Baptist Mike in Utah is now in Oregon?

How did this move come about Mike?  The floor is yours.........

Am I the Lead singer of R.E.M?

We have an anonymous jokester on Grabbaggar who thinks I look like Michael Stipe, well I'll take that one all day just as long as I don't get compared to John Popper circa early 90's.....but that'll be the last comment from any "anonymous" comment person boy!

Sailing and Seeing Dolphins

Before and After

10 reasons the NHL is so cool

The NHL is threatening to become my second favorite sport......Here are my top ten reasons why.....

10.  You can be a Kings season ticket holder for cheap.

9.  It is the only major sport that is supported mainly by fan attendance not TV revenue

8.  The action is almost non stop for 3 twenty minute periods

7.  Most games are very close

6.  Overtime is very exciting and relatively common

5.  Ditto for shootouts

4.  It is the only major sport that allows/ encourages fighting (no one really gets hurt, cause it hard to plant your feet when you are on skates) 

3.  It looks incredible in HD

2.  Players getting checked into the boards is cool

1.  The game is fluid, graceful, action packed, suspenseful, and exciting!

"I am so busy! My life is so hectic!"--

"People use busyness as a status symbol"---random quote off the internet

In one of our seminars at the NSM (National Sales Meeting) One of the Madow brothers recounted a scene he overheard at the supermarket.   

Mom #1  "Oh my gosh I am so busy, after this I have to take my child to the dentist, then I have to meet with my other childs' teacher, and then take the first child soccer practice...etc. etc. etc.

Mom #2 "No kidding, I woke up this morning at 5:00 to get in a workout, then I have to get all three of my kids up in the morning, feed them, make lunches, get them to school, then I work all day, take the kids to soccer practice, eat our dinner, go to bible study, and you know my husband just comes home and crashes, I do everything for the kids....sigh I am so busy my life is so hectic"

Dave Madow felt like grabbing them and saying, "If your so busy, then how do you guys have so much time to talk about it, It's almost like you are having a competition to see who is busier."

Over the years I have heard strangers, friends and yes some family members talking about their busy lives.   And after a while I came to this conclusion.....in general people in America use business to justify their self worth.  And then I came to another conclusion....in general people think they are much busier then they actually are.  If you don't believe me try doing this exercise...How much time each week do you spend watching TV or on the internet?  If you are really honest with yourself you spend more time then you think.  I'll cite one classic example at a "Bible Study" Tasha and I went to about 3 years ago......after the time when everyone tells everyone else how sick their friends and family members are(and then everyone says, "And we pray for so and so's cousin lord, who is sick with rickets, lord you are the great physician father, sigh ......), there is usually a bit of small talk, and everyone talked about what TV shows they watch, and everyone was talking about "My name is Earl" (remember this was 3 years ago) and other shows......Well maybe it was just me but I seemed to remember how 30 minutes earlier I commented on that we were listening to music off of DirecTv (which I have had for almost 15 years am an expert on and is the best TV provider in the United States)  This sparked a busyness competition narrative after the owner of the house mentioned they don't have very much time for TV because they are a "busy family".

And here is something else I have noticed...people also use busyness as an excuse to get out of something they don't want to do....classic example, I was trying to sell a friend of mine some Dodger tickets and he e-mailed me back and said he was too busy...I felt like saying, yah but you make time for things that are priorities in your life, and for him, driving to Dodger stadium 10 times just wasn't something he wanted to do and that is fine (:  He just didn't want to hurt my feelings.  

I remember something my Dad said to me a long time ago (he has never once used this excuse, or talked about how busy he is, yet his accomplishments speak for themselves) 

 He said, "Gar people will tell you they don't have time, but you can always make time"

So to sum up:

1.  in general people talk about how busy they are to justify their existence to other people

2. People in general are rarely as busy as they think they are.

3.  People use busyness as an excuse to get out of things they don't want to do.

A benchmark on societal progression

No matter who you voted for you gotta appreciate today for the sheer historical weight of it. Kevin's school did a great job of teaching him about MLK this weekend and I was talking to him a little bit about history. I told him about the doctrine of "Separate but equal" the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Civil Rights act of 1964.

Obama's Inauguration represents a staggering benchmark on how far we have come....enjoy today, no matter what your politics are.

Happy birthday sandy!!!

A big happy birthday to aunt sandy....we are having fun at your party!!!

Un Cine du G

Tom Sullivan

My Dad is a longtime friend of Tom Sullivan and I remember watching his movie "If you could see what I hear"  My Dad told me about him and how even though he was blind, he could still do most things that we can do.  And then about 20 years went by.........

So I am looking at the itinerary at the CareCredit National Sales Meeting and lo and behold I see the name "Tom Sullivan" on the keynote portion of the itinerary.  Awesome, how about that?  The speech began and Tom walked up with his guide dog "edison" and opened with one of his songs.  He then began his speech which interspersed his own story with specifically talking about our market and our company.  Anyways Tom was masterful..."Beyond Brillant" is how  the speaker the next day referred to his storytelling ability.  During the speech everyone was leaning forward, all eyes locked on him, and you could hear a pin drop.    Imagine being a kid in your front yard which your parents had walled in and hearing the sounds of boys playing baseball down the street and wanting to play.....Being bullied by one kid who sang out "Blindy Blind, Blind Freak" and all you could do is pick up rocks and hurl them at the sound of the his voice....and finally hearing the two most magic words from another boy down the street...."Wanna Play?"

He told us about how he met Helen Keller and what she said to him...how him and two other boys from the blind school escaped from their dorm and built a raft to float down the Charles river like Tom and Huck....how terrified he was when he was so distracted while he was talking to Johnny Carson on the phone that he didn't hear the sound of the splash of his little girl falling in the pool...and how all he could do was dive down sweep back and forth trying to find her...and how he eventually heard the sound of tiny air bubbles and was able to save her....(later he showed us a video of him being guided down the slopes by her now grown up)  

He told us that his dog is great but couldn't care less about his music...later as if on cue when he was finishing playing one of his songs on the piano....his dog stands up and takes a step....."You see guys, I told you, Edison is telling me 'enough with the music Tom!'"     

After the speech and for the next two days I heard people in snippets of conversation saying how incredible they thought he was........He is the best speaker I have ever heard in person.

Nordstrom

Today I went on my Xmas Nordstrom shopping spree.  In my past life I would break out into a cold sweat in clothing stores, because folks, for many hefty gentleman shopping for clothes isn't the most fun thing in the world.  

But it was like a whole nother world in there.  Nordstrom of course is famous for their service and I actually shopped there for 1.5 hours!  I was treated like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"  You know that charming movie about that loveable whore that George from Seinfeld punches?  Anyways I got a new pair of shoes, some dress slacks, some more dress/casual slacks, and three shirts.  My neck was even measured and it is 15.5 inches...that is 2 neck sizes folks..also waist is 34/35 depending on brand of pants.  So if anyone wants to buy me clothes that is the ticket!!

Turk and Rooster

OK so I am watching "Righteous Kill" as we speak.  It is absolute Dog vomit.....the script is laughable and the movie is even worse than I thought it would be.  This movie is like a bad CSI:New York episode...nothing more....in fact I take that back, I have seen better CSI's then this movie.  

Pacino and DeNiro are icons of cinema who are no longer hungry, no longer want to excel, are satisfied with drawing their 10 million paycheck....where did that genius performance in Godfather I and II go?  What happened to that bull who once raged?  

It's over

The only way they can redeem themselves is to do character roles...they may have one last role a piece in them...but the candle of hope is dimming.

Our Lord and Savior is Sick

Sadness as the world is unable to hear the Lord pronounce his sacred semi-annual update at the Macworld Expo.  He is sick and Phil Schiller will be doing the sacred pronouncements...it won't be the same...what will we hear tomorrow?  We will soon find out...but my thoughts are with my savior.  

Get well Soon Steve we all Love You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

******Update....here is what Apple has announced...........

I Life and I Work update !!!!!!!!!!---Iphoto now has facial recognition software among many other things

17 in Notebook refresh with aluminium unibody

More DRM 256 kps songs on Itunes

Purchase songs directly from Iphone on 3G network

A new era starts with a win

About three weeks ago I became a hockey fan.  I have been to a handful of Kings games in my life and can't pinpoint why I am now a huge fan....  Matt thinks that the reason is because I have "gone crazy".  And maybe I have I don't know.  (Crazy people don't know that they're crazy) Anyways one of the interesting things about hockey in LA is that LA is not a hockey town at all.  We are a Dodger and a Laker town.  So what that does is keep the ticket prices somewhat reasonable.  And it allowed me to get a season ticket package to all the remaining games pretty cheaply.  So the first game I had was Saturday night against the Flyers.  And it was a great win.....it went to overtime and then to a shootout.  And thanks to the fact that we sent LaBarbera to the Canucks, and the fact that Quick is our exiting young new goaltender...we won the shootout and thus the game!!  (two years ago the NHL changed the rules and hockey games can no longer end in a tie)

Kevin went with me and we stayed the entire time.  So if you want to go to a game with me, check the schedule and maybe I'll e-mail you a ticket.

How could I have been so Stupid?

Today while driving home from 24 Hour Fitness and about 4 minutes after talking to Matt on the phone about Gramci's party, I rear ended someone.  Yep that's right I did.  South on the 14 exiting San Fernando Rd there is a new dedicated lane to turn right into.  There is no longer a need to wait for any traffic breaks on the cars driving west.  So every once in a while I run across a car that sits there still waiting for a traffic break that they don't need to.  This was one of those cars.  I stopped behind him and what happened next, well I went into a kind of fugue state...much like George Stark in Stephen Kings "The Dark Half"  I saw him inching forward and then glanced over my left shoulder to check traffic while assuming he had pulled onto San Fernando...But he didn't he was still stopped and before I knew it I smacked into his bumper.....so crap!!!!  We pulled into the Carl's Jr parking lot and exchanged info...(he has maybe 100 worth of damage)  And get this...I give him my license and it turns out he lives a few houses down from us!!!!   So that's a good thing!  We laughed and it broke the tension.  

He is "gonna get a few estimates on monday and then call me"

He is an older gentleman.

Moral of the story......when you have been driving for 19 years and this is the first time this has ever happened to you....your still a pretty good driver.

Goal!!!!!!!

Allright this is the last post on the whole losing weight saga...then we're puttin this storyline to bed........

I guess I kept losing weight in Mammoth as I did ski 3 days....

Anyways 184 pounds is my current weight.

And like that....58 pounds are.........gone