Wow. The stimulus check has been deposited into my banking account. Thank you, Congress. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. I feel that I should do my Patriotic Duty, and go and spend this stimulus check that I can stimulate Best Buy right out of this recession. But, I think it's going into the pig. Make the pig happy.
mmmm. Pig.
Seems hard to believe that Return of the Jedi came out 25 years ago this May. It was the only Star Wars that I did not see at the Dutch Square Theaters (I saw it at the Bush River Mall Cinemas).
This video is pretty funny. Hang in there: Billy Dee Williams makes an appearance.
A split infinitive is when an adverb comes between the word "to" and the uninflected form of a verb, as in "To boldly go."
Honestly, I was losing it today.
I hate to admit it. I hate to admit that I get panicked, worried. But, that was my situation. Doesn't matter the circumstance, the reason. I was losing my typical calm and cool collectiveness. I wanted to tell my boss three times that I am quitting and moving on to greener pastures. I was really working up a head of steam.
And then, it changed. Subtly.
I was meeting with one of my managers, getting updates for the week for the "Project Plan." Then we worked out a rough delivery schedule for May and into June. Then, life seemed to come back into balance. I breathed a bit deeper. I realized how much I appreciate the people that work for me. I extended my hand, shook hers, and said "Thank you."
It felt fantastic. Perspective returned, and I felt as if some weight had been lifted. Weird, I know.
In little over a month, I join some of my pals and turn 40. Big milestone, because, let's face it guys, statistically speaking, it's been downhill since about thirty seven. So, I've made it to forty, and I made my peace with that a couple of years ago. I distinctly remember when my Dad turned thirty eight – he broke his arm that year, and, George Rogers won the Heisman trophy (George Rogers jersey was thirty eight) – I associated my Dad's age at that event with a college football player. I couldn't believe that I was now the same age as that little boy remembered.
My friend George really did a fine job for himself on his fortieth. He pulled his college band back together and shared his love for music, performance and God with a whole bunch of us. It was a real privilege to go. Unfortunately, my college band was a bit bigger. Perhaps I can get a small group of the guys to come up and we can do some drill on the front lawn. I still have arrangements of "Favorite Things" somewhere around here.
Really, I have no grand plans. May 19th will come, and will go. I hope there will be cake. Maybe, in honor of the new Indy movie coming out, I can schedule a Raiders Marathon. Or, take the day off and go to Bush Gardens?
Seriously, though, looking ahead, can I create a goal to accomplish during my fortieth year? Perhaps this will be the year that I rebooted my career, or wrote that home school programming curriculum that I have tossed around for nearly a year. Maybe I can start listening for God's calling in my life instead of driving it all the time. Love people a bit more?
We all get them. A friend receives an email that tells them about some disaster and then forwards the email to everyone in their address book, including you. At first, the story appeals to you, but, is it real? For most of us, we fall back to various sites on the internet to validate the story. Snopes has become to urban myths what Google is to search engines. When you first started receiving these emails, and then finding out that they were urban myths, you would type up a nice reply saying as much, and then pointing them to Snopes. Then, you stopped with the nice letter and sent them to Snopes. Finally, you just stopped reading most of the email that came in from those people.
Well, they have heard us, loud and clear. They are now scouring Snopes to find the ones that are true and then they send those out. At the bottom is a convenient link to Snopes, saving you the trouble of validating.
This morning I received the "Don't Ever Dial Area Code 809" email, including a link to Snopes. I received this today, and this has been around since 2000? Thanks for the timeliness. And, none of the origins was shared.
I am beginning to think that the odds of being hit with one of these scams are about as low as getting hit by lightning. But, what are the odds that I will receive this email two more times this week?
How easy would it be to steal your credit card numbers at your local ATM or Redbox? Check this out!
This week has been really draining. At work, we have been given new top down directions on how to manage the request for software development. The directions are rather reactionary, and the net result is that most teams have lost developers. Two of our teams have been the benefactors, gaining developers they did not have before.
The ironic bit is that this has generated an application that I am writing. Those Who Know have developed a "Request for Software Development" form using Word. The idea is to document the requests and make sure that account managers, software development managers and directors all agree on what work should be billed back to the client and identify the purchase order. The goal is to reduce the amount of "development hours" given away for free (which really is a problem). However, we are now using Word and Outlook to route these documents back and forth. Anything ironic here? And, then They That Know ask for metrics based on these worksheets.
Now I have been burning time in the week and at night to put together a workflow application in ASP.NET. Oh yeah baby, I finally get a chance to kick with .NET 3.5, Ajax (I love the Client Side Library: $get and $addhandler rocks! Client side callbacks to the server without using Remote Scripting or having to write my own quasi out of band process. Oh Yeah!) and LINQ to SQL(which rocks you like a hurricane). The only problem is, I really started writing the application last weekend and my boss asked for it on this Monday. I've put in late hours and I just put in 9 hours today to try to get it closer, but, it is not going to happen. I started to sweat it, but come one, the company isn't going to die if I don't have this done. However, I have had a blast with it. But man, am I tired. A good tired. I really miss programming.
My Sansa MP3 never showed up last week, thus defeating my theory. I believed that whenever I misplace something, my normal reaction is to Hulk out. I decided to remain calm and not accuse, even though the evidence appeared as though this was no mere misplacement. I was even able to move money around the various envelopes so that I had enough to replace the device, which was my intention for this weekend.
However, the muffler on Cindy's car had a different plan. Seems the "new" repair shop that we went to last November removed a flex joint between the Catalytic Converter and the muffler. As Uncle Dave use to say "That's a No No." So, the money that was going to the Sansa (along with several other envelopes) ended up going to the car.
Maybe I should just save up from one of those sweet Ipod Touch?
One of the Bryan traditions to start off the day is to circle up and say a prayer for the day. Cindy and I had started it long before the girls came along, and, as they have gotten older, they have become a part of it. Sure, the prayers are simple, but, it is another touch point before going off in various directions.
This also presents neat opportunities to read scripture without it feeling forced, or fake. This morning, I read John chapter 18 and 19 – The trial and execution of Jesus. For all the attention that Easter Sunday will get, sometimes we over look Good Friday. Without the crucifixion, there could be no resurrection. I do not tend to get overly emotional about things, but, for whatever reason, the magnitude of what was going on in these two chapters hit me like a ton of bricks. By the time we got to "It is finished" all four of us were crying.
What struck me most was the simplicity of what was happening. This simplicity contrasts with how complex I tend to make it. I know that John 3:16 is somewhat cliché, but that is it – that is the Christian gospel.
This past weekend, Katie (second from the right) participated in her first U.S. Pony Club Quiz Rally. It was an exciting event as it included an overnight stay in a hotel with mom, complete with a swimming pool and watching "Man Vs. Wild" (Katie pronounces Vs as "vee ess," not versus…cute). The Quiz Rally started early Saturday. Her group finished in third place, but, out of the fourteen clubbers in her division, Katie finished fourth. We are proud of her accomplishments!
So, with Cindy and Katie gone Friday night, Megan and I got to hang out together.Last night, I asked her where she would like to go for dinner. Without blinking an eye, she replied "Hardees." Seems she likes fried chicken, but, she is quick to clarify that Zesto's is better than Hardee's. After dinner, we settled down to watch "The Bee Movie." Better than I thought it would be, but it still wore thin by the time it was over.
This morning, we struck out for Dunkin Donuts and Fivebucks for a morning sugar rush. We brought it all home, and I scrambled up some eggs to fill out the plate. I wanted to go over to Southern States to identify some broadleaf weeds that are popping up, and that is when I discovered the missing Sansa MP3 player. Taco Bell was on tap for lunch, and "Spiderwick Chronicles" was the afternoon entertainment. It's unusual for food to be such a central theme, but we both agreed that we are stuffed.
Megan wanted to buy Katie a toy for placing third in the Quiz Rally, so after the trip to KB Toys, I think I am done.
