Gas anyone?
Not sure about anywhere else, but here in Charlotte we have been experiencing a gas shortage. Many of the gas stations are without gas and the ones that do you’ll have to get in line for gas. It reminds me of living in Florida with a hurricane off the coast and everyone panicking to get gas. This shortage probably wouldn’t be so bad if people who already had gas decided not top off their tank every other day. This morning on the news I heard that we are only receiving a 3rd of our usual supply and that it was suppose to return to normal last week. Last week has passed and we are still in a shortage so who knows when things will return to normal.
Yesterday Jen and I went to her parents Sunday school class so I could speak to them a bit about my upcoming deployment. When they found out I was being deployed they really wanted to meet the person they were praying for and who they would be sending care packages too. I really had a great time visiting their class and meeting the people. The Sunday school teacher made a great point he said “We always hear the media and the politicians discussing about what the soldiers want or what they want to do, but we never hear from the actual soldiers.” So it was nice to have that opportunity.
I had to call SallieMae today to put my student loans on deferment. So I placed the 800 numbering thinking I would talk to someone in America….guess again. So I spent what needed to be a 15 minute call, if that, into a 45 minute call. I asked for someone who had a better grasp of English (thinking I would get an American) of course not another Indian. Then I needed to call Netflix to get something on my billing straighten out on my account and it was an American, he understood me and I understood him and we took care of the problem within a few minutes. It was great. I miss the days of calling American call centers.
Besides that not a whole lot going on. I can’t believe how fast September flew by…December will be here sooner then I know.
Till next time folks.
negative musical abilities
Well we made it home Saturday from our world wind tour. Jen and I both didn’t realize this until later, but this was the longest vacation we’ve had ever. The longest we’ve been away from home was about 4 days, but 7 day is like a whole new world. It was great seeing family and taking a break, but it was also nice to return home.
First stop was Florida and it was great. We were able to see my family, even was able to get together with some of my former co-workers for lunch, and of course I had to go to the beach. We were there until Wednesday and then we headed to Ohio. Jen was finally able to meet my grandmother, plus all of our extended family. The last time I saw her was somewhere in the range of 2000 – 2001 and it was winter is what we have concluded. We spent much of the time catching up with my grandma and hearing old stories of her singing days, which I loved hearing about. Yes singing days and I’m not talking about hairbrush in front of a mirror singing days. There was once a group called The Chordettes (Mr Sandman, Lollipop, Never on a Sunday) and she was ¼ of the group. Which by the way, I have learned that there are a lot of people with musical and singing abilities in my family and I missed every one of them, I actually have negative musical abilities. OH yea negative I actually throw people off. What in the world was I doing when this was being passed down? Anyways, Jen and I sat around looking at pictures and hearing stories of people she has met, her time on the Arthur Godfrey show, and stories about my dad.
One of the early photo’s of the Chordettes. Beautiful isn’t it.
By the way Dad, what’s this I hear about you and The Prince of Aruba and something about a meeting between your head and a tray?
I totally forgot to post this up. A few pictures from Ohio and Florida.
For your viewing pleasure
Since I’ve been at IBM all this week I have been browsing to all sorts of places on the internet. I’ve even been going to pages repeatedly just to see if they’ve been updated since I was there 5 minutes ago. No I’m not bored. Anyway, I stumlbed upon this video and some may say that this is the worst fight scene ever. I submit that it’s the best. Ready for this, a legless ninja in a wheel chair. That’s right a legless ninja in a wheel chair kicking butt and taking names.
Then I stumbled upon this gem on the same site. At first I thought they were some wacko Christians. As a Christian myself I will say that there are some ridiclouis things being done in the name of Christ. Later I found out that they are not Christians. They are actually some cult, The Way International, who don’t believe that Jesus is God. Please enjoy the videos and I hope that these imagines are burned into your head as they were for me. You can thank me later.
Well after spending sometime on YouTube, The Way has yanked the video’s from YouTube. Fun while it lasted.
Bond
I remember as a kid sitting around watching Bond weekend on TBS with my Dad. I’ve seen them all, Connery, Moore, Timothy Dalton, and even Pierce Brosan (not my favorite). But since Daniel Craig took over as Bond I become a bigger fan of Bond. I knew people had there concerns about him, but in my opinion probably the best Bond. So onto why I posted this, a new trailer for Bond’s new movie Quantum of Solace has been released and it looks awesome.
ncstate game
This week I’m back at the IBM help desk to fill in and I am so incredibly bored. It’s only Tuesday and I’m already to stab my eyes out. Football season has started and the Giants are off to a good start and so are the Patriots…sucks to be you Brady. But I saw the standings for the Yankees lastnight and we’re behind the Canadian’s. We’re behind the Toronto Blue Jays…seriously! It’s another country. As long as Tampa keeps Boston at bay I’m happy. As for the Yankees, they have been fortunate to get the Division Title or the Wild Card, but not this year. Even as an avid Yankees fan just goes to show that no matter how much money you have you can’t beat a team with heart and passion. Even though I’m not for really any Florida team in any Sport go Rays!
Saturday I went to my first college football game. Jen graduated from NC State and she was able to snag some tickets for the NC State vs William Mary game. I had a really good time and it was armed forces day. Some wounded soldiers came from Fort Bragg with an escort from the Patriot Guard motorcycle riders. I got a video of them, but I need to upload it. Plus there was a flyover from either the Airforce (Chair force) or the Navy which ended up going over mine and Jen’s heads. The game was a little slow at first, the QB for State, D. Evans, was horrible. Once they took him out State looked a lot better. That’s all for now.
Just a few pictures below:
new photoalbum
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I setup a Flickr account for my 3D work and anything else I decide to add there.
A Weekend in Tennessee
Last week was Labor Day and that meant a nice long weekend in Tennessee. Goodbye cell phone, TV, and internet. Every year Jen’s mom side of the family has a family reunion at her brother’s place in Dunlap, TN. Since we have people coming from North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida it’s about equal distance for everyone. It was a nice weekend of family, camping, eating, shooting, fishing, paintball, and relaxing. Her Uncle has 21 acres of land, horses, fishing pond, guns, horses….can you see why I love it?
One of Jen’s cousins (Danny) works at an outdoor store and has access to buying various fire arms so he brought some of his arsenal along to shoot, which consisted of an PS-90, AK-47 (civilian model), 22 competition shooter, glock, and a .45 1911. Plus Uncle Mike had his hunting rifles 12 gauge, 20 gauge, some old single shot pistol, and an old WWI sniper rifle. I was waiting for him to come out with some musket load rifle, but he didn’t. So we acted on our Second Amendment right of bearing arms (not these arms) and set up a mini firing range across the pond using bottles and vegetables and we shot from the porch (about 60-70 yards)…only in the south. My pistol work needs some work, but I did alright with the rifles. I really enjoyed firing the PS-90 and the 12 gauge shtogun. That was my first time ever firing a shotgun of any kind and did really well by the look of my shot group (mine are the three in the bullseye area). I even got Jen out there to shoot a bit and she did really well and was really proud to see her shoot some rounds off.
Eventually we got bored with shooting the bottles and the vegetables and we remembered that there was a hornets’ nest near the pond that needed to be taken care of before someone was stung. So Danny and Uncle William took the nest down with the shotguns. Danny shot the base and Uncle William shot the nest. You can see the video here. Then someone reminded us of the yellow jackets nest near the horse barn and that needed to be taken care of as well. Here is that video. Believe it or not there was no drinking of alcohol at all, I kind of look at as training for my deployment. I wonder if I can count this towards my training. What a weekend I hated to see it end and really upset I’m going to miss this next year.
Here is the album from last weekend:
