A big Happy Birthday to Holly! who was born a day later than me, but different year. Thus we are both geminis and our birth stones are both emeralds - thus the emerald wedding ring - thus she said yes. BTW, I woke up at 5:45 today. I feel like the incredible shrinking women - how do I stop waking up earlier and earlier? I still don't like mornings even though I am becoming one of them.

Thought
"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you. You look like a monkey and you smell like one too." - me, age 7

Today I woke up at 7:15 AM without an alarm. Now I don't know anything about psychology, but I don't think the human mind can just "will itself" awake without any kind of brain chemicals causing the body to awaken. I really think this sleep light stuff is working. The one issue I have is that I awaken, but am still tired, however I cannot fall asleep again. This weekend I had to force myself asleep when I awoke too early. Another plus - my mood seems to be elevated. I guess that is why they clinically have proved it for Seasonal Affective Disorder - winter blues. I did read that one side effect is mania - a happy obsessive state. I should watch myself for that. Anyways, I like this technique, but I still hate the mornings, even if I do wake up earlier than usual. Here's something funny that happened this weekend. Holly and I were invited to the wedding of one of her coworkers. It takes place in this YMCA House in Fort Worth. Let me just say this about the bride. She was very nice. She had good personalities, foot long ones, that stuck straight out like two puppies in a doggie sweater. She knew it, everyone knew it. Every single person there had eyes that were just amazed at how gravity was thwarted. That is the first funny thing. Then all is silent as the newly ordained preacher starts his first wedding. "Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today..." then I hear behind me, reverberating, slowly "haaaaaaaaaaacccckkk" "Tooooooieeee". Some guy was hacking a loogi during the wedding in the bathroom near the door. I think only the people in the back row heard that but it was enough to set me off. My face turned red and I was holding the laughter inside. I started crying a little from laughter - but I did not laugh. Every 10 seconds or so it would pop in my mind and I had to hold it in. Holly was nudging me. I think people thought I was crying for other reasons. The minister - whose first wedding it was, read each line perfectly, but with pauses where there shouldn't be "This ring is small and it is also large." The wedding was quick and then we went upstairs to the second floor reception hall. Apparently at 9:45 on a Friday night someone decided to take a shower in the girls bathroom and didn't turn it off. Water started filling the women's restroom. Then as the bride starts walking downstairs at the end the water started going down the chandelier downstairs as the leak spread. It was funny as all the guys started laughing. I wonder who would take an actual shower at a wedding? I suppose I shouldn't laugh at anything though as my wedding is around the corner. I can picture another loogi at my wedding. "haaaaaaaaaack" "Toooooooie"

Thought
"Look up, come on, look up."

I took the melatonin last night at 11:30 and fell asleep by 1am. That is an accomplishment in itself as my body usually falls asleep by 2am. I also set one alarm clock back an hour from 8:30 to 7:30 - even though I never hear it and wake at 9 anyways. One of the other functions of this sleep light is that it lets out ionized air - basically ocean air. Anyways I set that near my sleep apnea machine and the ionized air then got ported directly to my lungs. Wow, it was like I was sleeping on the beach, top that with my ocean noise machine and it was cool. So I actually woke up an hour earlier today. I was up at 8am as opposed to my normal 9am, another accomplishment. I do have to say though that I was tired when I woke up. Usually when I awake a 9am I am not tired at all. My body must not be used to this time shift yet. More tests. I did read near the light for like 30 minutes and that woke me up. Although I am a little sleepy today. We will see how this weekend goes because sleep usually goes out the door on the weekends. Now you may be thinking this light therapy is all psychological and it is all in my head(even though scientific studies say otherwise), but my response would be - maybe, but does it matter? As long as there is a way to get the desired results that is all I care about. It's like that hypnosis fiasco last year - it worked as I lost 10 pounds. If only the hypnotist wouldn't of suggested I wouldn't need prostitutes like the ones in his office after he was done with me I might've stuck with it.

Thought of the Day
The bride was anything but a tidy housekeeper. It didn't bother her much until one evening when her husband called from the hall, somewhat dismayed: "Honey, what happened to the dust on this table? I had a phone number written on it."

Well today is the first day of my sleep experiment. As most of you know I am getting married. What you might not know is we are complete opposite when it comes to sleep cycles. I have to stay up till 2am and wake up at 9am. Holly stays up till 9pm and wakes up at 4:30am. So by the time I would be going to sleep she would be waking up. So I figure since my job is flexible I will hack my sleep schedule. Some of you will be like - just force yourself to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Unfortunately this habit has become so ingrained it doesn't matter what time I go to bed or wake up, my body clock is set for 2am and 9am. Plus I am such a deep sleeper I have 4 alarm clocks that don't wake me at all. My body has to do it naturally. There is a solution as I have been reading up on the net for this disorder known as "Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome" or DSPS . The key is to reset my circadian rhythms. At night time our bodies automatically produce melatonin, which causes us to become drowsy at the normal time. The night solution is to take just a little melatonin a half hour before the new sleep time. Then the second part goes into waking up earlier naturally. Right now when my body wakes me up I am bright and alert. The key is to be bright and alert hours earlier. So they have a "light therapy" lamp I got in the mail yesterday. I am supposed to sit a foot away from this bright light for 30 minutes when I first wake up. It is said this will push my wake up time back. We shall see. I must admit, I did feel a lot of energy from that light this morning. I was rearing to go. Then when I got in my car and looked at the clock my energy got zapped. More tests. This is actually supposed to be really quick - like 7 days - and then my circadian rhythm will be reset. Or as I like to call it, hacked.

Thought
A husband and wife had four boys. The odd part of it was that the older three had red hair, light skin, and were tall, while the youngest son had black hair, dark eyes, and was short.
The father eventually took ill and was lying on his deathbed when he turned to his wife and said, "Honey, before I die, be totally honest with me - is our youngest son my child?"
The wife replied, "I swear on everything that he is your son."
With that the husband passed away. The wife then muttered, "Thank goodness he didn't ask about the other three."

This week is another weird week. Yesterday I took off work to stay home and work. I just felt like it. Plus in the afternoon Holly's school had a wedding shower for us so I stopped in to visit. Maybe like 3 years ago the social rules changed and guys were then invited to wedding showers and baby showers. I don't know what happened to cause this shift in social norms. I am guessing it came along with the advent of co-ed bathrooms. More tests. In other news I just got back from the bank after scaring the manager a little bit. It wasn't his fault but the bank keeps getting things wrong. So here is some advice from a business owner.
1. The initial accounts you get set up with are not the best. If you still have the first account you opened with the bank I'd advise going back and asking about high-yield checking and savings accounts - they have higher interest rates.
2. If you have a line of credit account watch out, there are usually annual fees that are mentioned in passing. Also interest rates tend to be worse than credit cards. Also, paying them off is hard to do because you can have a $0 balance and still get interest added back from the previous month. Then when you pay that off you still have to pay interest on the interest. It is tricky.
3. Business accounts tend to have better interest rates. If you do any kind of business open a business account.
4. Always watch out for annual fees on any account, they are usually not mentioned. Even in retirement accounts.
5. Checks of large amounts tend to get a "hold" put on them so they can "verify" the funds, which means you might have to wait 7 days just for access to your money. I learned a year ago that if you talk to a branch manager there are strings they can pull to unhold a check. Most tellers and workers will just say "oh well" and not go farther.
It all goes back to a rule of finances - Someone, somewhere has the power to lower interest rates, unhold checks, and give you a better account, you just have to find them.
Anyways, guys night is tonight.

Thought
A waiter asks a man, "May I take your order, sir?"
"Yes," the man replies. "I'm just wondering, exactly how do you prepare your chickens?"
"Nothing special, sir. We just tell them straight out that they're going to die."

On Friday I went with Holly and some friends to see Shrek 3. As is common in most sequels it wasn't as good as the first two. It was still funny, but it was just lacking in side plots - like the first Shrek was about donkey finding a friend as well as Shrek saving the princess. There wasn't must princess in this movie. It seemed to be all about Shrek. Still there were some very funny moments. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. The graphics were stunning as usual. Saturday Holly and I went to a jewelry store and picked out our rings for the wedding. That was fun. We are both happy with our selections. I kept on doing air guitar when I tried on the rings, just to make sure it was thin enough for guitar work. Sunday we went to church and then Holly went to her cousins graduation party while I went to deliver the message to the homeless. I put it below if you want to hear it. This one is on grace and mercy. It goes into one of my favorite passages James 2:13. I felt God was speaking through me to the homeless in ways I wouldn't understand. That is cool. Enjoy. I did mess up the first line. It was rather funny - "How's it doing? How are you going?"


Click here to listen to the message

Click here to read the message

Well we are nearing the end of TV season. Now people must find something else to do. The season finale of Smallville was really good. They really moved the story along. I guess Lana is dead. She probably didn't want to come back for the next season. Or, maybe she jumped into that truck that convienently drove by right before her car exploded. Hmmm. But there will be a major question: what happened to the body? Just because a suv explodes doesn't mean there isn't any evidence left over. I did notice that Smallville has turned into a soap opera for guys. All that we need now is for Stephano and Marlena to show up and it will be complete...

Thought
Wanna search this site only?
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006920072967515743952%3Au3heabmv0-o

As I am coming up on the big 32 I don't seem to feel like it. I feel much younger. Like maybe 25 or 26. I figure a party is in order. Since Holly was born a day after I was(different year), we can celebrate our birthdays together. That's one less holiday to worry about. Last night, me and Pepper watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Willy Wonka, and listened to a rifftrak. For those who remember the old tv show MST3K the guy who did that has his own site now called rifftrak.com. Basically you watch the movie and listen to him speak over the movie, throwing in jokes here and there. It was pretty funny. Holly is a number one fan of MST3K and has every show on DVD. They have some Star Wars rifftraks too. Our two hobbies have now become one. I guess you could say they got married :-)

Thought
Mr. Turkentine - "Today we are going to talk about..Percentages"
MST3K - "I thought this was history class.."

Just got through burning 500 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical. Now I am eating a Subway BMT - 450 calories, apple slice - 35 calories and a diet coke - 0 calories. What does this mean? It means that I burned more calories than I ate. So from now until the next time I eat I will be losing weight. Sounds good to me...

Thought
If we are what we eat then I am a burger. I told Holly we should name our first child Bacon. Bacon Burger Bass has a nice ring to it ;-)

This weekend was good. On Friday I took Holly to Olive Garden then we went and watched our class play softball. Then on Saturday I drove to Wichita Falls for mother's day. On Sunday Holly and her mom came up and the step brothers came up too. It was a good time. I got mom some of those new satellite phones - the ones that connect to your home phone line and then the satellites can be plugged into a wall anywhere in the house. Where was that technology when I was growing up. Monday I went to a surprise birthday party for a guy in my class. Unfortunately I parked to close to his house and has he walked in the door I heard "Is Brian Bass here?" We all yelled surprise anyways. In other news I have decided to kick up my working out a notch. The past three months I have been lifting weights with my personal trainer. I haven't been losing any weight but all my muscles are getting hard. I've got a 6 pack underneath my belly. So I joined a second gym today near my work and am going to do cardio 3 times a week at lunch. It all goes back to the equation of weight loss: if the calories in food consumed daily is less than the calories spent daily then you will lose weight. I've got 3 months to go. A good goal. Then I can let it all go... Just kidding..

Thought
“The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping up and down.”

Well, it looks like motivium.com expired. I forgot to check the site and it became inactive. What sucks is that the site was hosted by godaddy and they deleted all of the files. So now I have to make a new site...rats.. I should've backed it all up like I do my other sites. Lesson learned. In other news in exactly 3 months I will be saying "I do". Cool. I heard the divorce rate is going down so that is good news. Makes sense. We just got through a 7 week course called "Before you say I do" and now we are given a "coach couple", which is a married couple that has been married for 20 years, who will counsel us. Then we have to go through wedding counseling with the person who is marrying us. I will say that we will be ready for anything. I saw Smallville last night. I was ok, but something seems to be overlooked in their plot. Anyone know what?

Thought
"C'mon, there will be people to mock."
- Jerry to Elaine, trying to convince her to go to a wedding, in "The Stakeout"

Guys night moved to Wednesdays... Film at 11.

Let’s see. On Friday I visited Holly in Red Oak. For those who don’t know she lives 45 minutes away from me near south Dallas. I am always amazed at how much driving she does on the weekends. It’s enough to go to Wichita Falls and back. So we went to Carrino’s in Waxahachie – one of the only 2 restaurants in that area. Needless to say we waited an hour for a table and they gave me pepperoni to snack on. Saturday was hectic. That afternoon we went to a friends wedding shower. Then that evening we went to a Cinco de Mayo party and got bored – when you don’t drink, parties where they do nothing but drink are rather boring. Then after that we went bowling. Sunday we did the usual. I spent the evening working on my site. I have cut it down drastically so I can release instead of working on extra functionality. I will add that later. With gas prices rising I need to get this out quick. Anyways, how was your weekend?

Bad Joke
Why did the referees stop the leper hockey game?
There was a face-off in the corner.

Right now I am at home, taking Friday off. I figure since I came in to work on a Saturday last week that I would take this Friday off. Even though I am "off" I am staying at home and am working on my website. It is taking a while but I will finish this. There was a point when I thought about taking what I've got to a venture capitalist and see if they will put up the money to hire some developers to finish it. But then I am like if you want something done right you've got to do it yourself. Plus I hear that with VCs you relinquish control of your idea. Not a good thing. Anyways, I am setting the wedding date as my current goal for finishing. I just need to discipline myself more. spank spank

Thought
Microsoft just called me and wants me to try to win back Linux users. If their new operating system was much better than their old one it would work, but it is not. I wonder what the future holds for Microsoft?

Last night I decided to go swimming at the gym after work despite the so called "storms" heading to the area. So I was in the hot tub and all of a sudden the lights go out, people scream for fun, the tornado sirens blare, and wind hits the side of the glass near the pool area. Since the hot tub had stopped it was like I was in a warm bath. I decided I could grab the metal bar and hold on to it like the movie "Twister", but then I realized my hands were slippery and I would be taken away probably with all the glass windows, not pretty. So I went to the locker room and dried off. The locker room was like Fort Knox, even cell phones didn't work so I hung out there for a while. Alas, the storm finished and I drove home in my rental car avoiding fallen trees along the way. When I got home the power was out so I lit a bunch of candles. Unfortunately I wanted dinner and the microwave wouldn't work. I was about to cook hot dogs over a candle when the power went back on. And so life went back to normal. That is the second time in 2 weeks I have heard the tornado sirens. I hadn't heard them in the 5 years I've lived here. Go figure...

Thought of the Day
"It's a twister auntie em, a twister"

Alrighty, I will continue posting. Took my car into the shop today. Apparently a new radiator fan and lock sensor costs $1400 for a PT Cruiser. I will be driving a rental tonight. I think those dealerships like ripping off the customer, but if they all do it then you will never get to real price. So I shall be paying. Oh well. Life is busy. Yes, I do remember growing up when Robbie would wake up at 3AM and say "work day" Then at 3 in the morning we would be mowing the yard. I remember mom getting up, walking outside and screaming "You're waking the neighbors up!" Which of course, woke up the neighbors...

Thought of the Day
"Go and a Go and a Chop Chop Chop." -- What was he thinking?