And now for the weekend update. First, I know I haven't been posting much recently. I am kind of burnt out on blogging. I know I get visitors from all over the country during the week so that is good. However I have been posting for like 3 years straight - see the archive on the right for old posts - and it is getting a little stale. I have been posting since June 1st, 2004. That is tons of posts. I could've written a bestselling novel. I guess my life has settled down a lot as well. In the next five years I see it becoming more mundane - woke up, went to work, came home, watched TV, went to bed. That kind of stuff. Is it entertaining? Probably not. Like this weekend I went to Holly's on Friday and brought her flowers. Then we went to Chili's, Hastings, came back and watched the Dog Whisperer. On Saturday I had to come in to work. Then in the evening we went to a pot-luck dinner for Sunday school. We ended up at a karaoke bar with her friends. Sunday we did the usual - Sunday school, lunch, homeless and in the evening I went to a baby shower for a friend. So I don't know. It's not exciting. I need to hear from my fans - should I keep blogging?

Thought of the Day
"I can't live knowing Ted Danson makes that much more than me. Who is he?"
"He's somebody."
"What about me?"
"You're nobody."
"Why him? Why not me?"
"He's good, you're not."
"I'm better than him."
"You're worse, much much worse."
- George and Jerry, in "The Ticket"

Today I'd like to talk about something that has been of grave importance since last week. I'd like to talk about a guy that no one likes, yet because he was loud we were forced to listen to him. Now he has all this fame and it really is our fault. I am talking about Sanjaya from American Idol. Now that he has been voted off it is up to us to not mention him, except for this post, then the world can forget him. He was the guy who made it to the top of American Idol because Howard Stern and other's knew he was bad, but voted for his lack of talent to show that American Idol is a joke. I heard they paid a girl to swoon for him during one show. Now it is backfiring. Apparently Sanjaya wants to be an actor, singer, and model - a triple threat guy. The weird thing is, people are starting to "like" him. I read he went to a White House correspondents' dinner and the governor of New Your said "I am a big fan." That is completely ridiculous. How can you be a fan of his? It is like being a fan of vegatables because they taste good. Kind of reminds me when I was in junior high and would "bassdance" on the tables. Teacher's said - you are going to get all the girls in high school. My friends said,"everyone is just making fun of you." I tend to believe the last one. Sanjaya should too.

Thought of the Day
"Like, I really — what I want to do is experience the whole entertainment business because, I mean, I'm not just a musician, I'm an entertainer."
Sanjaya

First the weekend update, then the message. This Friday Holly and I went to see "Meet the Robinson's" in 3-D. I highly recommend it. I know it is kind of a kids movie, but the 3D is really cool, topped with the computer graphics I was amazed. Had I been like 10 I would've probably called it my favorite movie. On Saturday I went with Holly to a wedding, the first of around 7 or 8 this year of friends we know. The current saying is "it must be something in the water" everyone seems to be getting married. Sunday we went to "before you say I do" class at the church. The topic was s e x. Can you believe it? In church. I thought we weren't supposed to talk about it, but that is not so. People may say Baptists are stuffy, but I know different... Then later that afternoon I gave a message to the homeless. This one was different. I threw my career into it a little as computer programmers are some of the most logical people you will ever meet. Everything we do is usually ran through a computer in our mind to determine the possible outcomes. Religion is no different. So I decided to make a sermon on truth. After I did this sermon I didn't realize it but Holly and another girl were praying with a guy who got a little fresh and started pulling their hands down towards his regions. She pulled her hand away and left. Let me just say that had I been there I don't know what I would have done. It is an extremely rare thing to get me mad. Luckily my personal trainer is teaching me boxing. I never thought I might have to use it. One of the things the husband is supposed to be is the protector, to the point of death, and that I shall be. From now on there will be no group of women ministering without a man around. But we all know that we are taking a risk being near the dregs of society. Probably half of them have been in jail. But they do need people who care. It is scriptural. The good samaritan did not just live in a nice home and never got out. He helped those who needed it. Anyways, I am hoping this is a good week. Below is my message.

Click here for the audio version

Click here for the text version

I am swamped here at work. Guys night is tonight. For those who wish to see, I have finished our wedding website:

http://www.brianandholly.tv

Go to the contact us page and click on the guestbook if you want. Also, if you have previously visited you may have to refresh the page as html pages have a habit of staying in the cache.

This morning wasn't as bad as I thought. I had to go in to the dentist to get another crown done. The dentist said last time that if I got it done quick enough I wouldn't have to have a root canal. Another crown of mine had a cavity - how in the world is that possible - and I had to get another crown. So I spent 2 hours with peoples hands in my mouth. I tell you it must be my love of the triple C(chocolate chip cookie) that has me in trouble. Luckily getting a crown doesn't hurt because everything is numb. I can see the end of the road for my dental work. Finally. Just one more appointment to get the finished crowns on and I am done. In other news, our prayers go out to all those affected by the tragedy in Virginia Tech. The Bible says all good things come from God and all evil things come from sin, the devil, and the cursed earth. We can be comforted by knowing that life does not end on earth and that those who died will still live on.

Thought
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!" "Yes", says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow with them" (Revelation 14:13).

This Friday was rather interesting. The storms started in the afternoon. I watched on the radar as a supercell was heading towards Wichita Falls. I watched as it went over mom's house. There was a tornado spotted south and north of her so I was a little concerned. I talked to mom afterwords and she said it hailed for a little bit and rained but that was it. So then I go home and get ready for a date by taking a shower. When I get out of the shower the tornado sirens are blaring - eee yaw, eee yaw. I look out the window and see blackness to the west. I decide it isn't exactly here yet and get dressed and go downstairs. I open the door and everything is fine. A couple of hailstones hit my windows. I call Holly and she went back home cause she didn't want to drive into a tornado. I was like, yeah that makes sense. It hit west of here and did even kill one person. The weird thing is, on guys night, the night before we watched some video of the tornado that hit Wichita Falls in 1979 that killed 49 people. So that evening I rented some movies online - Man of the Year and that Wil Farrel movie about the author. They were both ok. Then I played Super Paper Mario on my wii. That was pretty cool. Saturday I worked out for like 2 hours. Holly and I went with our class to a mexican food place and then to Dave and Buster's again. For some reason, we are getting to be experts at what machines will give us the most tickets. Everyone had like 200 tickets and we had 1400 tickets. Holly is the queen of mechanical ring toss. Sunday we did the usual stuff. Today I was able to wear an old pair of jeans that I hadn't been wearing in a while. I guess this diet and exercise thing is working.

Thought of the Day
"The second button is the key button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt. Look at it. It's too high. It's in no-man's land."
"Haven't we had this conversation before?"
"You think?"
"I think we have."
"Yeah, maybe we have."
- Jerry and George, in "The Finale"

Ok, so I was told that my blog is getting stale. So at the request of my cohorts I shall now talk about the infamous debate. Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Keep in mind that I am not a geek so I don't know the dimensions of any ships. You might ask Mr.T or Peetey about that... So who would win in a fight between the people of star wars and the crew of the Enterprise? Well, head to head Kirk would beat Luke because Luke is naive and can't control the force. But, if it was Kirk vs. the Emperor then the Emperor would just lightning bolt Kirk to oblivion. I think the most powerful guy in all of Star Wars was the Emperor by far. The most powerful guy in Star Trek was probably Spock because he had brains and brawn, he was not weak minded. Still though the Emperor would lightning bolt Spock to death, so it is just no contest. Now, if Spock used his brain he might find the guy "Q" from the Next Generation who had Godlike powers. "Q" would then smite the Emperor and the Enterprise would win. What about the Borg? Could it assimilate the Death Star? Very easily, because even the rebels found the Death Star's weakness and the Borg always concentrates on weakness. However, if the Star Wars people put a restraining bolt on the Borg then that might prevent the Borg from doing anything. All in all I am going to have to say Star Wars definitely beats Star Trek. Sorry Trekkies.

Thought of the Day
Capt. Picard: I've just been paid a visit from Q. Commander
William T. Riker: Q? Any idea what he's up to?
Capt. Picard: He wants to do something nice for me.
[Riker nods]
Commander William T. Riker: I'll alert the crew.

Well tonight is my quarterly board meeting of Motivium Consulting, Inc. Things are going well for Motivium. We were successful in releasing our product for the IRS. Come next week over a million cases will have been processed, with virtually no problems. I am currently looking at getting an office somewhere so I can get my mind back on track for Motivium's other ventures or I might just go to Starbucks alot. Not sure as I don't like coffee. More tests. I guess being in business for over 1 year is a sign of success, as most businesses fail their first year. I was invited to be on the business council for the republican national convention with a benefit dinner with the President in Washington DC, but I turned it down, plus they wanted me to donate $500. It is my desire that Motivium and all its ventures remain neutral in any kind of politics. I will never endorse any candidate or any politician, or even any bill before congress. In financial news I found out from my accountant that I don't have to pay quarterly corporate taxes and instead will do it yearly. That will help me do a shareholder draw and will help pay for the wedding. We are going to have an amazing band there. And we are going to have an amazing honeymoon. Less than 4 months to go...

Thought of the Day
When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

This weekend was good. On Friday I took Holly to The Silver Fox - a high dollar steak place and the we went to Dave and Busters and played games. For those who are thinking such things I am actually the one who is high maintenance. Holly would be happy eating at a Soup or Salad
- yuk. Saturday I went to Wichita Falls and spent the rest of the weekend with mom. Our engagement announcement was put in Ft. Worth, Dallas and Wichita Falls paper. I will send a link out eventually, as I am revamping our website. Now everyone knows we are off the market. I feel sorry for all the women that swoon over me, all one of them :)

Thought
I 'll make ya famous. - which movie?

Hmm, what to write about? I don't know. Life is good. I am excited about getting married of course. I sometimes can't believe that God put someone so suited for me on Earth. The odds of me finding that one person are incalculable. So that is good. Work is going fine. After our big release things have quieted down so things are easy going there. I have proven myself over and over again so my job is pretty secure. The homeless ministry has been growing. We once were down to 2 to 4 people helping out and recently we have had as many as 15 people helping out. That is good, it gives some of us more time to evangelize to people and try to help them with their problems. The court case is getting some more press. Here is a link to a story from USA Today. I shouldn't have posted that angry comment but I guess it is ok cause maybe people will see that we are serious:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-26-homeless-inside_N.htm

Anyways, Easter is coming up. So for those who don't know, it is a celebration of Jesus's resurrection. I also have to say that there is so much evidence for all of the events recorded about Jesus's life and death that to not believe it is actually illogical. If you ever want to research and really find out what the evidence is do that, because it is a matter of life and death. The biggest thing I have is that it is so logical to believe, and as a programmer I live in a world of logic. There are no benefits to your afterlife if you do not believe. And the benefits of believing on earth outweigh any non-benefits perceived. Anyways, enough preaching, I do that in the misc section of this site. So those are a majority of my passions: Holly, Computers, Christianity and Guitar. In all things I believe in passion, in going as far as you can with a desire to achieve success. And from that passion I have become successful. I guess I learned a long time ago that fear goes against passion. Why say this? Cause I see so much fear in the world and want to help. It is a road that takes a while to learn, but once you do you will find you are living your life to its fullest. In other news, I am still playing guitar and will eventually record all of the songs I have made. I am still programming my websites as well. I won't give up like I used to, it all just takes time. Also, I heard a dirty joke and laughed really hard. You'll have to ask me about it to hear it...

Thought of the Day
"Don't you see what Whatley is after? Total joke-telling immunity! He's already got the big two religions covered. If he ever gets Polish citizenship, there'll be no stopping him." - Jerry, in "The Yada Yada"

So there I was, playing guitar at the store finals for Guitar Center's King of the Blues competition. I had practiced and knew I could play. This time things were different. Holly showed up as well as some coworkers and someone from Sunday school. I actually had a crowd of 6 supporters. I had decided to film it so I brought my camcorder and sweet Holly went out in the rain to get it. Unfortunately before she taped me a guy came over and said they were told by corporate not to tape it. Rats. So I found out I was the second to go on stage out of five. That was better than first but I would rather of been close to last. Anyways, the guys were good, but they were not as good as the ones last week. Last week, to me, was like a victory. I had beat some great guitarists last week. But they picked 2 to go to the finals so I saw my "nemesis" as it were. A 60 year old man who spent his life playing the blues. He was fourth in line. The first guy goes and my guitar ego says "I can take him" So I get up on stage and proceed to wail on guitar. I mean, I was flipping my pickup switch and didn't miss a beat. I played my wah pedal and changed the sound up, I hit my parts of the song that I practiced and went in time, I got close to dropping my pick but it didn't happen. At the end I even put the guitar behind my head and proceeded to actually play faster notes. Later on I heard someone heard the judges say I was using two hands to do that(it's called a hammer-on). I should have turned around, cause it was one hand. I have to admit though I was a little sloppy in my licks. That is the only thing that went wrong, everything else was good. So as I finished the song the whole crowd was cheering. Even the MC said ,"wow, he makes it look easy" So I got a really good feeling about my performance. I had tried my hardest and I was just happy to have accomplished pulling it off. Then comes on my nemesis. The old guy, I think his name is Ryan. He gets up on stage and doesn't move around and plays every type of blues lick that someone else has made. He only misses like 2 notes out of hundreds and plays most with extreme skill, but he didn't have passion. I was told by a judge who shook my hand as he walked back that I had very good tone. Then when they come out and the guy said over the microphone - "just to get to the point it was a unanimous decision, Ryan wins." Everyone was like "What?" I know as far as players go Ryan was much better at standard blues than I was, but I was much better at being a performer overall. So I am actually happy. I am confident that I would have won had a different criteria been used. I am happy because I finished and did something that most guitarists wish they could do and pulled it off. Anyways, afterword I decided I needed to treat myself. So I went to the movie "Blades of Glory" and laughed 4 times and got grossed out twice. So that is a 2 out of 5 for that movie. Anyways, life goes on, now maybe I will be able to finish both websites - brianandholly.tv and ridesearch.com. Or I might go fly a kite...

Thought of the Day
"Wow, your a lefty, I guess you need a left-handed amp"
"Yeah, I guess I do"
- Me talking to a judge while on the stage

Well, today is the store finals for King of the Blues. I have never gotten past this level so I am not sure if I will. It is going to be fun. This time I have practiced over and over holding on to my pick and switching the pickups on my guitar in midstream. Last time I dropped the pick and played with my fingers while I bent over to pick it up. This weekend I was going to take Holly to the Shriner's circus and we ended up going the wrong way. At one point it was raining sideways as we were driving on 635 and everyone was slowing down and putting on their emergency lights. Then on Sunday I read that they classified the damage in wylie as a light tornado. I think I drove through that or near that. Anyways besides surviving the great tornado of 2007 it was a normal weekend. I practiced for this appearance today. People from work and Sunday school are all going to be there. I think some worlds may collide but I am not sure. It ought to be interesting. Wish me luck!

Thought of the Day
I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic." - Richard Pryor