Jamison, where is thy sting...

I was rolling through one of those "Amazing photos" collections and came across these and wondered where my old Pal Jamison might fit into the scene.

Brother you've got to get out there and fish some more. That little pond you mentioned where all the first hang out in the middle because it's so popular, get a boat because these dudes are waiting on you.

Lost

Last night I skipped church due to feeling rather lousy. My 6 month cold has begun this year, and my head was thus full, I was coughing like crazy, and generally just wanted to lay down. So, I vegged out in front of the TV.

Normally I don't watch much television. I watch movies on IFC and TCM, and occasionally flip for awhile, but I don't have any shows that I turn to each week.

In the vegetable phase I watched the first two episodes of this seasons Lost. Holy crap! That was good television. I had no real idea about what the show was about before I began watching other than it was about a bunch of people trapped on an island. And I was a little confused at first about what was going on, but I was quickly hooked.

For a show that could easily be some crap Survivor remake, or cheesy like Gilligan's Island, or even something like Lord of the Flies, Lost does a great job of making its own drama.

While some of it is a little overly sentimental, especially the flash back sequences, it creates enough plot twists to hook you early on.

A great example of this was in the first episode, where several of the survivors sail out on a raft to find help. They think they see another boat and send up a signal flare. When they reach the other boat they are greeted by rednecks who demand that the survivors give them the 12 year old boy with them!

Gripping stuff that kept me watching both episodes back to back.

I hate to admit it, but I'll be tuning in next week to see what happens.

Luke Dream

I wouldn't post something like this if I remembered my dreams every night like most folks do. But, I rarely remember my dreams, so I wanted to post it.

My Dad and Luke and I are all in this big city. It seems like we're in New York and in a very crowded, large structure. I think it's Grand Central Station. Dad is holding Luke and Luke wants to get down and walk around.

Dad sets Luke down and he runs away, disappearing into the crowd! I scream for him and Dad and I immediately start the search.

Awful things go through my mind. He has been kidnapped and will be sold into white slavery. He ran out into the street and was run over. He fell down and was trampled by pedestrians.

We look and look, I scream and cry till my throat is raw and I spray blood from my mouth. Finally, we get to this park area where no one is around. I think it's Central Park.

Dad sits down, exhausted. I continue the search.

I run out into the street and it's deserted. It's like everyone in NYC has disappeared.

I run down the middle of the street, trying to scream for Luke. Then, I see a little figure silhouetted against the light of a store window that glows in the approaching dusk. I run so fast I think my feet leave the ground.

I pick up my little boy and hug him so hard I have to check to make sure he's ok. He smiles at me and I awake, sobbing.

A Solution (or Two) to the Fuel Problem

Don't ask me why but, I was just thinking that if everyone who passed away was cremated, we could use that energy for running power plants.

So, I searched the web for burning dead bodies for fuel and came up with this article. It makes sense to me!

There is so much stuff that can be used for fuel. Why aren't we using it?

Webzine Plans

1. go ahead and make a banner, if you would, please, sir! make something that looks "professional". Brew's is nice, but we need something simple, streamlined , and magazine-like for this.

2. we need web space on which to host this. any ideas, guys? we might need to all front a little cash ($5 max).

3. The site is not interactive, so we can't just go to it like the blog and type stuff in and post it ourselves. but, it's a start. What we can do is just email all our articles to me or whoever decides to be the Webmaster. Or post all articles to the blog (after spell check and editions have been made!!!) and it's a simple matter of copy/paste to the site and saving it to the server (quite simple).

4. I labeled the pages just to have something on them. So, these are all subject to change. For instance, we can change "Entertainment" to "Music" or whatever. Y'all just let me know.

Let's work this out. We already have the product. Now, we just need to put all the info into it. Let's decide who wants to do what and go from there. We also need deadlines. Do y'all want this to be bimonthly, monthly, weekly? Let's do something we can definitely handle at first. Then go from there.

Comes A Time

On September 24 a large gathering congregated at the Greek Theatre in Berkely, California to pay tribute to the late, great Jerry Garcia who died 10 years ago.

By all accounts it was a momentous occassion. In traditional Dead style, the celebration consisted of some funky jam sessions. Some of the jam scenes greatest players strapped on their instruments and laid it all out before a sold out crowd.

Nugs.net is streaming the entire show for free. I believe you have to be a registered user, but it's free and painless to register.

Click here to start streaming. I'm currently grooving to a nice rendition of Eyes of the World. It has a nice mellow groove that's perfect for the end of a work day.

The setlist consists of classic Dead tunes, sure to make everyone happy (or at least Mullins, who will probably be the only person to listen anyway).

Enjoy!

Lineup:

Bob Weir - guitar, vocals
Billy Kreutzmann - drums
Mickey Hart - percussion
Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay - backup vocals
Bruce Hornsby - keyboards, vocals
Trey Anastasio - guitar, vocals
Warren Haynes - guitar, vocals
Jimmy Herring - guitar
Michael Kang - mandolin, fiddle (String Cheese Incident)
Jay Lane - drums (Ratdog)
Jeff Chimenti - keyboards (Ratdog)
Mark Karan - guitar (Ratdog)
Robin Sylvester - bass (Ratdog)
Kenny Brooks - saxophone (Ratdog)
Gloria Jones - backup vocals (JGB)
Jackie LaBranch - backup vocals (JGB)

Setlist:

Ollin Arageed
Help on the Way
Slipknot!
Sugaree
Loser
Brown Eyed Women
Dark Star
Bertha
Eyes Of The World
Standing on the Moon
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Stella Blue
The Wheel
Uncle John's Band
He's Gone
Franklin's Tower
ENCORE
Brokedown Palace
Dark Star
Touch of Grey

Click here for a streaming
broadcast of the show.

Astute commentary

I figured I would end my day of actually only doing one reformat, one meeting and on 20 minutes session helping someone format a spreadsheet to Excel from a poorly constructed Word doc with a bit of controversy. I think this guy with the sign has a wonderful point.

An Example -- Archeological Expedition

Four hundred years ago, Native Americans ruled what we now know as America. They lived by the land and died by the land. They made beautiful art with such skill that even our modern day artisans cannot exactly reproduce it. They are priceless treasures, made by people who understood and cherished this place perhaps more than we ever could.

But, did you know that it's entirely possible, and even likely, that you could unearth some of these ancient works of skill within merely miles from your own home?

In fact, an increasing number of people are discovering such items as ancient pottery, stone axe heads (or celts), spear heads, and arrowheads on their own or adjoining property!

Alabama native and Cherokee descendent Charles Sipper has discovered over one hundred artifacts ranging from basic grinding stones and arrowheads to fine spearheads and celts withing walking distance of his rural Alabama farm.

"My family has hunted those fields for five generations," says Sipper.

But, how does one go about finding arrowheads? One might ask. It's much simpler than you might imagine!

"Our system has worked for over a hundred years," Sipper says.

"All you need is a four foot stick, a good bucket, and a plowed field."

As we stolled across the field, located in a low area near a local creek, Sipper explains the perfect conditions for hunting arrowheads.

"Prime condiitons include having and field that has recently been bottom-plowed and has been drenched by a good, hard rain. The bottom-plow turns the earth over well and the rain washes the dirt form the rocks, allowing you to pick them out. Then, you use your stick to check out whether you've found a rock or a leaf before you bend down to pick it up and place it in your bucket."

Mr. Sipper adds that a sunny day is best, too, since the rock will usually showw up better in the sun.

But, what about people living in towns and cities?

"Consider how much earth is turned during the building of houses in towns and cities," says Sipper. "You can find more artifacts after a good rain there that you might out here."

Since most cities would be located on old Indian camp sites, due to prime location factors, this proves to be true!

"It makes me sad that so much of those old artifacts are being covered by parking lots, though. I hope more people find them before they're all paved over," cites Sipper.

Finding these priceless artifacts is within your reach. All you have to do, is look!

Light Bulb

OK! Here's an idea for a site:

What are we all good at? Telling stories, getting into trouble, having fun...stuff like that, right?

So, how about we formulate a cool site based on adventure fun you can sort of create yourself.

An example might be spelunking in your city's drianage system or fishing your county river (tips) or any number of other crazy things we've done or thought of before!

I have at least three ideas already!

It doesn't have to be limited to outdoor stuff, either. We could give ideas/reviews of movies, indoor adventure games (rock walls, lazer tag type things, etc.), and whatever else we could come up with.

Can you see where I'm going with this? Yes, it's all about fun, entertainment, and adventure!

What do y'all think?

Blog This

There was a lot of discussion about this yesterday, and I wanted to bring it back to the top.

I am not a blog Nazi. Really, I'm not.

Zeig Heil.


Oops, that just slipped out. I don't know what it mean, really, its just part of….a song…yeah… a folk song.

The question comes down to what we want to do with this blog. What is its purpose? I created the blog after much discussion of us, as a group, pulling our creative energies into something tangible. We talked about creating a webzine of some sort, but were unsure if we could ever pull it off.

The blog, then, was started as a sort of stepping stone. It was a trial, if you will, to see if we could all actually post to something other than e-mail. To see if we were able to come up with creative stories, reviews, discussions and post them regularly.

To me, this has always been the purpose of the blog. I have tried to shape it into something resembling a webzine, or at least the more professional type blogs. Going with this idea there is a certain type of style, and content that belongs in the blog, and certain things that do not. We should spell our words correctly, and use a fair amount of proper grammar. Spacing out paragraphs makes the blog easier to read.

Creating content that is interesting is also a key factor. The discussion about not adding personal content isn't a matter of security. Certainly no one should include their social security number, home phone line, and the like to the blog. There are plenty of weirdos out there who would abuse this information.

But, what I am talking about has to do with the more mundane tid bits of information that, as friends, we pass along to each other. Posts that briefly discuss our weekend plans, or only pass along information about how we are doing, in my opinion, don't belong on the blog.

That's not to say personal stories are a total no no. I think the key is making it interesting. There is no reason to post that you bought some new socks over the weekend. However, if transvestite midget tried to steal those socks on the way out of the store, that should get posted.

Jamison was correct in that a good picture, makes a boring blog much more interesting.

I'm not griping at anyone in particular. We have all posted things, that under these guidelines, shouldn't be posted. What I am saying, is that in the future, I would prefer us to make the blog move more towards a webzine, than just clearing out our inboxes.

Look, I'm not a nazi. I'm not going to take anyone's posting privileges away if they post boring junk. I'm not going to send nasty e-mails when you post something about your weekend, even if it is boring. I'll even back down completely if we decide, as a group, that we don't care to make this "professional" and continue to add "personal" stuff.

Dirty Little Secrets

I was just thinking about how we all view the world and the psychology behind our actions and feelings. I have an aversion to entertainment because I've seen it literally grow over people I love like kudzu. I disdain sports for the most part because the jocks picked on me when I was a kid.

So, I shut both out of my life to a point. I set definite boundaries to keep myself from being consumed by the things I dislike.

It's a sort of hedging lifestyle akin to Pharisaism. I say to myself, "That's going too far, so I'll only allow myself to go THIS far" and I draw the proverbial line in the sand.

I think the tricky part is not binding this on anyone else. The Pharisees did and totally ruined Judaism. But, don't we all draw lines for ourselves?

I guess the most important thing to do is tell people that I set boundaries and why I set set them for myself in my own personal life. But, at the same time explain that I don't expect the same from them or look down on them if they don't live exactly like I do.

Having life more abundantly is the goal. How that abundance is attained is a different journey for everyone!

A toast then

Di applaud you for standing your ground on not drinking. It can be dangerous on multiple levels relative to the amount of consumption and can also make one very silly.

What’s the hang up with drinking? Not speaking for myself we’re all relatively mature and capable of handling ourselves in respective fashion.

I know we’ve trod down this path several times but I would like some of Di’s input because she is younger than the rest of us and also a young Christian. So Diana, with out BCV form the peanuts, do you not enjoy drinking at all, didn’t feel like it, didn’t like or trust the situation, didn’t want to appear as a Christian and someone who may take a couple of sips of a libation or what?

It’s known that I’m pretty liberal on the subject the ingestion of alcohol, the subject of not the consumption of, mind you. Chuck and I stashed booze at FU sometimes and I usually have a couple of Corona’s at the house, though a six will tend to last much longer in our fridge than in other folks. I will sometimes get a beer when out with my family, Mexican food is a weakness usually opting for a “grande dos equis.” When Jules and I are out with just each other we’ll get a stronger drink or two sometimes.
When Jules goes out with her work friends I trust her to be responsible.

I’ve seen everybody (sans wives, except Jules b/c she was part of the core) in this group have drinks and they could each give to take their beverage no worries.

The other night I gathered a bit of a surprise party for Jules at a local karaoke place, being a BYOL establishment I did. We mixed a few drinks for the table and had a really good time. No one was near trashed but we all felt good and were all good enough to drive. Everyone there knows that we are parents and have an active belief in God and there wasn’t any judgment on the subject. We were just having some fun.

I just think it’s funny that I’ve had conversations in this circle where we’ve mentioned that we’ll drink; wine, beer or other choices and that’s ok but there is still a stigma placed on ”having a drink.”

I know all the arguments to “appearing and acting like a Christian for the sake of others” and I believe that’s correct along with “drunkenness” being sinful.

On a side note Jules and her friends have gone to a place called “Cotton Eyed Joe’s” for a girls night or what ever and each time Jules has gone she’s seen a lady named Cathy Hensley. Cathy goes to this place every Friday night and is a solid and active member of our congregation. One night Jules told her that she was surprised to see Cathy there. Cathy’s response was that she did enjoy a beer or two and enjoyed hanging out with her friends there. She followed that statement with the fact that she sort of considers CEJ’s her mission field having successfully invited several of her friends to church with her the next Sunday.

I think the subject of dancing could fall into the same discussion because for as scary as I am dancing I do love to shake a tail feather. Though I’m sure my Deadhead undulations are far from Di’s coordinated two-stepping.

I'm officially a Myrlte Beach College Student

I had a great weekend. For some reason it did me absolutly NO good, though, because I'm still really tense. I guess it's just one thing after another.

Friday night after work I went to my first dance club.... *gasp* I must say, I love to dance, so I had fun. Thankfully I went there with a friend of mine who's probably the most beautiful girl I've ever known, so there were no " no thank you I'm married" situations. It was a pretty positive experience, aside from the peer pressure to drink, which I did not do. "Come one Diana, try it, it just has a little alcohol." "Would Casey have just a little hamburger?" People under stand my position now. Casey's the PETA member I've mentioned. But I had fun, it was a good learning experience, and I"m proud of my good behavior. Next time I'll go to the '70's club.

Saturday I had off all day long!!! So I spent it with my hubby. We went to the Greek Festival, yay for Diana's heritage, no yay for not having any money to buy Gyros with. Then we went to the other mall in town that I don't work at, which was cool. We splurged a little and he got a book and I got a new shirt I can wear to teach in.

Sunday, Church, lunch at Sticky Fingers (MMMMM), nap, went to meeting at work, came home and watched a movie.

Good weekend, but I'm still stressed out. This weekend will be cool too because I have another Saurday off after my boss realized how run down I am....and we get paid on Friday!!!

Love you much!

For the Sake of Argument

I posted this to the Writer's Digest forum on which I'm registered:

Want a fun, social, and easy way to keep your writing exercised? Set up a blog with some of your closest friends, or a Flog! After my five male friends and I graduated from college, we all went our separate ways, went into the military, got jobs, got out of the military, went to grad school, etc. We emailed each other for a while, since it was cheap, easy, and readily available to most of us. Then one of our more extemporaneous and adventurous group members discovered that he and his wife, who is finishing her doctorate in French, had the opportunity to live in France for a year. Rather than simply write a journal of their adventures in Europe, he decided to set up a blog (http://www.midnitcafe.blogspot.com/). The vicarious adventures he took us all on eventually led to us starting a group blog (http://midnightcafediscussions.blogspot.com/). Ever since, we have posted everything from vacation updates to personal failures, struggles, and triumphs on our blog. I exhort you, dear writers, to form up your little community and Flog your friends. You'll find out more than you ever knew (sometimes more than you want to know) about them and have daily, even hourly opportunities to spread those writing wings!

Maybe we'll all get more traffic. Maybe not. I do encourage the writerly members here to register on the Writer's Digest forum, though. You can writer, read, and discuss there. I go there daily and I love it!

You can pick your mandolin, but dont pick your friends mandolin...

Sorry to knock the two best blogs I've seen in a while down a bit, but I thought the group would enjoy this...
Also, I hate emailing pictures, so this is one of my favorite aspects of the blog... I also hate posting pics to the blog because it only works properly 45% of the time. So I will refer you to my webshots page ...

Friday night me and Sip had another performance for some group of old folks at our church. I must say that our duet was tighter than ussual. I don't know if this had something to do with the fact that we took about 60 seconds to go over a part I had trouble with or if the $400 microphone we sang into has been blessed. But it sounded good.

Then on saturday night, we headed down to Josh's folks place. See webshots page for an outside shot of the house we did the music making in (music making = something his family has done since 1967 where many family members show up in the house that Josh's dad grew up in, which is now his workshop, and people from all over town come to listen... it is so 'real').

It wasnt the most crowded music making ive been to, but it was fun. It was me, Josh, Josh's cousin (who can play guitar wonderfully.. and owns a $3,500 guitar), josh's uncle who plays a dobro/resonator guitar, and josh's cousins boss, who plays the guitar... oh, and me. Alof of family (4th cousins) and towns folk like to sink songs while the band people play... it is fun and worth the trip.

Again, ill refer you to my webshots page... album titles "blueGrass"

Response Ability

Yes, I know the word is actually "responsibility". My ability to respond to situations that I have some measure of interest or control over is of concern to me. As I have mentioned previously, my level of work responsibility now is not even close to what it used to be.

While I used to be somewhere toward the top of the work "food chain" in my last couple of jobs, I am now in a situation where I'm learning things from scratch. As a result, folks don't expect too much of me. I'm not really used to this, but I like it in many ways.

When I was in the Air Force, I supervised and trained pretty much everyone in my job field. So, I made sure that over 20 adults were taken care of work-wise. I liked it because I had it organized down to a science and everything flowed pretty well.

Then, I got out of the military and started in with Lockheed Martin. My whole level of responsibility shifted from being in charge of people to being in charge of systems and computers and software. I hated it at first because I prefer to be with people and computers can be more baffling to me that human beings sometimes.

While I wasn't in charge of anyone, I did still work with some young military folks. The people who came through my shop were vastly different. I saw single mothers, homosexuals, 30-something recovering alcoholics/dug-users. They all had issues and problems. The one that caught my attention was a young, married Navy guy. He was barely 19 and married to his high school sweetheart. They were from a small town in Ohio and apparently he wnet into the Navy to provide for them and also give them a sense of adventure and escape from small town life.

He asked me questions about God and religion. He wasn't from a particularly religious background from what I could tell, but he was very curious. He told me once that he was a twin, but his twim brother was stillborn. He seemed sad and lonely. Then his wife left.

She said she was tired of being alone. He worked a schedule even weirder than mine and his wife didn't know anyone in Augusta, Georgia. She went back to small town life and an ex-boyfriend there.

He went back to the small town on two weeks of leave soon after and was scheduled to come into work immediately afterward. Whe he didn't arrive, his Navy supervisor and a guy in the Air Force went to his apartment. The Air Force guy had a key to his apartment since he was house-sitting while he ws on leave. After banging on the door and yelling for a while, they entered using the key.

He used a hunting rifle to shoot himself in the head. He had lost hope. It was sad and shocking to us all. At first, I felt responsible. I wished that I had given him more hope when we talked about God. Then I realized that I did what I could with the knowledge I had of him. In retrospect, I realized that he had chronic depression. I didn't recognize it at first because I only saw and talked to the guy at work. But, it hurt to see him go that way.

I suppose I say all this to get back to the point that responsibility is a word we sometimes use to refer to others rather than ourselves. I try to live by the term "personal responsibility". You are responsible for your own actions and you must live in such a way as to try to show others how abundant life can be. You can only do and say so much and then it's up to others to make a decision for themselves whether or not they want to live an abundant life full of contentment. The parable of "soils" comes to mind.

Maybe other people's soil can be affected by ours. Sometimes, there are just too many thorns and you come too late to help weed them out. Life and death happen, often.

The Problem With Pumpkins

So, Amy and I are planning on having a pumpkin carving party in a couple of weeks. When it comes down to who to invite, we are at a loss.

The problem is, that most of our friends, the people we used to invite over, are no longer here. Some have graduated and moved on, others are doing like we did last year, and spending this year in France. Amy is at the point in her academic life, that she does not spend a lot of time on campus, and thus does not know a lot of the new people.

This has led me to contemplate inviting a few folks from work. Now my co-supervisors (or at least the ones I like) are no problem. I can invite them with no strings attached. The issues come when I think of inviting some of the reps.

The first problem is that I, in no way, want all of the reps to come to my house. I don't have the room, for one thing. But mainly, I just don't particularly care for some of them, and have no desire to spend any of my non work time with them. But can I invite some of them without inviting the whole lot?

I could do it fairly secretively; therefore those who aren't invited won't even know the party is happening. They can't be offended by a non invite, if they don't know they weren't invited. This is slightly risky considering our office layout is cubicles which puts everyone in very close quarters.

The other issue is inviting any reps at all. I have a good work relationship with most of my reps. We get along well, I can joke and chat with all of them, without relinquishing any of my authority as a supervisor. But, if suddenly we are in a more social setting this could change. Will I lose my authority if they see me with a handful of pumpkin while carving out Spiderman? Will they think less of me because my mix tape includes Neil Diamond and Dolly Parton?

You see one of our supervisors parties with some of the reps. He even dated one of them. This causes him all kinds of problems. The ex-date is constantly complaining that he mistreats her and has to have sit downs with the big boss. A lot of the reps get unruly when he is the only supervisor on duty, because they feel he is a friend and not a supervisor.

I don't want any of this, of course, but I'm not sure a simply pumpkin party will cause any of it. Some of the reps are really nice people, and have personalities that I know would gel with mine outside of the office. It would also be nice to have a few friends in which Amy and I could hang out with.

So, should I try to invite a few reps, or just ditch the whole idea and only include my supervisors?

Another Day at the Office

Last Thursday, just about quitting time, I was walking the floor at work. I noticed that one of my co-supervisors was sitting next to one of the reps, DeLena, having a chat. At that moment I didn't notice anything unusual about this and kept walking.

"Mat" said DeLena, "Can you come here?"

As I turned around, I immediately noticed the tension between the two.

They both angrily tried to explain to me what they were arguing about. Their voices raised about a half notch and DeLena expressed her opinion that she was tired of talking about it, while Monique said there was more to discuss.

Noting the seething anger between them, I immediately asked them both to get off the floor, and out of earshot of the entire staff. We walked into the training room.

Immediately both of them began to shout at each other.

I got their attention as best I could and asked them both to explain, one at a time, what had happened.

Apparently this argument stemmed from a previous argument a few days back. On that occasion, Monique approached DeLena to work some manual accounts. DeLena, being on a call at that time, lifted her finger in a motion designed to ask Monique to hold on a second while she finished the call. Monique took offense to this action and angrily noted that she would not be back. De Lena then had to find another supervisor to get her manual assignment.

Now, on this day, Monique was approaching DeLena to explain that she had not meant her action to be rude. An argument then erupted.

While Monique explained her side, DeLena violently interrupted. I chastised her for doing so and then had to do the same to Monique, while DeLena explained her side.

All the while I'm trying to figure out what in the world I'm going to do. Had it been two reps I could have handled it easily. But since Monique is a supervisor I have no authority over her. I don't have the right to tell her what to do, much less belittle her in front of a rep. Both ladies were extremely angry, to the point that simple suggestions were going to do no good.

For a moment, I thought about leaving and getting our Human Resources lady involved, since she is trained for this sort of thing. But I felt that leaving the two ladies alone, even for a minute, would be disastrous. There was no way I was going to drag them both out onto the floor while we looked for HR.

After the two explanations, both ladies began shouting, SHOUTING, at each other. I asked them to calm down, and did my best to reiterate both sides, noting that each person felt the other person had been rude.

They both felt this was a reasonable explanation of events, right before they began shouting again.

Oh my gosh, I don't get paid enough for this.

After a couple more rounds of shouting and me asking for some professionalism and common courtesy, we all agreed that this was going nowhere and to split up and get back to work.

The door opened to the faces of every rep in the building staring at us with bemused smiles. I was later congratulated by a number of folks who thought it was a great show.

After contacting HR, she began having sit downs with everyone involved. I had to write a report over the whole thing.

I really don't get paid enough for this kind of crap.

Chops

Sorry to be a blog hog...
wanted you guys to see my latest look before it grew back and I changed it...
A college student at church refered to it as a "Joe Dirt" look without the mullet! HAHA!

All thumbs... and getting paid

I have managed to successfully not go to work all day yesterday and today. Well, actually I did go yesterday but aroun 5pm to reboot a server. Surprisingly, ive managed to get LOTS of work done having high speed at home and my laptop here.

Anyway, today I went fishing at 6AM (well, arrived at the pond at 6AM) at a pond all the guys at church love to get invited to... I was the lucky one this time.

I looked at my right thumb after all the bass I caught and realized their teeth sure can do a number on your thumb...

I wont bore anyone with bass pictures this time. We were catching them so fast we hardly had time to take photos...

Oops, how did that get here? Like the new facial hair design? "Joe Dirt" chops...

Getting up at 5AM has never been so easy...

time killer

This is sort of a unique site for killing time r..e..a..l..l..y.. s..l..o..w..l..y..

Blam

Blog spam should be called blam. That's my random thought for the day.

Hey, all you blog experts out there... I'm putting together a blog for the ladies at church. How do you make it so the main page doesn't have my personal profile on the right side? This blog has everyone's names listed, and that's what I'd like to do there.

my homegirl

Yeah this is me and Food Network star Paula Deen chilling out. I spent a day shooting her and Bobby Flay in some tailgating cook off stunt. Al Roker was slated to be on set but with an unscheduled back surgery Paula had to take his place. It was a fun day and Paula each time we shot together was very cool. We had to steal her and Flay inbetween the larger shoots segment tapings for various PSA's and promos.

Things you couldn't do but can now... although, you really don't want to...

A friend here in town is quitting his job soon and has recommended me for the job. I probably won't get it becasue they more than likely will promote internally, but it got me thinking about this school I work at.

Before I am gone, I want to have a photo shoot (by myself) in this school with photos of me doing things in school that you weren't allowed to when we were in school...

For example, I will probably take a picture of myself (using the timed shutter) standing on a desk... or me sitting in a desk but blowing a bubble with gum... or a photo of me running in the halls...

I thought it was be a fun study in anti-social behavior... of course I would do it when no one else was around so I guess it doesn't count...

I wanted to get some ideas from yall as to what other kinds of pics I should take...

'preesh.

Movin' on up

Hey guys! Just wanted to sing my praises for a bit...as of October 1st, I'm the new head teller at the bank. It comes with a raise and a lot more responsibility. But I think I can handle it. I will be the other tellers' direct supervisor, be responsible for all the money in the entire bank, do cash shipments, and anything else that comes along. The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that I have never been in a supervisory position before and I hope I won't be too soft. The tellers are my friends, and I hope they will respect me enough to know when I tell them to do something I'm not picking on them or being mean.

I think it will work out just fine, but just keep me in your thoughts as I make this transition to alot more work and a little more money.

Night Terrors

Last night was rough. We have had some nights like this before and thankfully they are few and far between. We did our regular routine of having supper, giving Luke a bath, and putting him to bed around 8:30 P.M. I got to bed around 11 P.M. as usual, and couldn't get right to sleep. About 11:30, Luke starts to cry.

At first it's a soft cry, then it gets louder and stronger. Rachel gets to him first and tries to comfort him. I walk in to see him sitting bolt upright in his crib. His eyes are wide open and his mouth is open, consistently inhaling just to get air for the next scream. We rub his back and try to lay him down to go back to sleep. He resists. Not only does he resist, he literally acts like we're huge monsters out to eat him!

He's terrified and screams louder. We pick him up and he thrashes around like a fish on a hook, trying his best to get free, like his life depended on it! We try giving him water. It works at first. He drinks deeply. Then he slowly lowers the cup and realizes that he's still captive and begins to howl and thrash again. It was like he was possessed by a demon. His pupils are dilated, he won't make eye contact, and he's strong, VERY strong.

We take him into the living room and get him settled down. I go to bed since I have to wake up the next day and work. Spectacular, patient, wonderful Rachel stays up with him and comforts him, finally returning to bed about an hour later. 2:30 A.M. : SCREAMS! We get up again. "Do we need to go to the hospital?" Rachel asks. "I don't know."

He's worse this time, but we put on a video for him and give him pretzels and water. After he calms down a bit, I get online and search for [toddler awakes crying uncontrollably] which brings up a bunch of info concerning "night terrors". All of the characteristics are right on the money from what we can tell at 3 A.M. The worst part is the fact that you can't do anything to stop it or help your child. You just have to let it run its course.

If you touch them, talk to them, or try to pick them up, it only gets much worse, as we discovered. In any case, it's apparently normal for toddlers Luke's age as long as it doesn't happen every night and several times a night. Fortunately, he has not had an episode like this in a while and this is the worst so far. It's a hard thing to watch your sweet little child suffer alone, trapped in a place between our waking world and the dream world. Everything is real, but nothing is real or make sense in that world.

It terrifies me to be stuck like that. I can't imagine what it must be like for such a little boy. Y'all say a prayer for him, please. It was really scary for all of us. He's much better now, but stress brings on night terrors, so it could definitely happen again. Hopefully, it won't be like last night.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

It hit me as we were riding the metro train today... we have been on planes, trains and automobiles on this little vacation! Hence the title.

See my webshots page for more pics... Click Here...

Brew was right, the trains in and around DC are a BREEZE to work. The buses suck, and I never rode them. So we found that we were about 6 miles from the nearest train station, which ironically was the furthest train station from DC... so we drove to the station, parked (for free) and walked in.

You have to buy tickets to ride the trains. So, being dumb, we buy 2 tickets, worth 10 bucks each... after the day was done, we realized 5 bucks each was plenty for us since we only rode to the national mall and back, so I ended up selling my 10 bucks to some other people.

We take the 30 minute train ride to the smithsonian station, which comes out via escalator right smack in the middle of the mall grass area. We go to "the castle" and get a little map and head out to the air and space museum. The castle is the original smithsonian building which is now sort of a "start here" place. Looking behind us, we notice the washington monument and decide to look at it on our way back. I got bored fast... on the off set, it SEEMS like a cool place to go, but I could have sat and watched a Discovery Channel show about space, rockets, or the Wright Brothers and been just as entertained and informed.. whats worse, I wore flip flops so my knees were killing me. After being bored enough, I said lets eat. There were some over priced disney-stlye eateries in the air and space museum, but the prices were higher and the food was not near as good as disney counter service...

Now bear in mind, we had been told "Oh, you could spend all DAY at the smithsonian" (and I am sure you could if you had all day to be educated out the wazoo) so I hadnt planned to do anything BUT that this day... Just keep that in mind...

At this end of the mall you go right by the capital building which was neat so i took some snaps...

We then walk across the mall to the natural history joint. After ignoring about 4 homeless guys all saying the same scripted message and doing the same scripted movements, we arrive. This is where the big elephant is. It is cool I guess. If we had a kid this place would have been better but the floor you walk in on is basically a zoo where all the animals were stuffed. It was very crowded so I didnt feel like just stopping and looking at things. Oh, this place also thinks that evolution is something to be bowed down to, worshiped, and have its toe nails polished with your tax dollar's tounge. Very off-putting.

Upstairs had a bunch of minerals and gems... all the rocks were... neat... but the phrase "million" and "billions" of years were used alot too. The hope diamond was up here too, but guess what? So many women oggling it, i couldnt get a shot of it...

So we leave, and go to the american history museum. This one was my favorite yet. Mainly because i like american history, but also because all the crowds didnt want to be bored with history. But it excited me.

So we get done with this museum stuff early because I felt like i was being forced to learn stuff and was tired... but when we emerged I got LOADS of energy because we were almost next to the washington monument!

"Let's go up there!" I say to Larissa, pointing at it... she smiles in a way that says "You were complaining of being tired and whining and now you want to march up a hill?" and she says "Okay!"

This thing was pretty cool to look at. It doesnt take much to impress me. When you try too hard, I am not impressed (as with the museums). But this impressed me... we walk around to the back thinking this was the end of our trip and we were about to head back to the train when I see the lincoln memorial emerge from behind the washington monument... cool! Look Larissa!... i snap some shots then realize... this end of the reflecting pool is where they built the new world war 2 memorial! COME ON!!!

We hike down another hill. This memorial is beautiful, but nothing great. No names. The veitnam memorial is more touching due to the names. This just has states listed... but it was pretty. We walk through it, i take my flip flops off and walk through the fountain and we leave it, looking for the vietnam memorial. I forgot where it was, after a little searching we gave up and headed back to the trains (turns out it is right next to the lincoln memorial, which was too far to hike anyway.)

On our way back, we have to pass the washington monument again. Out of the corner of my eye I look towards a tree clearing and there sits the white house. Wow! This was the icing on the cake for me. Loved it.

We got back home around 6:30, got some ruby tuesdays take out, and brought it to the room to watch college football together. Yes, my wife likes it too. Tennessee is losing right now... gotta go (wait, they just scored during my spell checking, go vols!).

Oh, they say Washington DC is a cheap place to take a vacation because everything you go to is free and it is true! The smithsonian museums (including all the art museums we didnt go to) were all free, and of course any tours of buildings are free... this turned out great becuase I SO wanted to see some memorials but was afraid I wouldnt have time. Thanksfully, so many of the museums were boring.

Cluelessness

This is for Jamison's coworkers.

A Celebration

Amy passed all of her exams! It seems there was some discussion over the one she thought she failed but in the end they gave it to her. Ultimately they decided that though she did not answer the essay completely, she demonstrated she understood the subject matter well enough.

Hoorah!

Kiss your spouse, pet your dog, and drink a toast.

PS I'll soon be Mr. Dr. Amy Brewster!

PPS I hope this pushes naked pictures of Jamison down some.

Fun in the hotel room

Get your minds out of the gutters!
It isn't often I am presented with a king size bed... and you all know how much I love to run and jump onto soft things...
I begged my wife to take a few pics of me doing such a thing on this hotel bed... she agreed...

Unfortunately I had no clothes on, fortunately, I had photoshop...
I thought long and hard (no pun intended) about posting this or not... it IS the WOLRD WIDE web and all...
I suppose if any of you guys or gals get offended, you are all admins for this blog. Delete it and no questions asked. If we all start getting sleezy posts to this blog, ill delete it then too. But I know the guys will get a kick out of seeing their good pal Jamison in natural habitat.

The naked male body is really unattractive... I look in the mirror after a nice shower and think "There is a good looking man." Then I see these pics of me flying nude in the air and think "Am I really this horrible looking???"

Manimal

A short visit to the Atlanta /Hartsfield/Jackson International airport is all it takes to decide that the line between man and animal is very thin.

The problem is that there is no such thing as a "short" trip to said airport.
The parking lots at this place are miles long. Luckily, they offer “Park and Ride” which is a necessity. Otherwise, arriving 2 hours early would be way too short of a time.

A great reason to arrive at the ATL airport early is the fact that if you miss a parking lot, guess what? Take a nice tour ALL THE WAY AROUND the airport to get back to what you missed… Friends, this is not the Airport on “Wings”, this thing is easily the size of my neighborhood… which houses 300 to 400 familes.

And the tips! My goodness. You gotta tip the park and ride guy (he is nice enough to help the ladies get their bags on and off the bus, worth a few bucks at least) then, my wife wants to check our bags at the curb (which saves loads of time) and ya gotta tip them. Which we didn’t do because we didn’t have any singles. But we got our bags back, so I guess she wasn't too offended.

The inspiration of this blog was the way in which you are treated in this establishment. The word “cattle” kept coming to mind. You arrive and all you see is a sea of people. Luckily, 50 percent or more are good looking people. I didn’t get a “Wal Mart” visit feel.

I have a thing about crowds to begin with, all I could do is look at the constant flow of human bodies and think “There are too many people on earth at this point in time.” Since we checked our bags at the curb, no need to stand in a long line at the ticket counter, thankfully, because each line was at least 20 people long. But the security line was insane. Picture the inside of a bank. The little “mouse maze” you have to go through to get to a teller… now, in your mind, increase the size of this bank by about 30 times. Now, picture the mouse maze as being about 50 people long and about 40 rows deep… welcome to ATL airport.

The folks working there are okay nice…. At least they have southern accents. But due to the flow of people, the employees were forced to “herd” us from place to place, If they had been on horses or had sheep dogs I would not have felt any different that I already felt, being grouped to areas like an animal. Some people would take their shoes off without being asked and walk through the metal detector. I was upset enough at this point that I refused. No one asked me to either. I felt like I accomplished something. The lady in front of us had a lot of “carry on” items… oh, a shopping bag full of about 20 small items (no lie, it was bigger than your average beachball), she had a laptop, and a standard size suitcase…
Lady! Relax! Check a bag for the love of God!

SO we are through the metal detector, and for some reason, the fat lady watching the scanner had to take our laptop bag and take a gander in it, then tossed it back on the belt as if it was a bag of stale potato chips.

Once we finally got to our gate (after a subway ride) we got some food and sat in a gate that was not ours, on purpose… this gates flight left later than ours, hence, less people. Why people want to be REALLY CLOSE to their gate is beyond me… sure, crowd up, stand in line for half an hour only to be the first to get on the plane and sit in uncomfortable seats for another half hour…

Well we get on the huge plane and there is an empty seat between my wife and I... would luck smile upon me again? My last 3 flights I have been on have allowed me a spare seat or a whole row to myself! Would the flight gremlins bless me again!
With each person that came in, I had my fingers crossed... I was sometimes distracted by the very fat man across the aisle from us who was eating Ben and Jerry ice cream. A bomb could have gone off and he would not have known, he was FOCUSED on this ice cream... oddly enough, this fat, ugly man had a shopping bag from the "Body Shop" around his knee...?

Well, my wish came true! No one arrived to fill the empty seat, my wife and I were blessed with tons of leg and arm room! And we arrived safely, got a sweet rental car thanks to her boss being a "gold premium member" (A new subaru lagacy) and we checked into our hotel and went out to eat at a local favorite resturant which was awesome... and her boss paid...

Eh… just a few peeves and a few nice things to throw yalls way as we fly to DC. I am on the plane now typing this (actually I am spell checking it and about to post it now in the hotel room). As I looked out the plane window, flying up above Atlanta, all I saw was smog smog smog… this town is nasty. But if Mullins moves here, I am sure it will have more advantages than I thought possible. That man has a way of finding the best in any city… Luckily work was slow today and about 2 people at work know I am gone.

Potty Training Post

If you want a good laugh, hop over to my blog, http://lilsipcafe.blogspot.com/ , and check out my latest post about yesterday's potty training adventures. It was too long to post here.

Requested Disney Blog

Day 2, Monday 8/22 (pictures included in original, see my blog)

All day at MGM. No problem because of sit-down shows and a stroller-nap. Awesome first whole day in parks. We started out early and walked on everything, no lines. Never needed FastPasses for Rockin' Roller Coaster. FPs for Tower of Terror were nice to have a couple hours into the morning. Walked into Little Mermaid. Ariel was not very good. I wanted to jump in and show her how to sing "Part of Your World." I'm not sure if she was trying to put her own spin on it, but the rhythm was all wrong. But Luke was enthralled. Loved it overall.

Walked into Playhouse Disney while Jamison and Larissa went to Indy. Jamison got to be an extra. While waiting for them to get out of Indy, under the "Big Hat", Mickey Mouse comes right up to Luke and he gets a little one-on-one time with the Big Guy. Most magical moment of the whole trip. Completely unexpected, unplanned. Mickey, of course, is Luke's favorite. BTW, the big Sorcerer's hat is a great place to sit for a break. Shady and several secluded benches. We had lunch at Backlot Express. Excellent Mediterranean food. My favorite counter service meal. We planned the rest of the day's shows from here.

Walked in to Beauty and the Beast, near front on left side. Great view. Awesome show. Walked into Millionaire. I was next in line for the Hot Seat but the show ended!!! Argh!!! I tried again by going around and back in to the next show, but still didn't make it. Lesson learned: Random guesses seem to always get the Hot Seat on Fastest Finger. I did get in the top ten by actually answering once. But mostly it's luck. Your only real chance for the Hot Seat comes in being first during that first round. There's usually only time for 2 people. I guess they get 3 sometimes if somebody loses early. Also, this is dangerously addictive. The rest of the trip I kept thinking, how can I get back to Millionaire?

We rode a couple FastPass rides while Luke took his stroller nap (thanks to Jamie and Rissa for watching him). Walked right on RnR even in the afternoon. Chalk it up to previous night's EMH. TGMike's Best Days make a huge difference! (Check out his site and you'll see what I mean!)

Had plenty of time to hop over to Epcot for a World Showcase counter service dinner. Server in China apparently did not understand about my MSG allergy, because she said they "didn't have it" but I had the reaction anyway. Food only fair, what you'd expect from any Chinese place.

Park-hopped back to MGM for Fantasmic. Luke was not scared (as some toddlers are), but he doesn't scare easily. This was truly an amazing show. Very crowded though. Changed the poor kid's poopy diaper in the middle of 5000 people. Crowds only a slight problem when "mobbing out". You get a great view from anywhere.Back to hotel.

Night-night!

Web Designer

Woohoo! I've landed my first paying web design job! I don't know the details yet, but it'll be geared to the tween crowd. A couple at church is starting up a business and asked if I could do a website for them! I'm doing it on the cheap because it's my first try "for real." And it'll be great advertising for me. Wish me luck!

For all you Comedy/Katz/Todd Berry fans...

October the 10th, Todd Berry will be in Murfreesboro, TN at MTSU. A rare treat since he is normally up in canada or new york....

Tour Dates

Daily Affirmation part 2

Josh mentioned in a comment how he loved the hang in there baby poster scan i sent him....
for the rest you yall, here is it... let it inspire you to be hard workers in your field.

And below, a little inpirational picture of the good doctor playing his guitar... and below it, a fun excert from that particular episode...

Dr. Katz: (slowly picking a small tune on his guitar) "I'm gonna pick... a little, a little guitar here..."

Laura: (says nothing, looks on, bored)

DK: (Still playing slowly, softly) "Do you... do you know why I, I'm gonna pick a little guitar?"

L: (Dryly) "why?"

DK: (Starts up a tune and sings) "I'm just a guitar pickin' fool, fresh out of guitar picking school... lookin' for a guitar pickin' gal."(short pause) "I bet my guitar pickin' life she'll be my guitar pickin' wife, and we will pick our guitars, teeth, and drool."

L: (Looks on, bored)

DK: (Still singing, appears to be breaking into the bridge of the song) "Well, sometimes ya kno..."

L: (Stops him abruptly) OKAY!

I love a good eBay "weird" find...

Charlie Brown, he's a clown...
Click the link above, perhaps one of your wives is in need of a sexy anniversary gift...

Disney pics

Hey all! The rest of our Disney pics have been posted to webshots.

http://community.webshots.com/user/bignlilsip

There Goes the Pledge...

Just saw a news flash that said a federal judge had ruled that reciting "The Pledge of Allegience" in public schools was "unconstitutional". The atheist lawyer carrying this whole thing through was already defeated in two lower courts, so he must have found himself an "activist judge" for this ruling to go through. Just found it interesting.

3-2-1 CONTACT!

despite the fact that I have drilled into everyones brain how easy it is to email me and more importantly, how much FASTER i respond to emails as opposed to voicemails, there is STILL a handful of people who insist on leaving me a voicemail.

One of the worst is a guy who is the same age as me.... a sort of jock... I dont think ive ever gotten an email from him that i didnt send first... normally, when he leaves me a voicemail, ill find out it is him, delete it, then email him and say "What did you want? Please email it."
I swear, ive done this about 20 times since he has been working here...

SO i made up this email to send to everyone... is it too harch?


this is a friendly reminder...

Emailing me = I respond superduper fast and get your message (9 times out of 10) within 30 minutes of you sending it and fix your problem or reply to your message faster than it takes to microwave a pop-tart (which is 3 seconds)

Leaving me a voicemail = I respond to you after responding to all my emails I got that day. This is assuming I remember to check my voicemails (which I do maybe once a day, as opposed to the fact that i check my email about 431 times a day... yes, even from home). And it can take me up to, but not limited to, 24 hours to get to your issue or reply to you...

I'm no math junky, but looks like emailing me is the numero uno way to contact me!
Thanks!

Your daily affirmation

I just wanted to give all some sound advice as you begin your day in the working world.

what a job!

Have I ever shown this picture to you guys before? Can you imagine working one this?! I'm not really afraid of heights per say but this would totally freak me out.

Cuckoo

Hey guys! Last night Charlie got cast in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest! He'll be playing Cheswick! Yay!

what about here

So who would visit us if we moved here? Jules is not thrilled with the prospect of moving to Hawaii for a couple of years so I’m going to look at a few other places. Time-Warner (CNN) is located in the ATL, obviously and Jules has conceded that living there might be a bit easier. She’s also said that she could live in NYC for a while though that sounds not quite as ideal as a 72 degree ocean bound paradise. I’m also going to look for something in Maryland which is the HQ for the Discovery Networks.
So why the interest in leaving Scripps? My work load is getting lighter and lighter (problem with in productions as a whole) and what I’m doing is getting dumber and dumber (ditto). My next large project is to remove one minute from a two minute on-line segment please enjoy a sample of what I will be dissecting by scrolling to the bottom and clicking "watch the video".
I've applied for a gig inside Scripps at GAC, Great American Country which is a country music channel Scripps has just acquired but I have no idea when I’ll hear back from those folks.
I’m just antsy and wanting a change of pace and local news has very few positions where I’d be making the money I am here, table scraps as they are. so if I'm going to try something different it might as well be really different.

3-day Novel

Ever wondered what you could do in three days? Look at this site! I think I'll try this next year! Looks like fun!

Crikey

I found this on a German website with a lot of other too creepy for me to deal with critters. It's hard for me to imagine a snail this big but there are a lot of things I've never seen before. I tried to link... http://www.evertebrata.de/

With Sadness Comes Rejoicing.

Read one post down, before you read this one.

After hearing the sad news of my grandfather passing, mom called to give me some wonderful news. My uncle Jerry was baptized on Friday.

His wife, my aunt, is a Christian, but he has always been pretty ambivilent about the whole thing. He has always came to church on Sunday morning, but any attempt to talk to him about religion has always met resistence. A few years ago my dad started a Bible study, but it didn't last long. Jerry had no knowledge of the Bible and little interest. He used the defense that there were so many religions out there, who can tell which one is right?

Dad and another member of the church in Claremore picked up a study with him a few months ago. They continued to be met with resistence, and decided they would start with the very begining. Slowly he became more accepting that the Word is Truth. He called my dad when he learned that he was leaving to be with my grandfather and wanted to be baptized before Dad left.

This is very exciting stuff. I've been praying for him for years.

Passing

My grandfather passed away this afternoon. I believe I have mentioned before that he had alzheimer's disease. Over the last year or so he has steadily gotten worse. My parents visited often, and each time they reported that his health had decreased.

During the last six weeks we began preparing for his death. His mental health had deteriorated to the point that he rarely knew who anyone was, or what he was doing. He began urinating on the couch and rugs. He slept most of the day, waking only to eat a little bit.

When I saw him last, a few weeks ago he was nothing like the grandfather I knew. He was frail and brittle. He was then sleeping in a hospital bed with a nurse coming in each day to take care of him.

A few days back he stopped eating or even drinking water. My folks left yesterday to visit him on what they expected to be his last few days. He died about 15 minutes after they arrived.

The funeral is Tuesday night. Please keep all of my family in your thoughts and prayers. Though this was expected, it will still not be easy.

Disney Pics

Here's the long-awaited link to our Disney pictures. I've only posted about half of them so far, so there will be 2 albums eventually.

http://community.webshots.com/user/bignlilsip

piericing

This is wild. Maybe someday I'll try something like this...

Ouch!

I got my ears re-pierced again last night (ie, for the third time) because the holes had closed up. It really wasn't bad (especially compared to childbirth!) but I can't believe I did this when I was 7 years old! Anyway, I'm looking forward to accessorizing again. I used to wear big earrings back in the late 80s/early 90s. Along with my big 'ol hairspray-stiffened bangs. Hmm, I appear to be missing the pic I wanted to post for everyone's amusement. Oh, well. If I find it I'll post it later.

fishing pals for jamison

Jamison I think I've found a couple of guys you can spend some quality time with fishing. From the pic they've come across a perfect place to find some real gems!

Exams

Amy finished her final exam Thursday. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, well wishes, and e-mails. They all meant a lot.

She is pretty sure that she passed three of them, failed one of them, and has no idea on the last one. That one she says she answered the essays in detail, but is not sure whether her answers are going to be what the professors are looking for.

She won't know the results for a little bit. In fact one professor has left the state for a conference and won't be back until sometime next week. I'm guessing it will be a couple of week, but I don't really know.

Thanks again for your help.

Lost and Found

I lost the River City best first novel competetion. Publishers have to sell books and I keep getting rejections saying something to the effect of "We really like your novel, but it's too hard to sell." Oh well, the market goes in circles. Maybe it'll be publishable one day. Until then, I'll just keep writing and enjoying it!

I found this cool competetion online! I love opera and I enjoy singing along with my boys Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras. I think I might actually send in an application and audition CD. My cousin, Ric has a small recordding studio n his house and I just need two arias to start. I would LOVE to sing for a living! Don't know if that would be the end result, but it would be fun to do the contest anyway!

Movie Quote

Just for Jamison, a classic Bob Hope zinger.

Last minute plans pan out for the best...

After work, I got home around 5-ish and thought "I have some free time on my hands... what should I do with it?" Well, the back yard needed mowing. My truck needed washing desperately, and due to me ran-sacking the guest bedroom, I should have cleaned it up.

Should I go fishing at my favorite hide away? The coosa river, right off the toll bridge road about 5 miles from my house. Pull off to the side of the road, then desend a 20 foor cliff due to erosion and hide form everyone? Yep, thats what I will do!

This place is great. No one fishes here. Mainly because you have to go through a few feet of woods, and the river flows quickly, so morons assume you cant catch bass in fast flowing water.

Well, I dont mean to bore any of you, but I caught 5 fine looking bass that looked as though they had never seen a hook in their life... virgins if you will, to being caught.

I hadn't had that feeling in so many months, of a fish pulling at the line, or hitting your lure deciding if they want to take it or not. I dont suppose i can describe this feeling to anyone who doesnt appreciate it.

I love to fish. And through the years, I have learned to love bass. Much like deer hunters love deer, and appreciate deer and respect them more than ANY PETA member ever could. With bass, I ALWAYS release them. I want them to spawn, and make more bass. I want them to thrive. I actually used to sympathize with them when I would catch them, now when I try to get the hook out, all I can think is how awesome God is to have made such a sensitive looking animal that has skin that is and touch as nails! The skin arounth the mouth looks like paper and you could rip it easily, but it is one of the toughest biological material on earth! Hard to beleive.

I love fishing, but cant decide if it is more fun alone or with a friend. Although, I can rarely get anyone to go with me, but at the same time, when I go, I decide I want to go now and I go. Very few people are waiting by their phone for me to call and invite them at the last minute. But living so close to so many fishable waters is wonderful.

Each time I catch one, I am in awe of their speed, their quickness, and how strong they are. When one hits, they will fight so hard you will swear they are huge! Only to see they are maybe 1 or 2 pounds.

I caught about 5 bass in the span of an hour and 20 minutes. They arent the biggest bass on earth, but considering the speed of the river, I felt very good about my catches. The last pic is of the last bass I caught. Bad pic angle, but it was big, prob 2.5 to 3 pounds. Sipper, does the worm look familue in these pics? Catches bass every time!

Tiny guy above, first catch of the day... Got progressively bigger as I learned where they were hiding....I LOVE the stripe on the one above... the one below may have been 3 pounds...

Aint the setting beautiful? Not a man in sight....

Fun saturday, helpful monday

Saturday, I call my good friend Charles M. M. and ask him if he would like to go to the pond near his house and fish. He says sure and we meet there saturday afternoon. Below is an early morning picture of this pond I took monday morning when I went there to fish (and caught nothing... last time I go there to fish i think):

Chuck arrives, but only has a peir fishing pole (enormouse in size) so we run to walmart to get him another reel for his smaller rod... Luckily, walmart was about 3 miles from the pond. Long story short, we caught nothing. I think too many people fish there and keep what they catch so no breeding goes on there. All the big ones sit in the middle and are never touched. Well, we get in chucks jeep and drive around some of the trails around this pond. There literally must be MILES of 4-wheel-drive-only trails around this place. And Chuck has no fear of going over any hill. Tip of the day; dont ever let chuck barrow your car. He uses them the way stress test operators use cars. But what fun we had... Sip was invited, but ... :(

So Monday the youth minister got a plan together to make about 200 to 300 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Why? He called several hotels around town and tried to get a number of how many folks were in those hotels who had fled the storm. Youth kids showed up, as did people form the ages of 25 to 85 to donate chips, cookies, and ho-hos (yes, ho-hos).

With all the folks there making sandwiches in assembly-line fashion, Henry Ford would have been proud! and withing 20 minutes we had over 200 sack lunches! We then loaded them up in my turck and another guys SUV, loaded everyone else up in the youth bus and took off to the hotels with those in need staying in them.

Not really much to say here, but it was nice to do some VERY easy work that took VERY little time that was easy enough for people from the ages of 10 to 85 to do. But it meant a TON more to the people who we took the simple lunches to. Doing good for others is very easy. Easier than people think. Try it! Youll like it!

Below, some youth setup the sack lunches so everyone who needs them can come down to take them after we called their rooms... Also below a young boy accepts the stuff we helped bring up from his moms car...

We didnt provide the items below, but we helped a lady get them up to her room from her car...

To the right we talk with some folks who had come to the lobby to accept the lunches...

Sorry about this being such a messy blog :(

SPIDER! He is our hero!

I am going to throw down with 3 blogs today. Mostly picture-full.

Friday, I took the day off. I took my laptop home thursday night so I could work from home on friday, with my main reason to save some gas. I was actually able to be pretty productive at home, answering emails and my cell phone. Even taking control of a few users desktops from home to fix problems.

I also decided to deep clean my office at home, I came across a few boxes we never unpacked from 3 years ago when we moved into this house! Several items belonged in the guest bedroom that was next to my office. One such instance, I was talking on the phone to Larissa as I put something in the guest bedroom, in the middle of a sentence I scream as girly-like as a man possibly can... I saw this:


Now, I hate spiders.... right up there with dolls. But everytime I see a huge one, i HAVE to take a photograph of it, because people simply will not beleive how big it is when I tell them....

Here is another shot of the monster....

Larissa panics on the phone:
"Whats wrong?!?!?!"
After more yelps, I tell her. Her solution? "Kill it with a shoe!"
Mine? I get the bug killer and spray him one good time. He runs and hides. I find hima nd spray hime again. He hides again. And I cant find him.
Here we have a nice, clean bedroom, and when my wife gets home, the bed is moved, all the junk under it is all over the floor, and the sword I have that is a replica of Glamdring from LOTR is out (I was using it to move itesm from under the bed).

I never found the spider....

Money, That's what I want

Can I just complain about the obvious and say how expensive it is to be a college student? I mean, it's bad enough I've spent $3500 on tuition, $25 on a stupid parking sticker, $150 on a meal plan, and $400 on books and supplies, but today I had to go buy and $80 piece of PAPER so I can use a certain website. And my profesor was a jerk about the fact I hadn't bought it yet. GRRRRR. Ordinarily I would say something like "at least my house isn't underwater" but I don't feel like it. Love you! :)

Turn it OFF

Something one of us said in another post about getting depressed over all the huricane stuff got me thinking. After September 11, lots of people got down and depressed about all the bad stuff going on in NY and around the world. Sometimes it's good to have info at our fingertips, but sometimes, you have to shut off the news and just relax. I had to do this after 9/11 and I am doing it now, too. I'm not saying we shouldn't care or respond to needs. I just think we get information overload too many times. The news gloms are all going to cover this stuff ad nauseum and give every gory detail, courtesy of Geraldo and other annoying exhibitionists. Let's just know the troubles, fill the needs, and not let it get us down. It's a time to help others and not hurt ourselves with doomsday news. Just a word of caution and encouragement from your friendly neighborhood Sip!

Is This Who I Think It Is?

Click here to find out.

The bio says she grew up in Alabama, so I'm guessing it is. But my memory of the face is long gone, so I can't be sure. You can listen to audio clips of her music, which for my money is pretty weak.

And do the words "dry humping" come to mind to anyone else here?

More Traffic

There are tons of sites out there designed to increase your blog traffic. Most are basically the same, and two of the most popular are, BlogExplosion, and BlogClicker. They work on the concept of you earn views to your blog, by viewing other people's blogs.

It is easy to sign up and there is not software to download. Give them the url for the Café Discussion blog and start viewing other people's blogs to earn credit.

The systems are pretty straight forward. You pull up some other random blog, and have to keep it up for 30 seconds. A little timer counts down your time and then you have to click on an assigned number to view the next blog. Click too early, or click the wrong number and you earn no credits. Do it right and you earn good credits.

Credits are then cashed in for your blog. Each credit puts your blog in the random selection for someone else to view, and thereby earn their own credits.

I am more familiar with BlogExplosion, but the others seem to be about the same. BE has what they call mystery credits as well, which they will give you periodically while doing your viewing. These have to be manually assigned to your blog, which can be done by clicking on the link on your main account page.

They also have a battle of the blogs game, and something called blog rocket.

My suggestion, if you so choose, would be to get it set for you to earn credits by viewing other blogs, minimize the page and continue with your regular work. Periodically pop it back up and click on the appropriate number. This way you can earn credits all day, but waste very little of your work time. The blog rocket is also a quick way to earn a few hits.

I figure most people earn their credits in this manner, so most of the hits we'll earn will be from people who actually look at our blog for about 2 seconds. However, I do get comments from some of these folks, and I'm sure with our propensity for hot topics we'll get more than our share.

About the privacy issues. Don't give out important information like SS#, credit card numbers of course. I wouldn't release where you live, give a phone number, or even your e-mail either. Vagueness is the key when you are talking about specific means to actually find your real person.

However, feel free to continue blogging like it’s a personal journal. This information isn't going to harm you in anyway, and may make you a few friends. Of course you may get made fun of too!

If you sign up to BlogExplosion, please do it from my blog, for I will referral credits.

Yowzers

***Warning, clicking on the below link may not be appropriate while at work when your boss is standing over your shoulder****

My boss's daughter apparently did some performing for the Girls Gone Wild video series.

She's pictured on the cover of one of their newest videos here. It is a censored pick, but still probably not what you want other to see you looking at.

I am in a moral dillema over whether or not I should tell my boss about it.

Blame Bush

Interesting article here about whether or not Bush can be blamed for the flooding in New Orleans.

Linking, Etc

I just posted some instruction to Rachel's last post, but I thought I'd repost them here.

To link to something follow these instructions:

Create a new post, then write your text. Highlight the keyword you want your link to point to, then click on the little button that looks like a circle with a little chain on it. It is just above where you would type the post, and sitting between the "i" button and the quotation marks.

When you click on that a little window will pop up. Paste the url you want to link to in that window and hit "OK"

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If you want to create a link within a comment follow these instructions:

Type your commment. In front of the word you want to have the link on type:

a href="http://www.midnitcafe.blogspot.com"

The items within the quotation marks would be the address to whatever website you want to link to.

Also there needs to be a "<>" (without the quotes)bookending the entire block of text. So, you would have it start with "<" and then type the coding and just after the quotes you would type another ">"

After that bit of coding would lie the word that is being linked.

After the linked word you end your html with ""

Sorry that's a bit confusing, but I don't know how to type the html completely without blogger taking it for real html and screwing up the look.

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To get a better understanding of what I just said, create a post and let blogger do the html for you. Then look at the coding blogger created and you'll see how it works.

the "<>" are coding marks to let the computer know you are creating html. At the end of all coding will be a similar tag like "" The slash tells the computer that the html is finnished.

A couple of other easy tricks are bold and italics.

They start with the same coding: "<>" to start and " to end. The words that should be bolded or italicized will go in between.

For bold you would type the letter "b" between the little brackets. For the ending brackets, type the letter after the slash.

For italics it is the same, except with the letter "i"

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Again sorry this may be confusing. If anyone (Jamison?) knows how to type html for instructional purposes and keep blogger from treating it like html let me know, or change this post.

Thanks, and I hope this helps.

Gonna Post a Long One...

Josh said I ought to post my Disney trip reports to this blog. They're pretty long, so I was hesitant to post. I mean, you can just click on "Rachel's Blog" to see. Any objections to posting a really long entry?

Hey Josh, how do you put those super-cool links in your posts?

Chrysalis

Is it just me, or does something seem to be occuring on a global scale? I don't know why I feel this way, but I feel a change coming soon, in a big way. For some reason, the world seems to me to be morphing economically, intellectually, and societally. I think it's just me. It probably has something to do with the current events, but I felt this way long before this happened. The information infrastructure just seems to be getting broader and stronger and more necessary. It's exciting and scary at the same time. Having so much interaction and interconnection is great, but we are all becoming very dependent on infotech to fill a void. I have pet peeves like obnoxious people with cell-phones glued to their heads and using those loud PCS glorified walky talkies. However, infotech is allowing communication, education, and sharing like never before! What do y'all think about all this?

SOLD!

We just completed the process for closing on our house in Georgia today! This is the end of a chapter, so to speak. For those not familiar with the story, we used to live in Washington, GA. After we had Luke we wanted to move to Montgomery, Alabama since all of our family is here and we thought it was extremely important to raise him close to his grandparents. So, I found a job here, took it, and we moved. In any case, we bought a house here in the Old Cloverdale historic district and still had a place in GA, thus paying 2 mortgages. It was manageable, but not preferable paying 2 mortgages, but we had made the prayerful decision to move, and God had blessed us with the means to be employed, move, have somewhere to live, and pay 2 mortgages. So, we trusted Him to remove the extra mortgage and He did! In any case, the final tie binding us to our old place has been severed and we feel completely free to move on wwith the wonderful, new life God has blessed us with! Thanks for the prayers and encouragement from all our friends and family along the way. We are truly blessed.

So...

I just applied for a job here. If it works out me and the family will ship out for my old stomping grounds. The problem will be that we'll need people to come visit. Any takers?

weird video

Click here...
SIGH, Mullins...

Is it REALLY this hard to do???

This is just me blowing off some steam at work since I can’t really go on about this to people at work...

This year I have been like totally different than I was last year. I am very pleasant to my co-workers, I fake nice as much as possible, and I ignore the students, smile at them, or politely say hello to the ones who say "Hi Jamison!" to me (which flatters me that so many of them know my name and genuinely just are being nice.)

And this doesn’t really make me steam or anything, but it does strike me as odd.

A teacher was walking into the mailroom while I was in there. She was there for other business, but I KNEW that when she saw me, she would ask me something (there are a handful of these folks who will ALWAYS have something to ask you when they see you). So sure enough, she saw me and asked me a question. Without going into detail, she was sending information for a program we use to the Internet site we use to post information. She got an error and proceeded to say something like "It said error number 0000000(I'm serious here)000013-something"

I’m thinking, "How can I diagnose this problem standing here in the mailroom?". So I tell her to email it to me.

But here is my question:
When she saw the error, she was where? In her office.
When she was in her office she was using what? Her computer.
When she was using her computer, she probably had what opened as well? Her email (If not, she has an icon on the desktop)
Within a matter of seconds, literally, she could have emailed me (she can email, I've seen her do it) typed out the error message and I could have diagnosed and possibly fixed the problem in less than 5 minutes... rather, she saw the error and decided to ignore it until she saw me next time at which point it occurs to her out of midair to ask me...

What would they do if I never set foot out of my office and they never saw me?

so, it is his fault, sort of.

click here (i fixed this for Mullins to ward off the wrath of Brew)

sat-ta-light

I am a huge fan of images from space (See google satalite mapes for much joy). But to give us all an impression of the hurricane damage, I came across this site which shows some before and after shots via space of N.O. Very humbling...

Click this short link!

I hope this isn't a depressing blog for anyone....