I saw a movie last night called "Open Water" and it freaked me out. It
was about a couple that go on a scuba diving vacation. The guys who ran
the boat miscounted the number of people who went down and the couple
stayed down a long time. Then the boat took off without them. So then
the couple spends a whole day and evening floating and fending off
sharks and various wildlife and it all ends in tragedy. Not a good movie
to watch before you go to bed. I think it took me a while to fall
asleep. With that in mind Holly and I are going on another scuba diving
trip in the next three months. So I will make sure to make a scene on
the boat so the crew remembers me. Like before they take off they will
go, "Where is that crazy guy? The one who was doing cartwheels? Yeah, I
think he's still down there. Let's wait." Maybe we should do a song and
dance number,"hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my ragtime gal."
Wait, that was a bugs bunny cartoon about a singing cricket...

Thought of the Day
"Looks like we need a bigger boat" - Jaws

Have you ever been disappointed after you beat a video game? I was
thinking today of the first game I considered myself to beat, Duck Hunt.
Now this game is where you hold a light gun and shoot ducks that fly by.
I played that game for 3 hours straight, holding the gun right next to
the screen. There were 7 digits for the score "0000000". I figured you
won when all nines were on the screen. So the score counter eventually
got to "9999999" and the momentum built up. Then I got a duck and
screamed. Then the counter went to "0000001". I didn't even get to
register it as a high score. Needless to say I got so mad I turned the
Nintendo off. My next game to beat was the classic Super Mario Brothers.
That game took months to beat. Eventually I got some hints from
"Nintendo Power" magazine and was able to beat it. The next game I beat
that was thrilling was Star Wars. I remember hooking it up to the living
room TV and jumping up and down when I won. I was glad to see the
credits then. Although I remember thinking," this is it? My prize is I
get to see the names of the people who wrote the game?" The next big
game I remember beating was in college - "Myst". I remember getting the
guys together and we would take shifts. One would sleep while the other
would play. It took us 30 hours straight to beat that game and we
skipped classes for it. Ah, youth. Of course what do we get at the end
for our victorious playing? The credits.

Thought of the Day
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Last night I went and jammed with Corporate Red's bass player and
drummer. It was good to get the guys back together again. Also I hadn't
played electric in quite a while. They had a bunch of easy covers picked
out so it looks like I may be joining a cover band. That is always fun
to play. Stay tuned to see a bunch of old guys playing Sweet Home
Alabama in a restaurant-bar. This is my last week of the year as I will
be taking off for 2 whole weeks. Most of the time I will be working on
my own company, but at least I won't have to get up early and the like.
All is good. How's ya'lls life going? I just found out some secret news.
A guy I know has a niece who is in the new reality show "Identity" where
people guess their real identities. But the real reality is that they
are all paid actors and you are guessing their lying identity. Shh,
don't tell anyone...

Thought of the Day
"So, attractive one day, not attractive the next."
"Have you come across this?"
"Yes, I am familiar with this syndrome. She's a two-face."
"Like the Batman villain?"
"If that helps you."
"So if I ask her out again, I don't know who's showing up -- the good,
the bad, or the ugly."
- George and Jerry, in "The Strike"

Well, some weekends I feel drawn to God in such a way that I just have to praise him. This weekend I did ministry work, and Holly was by my side the whole time. On Sunday I topped it off by doing something that was in my heart to do for a long time. I preached to the homeless. I know you may know that the homeless is my cause but up until now I have never actually prepared a message to give to them. So I now would like to share that message with you. I know some may say I am a "Jesus freak" or a "fanatic" but I am just following through with what I am told to do by the Holy Spirit inside of me. I have learned hard lessons in the past about going my own way so now I really try to listen. This message is for everyone, including my family and friends. As I was giving this in front of at least 100 people I witnessed head bobs and acknowledgement to the truth of this message. As I was delivering it I could feel a heat dwell up within me and I knew I had the Holy fire in me. Jesus is so very real. Anyways, when you have about 8 minutes to spare click the link below to hear my first message.

Thought of the Day
Click here to listen to the message.

Well my team is finally code complete! What that means is we are finished with general development. What that means is we have spent 12 months building this software and today we finished. It was an amazing feat by any standards. We have over 300,000 lines of code, over 2000 files and we are just a team of 5 people. I know people that work at other companies, like Microsoft, talk about how they usually write just 10 lines of code a day. I have been here exactly one year and I am happy to say this is the best product I have ever worked on. Motivium Consulting took the team out to Spring Creek Barbeque today and now all of our clothes smell like BBQ, yummy. Now onto testing and come February, production. This success is giving me more motivation to finish up on Ridesearch. I am taking off the last 2 weeks in December and hopefully will be code complete by New Years! Wow, I have been super-stressed this week. At one point I had 3 people asking me for help and I was working on my own problems. I think I could feel my blood pressure. I wonder where I will be in a year. If all this was possible this year you never know what is in store for next year. Good times, good times.

Thought of the Day
"I am not giving you my code."
"I'll bet I can guess it."
"Yeah, right."
"Ah, all right, yeah... Let's see... Well, we can throw out birthdays immediately. That's too obvious. And no numbers for you. You're a word man. Let's go deeper... What kind of man are you? Well, you're weak, spineless, a man of temptations. But what tempts you? You're a portly fellow. A bit long in the waistband. So what's your pleasure? Is it the salty snacks you crave? No no no no... Yours is a sweet tooth. Oh, you may stray, but you'll always return to your dark master... The cocoa bean! And only the purest syrup nectar can satisfy you. If you could, you'd guzzle it by the gallon... Ovaltine!? Hershey's!? Nestle's Quick!?"
- George and Kramer, in "The Secret Code"

By popular request I shall tell of a snow day long ago. I say snow day,
but school was never cancelled. It was winter of 1992. My sister drove
us in her little white Lemans to school. That morning we anxiously
awaited the school closings as the roads had a sheet of ice on them.
Unfortunately the news notified us that we would be having school that
day. So we drive to school and slid a little bit. We passed people whose
car had fallen into ditches. My sister was fuming. So when we get to the
school Melinda is like, I am going to give the superintendent a piece of
my mind. So she then goes to a payphone and actually calls the school
system headquarters and speaks something like the following to someone
on the other end of the line,"Ma'am I am a mother of 2 and just got into
an accident while driving my kids to school. The decision by the school
to not cancel school is highly irresponsible and I want to know why
school was not cancelled today." The person on the end of the line then
says she was just a secretary and will make note of her complaint. I
just thought it was hilarious how she did that. Even though my
embarrassment meter was high, I just had to laugh.

Thought of the Day
"The train was so crowded, I had to sit in a seat facing the wrong way."

"Oh, I like that. It's like going back in time."
- Rachel and Jerry, in "The Hamptons"

And now for the weekend update. On Friday I went with some friends to see "The Nativity Story" movie. I was pretty good. I liked that it showed parts of the story that is not commonly thought of, like how were the wise men wise enough to find out where Jesus was. We noted only 3 discrepancies, FYI, 1. There was supposed to be a rope tied around John the Baptist father's feet, so that if he saw an angel they would be able to pull him out of the temple; instead he walked out and tore his robe.
2. There should have been a band of angels above the shepherds and not just one. And 3. Most scholars agree that they stayed in Bethlehem for 2 years before they left for Egypt. Those are pretty picky, so the movie was pretty accurate besides those. On Saturday I took Holly to my company's Christmas party. We had it at 3 Forks, a famous steak restaurant, at about $80 a meal. It was really good. There was a jazz band playing and everyone who worked got a gift. I got the Superman DVD box set with 14 DVDs, including the extended editions and Superman Returns. Sunday Holly and I volunteered at the new satellite church that our church is setting up. We helped out in the nursery, the one year olds. I was lucky, I got ones that would just sleep. Holly, however got the screamers. They put the screamers in a little buggy. Apparently motion seems to calm them. I am not that experienced with kids simply cause I was always the youngest and had no exposure, but this wasn't that bad. We did the usual the rest of the day. This time a bunch of people donated clothes and jackets for the homeless so we had a lot of work to do. Thankfully we had enough volunteers. I ended the evening watching the superbowl bound Cowboys do it again. How was your weekend?

Thought of the Day
"Can you believe she expected me to squire her around town while the dude sits at home in swaddling clothes?"
"Do they make swaddling clothes for adults?"
"It's like she's split the job of boyfriend into two jobs. Except the dude's playing the showroom and I'm stuck doing food and beverage."
- Jerry and George, in "The Summer of George"

<sarcasm on>Well the great blizzard of 2006 happened. There was mass
hysteria and everyone paniced. Schools closed, work left early.<sarcasm
off> All because of a couple of flakes.This takes me back to a real
blizzard that happened in Alaska in 1981. It was called an Ice Storm and
the temps got down to 60 below zero. It was said that you could throw a
cup of coffee out your door and it would disintegrate before it hit the
ground. Now that was cold. I remember we plugged our cars in to keep
them warm. Best of all I got a t-shirt that said "I survived the winter
of 1981, Eilson AFB Alaska" on it. Now all I need is a shirt that says
"I survived a few flakes of 2006, Dallas, TX." Eh I guess it doesn't
have a zing.

Thought of the Day
"Jerry, look how tense you are. You need to take a soak."
"I'm not taking a soak in that human bacteria vat you got goin' there."
"Come on, I'm telling you, it's great. I opened up all the windows. The
air is cold, the tub is boiling hot. It's like Sweden, man. Sweden!"
- Kramer and Jerry, in "The Hot Tub"