

Well, the van is all packed up and the air matress is all pumped. I think today has been a good day. A victory even. There were about twelve of us packing the van. The U-Haul we used to get out here was seventeen feet. Well, the Budget guy calls me this morning and says he has a fifteen footer for us. Um, the website said sixteen feet. No, those are the new ones, you get an old ones. YARGH, defeated. Well, with all those people we really packed it in there. Shwew. My parents drove by the Little Ceasers and picked up a couple of Hot N' Readys and we threw some Gatorade into the fridge and we had a nice dinner to go with our packing. HUZZAH. The only down side tomorrow is I do not know when my boss is getting into work and I can leave. The reason for this is two fold. One, my boss failed his driver's license renwal today. They do an eye test and he does not have the best vision ever, so he failed and then had to go to the doctor. I do not know if he was able to make it back to the DMV and finish up or what. That is ok. Oh yeah, he took me out to lunch today, "manager's meeting", and dropped me off at the office before he went for the renewal. I am so thankful that he is willing to feed me every now and again, it really helps out alot with my budget. You might not think it would, but it is one less meal I have to pay for and it is two less trips in the car I have to take. The second fold is that my boss' four year old daughter is having out-patient surgery tomorrow morning. I have no idea when she is scheduled to be done, so I have no idea when he is going to show up. This on top of the fact that I am leaving between noon and one and that our top support person(besides moi, of course :) ) has been out all week and will be out until monday. So, the new guy and the lazy guy are going to be there with the head guy and the sales guy for a Friday afternoon, which typically is hectic cause everyone wants to pack it in before the end of the day. I do have new guy coming in an hour earlier then usual, so that should help.
Next week we are finally going to tell everyone in the office that I am moving. My boss has been worried about performance in the office, but I think it will be ok. September should be pretty rough, but if sales can pick up maybe someday we can bring in some more support personell. Of course, I should be able to program full time starting in September. That should really help out alot, because people are all the time calling in with spelling errors or little bugs or tiny things that only they notice. And because the presure to fix it is small, it gets put on a very large and ever growing pile. At the moment, our head programmer, my boss, is the only one working on updating the software in any large form. I hit up a couple of things here and there, but mostly he develops the bigger picture. Bringing me in to help with programming should help take a load off his back. I might even even slip in some sales calls or something for the company. I will definitly be traveling more. Since I will already be out of the office, the performance in the office won't be hindered by my apscence. Grr, I really need some sort of spell check. Well, I need to get some sleep, tomorrow is setting up to be a very long day. Hopefully I can get one more post in before he kick out and bugger-off. I will also have my eye open for some free Wi-Fi so I can post from the road. Not that my road trip will be very interesting, but it will give me something to do. I can not drive. I was not there, so my name and license is not on the contract and I am not suppose to drive. Good Night and God Bless.

#43

2006-08-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

Ahh, so it seems I do know someone in California. I had not realized that the Kemps were vacationing there this week. Well, I hope they have a lot of fun while hanging out on the West Coast. Here on the East Coast we are getting a fair amount of rain. There is a funny thing about the rain here. Last night we went to dinner with some friends and they said, "Everytime we eat at Penn Station Subs it rains." Haha, thats funny, yeah right. Well, we ate at Penn Station and today it is raining, wow, that is kind of crazy.
Today is the day folks. In two short hours, The Princess is going to be picking up the van from the rental location, drive it back to the house, and possibly start loading. Although, I hope she does not start with out me. I am not very good at packing. I just put things in a box, fill it up, then tape it shut. It is very possible for items from different rooms to end up in the same box. That being said, I intend to make up for my lack of box packing prowis by lifting heavy objects. Also, I think people from church might stop by and help out as well. My parents will definitly help out, but I am not sure who else will show up. And then we have to feed all of them. Not necisarrily feed them alot, but something, probly pizza. Everyone likes pizza. We have a Little Ceaser's up the road, so that is a quick hit for some Hot 'N Readys. Then, a night on the air matress, half a day of work and we are on our way. Fifteen sweet, sweet hours of driving, which will probly turn into eightteen or twenty hours. Blargh. Another thing, we are not driving straight through, we are making a detour through North Carolina to see some good friends. You would think that it would take us longer, but it is only an additional two hours. So, it is not to much of a detour,crazy I know, you figure going south does not really help you get west, but this time around it does. Then a long day of driving. Followed by arriving and unpacking. Hopefully this will happen around six, but with my complete lack of urgency for this move, it will probly be later.

#42

2006-08-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm, someone from California has been reading this? Who do I know from California. Or maybe the questions should be who do I not know from California. BUM BUM BUUMMMMMMM.

Sorry, it is a little slow in the office right now. Hopefully this will not change.

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that the statement should be Whom do I not know from California. Well, now I know that The Shua is reading.

#41

2006-08-08T10:35:00.000-05:00

There was some slight miscommunications on my last post. So, I figure that I will straighten them out. S-Town, also known as the bubble, is in fact Searcy. If you know the house that we were living in the last time we were there, well, that is the same house we are going back to. We called the Landlord and he said,"Oh yes, please oh please come back to this house. The last tenents were not so good, please oh please. What you are staying two years, hmmm, let me lower the rent for you." It feels kind of odd to be going back like this. I mean, I have never lived in Searcy without being a student. I am sure that I will be disapointed that the waterfalls are not as large as I remember and that some of the teachers are shorter then the last time I saw them. I have grown up a bit over the past two years. Probably not as much as I think. I am sure it just has to do with the fact that I do not get to goof off as much here. I will write later on today. I always think of things to write about when I am not near my computers.

#40

2006-08-07T11:05:00.000-05:00

This is a notice to everyone. On Saturday, August 12, 2006. I and The Princess will be make an appearance in S-town. This will be a one night only performance for me, but The Princess will be making long term arrangments with our landlord. Fear not, I shall again be making an appearance on Friday, September 1, 2006 in order to claim my place beside The Princess on the stage known as S-town. If you are wondering as to the veniue of the one night only performance, do not fret to long. We have managed to acuire our original location.

Oh, and we will gladly accept any assistance with moving into our home. Probably with bribes of pizza or some such dinner like food item.

#39

2006-08-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

Movies are nice sometimes. But, if you try and jam fourteen movies into one week, then they become not so nice. Blah, I think I am sick of movies right now. After V for Vendetta I got The Worlds Fastest Indian, Lord of War, Firewall, The Island, The Constant Gardener, and Pride and Prejudice. Maybe now you will understand why I am movied out. These were actually all really good movies. But I LOVED tCG. Fantastic. Not anything like I expected, but fabulous. That being said, I missed Taladega Nights on Friday night. The church was throwing us a Good Bye thingy and we were going to watch it afterwards, but everyone bailed on us. Blah, so we picked up tCG and PaP. Then we were going to try and make the matinee but we were packing and not in the mood for a movie. I think I probly won't see another movie for a while. Or maybe I will. This guy in the office is a fan of some movies that come a book I have been reading. Naturally, he burned the movies for me. Now, don't worry about pirating or anything like taht. These movies were not released in America. They are from Japan. Battle Royal, if you must know. Well, this weekend if the Big Move, and we have started packing. What a great week for all the crazyness, in the office we are down two guys this week, which makes for a lot of fun. One of them is my boss, so I am in charge here, running the show, the big man. Dealing with upset customers is a blast let me tell you. Then the stress of having to move, plus some debt collector guy has a bill that I allegedly never paid, except that I paid it twice already. Grrr, I have to call some people and figure that out. Stupid AT&T. No way am I ever doing busniess with them again. Then I have to close all my accounts here, electric, water, cable. Ok, I guess just those three not so bad, but I do have put in a forwarding address for the post office and contact all our bank/loan people and let them know. Meh, I guess it isn't so bad, I just have the extra stress of work. Over and out.

#38

2006-08-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

Wow, it has been a couple of days. This could either be a big ol honkin' entry, or I might just get bored with typing half way through and then have nothing else to say. Well, first I guess I should tell you about The Game. The Game is actually very easy to play. So easy in fact, that you are all already playing it. You lose The Game everytime you remember that you are playing it. At which point, you must notify those around you that you have just lost The Game. See, real simple. The only hard part is trying to not remember that you are playing. Along the same lines, I have been playing RE4 and I beat it about two weeks ago. I was kinda lost on parts of the story line, but that happens when you play the fist of a series and then jump back in four games later. That is one thing I enjoy about newer video games. There can be multiple came story arcs, kind of like in movies. StarWars has several multiple movie story arcs and it was good, very good. Similiar with RE or Mario Brothers or Zelda, you have reocurring characters that bind these stories together. Anyway, I beat it so now I have to move on to something else. I am thinking Online Poker. I play for free so do not worry I have no intentions of going bankrupt or anything.
I bought a laptop yesterday. I have been wanting to buy one for some time know and yesterday I just wanted it badly enough that I went out and bought one. I got it from TigerDirect so it looks like I got a pretty good price for it. No, I am not going to tell you what kind it is. I did look around, but I got antsy and had a spontanious urge so I bought it. I know that I should have waited till after work, called my brother and seen what kind of deal he could make me(he does sales for DELL), but I just couldn't do it. I was going crazy with the lazyness at work and my mind just kept going back to that laptop. So, being the spontanious person I am, I bought it. Heh, I am not very spontanious.
My Parents are out of town this week. They are going to gone for 7 days. Now here is the part where someone might care. They have the double movie pass at Blockbuster. With them out of town, I, being the only in town son, natuurally inherit their pass. HuRah for super movie overdose. Let us see. I have watched FlightPlan, 40 Year Old Virgin(only 10 min.), Kicking And Screaming, Kingdom of Heaven, Running Scared, 16 Blocks, V for Vendetta. I think there was one more, but I can not remember what it was. I might remember it later. FlightPlan was meh, not overly suspensful, but I do not have a child to look after, so maybe some moms thought it was nerve racking. 40 Year Old Virgin, it was the unrated version, the only copy they had at the store. Personally, I have tried to avoid this movie, but The Princess, in her ignorance, thought it might be funny. The first 10 minutes was pretty rough so we turned it off. That is the great part of the deal, I did not have to pay for it. Kicking And Screaming was another meh movie. I think Will Farell(sp?) can be pretty funny. I loved ELF, but this one just did not do it for me. Kingdom of Heaven was really good. It tells a story about the crusades so there is a some violence. Still, I really enjoyed it. A lot. For Running Scared, I in no form, shape, or fashion encourage anyone to see this movie. That said, I liked this movie a fair amount. The only turn off for most, would be the language. I remember a movie from a while ago, Boone Dock Saints, that was very good. It had this grit to it that stuck with you for a couple of days. Running Scared has that same feel. A good guy sort of wins in the end. I think that is what endears me to this movie. The real reason I rented 16 Blocks was because it has Bruce the Willis. It actually reminded me of Bruce's carrier, he use to be big top performance blockbuster and then he ramped down and got all drunk and disorderly, but then he makes a come back and Hurray saves the day, sort of. There are a couple of twist and turns, so it comes out ahead of the curve, but just barely. Again, I am glad I didn't have to pay to see it. Not paying really allows my to enjoy a movie that I would have been pissed if I had paid to see it. :) I liked it, but not paying really movied it up the list. A lot. And Finally, V for Vendetta. I think maybe I have over saturated myself with well told stories this week. I enjoyed the movie, it was good, well thought out, well shot, nice color schemes. Over all, very enjoyable. Not sure what the movies will be up for the rest of the week, but one of the WILL be The Constant Gardener. I am excited about that movie. It is my understanding that it comes from a book. I usually love books that get turned into movies. The Bourne Identity being a favorite book of mine. I love the book so much that I actually hate the movie. There is a bright point for that movie. The movie is sooo far off from the book that the second movie doesn't have anything to do with the book at all. Absolutly nothing, so I was able to really enjoy that second movie and I am fairly confident that I will absolutly love the third one. And this is where I get tired of writing and go off and do something else. Maybe even work.

#37

2006-08-01T14:16:00.000-05:00

I just lost The Game. I will have to tell you guys about it some day. It is a blast.

#36

2006-07-27T09:17:00.000-05:00

I had to take my dog to the SPCA today. There were a ton of ladies with their cats and my with my yappie little dog. I decided to take her outside to fill out my paperwork. She was still super whiney but that was ok, we were outside. Then I signed a bunch of paperwork and let her out of might sight. Forever. Well, actually till five. The Pricness is going to pick her up from the surgery this afternoon. We finally decided to get our dog broken. Most people call it getting fixed, but honestly you take your dog to the vet so they can break them from doing what they were built for. So, we say that we are taking the dog in to get broken. I know, it is dumb but we like it. When we first got our dog(Degoba) we thought about breeding her. We feel in love with the miniture shnauzzer real quick and wanted everyone else to love them also. It is not a common dog for a lot of people. My second love was the Scottish Terrier, but it looks like it might be a while before we get one of those. A good long while, especially with the move in the near future.

#35

2006-07-27T08:55:00.000-05:00

I got home from work last night after seven. Part of that was stoping to grab a bite to eat at my parents house. Part of that was filling up the gas in my car for slightly less the three dollars a gallon. But most of that was leaving the office at six-thirty. We have customers all across the country. This is great, but can cause a problem when someone three time zones away call and they still have six hours of business for the day and we are all leaving. So, I was staying late but it became later because I had to help this guy who has not even used the software in over a month. Their business was down. Oh Noes. Except that they have not even started to use the software on a daily bases. But yesterday it was vitally important that it work and it work right now. After calling in, he waited for one hour before starting to send threating emails about how bad our service was. Man, when I first started here, we use to have customers wait for a day or two if the support backup was bad enough. Now, they complain if they have to wait ten minutes. Now, I am working on a customer who is haveing long standing problems. But they are only able make it happen when I am not watching them. Grrr. Stupid Tech Support Magic. Why must you cause broken systems to work only while I look at them? WHY???

#34

2006-07-25T17:24:00.000-05:00

Ohhweee. And I am back. I four day whirlwind adventure to the South. We went to visit The Princess' grandmother on Friday. She is intersting. She is eighty-three years old and has always lived in Columbia,SC. I am sure you can figure out what aspect of her personality makes it an interesting visit. Then we headed down to Charleston, SC. That is a nice little town. We have some friends who live on Isle of Palms. They have lived there for thirty years, but the property there is now going for a million plus. They will not be to bad off when they finally decide to move. If they decide to move. :) Maybe they will sell it to us, for a dollar. That would be sweet. Of course, I would have to find a job there or atleast tele-commute from there. I need a sinle cup coffee pot and I am having trouble finding one. I plan on getting a hold of a grinder and buying my beans there in town. If I can find a single cup brewer then I can save some more money on that. I really thought I would have more to say after being off for four days, but I guess I do not.

Wow, I am glad that I do not live in the middle east. That is some serious violence there. Heizballa sure kicked a hornets nest this time. Now they are sending in ground troups. I sure hope we can keep our hands out of it. Put some pressure on both sides, but keep out of it. Oh, and people say that Bush needs to stop this. Stop what? These are two soverign nations that stand on their own. All we can do is ask them both to stop and come to a table to talk it out. Yes, it is tragic. Yes, we should send assistance, but there is a lot of dust that needs to setle.

There are a lot of shark attacks in SC this year. Six so far. There was one on Friday when we got there. The Grandmother warned us about them. Good thing sharks do not come onto land, unless his/her name is Kenny, but that is a Saturday Morning reference that I doubt I will get a year from now.

It has been brought to my attention that being a club sponser is a way for me to spend my time until The Princess graduates. Hmmm, not a bad idea. I might have to look into it. Oh yeah, also, I got this hit tracker, so I know how many people look at my site. MUAHAHA, I can now stalk you as you stalk me. Be Blessed.

#33

2006-07-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

La lala lalala lala. I do not know, just humming a tune. Shooo, I am really excited about this move. It is like when you go back to summer camp. You have great memories of what it was like last time. Old friends you have known for years, newer friends that you made the last time you were there and the prospect of meeting new people completely. I don't know how to explain it, except by saying it is that pre-camp anxiety that is a twist of excitment about the known and eagerness for the new. When you know that you are on your own for a week to handle whatever camp throws at you. Anyway, we still haven't left for the Weekend of Adventure. But we should be leaving soon. Wow, we really are late. Peace.

Today is first Kings 1-15 or something like that. I have really slacked off on my reading. Grrrr, that goes as a defeat. Also, I saw this guy yesterday who probly could have used a lunch. I am a little jaded from the last time I bought a guy lunch. Usually, I sit inside with them and try to talk to them about their life and stuff. I do not know how much of it is real, but it is usually interesting. The last guy was a real pro though, we walked in to the Subway and he knew the staff by name. He still needed a lunch, but I hate it when people are profesional beggers. I will help anyone out at any time, it is just money, and it is not even mine. But professinoals really steam my pot. Be Blessed.

#32

2006-07-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

Ah, an end to another productive week of work. What is that you say, you still have to go to work tomorrow because it is Friday. MUWAHAHA. I do not have to go to work tomorrow. I am taking the day off. We are driving down to the big SC and seeing some of The Princess' family before the big move. We are also going to mooch off of some friends while we are at it. Huzzah for mooching. The land lords are going to be showing our house this weekend so I have to help clean up. I will try and update from the road if I can. If not, then I hope we all have nice weekends.

Oh yeah, my wife is beautiful.

#31

2006-07-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was carzy here. I know that everyone else is getting the heat as well, but yesterday was one-hundred and five degrees here. On top of that I locked myself out of my house while I was on my lunch break. I had to sit infront of my house for fifteen minutes waiting for a ride to work. The princess had turned her phone off and she is the only other person with a key. Then I had to wait outside after work for another thirty minutes. I know, how terrible, having to wait outside for a whole fourty-five minutes. Oh my, what ever shall we do. Well, it was not that bad, it is just out of the ordinary for me.
Today was a little bit better. I only managed to almost kill myself once. I was driving home and lost focus for a second. Just kind of drifted off. When I come round a corner and there is a stop light. I am about to go through said light when this ginormous black SUV slides out from behind a bush and starts to cross the street. For two seconds I thought to myself, why is that SUV crossing my lane, I have the green. Coming out of my daze I realize, shoot a monkey, I have the red. I hit the breaks hard and did not kill myself or anyone in the SUV.
Work was ok today. I had to rewrite some code to make our software do something it probly should have done from the beggining anyway. Part of me wonders what I am going to do all day with out tech calls anymore and Part of me is craving that sweet sweet scilence that I can break wide open with some intenet radio station. I figure it will be something like 700 days in that office by myself. I hope I don't go crazy. Of course, I will have all my faithful readers to keep me company. And yes, I count myself in that crowed.

#30

2006-07-19T12:29:00.000-05:00

I thought this might be humorous. You can make your own.