So Long, 2009

It's been a crazy year and it's definitely had some big ups and some big downs for DeAnne and I but looking back, there's no way that I can say we weren't blessed this past year. Everything might not have gone exactly how we wanted it to or how we thought it should have gone, but it went just as the Lord intended.

So with all the adventure that 2009 held, you would think that 2010's prospects might seem a little tame. You would be wrong! Already, 2010 promises to be a banner year for this little DuBose family. Personally, I can hardly wait.

Thanks for reading the blog in '09. This post marks #250 for the year. How is that for a nice, round number to finish the year out on? Personally, I really like it.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. War Eagle! See you next year.

--Paul

One Last Christmas Thin

First, in case you're wondering, I'm feeling a little better this morning. I still don't have much of a voice but my throat doesn't hurt and my sinuses are less clogged, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

So with everyone having crazy schedules for the holidays, our Sunday School class had a hard time putting together a Christmas party before Christmas. We ended up having it last night. We met up at David's Catfish and had dinner and then went back to Ben and Mendy's house for cake and "dirty Santa". I ended up with a $10 Wal-Mart gift card and DeAnne got some kind of linen spray something. We also played the customary round of "Catchphrash" and had just an all around good time.

DeAnne spent the day yesterday cleaning up the house and putting some things away. She also took some time to put up pictures from our various family Christmas gatherings. Check the last four posts or so on her blog to see all of the good times.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

You Guessed It

I'm still not feeling well, so once again, I'm blogging instead of working out.

There's not much to talk about though. The college football bowl season is in full swing. I always like to see the SEC teams do well in bowls. It helps make the conference look stronger. The SEC teams always seem to take a lot of flack in the media for the strength of their out of conference schedules so it's nice when bowl season comes around and the SEC schools pound the heck out of the "best" schools of the other conferences. Believe it or not, I'm even pulling for Alabama to win the Rose Bowl. That just gives Auburn the chance to embarrass the defending national champion next year. Kentucky lost their game but Georgia got made up for it last night by beating Texas A&M pretty badly. Hopefully the rest of the SEC bowl games will go just as well as Georgia's did.

So that's about the extent of what I have to talk about today. It doesn't help that I can barely think straight with all this crud in my head. At this point, I've also lost my voice. It happens every time I get sick like this but that still doesn't make it any less annoying. Hopefully I can shake this stuff off and be better by the end of the week. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Feeling Sick

Well, actually I'm not feeling sick, I am sick. By the time Saturday night rolled around my head started getting stopped up and my throat was hurting pretty good. DeAnne's Mom took a look at my throat and said my tonsils weren't inflamed, so I guess it's just sinus drainage, but that doesn't make me feel any better.

So as you probably guess, I'm not working out today. It would be murder on myself to try right now. So I decided I revert back to blogging until I get better. I am going to try and go to work today. I probably don't need to but I don't want to use any more vacation this year.

As for Christmas, we had a great one this year. We got a good bit of cash, a couple of gift cards and a load of the usual clothes, ornaments, and for me, games. I ended up with three games: Red Faction: Guerrilla, Army of Two and Dragon Age: Origins. I also got another controller for the xbox. The second controller I've had had something happen to it where the right joystick is stuck in a "up" position and since most games use that stick to control the camera, you just end up looking at the floor if you try and use it. So it was nice to get another controller. DeAnne also got me some Wii points so that I could download some new games from Nintendo. I downloaded Tetris and I've got enough points left for something else, I'm just not sure what I want to get.

It was also really good to get to see my cousin David on Saturday. He's been working as a missionary out of Florida for the past couple of years and this year he was able to arrange it so that he could be at my Grandmother's house for Christmas. We got to catch up and DeAnne got to meet him for the first time. Opportunities to see my family from Arizona don't come around very often and I had a great time hanging out for the short amount of time we had Saturday.

So all in all, it was a great Christmas. Hopefully I can shake this cold and be feeling better by the time New Year's rolls around. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Halfway There

I think I'm going to wait until Wednesday for the official Christmas wrap-up. We've now had two Christmas celebrations (three if you count Christmas morning with just DeAnne and I) and we've got two today to finish things out.

Today is first Christmas is with my Mom's side of the family in Tallassee. My cousin David is there and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I haven't had the chance to see him or any of his brothers or my aunt and uncle in probably over eight years. It'll be nice to get to catch up with David and introduce DeAnne to him. She's never had the chance to meet any of those members of the family that are from Arizona.

We'll be leaving Tallassee this evening and heading straight for Kinston for the final Christmas get-together of the year. This one is for all of DeAnne's immediate family, so all her step-siblings and nieces and nephews. It promises to be crazy.

Outside of Christmas, there hasn't been much going on. Courtney and Edwin came up and spent the night with us Wednesday night and we had a great time visiting with them. They were late getting here so we didn't get to spend much time with them, but we always have a blast when we get together with them.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and I'll see you on Wednesday.

--Paul

Surprise!

After two days my legs are actually in need of a little recovery time, so I figured I would surprise everyone with a Wednesday edition of the blog. It probably just means that no one will see it until they check Saturday for what should have been the next post. Oh, Well.

I've been enjoying the new morning routine. I think that it's working well and for the moment, I think I'm going to stick to it. I have missed the blog and if you follow me on twitter or facebook you've probably noticed the increase in posts there. I think a lot of that has to do with not blogging (and maybe a little to do with it being a slow week at work).

Speaking of work, today is the last day of work for the week. It'll pretty much be a ghost town today. I actually don't really mind working up until the official off days. With everyone gone I can usually get more done and do it at a less hectic pace. It's quiet and relaxed and really kind of nice.

Tomorrow starts all of our Christmas craziness. We'll be going through Saturday at least and you never know, it might even carry over to Sunday. It's always a crazy time but it really is "the best time of the year".

So I've kind of enjoyed the mid-week edition of the blog. How about a compromise. I'll blog Wednesday and Saturday instead of just Saturday. That gets two posts in per week and gets me four elliptical mornings in with a rest day between numbers two and three. Sounds like a plan to me. I hope you all have a great Christmas and I'll see you on Saturday.

--Paul

First Edition

Welcome to the first Saturday edition of the dubnet 2.0 blog. It's been nearly four years since I started blogging when I found out I was going to have surgery and this marks the first Saturday update ever (I think).

With the end of the year approaching, most media outlets have moved into full-blown "Best of 2009" mode and even "Best of the Decade" mode since we're bringing the 2000's to a close. I was browsing the iTunes list the other day seeing if I missed out on anything this year and came across their pick for best new rock artist: Charm City Devils (official website and listen @ myspace). These guys are incredible. Pure rock n' roll. They sound like something straight out of the late 70's or early 80's. If you played them after Aerosmith, AC/DC or Motley Crue they would fit right in. I haven't been able to get enough of their album the past two days.

I thought about making lists of my own, but really, I try to avoid stuff that other people think isn't any good, so most of the media I consume tends to the pretty good side. I would be hard pressed to pick an "Album of the Year" just because I've listened to so much good stuff across so many different genres. As far as games go, I don't get to play every new game that comes out so I'm sure I miss some things along the way. Of the games I have played this year, I'd probably have to say that Batman: Arkham Asylum was the best overall but Beatles: Rock Band wouldn't be far behind.

So next week is Christmas. Courtney and Edwin are coming up on Wednesday so we're looking forward to that. Then Thursday we'll start with DeAnne's family and on Christmas Day we'll eat lunch with my Dad and then dinner with more of DeAnne's family. Then we'll wrap it all up on Saturday with my Mom's side of the family. It's always a hectic time but it's always worth it.

Remember, no blog until next Saturday. Have a good week next week and a Merry Christmas to you all and your families.

--Paul

Ch Ch Changes...

First let me say, yesterday was a weird day for the digital life. Twitter was having issues, BlackBerry was having issues and even Facebook seemed like it was slower than usual yesterday. Strange stuff.

Anyway. So, here we go.

I'm going to change the way I do things with the blog. If you read this then you're probably aware that I've been blogging every morning, Monday through Friday, with the exception of days that I'm off of work, for the past couple of years. I started it because I thought it would be fun and give me something to occupy a little of the time I had in the morning while I ate breakfast.

I've decided that my time in the morning may require a different use. The elliptical. I'm having a hard time forcing myself to get on it in the afternoon. I feel like I would be more apt to get on it every day if I did so in the morning. If I continued to blog though, I would have to get up 30 minutes earlier and I'm not crazy about that idea. So here's what I'm going to do:

I'm going to blog on Saturday morning and use the elliptical Monday-Friday during the time I usually blog. Yes, it means only one blog post per week. If the Saturday posts get too long, then I may add Sunday also, but for now, I'm just planning on Saturday. I seriously thought about just stopping the blog altogether, but I felt like I've had it going for too long to do that. I can't just walk away now after nearly four years of doing this.

So tomorrow I intended to write the first Saturday blog and then on Monday I'll begin using the elliptical during the time I have in the mornings. I'm going to give it a trial period of "until the end of the year" and then when the new year starts I'll reevaluate and see how it's going. I also want your feedback once we're a week or two into the trial period.

Have a good Friday. I'll see you tomorrow.

--Paul

Nothing To Speak Of

The only thing that really happened yesterday is that the sun did come out. That was about the extent of the note-worthy events. All of our shows are now on winter break, there wasn't any new music this week that got my attention and I didn't play any games yesterday.

Oh, I did play guitar a little. I really love the new acoustic I bought a couple of months ago. I've been trying to make myself play at least once a week just to make sure I don't feel like I wasted the money. That and I really do want to start playing more. DeAnne's been supportive. Last night she played Monopoly and made up silly lyrics about the animals while I played. One day we need to record some of that mess and put it up on the internet. People would probably think we're crazy, but it would be hilarious.

That was about it though. It's Thursday, so we've got just 8 days until Christmas. Of course, we'll start on Christmas Eve, so I suppose you could say we've got just 7 days, but whatever. Anyway, have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Here Comes the Sun...Hopefully

Hopefully today we'll see some improvement in the weather.

Other than the rain, there hasn't been much going on. We're just waiting for Christmas to roll around.

Edwin and I managed to wrap up everything we wanted to do with Gears of War (the first one) last night. We decided to go back and pick up some achievements for it. It's interesting going back and playing the first game after we've spent so much time with the second one. I didn't really realize how many improvements they had made in the second game.

I think now we're going to turn our attention to Halo Wars. We've both had the game for nearly a year and neither of us have really played it. We've been waiting on a chance to play co-op and it just hasn't happened until now.

I'm still working on Mass Effect. I'm really enjoying it so far. The missions are pretty interesting and the side missions aren't so long or so hard that you don't feel like you can't get back to the main story line when you want to. I've struggled some with the combat, but I think it's because of the character class I choose. I'm too far in now to change it but if I ever decide to play it again, it won't be as a Vanguard.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Rain, Rain

Looking at the forecast, tomorrow has a big yellow circle on it. I'm not sure I remember what that is exactly, but it's only on the forecast for one day, so I'm sure we'll be back to it raining again soon enough.

Seriously though, can we get a break? My back yard has turned my house into lake front property. I'm listening to the WAAO stream on the web and it sounds like they've opened the roads back up. They had them closed for a bit last night. Looks like the rivers will be reaching flood stage today. Should be interesting to see what happens. County school are closed, but the Opp and Andalusia systems are open. I'm just glad that PowerSouth is still operating. It would be a travesty for a day of snack week to get called off.

So it's wet outside. Guess I'll go put on the swim trunks and see if I can get to work. At least being bald means I don't have to worry about my hair getting messed up.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

What A Misreable Weekend

The weather pretty much put a funk to the whole weekend as far as I'm concerned. All we did was lay around the house and be bored.

The one highlight of the weekend was the Christmas Cantata that the church choir put on last night. It was probably the best cantata that they've done since we've been members at Carolina. The choir was full, the music was good and they sounded great. It was easily the best thing that happened all weekend and it didn't happen until the very end. I guess it was worth enduring the boredom until we got there.

Nothing else really going on. It should be a fun week at work. It's our hallway's annual "snack week". It's always a good time of eating way to much and enjoying it more than I should. We'll cap it off Friday with a cookout. This is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. This is the week that Christmas really gets going. The cantata last night, snacks and lunch all week at work and then next week is only three working days and then all the family craziness. Good times.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Post #500

Today I reach what I would consider to be a pretty major milestone. Today's post is #500 for this blog. It amazes me that I've been doing this for that long. Anyway...onward we go.

DeAnne reminded me last night of what I was going to blog about yesterday and forgot. Tuesday night we went to the Cattlemen's Association dinner with her Mom and Step-Dad. Wayne (her step-dad) was Vice President the past two years and now starts a two year term as President of the Covington County association. The dinner was pretty interesting. The food was good and it was definitely something out of the norm for us, so it was a nice change of pace. We're going to go ahead and join too. It's only $30 a year and they feed you four times a year, so it's really not a bad deal and we'll be supporting Wayne at the same time, so good times all around.

The other thing I wanted to talk about today is DeAnne's new spinning Christmas tree stand. You can see a video of it on her blog, here. She's wanted one of these things for years and this year she finally found one that wasn't just outrageously expensive, so I agreed to buy it. The crazy thing is is that she's had the tree up for weeks now, so to get it on the new stand she basically tore the tree completely down, put it on the new stand and then put the tree completely back together again. I would have just waited till next year, but that's just me I guess.

I have to admit though that it does draw your attention to the tree. It's just sitting there spinning and it's kind of a hypnotic motion. I had trouble watching T.V. last night because the tree kept drawing my attention. Maybe I'll get used to it after a day or two, but right now it's pretty captivating.

Have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

I Swear I Had A Topic

I know I had a topic picked out for today. "Had" being the operative word in that sentence. Now I can't remember what it was. I guess I'll just have to resort to the fall-backs.

A couple of more shows wrapped up their fall seasons this week. The first being Biggest Loser. Watching this show is like punishment for the soul. I know I don't eat like I'm supposed to. I know I don't exercise like I'm supposed to. And now I'm watching 400 lb. people drop 40 and 50% of their total body weight in six months time. There are guys on this show dropping more than 15 pounds a week and I can't get my lazy self up long enough to drop 15 pounds in 3 months. Anyway. It is fun to see what everyone looks like when they get to the finale and the guy that won this round was a nice guy that I liked, so all is well, I guess. Now, to get back on that elliptical.

Glee also wrapped up it's first major story line last night. It was a performance heavy episode and it was fantastic. Glee has quickly become one of my favorite shows. It'll be interesting to see where they take it from here and what new craziness they can come up with for the spring.

That's about all I've got for today. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

New Music, New Movie

The Smashing Pumpkins released the first song from their new venture Yesterday. It's called "A Song for A Son" and I have to say, it's pretty awesome. Something else that's awesome about it is that you can download it for free. You can head over to www.smashingpumpkins.com and listen to the new song and download it. I was going to embed the player here on the blog, but they've not set it up to allow resizing and I couldn't get it to look right on the sidebar.

I've talked before about how the new album is supposed to work. They're going to release each song, one at a time available for free on the website. Then ever four songs are going to be bundled into limited edition EPs. Then once all 44 songs have been released they're going to release a repackaged box set of all the songs. It'll probably be years before all this is done and knowing Billy and the Smashing Pumpkins, it may not even all pan out, but if it comes together and lives up to the promise, it should be pretty awesome.

Two of my other favorite bands also had big announcements this week. Coheed and Cambria announced their next album should be out in April and they're planning to tour next summer. I really would love to get to see them next year. Hopefully the stars will align and I'll have the chance.

Also, Our Lady Peace announced a series of shows where they'll be playing two of their best albums cover to cover over two nights. They're going to be doing Clumsy and Spiritual Machines. The only bad thing about these shows is that they are all in Canada (where the band is from). So we won't be getting to go to any of those. Hopefully they'll put together a DVD and release it later on.

Speaking of DVDs, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out yesterday. DeAnne picked it up when she was at Wal-Mart and we watched it last night. I'm still disappointed with the lack of back story on Voldemort but I think I liked the movie better this time around than I did when we saw it in the theater last summer. Two sequences stand out to me as being especially well done. One being the liquid luck induced series of events that sets up the end of the movie and the other, the sequence that begins with Harry and Dumbledore returning from the cave and continues through the end of the movie. I know the end is different from the book, but they did a wonderful job with it in the movie and to me it's still just as moving as the end of the book. Here's hoping next November and Deathly Hallows part 1 comes quickly.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

PS. I tried to find the Deathly Hallows trailer that's on the HBP DVD to put with this post but it looks like Warner Bros. is actively taking them down as they pop up. Probably because it's a "Ultimate Edition" exclusive. Oh well.

I Was In A Bad Way

Warning: May contain some graphic content.

So I caught DeAnne's stomach bug. It first hit me Sunday morning about 5:30. DeAnne was in Ft. Walton with her Mom staying at her Grandmother's for the weekend to do some shopping. So I get up and I've got issues. I get on the couch and fall back to sleep, wake up again about 6:30. I get to feeling like I'm going to throw up so I get in the floor in the bathroom just kind of waiting for it to happen. I break out in a cold sweat, dizzy, the whole nine yards. I just knew it was coming and was just waiting on it. Finally, I gag once, twice and then I'm waking up. I was having a dream of some kind. My shoulder's hurting and the pillow seems kind of hard. It was when I tried to roll over that I realized I was in the bathroom floor between the tub and the toilet. I had passed out.

So I called DeAnne and asked her Mom (who's a nurse) if I should go to the hospital and she said I needed to. So I called Dad and he came and got me and took me to the E.R. They gave me fluids and some phenigran and by the time they were ready to shove me out the door, DeAnne had made it back to town.

It was a crazy morning. I slept most of the rest of the day and never threw up but I was dehydrated and ran a little bit of a fever late Sunday afternoon. I stayed home from work yesterday and relaxed and took it easy. I still had a little bit of an upset stomach yesterday morning, but I think I'm good now. The only solid food I've had the last couple of days is the saltine crackers I've ate with my soup so I'm a little hungry this morning but I'm going to give it a little more time before I venture into the solid food category.

So the weekend could have ended a little better. It was definitely interesting though. It's the first time I've ever passed out. They diagnosed it as a "Vasovagal Episode". You can check the link for the Wikipedia entry. It's supposed to be more common in people with heart and blood pressure issues. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Ah, Friday

It still seems like the week just started, but I'm not going to argue. If Friday wants to come on and happen, then I'm more than happy to let it.

I'm going to try something new today: One sentence or less summaries of media I've consumed recently. Ready? Here goes:

Norah Jones' new album: Incredible

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert's albums: I didn't think anything could be worse than Kris Allen's album but then I listened to Adam Lambert's.

Them Crooked Vultures: Not too shabby for a post-grunge grunge band with an old guy playing bass.

John Mayer's cover of "Crossroads": Shamefully uninspired.

I Love You, Beth Cooper: Just enough funny moments to keep you watching.

V: Haven't watched episode four yet, but wow, wow, wow for the first three.

Glee: As awesome as it's ever been.

Grey's Anatomy: Still sliding downhill fast.

Private Practice: Probably better now than Grey's has ever been.

Heroes: Farther down that hill than Grey's is and moving about twice as fast.

The Guild: Final episode of season three was pure gold.

That's about all I've got. I'm sure I could come up with more but it's time to get going. Have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

Not Only The Computer...

Not only did the computer have a virus the other day, but DeAnne's been battling the stomach bug. She woke up Tuesday with it and it lasted pretty much all day. She was feeling better yesterday until last night when she started complaining about nausea again. Hopefully she's past it though.

I just hope that I don't come down with it. I'll never forget back in February when I had pneumonia and then came down with the stomach virus too. I don't think I've ever felt that bad before in my life. I don't know that recovery from surgery was as bad as being sick those couple of days.

This week seems to be flying by. It's already Thursday and it seems like it just started. At least all the rain seems to have cleared out. Those nasty, wet, cold, grey days are the worst. I don't really mind winter so long as it's not rainy and gloomy.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Under Attack

The other night I was walking the dog before bed and while we were our I was checking my messages on my blackberry. DeAnne was inside on facebook and all of a sudden I got a message from her. I check and the subject is not something that DeAnne would wright and the message contained a link. I instantly realized what had happened. She had either been hacked or had gotten a virus. I had her change her password and figured I would scan the computer in the morning. Sure enough, we had a pretty good list of infections going on. It turns out that she had opened a spam facebook message that contained a virus. Malwarebytes was able to take care of everything though.

I've mentioned Malwarebytes Anti-Malware before. It's still probably the best anti-malware/anti-virus product out there and it's free. It's simple and does an amazing job of detecting things that I've seen even McAfee and Norton miss. In fact, we have McAfee running real-time and it missed the infection that DeAnne got the other night.

If you opened the message that DeAnne sent, I would highly suggest downloading Malwarebytes and scanning your computer. Heck, I would recommend downloading Malwarebytes and scanning your computer any way. It almost always finds something that's found a way on to a machine.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Catch The Wave

Thanks to an old friend, Griffin, I finally got an invite to Google Wave yesterday.

Wave is Google's attempt at creating a new communications platform. They call it a new way to share information. What it seems to me is that it's a combination of instant messaging and email. The interface is very "email-ish". You have contacts, folders, an inbox and all that kind of stuff. In your inbox you see "waves" that you're a part of. A wave is kind of like a conferenced chat. You can have any number of participants and everyone in the wave can see what's going on either in real time or when they log on later. You can also drag and drop things like pictures and youtube videos into waves and share them with the participants.

If you use Gmail, it's all pretty familiar feeling but at the same time it's different enough that in the short time I've had access, I've not really been sure what to do with it. I think like any social network, the more people that you know that are using it, the greater it's value will be to you and that's maybe one of the inherent flaws. No other company has a "wave" product. You can get an email address from any number of different places and I can email you all day long no matter if we have different names after the "@" sign. If you're going to do waves though, it's Google or nothing and there's a lot of people out there that don't want to use Google that unless they allow outside "wave" accounts, the whole thing might never take off.

If anyone's interested in checking it out, I have 8 invites. Send me an email or facebook message with your email address and I'll be happy to get you in on the party.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Back To Reality

Well, after four and a half days off from work, it's back to the grind this morning. Even DeAnne's working today.

We had a good weekend. Courtney's sister, Jessica, gave birth to her little girl the day they had planned her shower for, so they moved it to yesterday. So with Courtney coming to town for that, Edwin came with her and they stayed with us Saturday night. We had a great time, as always. The girls did shower stuff and Edwin and I got to play games.

Friday, of course, was the Iron Bowl. I couldn't be more proud of Auburn's defense for the way they played. It was easily the best game the defense has had all year. If only they had been able to get some support from the offense, we could have easily come out the winners. Not being able to put together a sustained drive in the fourth quarter killed us. It kept the defense on the field for far too long and you can hardly fault them for giving up a touchdown after playing their hearts out for 55 minutes.

If nothing else, at least we put a stop to the Mark Ingram for Heisman talk. 30 yards on 16 carries = Auburn pwn'd you. It's a small victory in an Iron Bowl loss, but it's one I'll take.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Look Out, DeAnne Has Hit The Stores

We had a great Thanksgiving. We drove up to Anniston on Wednesday and had a good time with my Aunt Karen and Uncle Russ. We really appreciate them letting us stay the night.

Thursday morning, we got up and checked the papers and then had lunch with my Mom's side of the family. After lunch we hit the road again and made the trek back to Kinston where we had dinner at DeAnne's Mom's. I left DeAnne there last night and her and her Mom headed off to Dothan this morning at about 1:00. It's not quite as crazy as last year when they were in Destin at midnight, but still...they crazy.

Me, I'm taking the day off, watching the game and just relaxing. Have a good Friday.

--Paul

And We're Off...

So today begins the holiday rush. We'll be leaving this afternoon to head up to Anniston for lunch with my Mom's family tomorrow. We're staying the night with my aunt and uncle.

I do this every year, and I don't know if anyone that reads this has every donated to this cause, but this year's Child's Play Charity is under way. I've been mentioning it on my blog since 2006. Each year the guys that run Penny Arcade organize a charity based on the idea of buying toys and video games for a host of different Children's Hospitals all around the world. The total contribution since the charity's inception has now passed five million dollars and the goal for this year is another million. It's a great charity and given my experiences with Birmingham's hospital, it's one that really means a lot to me personally. Here's a direct link to the Birmingham Children's Hospital charity wish list: LINK. There's a lot of different stuff on it, all of which could really make a difference to a sick child.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you all on Friday.

--Paul

Short Week

It's Tuesday, which means that the week is half over for me already. I'm taking off Friday, so tomorrow's my last day of work for the week.

So the holidays are upon us and here I am trying to loose some weight. That's never a good combination. Especially when you like eating as much as I do. I've been enjoying the elliptical. It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be and I like that it's a smooth motion instead of pounding down on a treadmill.

On Sunday I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum on hard. So I've now done everything in the game that you can do. I'm sadly proud of myself. This is the first xbox game that I've earned every achievement for. I didn't get a prize or anything, but I guess the collector in me is coming through and saying "hey, you've completed this". I'm a geek, I know.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Welcome Home, Me

Man, it is good to be home. I was home by 3:00 on Friday, so we made good time.

So yeah, the weekend. After I got back Friday, DeAnne and I went to town and grab some dinner and hit Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie. Having been on her own all week, DeAnne hadn't really had a need to go to the store, so we needed to restock. We got back home about 7:30 and DeAnne decided that she really wanted to go see New Moon. We had driven by the theater on our way back home and at 7:30 there was a line already forming for the 9:30 show. DeAnne's always been a sport about going to see movies that I really want to see, so I agreed to go. So we hop back in the car and head for the theater. I dropped her off to get in line and since our theater is so awesome that it only accepts cash, I went to the ATM. I got back, we got tickets and then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, the first showing ended and they got the theater clear and let us in.

So I've read the Twilight books and I've seen the first movie and I'm not what I would call a "fan" of the series. They were all right, but nothing special to me. Of the books though, I personally thought that New Moon was probably the best of the four and the movie was pretty close to the book and it turned out pretty good. There were a few moments that were fairly cringe-inducing, but nothing like the first movie and they did a much better job with the special effects this time around so I didn't want to laugh every time someone started running really fast.

So that was Friday. Saturday I got to hang out at the house and wait for the CenturyTel guy to show up and look at our internet connection again. It was down pretty much all week last week and when he finally showed up on Saturday and got to looking around, he found a rusted out screw on the post out at the road. He replaced it and boom, internet works flawlessly.

So that's the weekend in a nutshell. I'm sure today will be a bit crazy at work trying to catch up from being gone last week, but that's just the way it is. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

I'm On My Way

So this is it. A few more hours of class and then we'll be on the road and headed for home. My bag is packed up and I'm all set. It's been a long week. The class has been good but it's covered a pretty broad range of topics and I think all three of us are experiencing a bit of information overload at this point.

A few happenings I've noticed this week:

Google announced (and released a test version of) it's own operating system called "Chrome OS". It's basically just the Chrome web browser running as an operating system. It boots in seconds and gets you on the web as fast as possible. Not so great for doing things like putting music on your ipod or uploading videos to youtube, but it should really shine on the little netbooks that have started getting popular.

The full release of facebook and twitter hit xbox live this week. It's a nice update but without a web browser on the xbox to use to view links that people post, the functionality and usefulness is a little limited.

There have been other things that I wanted to mention and now I've forgotten them. Oh well, see you all on Monday when I'll be in my own home again. Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Counting Down

I didn't manage to get anything up yesterday and this one's going to be short.

I've adjusted enough to the time change and we've now got what time to leave the hotel narrowed down so I'm sleeping later and leaving myself a smaller window in which to get ready and eat. I wouldn't say that I'm catching up on sleep or anything, but it's getting better. The only thing about it is that we're leaving tomorrow and that's just going to wreck havoc on my system all over again.
The food continues to be good. I ate my first bison steak last night and it was great. It was at a place called Ted's Montana Grill. It's owned by Ted Turner. It was probably the best meal I've had the entire trip.

Anyway. I better get going. I've got about 20 minutes to get ready if I'm going to have enough time to get a waffle. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

The Good and the Bad

There's both good and bad things about going on these work trips. For one bad one, I miss my wife. For another, changing time zones this close to the DST change will really mess with your head (hence why I'm writing this at like 4:45 central time).

There are a couple of good things though. It gets me out of the office for a week and I get to do something new for a little while. It's almost like a vacation you don't have to pay for. That's especially true for the food. So far we've have Guthrie's, Carrabbas, Willy's Mexacana and P. F. Changs. Willy's was interesting. It was kind of like a Subway for burritos (spelling?). It was a huge and it was good.

It also helps to have company with me. This time around the are three of us: me, Brian and Julie so we're having a pretty good time.

I better get going. I'll talk some about the class tomorrow (assuming I have the time to blog. I may sleep pretty good tonight considering what time I woke up this morning). Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

I'm Out of Town

So. As you might have guessed from the title, I'm out of town this
week. I'm going to try and blog as best I can but don't be surprised
if I don't get much up this week. In fact, it's time to head down to
the car now, so I'm going to have to call it there.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Sent from my iPod

So I Guess You Noticed

I'm emailing this in real quick.  So as you've probably figured out by now, I didn't get to write a full blog this morning.  Our internet connection at the house has been spotty the past couple of days and this morning it pretty much just wasn't there.  So I spent the morning on the phone with tech support.  They've got a tech lined up to look at it but it could be tomorrow depending on the amount of work they have in the area.  Hopefully they'll get to it today and get it fixed. 

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Maybe This Will Post

I'm not sure what's going on, but our DSL connection has turned to mud the last couple of days. I guess I'm going to have to try and figure out what's going on.

So yesterday turned out to be an adventure.

DeAnne's car wouldn't jump off so I took the battery out and we took it up to Wal-Mart only to have it test out good. I'm hoping now that it's just something with a battery cable, but it's probably still going to mean getting it towed, so there's no telling what kind of expense we're looking at there.

In the midst of all the car craziness, the elliptical made it to the store and had to be picked up.

Once we got it home and in the house it took probably just under four hours for us to put it together. We got it done just in time to run and get something to eat and make it to church on time. After we got home, we both tried it out. I have to say, I've never been on an elliptical before and I never really thought they would be very effective. I was wrong. After about 5 minutes on the thing I was breathing heavy and my legs felt like I had been running for miles. Those 5 minutes were about all I could handle. It looks like I'll be working my way up to the 30 minute work-out thing.

So hopefully we can get DeAnne's car fixed today and we'll see how I do on the elliptical this afternoon.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

DeAnne's Car Is Jinxed

I don't know what it is about DeAnne's car, but it seems that every year about this time it has some sort of electrical problem. I'm not sure how many batteries we've put in it, but it's been a few. Last year, she had a battery cable go bad and have to be replaced. It's been crazy and a little weird that it always seems to happen around this time of the year.

Well, last night it happened again. We got in her car to go to town and it wouldn't crank. Battery's dead or at least on it's way to being dead. It had enough juice to ding when I opened the door with the key in the ignition. I didn't feel like dealing with it last night, so now I'll have to jump it off and get the battery replaced this afternoon along with picking up the elliptical and then having Awana tonight at church. It's going to be a busy day. I guess I'm going to go get started.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Title Trouble

Looks like the days of struggling to find a title are back. I'll have to come up with a new scheme like the Beatles thing. I guess I could try another band. We'll see.

My new guitar came in yesterday. So far, I really like it. It's a good size, has a good neck, a nice sound and plays really well. I still need to plug it in and make sure all the electronics work, but outside of that, I think I found myself a keeper. I'll get DeAnne to help me take some pictures to post of facebook.

Something else I'm excited about is that DeAnne asked me to look into getting wall hangers for my guitars. It's something I've always wanted to do but never had the chance to do before. Since we're getting the elliptical and rearranging the office to fit it in, she decided that she liked the idea of hanging the guitars as decoration. Hopefully since they'll be out on the wall and easy to get to, I'll also play them more often.

Speaking of the elliptical, tomorrow should be the big day. I'm scared to see what it's going to take to put this thing together. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Exercise, Here We Come

DeAnne and I bought our Christmas present to each other last week: an elliptical. As a fairly large piece of exercise equipment, the question then became: where do we put it? That single, simple question led to what I now call "The Great Cleaning of 2009".

It all began on Saturday. Starting in the guest bedroom, we emptied out the dresser we had in there for storage so that we could move it to the storage building. We also moved the hutch from the office to the guest bedroom. We then went down to the storage building and began the real work. We ended up with two car loads going to Christian Service and one truck load of trash, got the dresser moved down there and ended up with a fairly good looking, organized storage building.

Then came yesterday. DeAnne woke up sick again so she stayed home while I went to church. After church we rode over to Kinston and ate lunch with DeAnne's Mom and then I took a nap while DeAnne helped her Mom start putting out Christmas. I came home, went to church and then arrived back home to find DeAnne in full cleaning mode again. This time her focus had shifted to the office. Before it was over, we had moved the sitting chair from the office to the guest bedroom then cleaned out the closet and moved all of DeAnne's scrapbook stuff from out in the office to the closet. The plan now is to put the elliptical in the office. It comes in on Wednesday.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

The Old Standbys

I don't have much to talk about so I'm going to fall back to my standbys: music and T.V.

The new Weezer album is awesome. That's about all that really needs to be said about it. I'm probably biased because A: I like Weezer. B: Butch Walker helped produce the album and I like Butch too.

I've got the new Wolfmother album but I haven't had a chance to really listen to it. A few of the songs have come up on my iPod but I would like to listen to the whole album before I pass judgment. The couple of songs I've heard have been good though.

FlashForward is still awesome. It's been steadily getting better. We're totally hooked on the show and I can't wait to see how the season ends.

I recorded V but haven't had a chance to watch it. People, meaning blogs on the internet that I've seen, are saying that it was good but maybe moved a little faster than it needed to. I guess I'll see for myself when I get a chance to watch it. DeAnne has no interest in it at all since it's about aliens.

We're still watching all our other shows too. Glee finally comes back next week after being interrupted by the World Series for two weeks. Heroes is still the girlfriend that was great when you first met her but when you really got to know her she turned out to be scary crazy but you just can't bring yourself to break up with her either because you don't want to hurt her feelings or because you're just scared too. And though I'm hesitant to admit it, The Vampire Diaries has got me hooked.

Have a good weekend and a good Friday.

--Paul

Christmas Is Coming

The madness has begun. DeAnne's has officially started Christmas shopping. She's made her list and she's checking it over and over and we're well on our way to having the shopping done and out of the way. As much as she loves shopping, there's something about Christmas shopping that just stresses her out. I think it's that she doesn't think she'll be able to find something for somebody or that what she buys won't be something somebody likes. She's actually rather good at it I think. She tends to get great gifts for people and just seems to have a natural ability to find things that people will like. I on the other hand, am terrible at shopping. Both for others and for myself.

One note about today's post. This is the first post in 10 days to not have a Beatles lyric as the title. If I had anything to give away, I would say let's have a contest to see who can name all the songs the previous 9 titles are from, but I have no such goods to give so a contest it would not make.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Listen To The Music Playing In Your Head

As a quick update to yesterday's post: the Republican candidates in both the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races won yesterday. It was a pretty major upset in New Jersey where the Democrat was an incumbent. So it looks like yesterday was the first shot fired in the mid-term elections next year. The Republicans will point to yesterday for quite some time. The next year or so should be pretty interesting.

Outside of politics, I've got a pretty good number of things that I'm interested in. Not that I have to tell you guys that. Simply look through the archives of this blog and you'll see posts that cover topics about a variety of different topics. One of the biggest is music and one of the things that I've always loved but haven't done much in a while is playing guitar. I'm hoping to change that. The first step I've taken in making that change is that I bought a new guitar on Ebay. It's an Ovation acoustic/electric. I got a good deal on it and I figure that if I don't like it I can always turn around and sell it and at least get my money back.

I miss playing though and I'm hoping that this is a great guitar that will inspire me to dig deep and really start playing again. I think my playing fell off because I felt like I didn't have time. I'm just going to have to make time and I plan to do so as soon as this new guitar. I'll post pictures when it comes in.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

The Sun Is Up, The Sky Is Blue

The time change may have messed with my sleeping patterns but at least now when I get up in the morning I don't have to stumble around in the dark and hope I don't kill myself on a piece of furniture or something. You also can't argue with the way the weather has been the past couple of days.

I know I've been talking a lot about politics lately but it's something that's become a bit of hobby for me. Today is another big day in the political world. It's election day for a few states. Most importantly New Jersey and Virgina. Both the Democratic governors in those states are trailing in the polls behind their Republican opponents. A lot of people are looking at these elections as indicators for what could happen this time next year during the mid-term elections. Historically, the party that the President is a member of looses ground in both the House and Senate in the first mid-term election of their Presidency. The question for the Democrats in 2010 will be how big a loss will they suffer? The Republican party itself still lacks any kind of real leadership or personality to head the charge, but I think Obama has proven to be so radical that he alone is solidifying the conservative opposition. The independent voters that really turned the tide for Obama last year will certainly decide what happens in the mid-terms. If Obama alienates too many centralist independents, the Democrats stand to take a beating next year.

Don't forget that a similar situation played out for Bill Clinton. Two years after taking office with a Democrat controlled Congress, voters cleaned house and led by Newt Gingrich, a huge class of freshmen Congressmen came in and worked out several major parts of their "Contract With America". If the Republicans can find someone to really lead the charge and can develop a message that really speaks to those that are disappointed with Obama and the current Congressional leadership, then a change may certainly come.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Any Time At All

The time change has wrecked its usual havoc on my sleep pattern. At 9:30 last night I thought I was going to pass out standing up and then I promptly woke up at 5:00 this morning, ready for the day. I did mange to roll over and get another 30 minutes in, but I was still up and unable to get back to sleep at 5:30. Oh well, happens every year.

The weekend was great. We headed down to Mobile Friday afternoon and got there around 6:00. We then went over with Courtney and Edwin and ate dinner with Don and Laura and hung out playing games all night.

Saturday Edwin and I went to the University of South Alabama Jags game with Don and Laura while the girls went shopping. We had a good time at the game. We tailgated for a couple of hours and then watched the first half of the game. This is the first year the Jags have had a team and they're working on a five year plan to become a D-1 school in the Sun Belt conference. Right now they're mainly playing military schools and that was the case Saturday. The score was 44-0 at half-time (in the Jags favor), so we went ahead and called it there and headed back home. I just checked the website and the final score was 64-6.

Sunday was church and all too soon it was time to come back home. We always hate leaving but it's always fun to go pick up Emma and see her so excited to see us.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

So We Sailed On To The Sun

Friday has arrived and with it comes a trip to Mobile.

We're really looking forward to this weekend. We haven't been down to Mobile in a while and with the holidays coming up, we might not get to see our friends again for a while. We're having a cookout tonight and then tomorrow I believe Edwin and I are going to take in the University of South Alabama's football game along with Don and his family. Should be a blast.

So I got kind of long winded yesterday and I've got some stuff to do before I leave for work to get ready for the trip this afternoon, so I'm going to call it here. Have a good weekend and and a good Friday. Also, don't forget to set your clocks back Saturday night and enjoy your extra hour of sleep. Usually, I have to get up and go to work and keep an eye on everything but I managed to not draw the short straw this year. Anyway, see you on Monday.

--Paul

I Look at the Floor and See It Needs Sweeping

On Monday President Obama attended an event at a new solar power plant in Florida. While there, he announced an allocation of over 3 billion dollars of the bailout money that will go towards smart grid initiatives. This money will supposedly be match by private investment of over 4 billion.

I'm actually not all that upset about the smart grid stuff. A lot of that money will be used for things that are pretty cool. There is one thing about it that bugs me though. The P.R. spin. They make it sound like this investment will revolutionize the grid and solve all our problems. It won't even get close. If you look at the numbers in this PDF (Link), you'll notice that there's a lot of money going to smart meters. Outside of that, there's a not a lot of solid information about what's going to be done with the money. You can say you're going to install a new system that's going to save power all you want to, but in the end, it might not work out. It also only awards money to 100 different utilities. That's a fraction of the total marketplace.

It's a good start, but if the industry can invest 4 billion of its own money in this, then why does the government have to hand out 3 billion of our tax dollars?

The other thing that bothers me is the so called "green" aspect. The technology they're talking about this money making available can help save power, yes, but if you really want to cut carbon emissions the easiest and cheapest way is nuclear. If the government would ease the permitting process and help move applications for new nuclear facilities towards construction, this country could be well on its way to being over 50% nuclear by 2030. We're already 25% nuclear and that just with the plants that we have. A new plant hasn't been constructed since the 70's.

I also want to talk about the solar plant that was the centerpiece of the announcement. It's rated for a max production of 25 megawatts (per hour). All the people that think solar and wind are the answers are wrong. At times, the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine and what are you going to do then? The other problem is the investment versus return. That solar plant is reported to have cost of $150 million to build. All for 25 megawatts. A mid-size factory of some sort can burn through twice that in an hour. Solar and wind are never going to be capable of supporting the base load on a grid. They may be great for peaking, but who's to say that the sun's going to be shining on a cold winter morning when a system peaks?

Nuclear has to be part of the equation and it's just not something you hear anyone talking about in the current administration.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

It Took Me Years To Write

I did get into the Xbox software beta Friday night and got a chance to play with the new features Saturday.

I have to say that, while they're pretty cool, they're just a step away from being incredible. The three main new things are Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.

Facebook is probably the most functional in that you can see your friends and can even see what friends you have on Facebook that are also on Xbox Live so that you can add them to your Live friends list. You can browse pictures and do pretty much any of the base functions of Facebook.

I've come to find the Twitter app not quite so useful. It's cool to be able to send out a quick tweet from the Xbox, but when reading your feed, a lot of times, people will include links to websites. Since the Xbox doesn't have a web browser, these links do nothing and it cuts down on the usefulness of the app. I do like the interface though. Tweets pop in as little bubbles at the top of the screen and then scroll down as new tweets come in.

Last.fm is also designed well. It's easy to browse stations and find artists that you want to listen to. Recommendations are there along with the ability to rate songs and artists, favorite them, etc...

What keeps all these apps from being awesome though is that they don't extend into the Xbox Live environment outside of their apps. If you want to tweet something in the middle of a game, you'll have to quit your game and load the Twitter app to do it. Same for Facebook. The greatest use for Last.fm would be to turn on a station and leave it playing in the background while you do other stuff, but as soon as you leave the Last.fm app, the music stops. I understand why Microsoft wants these things to be separate apps, but it holds them back from being something really cool and useful and something that Sony and Nintendo aren't even close to pulling off.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

One Way Ticket, Yeah

It seems like every day I come up with a list of different things that I can use for the next day's blog and then when the next day comes, I can't think of a thing.

Evidently the back-off has set DeAnne's cooking mode on high. She made a stew yesterday that was awesome and she was going to make some bread, but her Mom wanted some of the starter, so instead of making the bread she poured off the starter for her. And don't think that I'm complaining either. If it keeps up, I may be bigger than Terrance Cody, but I'll be happy.

I picked up the new Creed album out of morbid curiosity and as much as I wanted to hate it, it's really not that bad. In fact, there are several songs that are good. I think the album runs a little long, but since most people never buy or listen to an entire album any more (which is incredibly sad), I guess it doesn't really matter. And Mark Tremonti makes me sick with the way he can play a guitar. Nobody should be allowed to move that fast.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello...

Hello, Hello!

What a weekend it was. Friday started it off with us going out to eat with DeAnne's Mom and Step-Dad and a couple of their friends at the new Mexican restaurant in Opp. It's where MD's used to be. The food was good, the staff was great and believe it or not, they had a four piece mariachi band that was pretty awesome. The band would walk around and play a song for each table. Most of the songs were Spanish tunes but they played a few songs that we recognized: "It's a Small World", "The Chicken Dance" and (the coolest one of all) "Sweet Home Alabama". It was hilarious, surreal and incredible all at the same time.

After that, Saturday was pretty much a bust. DeAnne had a shower to attend and then Auburn fell so much farther down the tube that the only good part of the day was watching Tennessee take Alabama down to the last play. If they win a championship this year, then when Cody graduates, the boosters owe him some money or something for saving that game twice.

Last night was the Harvest Festival at church and it was great. We had an incredible turnout of both members and non-members. The band was great, the kids loved the games and slides and there was some stiff competition in the back-off. I'm happy to report that DeAnne won 3rd in the women's division with Me-Maw's pound cake. I didn't judge the women, but I sampled afterward, and let me assure you, she made one fine pound cake. I did judge the men's side and it was a hard decision, but it was a task I took very seriously, much to my own detriment. The dinner was incredible too. Best of all, Matt reported on facebook last night that there were 15 salvations! So the festival was a great success and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

I Am The Eggman

I think I'm just going to start using Beatles lyrics for my blog titles. They'll never actually have anything to do with the blog, but I shouldn't ever run out of something to use as a title.

It's Friday. Something to be excited about I supposed. I am getting a free lunch today at least. It's our annual ACRE meeting and they always feed us. ACRE is a political action committee that looks out for the interests of electric cooperatives in Washington. Since most cooperatives are small compared to the public utility companies, it's easy for us to get thrown under the bus by new regulations that are introduced. ACRE works to make sure that doesn't happen. They also feed us once a year so that they can get all their members in one spot and tell them about what's been going on for the last year. There's also a chance to win a trip to Washington. I've got a feeling this may be my year. I hope so at least.

The big thing this weekend is the Harvest Festival at the Church on Sunday. It starts at 4:30 so if anybody reading this hasn't heard about it and would like to come, please do so. There's going to be games for both kids and adults, plenty of food and a bunch of other stuff. It should be a great time. I've signed up to judge the bake-off. It's the perfect job for me I think and I couldn't be more excited about it.

Have a good Friday and weekend.

--Paul

So Close, But So Far Away

It's Thursday. We're getting there.

The Wii update yesterday turned out to be pretty much nothing.

The emails for the Xbox beta will be going out tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get one. I don't know why I'm so excited about this update, but I'm really excited to get to see it.

The main thing I wanted to mention this morning is on the political side of life, so consider yourself warned.

The Obama administration has been making cuts at Fox News the past couple of weeks and Fox has steadily been running articles on it's site talking about the way the administration is treating the news channel. The latest thing this morning is that Obama himself actually addressed the controversy in an interview with NBC. He pretty much blows the whole thing off and calls Fox News "a talk show radio format" (Article). When pressed on why White House people are coming after Fox, Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, pointed to the Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity shows. Both of these shows are known to be opinion shows.

As an American, I think all this is very dangerous. I think it also makes Obama look a little bit like a cry-baby. If he can't take the heat of two guys asking serious questions about his policies for 10 hours a week then he's got serious problems. What would happen if he took the kind of pressure from the press that Bush was under the last year of his Presidency? To try and use heavy-handed rhetoric to silence a critic runs against the grain of everything that is American. And it would be the same if it was a Republican President going after MSN. If they really want to cut the cries of the people saying they're leading America down a socialist path, then they really should back off of using techniques like this to try and control the press.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

This Is Getting Hard

I still don't really have anything to talk about.

The Wii is glowing this morning. That usually means that Nintendo has sent out a message or system update. I looked around the internet this morning though and I can't find any news about it so I'm not sure what it is. When the Wii first came out Nintendo went through a series of pretty good updates where they introduced new channels like the "Everyone Votes" channel and the Mii sharing channel. The last few have mainly just been about breaking the hacks that people have come up with for the Wii.

Speaking of system updates, I signed up for the beta for the next Xbox 360 system update. According to the guy who does Xbox community relations, they should start sending out acceptance emails on Friday. Basically what it means is that they'll mark my Xbox as able to download the new system software before it's made widely available so that they can get a better testing pool to make sure everything works okay. It's a risk in that they may break the box (at least temporarily) but you get to try out all the cool new features before the mass majority. They've done this in the past but this is the first time I've signed up to participate. This update is the one that will bring Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration along with some other new features. It's lame, I know, but I'm looking forward to sending my first tweet from my Xbox.

Well, I managed to come up with a couple of decent paragraphs after all. Go figure. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Titles! Who Needs 'Em!?!?

DeAnne got in to see the doctor yesterday and was promptly diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. A shot and some antibiotics and she seemed to be doing better already by the end of the day yesterday. She even played a couple of songs with me on Beatles: Rock Band. Just a couple, but still, that's something for her. Also, from all I could tell, she actually got some sleep last night, or at least she didn't wake me up coughing, so that's a definite improvement.

Other than DeAnne being sick, there's not much else going on. Nothing really exciting happened yesterday. I apologize. I guess I'll just call it here and try and come up with something better for tomorrow.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Dig A Pony

DeAnne left me behind this weekend while she went to Ft. Walton with her Mom, so I spent the better part of my time playing The Beatles: Rock Band. It's a fantastic game if you're a fan of the group. If you're not, then probably not so much. I happen to be a fan and thought it was incredible. The only real problem with the game is the length. There's only 40-something songs in the game and the majority of those are pretty short. Early Beatles songs rarely ran more than three minutes. I was able to finish the story mode in a few hours. The challenges took a little longer and while there are some other aspects of the game I want to play and explore, I've pretty much unlocked everything and seen all the bonus content there is to see. It's still a great game though and I imagine I'll be playing it for a while.

After DeAnne was out in the cold all day Saturday, she came home and promptly got sick. It's not any better this morning, so she's going to be calling the doctor at 8:00 to see if she can get in to see him today.

Being sick yesterday, she missed the church visitation campaign for our fall festival. I went with several guys through our neighborhood and we met several people who I haven't met before and who seemed interested in coming to the festival next week. We had a good time and I'm glad that we went out and made the effort to get people to come.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Friday Grab Bag

Looking at the forecast, it's actually supposed to feel like fall this weekend. A high of 63 and low of 42 tomorrow should make for a nice, comfortable day to cut the grass (hopefully for the last time this year).

DeAnne's made plans to go with her Mom to Ft. Walton for tonight and tomorrow so it looks like I'm on my own for the majority of the weekend. Outside of cutting the grass, there isn't much else that needs doing so I should have some time to dive into The Beatles: Rock Band. I've also got shows to catch up on. I haven't watched the last episodes of Heroes or Dollhouse yet (both shows DeAnne cares nothing about). I also have a couple of movies to watch that DeAnne doesn't care about seeing. So I should be able to keep myself entertained the next day or so.

That's about all there is to it. I'm looking forward to Sunday. We're going to canvass the area door knocking and inviting people to the fall festival on the 25th. I've never gone door-to-door (outside of my job with the Census) and I'm looking forward to the experience. I'm excited to see what the Lord can do with me in a new situation.

Have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

Buying Power

The deals were rolling last week and I was definitely buying.

First up was GameStop. I got a couple of codes though Twitter. One for 16% off used games and one for free shipping. I checked and they had The Beatles: Rock Band used, so I grabbed that. I've got a membership card, so that's another 10% off used games and I had a $25 gift card, so I got a game that's $60 new for about $11.50. Not too shabby.

Then I finally used a $30 Best Buy gift card I've had for a while to get a chat pad that attaches to the Xbox controller. Microsoft is adding Facebook and Twitter to the Xbox so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the chat pad. It came in yesterday and it's pretty slick. It forms right to the bottom of the controller and it doesn't get in the way at all. The keys are backlit and light up when you're typing. The keys are a little spread out, but I think it's just a matter of getting used to it.

Finally, on Saturday, I got an email from Amazon offering $10 off the new Snow White Blu-Ray/DVD that just came out. I checked and it was only $20, so I went ahead and grabbed that and with shipping I think it came out to be around $12.50. Wal-Mart is selling it for something like $25, so I figured that was a pretty good deal.

So that was the little shopping spree I went on. The deals were just too good to pass up. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Trees and Art

The apple trees that were between our house and our driveway are now gone. Wayne (DeAnne's step-dad) came by yesterday and cut them down for us. DeAnne's been wanting them gone for years now but I've been hanging on to the big one beside the picture window in our dining room because it basically shaded that entire side of the house from the afternoon sun. So the question is: what now? What do you plant to create a decent amount of shade in a short period of time. There's no telling what a summer with no shade on that side of the house will do to our power bill.

I was sad to see this morning that folk painter Woodie Long has passed away. My high school friend Chris and his family were old friends of the Long's and I had the opportunity to meet Woodie on several occasions. He was as nice a person as you could ever meet. He cared for and loved not only his family and friends but for everyone and he expressed that through his art. He could also play the dog out of a banjo. He may not be a national celebrity like Billy Mayes or Michael Jackson, but for me and a lot of people around this area he easily makes the list of celebrities that have died young this year.

That's all I've got for today. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Let's Get Polotical

I'll probably get some comments on this.

The Senate Finance Committee is getting ready to vote on its version of the health care overhaul today. Of all of the various versions of a health bill, it's probably the only one that really has a shot and it still includes items that are troublesome.

The biggest problem I have is a government mandate that everyone get insurance coverage. I'm not crazy enough to drop my coverage and go without it, but the government should not be telling people that they have to buy coverage. It's too oppressive, too socialistic and not what the federal government was designed to do. And I'm sorry but it's nothing like being told that you have to have car insurance. With car insurance, you're only made to carry liability coverage so that if you hit someone else and either damage them or their car, they don't have to pay for it themselves. There's no form of health insurance that you can buy that covers someone you do harm to. And no there shouldn't but such a thing either. If somebody tries to break into a house and they get shot then the person who's house is being broken into is the victim and they should not have to pay for the robber for the robber to be taken care of.

If anyone actually wants to reform heath care then they need to start with tort reform and limit excessive malpractice awards. Then they need to open up competition across state lines. It's been studied and time and again these two things have been mentioned as items that will do more to bring down heath care costs than anything anyone in Congress is talking about passing. The best part, neither of these two suggestions costs the taxpayers a cent.

OK, end rant.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Randomness

Here's your Monday bag of randomness:

I finally managed to 100% Batman last night. I really enjoyed the game and while some of the challenges were annoying to get through, for the most part they were pretty awesome. The only achievement I'm missing now is the one for beating the game on hard. I think I may give it a shot and see how it goes. Of course, that all depends on how distracted I get by Beatles: Rock Band.

On Friday I got a tweet that contained a couple of promo codes for GameStop.com. One was for 16% off used games and the other was for free shipping. I checked and they had used copies of Beatles: Rock Band. I put it in the cart, added the codes and my membership card (another 10%) and then used a $25 gift card and ended up getting the game for $11.50. I'm pretty excited about it.

I got another good deal on Saturday when Amazon sent me a $10 coupon for the new Snow White Blu-Ray. It's already only $20 on Amazon so I went ahead and picked that up. With shipping it was about $12. We don't even own a Blu-Ray player, but it comes with the DVD also, and one day we'll get a Blu-Ray player, so for $12, I couldn't pass it up.

I'm sure everyone's already aware, but Auburn lost Saturday. I'm of the opinion that Auburn never plays morning games well. I'm not sure what it is, but if they play a tough opponent in a morning game, it's at best going to be a nail-biter if not a loss. The defense has looked weak all year and Arkansas was just the team that finally figured out how to work the flaws. I still think we can win 7 games this year, if not 8 but it's going to be hard to do and I would be happy with 6 wins considering it'd be an improvement over last year.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

The Time Has Come

It's taken almost two years, but I've now gained back nearly all the weight I lost when DeAnne and I went on our diet. I guess it's time to put in the effort to get it off again. So last night we picked up Wii Fit Plus. It's a $20 upgraded version of Wii Fit. From what I've read and can tell, it's mainly just minor upgrades, but things have been upgraded across the board. It has a few new exercises and a handful of new games, but I think the major upgrade is in being able to save a workout routine. They also provide a couple of predetermined routines for you to work though. We didn't have time to try it out last night but I'll let you know how it goes next week.

I'm on call this weekend, so no major plans. There's a bit of yard work that needs doing and at some point we really need to go clean out and clean up the storage building. It's getting to the point where there's just too much stuff scattered around in there. A lot of it needs to go to Christian Service and the rest needs to be reorganized.

Have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

Another One of Those Days

It's another one of those days where I'm struggling for a topic. Hey, at least it's Thursday.

How about the old fallback...music? There seems to be a pretty steady stream of albums coming out that I'm interested in. It's kind of strange. There's rarely this much activity music-wise and I'm really not sure how to handle it all. So let's see:

Alice In Chains: It doesn't happen often, but when a band changes singers, it's always a little strange to me. Fuel did it and I would say failed. Evans Blue did it and I would say failed. Now Alice In Chains has done it and I think they may have pulled it off. One thing that's different with AIC is that they lost their singer to death, not just creative differences. The new guy doesn't sound like Layne Staley, but the overall sound is still Alice In Chains and with the backing vocals from Jerry Cantrell still there, the album comes off feeling just like an Alice In Chains album. It's not their best album, but they're kind of starting over and I have to say, it's a good start.

David Gray: He's been around for a while now and I've always like his stuff. His new album is every bit as good as any of his others.

There's several others, but I'm short on time and I think I'll save them for another day when I can't come up with anything. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

FlashForward

We finally got around to watching the second episode of FlashForward last night and it was just as awesome as the first. It's definitely a show we'll be sticking with. The only problem I can see is that I'm not sure how they can stretch it out past the first season. I think it's pretty obvious that it's designed so that the season finale will coincide with the April date that everyone saw in their flash. So if the date of the flash is the season finale, then what do they do for season 2? If you go past the flash date then don't you loose the whole reason for the show being called "FlashForward"? Of course, the most apparent option is to have another flash event. In the first flashes it was clear that they hadn't figured out the mystery yet, so it's easy to keep the show going on that end. I just wonder if the show can keep up the intensity if there's a flash at the beginning of each season or if it will just get silly. Of course, there's "Lost" where six of the characters made it home for a little while and weren't really "lost" anymore. But the title of that show seems to me to be more of a description of the characters souls than their physical state. Anyway. FlashForward is pretty cool so far.

Sorry to cut it short this morning, but I was dragging getting out of bed and getting through my shower. I really just did not want to get up. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

You Might Be A Redneck...

If you have a box that's too big to fit in your van so you strap it to the roof with a hanger and put your 13 year old daughter inside it to hold it down.

One thing that's great about Twitter is that if you follow a news source, every now and then something like this will come up: http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=11259806

So this woman was arrested because she needed to get a box home and it wouldn't fit in her van. She puts it on the roof, hooks a hanger to it and then has her daughter sit in it to keep it from blowing off. Someone going down the road see's it, calls the cops and then she gets pulled over. From reading the story, it sounds like the cops asked her if she was stupid and wanted to kill her kid and she responded: "the box was tied to the van with a clothes hanger".

Now I understand that this is a serious situation. I'm glad the girl didn't get hurt and I'm fine with the mother getting arrested. But you just know that these people are pure rednecks. I'm sorry but all seriousness aside, this is hilarious. I thought I was going to die when I read this yesterday. Made my day.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

A Rainy Monday Morning

I knew it was supposed to rain yesterday but I didn't realize it was going to last on into the morning today. The weather's been so nice lately it kind of spoiled me.

It was showers of a different kind for DeAnne this past weekend. She helped host a baby shower on Saturday for our friend Lyndsay and then on Sunday attended one for one of her step-cousins. All this left me plenty of time to watch T.V. and be frustrated with trying to pick up the last few achievements in Batman. Mom also stopped by on Saturday and I got to spend about an hour with her. It's the first chance we've had to see each other in a couple of months and it was nice to catch up.

That was really about it though. Not much to report, I know. I am happy that Auburn is 5-0 and is now ranked. I'm not sure how the rest of the season is going to pan out but I feel like we should at least end up with 7 wins. It's a nice start for the new staff and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do in the next two or three years as they develop the team.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

About That Alarm Clock

So yeah, yesterday I had an alarm clock malfunction. It seems there was a user error that resulted in an alarm clock failure. I forgot to turn it on. It was actually pretty funny. I rolled over and kind of opened my eyes in that waking-up but still kind of asleep stage and I noticed that the window was bright with sunlight. And I thought to myself: "Wow, it's bright out. It hasn't been bright out this early for a month. Wait, the suns up! Holy cow!!!" At that point, it was full speed ahead to get ready and get out the door. I was only about 5 minutes late, so not bad. I am happy to report however that today we had a successful alarm function and I am on time.

Nothing really major to talk about other than that. We ran over to Kinston last night so DeAnne could pick up a few things for a shower she's helping host tomorrow. With the shower tomorrow, I'll probably have another lazy football filled Saturday. No plans for tonight though. We'll just have to see how the cards fall. I checked the movies and there's just nothing out that either of us care enough about seeing to actually go to the movie theater to see. We'll probably just end up catching up on the DVR. There's a lot of stuff that we record on Thursday night and we didn't get to watch it all last night.

Anyway, have a good Friday and a good weekend.

--Paul

Overslept

Evidently I failed to turn on my alarm clock last night and woke up about 6:30 this morning. That's when I'm usually taking the dog out for her walk and after I've blogged. So, sorry there's no real blog this morning.

Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

Titles Are Hard To Come Up With After 450 Posts

If it was always as nice outside as it was yesterday afternoon I don't think I would ever mind cutting the grass. I'm beyond glad that I waited. I got home from work and DeAnne had a little left on the bushes that she couldn't reach with the trimmer, so I helped her finish that up and then hopped on the lawn mower. It was just about dark before I finished, and it was actually starting to get a little cooler than was comfortable, but I didn't sweat a drop while I was out there. It was incredible. I'm sure we'll have one last hot spell before we can call summer done, but it looks like fall has arrived.

Butch Walker has been recording again and is promising that the new album will be out early next year. In the meantime, he's scheduled 4 shows in L.A., each a week apart. The first three weeks he's going to play a different album each night from start to finish and then throw in a new song or two. The last night, he's making the setlist from songs that fans request via Twitter. I've never wanted to be closer to the west coast. He did mention that he had plans for something in Atlanta before the end of the year, but he didn't give away any specifics. Hopefully it'll be something that we can go to.

I'm also pretty excited about the Smashing Pumpkins new project. One of Billy's friends, Kerry Brown, is playing on and engineering the project with Billy and he's started a blog to chronicle the process. This week, he's posting videos where he answers questions that fans submitted about the recording process. He's talked about mics and rigs they're using and other inside stuff about the recording process. It's been a really cool inside look at how music is made. The blog is at http://glittercop.blogspot.com/.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Moving Right Along

Well, this is post 450 for the blog. I know I say it every time I hit one of these milestones, but it's still just crazy to me that I've been doing this for that long. I don't know if anyone really even reads these other than my wife and Courtney. At any rate, if you do read, thanks and maybe I'm not too boring or too bad a writer.

I went to throw the cat outside this morning and was pleased to feel that fall seems to have arrived. It was so nice that I had to stand in the door for a minute and enjoy it. I was planning on cutting grass yesterday but I checked the weather before I left work and saw that it was supposed to cool off today so I decided to wait. It may be one of the best decisions I've made in recent history. If it's as nice as they say it's going to be the rest of the week, then we're in for some beautiful weather the next few days.

I was going to talk about FlashForward but never did. We watched it over the weekend and it was pretty awesome. The production feels a lot like Lost and there was even a Lost reference in the background of one scene, but the show should be able to stand on its own. The true test of a show is usually DeAnne and she liked this one, so there you go. FlashForward is DeAnne approved. All you need to know.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Another weekend is in the books.

Friday night, DeAnne left me at the house while she went to Dothan with her Mom. I took the chance to finish up playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game was a little short, but it was still awesome. It's easily the best game I've played all year and is without a doubt the best Batman game ever made.

Saturday we just laid around and caught up on our T.V. watching. Saturday night, Kevin and Tammy had our Sunday School class and a few others over to eat a hog that Kevin had killed. Wild hog was a first for both DeAnne and myself, and I have to say that it was really good. DeAnne's doesn't usually like wild meat but even she liked it. The largest game of "Catch Phrase" I've ever seen broke out after we ate and it was a blast. So good food, good company and a good time.

After the excitement of Saturday night, I actually slept in a little on Sunday. Then, after church and lunch I actually took a nap. I woke up just in time to walk Emma and get to choir practice on time (to run the sound, I'm no in the choir for anyone who might have wondered).

So that was the weekend. Too bad they have to end. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

I've Got Nothing

Seriously, I've been sitting at the computer for 5 or 10 minutes now trying to think of something, but there's nothing. I guess we'll go random stream of consciousness today.

DeAnne's car seems to be a reptile attractor. She went to leave the house yesterday afternoon and there was a lizard sitting on her door handle. Fortunately, this time it really was a lizard and not a snake. She still called me freaking out though.

DeAnne's Mom's birthday was Wednesday and we had a get-together for her last night. It was nice and we had a good time and the cake was pretty awesome, so good times all around.

Flipping back to music: I've never really listened to Muse before so the other day when I saw they had a new album out, I figured I'd try it out and see what it was like. After having listened to it, I'm not sure if I like them or not. I think it's one of those albums that's great but it takes listening to it a few times before you really start to get it.

Hey! It's Friday! Hope you have a good one.

--Paul

The Beatles!

Someone once told me: "Every song that's ever been worth writing was written by the Beatles." I won't go so far as to completely agree with that but I will say that they had some good ones. A lot of good ones. And now all their albums have been remastered and re-released. I've been listening to a few of the remasters and they sound great. They have a box set that complies all their albums along with some great art work and other stuff. It's expensive but it's one of the few things I've found that I would really like to have for Christmas.

Other new music that I've been listening to:

Jet: They've just put out their third album and I think it's pretty good. They kind of dropped off the face of the earth after their first album and I doubt that this one will get them back into the spotlight, but the songs are solid and it has a good feel to it.

Collective Soul: These guys just keep putting out albums and their albums are usually pretty good. No one's really listened to them since 1999 but hey, sometimes the best things in life are not the most popular.

Our Lady Peace: I'm starting to see a trend here with bands from the 90's releasing new albums that I like. This one's great. To me, this is their best work since Spiritual Machines. Really good album. Well worth getting.

There's a few others, but I'm out of time. Have a good Thursday.

--Paul

I Can't Help It

I had just about decided that I wasn't going to talk about it but I can't help myself.

DeAnne watches Toddlers & Tiaras on TLC. She didn't get around to last week's episode until Monday or Tuesday night this week. So we're watching this show about little girls in beauty pageants and it's usually bad enough with just the way the parents act and the attitudes the majority of these kids have. This episode brought up a whole knew issue though:

People. Can we please not name children crazy names any more. Especially if you are not a celebrity. Celebrities think they can get away with crazy names because they're famous. If you're not famous it looks just as ridiculous as if you were famous and named your kid something crazy.

One of the girls featured on the show was named: Sparkal Queenz. No joke. That was her name. And she was a sweet girl but bless her heart, with a name like that there's only two things that can happen when she gets older. She either grows up and hates her name either living with it for the sake of her mother or changing it because she can't stand it any more or she takes ownership of it and thinks that her name makes her a diva, a word she used during the show to describe herself. Either result does not make for a well-adjusted adult and it's all because some parents thought it'd be awesome or cute or cool or whatever for their kid to have a different name and they landed on Sparkal Queenz.

And I'm not opposed to unique names, but come on. Some things just cross a line that shouldn't be crossed. Can we keep things in the realm of sensibility please?

If anyone's offended, then sorry you read the blog.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Something About Heroes

The fall T.V. season really starts to get cranked up this week. The only thing that started last night for us was Heroes. I really have this love/hate thing with the show. DeAnne quit watching it after season 2 got so ridiculous she couldn't take it anymore. I've stayed with it in the vain hope that it would get better, and I do think season 3 was better than 2, but they have yet to recapture the magic of season 1. I don't know if it's their inability to stop letting Hiro change the past, thus creating huge plot holes that entire planets could pass through or the fact that they continue to introduce new characters by the dozens while leaving us hanging about what happened to others that they've not talked about in 15 episodes. If you don't read the comic that they publish on the NBC Heroes website, you're still wondering what happened to Micah's who hasn't been talked about on the show since the last episode of season 2.

At any rate, hopefully season 4, which is being called "Redemption", will prove to be the season that brings Heroes back to the level of awesomeness it had in its first season.

DeAnne may not watch Heroes, but one of her favorite shows also starts this week. Grey's Anatomy starts Thursday. Flash Forward also starts on Thursday. I've set it to record. It looks like it could be pretty interesting and I know ABC is hoping that it can be good enough to replace Lost after that show ends next spring, so we're going to try it out and see how it is.

Finally on Friday, Dollhouse starts its second season. Season 1 started out a little rough, but about mid-way the show got its feet under it and by the end of the season was putting out some pretty awesome episodes. I'm looking forward to season 2.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Untitled

And another weekend is in the books. Once again, we didn't do much of anything. It's actually starting to become a bit of a disturbing trend.

Saturday was yard day. There's been a few pine limbs that have needed trimming for a while now and I finally remembered to get the pole saw back from Dad to take care of them. So Saturday morning I got out and started cutting and about the time I got done, it started raining. The grass was in pretty bad shape so I went inside and checked the radar and it looked like it was probably going to ruin my chances of cutting the grass. So I conceded defeat, got a shower and sat down on the couch to watch some football. As the morning wore on, I noticed that it started getting a little brighter outside. I checked the radar again and it was pretty clear. So I waited for a couple of hours to give the grass time to dry and then got started on the mowing. While I mowed, DeAnne started trimming the bushes around the house. I hadn't realized how big they had gotten until DeAnne cut a few of them back. At any rate, the grass got cut, the bushes were started on and I took a second shower for the day.

We rewarded ourselves with Chinese and a rain-delayed Auburn game that we didn't start watching until the fourth quarter. Before then, every time I turned it to the game Auburn did something horrible, so I was afraid to keep watching it.

Otherwise, I played a lot of Batman. I'm really enjoying the game. I think I'm about half-way through it and it's been great.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul