"You don't even know who I am" - Benjamin Disraeli

Doyle!

2007-01-18T09:06:00.000-05:00

Lydia and I decided that it was time to add another member to the family. Our dog, Tink, is a playful, hyperactive little thing. She loves to run and jump and chase. She especially loves to play tug-of-war. Most of all, she loves other dogs (except bulldogs!). Whenever we'd take her to Lydia's parent's house or my parent's house, she'd always have a wonderful time with the dogs there.

So, after doing a little research, I was able to find another puggle through Pet Rescue of MD. His name is Doyle. He's about 7 months old and cute as can be. We added him to the family 2 weeks ago and he's really starting to get the hang of things. He and Tink are getting along wonderfully. They chase each other and jump on one another (they sometimes try to do other things to one another that we put a stop to!). They play tug-of-war, steal each other's toys, and all the other things that a brother and sister would do.

The thing we always loved about Tink was that she has a lot of personality. We weren't sure if it was just her or because she was a puggle. Well, Doyle has a lot of personality too, though it is much different than Tink's! He's very dopey and cute. And he loves to follow me around the house. If I leave the room, he's right there. It's really funny.

So, without further delay, here are some photos of Mr. Doyle. Enjoy!

Screw you, Sony.

2006-09-16T01:35:00.000-04:00

My PS2 has been nonfunctional for about a year now. It started getting the dreaded disc read error. I basically stopped using it because I wasn't about to buy a new one.

Well, right before KH2 came out, Andrew and I took our PS2s apart and used that little trick to adjust the laser height and got them both working again. We were ecstatic. I was able to play KH2 for a good 2 or 3 months and then it started again. I hadn't done a thing to it, but suddenly my PS2 was back in the same state.

My plan was to sell my PSP and take the money to buy a slimline PS2. Looking on ebay out of curiosity for systems, I noticed an auction for a laser arm that claimed it would fix the disc read error and the strange buzzing sound coming from my PS2. I won the auction. I figured that for $8 it was worth a shot.

The part arrived. I followed the instructions and replaced the arm on my PS2's laser. And now my PS2 worked. I nearly cried from joy. Well, actually, it worked about 98% of the way. Every game loaded immediately (no buzzing or anything) EXCEPT KH2. That kind of irritated me but I figured it was better than before so I was happy. Then I realized that I had messed with the laser height earlier so I decided that maybe it needed to be put back to the original setting.

That was my task tonight. I went through the steps again and despite some minor setbacks (such as the ribbon cable connecting the power & reset buttons to the mobo came unhooked...on the end inside the PS2) I was able to successfully load KH2 and every other game I own.

Screw you, Sony. I win.

Superman Returns was Quite the Awesome

2006-07-05T11:38:00.000-04:00

I saw Superman Returns on Friday.

It was great. Despite the requirement of some of my friends needing to clap and holler the first few times that good ol' Supes jumped in to save the day, it was great. (Actually, I'm kidding about the friends clapping and hollering part. They did do it, but it wasn't as bad as I made it sound!) (You need to go to a movie with my friends to understand what I mean).

All fears I had of Brandon Routh taking up the Superman mantle have been squashed. He looked awesome as the Man of Steel. He fit the role perfectly. His mannurisms as Clark Kent were hilarious. His incredible confidence as Superman was inspiring.

I must also say that I though the role of Jimmy Olsen was perfect. He was one of the funniest parts of the movie (yes, the movie had many funny scenes). Everyone did an incredible job in their respective roles. This is definitely a must buy on DVD.

Also, on a final note: did you know that the actor playing Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet played wonderfully by Frank Langella, is the same actor who played Skeletor in the Masters of the Universe movie with Dolph Lundgren? It's true! I actually knew it months ago, but I wanted to post that little tidbit for anyone else who didn't!

Superman Returns...and Triumphs?

2006-06-28T14:13:00.000-04:00

I hear that Superman Returns is awesome. Not just awesome, but crazy awesome. Awesomely crazily awesome is more like it.

Blast! I really want to see this now. I've never been a huge Superman fan. I like the character and I think I understand some of the turmoil that makes up the character. Most people just see him as this super powerful guy who can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes. There is actually more of a struggle than people think with the character. For one, he has to live knowing that he's one of the last of his race that exists. Plus, Superman basically lives his life constantly checking his actual power just so that he doesn't hurt those around him. Imagine trying to hold keep a dam from bursting 24/7. That's what he's doing.

Back to my original point, I've never been a huge Superman fan, but I'm really excited to see this movie. I don't think it'll top Batman Begins for me. I'm too much of a Batman fan. But it's definitely a must-see in theaters.

2006-06-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

I am definitely getting a Wii at launch. I need to. I must. There is no "maybe" here. There can be no wishful thinking. No. I will own a Wii at launch.

The Wii is just looking more and more promising. They've already announced a DBZ game for it where you use the Wiimote and Nunchuka controller to simulate DBZ moves. Imagine moving your arms in a Kamehameha maneuver and watching your onscreen Goku counterpart unleash his signature blast on a weak and abused Frieza. Oh yes.

Plus, the rumored pricing scheme for the Virtual Console games sounds incredibly reasonable. A few bucks for a sparkling gem of my childhood seems fair.

The PS3 continues to disapoint. The Sony executives continue to amaze me in their idiocy. From pricing the system at $600 to trying to sell it as a replacement to your PC, I don't know what they're doing. Oh well.

And Microsoft has already announced that they will not be dropping the price of the 360 in the fall/winter. Peter Moore basically said that they saw no need because the outrageous price of the PS3 already makes their system look affordable. The scary thing is: he's probably right.

I'm married!

2006-06-05T08:15:00.000-04:00

I got married on Saturday, May 27th, 2006 to the most wonderful woman in the world.

Woohoo!

Wii Controller Revealed

2006-05-10T12:49:00.000-04:00

The "normal" Wii controller was revealed in the last day or so. It's basically a combination, in my mind, of a PS2 DualShock layout and a SNES controller. Note the 4 buttons on the top of the controller. I'm not sure what they'll all be used for yet.

The main purpose for this controller, I'm assuming, is to allow Wii-owners to play NES, SNES, & N64 games downloaded via the Wii Virtual Console. It should also work well for playing all Gamecube games since the Wii is backwards-compatible.

I can't say I liked the look at first glance, but the second and third definitely improved my opinion. I'm liking it now. I was surprised to see that the controller has a cord. I was hoping that Nintendo would go full-wireless even with the standard controller scheme. Maybe they will by the final iteration.

I like that Nintendo has always been at the forefront of controller ingenuity and so this controller is almost like a homage back to all that has come before the Wii. If you don't believe me about Nintendo being the king of controller design, check this out.
Nintendo was the first to use the following in a widely-marketed product:

The D-Pad (NES)

Shoulder Buttons (SNES)

An Analog Joystick (N64)

Full gyroscopic motion sensing (Wii)

#1: And the little pig cried alllll the way home going...

2006-04-27T16:26:00.000-04:00

Wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii wii!

Thus begins my first observation in my new feature. And my observation is that Nintendo is crazy. Yes, that is it. Nintendo is crazy. Why? Because they are naming their new console "Wii" (pronounced "we"). No more Nintendo Revolution. It's just Wii now.

But, the more I think about the name, the less I think that Nintendo has gone "drunken hobo crazy". I'd say they're more "UFC fighter crazy". You know: that state where everyone knows you've lost it, but they still think you're really cool? That's where Nintendo is directing themselves. You know they're nuts, but if you ever met them in a bar and they pushed you out of the way, you wouldn't say anything because they could punch their fist through your face.

Plus, I'm a bit of a Nintendo-ite. I just love the way they do business and even if they're not #1 in the console wars, I still enjoy their games more than any other. So, saying that, I'll probably go get a "Wii" tatoo on my butt or something.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Observation of the day

2006-04-26T15:07:00.000-04:00

I've decided to begin a new feature on my blog. Though can I really call it a new feature when it's the first feature? I guess I can. It is my blog after all.

In an effort to begin updating this thing more often and to add to my already random personality, I'm beginning a feature which I am going to call "Observation of the Day". It's going to be called that until I come up with a better name. My goal is to write about one random thing that I observe each day. The observation will always occur on the day that I write the blog entry so everyone who read this (all 1 or 2 of you) can get a snapshot of my haphazardly bouncing thought pattern.

So, stay tuned. I will post my first observation this evening.

Secret Lovers

2006-04-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

http://tbs.com/broadband/videoplayer/0,,70636,00.html

This just makes me laugh. I always thought there was a little something "extra" between Merry and Pippin, but now I'll never look at Frodo and Sam the same again!

PS3 Delayed

2006-03-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

Sony Sony Sony. What are you doing? Delaying the PS3 Japanese release until the fall? Are you crazy? I know that you'll probably have the most powerful hardware out there and you'll most likely have some of the biggest console exclusive titles around, but you're just pushing your luck. You're getting cocky, Sony. You're letting this whole "We were #1 in the two previous generation's console wars" title convince you that you're invincible in the marketplace.

The X-Box 360 is already out, Sony. And yes, their initial grouping of games is notably lackluster. But they're not going to keep it that way forever. Even the original X-Box had some big-name exclusives, Sony. Knights of the Old Republic? Splinter Cell? Fight Night: Round Three just came out and it's good. It's real good.

Plus, even Nintendo might launch before you do. And, to be honest, I'm more excited about the Revolution than the 360 and PS3 combined. I know that Nintendo rarely gets any third party exclusives and that the Revolution isn't going to be the groundbreaking powerhouse of the bunch. But it's going to have some awesome first-party games. And you're going to be able to download games from the previous generation of Nintendo systems. Plus, the whole gyroscopic controller sounds pretty cool. Some say it's a gimmick, but many said the same about the DS and it's one of the most popular systems (especially in Japan). You can't even say that about the PSP.

So, Sony, get your act together. I know that I won't be buying a PS3 for many years no matter when you launch. I know you're going to price the PS3 far beyond what I'm willing to pay and that kind of makes me sad. But, for goodness sakes, Sony, you're launching a year after the 360. *sigh* Oh well.

Loneliness

2006-02-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

As I drove to work this morning, I saw a guy walking to work. He is one of the full time employees at my local Blockbuster. After a few minutes of random thoughts, I started to think about the concept of loneliness and what it means.

To me, loneliness is perhaps the one emotion that is totally insurmountable in our human lives. It causes sadness, anger, despair. The longer you feel it, the heavier and heavier it weighs on you. The feeling is almost like that of sinking into an abyss with no one around to pull you out.

I know what it's like to be lonely. It's not a pleasant experience at all. We all go through it from time to time. Granted, some go through a deeper sense of it than others. I am so glad that I have Lydia now. I haven't felt that sense of loneliness in quite some time and it's all because of the amazing relationship I've had with her. We'll be married in less than 3 months and that is quite amazing.

And that got me thinking about it from another perspective. For those of us who do not have a relationship with our Creator, that loneliness is deeper and darker than any that we will ever feel in our lives. It's common knowledge that sin forces a seperation between us and God, but I've never really thought about it in terms of loneliness. Our sin isolates us and throws us into that same black chasm that loneliness does, yet so many people don't even realize that they're in that position. Many will never realize it until their death when that loneliness becomes eternal.

I thank God that I am no longer seperated from Him. I know this may sound corny, but I can truthfully say that I'm best friends with Jesus Christ. With Him, I never have to worry about being alone again. Plus, God put Lydia in my life and for that I'll always be greatful.

Back again

2006-02-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

I've been really busy lately. Sadly, when I get this busy the thing that suffers most if my blog. I guess that's because it has no feelings. Even if it did, it has no voice and could never tell me that it felt abandoned. I guess that's a good thing.

Work has been the busy part of my life lately. I've been doing as much work at home as I have at work. If I'm home alone I usually can't help but think about work. *shudder*

On the other hand, I am totally and utterly addicted to Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS. I really enjoy Mario Kart for the DS as well. Based on the fact that I want about 10 other DS games, I feel pretty confident in saying that I prefer the Nintendo DS over the Sony PSP. I own both so I'm one of those people who can't be called a "fanboy". I love the sleekness of the PSP and the fact that I can put pictures and stuff on it. But that's all a novelty when the games are just mediocre, in my opinion. I might try Metal Gear Acid at some point. And there's a new Katamari game coming out for it at some point. It's at the point where my PSP stays sheltered away in my undershirt drawer so I don't accidentally lose it in case there is a game I actually want to play for it.

Back for a quick post

2006-01-12T15:01:00.000-05:00

Wow. Things have been busy lately. Work is intense. We're getting our first releases today and tomorrow so testing shall being as soon as possible. I am working on several test tools for use in our testing and trying to get my testing schedule in decent shape.

I haven't even really had time to update the Humpy Club site, but I will very very soon.

I just wanted to post a quick link that I find pretty cool:

www.BibleInAYear.org

It emails you to help you read the Bible in one year. You can choose from alternating, chronological, and standard orders. I am going with Chronological.

Wedding plans are coming along nicely. Lydia and I are getting really excited since we only have about 4 1/2 months to go. Woohoo!

Twas the Night Santa Snapped

2005-12-25T23:38:00.000-05:00

It was a cold winter’s night
Throughout the whole land
Santa’s sleigh bells were ringing
A .45 in his hand

His craft soared so high
Past the clouds and the whispers
That Santa was coming
And the air couldn’t be crisper

For everyone knew
That it wasn’t the case
That Santa was coming
To put a smile on each face

The red suit was ruffled
His hair was a muss
No Ho Ho Ho’s were heard
Only cuss after cuss

For it was not on Christmas Eve
That he left his snow base
As he screamed that
He’d “put a cap in yo ase!”

As he descended into sight
His deer looked half-dead
For only five of the eight
Had not been shot in the head

Santa’s safety clicked off
And he held us his list
“You’re all bad boys and girls!”
As he shook his tight fist

But the Army was waiting
With their tanks and their rockets
And as Santa opened fire
They narrowed their sockets

And they launched a barrage
Of fire and missiles
That cut through the air
With no more than a whistle

The explosion, it sounded
Like a lit powder keg
And all we ever found
Was an arm and a leg

So have a Merry Christmas
With lots of holiday cheer
Santa is dead
There is nothing to fear!

I wrote this last year to send to everyone in my group at work. I decided I liked it so much, that I'm making it a Christmas tradition to share each year. I'm not much of a poet and I'm not much into poetry, but I am aware that it's apparently a treat to hear the original author of a poem read it. You can hear the exact intonations of the voice and such that you just cannot get on paper. Now, I'm not equating myself with any "real" poets mind you. I would never dare to raise myself on that high a pedestal. I am pleased with my Christmas themed poem however and wanted to share how I would read it. Also, it's meant just for fun. It's not a statement on the commercialization of Christmas (though it has been awfully commercialized). Plain, simple, somewhat twisted fun. Enjoy!

Garygoyles

2005-12-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

One thousand years ago, superstition and the sword ruled. It was a time of darkness. It was a world of fear. It was the age of Gargoyles.

Stone by day, warriors by night, we were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect, frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years. Now, here in Manhattan, the spell is broken, and we live again!

We are defenders of the night!

We are Gargoyles!

I picked up the 2nd Season: Volume 1 of Gargoyles a week or so ago. I am totally and utterly addicted to it. I watch a few episodes every night that I have a chance.

Busy Busy Busy

2005-11-30T12:36:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to update here in a bit.

I can't believe it's almost December! I really need to get a handle on my Christmas shopping. In other words, I need to start!

The Humpy Club website is coming along. I expect the first version of the site to be up by this evening. Check it out at http://www.humpyclub.com, but not until tonight!

Tink is doing well. She turned 1 year old on Sunday. She's such a good dog. I'm glad we got her. I was frustrated with her at first, but now I really enjoy her being around.

Wedding plans are also coming along nicely. We have to meet with Pastor Bell sometime in December and we need to finalize the guest list and cut it down by about 30 people or so. That stinks, but it's necesary. Other than that, we're doing well. My ring came in at Smythe too, so we can go pick it up. Woohoo!

And I am really close to getting a free Nintendo DS. If anyone wants one, check out http://gamingsystems.freepay.com/?r=14735514 and sign up for an offer. I'm 2 offers away from getting one. I already got my Ipod and PSP from the same company so I do not foresee any issues getting a DS. It only takes 4 offers instead of 5.

I think that's it for now.

Yay for December!

Tinkified!

2005-11-08T23:13:00.000-05:00

I've taken a decent number of pictures of our dog, Tink, over the last 2 months. I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this Fotoflix thing too. I was just going to post pictures of her from graduation night, but there were too many other cute pictures. I coudn't resist!

The graduation photos are from last Friday. She finished her 8 week Puppy Obedience course. I'm so proud!

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Posted by fatmumuhomer

Fight!

2005-11-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Candice referenced Google Fight in her latest blog entry.

I am happy to say that UPS beats FedEx & DHL. Yeah, UPS.

UPS vs FedEx

It looks like it basically just does a Google search for both terms and the one with the most results wins.

All I know is that UPS wins!

Haps Birth Me, Yo

2005-10-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Today is my birthday. The big 2-4. I've spent the whole day so far at work designing test cases and working on test tools in VB.Net. The test cases: not birthday fun at all. The designing test tools in VB.Net: sadly enough are the perfect birthday present. If you know me personally you'd understand why.

I get this awesome zen feeling when I program. I don't know why. I wonder if anyone else feels that. When I sit down and map out requirements for a tool or design a class in C++ or C#, it just feels good. I feel like I accomplished something. It's basically my art, I've realized. Jordan (my roommate) always has these great intellectual posts about life. You won't generally find that here because that's not really me...except when it's in regards to technology and especially computers and programming. So I might start posting more about my thoughts on web design, programming, things of that sort. Hey, it's what I'm good at!

So, here's to 24 years that God has given me. Realizing that 10 years ago I was only 14 and had no clue what my future would hold is kind of amazing. Then thinking that 10 years from now I'll be 34 and I have no idea what my future holds is also amazing. For now I'll be happy where I am with the life that God gave me with the woman that I can call my love.

And yes, I get to sit and program in Visual Studio 2003 to my heart's content. Life is quite good!

Woohoo!

2005-10-24T08:59:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to me. Like my friend Candice I am almost halfway to 50! Yikes!

Ah, 24.

Here's a list of things I thought I'd have done by 24 that I haven't:

Eaten a live ostrich

Gazed at the stars and wondered "what did I just step in?"

Eaten a 2 Big Mac's, a large frie, and a large soda (Andrew did it, why can't I???)

The End

XML

2005-10-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

Work has been as busy as ever lately. It seems like everytime I get a handle on something I need to do, 3 more things pop up.

The most current task on mind has to do with manipulating XML using Visual Basic. I'm fairly familiar with XML. I understand how it's built, what it's uses are, and all of that. I've never even thought about manipulating (reading, writing, editing) it via code however. I just printed off select chapters from a book I was reading on Books 24x7 that goes into detail on this. I'm not totally sure there will be need to create a GUI app that will do what I intend for it to do, but it's always fun to learn.

Basically, I need a way to read in a well-formed XML document and parse it based on its design. Certain elements contain information I would use to build a hash ID (I'd basically hook into a DLL already built by a co-worker to do this calculation) and I'd then build a new XML document using this ID as well as GPS information such as lat, long, and so on.

I haven't quite decided where the GPS information will come from. There are a few options. I could randomly generate that information. I could ask the user for an input such as an Excel spreadsheet or a pipe-delimited text document and use that information to assign the GPS elements their values. I'm still trying to develop a solution for this piece of the puzzle as my testing will require me to build an XML document with 600,000 parent-elements which will in turn contain the GPS data. That is a lot of information to type into an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, I'd need at least 10 spreadsheets to hold it all.

At least it'll give me an opportunity to learn and possibly do some development work in my QA position. That'd be a breath of fresh air.

2005-10-17T21:11:00.000-04:00

I'm seriously considering changing my blog title to

"I'm a freaking moron." - Jack Thompson.

Why you ask? Oh ho ho ho ho ho, there are a myriad of reasons both old and new.

1) Jack Thompson is a moron.
2) Jack Thompson is a moron.
3) Jack Thompson is a moron.
4) Jack Thompson is a retard (didn't see that coming, did you?)

Wait, did I mention that Jack Thompson is a moron?

Real Dolls: Searching for God?

2005-10-13T14:14:00.000-04:00

I recently read an article via an online news magazine on the topic of the "Real Doll". The writer, a woman, did in-depth research on the people who create, own, and sometimes love, their Real Dolls.

I'd post the link to the article except for the somewhat raw descriptions and comments that are made in regards to things done to and with the Real Dolls. Real Doll owners actually make up quite a large group.

The article explains how some of the owners do not look on their dolls simply as inanimate objects to have fun with but rather as a companion who they can experience life with. The doll is someone who will not reject them or hurt them. The doll is whoever they want it to be, whether an introspective Goth who is into art and Sylvia Plath or a fun and sassy party girl who likes to play video games.

My first reaction reading the article was shock, to be honest. I had never thought that grown men would literally disconnect themselves from actual human female interaction to spend time with a life-like doll. I quickly moved past that point of view however, as something else occurred to me: these men are searching for something that no Earthly woman has wanted to provide. The men in this article have been hurt, rejected, humiliated, and saddened by the world and the women in it. So they turn to the only thing that they know will not do the same: a Real Doll. Yet, I know the only place they truly will not find rejection: in the presence of God.

1 Peter 3:18: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."

Christ gave himself so that we could become closer to God. That means I can become closer to God, Lydia can become closer to God, and even the people who own Real Dolls can become closer to God. God is love. He is more than capable of filling the void that these women of the world have left in these men's hearts. I've been blessed with an amazing, lovely woman and yet even she cannot totally fill the hole in me. Only God can do that.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap in the Hizzouse!

2005-10-09T23:03:00.000-04:00

http://www.nerdie.com/starwars.html

"We got death star!"
"Death Star!"
"We got death star!"
"Death Star!"
"We got death star!"
"Death Star!"

That is all I have to say.

What if...

2005-10-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

What if turkeys ate people?

What if Superman wasn't really super but just a nut job who dressed in spandex?

What if baloney and tapioca pudding tasted good together on bread?

What if the sky was neon-green and we always had to wear sunglasses because it hurt our eyes?

What if Tom Cruise wasn't nuts and Katie Holmes wasn't having his crazy, stunted Scientology child?

What if???

The Sandman is Calling My Name

2005-10-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

...yet I would rather punch him in the face and send him away than submit to his nocturnal authority.

I am really, really, really tired. I have been so tired lately, like every day after work and class and stuff. I can't figure out why. I just feel like taking a nap after work each day, but I feel like I always have so much to do.

Ah well. I am off to send Debra an email in regards to the test I ran today. I need to do that before I can let the Sandman take me to slumberland.

Stark Ct

2005-09-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

I began reading the second book in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R R Martin titled A Clash of Kings. So far, it's excellent.

Last night, as Lydia and I drove to my parents house for dinner, we passed a street named Stark Ct. I've noticed it before and each time we pass it I get the same strange feeling over and over. In the first book, "A Game of Thrones", one of the main characters was named Eddard Stark and he quickly became one of my favorite characters. I should probably note here that if you ever plan on reading A Game of Thrones, and don't want something spoiled for you, then stop reading here. Still with me? Good.

Near the end of story, Ed Stark was murdered in a shocking twist that literally made me gasp as I read it. I actually felt a loss as if I had just lost a friend. What made matters worse was that his murder was at the hands of a power-mad teenager newly, and wrongfully, crowned king. And what I find now, as I pass Stark Ct, is that I feel that same emotion each time I see the name "Stark."

What is it about us, as humans, that can drive something that is clearly fictional so deep into our minds and our feelings? What lets us connect with these fictional people merely by reading words on a page? I won't even try to answer that question. I don't know that anyone truly can.

Even moreso, it makes me think: Why don't I feel the same sense of loss everytime I think about the crucifiction of Christ? When Passion of the Christ was released, I saw it twice in the theater and, both times, I felt a sadness as I watched His suffering, but it never lasted once the movie ended and He had risen. The lyrics from "Passion" by Kutless, I think, represent the feeling:
Nail pierced hands they run with blood / A splitting brow forced by the thorns / His face is writhing with the pain yet it's comforting to me.

It's a strange feeling to get comfort from such horror, yet I know that the outcome was truly worth it. Honestly, I don't have the right to feel saddened by it.

I've been tagged!

2005-09-27T00:14:00.000-04:00

Candice tagged me to write a 55 word short story so here goes:

He wiped the sweat from his slightly swollen brow. A thin stream of blood trickled down from a fresh gash in his left cheek. The bell rang and with both arms he shot himself out of his seat in the corner of the ring. The blow came just then, sending him down for the count.

--------------------------------

“Bobby loves peanuts!” “Bobby loves peanuts!” The screaming continued for what seemed like hours, though Jake knew it had only been minutes. “Bobby loves peanuts!!!” He couldn’t take it anymore. He lunged at the little boy like a lion attacking its prey and, with a mighty push, sent the boy tumbling towards the brick wall.

--------------------------------

A terror swept over him as he faced the king. He was being justly condemned to die again. He screamed, “I’ve lived a good life. I did my best!” The king answered, “You needed only to know my son, yet you turned away every single time.” The man made no reply. His king was right.

Ok, I added a 3rd one just now and I tag Jordan!

A dog and a ball

2005-09-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

I'm just sitting here watching my dog play with a ball. It's a little past midnight and I really should be getting to bed, but I just don't want to yet. I'm really having fun watching Tink chase her ball around the living room. This is the first ball she's ever had as a toy and she seems to enjoy pushing it and then chasing it. Then she'll growl at it a little as if it's alive and chase it some more. It's rather funny. Sometimes she'll actually bring it over to me and I'll throw it.

Tomorrow is the Renn Fest. Lydia and I are in charge of taking Rockhouse to it at 10am tomorrow. It's the first time I'll ever be in charge on an event so it should be interesting. I'm excited though. I like being in charge and having responsibility. I look at it as a gift that God gave me. It just took me several years to realize that I had it!

Photo Friday-Burn-My Photo: Fire Bear!

2005-09-23T08:08:00.000-04:00

My friend Andrew and I decided that it would be fun to douse a white teddy bear in lighter fluid and set it on fire. Why you ask? Long story. The summary is that the bear was given to me by a person I plan on never even thinking of again and because Andrew and I enjoy setting things on fire.

So, we propped it up on a stick in his backyard, used 1/2 a can of lighter fluid and, with the help of a cigarette lighter, were able to rejoice in the beauty and awe of a teddy bear burning. I have plenty of pictures of it, including the after shots so if anyone wants to see them, let me know. I even have a video of it being set on fire. That will definitely need to be posted.

PhotoFriday Fun

2005-09-20T03:50:00.000-04:00

Well, Candice has introduced me to Photo Friday and, I must say, it sounds pretty fun, so I'm going to try to join in each week.

This week the theme is "divine". It took me a while to think of something that I could photograph that represented my Christian faith in God. Should I take a picture of the church? Of something in the church? Of a Bible? Then it struck me: my Icthus on the back of my car; the thing that people see every day when I drive.

So here it is:

I made the move

2005-09-16T14:07:00.000-04:00

Well, it's official. I packed up all of my things (all of my things, because there was a lot) and moved it up one floor to the 4th floor and my new cube. I took some pictures of my 3rd floor cube yesterday afternoon so I can always remember my first official cubicle at my first official full-time job here at UPS.

But, I have to be honest, my new cube is a lot nicer. It feels bigger though that may be due to the lack of a DIAD III rack which took up a lot of room on my old desk. Plus I finally got rid of all of the stuff that I had inherited when I joined the DCS group that had to go somewhere when Kelly moved into my cube. So I got rid of all of that and I threw away a lot of stuff too. And I have this sweet little extra panel on my wall next to my door that gives me this extra bit of privacy that I love. Oh, and this rocks, I can now put my monitor facing away from the door so I can sit facing the door, which I love. I hated sitting with my back to it all of the time.

So, I am officially on the 4th floor. It's a little weird and I am going to miss having Anand and David and Sharon and Jeff and Wendy and eveyone else all right around me, but I do like where I am now. I'm across from Darren and near Adam (who I sat right next to when I was an intern in the DCS group).

Maybe I'll throw up a old cube and a new cube shot to show the difference.

I feel like this is a start of a whole new world for me. A new position, a new cube, new responsibilites, new opportunities. Maybe even new development experience.

This should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Best of all, I know that God put me where I am right here and I am 100% confident that this is my place and that He has a purpose laid out for me here. Now I just have to figure out what that is!

Everything

2005-09-15T00:50:00.000-04:00

Lydia bought me the new Brad Paisley CD a couple of weeks ago and this is one of my favorite songs. I made some slight changes to the lyrics (and added a note) to post here so it would fit Lydia a tad bit more though the feeling of total amazement that the song reflects definitely fits the way I feel about her (no changes needed for that).

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She's a yellow pair of running shoes
A holey pair of jeans
She looks great in cheap sunglasses
She looks great in anything
She's I want a piece of chocolate
Take me to a movie
She's I can't find a thing to wear
Now and then she's moody

She's a Civic with a sunroof
With her dirty blonde hair a-blowing
She's a soft place to land
And a good feeling knowing
She's a warm conversation
That I wouldn't miss for nothing
She's a fighter when she's mad
And she's a lover when she's loving

Chorus
And she's everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
I talk about her, I go on and on and on
'Cause she's everything to me

She's a Saturday out on the town
And a church girl on Sunday
She's a cross around her neck
And a moan 'cause its Monday
She's a bubble bath and candles
Baby come and kiss me
She's a Mike's Hard Limeade
And she's feeling kinda tipsy

She's the giver I wish I could be
And the stealer of the covers (not until we're married!)
She's a picture in my wallet
Of my unborn children's mother
She's the hand that I'm holding
When I'm on my knees and praying
She's the answer to my prayer
And she's the song that I'm playing

Repeat chorus

She's the voice I love to hear
Someday when I'm ninety
She's that wooden rocking chair
I want rocking right beside me
Everyday that passes
I only love her more
Yeah, she's the one
That I'd lay down my own life for

And she's everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
She's everything to me
Yeah she's everything to me

Everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
She's everything to me

A Game of Thrones

2005-09-12T14:48:00.000-04:00

I finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin a few days ago. It was excellent.

The basic premise is this (without giving away too much story):
Eddard Stark is the head of an old family that maintains Winterfell, their home in the North. The world they live in is a fantasy one, yet it feels very real. Winterfell is visited by the king, Robert Baratheon, an old friend of Eddard's (who also helped put Robert on the throne). After Robert asks Eddard to be his new hand (basically his personal advisor), the story really takes off. The previous Hand, John Arryn, died mysteriously not long before Robert asks Eddard to do this. There is so much more involved that I wish I could mention, but I just can't.

The book is so well written and the tale is so beautifully told that you feel like you are watching it unfold with your eyes even though you're really just reading words on a page. To me, this is the sign of a skilled author. There are at least 30 important characters that you follow such as Eddard, Robert, the Queen Cersei, Eddard's bastard son Jon Snow, Eddard's trueborn son Bran, Tyrion Lannister (the Imp), and more. Each chapter is titled with the name of a main character and you follow the chapter through that person's point of view.

I won't say anymore except that anyone who is a fan of the fantasy genre should read this book. There are 2 sequels already out by Martin and there is a 4th arriving in November, I believe. The first is over 800 pages but I finished it eagerly. I can still picture the Direwolf emblem of the Stark family, and the Crowned Stag of the Baratheon's.

Also, just a hint: there is an appendix in the back of the book with the major families and their members. I didn't discover this until about 100 pages in.

Read it---now!

A Night with Brad Paisley

2005-09-11T00:56:00.000-04:00

Lydia and I saw Brad Paisley tonight at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore. That was a good show.

It was actually a benefit concert to support research into Cystic Fibrosis. They've raised $10 million dollars from the concert already which is pretty cool.

He put on a good show with just the right amount of music, humor, talking, and jamming. Lydia really enjoyed herself too which was nice since I'm the bigger Brad Paisley fan. This was the first country concert we went to for me and not her. He played a bunch of songs off his 2nd album like "Little Moments" and "Whiskey Lullaby" (my favorite).

We had a good time. Plus, we got to go to a dinner before the show with restaurants from all over serving food. It was great. I tried some chocolate chip coffee ice cream from Moxley's. That was freakin' smurfing good.

I'm about to head to bed. I'll try and post a video if I can at some point.

More Haiku's, but Humpy-style!

2005-09-08T16:05:00.000-04:00

Hump
Curving like a mount
It rushes my breath away
His hump is endless

Humpy
Puffs of smoke linger
Lean cigar extends from lips
Humpy walks onward

Forever, it lives
For years upon years
The Hump has lived on and on
Ageless, death won't come

Haiku time!

2005-09-06T23:06:00.000-04:00

Forget Jenny Craig
Smiling like a fool
Eating a chocolate cake
Weight-Watchers Hello!

Not a Summer Wind
Warm breeze floats on by
The scent intrigues my nostrils
Ah, the smell of farts

Magnifying Glass
The suns rays increase
Magnified a hundred times
Burning stuff is fun

The Puggles doing better

2005-09-04T15:59:00.000-04:00

Well, Tink (our Puggle) is doing better. She was quite a lot of work for the first couple of weeks and she still is in a way, but she's getting better. I've been crate training her and teaching her to not go to the bathroom in the house. So, she's learning.

I start my new position at work on Tuesday so I'm a little nervous about that. I'm not sure what to expect from it. I'm excited but nervous too. I also start class again on Tuesday. I'm taking a Computer Architecture course as part of my graduate studies at Loyola. I'm looking forward to it.

I'll have to update more soon. I've been busy with the dog and finishing up my duties at work before my move.

Lydia and I got a puggle!

2005-08-13T12:14:00.000-04:00

A woman was advertising a Puggle (a pug mixed with a beagle) in the Penny Saver Thursday so Lydia and I snatched the dog right up. It's funny because we just found out what a puggle was about 2 weeks ago and we decided that we loved them. They are one of the cutest mixes we have ever seen. It's the new big thing to get certain mixed breeds that combine the best qualities of both. For instance, a puggle is smart, cute, fast, good with kids, good with other dogs, very friendly, all of the good traits of the pug and the beagle.

We met her yesterday and took her home. Her name is Tinkerbell (not my 1st choice by far) but they were calling her Tink so we are going with that.

When we brought her to my house yesterday, she was crazy. She was zipping all over the place. She is 8 months old so she's still got the puppy thing going. Today she's doing better. She's a little bit calmer so that's good. We have to go get some dog treats and other stuff for her today. Lydia loves her so in 10 months when we get married and she moves in, she'll be ready to be her Mom. Tink likes Lydia too. Jordan likes her too so that's good. And Tink likes Jordan, that's for sure. My Mom loves her and so do Lydia's parents and her sister and Danielle and Grace's friend. They came to meet Tink last night.

So, now that I've gone on and on about her, here are some pictures cuz I know anyone reading this will want to see her!

Gots me some weights

2005-08-10T21:59:00.000-04:00

I picked up a weight set from Play It Again Sports tonights. It's over 200 lbs of weights plus an olympic size bar. And Lydia got me a curl bar as a surprise present today so I have that too and I can use these weights with that bar. All I have left to get is a bench but I don't really need one of those until Lydia and I get married. So I should be good for now. It's pretty freakin' smurf that I got the weights so easily though.

So now I can start doing my 21's (bicep curls)on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. And Andrew and I picked up some whey protein supplement to take after we lift. I hope it works pretty well. I just want to see if it helps bulk me up some. I mean, my chest is looking pretty good from the bench press and flies and stuff, but I want to see what else I can do with this stuff. Plus it'll help with my arms and shoulders too.

So, I'm excited about that. Andrew and I went around and ran errands all night. It was a successful evening. We got fans for the weight room for $10 each so we each bought one to keep us cool until the temperature drops here in crazy ol' Maryland.

We'll probably lift weights pretty soon so I will end this here.

Woohoo!

2005-08-08T23:36:00.000-04:00

Lydia and I found our wedding photographer today. We're using Conte Photo. I met with the owner (and the guy who will actually be photographing the wedding) and he's really cool. The package he offers is really awesome and the photos he takes look really good. So we're basically getting everything we want from a photographer for the price we were aiming to get it for. The only thing we may not get right away is an album but we can add one on to the package up to 6 months after the wedding or we can figure something else out. So that feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders (and I'm sure Lydia's too!). We now have the videographer and photographer picked out. We're using Video Masterpiece for the video. I'm excited about that too. The guy who does that is really good.

So that's good stuff. I just have to get the honeymoon stuff finished now and the limo and that'll be 2 more decent chunks out of the things that we need to take care of for the wedding.

So I'll keep working on that too. I'm just happy that we found a photographer!

Just haven't felt like blogging

2005-08-05T15:36:00.000-04:00

I just haven't felt like blogging lately. Not that anyone actually READS my blog or anything. So not that it matters. But I wanted to at least get something up there today since it's been a while.

Some notes:

The Humpy Fan Club continues but I can't do too much until I actually have a photo of him. I am working on the club t-shirt but it has to be perfect since it's the 1st official limited edition Humpy Fan Club t-shirt. I know the general outline of it and I have the layout down except for the silohuette of Humpy on the front. That's why I need the picture! Maybe I'll have a rare Humpy siting one day soon and can get a picture with Sigfried (my camera). But it does continue.

Work also continues because...well, it never ends. I have been so busy. The only reason I have time to write this is because I am waiting for my Silktest script to finish. It has about 5 minutes left. It's being dumb and making me mad.

Wedding planning also continues, which is very nice except that I'll feel better when we have a photographer picked out and booked. Conte, who I am meeting with Monday, look promising so who knows. And the honeymoon still needs to be taken care of but other than that, Lydia and I are doing very well with it all. When you break it down, it's not that much huge stuff like to do at all. Less than 10 months to go! Woohoo!

Humpy Rules

2005-07-27T23:33:00.000-04:00

Alison and I have decided to start the Official Humpy Fan Club. (Andrew was also part of the founding).

As we develop the club charter and by-laws I will post them here for all to see and to decide if they can handle the awesomeness that is Humpy.

Basically, anyone who wishes to join must decide if they truly have what it takes to be an official Humpster. It takes true determination and a commitment to honor the Humpy way of life.

Can you be a Humpster?

Overwhelmed today

2005-07-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling very overwhelmed today. It's the first day back after the Missions Trip to Jamaica and whether I wanted it to or not, time did not stand still while I was gone and now I have so much to do. Not going to make this long because of that, but I needed to dump some thoughts out.

I'm getting this feeling that I haven't had in a long time. When I was younger, I'd have these dreams that weren't nightmares but they frightened me. There were no monsters or demons, just me and the task of counting this impossible number of pillows in this room. That doesn't sound frightening when I write it but the feeling of the immensity of the task still scares me today. Imagine being asked to do something knowing that you could never get it done. I guess I just fear not being able to get everything done that I need to in time. It's like being pulled under waves. The feeling has kind of subsided for the moment but it might resurface as I try to get my work done today.

It's an interesting feeling as well as frightening. The first thing I thought of as I wrote the above paragraph was how this idea relates to my Christian walk. It's the first time I've felt this since becoming a Christian and it's funny how my perspective is so radically different. As a sinful human, I know that I have no chance of ever attaining perfection. Yet, as a Christian, I strive to do just that. So you'd think that I would hit these same fears but I don't. The reason why is quite clear: I know that Jesus died to remove the need for me to become perfect. Without that, I'd be caught in the same engulfing fear of my own sin as I am about getting my job done.

But, as I said, the feeling has passed and I am about to jump back into my work and get what I can done. If I need to work tonight after I leave Andrew's, then I'll have to do just that, I suppose. I have to see Lydia tonight because I won't see her tomorrow like I normally do. That bothers me too. I look forward to seeing Lydia on Tuesdays and even though I'm just moving some of that time to this evening, I still feel like I'm missing out on seeing her tomorrow and I don't like it. But, again, there's the positive lining that I usually find and that is that it's pretty wonderful that I am as in love with Lydia as I am to regret not spending as much time as I can with her. These 10 months cannot come fast enough!

Jamaica, mon!

2005-07-08T01:08:00.000-04:00

I just finished packing for my Missions trip to Mandeville, Jamaica. We leave bright and early (especially early) on Saturday to work in a deaf village there and to do construction and aid the ministry down there. It should be another awesome experience. Mexico was incredible last year. I am excited about this trip. This will be the last one for me and Lydia for a while. We get married next year and that means definitely no trip next year. I'm going to need the 2 weeks I have for wedding and honeymoon stuff. Plus, the 1st year of marriage is one where you really want to spend your vacation time with your new wife. Obviously, my relationship with my Savior trumps even my incredible relationship with Lydia but God did create marriage. I'll have duties to Lydia as well as of next May and I intend to keep them. Maybe we'll go on a trip again in a few years or maybe after we have kids and they get involved in Missions, we'll go. I'd love to go back to Guadalajara next year to continue working on the school and to see the host family we stayed with last year. Plus, Jesse will probably be going next year and he's not this year and that alone is something I was a bit disapointed about. Andrew and I will have a good time but Jesse would have made our trio complete and that would have rocked.

Work has been so busy lately that I haven't even had time to post on here since I saw Batman Begins. Things are just crazy. I am just about finished fine tuning my Silktest script so I can be ready to train Sharon to run it when I move to ODS. The whole move to ODS Test in itself is a reason for stress to me. I have to prepare my thoughts for my career development discussion with Robin too so I can air any concerns I have for my future. I love UPS but I am talented and hardworking enough that I can find a job in plenty of other places and probably make more money so if I don't get what I need to be fulfilled, I'll have no choice but to start looking. I really don't want to. It's an incredible company to work for but I need to do what I need to do, I suppose.

Anyway, I'll be gone all of next week so...that be it!

For the Love of a Princess

2005-07-01T16:43:00.000-04:00

I love this piece from the BraveHeart soundtrack. It has to be my favorite track on the album, which is incredible overall.

The song always makes me think of Lydia and so we have to play it at some point at our wedding. Heck, I'd love to use it in part of our wedding video too.

It's just a powerful song, period. I'm sure everyone has those songs that give them chills because it reminds them of something else or stirs an emotion instantly. That's what this song does.

"Swear to me!!!"

2005-06-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

I saw Batman Begins this past weekend. Actually, I saw it Friday night at 7:10 and then again at 10:30. Why did I see the same movie twice in one night? And why, for that matter, am I planning to see it again this week?

Because Batman Begins freaking rules. It is easily one of the best movies I have ever seen. Granted, I am a huge Batman fan. I've been a fan for a while but only in the last year or so have I developed a true understanding of the character from reading various Batman comics and what not. Right now I read Batman as well as Legends of the Dark Knight, both are very good. I really only started reading Batman because Jim Lee was taking over the pencils for a 12-issue arc and I love Jim Lee art. Once I got into the world of Gotham, I was stuck.

The thing with Batman that most people don't get is that he's not like any of the other "superheroes" that are around. The X-Men, for instance, are who they are because they have no choice. They are mutants whether they want to be or not. They are superheroes when they need to be but in their spare moments they are just regular people. Even Superman, who is probably one of the heroes with the largest burden of responsibility, has those times when he is Clark Kent. He is always prepared to become Superman but only because there are times when he is not Superman. That right there is the difference with Batman and is, I feel, the thing that makes him such a unique character. They hint at this at the end of Batman Begins. He is Batman all the time. His true self is not the billionaire playboy with the charming smile. Bruce Wayne is not his secret identity. It's his disguise from being Batman. No matter what he does, though, he cannot escape his true persona that, as Rachel Dawes puts it, "criminals now fear."

I have just always been fascinated with this concept. I think that's why I like the character so much. I think we all feel that desire to completely lose ourselves in a different part of personality sometimes.

If you haven't seen the movie, go see it. The story is excellent. The acting is top-notch. Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman do awesome jobs in their roles. And Christian Bale, as many have said already, is Batman. No doubt about it, he is Batman. There were some really crazy scenes with the Scarecrow. My favorite scene is where Batman interrogates Gordon's partner. I won't give away anything. I'll just say that I love that scene. It gave me chills.

Yeah, O's

2005-06-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

I went to the O's game last night. It was awesome. We actually sat in the Angelos family seats. Let me paint a picture of their location for you. Imagine the Oriole's dugout. Now, imagine you take 3-4 steps to the left of the Oriole's dugout. Now sit down. You are now sitting where we were sitting last night. I've never been so close in my life. It was really cool. Plus it was a great game. We won and Jay Gibbons and Larry Bigbie had back-to-back homeruns. Lydia went too, of course. And Jordan and Becky and Chad went as well.

If anyone actually saw the game last night, you probably saw me on TV as well. Apparently, right after Bigbie's homerun, they cut right to me jumping up. Now, that's cool.

Here are some pictures I took from our awesome, super-close seats.

This one I like because it has the clock tower in the background and you can see a lot of Camden Yards in the foreground. Plus, vertical shots always look cool.

This was near the end of the game. Jay Gibbons was about to get up to bat and Bigbie was next so I got them both standing there while they waited. Cool shot.

And this is one of the pictures I took of the crazy looking sky at Camden Yards. It rained a little and as the clouds rolled over us they had this weird red musky look to them. It was pretty cool looking.

I cannot believe it worked...

2005-05-31T15:21:00.000-04:00

I got my 20GB Ipod in the mail today......FOR FREE!!! Woohoo! I am so freaking excited. I was informed that there was a package for me so I went down to get, thinking to myself "Gee, I don't remember buying anything" and there it was. I always had the tiny nagging doubt that it wouldn't work but now that I've opened the box and have seen my prize I doubt no more. Andrew and I are already planning how we can get our free PSP's now. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

And just in case passersby want to join in on the fun go ahead and use my PSP referral link: http://www.FreePSPs.com/?r=15700054

It actually works. The same company does this and the freeIpods. This rocks so much.

Remember those who served

2005-05-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to say thank you to all of the troops who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else. Today is Memorial Day so it's only fitting that we remember not only those who served in all of the previous wars and conflicts but also those serving now.

My maternal grandfather was in the US Army and fought in the Pacific during WWII. I've heard a lot of stories from when he was there. I know he's only told me the fun ones because I've heard the other side from several other people.

My paternal grandfather was a Marine and was actually able to play baseball for the Marine team during the Korean War. I'm glad he did, otherwise I may not be here.

My father is a retired Air National Guardsman. While he never had to go to combat, he was always ready to and worked guard duty right after 9/11.

My brother is a current Air National Guardsman. I hope he never has to fight because he's my brother but I know he will if he needs to.

My good friend Jared is a Marine and is down South right now working on helicopters and training. He's probably going to Iraq. I just pray he'll make it back here safe. After watching the Memorial Day show on MPT last night, I know that there have been plenty who have given their lives to make Iraq a free place.

I know everyone is going to have cookouts and eat hamburgers and go swimming today. Just remember what this day is for. We lost a lot of good men (and women) defending this country so that we could do those things today. I always remember my favorite patriotic song on these days: "God Bless the USA". It's just the perfect song to capture the way we should all feel.

Episode III - Anakin's Fall to the Dark Side - Excellent

2005-05-27T00:16:00.000-04:00

I saw Episode III today after a week of waiting and ignoring spoilers.

That movie was awesome. I mean, it was excellent. I had heard it did justice to the story but I was totally blown away. I mean, Anakin's fall was executed, in my opinion, so superbly that I couldn't have asked for anything more. And the acting was actually impressive to me compared to Episode II. Ewan McGregor always does a good job. And Ian McDiarmid was excellent as the Emperor. But what really impressed me was that Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman did what I thought was a very good job. In Episode II, they were pretty bad. I blame Lucas for that because they are both skilled actors, but in any case, I thought they did great in Episode III. I am planning on seeing it again soon even if I have to go by myself. I don't care. I must see it again.

I posted these thoughts on a messageboard so I thought I'd repost them here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-I thought the turn was done superbly. The first point where he attacked Mace Windu and then turned felt slightly rushed but then as the rest of the movie progressed, it made more sense and I really liked how it all went down.

-Anakin and Obi-Wan fight - sooooooo awesome. The whole thing was fun to watch and the end with Anakin on fire, screaming at Obi-Wan with that hate in his eyes, and Obi-Wan screaming how Anakin was like a brother...it made me shudder. At that point, I almost felt sick. Now we know why Obi-Wan was so humorless in Episode IV.

-I was actually impressed with Anakin and Padme's scenes. I think this has to do with expectation. I expected them to be just as bad as in Episode II but they were much better, imo, and so comparatively, I liked them. I totally understood why Anakin fell because, for me, it only took those couple of scenes with Anakin and Padme for me to understand how much he truly needed her and how unwilling he was to lose her. I think I've contemplated those feelings myself sometimes and that might be why I felt that connection more easily than other people.

-Palpatine was awesome. The way he played Anakin's desire to save Padme along with his impatience with the Jedi Council was so evil. The way Anakin went from the council being an annoyance to his overconfidence to beginning to believe they were the same as the Sith to considering them enemies of the Republic was crazy but so cool.

-The scene with Darth Vader at the end didn't bother me that much. I figured the reason he would walk weird right off of the operating table was because he had 2 new robot legs that he wasn't used to walking with. And how he asked about Padme and then crushed everything around him with his anger was cool.

Darth Vader or Jesus

2005-05-23T09:17:00.000-04:00

John wasn't at Rockhouse, the youth group I help co-lead, because he was on vacation. So, it was up to Andew, Shannon, and I (Lydia was wiped from a looooong weekend in Ocean City) to run the games, do the snack, and teach the lesson. As usual, I took care of the lesson, not that anyone else couldn't have done it, but I just tend to volunteer for it because I enjoy doing it. It's the same reason I enjoy teaching Sunday school.

Well, I always put off planning my lessons until the last possible moment because I always feel like I have 8,000 other things that need to get done first. One of the first ideas I had for the lesson included working a Star Wars theme into it. I figured, hey, Episode III has just come out, why not? The funny thing is that I wasn't even going to use that idea until Shannon told me that she had dreamed that the lesson was Star Wars-related. So I decided to go for it...

I started off by listing several characteristics such as born without a human father, believed to be the chosen one, said he'd conquer death, sacrificed himself at the end, and so on. These are all traits that could be attributed to Jesus so of course, when I asked who I was referring to, they all said so. I was in fact talking about Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Once I got them thinking about Darth Vader, I asked them who went to see Ep III and why. They gave the expected answers: because it had light sabers, to see Anakin turn into Darth Vader, and so on. So then we started to talk about the realism of a movie like Star Wars and a character like Darth Vader. Of course we wouldn't expect to see someone dressed like Darth Vader, excluding the opening night for a Star Wars movie, coming out of the local pizza place swinging a light saber and flipping cars with the Force, right? It's just something that we know isn't going to happen. But it's still cool to see it in the movie. Eric, Andrew, and I always talk about Darth Vader and Star Wars and about the cool fights between Vader and Luke and so on. It's something we love to talk about, even though we know it's not real.

Of course, we all know that Jesus is more powerful than any Darth Vader-like character. I mean, Jesus actually rose from the dead. He actually can defeat death (Anakin only says he will) and resurrect people. He can walk on water. He can cure any sickness or disability. He can make food and wine out of nothing. He even has legions of angels at His command. I think it's pretty obvious that Jesus has more power in his pinky toe than Darth Vader ever could. Of course, the main difference between the two is that Vader is weak. He actually succumbed to the Dark Side in that weakness. Christ, even in the midst of a 40 day fast, held strong against Satan. He endured intense physical torture and never broke. Vader did. Jesus did all of these things and we believe in Him because we have a personal relationship with Him.

So why then, when we have someone like Jesus who is more powerful than someone like Darth Vader and who we know is real, would we rather talk about Darth Vader with our friends? It's a good question, I think. There are plenty of possible reasons. Maybe because we take our Messiah for granted. Maybe because we're an age of visual experience and Darth Vader can be seen in the movies doing all of these things. Maybe because our friends also enjoy Darth Vader and they may not enjoy talking about Jesus. Whatever the reasons, it's important that we realize that we're going to have some awesome opportunities with Episode III being popular for the next few months. Maybe it's time we talked about more Jesus and less about Vader.

It's going to be an exciting week

2005-05-20T10:57:00.000-04:00

Sooooooo many things going on this next week.

Let's see...

Wario Ware Twisted comes out on Tuesday. I have been waiting for this game since the beginning of the year. See, back then it was supposed to come out in March but the wonderful marketing geniuses that are Nintendo decided to hold the fully completed game off until May 24th because Wario Ware Touched was already out. So I've been drooling over playing this game even more since March. And now the day is almost here. Thank goodness for Best Buy giftcards!

Thursday is the day I get to finally see Episode III. Jordan saw it and said it was great so I have very high hopes. I've heard bad reviews for it and good reviews for it. I have a feeling that the people who gave it the bad reviews were either a) a jaded movie critic who can't simply enjoy the friggin' movie or b) someone who went in there expecting the dialogue to actually be good and not to have that bitter George Lucas taste. I am neither of those. I expect plenty of light-saber fights and Force powers and watching Anakin kill a lot of people. Then I expect Obi-Wan to kick his butt and send him into the fire pits. I know Lucas' diaglogue will most likely stink. I know there may be some cheesy lovey romance stuff that Lucas has no idea how to implement. But I am ready to move past that and enjoy it for what it is: the fall of Anakin and the rise of Darth Vader. Oh yeah.

Next Saturday I get new tires for my car. They're Kumho ECSTA ASX's. They're Super High Performance All-Season tires. I am in dire need of new tires too so I am excited about finally getting some decent ones on there. I can't wait to see the difference in the feel of the car. So that's exciting.

Now I just have to get through the weekend with my Lydia being in Ocean City. She's going down for the weekend with her friend Becky. I've got some plans for the weekend to keep me occupied. I'll be doing some cleaning, some dusting, some vacuuming, some mopping, some organizing, some clothes washing. Ah, the joys of owning a home! But she'll be back Sunday night. I also have to prepare for Sunday school and for the Rockhouse lesson on Sunday night since John will be out of town. So I've got lots to do. Thank goodness I won't have Wario Ware Twisted to occupy me just yet!

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Lydia

2005-05-19T16:33:00.000-04:00

I suppose this is the best place to reveal something that I may not have outright announced before. I've self-diagnosed a very rare case of an ailment. In fact, I believe I am the only person alive who has this disease. I would not want anyone else to have it because I am the only person capable of dealing with it. It's tough though because there is no cure. In fact, there isn't even a way to subdue the symptoms for any period of time. All that I can do in the stronger moments that the ailment hits are to deal with them as best I can. You see, I have what I have appropriately dubbed "Lydia-Addiction." The symptoms range from constant, flickering thoughts about Lydia to full-blown day-dreaming to incredible love for Lydia. You can usually tell when someone has Lydia-Addiction by the longing eyes and vacant stares when they are in full day-dream mode. The most dangerous symptom of Lydia-Addiction, however, is the withdrawal. While most medicines can lead to withdrawal, Lydia-Addiction is set apart because of the incredible speed in which it sets in. Usually, it takes at least an hour but there have been known cases where it has set in within minutes. The only known course of action for Lydia-Addiction and the subsequent withdrawal is a full dose of pure Lydia. This can be administered either in person or over the telephone though the stronger cases require direct Lydia contact.

I just thought that this would be the best place to announce...I have Lydia-Addiction.

Another day, another bar of soap in the bucket (random gibberish, oh yeah!)

2005-05-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

It's been a few days since my last post. I've had lots to say. I just haven't had a chance to say it. Of course, now that I'm actually throwing up a post, I'll have absolutely nothing worthwhile to talk about. That's the way it always works.

Work is busy a moofoo (I just invented that word, btw). I'm jumping back and forth between finishing testing of my Service Exception Silktest script and updates to our VB-like CETest Master scripts so we can run them for our international release. So I've got a full workload, but that's fine with me. I'd rather be busy than bored. I'm taking a short 5-10 minute break just to write this cuz I need it to let my mind settle while my testcase executes.

Today we are going to Macaroni Grill for Jack's farewell lunch. He is off to the world of Java development. That should be a good fit for him. It'd be awesome if I could be off to the world of development at some point. We will see. My main problem with test is that no one thinks it's worth anything. It's like you have to be in development to get respect and that annoys me. So my goal is to become a developer. In truth, I am one, just not a paid one. At home, it's what I do. I read books on coding and development, I think about, I design applications. I dream of all of the wonderful possibities of how I could make my life easier by writing an app to do something for me. Plus, if it's useful enough, I can shareware it and maybe get people to send me money but at the very least I'll have people using and critiquing my work. That's good enough for me.

I'm going to add a little status thing to the side of my blog once I get it redesigned. I already have some awesome ideas for that. I first need to get a picture of Benjamin Disraeli from that episode of Family Guy. That is an integral part of the design. Mwahaha. My status thing will probably list stuff about me for that day/week/whatever like how much weight I'm benchpressing and my mood and my current musical obsession.

2005-05-06T00:35:00.000-04:00

I was going through some of my digital pictures using Picasa (an awesome program for organizing and viewing your photos) and I had to post a couple. The first one is from my trip to NY this past March. Lydia and I went up with Jordan and his family and I posted a bit about our horrible experience taking the bus to NY. I got some cool pictures while we were up there and Lydia and I had a fun time even if it was a bit chilly and then rainy on Sunday.

This is what I call "Lydia & Jordan Action Subway Shot." It's Lydia...and Jordan...in an action shot...in the subway. How original is that!?! I took it as the subway cars whizzed by at about 800 billion mph. It turned out well except I didn't get it totally focused on Lydia and Jordan on time so they're slightly out of focus as well.

This 2nd one is from the Aisquith Spring Youth Retreat. It's called "Blue Juice Fargate." It's not a Stargate. I don't want to get sued! It's actually a deliciously addicting blue drink that Skycroft made available to us. I like to think of it as fruity blue crack drink. Mmm...fruity...bluey...er...cracky. Mmm. So here it is...

Both trips were fun so I thought I'd throw up a post about them and get some fun photos up.

2005-05-04T00:07:00.000-04:00

I am working on getting my blog header up soon. I really want to make this more of a personal design and so I need to get crackin'. I just installed Visual Studio .Net on my laptop. Now I can program VB.NET or C# or C++ wherever I want. Joy! That was a serious Joy! by the way. I am a computer geek after all!

Larry and Lappy together at last...

2005-05-03T09:02:00.000-04:00

I got a laptop last week...last Wednesday to be exact. It's purty. I like it. I like it a-lawt. It's a Dell Inspiron 6000. I have not quite decided what his name shall be. My camera, a Canon S45, is named Sigfried (not after the slightly-ambiguous member of the Tiger-loving magic duo, mind you). I just liked the name Sigfried for a camera. But, as my wonderful Lydia pointed out, my Laptop needs a name so I shall work on giving it one. It's name must convey a certain level of respect that emits an aura of intrigue and mystique. It has to define the laptop but not take away it's mysterious nature, thereby revealing it's internal mechanics in a way that answers no questions yet answers them all.

By all of that above, I basically mean this......ugh.....I'm not really sure what I mean, but it sure sounded cool, didn't it?

I'll get a picture of the laptop up here, maybe even the picture showing he and I in our first moment of brotherly affection. We shall see.

I had my last actual class last night for Discrete Math. All I can say is THANK FREAKING GOODNESS!!! I can't take that class anymore. I just can't. It's not just boring in the normal sense. I also don't care at all and that makes the boring class even harder to bear. But, Monday is my final and then I am free for the summer. I just hope my next class offers something that I find worthwhile in studying.

Lydia is finishing two more of her 5 finals today. She should be her Sixties History final right now. I told her I'd be thinking about her the whole time she is taking them and I am so maybe that will help her just make it through. These are some tough finals she has this semester. She has a Business Ethics one later today and she had an Org. Behavior final last night. Then she has Finance and Public Admin on Thursday. 4 of those I would never ever want to take myself. The history I could handle. The rest...no way. But I know she'll do awesome. And when she is done Thursday, she will feel so relieved and that will be nice. Then she can start planning how the house is going to look so we can make a plan and start working on it this summer.

Take that Cackletta. Your feeble ramblings are no more!

2005-04-27T09:45:00.000-04:00

I whupped Cackletta. I whupped him good. Who is this Cackletta, you ask? Why he is the dastardly fiend who stole Princess Peach's voice and the Beanstar in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the GBA. Why should you care, you say? I don't.....really know. But I care and that is all that matters. I beat the game on Monday and felt like posting about it. It's a really fun game. It took me about...18 hours to beat which isn't bad for a game like that at all. I felt a true sense of accomplishment beating it because I hardly ever "finish" games these days. I run out of time or caring or a new game comes out that I want to play more. I used to be hardcore. Now, because of life's other responsibilites, I am but a semi-hardcore. That kind of bothers me but I guess that's life. As long as I can play most/all of the games on my "Must Play" (look to the right, por favor), I should be fine.

Take that Cackletta. Your feeble ramblings are no more!

2005-04-27T09:38:00.000-04:00

Feeling better after a good weekend

2005-04-25T14:29:00.000-04:00

This weekend was fun. It rained most of it, but it was still nice. The retreat went well. I thought the message was pretty good. It dealt with how to evangelize and it had some very good points. Some I knew, some I had never thought about. So I learned something. Just like that time I watched those puppies be born because "I always thought puppies came from eggs and I learned something." That was actually a Family Guy quote. Speaking of which, Family Guy starts up brand new this Sunday. American Dad begins it's official run and it's all nestled against a delicious episode of The Simpsons. Ahhhh...what a night for TV. Of course, I'm always at youth group until 8:30/9:00 so I'll have to tape it all. But I figure, I can tape it and then Andrew and I can watch it all on Monday nights after we get off work. Beautiful. Freakin' beautiful.

I feel better about this job thing too. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it will be an awesome opportunity to challenge myself and prove my skills. It'll let me grow in my skillset and really shine. I do a lot in DCS but compared to what I could be doing in ODS, I could use the change, I guess. I tend to like comfort and security above challenging myself. So, I could have stayed in DCS forever because it was comfortable, but it wouldn't have helped my grow as quickly. I've never really had to learn how to think quickly and ask the right questions and I'll be doing all of that now in ODS so it's exciting. I'll still miss working with everyone but we'll still be in the same division and I'll continue lunchin' with everyone like it is now. So it'll be alright.

I have some pretty sweet photos from the retreat. I'll have to get them off my camera and throw a few up here or something. The ones of the girls sliding in the mud are funny. And the one of Carrie, Alison, and Beth splashing in the puddles just turned out really cool. I was pleased with that. And I have my Stargate photo too.

2005-04-22T16:24:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving work pretty soon and I'll be at Skycroft with the youth group for the weekend. It should be fun. Lydia says that Skycroft is really really nice and she knows what she's talking about so I'm sure it is. I'm looking forward to playing Wallyball (Volleyball in a racquetball court). That'll be cool.

We're going to a surprise party for her friend Becky tonight and then we're driving down and we're taking Jesse, his g/f Carrie, and another Carrie. That'll be an interesting drive considering past histories. Yeah.

I'll have to put some more pictures up soon. I have some funny drawings and stuff. I am making a picture of Kasey Kahne's head on a woman's body. It's for Becky's birthday card. It's pretty darn good. I'll have to post that. heh

Yeah, that be all.

2005-04-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

This is actually from like a month ago. I'm Mr. Computer Wizard and I couldn't figure out how to post stupid pictures on my stupid blog. I am ashamed. I shall spill my entrails as punishment for my folly.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrghghghdghdfhdhfhdfhdhfdhdhfhdhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY ENTRAILS!!!

Ok....I feel better now.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed

2005-04-19T11:36:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling a tad on the overwhelmed side of things today.

I have all of this "transferring to ODS Test" crap in my head just sitting there staring at me like an evil bird of some kind. And then I have my Service Exception Silktest script also sitting right there on my shoulders being the heaviest weight it can be.

So, I have a lot going on today. I just needed a quick 5 minute break to type up this and relieve a bit of my stress and so on.

I'm going to an O's game tomorrow night with Lydia and her friend Becky and Becky's boyfriend Chad. So that should be fun. And I don't have to drive or pay for a thing except for some foodage so this is good.

But, for now, I am at work and I am a bit stressed and just wishing I was done for the day with Lydia there so we could relax and watch TV and just spend the evening together.

5 hours to go...

Off to ODS Test

2005-04-18T15:20:00.000-04:00

Well, it's official. I am moving to the ODS Test Group from the DCS Test Group. That might make absolutely no sense to anyone reading this but it's a pretty big deal. I know it just sounds like 3 little letters but I'm completely switching groups. I'll be working under someone else and testing a totally different application. Plus I'll have to learn a bunch of new things like their setup, their system, all of it.

I'm both excited and incredibly nervous. I just met my new boss for the first time today. I won't be moving for a little while (hopefully) but I will be moving. At this point, I'd say I am more nervous.

But, I have 2 awesome things going for me.

1) I know that God is in control. He's got a plan and I'm in it and I just have to trust in that.
2) I have the most amazing fiancee in the world behind me and I can do anything with my Lydia there to take care of me.

Plus, it'll be a good experience and good way to shine and get noticed, etc etc etc.

But I must go. I am meeting with my new boss in 5 minutes for 1/2 hour.

Arrested Development

2005-04-06T12:20:00.000-04:00

My roommate, Jordan, went and bought the first season of Arrested Development on DVD. This show is so hilarious.

It's about this family where the father goes to prison for embezzlement from the family business and the one responsible son, Michael, has to take over. He has a son named George Michael who has the hots for his cousin, Maebee. The other siblings are Gob (pronounced like Job from the Bible) who is a magician, Buster who is slow and has panic attacks, and Lindsay who is spoiled. She's married to Tobias Funke who is played by David Cross (he's the Chicken pot chicken pot chicken pot pieeeeee guy from Just Shoot Me) and their daughter is Maebee. The whole family is dysfunctional. It's like Family Guy with live actors instead of cartoon characters. It's hilarious.

Just thought I'd announce that to the world!

Oh, let's see, what's been going on? Easter was fun with Lydia's family and my family (and it was wonderful being with Lydia!). Went to the All Things New concert (Stephen Curtis Chapman, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin) on Sunday night with the Youth Group. That was a great concert. SCC and his wife are huge adoption advocates and I've always thought of adopting and Lydia and I have discussed it before once we're married. It's just definitely something we both would love to do. I hope it's in God's plan. I feel like He's calling us to do it, so we'll see what the years bring.

Grace and Love

2005-04-01T13:58:00.000-05:00

Many things in life are hard for me
Many things can pull us down
I don't understand why I do what I do
How could I take my eyes off you
After all You've done for me
And after all You've done for me

It's by Your grace and love I am saved
It's by Your grace and love You've forgiven me
And by that love and grace I'm amazed
It's by Your grace and love I am free
I am free, I am free, I am free

And it's by grace and love that I am free
I'll live with You eternally
I thank you Lord that I am free
I thank You Lord for loving me
I thank You Lord for dying upon the tree of Calvary
I thank You Lord for loving me
I thank You Lord for dying for me

Because it's by grace and love I am saved
It's by Your grace and love You've forgiven me
And by that love and grace, I'm amazed
It's by Your grace and love I am free
I am free, I am free, I am free

Many things in life are hard for me
Many things can pull us down
But by grace and love You've forgiven me
And by grace and love we are free

-Kutless "Grace and Love"

-----------------------------------------------------

I have a copy of this CD (yes, I know I have to go buy it. Next time I'm in Lifeway, I will, promise!). It is awesome. I've just been listening to it over and over lately in the car and stuff and the words are even more awesome than the music (which is very, very good).

DON'T USE EASTERN!!!!!!

2005-03-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

Lydia and I went to NY this past weekend with my roommate, Jordan, and his family.

We reserved tickets from Baltimore to NY for the 8:20 bus with Eastern Bus Tours.

The bus NEVER CAME. Jordan and his family showed up for their 9:20 bus. There bus NEVER CAME. We had to take a different bus and buy new tickets just to get to NY and back. I called Eastern and they are supposedly refunding my money but I don't trust them.

That's what Jordan's father, Paul, kept saying whenever he talked to the owner of Eastern while we were waiting on Saturday morning: "I don't trust this guy." Neither did I and I'm glad we didn't because he and his company are a joke. I'm just a bit annoyed by the whole fiasco.

Basically, they overbook their buses and allow walk-ons at any stop. So if at Stop #1, the bus is filled partially by people with reservations and the rest by people who walk on, then the bus just doesn't stop at Stop #2 and the people there who have reservations get to stand there and wonder where their bus is. That's what happened to us because we were Stop #2 and Stop #1 filled up our bus. We ended up using Dragon Bus but don't use them either as they aren't any better. They do the same thing. We just happened to be Stop #1 in NY so Lydia and I got seats together. They are both Chinese companies so I don't know if there's something different in the way the business practices are done or what. I don't want to say that it's because they are Chinese, but perhaps there's a different attitude towards this kind of service that just doesn't mesh with American culture. Beats me.

All I know is don't use Eastern and don't use Dragon buses.

I miss you Eyore!

2005-03-14T12:11:00.000-05:00

I'm back from my vacation in beautiful Florida. *sigh* Tis a shame too. The trip was so much fun.

Want to know the best part? I got to spend more than a week straight with Lydia. And it was a week straight where we got to be engaged as opposed to Missions Trips where we're "not dating" even though her and I basically disregard that and find other ways to show our feelings. The thing with that is that we're not stupid. We know how to behave in a Missions Trip setting so there's no reason to say we're "not dating". I will always be with her. I don't care where we go. We'll just make our love less obvious. That's all.

Anyway, Florida...it was awesome. Lydia and I got to spend every waking moment together (except for an hour on Friday when I played an arcade game with a 10-year old ghost boy). It was so awesome. Makes me want to get married next weekend instead of next May. But we can do it. We can wait. It's so worth the wait. People at work act like marriage is this awful thing. It saddens me. I think I blogged on this before. I know that life isn't all roses and love isn't all perfect and nice all the time, but when you love someone, you make it through tough time. You know? And I love Lydia. We're going to be a wonderful family because I will stop at nothing to make her happy and it's the same with her making me happy. I'm really excited basically...can you tell?

Anyway, that was not the purpose of this post though I don't mind when I get to express my feelings for Lydia on here. It was basically to say that Florida was awesome (except for the tap water...ugh). Great rides, great food mostly, good weather, and an amazing woman who is alllll mine!

Off to Florida

2005-03-04T09:51:00.000-05:00

I'll be in Florida for a whole week starting tonight!

WOOHOO!

It should be fun. We'll be going to Disney World, MGM, Universal Studios, all those places. I'm looking forward to it for sure.

And the best part is that Lydia's going too. So that's going to be nice. We can relax and spend the week together. It's the closest we can get to going away together before we're married since we'll be with my parents and my brother and his ex-girlfriend. Once we're married, obviously we'll be able to go on as many trips as we want since we'll be able to sleep in the same room, in the same bed, etc.

I need the vacation too. I really need it. After being sick for a week, I am just ready to be someplace warm.

Woohoo! Florida!

I have the powwwwwwwwwer!

2005-03-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

Of Grayskull!!!

Well, no, not really of Grayskull per se. More like nothing actually. I just really wanted to write that. The whole "I have the powwwwwwwer" thing just sounds cool. If you don't know where it's from, it was He-Man's catch phrase when he would turn from wimpy Prince Adam into Ultra-powerful, Butt-kicking He-Man with his trusty steed who was a green tiger with battle armor on named Battle-Cat. He-Man was the man. He wasn't just the man. He was the He Man. Oh yeah.

I just went to talk to my boss' boss, Greg. He and his boss, Roy, had been looking for me yesterday and I wasn't at my desk. I didn't find out until it was too late to see them. They're doing the raise meetings where they tell you how much extra money you'll be making for doing the same thing. I call that the most awesome meeting ever. But of course, Roy is out today so now I have to wait until tomorrow to find out. No biggie really. It's not like I get the raise any faster. It stills comes on the next paycheck. I will find out tomorrow though, so that gives me something to look forward to. Woohoo!

This blasted cold of mine won't go away either. I think I'm going to have it for a while. Maybe Florida will scare it away. Like Florida could have a bat and be like "Yeah, cold, I'm going to put the beat-down all up in your face if you don't be getting out of my face" and the cold will be like "Oh, please don't hurt me Florida, I'm sorry" and Florida will be like "I don't want to hear none of that. Get out my face, biotch." That's how I think it will go down.

NANACA CRASH!!!

2005-03-02T16:31:00.000-05:00

http://atlas.walagata.com/w/parkwaylights/nanaca-crash_v104.swf

I'm not sure what this is or what it's based off of, but it's freakingly addicting. You use a meter to smash into a guy with a bike and send him flying. But, wait, it gets better! As he flies and bounces, he runs into people and they stop him or send him flying more. And apparently you can use special moves to send him flying even further. My highest score is a little over 2000 but there are people getting almost 10,000.

I suck!

I hates the being sick thing!

2005-02-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

For the record, being sick blows.

I mean it really really blows...my lungs out of my mouth. I have been coughing non stop. I've had the on and off fever with the chills and the achiness. I'm thinking it's a mild case of the flu.

I hope I can go to work tomorrow. Wow...never thought I'd hear myself say that. Ha!

My Lydia

2005-02-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know if I've ever written a blog entry (well, not on this one...I used to have another one before this one) about Lydia. I know I've mentioned her in my various ramblings and so anyone who reads this probably knows that she is my fiancee. We met in the fall of 2002. We started dating in January of 2003. We've been together for over 2 years now. We got engaged on Sep 1 of 2004. I've done a lot of things in my life but this was one thing I knew was right. I had prayed about it a lot beforehand. I did the same thing when I told her that I loved her for the first time. I just knew it was perfect and it was. My planning all came together and I proposed and she said yes. It was awesome.

Lydia is pretty much the most amazing woman I have ever known. She's beautiful, fun, smart, kind, sweet, caring, loving, and most of all, she is a deeply devoted to Jesus Christ. She always makes me smile. She always knows how to make me feel better when things are stressful or just not going right. For Valentine's Day, she got my watch all fixed up and ready to wear just because she knew I wanted to start wearing it. She is just simply incredible.

She has got the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen too. They are blue and just amazing. I could look into them for hours and hours...no lie. I find myself looking at her sometimes, just because. I just can't help myself. All I can think to do is to stare at her. And she has such a sweet, cute face. When she smiles...I don't know what to do. And when she laughs...I melt. I love to hear her sing. She makes up these cute, little songs. I really can't describe how they make me feel other than to say that I couldn't even find a word to describe how happy I feel at those moments.

She's so sweet too. So kind. She'll do anything for anyone. She just loves to care for people. And she has a thing for bad kids. She loves them. She just wants to nurture them and help them. There aren't a lot of people who love doing something like that. She's great with kids. They can sense how sweet she is, I think. Kids usually can. If they even see half the sweetness in her that I see all the time, then there's no way they'd be able to resist her anyways. I guess there's no surprise why I can't resist her.

And she's so smart. She doesn't give herself enough credit, but she is. She is awesome with math and formulas and things that many people just stare at and give up on. And I've watched her grow stronger and stronger as a writer over the last year or so. She's getting to be very good. At least I think so! Whenever she writes me anything, all I know is that I save it and hide it away so I can keep it forever. I have pretty much everything she's ever given me. I have a drawer in my room just for that kind of stuff. Maybe I'll look through some of it tonight.

What it all comes down to is that I love her. I love her more than I could have ever imagined it possible to love someone. All this stuff I've written. It's all true, but it still doesn't even come close to explaining what I feel for her. It's just a total, pure love. She's wonderful. I pray that I can be with her always.

Blast it all to Poo Poo!

2005-02-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day was very nice. Well actually Valentine's Day kinda stunk, but the day after was nice. The only nice part of the 14th was that I actually got to see Lydia for 20 minutes. I surprised her with roses and chocolate-covered strawberries at Shannon's house. She wasn't expecting me considering I had school at 5, but I was there because there was no way I was not seeing her on Valentine's Day!

But we did celebrate...yesterday. It was awesome. It's kind of tradition that I cook some seafood dish for her. I made her crab sauce and spaghetti for V-Day #1 and then Crab-Stuffed Shrimp on V-Day #2. So for V-Day #3, I made Shrimp & Rice. Basically, you sautee minced garlic cloves in olive oil, then throw in lots of peeled & deveined shrimp and sautee some more, then put in some diced tomatoes and sautee for 10 minutes. The recipe called for angel hair pasta, but I used Unky Ben's white rice cuz she had had pasta for lunch that day. And I cooked up some frozen brocccccccoli and had some sparkling cider. It was delish. I'm a freaking good cook. I am. Really. And Lydia had made me one of my favorites - namely Cherry Cake!!! Mmmmmmmm. It was soooo good. And then we just relaxed and watched TV in my living room and had a wonderful time together. It was really cool. Another good V-Day. Oh, and for my gift, she stole a watch I had gotten for free some years back and had the battery replaced and the links removed so I can actually wear it. She knows I'll never do it myself so she did for me. Awesome gift...perfect idea. I'm wearing the watch right now. It's...............................4:26pm. I am good.

On a sucky note, Shannon's church is kind of dying. Which really stinks. For one, I feel bad for Pastor Parham cuz he's a really nice guy. I just don't understand what happened with it. It's sad when that happens. And two, if the church goes, the website will go also. That means no more website for me to webmaster. Crap-on-a-stick-in-a-bucket. If that happens, I'm either going to start my own website. Not sure what about yet. Or I'm going to contact another PCA church in our Presbytery that does not have a website and see if they want one. So we'll see.

Yeah, I guess that's it. There is other stuff, but I don't feel like writing about it. Basically, I'm a moron. I messed up and now I'm going to have to deal with it. *sigh* It's always something.

Truth tables are fun, to tell you the truth

2005-02-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

I have class tonight. I don't think I ever mentioned that I did, in fact, switch to Loyola for my Graduate study needs. I like it better than Villa Julie's Grad school program. I loved VJC for my under-graduate degree and I'm sure that they will iron out the kinks with their Graduate system, but right now it's not as put-together as I need it to be. It's already going to take 1.2 billion years to graduate with a Masters degree. I don't need to add more time onto that. I really really hope I can get it done. I'm afraid that life is going to get in the way. Right now, I can handle it. It's cool. And even when Lydia and I get married, I think it'll be fine. In fact, since she'll be out of school, I could possibly take 2 courses a semester. That'd be nice. But if we have kids at any point before I finish...that might make it difficult to attend school. I mean, I am soooo excited about having kids with her (not right away, but when we're ready). I mean, if we were blessed with one earlier than we had planned, then that'd be fine just because 1) there's not much we can do at that point :) and 2) obviously God would be saying "I want you to have a kid" so I'm not arguing with that. heh And I am actually really really excited about having that little person that we get to care for and love and raise.

This blog is about to go off on a totally different path than my original intent but here goes: It saddens me when I know people who have kids and are totally oblivious to the God that I know. Yeah, I know, everyone isn't going to believe in my God and that's to be expected, but it still saddens me. I mean, adults have the choice and the intelligence to know what they're doing. So if they choose to disagree with my beliefs and to believe something else or in nothing (even though athiests do believe in something, imo), I can accept it in most forms. But for their kids...they're getting screwed before they even have a chance. I mean, they're being raised to know nothing about God and Jesus and that stinks. Someone at work mentioned in conversation how they were wondering "when you introduce their child to religion." How about as soon as you can? I know Lydia and I will be. And then, hopefully, our children will grow with a knowledge of Christ and they'll be able to make their own decision about what they believe. And I hope they'll accept Christ as Lydia and I have. That's all way out in the future. It'll be a while before we're at that point. :)

On a nice little side note, I bought Lydia's wedding band on Saturday. It's beautiful and it'll look soooooo good on her with the engagement ring. It's white gold (18k, I think) and it's a channel-set band with a total weight of 1 carat. And we picked out mine. We went to Smyth's for mine and Jared's for hers since the engagement ring is from Jared's. Mine is going to be a Titanium band with 2 black lines circling it towards the center of the band. It's sweet looking. I liked it a lot. So as long as my gimpy finger doesn't interfere with me wearing it, it's mine. Basically, because I dislocated & fractured my ring finger on my left hand, the knuckle is eternally swollen. It's better since I had physical therapy on it in 2003. But it's still swollen. So I hope it fits.

Snowy snowy snow snow

2005-01-31T10:26:00.000-05:00

We got our 2nd "snow storm" of the season this weekend. Saturday night, out of nowhere, it just started snowing and it kept snowing and snowing...and snowing. Then it sleeted some. (Sleeted...is that a word?) So, we got to have all of the fun that comes with it. I helped get Ms Dorothy out of the driveway at Lydia's on Sunday. And then I got stuck that night trying to go home. All I can say is that sand is a beautiful thing. Here is a haiku I wrote about sand:

Crusty, lovely brown
Creates traction where there's none
Somehow gets in crack

Beautiful, wasn't it?

This weekend was nice. Relaxing, for the most part, and nice. Jordan, Lydia, and I made a trip to Ikea. Jordan is from Tennessee and has never been to Ikea before. This was his 2nd trip. He's addicted as are we all. Blasted Ikea with your attractive and reasonably priced furniture and accessories!!!

That night, Andrew and I headed over to Adam's house for his yearly party. We stayed for about an hour or less. We had other stuff going on that night and neither of us were really in the mood for the kind of party it was. Lydia and I went to my parent's for dinner that night since I didn't get to see my Mom on Thursday. We watched the Apprentice. I was so glad the non-Degree people lost. They deserved to.

Sunday was nice. I helped Lydia get her Philosophy paper done. We watched some TV and did absolutely nothing. :) It was sweet.

That night, Jordan and I watched last week's Alias. It was pretty good...I have no idea what's going on but I will soon. I'm downloading all of Season 2 and the first 3 eps of Season 4 as I type...at home that is. Ah...Bit Torrent, how I love thee.

Now it's back to another week. I have class tonight and homework that is not done yet. Dangit.

Blow stuff up...then....blow it up again!

2005-01-21T09:01:00.000-05:00

Yeah, Mercenaries is cool. That's a game for the PS2. You run around as a mercenary in Korea blowing crap up, doing missions for various factions, and shooting people. Oh, and you can drive any vehicle. I've driven a bunch of crappy cars, a few military trucks, a chopper, and a couple tanks. The tanks are fun. They 'splode things nice. And the new Wario Ware games comes out in March. If you have never played Wario Ware for the GBA, you are not living life, my friend. The new one is going to rock. It has a motion sensor built in and it senses the turning of the game itself. Sweet.

On a side note, I didn't shave very well this morning. I hate when I do that. I either want to shave completely or not shave at all. I especially like not shaving for one day. Cuz then I get that controlled scruffy look which looks very good. Lydia prefers I shave, so I usually do. Plus, I have no choice for work Monday-Friday. Once in a while I get away with it though. mwahaha

I got a roommate on Tuesday too. He's the new youth leader at Loch Raven Presbyterian Church. He's a cool guy. I've just been trying to get to know him over the past few days. It's going well. And the surround works in the house now WITH a picture. What an accomplishment. So then I go to test it and I don't see that Gladiator is already in the DVD player. The stupid DVD is black on top and it blends in with the shadow. So I put Xmen 2 in there. The DVD tray closes and it tells me that it can't play the DVD. I immediately realize why. But now the thing won't open. So I had to take apart the DVD player, slide Xmen 2 out, and then it worked. I am a freaking genius.

Oh, and Napolean Dynamite is awesome.

We'll be taking over gang territory as we come...

2004-11-09T10:50:00.000-05:00

It's funny. I've got so much going on right now. I have work projects, the church website, planning the wedding, fixing stuff at my house, cleaning my house, raking my leaves, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. I really just want to play San Andreas when I get home at night. I've spent the past week just taking over rival gang territory. Take that Bolla's!!! I've officially destroyed them and own all of the streets of Los Santos except for a few more territories owned by the Hispanic gang. But those guys are wussies and I can take them real quick. Plus, their territory is divided into much larger chunks than the Bolla's and that makes it a lot easier too. As soon as I get these guys routed out, I am going to start doing missions again. Then maybe I can get to San Fierro by the end of the week. Now that would rock.

But! (there's always a but) I really do need to fix the lights in my bathroom and replace the bulbs in my kitchen and clean up my bedroom and go through boxes in my spare room and work on the EPC site (it's coming along nicely) and get around to replacing the bathroom tile and finish painting the living room and so on and so on and so on. Ooh, and I need to rake the leaves too. My backyard is literally grass-free right now, or rather it looks like my entire yard is nothing but leaves. I only have 2 trees and it's completely covered. So I'm going to borrow Mr Chuck's snowblower to take that of that so take that foul leaves!!!

Basically, I have about a gajillion hours worth of crap to do and about 1 hour a day to do any of it. At least I can accept that. It doesn't really bother me. The fun stuff I look forward to and the house stuff...I kinda look forward to too because it's my house.

Hmm

Hahahahahahaha

2004-11-04T14:24:00.000-05:00

I got a comment to my blog from yesterday. It was pretty funny.

What kind of person feels the need to post anonymous comments to someone else's Blog just to insult them? Now, granted, this could be a friend messing with me. That's always possible, in which case, it's funny in a funny way. If it's actually some random person then it's more funny in a sad way.

The person obviously doesn't understand the love of God. But that's ok. Most people really don't, which is sad. Granted, He's a just God and those who ignore Him or turn away from Him will find out just how just He is, but those who accept His love and His son will never have to feel that. Plus, logically, if you admit to the existence of God, then you'd have to admit He is control of everything that happens. So Bush winning the election is ultimately part of His plan. This person definitely doesn't undetstand that.

I actually got a comment from a nice woman a month ago in regards to Lyd and I picking a wedding date. I never even knew I had it until yesterday! Oh well.

Yeah, anonymous person, if you're really someone I don't know, at least have the guts to admit who you are when you post.

And life...is good

2004-11-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Bush won!

Well, it's basically official. Dubbya beat Kerry. I voted for Bush so I'm happy. Not that my vote affected the outcome at all. Stupid Maryland always going Democrat! So really, nothing I did yesterday changed anything. Mikulski still won the Senate. Kerry got our electoral votes. But Bush won overall. Praise the Lord!

2004-11-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I posted. I don't know why I keep forgetting to post some updates.

Lots of stuff has happened recently. This past weekend was the Unretreat in Ocean City. It went really well. The cabin time I spent with the guys I was the counselor for was awesome. I was with Joe, Kevin, Josh, and Chuckles. We had a really awesome conversation that started off talking about the speaker, Chad, but then went to evolution and so on. We talked about how God has a plan for all of us and how we all have gifts he is going to use for His plan. I made sure to let them all know that I know that they are important.. Like, for Chuckles, Josh, and Kevin, they are going to be the light to someone else to show God's love. I prayed for each of us individually at the end. I was just really happy with how it went. Other than that, the Unretreat was pretty normal. Good music and food and stuff. Spaghetti on Saturday for dinner. Mmm mmm mmm!

There's a lot going on. Today is my Lydia's 20th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY DOLL! :) We're having dinner at her house with her family and a couple of her friends tonight. And I'm going to give her all of her presents tonight too. I hope she likes them. I forgot to get a card last night before I went to my parent's house (I had to vote up there this morning) so I have to do that before I head over there after work.

And oh yes, lest I forget...San Andreas is the greatest video game ever. I am addicted to it like I have never been addicted to a game before. At night, I just want to play San Andreas and drive around and do missions and get my guy ripped and get tattoos and take over gang territory and explore. It's so insanely awesome. *drool*

METALLICA!!!

2004-10-19T16:32:00.000-04:00

Sunday night was the Metallica concert. It was my first Metallica concert in 4 years. Yes, I know, that's a long time. But it was worth the wait. I would have to say that this was the best Metallica show I have ever been to...actually, it was the best concert I have ever been to. John and I spent the entire show literally 7 feet from the stage. It was the closest I've ever been at any concert.

This was the set list:
Blackened
Fuel
Sad But True
No Leaf Clover
Ride The Lightning
The Unforgiven
The God That Failed
St. Anger
I Disappear
Creeping Death
Fight Fire With Fire
--------
Fade To Black
Nothing Else Matters
Master Of Puppets
One
Enter Sandman
--------
Disposable Heroes
Seek And Destroy

I can't believe they opened with Blackened. I've been waiting since I heard ...And Justice for All to hear that song live. The rest of their songs were awesome too. They sounded good and they put on a really good show. Since we were right in the front against the metal fence, no one could push us that much since we had the fence as support. Plus, the security guys were really good about pulling out stupid people who were kicking and punching and stuff.

The funniest part was that I ended up being next to a guy and his 9-year old daughter the entire show. It's funny to see a 9-year old girl in a pink shirt yelling and holding her hands up doing the metal sign the whole show. Plus, she was a magnet for the band for obvious reasons. So, while I got nothing in terms of guitar picks or anything, she got lots of stuff. She had to get at least 12 picks plus (and this was awesome) James Hetfield came over at the end of the show and gave her his wrist band. I remember it very well. He walked over, handed it to the security guard and the guard walked it over to her. So her Dad is yelling "Thank you so much" to Hetfield and he was like "You're welcome" back and at this point he's insanely close to me, like maybe 6 feet. I thought that was cool because it made her and her Dad's night for sure, so I propped myself up as high as I could and started yelling to James and giving him the thumbs up. So I'm just yelling and giving the thumbs up and nodding to him to let him know I thought that was awesome...and this is the coolest part...and Hetfield looked me right in the eye and smiled and nodded and it was awesome. They always run around and scan the crowd and stuff so getting noticed was awesome.

This thing needs a redesign

2004-10-12T13:45:00.000-04:00

I need to seriously work on redesigning this blog. There are so many cool things I could do with it. Heck, I know CSS and HTML so there's no excuse not to. What I really need to do is get some Family Guy or Simpsons related pictures and add those. I already know what my top banner will be....of course it'll be Mr. Benjamin Disraeli when he spoke those triumphant words which I have named my blog after: "You don't even know who I am." Very powerful words. So I'll have to take some captures from my FG DVD soon.

But tonight is actually the night I hook up my wireless router. I don't quite have a wirless network card yet but I will soon! And then I need to work on the EPC site. (www.epcbaltimore.com) I will allow others to see the link now because the redesigned version of the site is up. It just needs some minor tweaking and needs finishing. There are a lot of pages that need to be designed. It's nice that the whole site will basically look the same since that's a good design feature of any web page. It's just a matter of creating the calendar, creating the links page, etc.

But who am I kidding??? I love doing this crap. Oh well.

Silktest Silktest...must work on Silktest

2004-10-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

I'm at work. I thought I'd post a quick little update. Not too much going on. The wedding decisions continue. It's really really looking like May 27, 2006 is the day. Lydia talked to her cousin Leanna last night for a while and Leanna liked the idea and liked her wedding ideas and stuff. So Lydia feels better about the whole thing now. Lydia likes to second-guess herself so having someone to make her feel confident in her wedding decisions will be awesome.

I've got to figure out a plan and estimates for my Silktest script. I really have no idea but I can guess, I suppose. So I'll be working on that today, probably all day. We won't be getting a new DCS build until...Wednesday, I think. So I can't close any CRs until then. Tonight is Wal-Mart night. I have deemed it as such. I need to take back my car ramps and buy a floor lamp and get my Grandfather a birthday card. Whether I leave around 6:00 and do it before I go to Andrew's or do it after we lift has yet to be determined. But rest assured...

IT IS WAL-MART NIGHT!!!Bum bum buuuuummmmmmmm!

I need to finalize Lydia-birthday ideas this week. I have time, but the sooner the better. Sometimes my ideas take a couple of weeks to complete. The problem is that I gave her Precious Moments picture of me and her that I drew myself and that was an awesome idea. I have no idea how I'm going to touch that. I hope she gets me something like the calendar she got me last year with pictures of us for every month. It'll be sad when I don't have it anymore. So maybe she'll get me something similar. I told her no expensive gifts. I don't really want anything except to spend the day with her. Presents just don't seem that important when I'm with her. Once again...being in love rocks!

It's October!

2004-10-01T09:10:00.000-04:00

It's my birthday month. You know what that means...............it's everyone else's birthday month too!!!

Actually, it's Candice's, Sarah's, my Grandfather's, Grace's, mine, my Dad's, Steve's, and that's it, I think. No wait, my Aunt Kak's too. And then Lydia's is only 2 days after October which means I need to start planning now! I made a list of some games and CDs that I want and emailed it to Lydia so she has a list and my Mom has one. I mean, there's nothing I need really. There's lots of stuff I'd like to have though! I am still so excited about GTA: San Andreas coming out in 25 days. Woohoo! That's only a little over 3 weeks away!

Lydia and I are still trying to pick a date. We kind of settled on May 27th, 2006 last night, but then we kind of didn't either. She's really nervous about the idea of all this and growing up and change, which I understand because I'm the same way. I've just gone through so much change since 2003 that I'm ready to make a life with her. I mean, I had graduation, starting full-time work at UPS, buying a house, moving into the house, etc. The biggest part of it all was beginning to date Lydia, falling in love, and proposing to her. That's a lot of change from 2002! It's all good change, but it's a lot and it's hard to handle sometimes. I'm just trying to be there for her to let her know that I'll always take care of her and that I'll never let her down. So maybe we'll officially decide on a date soon.

Plus I need to know what to do about my class! I don't know what to do!!! Should I take Levin's 7-week course from heck or skip class this semester and go to Loyola next semester??? Too many tough decisions. I need to go pray now...

Still trying to pick a date!

2004-09-28T13:08:00.000-04:00

Lydia and I are still trying to pick our wedding date. I hope the rest of the decisions aren't this tough. I don't think they will be. I mean, the day is a big deal because it's gotta be the right season, the right temperature, the right time of year so it's not right near all of our birthdays, etc. We're going to really try to get the date decided this week even though we probably can't start booking things until the new year. We're thinking either May 2006 or March 2007. 2007 would give us more time to plan but it's so far away. 2006 sounds nice but there may be too much else going on. It's a lot to think about. Heck, I could marry her next week and be fine with that if it were possible! I'd love that actually. It is going to be so wonderful when she's finally my wife.

I started playing The Lost Vikings again on my Gameboy. I used to play the same game for the Super Nintendo when I was 11. It's a fun game. You play as these 3 Viking guys who get abducted by an alien collector and you have to solve puzzles to get from one end of a level to the next. They each have different abilities too. Erik can run, jump, and smash walls with his head. Olaf can use his shield to block bad guys from the side or above, can hold the other 2 up on his shield, or glide with his shield like a parachute. Bailog can kill things with his sword or arrows or flip switches and buttons by shooting them from far away. Baelog and Olaf can't jump at all. It's really cool. Some levels can get pretty hard. Overall the game is a lot easier than when I was 11. In fact, I might be able to beat it this time. I just wish you could play 2-player games when you play it on the Gamecube. Oh welll...can't have everything I suppose.

It has...begun.

2004-09-25T09:46:00.000-04:00

I am beginning to pack the rest of my things from my room to take them to my house.

I'm excited and nervous...it's hard to know which.

At least I'll only be 5 minutes away from Lydia now.

Update:
It's finished. We got everything moved in around 1pm. Me, Lydia, and my Mom ordered subs, got my desk all set up, my computer, etc. The house looks nice with all my stuff in it. I'm staying at my parent's house tonight but tomorrow I'll stay at my house. We went and bought food for my lunch this week. Bread, milk, etc. The essentials. So, it's time to take the plunge.

31 days, 13 hours, 8 minutes...

2004-09-24T09:50:00.000-04:00

That's how long it is until Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes out.

Removed the GTA: San Andreas picture (it became a broken link...bah!)

Oh, how I cannot wait. To be driving around the streets of Los Santos, San Andreas, and the other place...whatever it's called, shall be beautiful. I can hear the sirens and the explosions now. *drool*

On a related note, I may not have a class to get in the way of my play time since I just found out that my Graduate course has me as the only student enrolled! And yet, with just over 3 weeks before the class begins, I have not been told anything about the class being canceled or what. Villa Julie always pulls this kind of crap. I'm checking into going to Loyola next semester for their Graduate program. It'll probably be tougher, which is good, because this is for my career, not just to get the Masters degree. Honestly, I don't care that much about the degree, it's the skills that matter to me.

Oh, and I have to announce this here: Lydia got a 94% on her Finance test and is doing awesome in all of her classes (again!) and I am really happy for her and proud of her. :) She's so much smarter than she thinks. Just one of her many features that I love. We need to decide on a wedding date sometime soon. It's so tough to decide because on one hand, we want to wait until 2007 so we'll have the year after she finishes college. But, on the other hand, we want to get married a lot sooner than that. So we're thinking maybe summer 2006, or right after she graduates in 2006. I'm sure we'll figure it out. We got the ring appraised last night. Holy crap it appraised for twice what I expected. I won't say how much but it phew!

I love her

2004-09-17T10:27:00.000-04:00

Last night, my Mom gave Lydia a whole wedding organizer set as a present. It's a really nice set too. It has a tote bag with our names on it and a binder and a calendar and a calculator and the binder has her initials on it. It has a planner for the wedding with stuff for the music, catering, dresses, invitations, all that stuff. I think it'll help a lot with planning. I know she is feeling overwhelmed by it all right now. With school and this, it's just a lot. I would be. She knows that I'll help her with all of it though, except for the wedding dress part. That's all her!

I'm really excited about it all too. I mean, this isn't something you do often. It really should be the only time I get to plan a wedding and as a guy, I want it to be nice, but it's not like it is for Lydia. So for her, I want it to be perfect. It's funny because when I was in high school, before I started dating, I couldn't conceive of ever putting someone else's wants and needs before my own. Maybe I wasn't ready for a girlfriend back then. But being with Lydia, I can't believe that was ever an issue. All I want is to take care of her needs and wants and I know that I don't have to worry because she does the same for me. I know that the wedding is 2 1/2 years away (which is probably just enough time to plan) but I'm going to be excited about it the whole time, I know. I can't help it. I am looking forward to picking out the tux's. I like tux's. I look good in a tux! We're going to look darn good on the wedding day together. That's a fact!

Here's a list of some ideas for the wedding:
-movie quotes on napkins (or somewhere)
-pocket knives as groomsmen gifts
-Lydia and I could write a poem for our announcements
-Some interesting & personal for the vows (not sure what yet but it's floating in my head)

I lika da juice

2004-09-17T10:16:00.000-04:00

I spent a lot of time last night working on the EPC website that Andrew and I are now in charge of. I'd post the link but I don't want anyone to think that the horrible excuse for a website that is up there right now is what I've been working on. I just haven't figured out the best way to take that one down, or rather what I should replace it with until the new design can be put up. I'm thinking that a nice simple page that says that the page is being worked on would be good. I know you're not supposed to ever use those stupid "Under Construction" pictures on a website (a website is always under construction!) but for the sake of ridding the world of that monstrosity, I might do something quick and easy but professional. And there will be no "Under Construction" images anyways.

Right now, my design is centering around the idea of a cross, using that to break up the page in different colors. I'm using 2 tables so far, I'll ad a 3rd at the very bottom. I played around with CSS last night in Dreamweaver. It's really cool stuff. It's funny because every attribrute is available in CSS (though most are) so you have to find the right balance of CSS and HTML. But it's fun. I've also decided that I am going to make special 32x32 icons for the site to give it an extra touch. http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/ inspired me. I liked his icons he created. Simple is good. So I just need to play around with some of those ideas too.

For Shame

2004-09-14T14:14:00.000-04:00

My List of Things That Would Suck
-Being set on fire by a dog
-Watching anything with Roseanne in it
-Looking down only to find that your legs have been replaced by blocks of cheese
-Having any male above the age of 10 come to my wedding without a shirt & tie on
-Spontaneously combusting...twice
-Smelling like old tacos, and not just any tacos...SOY TACOS!
-Finding a quarter on the ground from 1997
-Building a snowman in the Yukon
-A revolution to overthrow the government, led by hamsters
-Turning into an evil, brown rabbit with pieces of corn stuck in your fur

Me = Tired

2004-09-13T13:33:00.000-04:00

I am so friggin' tired right now. I took Lydia to see Tim McGraw at the 1st Mariner Arena last night. Why? Just cuz I love her. :) It was a good show, but it went on for a really long time. I haven't been to a concert that long in a long time. There were 2 opening bands: The Warren Brothers and Big & Rich. It was funny though, because neither of them sounded very country. They definitely sounded more like southern rock, especially The Warren Brothers. Tim McGraw put on a good show though I only knew about 7 or 8 of the songs he played, and most I didn't know well. The only one I really know is "Live Like You Were Dying" which is his newest single. That's a really good song. We had a good time and I got some good pictures. I'll try and get one up here of Lydia and I in our seats with our cowboy hats on.

But now I am so tired from not going to bed until after 1am last night. Now normally, that'd be no big deal. I'm a night person as it is. I usually don't go to bed until 1am. But I was already tired on Sunday. I even took a 1/2 hour nap at the Hood's house when we went over there for lunch yesterday afternoon. It is hard to keep from losing concentration while I try to work on this test plan. I'm doing an ok job, but it's hard. I have to get a lot of rest for this weekend though. It's UPS Day at Hershey Park on Sunday and I do not want to be worn out for that.

Plus, more good news, Andrew and I are in charge of the EPC website again (www.epcbaltimore.com). That's really exciting news because I was disapointed when we were so close to being able to build the site, only to not be able to take it over. But now it is official. So Andrew and I can start developing plans and a site design and brain storming. It's going to be fun working on it with him because I think we'll come up with a lot of good ideas, more than either of us could probably come up with on our own. I figured out where the FTP server is located and I can view the files through IE. I can't wait to gut what's up there and totally redesign it. I think we're better off removing the one that is up now and putting up a page that says that the site is on its way along with some basic contact info and information about the church, something that can be thrown together in 10 minutes until we get the design together.

So, it's been an interesting day. When I started writing this, it was the morning, now I have 40 minutes until I'm off work. Woohoo!!!

Publishing by email...wave of the future!

2004-09-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

I just set up my blog to let me publish by emailing posts to a secret address. Very cool.

Here's a picture I drew out of characters for the amusement of all (btw, it looked better when I emailed it, I guess it's not perfect!):

                | | | | | |
                    ************
                *                    *
            *   ~~      ~~      *
         *      <>      <>        *
        *             ( )                *
        *                        *
            *    -------------        *
                 *            ---            *
                   ********
                   |        |
        ----------         ----------    ----------
          |                                |
          |                    I like              |
          |             CHEESE    |
          |                                |
          |                                |

Limericks and Haikus

2004-09-09T10:12:00.000-04:00

I wrote this one years ago when I worked at Walmart with Andrew and Alison. It's always been my favorite.
I wish rabbits were kings over man
Then I could follow my plan
To breed rabbits with slugs
I'd call them Rablugs
And my favorite I'd just name him "Dan"

I wrote these while I was in Boston for external work training. Haikus are fun because they sound elegant no matter what they're about.
Fat People
Mass of flesh jiggling
Rolls engulfing other rolls
Fat people in love

Twinkie
Creamy center you
Spongey outer shell I love
Me eat you long time

The Horror
Knees like waterfalls
Eyebrows like melted ice cream
Screaming for a pie

Bingo Fight
Letter number called
Bingo heard from all over
Old people fist fight

Hard Drives & Country Music

2004-09-08T18:10:00.000-04:00

Last night, I finally got my hard drive working perfectly and now my computer recognizes both my new 160GB Seagate drive and my old 40GB Maxtor drive. So now I got lots'o hard drive space!

I really wish I had Net Flix again. There are so many good movies I could be watching. But I canceled it once I settled on my house. I may start it up again at some point, maybe for a few months. I can pretty much rip any movie I rent onto my hard drive now since there's so much room and burn it later.

Today was a better day for me and computers. Yesterday the stupid things kept erasing my emails before I'd send them and erased a blog I had spent 10 minutes writing. And when I get inspired to write something like I wrote yesterday only to have it erase, that annoys me. Then I don't feel like rewriting it so I said to heck with it. Maybe I'll be inspired again later.

I've been listening to the Brad Paisley CD Lydia bought for me. (Thanks, baby doll!) It's really good. I like the Spaghetti Western Swing and Mud on the Tires and of course Whiskey Lullaby. And I really like Little Moments. There are a lot of good songs on it. I want to see him in concert when he comes around Baltimore. Me and country...who'd of ever thought that. :) I am still seeing Metallica in October. I am freaking excited about that. It'll be the 1st time since 2000. So I've still got the metal in me too. ;)

I hate computers

2004-09-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

I hate stupid computers!

That is all.

Ok, I like them a little bit now.

Ipod

2004-09-03T01:00:00.000-04:00

I am still trying to get my free Ipod. This is freaking hard!!!

I didn't think it'd be so hard to get 5 people to sign up for me. But, man, people are either really cynical or lazy! So, I'm working and working on it. I want an Ipod real bad. If anyone is reading this, use this link:

http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=8242994

Just sign up, fulfill a free offer (like the AOL) and cancel it before you are charged, then get 5 more people to do the same and you're gold. I did the 1st part, no problem. I canceled the service yesterday. :) One tip: use either a gmail or yahoo email address. Hotmail addresses were not letting any of the emails through for some reason.

Yeah, but I'm hoping I can get a couple more people. If I can get 3 (which means 2 more), I can get my friend Andrew and my girlfriend to be the last 2 people I need. Then I'm set. So we'll see.

The fight lives on...

Engagement

2004-09-02T16:21:00.000-04:00

I got engaged yesterday to Lydia. Very very cool and very very wonderful. :)

I planned it for 2 weeks before I finally figured out the perfect way to do it. It went perfectly. I was surprised. That doesn't usually happen for me, but I guess I put a lot more effort into this than I do most things. I had a reason to care about this.

We're going to tell my parent's tonight. But of course, something else had to come up. We were all supposed to go to Orlando, FL next week (leaving Saturday) and of course a hurricane is on its way and hitting this weekend. So that basically screws our entire vacation. I really hope it doesn't. So my Mom is freaking out that our vacation is ruined. This was the best possible time to take this trip for us (well, apparently not I guess because there's a hurricane!!!). I can't think of any time that we could go now. The middle of October and forward is no good because I start a 7 week grad school course. I can't skip a week of that. And they're thinking of trying the end of September but if Lydia has any tests or papers due, there's no way she can go. And I am not going without Lydia. Especially now that we're engaged. I'm glad I proposed when I did. I was actually thinking of doing it next week in Florida. But I prayed about it a lot (A LOT) and this felt like the best time. The Lord knew the best time and this is proof. So at least they have to understand why I will not go without my fiancee.

Wow...fiancee. That sounds cool. I've never had one of those before. But that's definitely a good thing. :) I'm engaged. Woohoo! The whole vacation thing still sucks though, but it'll all work out. I'm really just worried about my parents being a pain about it all. I understand why my Mom is upset but there's not much that can be done.