Christmas thoughts 2007

• Christmas eve was a traditional American holiday at my house. We went to the movies. We saw National Treasure 2, which was quite entertaining for the portions of the evening when I was able to suspend my cynicism to allow myself to believe in a world that one could quite easily wander up to the president and initiate a conversation unmolested by the Secret Service. Afterwards we came home to build gingerbread condos.

• A broadcast text message is not a heartfelt holiday greeting, but I still got a half dozen of them. If you sent one, I'm talking about the others, not yours. It gave me warm fuzzies to get yours.

• Remember Legos? When I was a kid, they came in one shape - rectangular. You could build anything your imagination would concoct, but when you were done, it was rectangular. Square cars. Square people. 90 degree angles. Well, it's a new day in LegoLand, and you are not determining what you build anymore. Today's child gets a Lego Set to build a specific robotic dinosaur eating space ship. It has 4,251 pieces and ain't one of them square. In face, ain't two of them alike. Don't bother using your imagination - this stuff fits one way only, and it takes a degree from MIT to assemble these things. The kids don't even do it...They go and play with their brothers' stuff, returning to the table once in a while to proclaim "you're doing GREAT Uncle Keith!"

My apologies

For dropping off the radar there for a bit. I've been on vacation the past 2 weeks, and during that time took a complete break from anything internet related. The purge was needed.

After suffering through withdrawl for 2 weeks, I am back! I lost 5lbs over the last 2 weeks, so maybe I should take a technology break more often?

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Last night I sat down with some friends and we watched “Shrek the Halls,” the new 30 minute holiday piece from the Shrek team. It was great, but it wasn’t as good as my all time favorite, which is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” We’ll be watching that together soon.

I love the scene where Linus reads the Christmas story in Luke 2. When he comes to the place where he reads, “Fear not, for behold I bring you news of great joy,” he actually drops his blanket (which represents his security). Just a cool nugget for cartoon viewing.

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

All right stop...collaborate and listen...

Man oh man, I am definitely thankful I do not live anywhere near Kansas. Check out this ice storm! This is off the chain!!!!


Ice-ice baby...

Odd item of the week

Had something interesting happen over the week-end.

I was off to the car dealership to help a buddy of mine pick up their van that was in for new brakes. We settled the invoice and headed outside where they were going to pull the van around front.

Waited...and waited.

Poked our heads inside and said, "Freezing waiting here."

The reply was "Follow Me gentlemen".

We went downstairs into the service bay - this couldn't be good.
The technician who "fixed" the brakes forgot to flush the line so as they put my buddy's van in reverse to drive it to the front, alas no break.

It slammed into the car lift on the opposite side of the bay.
Broke the whole left side. Took off the bumper.

To top it off, there was a car on the aforementioned bay that ended up hitting the glass and destroying the roof of the van. I feel bad for the guy whose car is up on the lift. It is not only damaged, but stuck up there. When the van crashed into it, the impact broke the lift.

If that wasn't bad enough, as we were getting my buddy's kids car seats out of the van, when I looked up, the technician (dunno if this is the same dude who fixed the brakes) was on the computer...looking at porn. Right there, in the open, in front of everyone.

Wow.

The good news is it won't cost my buddy a dime - the dealership picks up the entire tab.
I wish I had a photo as evidence but my cell phone ran out of juice and I didn't have my click, click with me.

Huh?

Standing in front a 7-Eleven just now near the office...I just saw a Duece-and-a-half roll by, military green, of course.

A sign on the back read: Corporate Machine Gun Rentals. No joke.

Corporate.

Machine Gun.

Rentals.

Marinate on that one for a while.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

Yep, it's that time of the year again. You thought I forgot, didn't you??

How could I forget that on December 6th, at 8:45am, the world said a mighty big "Whassup" to a rockin' baby boy weighing in at a whopping 9lbs, 10 oz.

My parents definitely remember. The evening prior, they were at a Rolling Stones concert when my mom's water broke. I was 3 weeks early.

Apparently, I couldn't get no satisfaction....

This kid is in real trouble

Remember when you t.p.'d the principal's house and thought you'd pulled off the bravest prank in history? Somebody just one upped you, and he may never see daylight...

"A 17-year-old Hopewell High student was apparently acting on a dare when he did a fly-over prank at a Hopewell High football game Friday, at one point dipping below the stadium lights.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said Sunday that the teen pilot and two teen passengers flew the length of the field three times around 8 p.m. The plane reportedly came within feet of a flag pole.

On the final pass, a pair of tennis shoes and a football dropped from the single-engine Cessna 172 into the end zone, officials said.

(The plane...) was quickly identified as being rented from Lincoln County Regional Airport. That’s where Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies were waiting when it landed.

Detained at the airport for questioning were the 17-year-old pilot who had rented the plane and his passengers, another 17-year-old Hopewell student and an 18-year-old Hopewell graduate. "

Read this in the news this morning.....CRAAAAZY!

I don't need your stinking landline

Believe it or not, AT&T still thinks they're in the telephone business. I haven't had a landline in about nine months. Don't miss it. There's no need for it with wireless service which I happen to have through T-Mobile.

I called the company the other day inquiring about high-speed Internet service. It's available in my area. And, it's cheaper than the Internet service that the cable company provides. The only problem is that AT&T won't sell you Internet service unless you also purchase local telephone service. I don't need local telephone service, because I have T-Mobile wireless service. But, by requiring the landline, their "Internet" service ends up being $15 per month more than the cable company.

Makes me wonder how long it will be before Google has WiFi in my area? Sign me up.

Lick = YUCK!!!

Why do people do this?

I was dropping off some shirts at the dry cleaners this morning. I had a great chat with the employee working the counter. She was, how shall we say, more mature in age than I am. On that note, I always love getting called "dear" and "sweety" in conversations - by people like this lady.

Then she did something that makes me go...yuck.

She licked her fingers to separate the receipt.

Now I know paper is sometimes hard to separate, and this may seem like a quick and efficient solution to the problem, but c'mon do we have to lick our fingers, place our spit on the receipt, and then hand it to me?

The receipt that I was handed today was wet at the bottom....WET!

Thank God for Purrell!

The standing egg

Here's a picture of an egg standing straight up on the Fall Equinox. I don't understand this stuff (my friend tried to explain it to me), but it has something to do with the rotation of the earth... enjoy.

The MacDaddy of all photos

This is not how I remember taking notes in ANY of my college classes. Of course back then, laptops hadn't been invented yet!!

Man, saying that makes me feel old!

Thanks to my buddy Steve for sending me the pic from The University of Louisville. It's enough to make IT directors everywhere twitch for fear of being laid off!

Time flies when you're completely smoked

Friends, do not confuse the lack of blogging with the lack of thinking. I haven't had much time to blog lately, but trust me, the ol' bean is spinning at a rate that would undoubtably void the warranty, were I not already out of warranty.

Did I mention I'm busy right now? I kind of hate to, because everyone is busy...and it's never cool to compare one's busy-ness with another one's busy-ness. Sort of a mind your own busy-ness unspoken rule. I can, however, compare it to my own schedule, and let me tell you that I have never been cranking so hard in my life.

Note - this blog has been interrupted four times by emails. Two of which I needed to answer.

The thunder rolls

I woke up in the middle of the night to a flash of lightening last Friday night/Saturday morning. Normally during storms, it's the thunder that wakes you...but normally during storms the lightening is 'out there' somewhere and the thunder races your direction. In this case, the lightening was somewhere right outside my window - the electric arc zapped so brightly through the drawn curtains that it was like God had fired up the welder for His own version of Monster Garage.

I slept that morning 'till 9:15....3 hours and fifteen minutes past my normal wake up time. It was glorious. I wandered out into the grey of the house - it was still dark because the storm was still raging. Once I had the coffee pot operating I couldn't resist opening the windows to listen to the thunder roll (grace to those of you who now can't get a Garth Brooks tune out of your head).

Who ya gonna call?

Just saw this. It's been 23 years since the wacked out Ghostbuster crew battled the Stay Puft Marhsmallow Man.

Apparently, someone is willing to part with this bit of 1984 nostalgia. A Ghostbuster's phone. Kinda makes the Iphone seem obsolete now, don't it??

Children of the 80's step up and place your bid. It's currently at $104 smackers on Ebay.

It's being sold as is, so if it's broke, "Who ya gonna call??"

Thoughts on Thoughts

I have come to the following conclusion about thoughts, having given it some thought for a while. There are fast thoughts and there are deep thoughts. Everyone is capable of both kinds of thoughts, but no one can think both kinds of thoughts at the same time.

Fast thoughts are rapid fire. They're details and shortcuts and contracts and post-its and the mental equivalent of the three dollar bag of cheetoes from the Dollar General down the sidewalk from my office. They can fill you up but they can't sustain you. It should be said that fast thoughts have their place. Without them you can't find your keys and not much gets done at all. The world turns on fast thoughts. It's just that the world is not propelled by them.

Deep thoughts actually power the rotation of the earth. Where fast thoughts follow the path of least resistance or the freeway with the fewest exits, deep thoughts meander along the riverbank, doubling back so many times you wonder "haven't I been here before?" and you have, except you were going the other way. Deep thoughts, properly cooked, marinate in their own juices. While fast thoughts change things that day, deep thoughts change principles that change fast thoughts forever.

I've been running hard lately...lots of fast thoughts. I don't feel bad about that, but I am craving the steamy spiced chai of deep thoughts.

Don't let another week go by without dipping into the well of deep thoughts.

Spooling down

When I was in college, my father owned a Saab 900 Turbo coupe. It was gun metal gray with a black spoiler and leather interior. To a 21 year old car nut who grew up in Texas, it was as exotic as a Ferrari.

This little car was really an engineering marvel. It had a small, turbocharged 4 cylinder motor that allowed it to get great gas mileage and still provide gobs of power when called upon. Without getting into the mechanics of how or why, the turbo would continue to spin for three or four minutes after it had been engaged. A problem would arise if you were to engage the turbo and suddenly shut off the engine, as the turbo spun at 10,000 rpm or faster. Shutting the engine off would cause the oil to drain from the turbo while it was still spinning. Do this a few times and Ka-Blooooey...the bearings in the turbo would seize.

The remedy was to allow the turbo to spool down a little bit...sit in the parking lot for a few minutes to allow all the moving parts to slow down before shutting off the engine. It was irritating, but well worth the money saved in turbo repair.

Tonight, for the first time in a while, I let my brain spool down. I've been running hard lately. Work, house projects, family stuff, vacation (which was a riot, and riots are never restful). My head races from 5am until midnight with things like 'how do I raise margins and increase gasoline sales in Southern CA?' and 'where can I get a real sounding lightsaber for an 8 year old?' and 'how much are plane tickets to Seattle, WA' and 'please tell me that venue is air conditioned...".

Tonight, I sat on my back patio and listened to the cicadas. I didn't read. I didn't listen to my iPod. I just let my brain spool down....and it felt really, really good.

Adios, Alberto!

I about hit the ceiling yesterday when Alberto Gonzalez announced his resignation...not because I felt good or bad about him going, but because I had to wonder where his head has been since the beginning of this controversy.

For the non politically interested, Mr. Gonzalez is our Attorney General. He is a long time supporter/friend of President Bush who was seriously in the running for a slot on the Supreme Court that ultimately went to John Roberts.

Along the line somewhere in the Attorney General role, he fired (or played a part in firing) a series of District Court judges. I am not sure if what he did was legal or not. Either way, the testimony he gave to the inquiring senate committee was dreadful. All along, the President defended him, continually referring to him as "my friend."

Alberto may be a great guy at the barbecue, but on Capitol Hill he came off as defensive, smug, and occasionally unaware that he was, in fact, THE barbecue and the grill was on. It was really some of the worst testimony since someone debated the meaning of the word 'is'.

Democrats and Republicans have clamored for his resignation while Bush has smoked a lot of social equity defending him. Now, months into the mess, Gonzales resigns, having cost the President energy, time and precious credibility points.

My question is this: Regardless of your guilt or innocence, Mr. Gonzales, if you were willing to go back to Texas, why didn't you go months ago? The savings to taxpayers surely would have run into the millions. The President has plenty of things to worry about. You need to revisit the fine art of taking one for the team.

Speechless

Oh my word...

I actually saw this on Friday night.

Now I know we all have our blonde moments every now and then, but c'mon...

Here's the link to the vid: Blonde moment

All I wanna do is a-zoom-a-zoom-zoom and a boom-boom!!

I meant to include this on the earlier post. Let's say you have a lot of stainless steel, some propane, a golf cart and a colliope. What to do, what to do....

You build the world's only steel bodied, mobile colliope that shoots flames out each pipe as it's individual note is played. Did I mention it fired a 30ft flame out the back on command?

I wonder what might happen if you hit 88 mph in this baby....

Time out!

This morning I had one of those "Whoah!" moments...

I'm in my 30's! It seems like just yesterday I was in school looking forward to my 21st birthday. Where has the time gone?

Seriously, my moment today was the realization that the clock is ticking. My life is a limited commodity, and I have to LIVE every second of it. I catch myself way too often living for tomorrow, mentally fast-forwarding through my day... my moments.

Next time I turn around, I may be married with kids heading off for school, or the service... somewhere. And all that is routine today will all be gone. Don't get me wrong, there will be life to cherish then as well... but NOW will be gone.

If you're like me, you tend to be future oriented. Planning for, thinking about, and working towards tomorrow. But don't forget about today. Enjoy this moment as a gift.

Now here's a bad day...

My first thought was "but balloons are so safe!". Then I started to think...uh, fire and a big wicker basket...

SURREY, British Columbia (AP) -
A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in an RV park and campground Friday evening, injuring as many as 11 people, police and a witness said. Two other people were unaccounted for.

Drive on...

My major beef with video games has always been that most of them were patterned after sissy games involves balls or sticks. Finally, I have discovered a Man Game that makes noise and creates havoc without shooting people (a whole 'nother post, but I don't get that either). Yep, this is manstyle - Racing!

Some time ago I downloaded the demo for a game called Redline. It allowed me to race head to head via the internet with friends on four different computers. Since then I got the licensed version and let me tell you, I can flat out run like a scalded ape!

Here's a screen shot of me in a low speed corner, overtaking (and giving a love tap to) some guy in an old Corvette. This sort of thing knocks the other guy off balance for long enough to squeak by on the inside and, although officially discouraged, is perfectly legal :-)

I'm driving a race prepped Vauxall around Silverstone. The Silverstone track didn't come with the game but you can download all sorts of tracks and cars to add to your fun. The Vauxall is a great car - not as fast as the Vipers or Ferraris but this particular track has some gnarly S curves that I can navigate without lifting the throttle, gaining enough distance between me and the big dogs that they're still trying to catch me when I cross the finish line.

Think your fast? Download the demo and call me out, Bubba. Just bring something faster (or trickier) than my Vauxall.

Beer and Bears: A deadly combo

After the Cats warning, I figured this sort of thing would die down. Then today, it's Beer and Bears.

Even more proof that animals are dangerous: Bears Eat Man at Beer Festival.

Lock up your beers, people.

Coming Soon

This bad boy is going to be my next phone. The Blackberry Curve comes out on Sept.24th for T-Mobile.

It sports a 3.2 megpixel camera w/flash, can handle up to 10 email accounts, and here's the real icing on the cake...it comes with WiFi...

If anyone hears me singing "Oh Happy Day" on Sept.24th, you'll know why.

Hidden Talent

I wonder how many people are too insecure or never had the opportunity to let their true passion bubble up to the surface? My brother showed me this video a couple weeks ago, and it never ceases to move me.

Take a risk - don't shrink back, be who you were born to be.

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Itsy Bitsy Car

Saw this while driving around the other day...

It's cool and ugly both at the same time.

Does anyone have one of these? What is it?

I knew there was a reason I don't like cats...

Meet Oscar - The Cat of Doom! No, seriously, this cat, who apparently lives at a nursing home, predicts which patient will die next by curling up next to the unlucky patient. He has apparently proved his accuracy over 25 times.

You have never seen a man shoo away a cat as fast I would be, if Oscar walked my way.
Here kitty, kitty... NO - WAIT!

You can read the full story here.

WASP!

I don't mean white, anglo-saxon protestant... I mean the biggest flying, stinging insects you have ever seen. They have taken a liking to the office. These things are so big, they are getting FAA approval before they circle to land!

This one had a close encounter with my study journal... rest in pieces!

In case you can't afford an IPhone

This beauty belongs to a friend of mine...

You know it's going to be an interesting day when...

You step onto the elelvator at the office and "Come On Baby Light My Fire" is playing on the elevator speakers, and it's not The Doors version...instead it's Jose Feliciano (the Feliz Navidad singer).

Only in Texas folks...

The biggest lie

I keep having this recurring thought that I've got to share.

I attended a friends batpism yesterday. In my experience, most people who get baptized have something they want to leave under the water! And some people are able to bury stuff forever. But for most of us, myself included, sin finds a way of resurrecting it's ugly head. And that gets us so discouraged.

Here is what the enemy wants you to believe: if you slip up once you might as well throw in the towel. It's a lie. I think we let small failures turn into big failures because we get so discouraged. What we need to do is a little damage control via confession. Ok, I messed up. But I'm still doing better than I was. And I'm not going to let this failure keep me down. And then we need to bury the sin again! Instead of viewing the slip up as your defeat, defeat the enemy again via repentance!

I think I'm trying to offer encouragment to those who are discouraged. The grace of God has a way of turning what could be final failures into single failures! Don't buy into the enemy's lie! Don't throw in the towel.

What is your boat?

Saw this bumper sticker today, and it got me thinking about how likely it is that the reason most people live their entire lives never stepping out of their place of comfort is because we often times have this wrong idea that we actually have to "be perfect" in order to walk on the water.

So instead of listening and obeying NOW, we wait. And wait. And wait......until......we are perfect. Which is a real problem. Especially considering that it's NEVER going to happen!

I'm so thankful for people like Peter in the Bible. A man who was far from perfect, but who had the courage to break out of his comfortable spot in the boat and follow his master.

With that said, I'll pose this question...WHAT IS YOUR BOAT??

"Bonehead, aisle 4...Bonehead aisle 4..."

They say the trick to pulling a fast one is to do something that could, under some circumstances, be believable.

That probably does not extend to this guy, who swapped the Walmart price tags on a 42 inch Sony plasma screen, thereby reducing the price from $948 to under five dollars.

Granted, he had the sense to use the self-checkout line, but they snagged him at the door when he showed his receipt.

uGO to get iPhone?

I'm curious...

How many of you are going to go stand in line tomorrow to purchase the iPhone? How many of you are already in line?

Throw me a comment!

Me? Well I'm not quite ready to make the jump. I use an unlocked/unbranded Sony Ericsson Z710i & a Motorola KRZR through TMobile and will stick with this for a while - at least long enough to read YOUR reviews and to become convinced that it's worth switching over to AT&T for. But the phone certainly looks amazing and I can't wait to hear all about it...

However, on a side-note, in case there is anyone out there who feels "compelled" to grab an extra iPhone tomorrow and send it my way, please don't ignore that tugging... After all, July is "Friend iPhone Appreciation Month." :)

I know... Shameful.

Overheard last night at a basketball game in The Colony...I swear!

I couldn't help but laugh last night as I overheard this at my friend Brian's son's basketball game:

"Jimmy got tired of pushin' the boat in by hisself so he put a drop hitch on the golf cart. He's real proud of that."

I bet Jimmy's real popular at the clubhouse too.

Monkey see...monkey do...

I was driving back to the office from lunch, and I see this Porche with a monkey at the wheel.

What?

Did you read that correctly?

Yes, a monkey! Like the one in the movie Outbreak!

Anyway, people don't believe me when I tell them that weird stuff happens to me all the time, so I sped up so I could take a picture on my phone. Here's the proof...

Signs that I definitely live in the suburbs...

This should be outlawed...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

This past Sunday, my friend Brian and I (along with his family and the Hobbs family) hopped into Brian's Imperial Cruiser (A.K.A his Chevy Venture mini-van) and made the trip over to the Ft Worth Museum of Science for the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit.

The place was mobbed with Star Wars fans and their families. We waited 20 minutes just to get tickets to see the exhibit. The bad thing about that was you could only go into see it in 15 minute intervals (once inside you could stay as long as you wanted) but our time was 2 and 1/2 hours from the time we bought our tickets!!

Luckily, we were allowed to see the rest of the museum exhibits to help kill that extra time. Once we got in, there were some pretty cool props from the movies, like Luke's speeder, Darth Mauls doubled bladed light saber (the real one!) but for the most part I was disappointed. Maybe it was the waiting for almost 3 hours that did me in. Or maybe it was because there was not one sighting of Jar Jar Binks. Or maybe the costume (pictured above) of Han and Chewy looked a little too worn down...who knows? But at least we found a great chinese restaurant on the way home...love that orange chicken!

Childhood decisions

I am working with someone on a project at work right now...without making it too clear, let me say they are in their twenties and a highly professional type...fun, but completely capable of running the world without breaking a sweat.

Recently, her corporate email server went down for a short period of time and she had to give me her personal email address. I won't give the address here in full, but be aware that it contained the words "Bratty" and "Pants". Her explanation was "I've had it since I was 13 and couldn't bring myself to change it....".

I see.

Childhood decisions can chart your course in life. Choose wisely.

EDIT: Bratty Pants herself later confessed to me that she's not quite in her twenties. I can't tell you her age, but it rhymes with QWERTY. What can I say. I'm too smart to guess high. Always guess low :-)

Talk about green

There has been torrents of rain here where I live over the past 6 weeks or so. In fact, I haven't had to turn my lawn sprinklers on once.

My yard is so green, it looks like a leprechaun lives here...here's a pic for proof.

And yes, I know my flower bed needs to have the weeds whacked and my sidewalk needs edging...

Putting my marine biology degree to good use

Yes, you read that right. I actually have a degree in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University.

Last weekend, my friend Brian and I went fishing, and I ended up catching the biggest fish of the day. A 6lb large mouth bass.

Most of you who know me would never believe me unless I had photographic evidence of the catch.

Well, here's the evidence...And no, I did not keep the fish...

Life imitates are department

Snakes on a Plane. It's more than just a bonehead movie. It's real life.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Customs officers at Cairo's airport have detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.
The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carry-on bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.

Snakes freak me out in the worst possible way. I would have without a doubt messed my drawers if I had been sitting next to a bag full of snakes...

You saw it here first

Ok, so it's Wednesday afternoon, and I had just left the local Mexican dive with a few co-workers. I pulled in to the 7-11 gas station across from the QT station (gotta support my company, ya know!) to fill my Accord with petro.

As soon as I pulled onto the concrete apron, I spotted something - a Ford Escort. I'm not sure what year it was, but it was made during that eight year span when every automobile Ford made was an Escort. Several things made this particular Escort stand out.

1) It was the Goofy High School Girl edition, noted by the turquoise paint.

2) The Goofy High School Girl had apparently sold said Escort to a Dukes of Hazzard fan, as in the gangland tag on each door, one could make out a distinctive '01', thereby making this the Goofy High School Girl General Lee edition Escort.

3) In the front passenger seat was a woman holding what had to be a 17 inch CRT monitor on her lap. Let's ponder that for a moment. Do you know how much these things weigh? Or how much room an Escort has in the rear hatch? The only explanation I can come up with is that as part of the Goofy High School General Lee edition, they welded all the doors shut for that cool "slide through the window" thing.

I wandered around the pump to find one of my co-workers standing shaking his head and laughing.

I blurted out "Two words: Hillbilly Laptop."

Luckily, my cell phone has a 2MP camera for photo ducumentation...

Another resounding endorsement for home schooling

Apparently some kids at Trimble Tech high school here in DFW failed to take an exam that was crucial to their graduation. As a result, the school board is not wanting to let them graduate. Of course, this led to parents showing up with signs.

Take a gander at the sign this woman is carrying and tell me she's not the PTA president, please. "Let Are Kids Walk"?

It seems the news is not all that it seems...

It's been a weird weekend for news....one in which things came to light that either radically change the storyline or put an unimaginably bizarre twist to things. Two examples...

Last week, there were a ton of news stories about 11 year old Jamison Stone who shot a wild pig in Alabama. That alone is interesting - even more so that the hog weighed in at over 1,000 lbs. Today, the rest of the story surfaces: The 1,000 lb wild hog had been a 1,000 lb farm pig only four days earlier.

It turns out that the pig's former owner had quite the conundrum. At that weight, the hog was not useful for either butchering or breeding. Large animals like that just don't taste very good, and as for breeding, well...even sows have some sort of preferences, and Fred the Pig didn't fall into the Highly Desirable Category....so they released Fred to a hunting reserve.

Rather than shooting a wild pig in the backwoods of Alabama, Jamison actually shot a farm pig on a 150 acre fenced hunting preserve. For those of you without great spatial imaginations, 150 acres is little less than a quarter mile by half mile. The question of the hour is not "How did he do it?" but rather "Could he have missed?" In a fenced 150 acres, I could have hit that pig with a shopping cart.

By the way, Jamison's dad did the logical thing. He immediately registered monsterpig.com and tossed up a website.

Second example - and I'll keep it brief...this guy who flew back from Europe with TB, seemingly unaware that he was a risk to his fellow passengers. Does anyone else find it interesting that he is a personal injury lawyer, OR his new father in law is a research scientist with the Center for Disease Control?

You cannot make this stuff up.

Heck of a deal

All day today, Chipotle is doing a food drive. For every canned good you bring in, you get a free burrito.

Now those of you who've ever had one of these things, knows what a good deal this is. These things are freaking humongous!!!

In 20 minutes I will head out of my office, can of soup in hand, to the Chipotle around the corner. Now grab a can of soup and meet me there in 20, but don't speed!

I'll bet he's glad he didn't marry a Shivo

Can we just let the lesson be "don't kill people because they might recover?"

WARSAW (Reuters) - A 65-year-old railwayman who fell into a coma following an accident in communist Poland regained consciousness 19 years later to find democracy and a market economy, Polish media reported on Saturday.

Wheelchair-bound Jan Grzebski, whom doctors had given only two or three years to live following his 1988 accident, credited his caring wife Gertruda with his revival.

"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Grzebski told news channel TVN24.

Hello Friends

Children of the 80's, remember when the writing for Dallas went way off the deep end and they killed off Bobby, the saintly brother to J.R., and then spent an entire season trying to explain it, only to start the next season by having his wife wake up from the dream to find that he was in the shower?

Shower's over, baby. I'm back.

I am resuming the blog effective immediately, with the following governing principles...

True to form, I'm going to pretty much write what I am thinking about when I sit to the keyboard. I don't have time to plot series', host forums or that sort of thing. For what you pay, it's a good service. No whining.

I am opening the comments but will probably bounce more than I actually post. Mostly because I can. Search the constitution. Commenting is not an inalienable right.

Be it understood that if we are friends in the analog world, then reading my blog in the digital world does not constitute keeping in touch. In fact, if you know me but your only connection is through the blog, that is decidedly creepier than people who don't know me reading the blog. Pick up the phone. But pull over to the side of the road first.

Blog on, peeps. Talk at you tomorrow.

Word Up!

Many things about God are a mystery to me. One of the mysteries I love the most is how I hear from Him through the Word - the scriptures.

Sometimes when I need direction, God talks to me through a teacher, mentor, or friend. Sometimes through impressions - the world just seems to fit this way or that (of course, these always have to align with scripture). But He also talks to me by directing me to His Word. I query God and I read a piece of scripture that seems tailor made to my question. The mysterious part is how that all happens... sometimes I pray for an answer and I barely have the question formed in my mind and - BAM - I have found the answer. This is not how it goes most often, however.

Usually I wait, and pray, and wait, and look, and ask, and search, and question, and wait... and then when I least suspect it, I find what I am looking for. That very thing happened to me today - I have been on my feet, face, and knees asking God a particular question for weeks. I couldn't sleep last night - I was exhausted, but just couldn't sleep - and so I opened my Bible. At 3:00 this morning, I got my response from God. In a text that I know I've read before, but I SWEAR I've never seen... God addressed my particular circumstance perfectly. I don't know everything about how God talks, and I am frankly a little suspicious of people who ALWAYS seem to hear from Him clearly and immediately, but I do know He does talk. And I keep learning how to listen.

Goodness!!!

I discovered something at Starbucks today that will most certainly make you slap your grandma....

The Marble Loaf.

But not just the Marble Loaf... It's the Marble Loaf TOASTED. Heated. Warmed.

Holy smokes. Sweet Moses..... REALLY, really good. It's like toast with blueberries and other types of goodness.

Crunchy on the outside, Pentecostal revival on the inside...

Mr. Roboto

Ever since moving into my new house last summer, for the very first time in my life, I decided I would be the one doing all my own yard work. Let me tell you, this spring with all the rains we've been having, my yard has needed cutting at least twice a week. Mind you, I only cut it once a week though...I do have a social life, you know?

Say hello to the LawnBot

If the makers of the LawnBot have their way, teenagers everywhere will soon be scrambling to find a new means of extortion employment. The LawnBott is an environmentally-friendly electronic mower that runs for up to 4 hours on a single charge. It can mow through over 33,000 square feet of sod in the process. Owners are free to let the LawnBot mow on its own, navigating the treacherous outdoors by way of a number of sensors that detect grass height, moisture, and more. The mower also comes with a remote control for those power-hungry landscapers among us.

And why will I not be running out to get this thing you ask??? The LawnBott will cost anywhere between $1,749 - $2,899, with the top of the line model featuring the ability to universally control it from any Bluetooth-equipped device.

A little too steep for a mower...besides, how will I be able to workout every week if I'm not pushing my trusty lawnmower??

Say hello to the Pearl

I purchased my first Blackberry over the weekend. I have succumbed to it's calling :)

Seriously, this thing is revolutionary to me. Email, phone, IM, Camera, Video, and a whole heck of a lot more.

I almost messed my pants when I got my first email on it last night...good times...

Bose Beautiful Silence

First of all I want to give a shout out to my good friend Colby. Thanks for being an awesome friend to me bro.

My parents gave me an unexpected gift last week, a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. I have absolutely no idea how they work, but boy do they ever work.

I was in the office yesterday, sitting at my desk, using these headphones with my IPod. After an hour of working while wearing my new headphones I realized that I missed three calls, a co-worker trying to get my attention, and a friend who came in the office, chatted and left - and I didn't even see them.

For a focus nut like me, these things are beautiful.

Hillsong: All of the Above

Just got the latest album from Hillsong United this week (props to Drue!) and have been listening to it over the past few days. Every year Hillsong usually release two albums - one is their main big church live album which is recorded in front of a humungous Sydney crowd, and the other is a live album by their youth worship team, United. Now almost without fail I find that I prefer the United CD, and many of the best songs on the main Hillsong album are ones that were first done by United, and generally the United versions are better.

But this year, with All of the Above, United have done something a little different - they’ve done away with the crowd and recorded this in the studio. At first this seems a little odd, but the more I listen the more I feel that the album doesn’t suffer at all. In fact, being a studio album rather than a live one gives the songs a lot more space and musical texture. There are a few higher energy songs showing that United still know how to rock out, but overall the album is a lot slower and more reflective.

All of the Above is an excellent, although different, album from Hillsong United. Although it doesn’t instantly hit you hard like their previous album United We Stand and my other all time favorite More than Life, I think this will prove to be the United album that I listen to most. It’s sonic textures, meaningful lyrics, and gentler tone really draw you in and immerse you in the heart of the music. Definitely a high water mark for United, and Hillsong music as a whole.

Germaphobia

Who knew there were so many of us who hated germs? I am not at the door knob washing phase, or laying towels on the floor stage, but you know what they say; "The first step is admitting you have a problem." BTW, the picture is of the payphone outside the 7-11 near my office.

A duet I don't want to repeat

I was doing the laundry this past weekend, changing the loads when all of a sudden the washer stopped working. One red light was illuminated, and because of that light, nothing was working. I tried everything short of kicking the machine to get it sorted. Nothing.

I called Mom and asked her if she knew what to do - she didn't. I Googled the make/model of my washer to figure out what to do - and voila, I had my answer. I simply had to push a button, three times to "reset" the washer. As I approached this magic button, with a sense of accomplishment, I set forth to push it in all its glory.

It was then that I noticed the bold print under the aforementioned button.

"Push three times to reset the washer when the control lock is illuminated".

Ugh.

Why is it that sometimes the hardest things to see are the elements right in front of you?

IPod spring cleaning

I took on a project yesterday that needed to be done: I cleaned out my ipod of stuff that I'm never going to listen to again. I had so many songs/podcasts that I have downloaded and listened to and so I went through the task of going through them to make room. There's some things you just aren't going to listen to over and over.

Some got trashed. Others got put on my external drive for future use/ listening.

Moral of the story: I've got 7GB's of space open on my 30GB ipod. Plenty of room for new stuff. Although I'm wishing I bought the 80 GB.

From Cocaine to Foie Gras

A friend of mine emailed me an interesting article on Friday entitled, "How the Crack Dealer Became a Chef". It's about a chef by the name of Jeff Henderson.

Chef Henderson has a fascinating story - grew up in LA, became a crack dealer, went to prison, learned how to cook, finally got out of prison and worked at several restaurants and now..........he's the executive chef at the Cafe Bellagio in Vegas.

Talk about life change...wow.

Retro at work

Throughout the new office, they have curtains made out of ball-bearing beads. Kinda like they used to do back in the 70's. Very retro looking. I'm not sure if I like that look just yet, but here's a couple pics I shot of it for you to decide.

So what do you think?

New office view

Here's the view from my new office in downtown Dallas. Not as high up, or spectacular as the last one, but I can live with it. The new building is interesting though. It feels like I stepped into one gigantic IKEA store.

The place is still under construction above and below my 12th floor office, so it's been somewhat of a pain dealing with constant hammering, drilling, and the like. It'll take some getting used to.

Snow?

Ok, it is the Saturday before Easter, and it is snowing here in Dallas, and it's 38 degrees.

How crazy is that?

Moving on up, to the east side...well, maybe not

These are 2 pics of my current office in Dallas...it's sweet. 30th floor, corner office, fantastic 360 degree view of the downtown skyline. The view from here at night is spectacular. On a clear day, I can literally see downtown FtWorth (which is 30 miles away).

Alas, today I will be leaving that gorgeous view. After 6 years in this office, my company has decided to build (which they did) a new office building, smack in the middle of the downtown Arts District. I will be on the 12th floor, smaller office, and not a corner one. Yes, I know what you're thinking, it's not that bad...but I got spoiled. I'll sure miss the view here. I'll post some pics of the new office on Monday.

Happy Easter everybody! See you at church on Sunday...

Nintendo- All the games online!!!

Oh my.





100 titles.





2 Hours gone.





The year 1989 all over again.





Good times.





Here's the link:


http://nintendo8.com/toplist/