I'm only trying to make you think...

Why Privitize Social Security?

2008-10-29T12:54:00.002-04:00

I don't understand the ads that say "He voted to privatize Social Security". The part that gets me is that people automatically assume this is a horrible thing and that it's the end of the world.

When we look at our social security system, as it stands today, it's a failed system. It will not work, and I know that as a person who contributes biweekly into the system, it's 1000s of dollars a year that I will not ever see again. When it's time for me to retire, the current system will not sustain the system to be around for me.

Our government created the system and ran the system into the ground as it is, and it sucks. Why is government control of the system assumed to be infinitely better than giving it to the private sector?

Further to the point why is it that I even have to rely on the government for my retirement?

Why the election is much closer than we are being told

2008-10-29T09:56:00.003-04:00

Take it for what you will, but I guarantee you the election is going to be much closer than we are being led to believe by the media.

Reason 1)
I live in a highly liberal neighborhood in a city that is typically liberal in it's voting patterns. Over the past 3-4 months, I have continually been summoned to the door by pollsters and the Obama feet on the street.

Here's how the typical conversation goes:

Them: Can I bother you for a few minutes for a political poll
Me: Sure
Them: OK. Great! Are you Married?
Me: Yes
Them: Are you a registered Democrat?
Me: No
Them: Ok.
(now the majority of them leave at this point saying, thanks that's all we need, if not they will continue slightly)
Them: Have you decided on a candidate? If so, is it Obama?
Me: Yes and no, I'm not voting for Obama.
(at this point the majority of pollsters that got to this point left without any other questions, save one that is my neighbor who actually started to ask about the other major races, governor and senate)

The point of this is that the majority of these polls are only looking for information that helps portray their message. When they find information that goes against what they are wanting to prove, they merely ignore it.

2) Sadly, I truly believe that race is going to be much more in play in this election than people will admit. It is the cool thing these days to say that you support Obama, but there in the booth, where no one is looking and no one will ever be able to know, they won't cast a vote for a black man. To clarify, I don't think this is a valid reason to base your vote, I really do believe that it will effect the voting pattern of America.

I will say that the polls that are placed on children is a more precise scope of how people will vote. The poll ran by Nickelodeon puts the race at a dead heat.

I believe these kid polls are more effective based on the fact that the majority of children really don't know nor pay attention to politics, they only know what they hear in their homes by their parents. Based on the fact that most kids look up to their parents, when they cast their mock election vote, they cast the vote like their parents will.

All of this is just to say, it's really an election where every vote is going to be important. So don't forget to vote.

radical ideas

2008-10-06T14:04:00.002-04:00

Did you know that it's a radical idea to think for yourself and make your own decisions?

According to the Obama's latest round of political attacks against McCain, it's a radical idea to decide what's best for your family.

Apparently, Obama thinks at the same time that it's normal to give the government control of your decisions, your pocketbook, and your health care. At least that's what he wants you to think.

Think before you vote people.

more insanity

2008-10-06T13:27:00.003-04:00

Two nuggets of news insanity that just go to further prove the fact that our government is completely screwed up.

1) Despite all the conservative hate coming out of the democratic party blaming republicans for the economic crisis, it's actually just a typical political flip occurring. I find it funny, and reassuring that NBC via SNL actually acknowledged this. ( SNL Sketch).

THe truth of the situation is 6 years ago when house republicans were warning of the sub-prime mortgage crisis to come, the democratic party led by the bumbling fool Barney Frank, fought to keep them quiet. And to just add that dun-dun-dun moment to the matter. Mr Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee was tied romantically to an executive of the self exploding Fannie Mae. Mr. Herb Moses and Mr. Barney Frank, while now split, were romantically linked for 10 years, all of which Frank was on the HFSC.

Moses was the assistant director for product initiatives and lead the way for relaxing their lending rules and made initiatives for 'affordable housing' loans. Suspiciously enough, Moses' last day at Fannie Mae was Feb 13th. Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall?

2) You probably know that California is looking to the Fed for a $7 billion bailout for their economy. Did you also know that this year they are looking to make a $10 billion down payment on a heavy rail system connecting S.F.(edited, sorry for the mis cite and wrong word usage) to L.A. So there you go, Tax payers all set to foot the bill for more government waste.

I say all this to convey the point that our government is not the solution. If you think they are just and right, then you are wrong. They are people just like everyone else, and the more power we give them the more corrupt they will become. It's not a party issue, it's a people issue. We live in a world where people have faults, and others like to take advantage. I'm hoping that I'm not the only one out there that can see this.

woohoo a new one

2008-10-03T11:35:00.002-04:00

With the election getting ever closer, I've been getting more and more frustrated with this country and the voters.

Obama and Biden are on the record for saying that if you make more money than what we deem appropriate, then we are going to step in and in the name of 'fairness' we are going to take your money and give it to those who don't make as much as you.

Folks, that's socialism. At some point in your life you need to grow up and realize that the world is not 'fair' and that some people just get lucky breaks. Personally, I believe that having our government (as screwed up as it already is) step in and police our paychecks is not the way to fixing things, it's only going to increase the real problem.

Now does that mean that those less fortunate just have to deal with it? To an extent yes, but beyond that it gives our churches and our social outreaches a place to grow and work.

When welfare was introduced(ranking up in there with No Child Left Behind as worst government plans ever) the churches lost their 'power' in that people stopped volunteering, no one wanted to just help out, because they could just sit around and get a check from the government. Heck, the system is designed to promote this behavior. This is our time as a church to show strength and the love of Christ and reach out to those who need help. We shouldn't just throw this back to the government expecting them to 'fix' it.

Obama wants to continue this trend of making the government bigger and stronger, such that we give them all the power. They then grasp the ability to sent your worth in the marketplace. With how screwed up our country is (both democrats and republicans) I don't believe that our government should be setting this value.

Now with Pelosi leading the House and Byrd President Pro Tempore and Reid Majority Leader in the Senate, our country is Celebrity struck into electing the two most liberal leftest senators into the White House. This is giving them a clear path to any legislation that they want.

No I'm not going to claim that McCain is a diamond , but if you really want to screw up our country, then vote for Obama this November.

Where'd the time go?

2007-05-23T18:53:00.000-04:00

I suppose i need to make an update at least once a month, or something like that.

I have been running around like a crazy person here as of late, i'm still trying to figure out how to get some more time in my days.

According to Nasa it is possible to function on these so called extra hours of the day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/14/health/webmd/main2802656.shtml?source=RSSattr=Health_2802656

According to the article, if I sleep 8 hours a night and live in a contained room with no outside light, I can manage to function for 17 hours of 'awake' time. Now that makes up for a full 25 hours in a day. atlast an extra hour in the day. I could learn how to knit or weave a basket, update my blog, or maybe even sleep. But that begs the question would that mess up the whole cycle?

The way I see it, currently I sleep for 6 hours a night and function a full 18 hours in a day in 'awake' time. So i'm confused on what this study is telling me. Apparently if i gain two hours in sleeping I will only loose an hour of work. Craziness.

Hope you people are all doing well. I'm going to do my best to get back to blogging...maybe.

I so told you i'd drop the ball

2007-04-01T21:38:00.000-04:00

I have been going around traveling quite a bit lately, and working long hours for the man. I can't complain as things are really great all in all, if only I hadn't fertilized my lawn so much this winter. Which anyone looking into home ownership should contact me, as I'll willfully let you 'trial run' the responsibilities that go along with it all without all that debt. Killer deal right?

So an update, in 3 days I will have a new niece and my first nephew. I'm very excited about it all. I love my family dearly, and it's one of those moments that almost forces me to carve out the time for my family. Sometimes, just like blogging it will get to the point where I realize a month has passed and then another without me being around them. This is not a good realization. It's funny how life has the tendency of filling itself up quickly and then flying by. 25% of 2007 has passed, and it seems like just yesterday I was ringing in the new years with Fergie, Kat, and the Big Apple.

I have managed to keep committed to my devotions, although thanks to one mr. Tice, they don't always fit in that 5.40am wake up call, but they do come about at one point of the morning, usually.

I've got some thoughts to ponder on their way whenever I get a moment to hash them out, i'll try to publish them for the whole world to read.

Also i'll facebook some pictures of the new youngin's once I get back in town. If you aren't on facebook then you should really join the rest of the world and join up, its way better than the internet prostitution circle of Myspace.

Happy April fools day, i missed playing jokes on folks this year, so i suppose that is sad, but i'm ok with it. Happy early Easter to you all, but don't forget the real reason why this Holiday is special.

Passion, Love and 12 Crazy Men

2007-03-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

So I am working my way through a study of the 12 apostles of Christ. It has been an amazing thing. Everyone knows about the heavy weights such as Peter, as he plays such a major role in the early church and the majority of the Bible follows his story so to speak. But taking a closer look at the lesser known apostles has really been an eye opener. Its one of those things that you never really think about till attention is drawn to it, and you are like "wow...yeah that makes sense".

Right now I wanna talk a bit about James and John, the sons of Zebedee. If you go through, you will notice that they are rarely found apart in fact there are scarce examples of them speaking separately. We get an idea of their outlandish, act before you think persona's from the nickname that Christ bestows them: "Son's of Thunder". We get that they are quite reckless in their actions and a couple of times we see them acting this out.

One that has had me thinking lately is when they, with mother dear in tow (Matt 20:20,21) confront Jesus asking, or more appropriately telling:

"Arrange it," they said, "so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory---one of us on your right, the other at your left." Jesus said, "You have no idea what you're asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I'm about to be plunged into?" "Sure they said. "Why not?"(Mark 10:37-39 The Message)

What has been drawing my attention is their response to Jesus asking if they will drink his cup and bear his load. They, as if they didn't even think about it, answer with a simple answer assuming that it would be no big deal.

It's so amazing to think about this. They had no clue what they were really getting themselves into. Everything that they wanted had happened, but it was nothing like what they had expected. It's crazy to me to see God working. So often we know what we want, but we have no clue how we limit God with that thinking.

In James case: Rather than a crown of glory, he was given a cup of suffering; rather than power he got servanthood; He wanted prominence and he got martyrdom. He wanted to rule and He got to be the first of the 12 put to death.

Not so pleasant of a picture when you think about it on the surface, but I think there is so much more there.

Our first vision of James was that he was a hot-headed, self-righteous Zealot for Christ. He was the one ready to bring down fire to consume Samaria when they insulted Christ as He made His way to Jerusalem. He was clearly very passionate for the truth looking force Christ on the people. That is until Christ touches his life.

In acts we see a new image of James. One that still has this passionate pursuit for the truth, but that has controlled this passion with the power of the Holy Spirit. He had come to the understanding of what it was truly about. He finally got it, and his focus even up to his death was that of bringing people to Christ rather than condemning them for not immediately accepting.

His influence in the early church was obviously great as it was enough to spark Herod to order his execution. An account of the actual execution while left out of Acts was recorded by early church Historians. Clement of Alexandria recorded the following:

the one who led James to the judgment-seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony, was moved, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian. They were both therefore, he says, led away together; and on the way he begged James to forgive him. And James, after considering a little, said, 'Peace be with thee', and kissed him. And thus they were both beheaded at the same time.

This man that brought the judgment upon James confessed and brought upon himself the same fate, yet James held no grudge against him rather he saw the fruit in bringing another soul to Christ.

Amazing.

I think it's just wonderful to think of what Christ can do with people like James. How he can shape and mold even the wildest of characters into something that will shape the rest of the world so drastically. It give me hope in life. Makes me feel like there is something that He can do with even me. I love that thought.

I decided to boycott Februrary...and other thoughts...

2007-03-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I guess I didn't keep up that momentum that I had coming in to 07 past January. I had it on my mind often to update, but I just never got around to it. I don't know that you'll all be that heart broken though. If you were, well at least I used the shortest month in the year right? Now on with the show.

So I have been thinking a lot today about the government and I keep asking myself why do they think they can mess with our clocks and not only continue using this stupid system of daylight savings time, but then to go and extend the dang thing by another month. I'm sorry I am not pleased one bit. And if they try to push it off on the farmers then I call bologna cause the farmer is going to get up when they need to get up. You Mr Senator have just forced me to get up even earlier in the twilight to complete my daily routine. Now instead of watching the sunrise as I run, I will now be returning home from my morning workout to the darkness that is dawn. I am not happy one bit. I vote we go Arizona and just drop the stupid system.

Seriously though, did they really think through all the trouble this is causing. I know with work the patches we are having to deploy to account for this and the troubles it has caused, can it really be that good for the economy to have to deal with this? I know that I had enough aggravation from duplicate calendar entries and reminder popups from our work email that it was definitely worse than Y2k. Quick everyone get your can goods and AKs and meet at the bomb shelter the world is ending...wait....

Yes, I say we find out who all voted and approved for the extension of DST this year and we eject them from office. If you are in support of this legislation then please tell me what are you are thinking....i don't understand it...i'm going to invest my 401k in Coppertone for all the extra hours of sun exposure and cancer that results...(is it sad that that was something discussed in the house in regards to this legislation and yet it still passed?)

ok i'm done...on to a real blog post coming up in just a minute

Random Ramblings

2007-01-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

See now I told you I wouldn't be able to keep up the steady stream of blogging. Things have become hectic for me this month, but I'm ok with that.

In years past things have traditionally been slow with work during the holidays. This year has been, in many ways, different, good different. Work has been extremely busy, which in my line of work is always a great thing all around, well other than the long work weeks.

So there was the first of many excuses to come. But to be honest I want to take this blog elsewhere right now. To the faithful readers, which according to Google there seems to be quite a few of you, I have been for the most part keeping up well considering the situations of late with my daily readings. The mornings when I can make them have been times of great reflection.

I have been blessed, and I am blessed. When I think of it all it's almost extravagant. And to be honest, I find that at times, I question why have I been so fortunate. Not that I am complaining, but it's really a great thing.

It's funny though, I just came back to here after finishing the rest of this post. Blessings are an odd thing to me. It seems that they can be almost taboo. If i go on and on about them, it lends itself that I am bragging. But the catch 22 is that I find it hard to be thankful for something that you don't verbalize. I suppose there is a middle ground, I hope I found it. I assure you, this is not a post about me bragging by any means. More so it's just that I am grateful, and well it's my blog and where else can one say what's on their mind these days? So if you don't like it, deal with it?

So beyond the whole work thing, a few weeks ago my Dad had to go in for open heart surgery. That's never a 'good thing' to have to endure. While it's a great thing that such things are possible and flat out amazing that they can even figure out how to do such operations, it is still a scary place to be in. Cut to the chase, he came through the surgery with no complications and is currently recovering more and more each day. So things are well.

To the point of the story though. It's weird to be forced into a situation like that. Death, even within Christianity, is not something that is considered dinner conversation. Going through that really helped put things in perspective. I find that I personally face events of any size and magnitude by accepting the worst and praying for the best. Beyond that i don't know that i want to expand into this too much for the purpose of this blog, perhaps in time another blog is in order. I leave this portion with that thought that I am fortunate to have a loving family.

Moving on to the next thing that has been on my mind. I started this blog while at my Sales Conference. Oh yeah, so I just got back from a week in the Arizona / Las Vegas Area. This makes the third year out there. I must say it looses the appeal the more often you see the city. Maybe that's just to me, but I was ready to get back home by the end of the week. I found myself sitting in one of the Global Plenary (they use this word, i think it's actually a synonym for 'having part of your brain removed') asking how did I get here? After almost 3 years working here it still feels foreign to me when surrounded by some many people. I consider myself lucky to have been placed in this position as it's not a typical post college job. But then again, i find that very little in my life seems to be typical, so I just accept it at face value and move on.

Finally, all the support from friends and family that I have had while going through this part of my life has been simply amazing. My church community is just stinking great. I find that the more I am away from it, the more and more I realize what a blessing it has brought to me, and continues to provide.

I bring all of this up because I find myself asking what have I done to deserve this? Or more importantly, what have I been doing to overflow these blessings to those around me? I don't know that I have an answer for this or really anything. I do know that it is something that has been on my mind as of late.

Maybe some more posts to follow up, I will atleast get you some pictures from the trip at a minimum.

I know for many reasons it's going to be a long month for me. Two straight weeks of customer presentations to kick it off. So hopefully the time will pass quickly.

Things I learned last night

2007-01-07T20:48:00.000-05:00

I spent last night at the driving range with Tice and Greg. And while it's true that there were some others that definitely had a much crazier night (Beemer, I really want to see this candle), It was eventful out at Knights Play. I learned that Tice has a chicken wing, Greg can't keep his back straight, and i'm pushing my drives. All of which results in some ugly slices. Thanks to some random old man, whose 83, he wanted to make sure we were aware of that, we all got that worked out.

Due to the year always starting out slow I've had some time free to keep up on some posts. I'll try to keep up this pace of posting although we all know that just won't happen.

true story, and yes its better than the cat story

2007-01-05T18:56:00.000-05:00

Small Group. Our group has bonded quite a bit through the year(s) that we have been meeting such that even after Hungry's dissolution we have stuck it out meeting for the community to talk about what is going on our lives, and occasionally we talk about God as well. It's definitely grown into a nest of trust as we all seem to, despite the obvious differences in all our personalities, bond.

Well with any group of guys names of jest are a dime a dozen. Each with our own very inappropriate names for each other that the mention of them will pretty much shut any of us down. Well since I host the meetings, my name was one of the original, well before they rose to the level that they are at today. If you haven't been to my house then you will probably be confused, but I have garnered Martha. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I seasonally decorate, or maybe just because I can cook, or most likely it's the whole gambit.

So now on with the story.

So small group met at Hi5 last night, can't beat the menu deals there. That's value. As we are all just sitting around chatting it up, I find myself in conversation with beemer and I start to notice what exactly I'm doing. I'm there folding my napkin. Seriously, WTF? As soon as I make the realization I quickly go to scramble the evidence but alas, my hastily maneuvers drew more attention to the events and thus no avail in obscuring. Beemer has called me out. Taking the moment to draw every ones attention to the events that had just transpired. I sit there in utter disbelief, but it was true none the less.

With that I concede and accept the name. But with one last statement. Apparently my pies are good enough to be controversial; so with that I'll end. (and that was the first time ever making one to boot)

Revelations in Resolutions

2007-01-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

I find that I am very process driven. Whenever I pick up something I step back figure out the trick or repetition and then I go all at it to the goal. With that I find that in many things this is a blessing, as an example, with work there are many things that my peers and managers just don't understand how I make them happen. The converse of this is in the biggest example my walk with Christ.

I fully comprehend the grace of God's Love in that there is no check list for me to complete to make it to Heaven. But as one grows closer in their walk, it's a natural tendency to want to come even closer.

Being born into a Christian family, quiet times is something that I can always remember since around Middle school (kind of the point where you really start to understand religion beyond the flood and David and Goliath). As with that I've had many rides in this rollercoaster of faith, yet it's amazing how you can still find something new in that 'old turn'.

Two years ago I made a resolution to do the Bible in a year program. At first I was slightly skeptical at it as I had been through a number to times before, just never that organized. I was shocked at how it affected my life through that year to put it simply. Coming into 06 I was on somewhat of a high with my walk with Christ, and bringing that into grace and love, I felt I didn't really need to make the same resolution again. I knew that I didn't have to have some sort of checklist daily telling me to do this and that.

Well I was wrong, quiet times quickly ceased last year, and every effort to bring them back to times of value would work shortly and would then be extinguished. As the year winded down I began to figure out what had happened.

As this new year came into being, I made a repeat resolution of sorts. As of yet it truly has made a difference for me. There is something special about that time in the morning before the sun comes up that just fills each day with new meaning. Each morning my Personal Assistant wakes me up reminding me of the commitment and it happens. It's like it takes that nudge of 'you need to fulfill this commitment' for me to get started; and then it flows into the full feeling of grace and love and spending of quality time, not because I have to but because I really want to.

Now it may just seem ridiculous to you reading this, but to me its what works, and while it may only be 4 days in, I have no fear in it faulting. I think I have a thing about failing when I know I have full control over succeeding, I just won't give up easily.

As for it being a resolution, I guess maybe just timing alone made it become my New Year's Resolution as I see no need for a special occasion to make a positive change in my life. Any day is the right day to make life better for yourself.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

2007-01-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

Many a times i amaze myself beyond belief itself. Today, was not one of these moments. After takeoff i go to zone out and pass the short evening flight with the new toy and some tunes. This is where trouble begins. Unbeknownst(yeah trust me its a word) to me i had left the ipod playing in my bag the day before, i found myself now in quite the pickle. Being in the front row the stewardess had taken my personal carry-on bag and stowed it in the front where i couldn't gain access. Thus leaving me with a dead ipod a book that just wasn't drawing my attention and my camera, thus i just played a bit with the clouds as i came back in to RDU.

To be honest it's just simply amazing to me. Such beauty. I like to fly.

I'll add some more posts for some current happenings and thoughts soon...

have a fantastic evening

Real Excited about this one

2006-12-20T23:47:00.000-05:00

Everybody's watching you

2006-12-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

I have one address that will always find me, you will even know what i'm doing at that moment, or where i'm at. Voice, video, text, however you want to communicate it's one 'number', one address. Google is making advances in this arena for the consumer market, although they are not quite there.

Personally I have no qualms with this 'always on' mentality, working with it is a change in the way one 'works'. It does take discipline to break away from the job and have the personal time. People grab on to the fact that they can always get stuff from you and they exploit as they need. Although i forget some of the times, its all about just saying no.

Watching the industry news its obvious that this is coming. Cingular has signed up with Myspace adding to theexplosion of social networks. Verizon just signed away $2B to boost their network for support of higher bandwidth apps. Microsoft in it's next releases bring the clients completely integrated, and the delievery of these services curtosey of their servers.

My generation and those following have grown up immersed and are to the point where they would rather text than call; IM is more natural than speaking. While these technologies have exploded in social arenas it must be embraced by all for them to fully function in a business setting. Bridging the gap of technology to the generations that have seen life without the tech is where you meet the resistance in acceptance. Personally I think that a cycle in the workplace is required before a digital identity will fully catch on.

I guess my question is how do you peoples see the perception of this technology in the mainstream?

O Christmas Tree

2006-12-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

I really like the whole season of Christmas. Be it the weather, the lights, or just the memory of having a month off from school. I love it all and to me there is nothing wrong with decorating the Saturday after Thanksgiving(remember that Black Friday is obviously reserved for some crazy shopping), or even before.

This is the third year in a row where i've gotten a new tree, and while that may not seem odd, these are all fake trees. Some people call it heresey to not have a real fur, to me, I prefer the peace of mind of my plastic tree and througholy enjoy not having to pick up needles all across the house.

So to the point, I found the tree that I really like this year, and all in all i am very pleased. So here's my tree:

Yay Christmas

So Long my Friend

2006-12-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

It's never a happy moment when you must bid farewell to something so close to your heart. Sadly that is why I come to you tonite.

Goodbye shovel. You were the best shovel found on the side of the highway and given as a gift that I ever had... I'll never forget the ditches we dugg.

(if you don't get this post then I wouldn't worry about it too much...)

To you Mr SAS employee...

2006-11-29T18:06:00.000-05:00

...That thinks you are too important to wait in the line of traffic with the rest of raleigh that you drive down the emergency lane to swerve over at the last second causing more delays and problems for us that are patient: grow up, get some patience, and freakin learn how to drive!

Now that that is over, I have been working alot and vacationg and as such no blogging for me. Expect some posts real soon...

Until then, you keep on keepin on

A new plant

2006-11-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

So we kicked off the first sunday of the new church plant last week. It was a crazy way to start a church.

I'm not sure what this has to do with the church to be honest, but It was there, and it's kind of fun...

Jeff talked about the new church so i think i'll just refer you to his posting, rather than rehash the events. I will however leave you with this thought. You know it's going to be an interesting day when you pull up 15 minutes late and see everyone nervously gathered outside and the first thing you are greeted with is: "You may want to just turn around so you are involved with the possible criminal infractions."

...Fantastic...

This was only topped by the fact that everywhere we went that day we were met by like 10 SHP officers....(insert feeling of irony here)....

I can hear the church bells ring...

2006-10-26T22:24:00.000-04:00

There is this little korean church right on the corner of miami and 54 that chimes on the hour every hour. I love when I come in to work on time, whenever that would be...maybe I should say I love when I show up at the office on an hour. There is nothing like a crisp morning air before everyone has hit the hustle and bustle of a busy day and listening to the bells ringing out an old Christian Hymn. Now I know there really isn't any bells there and it's just a loudspeaker blaring a recording, but that's not the point. The point is, I don't have a point other than the randomness that I really enjoy those simple moments of walking into the building listening to that. I think that is all for now.

Tickets

2006-10-20T14:22:00.000-04:00

6 tickets to the fair left First Come First Served.

Really Long Sparklers

2006-10-17T22:15:00.000-04:00

I'm a pyro, as are most guys. I would like to submit to you evidence A:

Now in the foreground you will notice Ben enjoying a nice glass of chardonay. I want to draw your attention however to the background and myself admiring the gigantic sprinklers (or sparklers as someone so gracefully pointed out to me...twice).

I have been gone for the last little bit, off with my good friend in his last days of bachelorisim, some people call this a marriage, others, a funeral. Eitherway it's a great last hurrah of fun.

It's been noted that I am slow on posting pictures, all i can say is i'm working on that. I love pictures and taking them, my problem is i hate having to keep up with the camera, so i'll just say i'm working on dealing with that.

I'll have some more blogs to come. Lots of driving means lots of thinking which tends to lead to lots of blogging...

i'm out for the nite

p.s. yes thats a full tux, tails and all...quick, everyone come see how good I look...

it's just a piece of paper

2006-10-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

Why is it everytime i go into Kinkos to get some things printed off, the guy behind the counter has no clue what i'm talking about? Is it too much to ask that they know their different types of paper? I am by no means an expert but for goodness sakes its in every single window whenever you go to print, it's the paper size. I ask for a glossy A4 and he comes back with plain ole 8.5x11 and part of the page cut off...ummm yeah i'm going to need you to do this again...

Oh and on a similar thought don't even think about asking about ANSI paper sizes, it'll blow their minds...

tic toc, tic toc

2006-09-30T22:44:00.000-04:00

If you've ever been to my parents house, you will within 10 minutes become fully aware of the many clocks that are throughout the house (I still can't figure out why more than one of the clocks are 10-15 minutes fast).

My neice when visitng quickly developed a facination the the chiming of the time. It was one of the first 'words' she spoke. tic toc tic toc.... It never failed she would drop whatever she was in the middle of and point grunt and motion towards the grandfather clock saying tic toc tic toc wanting to be near it. Any clock face she would see she would immediately note the presence of the 'tic toc'. (on a side note it was great that the times were all screwed up on the clocks as it was guarenteed that it would only be around 10 minutes till she would stop crying in the case of a mishap til she would forget that she fell and become excited again).

That's all 6 months ago now. Like most things time flies, things change. The facination with the clocks has past.

Why is it that things go by so quickly. Why is it that we rush through things so quickly, what is so important?

I remember being younger and the days would last for what seemed forever and the weeks would last and last, and oh summer it felt longer than the time spent in the classroom.

How has all that changed? How is it now that all the sudden i've been living on my own for over 6 years?

It's crazy that its already Q4 06. now don't get me wrong. This is the best and i mean BEST time of year. If you know me you know I love autumn. It's just scary

A friend posted, pondering why we settle for things less than our dreams, and why is it we don't hold out for what we truely want? I think it's the fleeting of time. We all know what we want(for the most part atleast) and all that we can do is hope that in the future it will cross into our paths. As we age time keeps speeding up as we fill our lives with more and more 'stuff'. The thing about life is that while we live it day to day we understand it only when we can look back and take it all in.

I think that as we are living and as life is accelerating past us we start to look back and we start to get into the compromise. We get impatient with our lifes, our friends, our family, and with God. We selfishly grab at what it there in the moment, forgoing patience and missing out on our dreams.

I am a firm believer in that with time things make themselves out, and we can come to realize our aspirations.

In small group we have started in a group discussion of a book that made a lot of sense to me back when I moved out on my own. Dangerous Wonder is quite a lite read, but its message came to me as a needed change. I don't really feel i should go into a review of the book here, rather I recommend you pick up a copy and read through it.

It truely is a tragedy when we let life get in the way of living life.

I'm ready for November and I'm ready for a relaxation from the 'go go go'.

I hope all is well with you all, and I hope some of this made some sense. Not much of a point in the whole post I had planned out and I don't think it transcribed well.

BBNN

2006-09-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

I sat down this evening to eat some dinner and i turned on the tv, due to the plethora of channels, i chose the evening news for my entertainment. Probably not the best of choices.

What the heck is going on with our world. I know the news is never the most of uplifting of entertainment but still.

I guess with that I'll go ahead and weigh in with my thoughts on the issues that were on tonite as for some reason it kind of got me fired up, feel free to chime in with your own.

The Pope and Islam:

So if you don't know what happened with this news, the Pope made a speech early last week where in he quoted an author that said (and i quote but it's a paraphrase and I've heard it like 4 different ways) ' Muhammad has brought evils into this world'. Now whether or not you believe that to be true is a moot point. The reason for the quote in the speech was to express that there is never any room for open dialogue between Christianity and Islam. Islam will not allow discussion of issues and rather they incite violence when confrontation is about. This has enraged the Muslim community. They claim the words of the pope are vicious lies and meant to incite a war between the two cultures.

Now maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the violent protests, attacks on catholic church's, and alleged nun shootings that are occurring doing nothing but proving the point of the Pope?

My thoughts on this is that there is a massive favor for Islam in the Media. Perhaps its a political correctness in effect to keep from inciting more acts of terrorism (note: Muslim does not imply a terrorist, whereas if you have half a brain and use it 99% of the time in today's day and age a terrorist does equal a Muslim), or perhaps it's something more deeply entrenching within our society. I think my only beef with it is the lack of tolerance for others to have separate beliefs from theirs. Other than that send your prayers to whom you believe to be correct and I'll send mine to my God in Heaven.

Beyond that I do find it somewhat disturbing that when political stabs are made at Christianity, there is barely any up rise in the community. I don't mean that we should take up arms, however with in the limits of our constitution we are given a right to express our opinions, and it's always seemed to me that maybe we should be more vocal in expressing out dislike of the Media's portrayal of Christianity. Just a few thoughts...

So now that I have my blog being scanned by the DHS, FBI, CIA and every other 3 letter government agency you can think of, i will move along to the next of my posts.

The second news nugget was for the kidnapped baby.

What kind of twisted person does it take to commit such a heinous act? I don't really know that i can really get in to discussion on it just cause its so sad. I do hope that the child is returned unharmed and the suspect is caught. I don't know how i feel about capital punishment, but to be honest i don't know that there really is a place in our society for people that commit these actions.

3's a charm so we will wrap up with the Geneva Convention.

There is a lot of talk about the US adapting the rules of War set forth after the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The basis is that the people we are dealing with are a different type of enemy and the code of conduct we uphold means nothing to them.

I am truly split on this issue. On one hand I see the benefit to take the higher moral ground. Being cruel for no reason is making us just like the Nazi's in WWII. I think that diverting to a lower path puts us right where they want us in compromising our values.

The converse of that is that we really aren't compromising our values. I think there may be cases where extreme measures are needed. Now i have not personally seen these videos but i was talking with my boss the other day about the beheading videos put out on the Internet. He said he watched one. He said it was the worst thing he could think of. Two fold: 1) someone just died and it was right before his eyes. 2) the terrorist committing the act do not see anything wrong with this. They have no remorse in killing innocent life.

We as a country have seen the acts that can befall us and the scary part of it all is that we know something else, something bigger, or something worse is going to happen, it's bound to. When you think of all this it's scary. And to be honest I have no remorse if a terrorist is caught in the act and then denied a soldiers quarters. If this person was willing to die for his cause then we have to do something to make him realize what they going up against.

An extreme in this view point is taken from the movie Swordfish. If they bomb a building we level a suburb, if they take a life we take 50. Now i don't condone this, however i do think it would work. I think the world has lost respect for America. We've become to entangled in processes and policies that everyone knows we won't do anything but slap an embargo on them for taking our lives. I think a massive exaggeration would show that we mean business.

maybe i just watch too much 24, but my guess is there is already interrogations going on that violate the Geneva convention....

That's about all i got for news stay posted for a more me-centered blog update to follow....

EDIT: I ran a spell check on the beast. I really must not have been paying that much attention when I typed it out the first time...

Hey I never voted for him...

2006-09-13T22:55:00.000-04:00

tonite we will be discussing this article: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190592647

It's a short one, so I will carry on under the assumption that you actually did go and read through the article.

It's legislation like that that makes me realize how screwed up the 'state' (meaning the state of being rather than the actual state of nc) we as a country, really are. How can you go and say that it is immoral to not extend a courtesy of citizenship to someone that is illegally here. Now I do realize that there are caveats of the reduced tuition, but the priorities are messed up there.

Do we really believe that their word that they will become citizens holds weight?

Look at it like this the immigrants that are driven and want to pursue a better life are going to do everything they can to make it better for themselves. This means they are going to go about the proper process and make things right. Those that are still here illegally are not here to become citizens they are looking to make as much money as they can and then retire back to Mexico.

If you want to pass this legislation, force them to become citizens first and then there will be no problem as they will be legal residents of the state they wish to attend and now they fit into the laws that we currently have.

The way I see it. This legislation binds the I.A. into a contract with the government whereas they must become legal citizens AFTER they graduate. Well the assumption here is breaking the contract is a criminal offense. Well the I.A.'s already know what our policy is regarding them when it comes to breaking laws, we just let it slip, so why would they be driven to pursue the citizenship anymore after a degree than before the degree.

"It's the right thing to do. They're children of God, and they ought to be treated right," Hunt said. "Just because it's tough, you don't give up."

What is Jim Hunt smoking? Since when does treating someone right = sending them to college at a discounted price?

Add on the factor that with this legislation it would be cheaper for a person illegally resident in this nation to attend a college than for a Citizen of this country. So does that mean that would not be 'in the right' since we aren't treating our own citizens 'right'. Or does this logic only apply to people that don't pay taxes.

So with anything there are exceptions and generally as the squeaky wheel garners the most
attention, it's some immigrants ruining it for the rest.

my .02....

'Cube' Missile Crisis

2006-09-13T09:13:00.000-04:00

Anyone bored with the normal work day schedule I suggest livining up the daily routine with a little cube warefare.... And yes this is a real product . Maybe I could get some long range missiles and make it all the way to Tice's home office....

7

2006-09-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

So Long Sweet Summer

2006-09-02T23:24:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting at home realizing how addicting cable tv really is. I mean it's great cause you can always find quality programing such as: au-pair, the Even Stevens Movie, the plethora of NCAA football games, and of course 93% of the shows on the History Channel. But i think my point of it all is that being bored i found myself watching some news channel and they were going on about the Curic picture doctoring. How ignorant have we all become. When we see an image of any source in publication do we really believe that it has not been 'doctored'? Coming from someone that can convincingly make anyone present in any image, it's almost a given that the persons on the page is NOT the same as ther persons in real life.

Now I realize that she says they did not tell her this was going to happen, but honestly, what do you expect. Our culture is so image driven that while those inches 'photoshopped' away should in theory have no impact on sales, apparently they do.

That in and of itself is a scary thought.

SNL is a repeat from Christmas. Which speaking of i'm so excited with the weather we've been having here lately. I love fall. Living at my house is great at this time of year cause I am so close to Athens High School. Lately i've been Jonesin for some High School Football, so if anyone is up to catching a game sometime soon let me know and i'll bring the Hot Chocolate. Speaking of Football; Way to go Pack, you pulled off a 'W', lets keep em rolling in.

Oh and i am afraid i have to leave the loyal readers with some disappointing news. There has been a delay in the deck expansion project of 06. It is being rolled into the little project that I have tentatively called "Home Makeover '07". Basically i am going to be going crazy until November now, which means not a whole lot of time for construction. I am going to go ahead with the HoA approval and plan to have a groundbreaking ceremony early '07.

Would you lay here and just forget the world

2006-08-23T20:29:00.000-04:00

I'm coming to you live from a pier on the charleston bay staring out.

Nice gentle breeze.
Quiet.
Peaceful.

I wish I could retire young as to be able to enjoy this all the time...

Seriously this place is gorgeous...

i'm still working

2006-08-03T23:29:00.000-04:00

it's late, i'm still working, and yet i find time to slack off and do something stupid when i should just finish this work and go to bed....

I really need to just go to bed...ricky bobby tomorrow...way excited...

I'm so getting one of these

2006-07-31T21:13:00.000-04:00

Full Story

My Manipulation

2006-07-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

So i'm going to try to keep this brief.

I've been thinking lately and noticing more and more how work has changed me. I've noticed that i've learned how to become manipulative of people. It's actually kind of scarey to think about it like that, but to keep it simple and at it's basic level that's really what's going on.

So maybe some clarification of sorts is due cause that would probably be a bad place to leave this post. Manipulative is probably a horrible way to put it with all the negative connotations involved but a quick trip to dictionary.com only left me with a list of words that didn't really fit, but it did give me wily which is just fun, so we'll go with it...

Perhaps it's just who i am, but i've always been someone that others could consult easily (whereas the converse of that involving me opening up is generally a much longer process we'll side that for another blog post in and of itself). And not to jinx that it's just that i am genuine in what I do and understanding it's just something that comes naturally to me.

So now we start to bring all that in. As this is something that has always been there for me, and let me tell you this is a killer skill for an intense game of mafia, i have just worked on using what i got.

I find that when i go in with customers i now have a process. First i have to prove myself to them. Walking in people assume they know everythign and since, as they say, i'm as young as their kids, they assume i must only know what their kids know. Well they are wrong. and after i show them i know my stuff.

With success I now proceed to step two: Getting them to open up. This is where the magic starts. The nature of my job is to fix things and generally just help the customer with their job. So they have to confide in me for them to be helpful. The hard part of this is that i'm a salesman and they know that, and they put up this wall which makes the job hard sometimes. going back to people easily opening up to me i'm able to hurry this part along quickly.

Next we start to part three: convincing them that I know somethign that they need to know. People are fickle. We are all selfish and if we are all honest, despite how we want to be and act, we end up investing resources in those that have something we want. If i can't prove to them that i can fix their problem they aren't going to have me around that often, and without that i get no sales...

that's about all their is to the steps that i go through that are pertinent to this blog.

So now we will lead with some example. In my current big account, i have been able to position myself with the side of the customer so that they empathize with me for being the young person on the account, and to keep the story short having the customer side with me in what you would easily call a big bully small kid scenario.

Who know why it works like this, but the part that is scarey to me is that i find myself using this as an advantage often these days, such as when i take my car to be serviced so that I get bumped in line for faster service. It's like a super power, it's crazy.

Anyways, that's my thoughts, thought i would share since there's been a personal type blog here. What do you think is it wrong that i'm using that as an advantage. I mean in the instance for work, i really do have the customers best interest out there as I want to solve their problems, and there has been times when i've referred them to the better solution in which i make no sale. I know i can still sleep at nite and look at myself in the mirror when i wake up, so worse case i've just lost all remorse...

thoughts?

DISCLAIMER: This could all just be made up for story purposes...

two things

2006-07-23T22:24:00.000-04:00

So coming home from church tonite i realized some things about my neighborhood.

1) I am by far and large the only person at the end of the cul de sac that is conservative, let alone that by and by likes the current President.

2) My new renters across the street are already getting on my nerves. they are going two deep on the parking on the street. THis is a problem considering they leave their garage empty and no car in their driveway. Just because your driveway is steep doesnt' mean you don't park in it. It is hindering my parking manuvers and thus a change must occur. It must really bother the house beside them since they are parking in front of her house...

3) I only said two things, did you really think there was going to be a number 3?

Ok time for bed so I can make it against traffic and on time for the morning meeting.

Ok for real this time.

3) I just tried logging into my myspace account and their site is down. I'm thinking this is going to have some people very upset. I on the other hand enjoyed a nice game of pac man that they put on their site down page...

goodnite

Promo

2006-07-21T16:51:00.000-04:00

Check it out:

Our Office Promo for NBC

Now doesn't that make you want to watch the office?? I hope so...find out soon if our clip will be on tv this fall...

Blowout

2006-07-19T08:27:00.000-04:00

So while on the road monday I was coming down Wade heading towards the Beltline and right after Blue Ridge some joker in a truck not paying attention decides not only to start to merge way early, but to merge without looking.

Now that last part was crucial as its what would have kept him from merging into me. Noticing this occuring I have to swerve over into the far lane which puts me apparently right into line with some glass, or maybe even a roofing nail, i'm not sure, but anyways I get a really loud pop and I immediately swerve back over right in front of the guy that cut me off so that I can get my exit.

Now all the time post loud pop i'm accelerating to get ahead and make my exit, I am hearing a dreaded sound of a flat tire. I take the Hillsborough St Exit and Here off the side of the Beltline I sit on the hotest day of the year, changing a flat. I immediately regretted wearing the thicker dress clothes that day. It was a blowout as there was a chunk about the size of a 50 cent peice missing from the inside outer tread.

So as the story goes I get the spare tire on and make my way home to get approval for the replacement. I make my way to the NTB in crossroads, and stress to the guys that I need to have the car out of there by 4 pm. It was 3.10 at the time and they said it wouldn't be a problem. 3.50 they take the car from the front lot into the shop. I was not out of there by 4pm.

moral of the story, it's hot...now i'm going to go mow the yard...again...

Let's go out to the Movies...

2006-07-09T18:06:00.000-04:00

Ok so here comes a barrage of Movies. I'll start with the most recent and move into those that were not so recent...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I was really looking forward to this movie which in the case of a summer blockbuster it generally leads up to a bad thing. Over expectations and less than spectacular performances will lead to an un-enjoyable movie experiences 9 times out of 10. That was not the case for this flick, however that's not to say this goes without it flaws.

Hollywood has been less than receptive in past years of pirate films. They just haven't seem to catch on as the case with Hook. It was good but it wasn't that successful. Cue 2003 and Depp's performance of Jack Sparrow in Pirates: Curse of the Black Pearl. An overwhelming success, and we all know what success in Hollywood means...a follow-up in the form of a trilogy.

The returning cast is well pretty much everyone that lived through the first movie, which is one of my gripes with this movie. To be honest it almost seemed like they thought we wouldn't catch on that this was a sequel. The film was littered with references a plenty to jokes and comic relief from the previous film. While funny in parts, I found myself growing tired with so many throwback. Which brings me to a crucial point. If you have not seen Curse of the Black Pearl, you will undoubtedly be lost in the slew of throwback.

The swashbuckling (haha yeah i just said it) trio of Bloom, Depp, and Knightley return after some short amount of time has passed. The plot line is somewhat odd at the beginning and seems almost too convenient as if just to make the story work, but once it gets started, Verbinski does well at developing the plot put out by Elliot. By the end the story is rather well rounded and it does a great job of leading up to the final part of the trilogy. That's right there is no conclusion to this film, and if you want one, wait till next year. Think a typical 3 part opera, and well Verbinski follows like the rest of Hollywood.

As for the acting: Depp delivers again as a drunken/flamboyant Pirate. I found myself really liking Bill Nighly as Davy Jones. He conveyed the different layers of his character amazingly for a role layered with CG-over the top. I would almost say oscar worthy, but that's just me. Knightley again returns as some great eye candy, some people complain of her being irritating, I disagree. I find her acting rather good in this film, she grabs a lot of the camera's attention in this film. She is definately improving with each film she acts in, I forsee a future powerhouse actress, or maybe i just really love the accents. Bloom continues to deliever as Will Turner, which is kind of dry as with the last film, but I personally think that's a part of the role of Will Turner rather than poor acting on Blooms part.

An overlooked factor by most, is the soundtrack. The themes developed by Klaus BLENDT in the first Pirates really brought the first of the Trilogy over the top. Hans Zimmer takes the podium in the sequel and he doesn't miss a beat. Each of the characters themes are reprised throughout and with each of the new characters Hans brings a new sound to the table. Davy Jones theme in particular brings out all the layers of the character. Well Done.

In the end I really enjoyed the movie and to be honest I would go see it again. The film is already smashing box office records, and with that I'm sure there are plenty of people that are quite disappointed. Don't go in with expectations of this being the first film cause it's not. It's not something fresh and new, but it is a fun film (I really wanted to use "swashbuckling good time" there but I am going to refrain). This is a more adult film, and definitely more phantasmical than the first, so I don't know if I would want small kids going to see it, but that's just me.

I recommend the flick.

Superman Returns

I came to this movie in high hopes. A recovery from Superman 3 and Superman 4 was due, or this franchise should be put to rest for good (And yes I do realize that without Superman 3 we wouldn't have Office Space, but honestly, have you seen Richard Pryor in this movie? It's ridiculous).

Superman Returns Delievered. In the same fashion as last years Batman Begins, rather than a plot driven movie we get a character driven film. I really like this. We get a look at the hero, and their struggles of what they are dealing with rather than just watching things blow up and bad guys get beat up. The beauty of this is that all the other elements are still there. There are still explosions and of course the bad guy always looses.

Brandon Routh does an amazing job at a playing Superman. Many were against a Superman other than Christopher Reeve, but Routh does not disappoint, bearing a striking resembalance to Reeve.

I think this movie has plenty to offer and is definately a redeeming film for the series. Due to their timing and with Pirates coming out the week after, they will be hurt in the box office, but with the success they got opening week, and the ending, Superman returns II is definately going to be in the works.

This review is gonna stay short cause i don't have as much to say, other than I recommend this flick as well.

Mission Impossible 3

After MI:2, I honestly did not care about this film. This film is nothing like the 2nd of the series, a return to good film making one may say, directors realized that explosions for the sake of explosions didn't get people to the theatres. MI:3 brings non-stop action throughout with many different little twists as to be expected. If you haven't seen any of the other films then this is the MI to watch, avoid MI:2 like the plague.

My main concern with this film, has nothing to do with the film itself. Our marketing department made a huge ordeal about sponsering this film. Yet watching this I looked and looked was quite bothered by our marketing. The only 'cameos' of our products were in the form of a blurred phone on the desk that is of a euro model phone, then to have the one shot of a phone in focus to be of our competitor. I really wonder about our market department at times.

I recommend this film for some fun explosions and action. A story does exist with this flick as well. Definately check it out when it hits store shelves this fall.

Cars

This came out quite a while ago and i've been wanting to write about it. I loved this film. The story is amazing. Seeing the previews for this film 2 years ago i judged that this film would probably flat out suck. I was wrong. The story that they developed in this film is amazing and really has a good message. If you haven't seen it, Go now. Take the kids, they'll love it. It's definately worth the trip.

That's all.

I recommend if you couldn't tell.

wow

2006-07-05T13:38:00.000-04:00

It's been pretty crazy busy here lately, i'll get back to posting soon for all you regular readers. Plenty of movies to review and life updates to come. Now we get back to work. I will leave you with this though...

bottom of the bin

2006-06-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

a little slow in the updating here lately, but things have been busy round raleigh, and coming home to a computer has not been a top priority.

Weekend before last i was home for some family birthday festivities. On Friday we go out for a dinner and then head back to my aunt and uncle's house. When we get back my cousin gets there and is going though her supplies for the shower she was hosting that sunday. As I lend a hand, she realizes some missing ingredients. (this is getting good...promise...i hope)

What to do you ask. Well else but head out to the super Wal-Mart, the local hot spot. I swanny you can't go in that store at any hour without A) it being packed and B) seeing someone you know. In the midst of the shopping I realized my dislike for such. I am not a fan of having to go around people just to shop and having people hearding behind me to look at the same thing. I need to become famous so stores close down for me, that would be super.

Back to the Story.

I'm sure you have all see those giant tubs of DVDs where they are like $4 each. It's around 10.30 on a friday night and my cousin, my brother and myself are digging through the bin just to see if there is anything worthwhile there...

Well a little trick is they do seem to hide some better movies towards the bottom of bin. After making it to the bottom with stacks of DVD's on the floor beside us we come across a few "winners". This is the point where both A and B from above occur.

So Brin ends up picking a hit from way back when. Blue Crush. We head home in the hopes that my Uncle will be up for joining us in this movie. Now that sounds odd perhaps, but my guess was this movie was going to be brutal, and he's always got the oddest reactions to everything and seems to liven up the movie.

We'll just get to the point and if Kate Bosworth wasn't the star I probably would have been asleep. With lines just as "what a waste of a wave" or "that was Heavy" and my favorite "We grew here, you flew here, Bra" this movie is not going to be on one of AFI's top 100 ___(insert something good here)___ lists. Other than all that, what more would you expect from a movie that reruns regularly on USA.

For saturday my dad really wanted to see Cars, and since it's his birthday we do what he wants! I really liked that movie but I'll save the talk about that for another evening as it's 10, i'm tired the Cane's are winning 2-0 with 20 minutes to the Stanley Cup and I need to get ready for bed. Man i'm old...well atleast i still stay up on weekends...

Gute Nachtleute

And the Thunder Rolls...

2006-06-13T20:57:00.000-04:00

I'm learning that there is a great feelings that goes along with home ownership.

Case in point:

With all the wet weather from our dear friend Alberto, I've had the joy of sitting out with the storms rolling through. I love Thunderstorms. I never have been scared by them, instead i would always freak out my mom by trying to be outside to watch the storm come through. Now i get to sit out on my porch in the rocking chair and enjoy the light show.

Sunday was a case in point after getting home on Sunday from the weekend finally, I walk in and start to prep some supper and immediately the power goes out. I then realized i had lost the convience of oil lamps when i moved out from home so i scramble around in the dark for a lighter and my candles. A flashlight is never handy when you really need it. Afterwhich I continue in my dinner. Man i love gas appliances. I then get to go outside to enjoy the meal in the midst of the crazy storm we had sunday nite.

So I welcome any and all who want to join in on the fun of spring storms and come on by to watch the storm with me.

And as we depart a special word to the Schwartz as he's now in Italy. Have fun out there!

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

2006-06-05T08:05:00.000-04:00

I love movies. I think if I could do anything for a job, without having to worry about making a living or such as that it would be in the movie production field without a doubt.

So since that's not happening anytime soon, the next best thing is enjoying films of all sorts. So seeing as it's the time of the year for all the blockbusters to start their rollout, we will start the summer movie review. We'll keep them brief and mostly spoiler free.

Da Vinci Code -
I took the stance of avoiding the book as to not spoil the movie. There obviously was a lot of hype about the film, mostly thanks to the church in the form of negative publicity. My take on it all. It really was a lot of hype. This was not the greatest of movie and it won't be on AFI's top list. What it was, was a chance to exploit a book that made a lot of money, and make even more money on the silver screen. I'd say it did a good job at acomplishing that.

Now I wouldn't say i didn't enjoy the movie. I find that I quite enjoy these 'historical' action flicks. I realize there really isn't a map on the back of the Constitution or secret messages painted into the Last Supper. It's just using the formula founded by Indiana Jones way back in the day, and when something works why break it.

The group that i went with had all read the book before hand, and apparently there were things changed that they didn't appreciate. That always happens, Unless the writer takes control of the complete movie production you will always get a studio or director or grip wanting to make the movie how they imagine it. and it's not going to be the same as how you pictured it in your own mind.

If you haven't seen it by now you probably aren't going to. I would say its a great flick for a rental. Don't expect a whole lot, and you will definately come out happy with it. It is long movie, and part that helps with that is the casting. While i agree her acting was a bit dry having her on the big screen for 85% of the movie is definately not a bad thing. Check her out in some of her other movies for a more acurate insite to her acting abilities.

Verdict: Enjoyed it.

X3 -
I loved the first two movies. Could Hollywood keep up with it's past results and pull through the hat trick (or the turkey for you bowlers out there)? Well we'll get to that. Short answer even my mom enjoyed this movie, and that's saying a lot...

As did many young boys i grew up loving comic books. As an aside I am loving the run of all the superhero movies coming out. Albeit there are a few that pretty much suck, hollywood seems to do well with the popular comics.

As that goes, going into this movie, I had a prior knowledge of some of the things that were 'supposed' to happen in this movie. And well it didn't quite go that way. So in a sense it was shocking and crazy, but at the same time a little disappointing. As with most things you get something in your mind and when it changes it's usually going to disappoint.

So as I said earlier, even my mom liked this movie. I was shocked to hear that she went to see it but then blown away by the fact that she actually enjoyed it. Really wierd.

In the end, it is an entertaining movie and If you are a fan, go and enjoy watching the crazy explosions and such. It's is afterall a summer blockbuster, and it accomplishes just that. I'll be picking it up on DVD this fall for sure.

Verdict: Really Liked it

Coming Attractions -

I'm really looking forward to this flick.

And perhaps an IMAX experience of Superman

Anything you can do I can do better

2006-05-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

In small group we are working our way through Don Miller's Searching for God Knows what. As noted in my previous post, I had some fun with my day off in catching up in my readings.

A section that caught my attention is in regards to competetion. Paraphrasing so to speak. In how we desire to be right, and better that the other. Even in our random conversations we have these competitions to make ourselves feel important and required.

I dwelled on that for a bit and then took it into retrospect to think about what it really means, and how is it so in my life.

Man, it's so true. Even in the simple conversation i had with some lady about how banana pudding is better with cooked pudding or instant pudding. Yeah that's kind of a gay example i know, but it shows how retarded we all are. I've been remembering that idea about how we like to better ourselves and downcast those around us in order to survive in this lifeboat of existance.

Think about that idea for a while and feel free to share your retarded conversations with myself and the rest of the readers.

Soon to come, reviews of the first of this summers blockbusters.

Talk about customer service

2006-05-29T16:46:00.000-04:00

So my holiday all planned out to get plenty done, and then as you would guess, it turns out no where near the pipe dream I had in my mind...It all goes a little something like this...

Having both cars out of inspection I started out by taking ava up at the stores opening just so I would beat the rush. I knew it was going to be getting off to a great start since I literally passed no one on my trip to crossroads...little did I know.

As I go to the shop I plan for some time as no inspection ever seems to be quick anymore...Since Tice had my book for a while I had plenty to catch up on.

No inspection station is ever happy with me when I come up, as all the lifts don't work and they have to pull out to the side.

The inspection was complete and on to fixing the slow leak, he gets the tire off and motions for me to come into the garage (I was enjoying the outside while I caught up in my reading)

So as an aside to all you devoted readers... Fix-a-Flat is bad. Real Bad. It is a corrosive agent that actually melts the tire together to fix the hole. I was under the impression that it merely formed a glue over the hole.

I get over to the wheel and take a look and to my horror it had looked like it had spent 3 years in the harshist Canadian winter, with all the salt of the road. It was the current source of my air loss. as the edges of the rim were starting to corrode.

The manager let me witha few options, In it's current state it would not work right as it would only get worse. Generally they would have to ship it off to a shop, but since it was not such a busy day, he gave me run of a station and let me go to town polishing it out myself. So here i am going to town with all these air tools, talk about fun. The wheel did sustain some irreversable damage but I must say I did do an amazing job at polishing it all back out.

So with all this finished out, i got about 3.5 hours in a shop for free...not to bad. didn't work well for me getting things done. I head home and swap cars and head back up for the next go round, luckily it doesn't take quite as long this time, only an hour this go round.

Moral of the story, don't use fix-a-flat. If you are in a pinch and have to use it, then you need to immediately get the vehicle to a shop before it ends up costing you a heck of a lot more than a new tire or a simple fix in my case

After all that rig-a-ma-roe i managed to get things done before the cul-de-sac memorial day / meet the neighbors party, i was only a few hours late but i still got the killer banana pudding made in time, and it was a success!

So all in all, the free time wasn't so bad as the reading gave me my next blog topic...so here we go...

Down in the Drrty Drrty...

2006-05-27T15:07:00.000-04:00

...Suburbia?

I spent the past week down in alpharetta. A place that if you guessed based on it's location it would be pronounced something more like alfretta, yet there are so many relocated northerners that you don't leave out syllables for this city. We'll come back to this concept in a bit.

It was nice to have the company pay for a visit down to friends. Although the price of 'death-by-powerpoint training' I don't think I got off 'scott-free'. Regardless I did enjoy getting to go down and visit the newly-engaged Schwartz. Congrats again. And btw i think your prophecy of me being the first of all the roommates to get hitched was a tad-bit-off, seeing as I'm now the last one standing.

Some observations I made while down that way.
1) I like big cities.
2) I hate rude drivers. (this will also be coming back in just a bit)
3) There is a LOT of money lining peoples pockets down that way.
4) the new M Coupe is gorgeous...seriously...Huie thanks for buying me one
5) I am going to have a hard time when I go back to school (decision recently made to take advantage of the system. Boss man says the company will pay for me to go back to school if I can show how it will help out business. Seeing as I'm in sales, I think an MBA is an easy persuasion, so I'm gonna proceed with that)

As I said the culture, despite being deep in the south is reminiscent of a little new york, or little chicago. Quite a contrast from the demeanor across the state in the savannah area. I prefer the savannah attitudes personally.

I saw a new M5 on the highway, that was a point of interest for me, Kevin was just confused and continued to drive. I'm sure all my devoted readers will understand in the joy that is the UDM.

Another fun note of being the in the Atlanta metro area. Your local news covers the happenings of Lil' Jon and Ludacris. Now isn't that fun. Maybe it's just me but I did find it funny...

That's about all for this edition...sorry for the lack of posts but according to the small group i've become a slave to the man, and perhaps it's true since I haven't had much spare time...we'll just see..

The Polls are closed

2006-05-13T23:33:00.000-04:00

And the un-official results are that you are all greedy selfish people.

Every single vote both online and the numorous conversational votes were for a deck. As such i will make the executive decision to move forward with the archectural review process and get this thing going so that there will be plenty of time left for summertime deck parties complete with homemade ice cream (a fan favorite, it's all talent).

I'll update as things progress. There will be community build days envolved, so if anyone knows a group of amish people around the raleigh/cary area let me know, cause i have heard they can do some quailty work quickly....

My lazy mexican

2006-05-13T23:25:00.000-04:00

that's the name of my pet rabbit.

i don't really have a pet rabbit. I did when i was younger but that's another story. What I do have is a rabbit that lives on my property and eats my grass and flower blooms.

He has recieved his name for his slackness in pulling his weight around here. He is supposed to keep my grass nice and trim, but no...nothing of the sort. And then the other evening as soon as i finished all my yardwork he shows up and starts chomping down. what a slacker...

I will capture him one day...

clarification for all you sensitive type peoples:

My - meaning of my possession, seeing as he lives on my property and eats of my vegetation

Lazy - (root:Latin) - Not pulling one's own weight

Mexican - meaning when i look out at my neighbors who have all hired hands to do all their yardwork of which 90% are Mexican; this is my hired Mexican Rabbit

I believe that it's called al-fresco

2006-05-13T22:50:00.000-04:00

Its been one of those busy weeks. It comes with the job i suppose, and it's not anything i much complain about cause i love the sporacity(is that even a word?) of it all.

Take for instance the perks of being on the road. Wednesday working out at the beach. Dog and Pony show goes well, and finish it off with some free lunch. Now what. I believe the saying is something to the effect of "When in Rome...go to the colliseum" Or something so being in Wilmington, i did what a normal UNCW student would do...blew off class and went to the beach.

I grew up at Kure over the summers. It seems to get longer and longer in between my trips back down there each time, but i still enjoy it. It's crazy different down there, looking at these duplexes being built for like 2 million dollars, makes me wish i could have owned some property down there a while back to sell off now. It is sad at the same time to see things change like that. I remember when it was pretty much just a small little po dunk beach with very few people, now kure and carolina houses border each other.

Jumping back in time, the weekend before was my neices 1st birthday. During which she contracted some virus which severily dehydrated her. I myself experienced such when i was but a wee lad. It's crazy to think about it, but the virus is not a rare virus, but it's also not the common cold. In 4rd world countries children die with this virus, but with our comforts and advancements its not a big deal. I have a scar on my wrist from when i was abused by the nurses who then had the audascity to tell me it was a dog bite. You see when you are young you can't grasp the whole idea of "introvenous medication" thus I, as most do, proceeded to rip out the needles everytime they would put them in. so they strapped me down and left me with a reminder of dead skin.

Back to my niece her case was not nearly as severe as mine and she was only in the hospital for a night. and she recovered quickly. So the point of this long ramble is that her first birthday was postponed to today which meant i couldn't make it. More on that later.

Later: So today we did an outreach for the Chavis Park area, which after a conversation with Ramsey, a deep thoughts blog is to ensue. I got to be grillmaster. I think Kat has pictures with me and a giant flame. It was awesome. I think i managed to melt some plastic into my skin though, it still hurts a bit. Yeah i was wearing latex-esque gloves, i have this thing about raw meat and touching it...freaks me out. I think we did somewhere around 200 hamburgers and maybe 300 hotdogs and we were cleaned out an hour early. The people seemed to be really appreciative and we have derived many opportunities to help out in the community which was the goal of this event. Here's hoping we will have the follow-through.

Back to Friday nite. We took off to Lincoln theatre to catch the breakfast club. I realized two things. I don't know a whole lot of 80's music. A lot of the music that I thought was from the 80's was actually from the 70's. I like the 80's. Ok so that's three things. It was a good time.

There ya have it a quick wrap up of festivities, no where near complete just hitting on some high points i wished to share.

Rumor has it...

2006-05-13T22:48:00.000-04:00

...that i've been quite busy this last little spell, as such a frenzy of updates are on their way...

Arrrrrrrgh

2006-05-09T13:13:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here in a convention listening to some people yap and sitting across from me is a pirate

Wait for it....

Indeed, a pirate. Maybe not one going out and plunders villages and taking booty. He does however have a patch over his eye, and its funny. I'm cracking up. If only this blasted blackberry had a camera.

Ok, I am a little bit delirious right now.

Back to work.

Somebody's got a case of the mondays

2006-05-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

My car is old man proof. I'm on the road and I've discovered my car will yell at me whenever the blinker stays on for too long.

Its already been a bad day. Here's to things getting better. Friday get here now...

More events from the road to come

Quick Poll

2006-04-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Ok so i've come across a sort of dilemma and i'm going to go for some opinions here. Just comment out what you think would be the best and we'll go from there. This summer i'm gonna do one of these two things, maybe both, but from what i can gather they are going to cost me about the same price, now if i find out that one of the two is way cheaper it may become a pull through sale.

Option 1)

Eye Surgury. I don't technically need contacts, I can legally drive, or well 3 years ago i could legally drive without them, but i still would like the feeling of waking up to see. So i'm looking at some lasic sugury. Have heard great things and have even consulted with my eye doctor about me as a candidate and he said i would make a great patient for eye surgury, and should take to it well

Option 2)

Expand my deck. My backyard is useless as it stands. Grass will not grow back there, only clover, moss, and shady plants. Those visiting my house would note that my yard while it is blocked mostly from the neighbors behind me by massive pine trees and such it's not exactly huge. My idea is to expand my deck to a massive entertaining deck, one with a chimnea and all that jazz one to easily entertain many people. This is a sound investment as it will only help in selling my house. Note that i'm probably only gonna be hanging in at this residency for another 4 years or so...

So what do you think? Just pick and say why. If you've had the lasic, and you're around the triangle area, who was your doctor and how were they, and would you recommend them?

That's all...just came to mind and though i'd put that one out there...

thanks!

OK seriously

2006-04-23T22:03:00.000-04:00

Why would my blog be content filtered...i mean stroud has not been on here dropping f-bombs so i'm clueless...Was the 'I pity the fool' just too much for the church's content filter?

on another note much in the form of blogging to come (which will probably turn out to be empty promises) but yeah i've been tied up a lot with work lately which is a good thing in sales. SOOO when i get some spare time that is not going to be filled with sleep i'll post some more.

As for now i'm going to head to bed. Have a good nite folks, and as my old roommate would always say, catch you on the flipside...

Remembering

2006-04-13T17:37:00.000-04:00

And now, another blog from traffic!

I'm cruising along today and I suddenly realized the vehicle I was creeping behind was none other than the A-team wagon. Ahhh the nostalgia is great! I pitty the fool!

Anyways we'll return to our regular blogging schedule shortly.

No ashlee simpson was played during this blogging session...

Many different names

2006-04-09T21:22:00.000-04:00

Just doing a quick little read through my Commentary this evening and I came across a little box oif information. It's a listing of the many names of God throughout the Old Testament...Some to follow:

Elohim - God
El-Elyon - The most High
El-Roi - The Stong one
El-Shaddai - God almighty
Jehovah (Yahweh) - His Salvation
Jehovah-Jireh - The Lord will provide
Jehovah-Rapha - The Lord our healer
Jehovah-Nissi - The Lord our banner
Jehovah-Maccaddeshem - The Lord thy sanctifier
Jehovah-Rohi - The Lord my Sheppard
Jehovah-Sabbaoth - The Lord of Hosts
El-Olam - The everlasting God
Jehovah-Tsidkenu - The Lord our righteousness
Adonai - Lord

And two that really struck accord with me this evening were these...

Jehova-Shalom - The Lord our peace
Jehovah-Shammah - The Lord who is present

So there ya go...not much else...off to bed for me...i'll post some more updates soon...until then keep it real homies...

Stuck in traffic

2006-04-06T16:58:00.000-04:00

Sitting here on I40 in traffic I came to the realization that the radio station was blarring some Ashlee Simpson. I promptly changed the station and rolled up the windows. Just thought I would share that with you all.

I less than three my parents

2006-04-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I spent some quality time with the folks. They came up on Thursday for the James Dobson conference and then stayed the weekend with me. It was good to just be around them. I made sure to clear my schedule as much as possible to a lot for as much time with them as I could and I did.

We got a lot accomplished on the ole casa this weekend. I'm sure my neighbors have been uneasy with me moving in. And the homeowners meeting concerns were aired about the college kids moving in the area. Looking the part I felt rather singled out...on an aside apparently these meetings aren't as mandatory as they state on the mailings, just a little nugget of info for all you first time home buyers...BTT...

Since I moved in my yard was struggling. It was riddled with crab-grass and weeds, pretty much everything possible besides grass. I ran out of time to really get things rolling this past fall/winter so this being the first of spring I started out. I have been working since late February at killing out all the weeds and crab grass and have had wild success, enough such that my yard was mostly dirt. with really green splotches of grass here and there..(thanks turf-builder!)..

After three hours of thatching the yard I had a great soil base for seed to rest...everything was done without a hitch and here in a month or two...fingers crossed...I should have a pretty green yard rather than a weed infested dirt pile. I will regularly keep you all posted on the growing of the grass I know you are all on the edge of your seats to find out more.

Back to the parents thing...

It was great to get to spend so much time with them. And definitely couldn't have had better weather for it all. Saturday which was their 34th anniversary, I spared them from laboring in the yard and we just went out and did some other work that needed to be done around Raleigh, and we ended up at the farmers market. It was a lot of fun walking around and picking up knowledge from them about gardening and such.

Coming from back home both my parents and their families before them grew up on farms. So this knowledge was something that they all knew as it was their daily life. My parents didn't follow in these footsteps so much but still embraced it with gardening. I always remember growing up having fresh veggies from the garden, picked that day.

As a child I didn't so much have the appreciation for this, which I now regret. So taking advantage of the time I can and pulling this information from them (sounds so robotic) lends to a great time if you ask me.

And I suppose on a final note the Bed and Breakfast is now up and running here in Raleigh. After 8 months of living in the guest bedroom I finally found a suite that I liked that wasn't $Texas and it's up and I'm living in the Master Bedroom now...crazy...but yeah the spare accommodations for two is now open...haha

I think that's about all I got for tonite...Monday morning meeting tomorrow and getting up at 5.45 is not going to be easy with the time change so i'm peacing out yo...

Stay Classy Raleigh

Are people really gonna believe that?

2006-03-24T16:41:00.000-05:00

Watching the news over lunch today and they had the family of that crazy man who went GTA style through the pit trying to hit students.

His Sister was making a press release after the hearing and I quote (more like paraphrase as i've already forgotten verbatim...)

...He is and has always been a kind and loving individual with no intent to kill or harm any living creature, not even a cockroach (yeah she really did say that)

Now what is she smoking to miss the obviousness of him renting a vehicle and driving it on purpose through a crowded courtyard full of students if he had no intent to harm anyone. Maybe in his past he never showed you this side of him, but the fact remains he even confessed it.

from websters we get:

Terrorism - the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion

This kid should be tried as a Terrorist and Go away for a long long time. Who cares about his past, or how good he 'was'. I'm not saying we should have all go down to the square and hang the boy. I just think that he committed an awlful act, and should be punished to the full extent. Things could have been a lot worse, and if we don't send a message that we won't tolerate such acts then what is that saying about our country??

[/rant]

Pipe Dreams

2006-03-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

I probably should have compressed this...just give it time to load...

Seems to load Quicker this way...

Luck of the Irish or Weekend of Fun

2006-03-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

So this past weekend I celebrated MLK day (love the floating holiday's) in green. I took off with some people to Huie's in Savannah. I had been trying to get down there for a while (Schwartz ATL this summer, I'm there), and it just all worked out to make it.

I for one had only been to Savannah in passing to and fro Florida. So it was a new Experience all in all for me. First off the town, despite the lingering smell of beer (that's all in the timing, I know) is gorgeous. I love the old 1700s architecture. It always amazes me to see stuff like that. and to have these same buildings in use today it really cool to me.

We started off Friday early heading down town to stake a claim for some parade spectation. Huie's buddy from work just bought a house on Bay street, which is right beside River street (we make it there eventually) and it's pretty much the mid point of the whole parade route. Score. So first off this house is amazing. It came equipped with an elevator and secret doors for the servants access to and fro the rooms. They plan on turning it into a B&B. but as it was empty and such prime real estate they had a party for everyone to view the parade. It was great cause we got to sit up above the street and people and could see everything.

Now this parade was mostly like every other parade, just lots of green and no Santa. Oh yeah one other thing. It's Irish so about 40% of the people are drunk before noon. As such they start to rush the parade exhibits and start giving kisses to them. It's quite a sight. Imagine a rather large women going out into the middle of the street in front of a battalion of troops just returning from Iraq putting on lip stick. Funny.

So yeah as I just mentioned the month before the local regiment returned home from Iraq. So everyone of them marched in the middle of the parade. It was amazing to watch them all march by, and rather moving as well.

somewhere around 2ish the parade was still going (started at 10, got to our place around 11:14ish and it just kept going) we decide to beat the crowd for some late lunch and we head to an eatery for some food and some recovery time for some of the guys in our group.

Afterwards we head down to River Street. Begin the craziness. That 40% jumps to somewhere around 70% with 20% of the crowd being workers/security/police. It's packed. Savannah, any normal day you can walk around the streets with open containers whenever however. During this weekend the city decides to gouge, charging you $5 for a wristband and a shamrock stamp, to be allowed open containers on the street. Oh yeah, none of the bars let you stay inside. It's definitely a well oiled machine.

We walk around and listen to the music for another 3 hours or so during which I had a memorable moment where I was hit on through huie by a crazy old lady whose husband was dressed like a leprechaun. Weird.

Most people know what was going on Friday night. And as loyal Pack fans. We make our way to one of the Irish pubs that was feeding people and that had the game on.

Now this was where something cool happened.

Everyone knows a big part of Ireland is pipes and drums. It's just how it is. As an aside I find it funny that the entire NY police force decide to march in the Savannah parade over the 5th Ave Parade. So there are tons of Bagpipe bands out there and it's just plain awesome to have them going down the streets just playing away.

Back to the story we found a small pub that was already packed and huie scored us a small table which we sat down and watched the game and ate. Somewhere towards the end of the first half in comes pipes and drums. I look up and I see this staring at me.

They came in and started playing for about 10 minutes. I went deaf I think, but it was amazing none the less, and well worth it. I think that made the day actually.

we tried to stay for the second half but with all the people they like to keep the tables cycling. so we left. Thanks to the blackberry we kept up to date though. Yay for wireless internets.

We continued walking up and down the street looking at people and such. We come back to the 'play area' where they had carnival games. After some persuasion I get huie to join me on the bungie flip thingie. I had always wanted to do one but was only gonna do it if someone went along. It's fun to feel like you can jump that high and do all those flips in air. Little warning for all the guys, it starts to hurt...

it's not hovering around 9 or 10 and we decide after 14 hours of river street we were gonna call it a day.

We go back and crash for some good sleep to prep for the next day.

Saturday we get going and visit the area that is Savannah. Huie shows us around the streets and then takes us to his soon to be new casa. We top off the day with some putt putt and ice cream all before we get to the cook out. During the meal some people thought it a good time for some driving. SOOOO we make our way to the go cart track for some hijinks.

We make our way back to the apartments and finish off the night at Drews.

Somewhere round 1or2ish we are walking back to Huie's and his neighbors are still going strong. We decide to have some fun. Lets just say if emails with me passed out in the middle of a parking lot start to surface. I have a great explanation. haha...

The next morning we get up and go back to town looking at everything and the streets are start to become clean yet the smell of alcohol is still prevalent. We grab our last lunch on the river and make it back to pack and get on the road.

That's about all for the excitement, except for somewhere along the middle of SC we run in to what appears to be a wildfire in the middle of the highway. I making great time already don't want to loose time so I go blazing past the flames and ash and we are on our way. who would have thought that would be more fun than deflating someone's mattress slowly over the night. but anyways apparently some kids through fireworks out of the window of a car and cause the flames. crazy.

All in all it was a great weekend and i'm already to go back. I've already penciled in it for March 17th next year as well. Here I come...haha

only regret is that I didn't see a bunch of people hauled off in a paddy wagon. oh well there's always next year.

Oh and i'm not sure what was up with this...

Last one seriously

2006-03-14T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hot off the press and worth the read

Oddly Enough

I love her comment about it all at the end...now that's a woman scorned.

Two for Tuesday or Where the Green Grass Grows

2006-03-14T21:11:00.000-05:00

That's right kiddie's it's a bonus blog tonite. A little bit of what I've been up to...

This out of season weather we've been having as of late has motivated me to get the yard work started early on. Something about being a man and owning a home makes me eager to have a green lawn this year. So taking a half day Monday I made my way to Lowes and Home Depot and picked up the fertilizer and the weed killer.

Getting home I get set to take the quick run with the lawnmower to trim up all purple weeds I call my lawn. This is where we get side tracked into new adventures.

The mower which was spoils of closing, due to some apathy on my part winterization did not occur and the gas went bad inside the engine. Time to exercise my mechanical expertise. A little excitement occurs once I get the carburetor off. My neighbors dog comes and 'mauls me', and by 'mauls me' I mean licks me repeatedly. This was the first time my neighbor from across the way had ever talked to me, so it was rather uncomfortable for her as you could imagine. I thought it was funny, but she was all worried about it. But I digress.

I get the engine back together and going but there is still a gremelin with it so I get back on task and get it all done.

Fast Forward to Tuesday. The weed kiler i put down has already started to take action. 24hours and the leaves are browning Crab-Crass/Weeds - 0, Brandon - 1.

On to tonite. The tasks of the house continue inside. Growing up in a house that changed with each season. I have tick to me where i like to change things up. Rooms should reflect the season to make the room feel more welcome IMHO. So for tonite i went about de-Winterizing my rooms and i'm now ready for Spring.

Taking some time to unwind before bed I find myself watching Scrubs and man, it would be fun to have some watchy-talkie's 'ala Dick Tracy'. I really enjoy the wit to this show, and the multiple plots keep each episode fresh.

That's probably all i got for tonite. I'm heading down to GA this weekend to visit Huie. Going to be crazy for sure, so pictures and blogging to follow.

Goodnite all

Once upon a March

2006-03-14T20:58:00.000-05:00

It's that time again.

I for one am by no means an expert in the art of bracketology nor do i claim to be.

Here's my hope for this year, let's see if i can come in last again this year!

...I have a habit of preferring the 'locals'...

It's time to unpimp ze auto

2006-03-08T18:19:00.000-05:00

Representing Deutschland

now this is quality marketing. discuss...

Ava's getting jealous...

2006-02-24T21:33:00.000-05:00

...Seriously...Talk about fun, this will be a crazy ride

More Info

...i want that

you got one chance...or more appropriately timing is everything

2006-02-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

So on my way to work today i was pulling onto wade there at the traffic light and as i start to go i hear this giant metallic thump. Real loud. Enough to make me jump and to think 'wtf', did i just hit a giant piece of metal or something? I look backwards and pulling onto the inner loop a transfer truck had overturned. At first i thought it was just the trailer but as i kept going my line of sight reveals that the tractor had gone on it's side as well.

First instinct is i need to do something about it, and then i see some people jumping out and running up that way and then calling on their cell phones.

I go on to work. Passing a RPD car stopped less than 100 yards away but out of site to the accident.

My contemplation came later as i sat in the office working the entire day with no one else coming in.

Maybe that was my moment to be a hero. Perhaps i should have gone and tackled the other people and been the one to save the guy from the impending explosion. As i watched the news on the tv in the back lab they were interviewing the 17 year old that jumped up on the truck to pull the driver out.

When i saw the wreck i wanted to do something but i just sat there kinda, thinking someone else would do something (of course i did see the other person do it) but maybe that's not what i should have done.

Reaching out for some other thoughts on the subject, maybe mcmanus would say i missed that window of opportunity and should have gone regardless, to have at least done something. In all honesty i think the whole crossing the median and the oncoming traffic did have a little something to do with me not trying to do something but never-the-less i just continued on my way to work assuming that it was already being taken care of.

Now for the tangent...

Crazy moment. Seeing big wrecks like that take place; it's kind of odd. This is by no means as big as the 4 hours on 40 that i went through but still it can still make you think.

It's funny how a split second can make all the difference in the world. looking back at just driving events alone, i can think of 5 or 6 instances where had i been speeding just a bit more or had i been in a rush i would had been in a lot worse shape, yet here i am

random thoughts all thrown out to ya for your perusal. enjoy.

it's been a long day in the office but a good evening to get the mind off of work even if only for a little bit. good nite peoples.

(on a sidenote: due to the overwhelming lack of responses in the last participation blog, they will cease to exist)

Soundtrack to your life

2006-02-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

In an effort to increase co-operation and community I'm gonna play a little game hope you'll comment along with me.

Sitting in my day long meetings I tend to get quite restless from all the talking and the single seat with few breaks.

To help me with this I bring along the best gift ever. My ipod. Referring to yesterdays post, rest assured the music simply goes on in the background while I continue to listen to the speaker.

Sitting here I am thinking of songs that if I could have playing in the background, would fit in with me. So something that fits with who you are. Mine are following but please comment in and share in the fun. (Put as many as you feel appropriate)

New slang - The Shins
The a la menthe - nikkfurie de la caution
OAR - Conquering fools
Shane & shane - fringes
Shawn McDonald - gravity
Postal service - such great heights

That's just a quick run through my ipod and what stuck out to me.

On to lunch now

Yay for add

2006-02-01T00:41:00.000-05:00

So right now I'm in vegas for 2006 sales conference and we are having our opening plenaru sessions. So far not so bad but man its like 8pm here and I haven't had a full meal since I got up at 5 am this morning to catch my flight. Which speaking of what do you have to do to get a meal on a plane these days?

But I digress.

Cala people are very long winded.

So on to the main event. We had a regional meeting right as soon as I got into town that for the majority was really dull. We then had what you could call a motivational speaker. He was talking about selling in todays economy. He ended the speech talking about the new generation gaps associated with the mellinials(sp?) Which I am proud to be apart of.

The point of all this and the point of interest I had from the meeting was that add shouldn't be seen as a disease. Rather a natural evolution of the brain in response to the amounts of stimuli we are constantly bombarded with.

I like that.

The more I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I am quite the multitaker and when comparing that to some colleagues there are some definite advantages to that.

I dunno just a thought I had and figured I would share while I was bored hearing the names of the top achievers.

More updates coming in time.

Have a good nite people.

Much Fun

2006-01-24T00:19:00.000-05:00

ok last bit for the nite

came in an email i got today and it's an old one but it always just makes you smile...

goodnite all

time get's the best of me

2006-01-24T00:09:00.000-05:00

And now for something completely different one from the archive of saved drafts...this is a random thought that i just threw out to words some time ago but just never finished it...so i'll add a bit here and there and see where it goes...

So i've really been thinking about time lately. In particular God and time. I remember being a child and trying to deal with the concept of our Father answering and listening to all our prayers, which i could see how that would be a problem for some people. Kind of like that whole Santa paradigm you come to grips with as you get older of timezones and a single sleigh and 6 billion people.

In retrospect i think i came up with a pretty awesome, yet silly explanation for it all...I was quite the child of imagination, i loved the days of olde where me and my brothers would have the massive g.i. joe wars that spanned the whole house, and the endless days of summer where we would wake up to the dukes of hazzard and go outside to play...but on to my explanation i suppose...

I vividly remember seeing God in heaven having this bubble that He and Jesus would go in (i was caught on to the whole dove coming down being the Holy Spirit and that part of the trinity residing here on Earth early on, so i made no room for him(it?) in the magic bubble)

So more on this bubble...God and Jesus would go in daily like how parents would go to work, yeah lots of problems with that no prays when they aren't at work and not to mention the time differences...but hey i was a child...so they would go in to the bubble and inside it would go to this almost bullet time al-la Matrix...maybe i should sue the wachoski brothers for stealing my idea...but inside the bubble it was almost big brother essque where they would have monitors watching every single person in the world at the same time....yeah it's a big bubble...i mean God's probably pretty big....so it was a really big, gi-normous bubble...

And inside of the bubble they were able to keep up with everyones prayers and keep a watch on everyone to know what we were all doing.

Over Christmas I made my mom join dad and myself while we watched Bruce Almighty, she was wanting to watch Pirates of the Carribean but since that's one of the only movies she wants to ever watch i told her it would be good to broaden her horizons and watch another movie. I told her she would like it and just stick with it for the good message. She feel asleep. Regardless i hold to the thought that had she watched it all she would have enjoyed the movie. moving on...

I like how they portray the massiveness of prayers going to God. And that was just for that city. It's really a lot going on, and no one really knows but i could guess the hours are quite long for such a task.

A Couple months ago i went through Mere Christianity, actually i just listened to it, being on the road a lot i have taken to books on tape. I was told that this isn't the best of books to listen to. understandable but at the same time i have quite the capacity to listen and absorb lots...just the way i'm made i suppose...As i remember based on my notes i've had saved as a draft, CS has a much more intellectual approach to this quandry.

Essentially, my thoughts have moved from the bubble theology to this crazy sense of time compression where past present and future are all in one instant, to us Christ lived 2000+ years ago yet in God's sense it just happened. Adam bit into that apple at the beginning of time as we know it yet at this very instant Adam is still biting that apple to God.

What's all this mean? Zilch. It doesn't really solve anything, and odds are i'm just making all this stuff up and couldn't be further than the truth. Some people proclaim that such topics are trivial and pointless to argue, i would agree. But when you are on the road for a living you get time to just sit and think about random things and as such blogs will be written to release...

Maybe it does come back to the magic of Christmas. Most of us are beyond that simple childlike feeling of Santa anymore, but we pass that on to successors by telling them it's all in the magic of Christmas.

Maybe it's all just a matter of a simple little thing called faith...

crazy thought

2006-01-22T22:52:00.000-05:00

fun little analogy about truth to think on...

If a doctor tells me I have only one chance of a cure, only one medicine that can save my life, what is my response? Do I resent his assessment? Assume he lusts for the control he holds over my health? Think him a medical bigot for refusing to consider the possibility of other remedies? Or do I bless him for his help that has saved my life? Thank him for showing me the only hope I have?

--found on relevant

Dessert Island

2006-01-04T09:08:00.000-05:00

(yes I know it's actually 'desert' but it's a joke that some of you will get, if you don't just laugh and read on)

so it's taken me a while to compile my response to Mike's seinfeld desert island quiz but here we go. I wanted to add in some answers that weren't seen so much with so many great episodes it's not hard to find a good one only to narrow it down to a few...

We'll start this show with what I regard as one of my all-time favs...I call it Anytown USA, but I think it goes by the title of The Serenity Now

Jerry: I don't know what's happening to me.
Kramer: Simple. You let out one emotion, all the rest will come. It's like Endora's Box.
Jerry: That was the mother on Bewitched. You mean Pandora.
Kramer: Yeah, well, she had one too.

Jerry: Hello? Is Kramer home? Oh, hey.
Kramer: (Spraying his flowers) Hello, neighbor.
Jerry: Boy, those azaleas are really coming in nicely.
Kramer: Oh, you gotta mulch. You've got to.
Jerry: You barbecuing tonight?
Kramer: (Ringing his wind chimes) Right after the fireworks.

Next we have the Muffin Tops episode.

Kramer: We have a bonus ultra-reality stop today. We're going to be hauling muffin stumps to the local repository.
Tourist: We're going to a garbage dump?
Kramer: And we're off!
Jerry: You know, I never thought he'd be able to recreate the experience of actually knowing him, but this is pretty close.

Next we have The Race.

In the setup of George and Jerry acting like they haven't seen each other...
George: So, what have you been doing with yourself?
Jerry: I'm a comedian.
George: Well, I really wouldn't know about that. I don't watch much TV. I like to read. What do you do, a lot of that 'Did you ever notice' kind of stuff? It strikes me a lot of guys are doing that kind of humor.
Jerry: Yeah yeah... Boy, you really went bald there, didn't you? You used to really have a thick full head of hair.
George: Well, I guess I started losing it when I was about 28, right around the time I made my first million.

The English Patient...Filled with #1 Dad, Kramer's 'Cubans', Neil, and an episode with Peterman....best dialogue from the show...

PETERMAN: Elaine, I hope you're watching the clothes, because I can't take my eyes off the passion.
ELAINE: (quiet vehemence) Oh. No. I can't do this any more. I can't. It's too long. (to the screen) Quit telling your stupid story, about the stupid desert, and just die already! (louder) Die!!The other movie patrons turn and shush Elaine, who sits back in her seat.
PETERMAN: (surprised) Elaine. You don't like the movie?
ELAINE: (shouts) I hate it!!
CROWD: Shh!
ELAINE: (shouts) Oh, go to hell!!
PETERMAN: (quietly) Well, why didn't you say so in the first place? You're fired.
ELAINE: (grabbing her bag and coat) Great. I'll wait for you outside.

We'll wrap this up with The Marine Biologist...Decent throughout but this closing dialogue makes the episode I think...read below...

George: The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to
return soup at a deli!
George: I got about fifty-feet out and then suddenly the great beast
appeared before me. I tell ya he was ten stories high if he was a
foot. As if sensing my presence he gave out a big bellow. I said,
"Easy big fella!" And then as I watched him struggling I realized
something was obstructing his breathing. From where I was standing
I could see directly into the eye of the great fish!
Jerry: Mammal.
George: Whatever.
Kramer: Well, what did you do next?
George: Then from out of nowhere a huge title wave lifted, tossed like a
quark and I found myself on top of him face to face with the
blow-hole. I could barely see from all of the waves crashing down on
top of me but I knew something was there so I reached my hand and
pulled out the obstruction!

(George pulls out of the inside pocket a golf ball)

(Jerry and George just stare at Kramer)

Kramer: What is that a Titleist? A hole in one eh.
Jerry: Well the crowd most have gone wild!
George: Oh yes they did Jerry they were all over me. It was like Rocky 1.
Diane came up to me, threw her arms around me, and kissed me. We
both had tears streaming down our faces. I never saw anyone so
beautiful. It was at that moment I decided to tell her I was not a
marine biologist!
Jerry: Wow! What'd she say?
George: She told me to "Go to hell!" and I took the bus home.
Jerry: All right lets go.
Elaine: Are you in a bad mood?
Jerry: No, I just got my laundry back.
Elaine: Ohhh! GoldenBoy?
Jerry: He didn't make it.
Elaine: I'm sorry.
Jerry: This is GoldenBoy's son, BabyBlue.

Of course all the other episodes are great as well just thought i'd add in a few more that had gone un mentioned...

thanks to http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ for keeping me from having to type out all the dialogue...yay for copy and paste...haha

paintball and more

2005-12-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

It's near the end of the year, and right now anything that isn't already signed and ordered, wont' be till next year so we just kinda take these last two weeks and re-coup, and prepare for starting the next year off right. So friday was team building day for work. This entailed all the engineers from the carolinas meeting up in the little ole town of denton for some paintball action.

Being the new young new guy in the raleigh branch i was low on the totem pole of command as you can imagine, however being the only one out there that had ever played paintball i quickly got a promotion to Sergeant First Class (yet amazingly that holds no weight when everyone else is an officer...).

the teams were quite uneven them 8 on us 6, so we were pretty much stomped a lot.

My mentor was an army veteran which worked well with me being a veteran of many a war video games. So we stuck together and worked well as a team until the other team completed the mission.

The one round where they finally took my advice for strategy we crushed them. We took them all out with only one casualty (which was actually in the plan..haha ), We pulled a bait and ambush strategy where we all bunkered down under the leaves and sent the one guy who wore bright blue pants out as a decoy to draw them in...they took it we jumped out and had them dead before they could re-act...i kinda felt like gideon, as they were shooting on themselves cause they didn't know where it was coming from...yet for some reason that was the only round they took my strategy.

the next round they thought it was a great idea for me to go gunless and rush for the flag and capture it and bolt back...that would have worked if they would have provided the suppressing fire like they said they would have...suprisingly though i didn't get shot out, i took the gun of one of my co-workers who was hiding and we made our way back out to some safer ground...haha

The final synopsis of the game was pretty bleak on a team level, but on the individual level i am very pleased. We lost over all 1 to 6 games (which is disputeable, because i know all to well i had captured the flag before the ref called it for them capturing the flag, but oh well there was no way he would have known that seeing as he was at their base and not in the middle like he should have been...

individually i got around 15 kills to only getting shot out of 3 games....which we had the whole field to ourselves so we got to play our own rules which meant it had to be a real kill shot torso or head to get you out...my gun was solid yellow after games and well i got peppered up and down my leg and arm from one game, but it didn't count.

I'll get some pictures up next week sometime...

thoughts on blue like jazz hopefully coming soon...

I am still alive...

2005-12-07T00:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a few weeks since i've blogged, so i thought i'd drop a quick note to say i am still alive.

Crazy events that have led me to deep thoughts have been pretty few and far between here since thanksgiving. My mind tends to become pretty simple during this time of the year, as it's Christmas.

I did happen to have one of such moments tonite though... i'll just spit it all out and hope it makes some sense....

In my daily readings i'm in Ezekiel this week and it does a lot in dealing with how Israel is dealing with the Babylonian Invasion. I see two types of reactions...one that refused to see what was right in front of their eyes, and those that would only see that right in front of their eyes...

Now Jesus, in an effort to be relavant to the people, taught most His messages many times only differently so that all would be able to hear and make sense. So in that same manner this topic has been brought out to me another way...so i was watching signs tonite (stupid fox for skipping on House for Music awards) and it got to the part where mel was talking to joaquin about the two different people those who believe in (and this is gonna be butchered) fate essentially, and those who believe in miracles. For some reason this just clicked with what the israelites were going through

I think personally signs is a little off in that there's acutally a mixture of these two and that Ezekial was trying to get the israelites to see this. Not looking at the current situation these people believed only in the miracles and didn't focus on the situation at hand leaving it to a point where nothing matters cause God will just free us so i'm not going to do anything about it. And then you have the camp that were in despair which were all in fate, seeing only the bad, not recognizing that God would bring them out...they dwelled on how bad it was.

I don't know if that makes sense with the connections i just made, in my head it does..then again it's 12.30...anything can make sense to me at this hour...

So the point i suppose is that maybe things do happen for a reason, i am quite an avid believer in thise philosophy , and maybe that's just God's miracles working themselves out in everyday occurances, but at the same time, there are many things that just only can be explained as a miracle...

yeah i don't know if i really drew much of a conclusion for this, but i'm going to head out...it's tiem for me to close my eyes...

goodnite all...

some more thoughts i've been working on coming soon....

True story...

2005-11-26T19:19:00.000-05:00

Ok I'm out shopping driving through a parking lot behind a guy. Someone pulls out in front of the man in front of me and it wasn't a dangerous manevour by no means. The guy in front of me pulls up right on him, lays on the horn, slams on the brakes, and throws up his hands. KEep in mind we are going like 15 in a parking lot tops. The guy up front turns and the guy in front of me proceeds to yell explicatives with his head out the window. Also note its christmas time, thus its cold and as such my windows are up and my radio is boasting of christmas tunes.

So the kicker of the story is the guy in front of me had a bumper sticker. "Character - the core of every education". Wow. That was enough for me to chuckle.

Moral of the story: be friendly on the roads kids or I'll find you out and blog about it.

christmas time is like my favorite thing ever...

2005-11-22T06:09:00.000-05:00

I, if you don't know, love Christmas time. as follows will be some of my reasoning (in no particular order):

1)Obviously the gifts and such are always fun. Funny i got in this conversation with the receptionist at my dentist, but i love going christmas shopping for people. Many like to just jump in and get it over with. i think that looses the fun. I like the whole element of figuring out something great for all that you are close to. I never start shopping on purpose until late in the season. And then seeing them enjoy that is the absolute greatest feeling. I think if i could be a fictional childhood fantasy character i would definately be kris kringle. I mean he goes around making people happy. how awesome is that. way cool.

2)People just seem to be happy. There something in the air that make people seem peaceful. it's so cool to just have that feeling when you are out and about. Obviously there are exceptions. I've been at crossroads trying to get somewhere the week before christmas day and it is probably not so much filled with the peace and good will towards man that we generally think of for this season. regardless that ambience is still out there for the most part.

3)I suppose i need to through in a comment about God huh? I mean who knows what day he was really born, and honestly to me that doesn't even matter. But i do think it's crucial to actually put some focus on what exactly happened with all that. I'm divulging on this particular in a draft right now maybe it will make it out before christmas but regardless it will be out there sometime... so for now we'll leave this one be.

4)The time with friends and family. Still kinda ties into number 2 but more so. I am fortunate to work for a company that gives us a week off for christmas, which is pretty much unheard of out there. It's great to be able to spend all the time in traveling and visiting with family. I'm really excited about this this year with my neice. It's going to be a crazy christmas!

i think that about covers it. But for me that's a lot of things. It's why i love starting the celebration in november. it seems people stop with all these feelings right after christmas morning which is depressing to me. I think living in europe where they don't celebrate thanksgiving would work out well for me. then people would freak out so much...exception being kevin, we can still celebrate your birthday even if there is a christmas bow on the door or tree up in the den...haha.....

So yes i've been rocking the holiday playlist for well over 2 weeks now, and i can't get enough of em. rocking the classics like bing, frank, and etta...sooo good...haha

on another note...diana not only is 93.9 playing christmas music on the weekends but they are also playing them at the insane hours early of the morning where late late turns to early early....so that started my day off with some holiday cheer :) only a few more days till many stations turn to all christmas all the time

Them crazy young'ns...

2005-11-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

Today we shall divulge to the ideas of work habits and perhaps the generation gaps that separate us but we'll come back to that in just two ticks :)

working for a global company has it's perks, I'm not gonna lie. One of them that at times seems like a double edged sword is town hall meetings. It's a lot like the assemblies of grade school in that we would get out of class but yet the assembly could be horrendous...Generally speaking count the town halls as horrendous. Ok, well that is just the set up, so we are all in a big hall listening to our CEO talk about the company direction and it's ok, but it's a lot of the same things we've been hearing for a while anyway, now I understand the importance of speaking the same thing differently, Jesus did this to make his message relevant, I get it. However my problem is, I get it. I see what he is talking about the first time and yet I have to sit through like 8 more hours of the same stuff and personally I find that bothersome.

I value, whatever that word means (haha), my time. I'm more than happy to give of it to anyone, but to waste it is just silly. And to be wasting it is not a fun thing for me especially when as a result of this I will be still sitting in the office 3-4 hours after everyone else has left as I am still doing work, driving that revenue...but we will digress from that rant for just a moment as it only has a little bearing on my point.

So the conclusion of the town hall is a Q&A where all 2-3k of us are sitting and get a chance to ask questions about the message and pretty much whatever we want as it's not 'screened'. Now this is the part that can either make or break the meeting for me. Sometimes people get up there and ask the dumbest questions. And I know there really isn't such a thing as a dumb question, but I think there are exemptions and I've heard some of them. For example, NEVER, and I mean NEVER question your manager's actions trying to make him look bad (especially when he is right and corporate emails have been sent out regarding the policy) to the CEO/B.o.D. with your manager sitting in the room...Honestly now that's got potential to be not only a dumb question but a career ending question...

So that's the part that will make as I get a good laugh out of it. The bad part is when people will ask questions which I will call silly questions. One, no matter what you think a CEO of a global company does not care that you are a software engineer working for blah in the blah division. So perhaps we could dispense with the formalities at the start and save a little bit of time.

ok back to the two ticks part :)...After the meeting me and the only other young guy in my group went for some Bojangles (If this is Huie read: KFC) and a discussion of what we were just told. And we both came to the conclusion that neither of us want to be the guys that get up and ask these type of questions. We dove in a little deeper at what that meant. Does this mean that we just don't' care about our jobs? That's not so cause I want to succeed, go back to the whole wasting time. If I thought I was I would be looking for a new job. I'm not and I really see our company as a forefront in this segment and right on the virge of taking back the market share we lost. But we honestly didn't 'care' about it. We realized that there was more to our lives than our jobs. And while we were all in with the company, at the end of the day we separated our jobs from our lives...

This brought about a discussion about work habits. Now I receive much criticism for my job, obviously as I do work from home a lot I tend to give the appearance that I don't really do a whole lot. We'll just go ahead and dispense with that viscous rumor, I do. When I work from home I can focus and go into my, 'oh crap I have an exam tomorrow time to cram mode' and everything I do is focused and I get a lot done...now we exam my day when I'm at work in the lab...

'oh crap...hey Brandon can you jump on this call...(30 minutes later)...Ok let's see...Yeah crap there that thing that exam....hey I need you to make this diagram up for me....(2 hours later)....Ok yeah so there was this exam thing....continue till time to go home and well you get the idea that I may have finally realized that there was an exam tomorrow....nice analogy huh?...
so that's my argument, that and it's the idea our company is promoting anyways so I am going to practice what I sell...

But it seems that when we (me and the only other young guy) work we really work. Is this something from us coming out of college, a different mind-set that these older folks don't have anymore, or maybe never did. There is obviously a gap between how we all work and neither of us know what that is. The best we can think of is that's just our generation and how we work....we go all out strong and just do it, quickly and then immediately move to the next thing...which I'm learning is a bad thing as it just keeps on coming.

So in conclusion I wonder, am I destined to become lackadaisical in my work habits and draw things out as long as I can not caring about wasting others time, and annoying the new blood when it finally comes in?

so that's just some thoughts to blog on...I've talked about this with some people and it seems to be common for us 'new working professionals'...but honestly I don't know how I feel about it...but don't get me wrong i absolutely love my job, it's awesome and right now I don't know that I would want to be anywhere else, except maybe retired...

Another Day Another Dollar....

2005-11-14T09:20:00.000-05:00

It's getting to the end of the year, which means business is wrapping up and we're all gearing up for next year to start off with a kick. One of the "great things" with larger business is all the benefits. Notice I said "great things". So yeah it's nice to have that coverage available to me and all that; but this year it was odd to say the least.

With the purchase of the house this year I've introduced something new to my life....lots of debt or liability in the professional tongue. As such I have to make sure that I will be covered as the bills will keep on coming even if something happens to me. Granted I don't' exactly have a wife and two and a half kids to have to take care of but I surely don't want this all coming back on my family were something to happen.

It was kind of a gloomy way to start off the week huh? Deciding if that .80 a payperiod is really worth it in case of accidental death or dismemberment....yeah that's what I thought too...who wants to think about it like that. But anyways it does stink to thing my paycheck is not decreasing but at least if I get very ill or say a snake bite(thank goodness we've advanced in technology since the Oregon trail, no longer will I have to die from it) I know that I'm safe should it happen.

Odd how we can draw from weird stuff but as I'm sitting here I'm just thinking how ignorance truly is bliss. I for one am not so fond of all the end of world evangelism with the end is at hand, turn or burn messages....just not my cup of tea. Personally, I am glad that no one but the Father knows the time or place of His return. I would honestly live dreading it I think. I mean heaven, yay, awesome, can't wait for it. But think about it like this...Revelation doesn't exactly paint a pretty picture of the end times(the return of the kingdom and all that is pretty keen, but the other stuff with the four horsemen and such), and honestly I don't know that I fully understand it all; but doesn't really resonate with a game night with the friends.

So pulling full circle even though I know the end of the world and or my death is coming I really don't know when but I'm assured my salvation for whenever it comes, and for me that leaves me feeling just fine...

so kind of a wierd blog post but i just thought of it while i was sitting at work so i thought i'd push it out as an update to the site...it's been a busy week this past week but i should be able to get back into the swing of blogging and get some more thoughts out there later on this week...

For Simplicities sake...

2005-11-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since i've posted...it's been a busy half week since the concert, but i've had a couple thoughts on the mind and we'll see where we get before i hit the sack to start another day...

The other day i was out doing some yardwork getting ready for the winter and part of that is pulling up the flowers that die in the winter so i'm not all the sudden left with a yard that is covered in dead...

One of the vines i pulled up really got me thinking though. It's a moonflower and a quick fact session about this vine, for those that aren't up on their horticulture.
above is an image and the cool part of this flower is the bloom lasts for maybe 12 hours. As the sun starts to set at dusk the bloom starts to open and within a matter of 10-15 minutes the bloom is fully exposed. This is actually a really cool thing to behold, and the fragrence is very sweet...such that i can't even explain.

But whats the point of it all you may ask? Well, to me it's just an amazing thing. Something so intricate is really a testiment to God in my eyes.

I dunno, there is a lot going through my head right now about where i want to go with this illustration. And the more i think about them the less I want to write them and the more i want to just leave it as a greatness of God. I think it's more appropriate actually. If you really want to know more about it then we'll talk about it, but as for now i think i'm gonna head off for another day...

In the words....

2005-11-03T00:49:00.000-05:00

...of a good friend....soooo gooood...i just got in from the collision tour in greenville, and unfortunately all my pictures pretty much suck a big one, but as my hearing is returning, i'm thinking back and man David Crowder is an extrordinary worship leader...there so much more than just raw musical talent there it's the ability to bring everyone in together and create a community, or perhaps one would say a church right there amoung people that doesn't know anyone than the ones they came with...but anyways i ramble so it's time to bed as the alarm is going on in 5 hours...it's gonna be a struggle at work tomorrow i fear...

a decent picture form tonite for your enjoyment....(brings up another point that i'll blog on later though...)

It was cool to see dc, s&s, and rs all join in for a final hoedown at the end...that's how we do down in mayberry...haha...perhaps you'd have to have been there to get that joke...

The North Face

2005-10-31T20:36:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was able to spend some quality time in the mountains with some of the family. I went up to Grandfather Mountain for a little bit of the day hiking goodness.

Now one would think that this being one of North Carolina's most popular scenic attractions (according to the signs going up the mountain) that it would be pretty 'user friendly'. Not so much the case. Granted there are a plethora of kiddy Attractions there such as the "Mile-High" "Swinging" bridge...I remember the day I found out that it was really only like 75 feet off the ground, and the mile high was in reference to the elevation...sad day indeed...and while I'm on it...it's not even swinging anymore, I mean you could drive a tank over this thing...ok a small tank, but a tank none the less...I'm no civil engineer, but that's some thick metal cable...but I shall digress from the rant...and then again there is the petting zoo, where back in the day you could see Mildred, God rest her soul, the Bear.

But moving on...this was no walk in the park...haha...the ropes and ladders trail is actually pretty crazy...I thoroughly enjoyed it however, I love the bouldering aspect, as well as the whole 'new' challenges...

So now on top of that lets add on another 'factor'. We pull up to the entrance, and the first thing the lady says. "It's cold up there 20 on top of the mountain and with the wind gusts of 41mph it brings it to a chilly -15 degrees"...that's cold....especially coming from the recent weather that we've been having round these parts....

So with the fridged conditions that we had of course any moisture is going to be of the frozen kind...So we now are climbing up rock faces that are covered in ice...my kind of fun!...As if it couldn't get anymore challenging, I have one more condition to add in...somewhere sometime, I seem to have misplaced my hiking boots, not a good thing...so now i'm going through all this in tennis shoes, not trail runners, or even those 'boots' the popular shoe companies like to call 'boots' but I was in running tennis shoes...I might as well have had ice skates....I am happy to report however than I managed only a handful of slips that I gracefully recovered from and zero ankle twists...phew...

So on top of that...I must say the view was spectacular, we ran out of time to make it all the way around the full mountain but we went up to the attic window and back, and on the way back we took a different path that was on the North Face of the mountain (for non-mountainous types that's the side that doesn't get sun so much, and as you'll see that's the side with all the white stuff on it) So it was actually the worst part of the hike as it was all ice...

I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my brothers and my cousin, it was a really cool trip and for any adventurous peoples out there with $14 burning a hole in their pockets I recommend that you check it out...just wear really good shoes and make sure you have good gear to stay warm...people have died of hypothermia on top of the mountain in the spring time there...

For you non-adventurous people I will let you enjoy some of my pics...

The right side of the Mountain is the North Face, covered with snow/ice. In the distance straight back is the black mountains and Tennesse. To the right of that is Big Hump and Little Hump of Roan Mountain and to the right of that just beyond the picture framing is Sugar Mountain. To the Left of the Black Mountains is Table Rock (just out of the frame), and way off in the distance, Mt. Mitchell. If you look due middle of the Picture you will see the swinging bridge and the weather station.

Here we all are on top of the Third Highest point on Grandfather mountain....by the time we made it to the higher points, the cold had zapped out batteries completely dry...

In the rainy-warmer season, this is a running waterfall that you have to climb up...fortunately for us it was cold and all iced over...

Another look at the side of the mountain with all the snow and Ice. This is facing back towards Boone and Winston, neither were visable that day...

Absolutely Gorgeous up there. Charlotte would be just out of frame to the Left on this picture, and on clear days in the autumn you can actually see the skyline from there...it wasn't that clear for us...

We found a little cave off the trail that we could explore, in which we dubbed the 'refridgerator' This little cove was blasting cold air through , but the view from the edge was amazing. Just ask my cousin...

Lemme tell ya this was not an oportune time for the phone to be ringing, but as you can imagine, this is the exact moment it did....

The verge of something big....

2005-10-28T22:40:00.000-04:00

So I'm lying here in bed at my brothers house fully aware of the fact that this alarm is going off at 5:30 on a saturday so we can be in linville by 8 and yet I am still just lying here. Is it the anticipation? I think that it is. For the rest of my blog we'll just stick with that theory.

What if we could not slumber for anticipation of Christ? I tend to think Paul had it right speaking in his letters that he was working day and night to bring the story of Jesus to the world. What if all we could do was to make ready for Christ's return here on earth.

Anyways that's all I got. I think the soft glow of the blackberry has put me to sleep. I'm out. Expect some adventures and pictures come monday.

Grace Enough

2005-10-27T22:43:00.000-04:00

So the study tonite was on Galations 3. Galations was one of those books that i would breeze through in my Christian duty to read the Bible, cause that's what God would have me do right?..ha

I've really been struggling with Lectio Devina lately. I've been consciously working towards this, and wow what a difference. It's really amazing, i highly recommend the practice...This chapter in particular has really stood out to me this lately. It really breaks into the heart of what being a Christian is. It's about Grace.

Thinking back i know i've come from a legalistic background where certain things were required for this or that. And i see now how off base it really was. It's so simple. It's the a belief at it's core and that's it. It's a belief in the Cross. And it's all really coming to a new meaning to me that my faith is no different than Abel's faith, Abraham's faith, even Moses' faith. It's the belief in Salvation through attonment that was paid on Calvary. In Christ. They were given imagery to convey this concept. We have the event to look back to. And to me that's comforting...

I return now to some more deep thinking......

... or more appropriately...deep sleeping....you choose

Count your blessings and The Great Pumpkin

2005-10-27T02:31:00.000-04:00

So In an effort to get cozy i'll start off with a random thought i've had today...

I find myself getting into a habit of re-reading sections of books that i've already gone through often...it's kind of a hobby if you will...

The latest diversion has been praise habit. A short cut to the chase is praising God in the ordinary and mundane of life. And it got me thinking about blessings and how we recognize them. When i sit back and think for a bit, i really have been blessed by God. Not only in the respect of having a job, a roof over my head, and food on the table. But Not only was I brought up through an awesme family with great friends back home. God has placed me in a community of believers here, were I can continue to grow in relationships with more and more new people but develop deep friendships here and continue in my walk with Christ.

It's been a pretty crazy year thinking back through it all and in retrospect the events that happened and what I learned and how it all came to be, i can only see God's hand guiding me through them all and teaching me a lesson for the future. And it's truely been amazing.

I think of all this and i get to the point where I am now and I have nothing but praise to God for all this, yet as usual this fades away to nothing. and i just kind of go on day to day as normal, not really even acknowledging it until it just hits me over the head again.

God has given me all of this what's to stop Him from taking it away right now? So i guess a point to make is that nothing I can do will really earn any of this or merit it, yet at the same time, It's the only thing that I can do. It's a matter of Grattitude that this is all I want to do...offer him my praise for His many blessings, and all this in realization that it's not eternal.

It's frustrating to me that i seem to glance over these blessings of friends so often as it is such an important part of my life and I love everyone of them greatly, probably more than any even know...

Now moving on to a lighter note...
During last nites festivities I ran out of time to actually get to carving the pumpkin all in the task of getting this.... doesn't that look like some freaking awesome pumpkin right there...just the right color...i'm stoked about it all...next week there will be some major pumpkin pie making going on here in raleigh...

But continuing on with that story i'm going to float my own boat here for a minute and display my fine pumpkin carving abilities...This was all done freehand with a pencil and a single kitchen paring knife...no fancy kits for me....i'm old school...and that's how we do it round these parts...haha

ok i'm gonna get on out of here

goodnite and have a pleasant tomorrow

A new test

2005-10-26T22:46:00.000-04:00

Helps to type it in right....

Integration is fantastic…

forging ahead

2005-10-26T22:31:00.000-04:00

making the move to blogspot