counting the days
I just got done talking with my pastor and it’s hard to believe that this Sunday will be my last Sunday service at church before I head out. This whole thing has been a roller coaster of emotions for me. So many different thoughts and emotions that I haven’t really been able to process everything. Next week Jen, her parents, and I head to Arkansas for Thanksgiving and drive straight back here on November 30th. Then December 1st to head out to Fort Bragg until Christmas and at that time I’ll come home for about a week and then head out to Camp Shelby.
Friday I went to see the new James Bond flick with Jen and some friends. I thought it was a pretty good movie. I agree it was not as great as Casino Royal story wise, but it was an action packed movie. The story was not as clear as the last movie, you had to pick it up as you went. Granted the villain was named Mr. Green, not very scary, and he was an environmental villain, still not very scary. Minor details I say, overall a decent movie.
Jen gave me something so amazing that I can only say fabutastic (I promise you this is a word…ok you caught me Jen and I combined fabulous and fantastic into one word (dorks I know)). She made me a scrap book to take along with me. She had all sorts of people send in letters and pictures. She had friends from my old job, my current boss, her family, and most of my family all write something. Not just the scrapbook, but overall people have really stepped up beyond what I imagined to help Jen and I during this time. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.
Saturday was my farewell cookout. We had a huge turnout, had to be over 50. A bunch of people from our church and some friends, and plus my boss came out with his family. Which by the way he brought me favorite soda/pop/soft drink, depending where you are in the US, Guarana. I found out about Guarana on the mission trip to Brazil a few years ago. He went to Brazil last month for a work trip and I asked him to pick med up a few if he could.
Other then that not much going on. Work has been pretty slow…really slow, I’ve been slowly handing stuff over to the new guy. So far he’s been kind of shaky, but he is only here temporary…hopefully he works out while I’m gone.
Till next time f0lks.
what I do in class
I find myself bored in class quite a bit. I thought I would share with you some of my artwork. Let me say this that I do not have a scanner in my hotel room so I took a picture of it with my digital camera.
Zombie City
Do not mind the corss out one eye guy he was a messup.
Knowledge is Power!
Zombies are real and dangerous.
A lesson to be learned here: Never Rick Roll a remote tribe. You will pay.
Close up
Why a remote tribe has a computer with internet access is beyond me. But the main question I have is who is behind this Rick Roll. By the way you were just rick roll’d by this comic.
Really!?!
Sorry for the delay of a new entry, it keeps moving to the bottom of the pile of things to do. Last weekend I had drill with my new unit that I will be going with when I deploy. It was really a waste of a weekend for me because all of the mandatory training and briefings I did last month they were doing again. So it was three days of sitting around and doing nothing. Benson, where my unit is, is a small one traffic light town with a population of 2500. Really only one traffic light, but the people I met were really friendly. I ate lunch at some deli and the owner came and introduced himself to me and shook my hand. It was really nice.
Of course there is the big news of the economy and its condition. One hand I agree with the bailout plan because something needs to be done before we go into another depression. What I don’t agree with is that these big companies are getting bailed out because of their greed. Yes I’m talking about you ::insert bank name here:: and AIG. We here in the media is that people are buying these houses they can’t afford because of the lack of regulations on the banks and we are one of them…kinda. Affording the house was not a problem, but Bank of America talked us into taking out a second mortgage and appraised our house way over what it was actually worth. I’m not saying that BOA is totally at fault, Jen and I hold some responsibility because we should have done our research instead of depending on the bank. But BOA should be held responsible for giving out false information…like a 2 bed 2 bath house built in 1983 worth 215,000 (ya right).
Anyway the house is in foreclosure. So we got a letter a few weeks ago from AIG requesting that we write them a check for 65,000 dollars…let me go ahead and get my checkbook out. I find out that the government bailed them out with a $85 Billion dollar package so they could go to a spa resort and drop $400,000 in a weekend! Then today I find out they are requesting another $37.8 billion dollars! What the…they want me to be responsible for my debt and if not they will take me to court and take whatever I own. This whole thing just really angers me. What has our government come to too allow this? I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is getting some sort of cut under the table. As a taxpayer and now part owner of AIG, I want accountability, but I doubt I will get that.
Till next time folks…
Jen e-mailed me this to me this afternoon about AIG:
Battered by outrage over the $440,000 it spent on a luxury retreat less than a week after the federal government loaned it $85 billion dollars, the giant AIG Insurance Company says it has called off plans to hold a second retreat next week at the exclusive Ritz-Carlton Resort in Half Moon Bay, California.
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.
A Wrench in the Gears
It’s been awhile. Last week I was at my National Guard Armory for AT so I had limited access to a computer. This week I’m back to work sorta…the company I work for mans an AutoCAD help desk for IBM and one guy is out for vacation and I’m filling in for him. This is really the most boring part of my job because I sit around 95% of the time doing nothing.
No new news yet on my situation. Let me take a side-trail, I always hate it when people talk with words like situation or recent developments but don’t ever explain what the situation is. I hate when people do that and now I’m doing it, but if you want to know shoot me an e-mail and I might tell you. So back to my original thought, I was supposed to find out some news August 3rd, but that has been put off until the week of August 18th. We did get our tickets booked for the week of September 14th to go to Florida and Ohio.
I don’t think I’ve posted this bit of news on here, but Jen and I passed are motorcycle permit test. So we have motorcycle permits and as of the recent developments (see there it is again) I’m flip flopping on what I want to do with the truck. Originally I was going to sell the truck and buy a motorcycle, but now I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I do know that I really enjoy riding them. My neighbor let me take a ride on his motorcycle around the block a few times and Jen said I looked like a kid on Christmas morning. So if anyone has a motorcycle they want to lend me for a few weeks or a month let me know.
I just wanted to throw this up here, but if you’re a fan of Heroes here is the trailer for the new season. I was a bit skeptical of Heroes at first but after catching up last year I’m sold and can’t wait for season 3.
Exhausted
Well it was another drill weekend and things are getting better. I actually stayed busy the whole weekend. Sorry no exciting stories of drill weekend, unless you find putting promotion packets together exciting. I discovered that I did not get awarded the Global War on Terrorism Medal. I should have gotten awarded this while I was in my old unit for my deployments and for some reason I did not. I sent an e-mail out to someone in my Guard unit who should know about it and now I just wait. Part of my commitment of the Guard is that I do two weeks (14 Days) of active duty time and over the weekend I needed to put down my dates I wanted and I realized how stinkin busy I’m going to be in the coming months. I’m going to be travelling at least once a week of every month, there’s one month I’m gone for a week come home for the weekend and then leave again, and then for my AT time with the Guard I’ll be doing in between traveling for work. So ya I’ll be busy.
Saturday night Jen, her dad, and I went to see Iron Man and what a movie that was. Being that I used to collect comic I could not wait for this movie and If you just like movies I highly recommend it and if you love comics, like me, then stay after the credits for a nice little surprise. In my opinion I believe it set bar for comic book movies.
Till next time folks…
Are You Serious?
Although I moved to North Carolina over a year ago, I still read the paper from Port Saint Lucie, FL. Not only am I in complete awe of some of the things I read, but I also wonder what my parents were thinking when we moved there. Granted, Port Saint Lucie was just a one horse town back in the 1980’s, but why did we stay there for so long?
There is one particular story that stands out: “2 Boys Accused of Trying to rob 2 Workers in a Police Station“. Oh yeah, this is the type of people that are being raised in Port Saint Lucie. Gotta love it.
Now there is this one that is making national attention “Teacher in the news after she claims she was non-renewed because of job on bikini charter boat“. Here’s the run down: a teacher has a part time job on a fishing charter that sport topless women on the boat (once in international waters). She claims she keeps her bikini on. She was fired, the school board says, for excessive absences from school. Regardless, if she was or was not fired for this doesn’t matter. She is a teacher and she does have an image to keep up. I don’t have a problem with her having a second job (teachers are underpaid and that is whole other subject) and I could care less if it was on a fishing charter. Maybe this is a sign of me getting older and more mature, but it is a fishing charter that looks for attractive women in bikinis to go topless…I could see the problem with that. Especially if I was a parent with kids who had her as a teacher. It would be like working in a strip club, but holding to the belief that because I don’t strip it’s ok.
I was going through some old posts today and just in case you forgot. What’s worse then ninjas and ninjas on fire….bears with sticks.
ABC Nightline: Is America Addicted to Porn?
I bet you never thought you would see the day when the word Porn and the name Ron Jeremy would be mentioned on my blog. For those who have never heard of XXXchurch this posted directly from their site:
XXXchurch is here to make you think, react, and to decide where you stand on the issues of porn. We’re not here to sling mud, but to shove the envelope and try and do some good.
Sometime in Feburary Donny Pauling and Craig Gross (From XXXChurch) debated porn stars Ron Jeremy and Monique Alexander with ABC Nightline’s Martin Bashir moderating at Yale University. By the way, I never knew Yale had a sex week. I do not know if this ever aired on TV, but I wish I would have known. Anyway, I do not know where everyone who comes by this blog stand is on porn, but I recommend taking time to watch. I for one fully support the ministry of XXXchurch and everything they do. I have posted a link to their web-site (not Ron Jeremy’s site, but XXXChurch) above to check out.
So we are in an age of technology where we can blow up falling satellites from the sky, heck we can even go to space. For some reason though ABC, a highly rated network by the way, is still stuck in 1998. I will not be able to embed the videos on the page and I will have to post the link to the videos below. Remember the days of clicking on links?
Weekend
Friday night Jen and I went and saw Jumper with some of her co-workers. By the way, I knew movies were expensive, but my goodness I almost pooped my pants when the lady, who we will call Witch, said 19.50 for not five tickets but two tickets. I had to ask her how many tickets I just ordered, but Witch confirmed it’s 9.50 per ticket. I asked Witch if they had Military Discounts and she promptly said “No, it’s AMC’s policy”. After some discussion of how ridiculous it is that they do not have military discounts I paid the 19.50 and left. I guess when I turned my back she didn’t know that my lovely wife Jen was watching and she caught Witch laughing. I talked the manager, but the manager about Witch laughing, but that was pretty useless. I’m half tempted to put AMC theaters on the “List” they would be joining a highlighted cast of Wal-Mart, Orlando, and Jacksonville…we shall see. Back to Jumper, it was an alright movie I mean I wouldn’t nominate it for an Academy Award. Jen said she kept waiting for the climatic part of the movie and before she knew it was over. She felt like nothing really happened and I can see that.
Sunday night was the premiere of the new Knight Rider TV movie. I grew up watching Knight Rider and I still watch it if I can catch an episode of it on TV, so I was really looking forward to it. Jen and I watched about an hour of it before we went to bed. I probably would have watched the whole thing, but I was a bit disappointed. The opening song was somewhat like the original and the acting I think could have been better. Don’t get me wrong there were some good parts in the movie, but nothing that really grabbed my attention. I’ll watch the rest probably tonight and just hope that NBC does not destroy my childhood show.
All they need next is to remake Airwolf, but if the TV movie destroys that memory I don’t know what I will do. Maybe they should just leave it how it is.
So most of you know about my decision of reenlisting into the Guard and I’m going to get with the recruiter sometime this week and sit down and talk about the units around here. Pending on what happens with that, I am more than likely going to reenlist. Eventually I will need to take physical fitness test so I started running again so I can back into shape and boy oh boy my legs are killing me. Long distance running has always been my weak point so I really need to work at it. For the test I need to run 2 miles in 16:36 so I really need to get to work.
Till next time folks….
