So this story starts like any other story but ends with intrigue, terror and police. Yesterday after work I went to Bible study at my church. I was filming it so I had to be there early. So I get there and proceed to eat in the cafeteria. During which time I see some teenagers running around. I think to myself,"who in their right mind runs in a church." Little did I know later on it would be me. During class I put my phone on vibrate and proceeded to ignore it. Afterwords around 8:10 I get a call from Holly," Brian, where are you? Come home quick. There are people at the front door banging and there was someone in the backyard." I told her to call the police. I look at the cameras on my phone and can see these tall lanky white boys with hoodies and baseball caps banging on the front door and pacing back and forth like they are really mad.

It was at that point when I became one of the runners. I ran out the door and into my car. I could not believe that people were harassing my wife. I had to get home, and quick. I discovered on the tollway that mom's van can go when it needs to. When I arrived at the house the three guys were getting in their car and the police were already there. So I get out my car yelling - "how dare you harass my wife." They proceed to get in their car and drive away. I am, and always will be, willing to die for my wife. The cop then acts like I am the bad guy. "Calm down sir. Everything was fine till you show up and act all crazy. You wouldn't be yelling if we weren't here. Your praked in the middle of the street. Park your car near the curb and calm down or I'll take you in." So I act like, "yes sir." and all, knowing full well that my purpose was to scare the guys and I did not care if the police were there or not.

The police then said "I gave them a warning. I told them if they come back again they will be arrested. I told them that Texas is a concealed handgun state and they should never trespass on someone's property. Apparently these guys said that their cell phone was stolen and the police in wise county wouldn't do anything so they figured they would take the law into their own hands." I then told the police I was mad because there I am watching these guys on camera, which is recording everything, and cannot do anything to protect my wife. They said, "Ok. Well, they probably won't come back" and then left.

Here is what happened. Holly had put Brennon to sleep around 7PM and had taken a nap only to be awoken by banging on the door at 7:45. Now she does not answer the door when I am not home, and rightly so. So she let them bang. Then around 7:50 two guys open the back fence and proceed to go into the patio. I have this on film. If you've ever seen the move "Panic Room" it was just like that. There was a guy at the front pacing and two guys in the back. The first one entered to check things out then the second one actually opened the storm door. The door is locked, but they could see in because the light was on. He spoke through the window - come to the front door we need to talk.

Now Holly is freaked out but she actually goes to the front door and cracks it open and tells them to go away. They then give this story - "So we are out in Wise County at a bar and my wife's purse is stolen. It has a cellphone with GPS in it. The GPS tracked it to this house. We know because the GPS says it is here. We are from Seattle and are in town for a Metlife conference. All we want is our stuff back so we can get back to Seattle" Holly says "It is not here go away." "We have it on GPS. Do you have any kids that could have taken it?" Holly then shuts the door and says "wait for my husband." So they actually wait.

Now I don't know if I believe their story. Apparently the police did because they let them go. They didn't even asked me if I wanted to press charges. I clearly had evidence of them trespassing. I think that was a mess up on the police's part. In the end I calmed down but I was ready to open up a can on these guys. My adrenaline was pumping and thinking about it still makes me mad. I am not a violent man. I am not even a man with any inclinations towards bad things. But I tell you. No one better mess with my family. Time to put up a security system that has some teeth. Anyways, in the end all is right with the world, for us anyways. Somewhere out there is a cellphone that is hacked. I hope others don't point to our house. Otherwise we may have problems. All of this makes me stop and think how important my wife is to me. Evil may be out there. But love is in here. Peace to all.

Well, things are looking good. I really don't have that many worries in life. I suppose because events are moving along as I have forseen them. I will update in the next couple of weeks as to what I am talking about. My last purchase that Motivium will make will be for an Apple development license. I am learning Adobe Products in my spare time. Like Adobe Premiere for video editing and Adobe Flash for iPhone and Android development. There is just not enough time to learn it all, but it is fun having these skills.

I am thinking about going to see that Facebook movie. I hope I don't get bitter. Of course my social network is still taking off. In the last 24 hours I have had 60 members sign up. I have just 250 people to go to where I would have 15,000 members. Wow, imagine if I would have kept my original $5 a month subscription idea going. That is $75,000 a month. Oh well. I do it for free because it is like a charity. I do make some money on ads but the server fees always offset that.

I think though about running the web server from home again. I remember when I tried it years ago how the site would go down whenever there was a windows update or a power outage. This time I would probably get an actual webserver and run windows server 2008 and get a better UPS to keep the site going even when the power goes out. That is an idea. But I do know that when you run a webserver from home sure you save money, but you definitely don't save time. More tests...

FYI: I have posted pictures of Brennon's first birthday party and a little video in the media section of this site and the pictures I have put on facebook. Phanfare is a good service in that you can upload 40 pics to them and with one click of a button it can publish them to this site and to facebook. Although paying a yearly subscription is a hard thing to do for a service that in other areas you can get for free. However, there is no chance of it being discontinued.

I do recommend backing up pics to at least picasa or flickr. Then you have google docs for your documents. Hard drives do crash every now and then. The only thing that you might lose, which is a big one, is your installed programs. Then if you really wanted to keep that you could take an image of your entire system using a backup utility like norton ghost.

I watched Superman II last night. It is by far the best of the Superman movies. I did notice that the lady who got bit by the snake at the beginning said "ow" and then killed it with laser beams from the eyes. If she had skin of steel a snake biting her would not have hurt her at all. Maybe she was surprised? Eh, I think it is just a plot mistake. I was talking with Holly about how kids nowadays need heroes like Superman. Someone who actually does good for the world. Instead it is basketball and baseball players who can barely type in English on their twitter accounts. They should make collectable trading cards for CEOs and Software Engineers. Hmmm, new idea, CEO Trading Cards. I suppose when the bailout happened their values probably went down. How about a MMORPG called CEO where everyone runs a multi-national company. Eh, everyone would take golden parachutes and win the game. More tests...

So this weekend we chilled on Friday. We went over to a friends house who just had a baby and brought them chicken from Cowboy Chicken - our favorite rotissire chicken restaurant. Brennon was behaving well. He is in this super cute stage where he is learning how to speak. Gaa Gaaawk. Go Gawk, Da Daaaa, Dadadada can be heard. It is fun to pretend to have a conversation with him. It is also fun to turn him upside down. He likes to play.

On Saturday we hung around the house in the daytime. We do the usual. I watch Brennon and play with him while Holly goes and gets the weeks groceries. Brennon can walk from chair to chair now. However he is still a faster crawler than walker. If I was him I probably would prefer which ever locamotive mean would get me going fastest. But when he walks he can reach higher places. Saturday night we went out to Cantina Laredo with our Sunday School Class. Holly's mom came over and watched Brennon while we went out on date night. It was good to get to know our class. I showed them how I can monitor my home on my iPhone. People were like,"how is this possible?" and I was like, all you need is a webcam and you can broadcast it to your iPhone. Get the app iCam to set it up.

On Sunday we actually got to church early. I can't remember the last time that happened. Maybe more than a year ago. Holly had to teach the 3 year olds. I went into the service and saw the whole thing. It had a very good message. We then went to class and then came home. I had set the tv to record the Cowboy game and watched it intently. It might be early but I do believe the boys are back. The weather was finally nice. A temp of 72 is perfect. It is like my sweat glands can finally relax. For about 4 months now they have been working and now they can rest. It feels good. I love this time of year. Football, lower temps, candy, turkey, football. Did I meantion football?

Today I will talk about politics considering it is on my mind. As a person who thinks things through I am growing incredibly frustrated with the way our current political system works and the way all media and politicians twist everything around. Why? Because I want to know the truth. I seek the truth. I want to know what the real effect our elected representatives really have. What is in these 2000 page bills? What have they done? Why do they do it? If you were to ask a republican senator if they are for life, liberty and the good things of the world they would say yes. Then if you were to ask a democratic senator the same thing they would say yes as well. It is only when you ask them to define life, liberty and happiness that you get a glimpse. However, the truth is in the details. That is where I am at. I want the details. I don't care if they contradict my worldview. First and formost give me the truth and make all agendas known. Then let me decide using intellect and not stirred up emotion like fear, bias and hatred. Don't make me hate an opposing worldview by giving me half-truths that I might already agree with.

The fact is, everyone is lying to us. People talk about spin. Spin is taking one fact and extrapolating it out to cover other areas where that the fact does not cover. It is using a truth to tell a lie. It is real easy to prove it as long as you know where to look. Here is what I am getting at. There are stories on msnbc.com that talk about the republican contract with america and how it is contradictory - ie smaller government but bigger spending on military. There is some truth to that and some lies to that. Then in the contract itself it talks about how they are for all of the bill of rights amendments, yet they want to deny rights to immigrants. Some truth. Some lies. Then there is the way the tea partiers are painted as being racist by cnn. This is proven by their support of hate groups that boycott the wtc. However, if you talk to one you will see that their motivations are because they believe that there is a hidden leftist agenda behind it all. They think the people who are for such things as the wtc mosque really want America to no longer have Christians and want to show that "they win". There are no checks and balances in political commentaries and in the news. There is no one to dispute the facts. Talk radio is filled with so many straight out proven liars that the sad thing is that people actually believe them. It is so sad because they are my friends, classmates and family members who are innocent. Yet they are fooled into believing spin. Really though, should we take the time to investigate? I think in todays culture if we do not investigate facts we will always be lied to.

But whose fault is it? I can only point to the intellectuals of the day. I do consider myself one of them. We sit idly by and let radicals speak out and lead the news and parties to destruction. Some 18% of america is conservative and some 11% is liberal. We have let them take center stage. Intellectuals and moderates can see and investigate spin more easily than the regular joe. It should be our responsibility to root out the lies. But, I think the futility of it all is a deterrance to truth. In the end we see not much amounting to the radicals but alot of hot air and they won't listen to us anyways. So we let them think what they want and do not correct them. But what if social responsibility was raised up? What if we took the reigns and became a change agent for critical thinking? I think it is time. We have to implment our own checks and balances. No one else is going to do it for us.

See my concern is also for the attack and minimization of Christianity in the average American population. As long as Christians are painted by the media as political conservatives then when political conservatism is proven hypocritical the number of converts to Christianity will be lowered even more. It is kind of hard to fight for Christian ideals in the American landscape when our own people bring forth hatred, bias and espousing of untruths. I pray our eyes can be opened. I was talking about environmentalists the other day and my wife wondered why they are painted as evil by conservatives. My only answer was that there was one fact in 1988 when the spotted owl debate was going on that showed them as being anti-people. Then limbaugh wrote about it and from then on all environmentalists were thought of as wackos. We are all in this spin. I know that the second I tell people who I voted for I am painted as a liberal even though that is not true. One fact spun to become a big lie. Right now someone out there read one thing I said in this post and has just painted me as a moderate I am sure. I don't like labels because I am always more that I seem to be. You have to know me to get the details. Don't stop at the surface. We are all for good. We are all for America. The only way we in America will ever get to the truth is if we all stop and search for it and make voting decisions besed on thinking and not fear, hatred and bias. It is time to start thinking and start doing.

So I have been thinking about the death of computers in society. It is only a matter of time. Why do I say this? Well, their common purpose is becoming obsolete. What are they used for? Surfing the web. Then there is word processing. With an iPad you can do that. What about games? The PS3 overtakes the PC on that one. What about storage? The cloud takes over the storage part. Why store my important documents on a hard drive that can crash when I can put it in Google Docs and access it anywhere. The same is true for pictures. Why not just use phanfare or flickr? What about audio like songs? Well, iPhone and Android phones have taken over that area and service like mog and napster mean we don't a PC to get the latest songs.

Last night I did something that most people don't do. I updated my motherboard drivers. I was having an issue with slowness on a PC and realized that microsoft update does not always update your hardware. I then found that my display drivers had new Windows 7 drivers. Sometimes the reason a PC is slow is because it needs new drivers. I got driver detective from the net and it found drivers that had updates. A big push towards no PCs will be the slowness of the current systems. Why not just have a virtual PC that is already configured running at another location that you can access anywhere? Just like LogMeIn.

But the PC will be alive and well for developers for a long time. As long as we require a fast processor and a keyboard and mouse we will need PCs. The PC will evolve and morph. Eventually it will become invisible. You will have a device on a keychain or a necklace that will project a keyboard and monitor and will wirelessly be hooked into a powerful supercomputer at Google HQ. 3D screens will come up eventually and be put on all walls. Home control software will control every aspect of the house, much like mine does now. As I awoke this morning to my house saying "You are the king, all hail the king, have a good day and godspeed on your journey" I thought ,"the future does look bright." Gotta wear shades.

So people now think I am setting up a cockpit in my cube. Due to my recent carpal tunnel in my left hand and ulnar neuropathy in my right hand I have now been allowed to bring in a keyboard and mouse. So I go online and get an Evoluent verticle mouse and a Microsoft 4000 ergonomic keyboard. I have to admit this is making a world of difference. You never notice how much your hands, wrists and elbows move when you have a regular keyboard and mouse. I think the damage to my nerves happened alot this past year as I went through over 360,000 lines of code. Remember, the average developer is supposed to write only 10 lines of code a day.

So I am now wearing my heelbo elbow pads and typing on my keyboard with wristgaurd and mousing sideways. I have very little movement in my arms. I hope this does the trick. The doc gave me anti-inflamitories. I have four weeks to go to where he decides if I need to specialist and probably get surgery for it. All I know I want it fixed. I don't care about my job as much as I care about my career. My hands are my livelihood. I did find a foot pedal mouse online though, so if worse came to worse I would mouse with my feet.

It is kind of weird wearing these heelbos on my elbows. It looks like I am playing football or hockey. I told a group of people that it also looks like I am a preppy who wears t-shirts underneath my regular shirt. Then I noticed the people I was talking to all had t-shirts underneath. For me that would just be too hot. I mean it is a shirt that should not be seen anyways. What does the undershirt bring to the table? It's not like guys need to hold anything in or prevent things from moving around. I wonder. Is it a status symbol? Hey look at me, I have two shirts on. OR is it like Superman. By day, a humble programmer, by night a redneck. If I hear the startup of a lawnmower I take the outer shirt off and I am ready for action. Eh, maybe not.

Let's Friday I came home during a freak thunderstorm and picked up a pizza along the way. Brennon was in bed when I got home cause he was tired. That is always disheartening when he is put to sleep without some playtime from daddy. Anyways, we ate pizza and watched the rest of the episodes of "The IT Crowd" on Netflix. It was hilarious as usual. On Saturday I played with Brennon and took him swimming. He loves the pool. I can tell it is his favorite place to be. He is good at kicking. I also practiced walking with him on the patio. Unfortunately he fell into the table and I wasn't quick enough to catch him. He falls extremely fast. I was like ,Oh no, he's hurt. He cut his lip and was bleeding and crying. Talk about trauma. Of course after 10 minutes he calmed down and his mom put ice on his lip. I thought to myself, this won't be the first time he is hurt. I have always been watching him like a hawk, it was just too quick. I am glad we got a fence for the pool area. The best defense is to try to prevent everything. Now that he is walking I need to be extra careful.

Saturday night Holly's mom came over to babysit and we went to a local bar and grill called 2 Brothers for the Texas Tech game. The alumni association was there. I could have sworn that I went to school with some of those people. Most of them wore their black and red colors. The food was really good there. I think I found another restaurant for guys night. They serve everything and the burgers tasted in the top five of Dallas. It was fun to cheer with the whole crowd. Anyways, at halftime we went home and watched us lose because of simple mistakes. I know we could have won.

Sunday we did the church/sunday school thing. Brennon got promoted to a new class. When he went in there one of the girls pinched his cheek. Then he started crying. I made the mistake of waving bye bye when we dropped him off. Then all of the kids started crying. Apparently with kids you need to make your entrances big and your exits small. Anyways, we went home and watched the Cowboys pretend to play football. If only for a couple of mistakes they would have won as well. We then went outside and started to stain our fence. It was hot. So I got in the pool again. Soon pool season will be over with. Then I have to decide to turn the heater on or let it be cold. More tests...

So my high school band is having a 50th year celebration and they want us all to go on the field for the Rider/Old High game and spell out Rider. I can bring an instrument if I want to. Of course I laugh at it all because it will be a cold day and they will have to kidnap me to get me up to Wichita Falls. It does bring memories of my trumpet playing career. I was pretty good in junior high until that inevitable day when I got braces. I was a first chair, meaning the best. Then the next day I got challenged and went down to third chair, never to regain my title again. As I look back now I can see the braces and retainer did absolutely nothing. It's not like my teeth were crooked. I'd only get Brennon braces if he had buck teeth or something.

Anyways, so I continued playing trumpet into high school. The best thing about being in band was the road trips to Dallas. Going to the malls and enjoying the games without having to pay to get in. The worst thing was the marching and the early start. As I look back I can't believe I was on the field at 7AM most days. I think I had alot more energy back then. Some people would say the band girls were fun to hang out with. But me, being a nerd, could never hang out with most of them because I was shy. I wonder what could have been. Eh, there was a purpose for it all. I probably would have made more mistakes had I had better self esteem.

I liked playing trumpet though and I knew that if I continued on I could have been good. My obsessions though turned to computers. I remember the best moment playing trumpet I ever had and it was spiritual. I had been talking with my brother about God before I went to the football game. I told him I thought that I didn't like it when people turned to God when they were in trouble and that if I was God I would like it better when people turned to me when their life was good. I remember telling him that I thought his way of religion was too social with God and He needed more sacred reverence. That was my presbytrian/episcopalian upbringing. So I decided on the field that I would play the trumpet giving God my sacred reverence in the theme song for 2001. As the notes came out I realized that I wasn't playing anymore and it was the Spirit in me that was playing trumpet. The trumpet was blaring louder than anyone on the feild. People started looking at me. Apparently the Spirit went into the stands. The band teacher could hear the difference at the top of the stands. Later I could tell he analyzed the tape to find out who was playing that. I suppose when he saw me swing the trumpet around at the end and scream "yeah" he knew it was me. It was a special moment. It was then when I knew that a spiritual life gives a person tremendous passion and power. How's your spiritual life?

Um. Busy at work. Life is good. The world is changing yet I am staying the same. I like ice cream. I have been drinking diet coke and monster drinks. I am a true nerd. My sleep is now off again as I went to bed at 1AM last night. It is like I have so many things I am doing at once. Like fixing the home network, fixing the lighting programs, fixing the home camera network, doing finances, walking the dog, getting mom her glucerma, doing her weird tasks like copying a letter she wrote when she was a kid, playing with Brennon, spending qt with the wife, checking email, checking twitter, checking rss feeds, checking the news, watching a movie if I can fit it in, learning how to program in the new version of flash, learning how to program for the android phone, fixing my windows 7 installation issues on my laptop, learning ubuntu and eventually getting up to speed on Java, checking how ridesearch is doing, how much money did I earn today on it, how many visitors, how many signups, checking motiviums finances - which chase was down recently due to a third party database corruption, turning down recruiters, getting my camcorder ready for filming a new bible study I am starting, getting the hot tub turned on and hot two hours in advance so I can relax at the end of the day. So I'd say I am busy outside of work as much or more than I am busy at work. I've got a full life. Oh yeah, forgot one, coming up with a blogging post.

I am back at work. Even though I was sick as ever I at least got my sleep deficit taken care of. I am glad that is over. As near as I can tell Brennon got it from daycare, gave it to Holly and then Holly gave it to me. I guess I don't need a flu shot this years since I now have built up immunities.

Let's see. During my sleeping sicking haitus I watched some movies. We are real big on The I.T. Crowd - a british television show we watch on netflix. It is a top funny show. I think the creator of that is also the creator of The Modern Family tv show. I also watched some old classics like E.T. and Jurrasic Park. Movies you can doze off in the middle and not have to care what you missed. I couldn't really do much, even surfing, as I would get too weak to think.

Now I am feeling much better. I would say I am 90% right now. I still feel weak but that is probably because I have not eaten much. I think I lost 2 pounds during this thing. That is a good start to a diet. By not eating for a day it makes your stomach shrink. I wonder about fasting. That seems to be what dieting ends up as. What if I fasted a couple of days a week and ate normal the rest of the time? Or is that anorexia? I suppose then I'd feel weak during those time periods. Eh, that's a bad idea. I am back to normal, and that is a good thing.

Wow, so I finally feel well enough to post. To start with this weekend was fun. Brennon had his first birthday and he loved it. We went swimming and I made burgers and hot dogs. I will post pictures in the media section eventually. Sunday we went to Holly's family reunion in Azle Texas. That is about an hour and a half away. They had some cookies I liked.

Monday morning at around 4:30AM Holly wakes me up telling me she is really sick. So sick she can't go to work. I thought, ok, what does this have to do with me. Unfortunately alot. So I took the day off as well to take care of Brennon and Holly. I suppose if we had a babysitter close to the house I could of gone to work. Anyways, I had to take a vacation day on Monday to take care of the fam.

And then Monday night it hit me. Whatever she had, I now had. I think this is a superbug. Let's just say that it was coming out of both ends. I yakked twice last night. Talk about horror. It will come down as one of the worst nights in my life. I am glad we have two bathrooms downstairs. When I messed up one I went to the other. Eww. Thank God for Holly who is used to such events and knows how to take care of it. Not me. I took today off to get some sleep because my body aches. I am glad the horror is over as my tummy no longer aches. Too bad I no longer have any vacation days... I think one day in the future I might actually take a vacation with a vacation day... maybe....

Let's see. What have I been thinking about? In the news I wonder why that idiotic pastor in Florida is getting international attention. Can one man with a congregation of 50 people really have that much of an effect? The effect is not himself per say, it is the press that makes the effect. I can only guess as to why they have persued this so much. If a man burns a book and no one is around to film it, does it make a noise? The world trade center fiasco with this piece of news all combines into one big mess. I think most normal people don't really care, but yet it is news. Now the old republican in me sees this as the presses way of showing the world that republicans are racist, even though they are not. Given there is an election coming up it appears that it is a smear campaign against the conservatives. Paint them all as racists and people will leave the party. I left for other reasons, but still I have some conservative values that are similiar. Live and let live is a good motto.

In other news I am glad Apple released the restriction on development tools. What that means I can finally make a real iPhone app from scratch without buying a mac. RideSearch has experienced a resurgence this week for some reason. I had a record 44 people sign up yesterday. That is the most in one day in over a year. I am nearing 15,000 members. That is pretty good for a site that hasn't been updated in over a year. I kind of like this waiting part because I don't have to do anything. Eventually it is going to be too big for me to ignore. Then what?

Brennon's Birthday party is tomorrow. We have an under the sea motto going. Holly got all of these decorations. I can see tonight I will be cleaning the house. I am going to pick up mom from her home tomorrow and bring her to the party. It should be fun. We are currently planning on swimming unless it is raining then we might watch a movie or something. I will cook my famous burgers and it will be fun. Of course Brennon won't know what is going on, but I am sure he will have fun. The first birthday party is usually for the parents. Yesterday as I was searching for my keys I found them in his room. I think he wants to drive a little too soon. Anyways I will take pictures of the party and post them online. Have a good weekend.

So yesterday, on Brennon's birthday, a tornado followed me home from work. It was a bad traffic day all the way around. I blame the ocean and weather. In the morning I found a dollar bill in a gym bag. It was God's gift to Brennon for his 1 year old birthday. I left for work at 8:30AM hoping to get to work at 9AM. The fact that it was pouring out verified my idea that it would not happen. In the morning I have two routes to work - the tollway, which usually takes 30-40 minutes or the side roads, which usually takes 40-45 minutes. Since it was raining I figured the tollway would be jammed so I took the side roads. Unbeknownst to me there was a traffic light out on my route. Traffic was backed up for like 6 miles. I did not end up at work until 10:30. Wow, that 2 hours is now my official longest commute. I was glad I filled up yesterday. Then when I got to work they had a VP come down from Washington to pep us up. The good thing was they brought spring creek bbq with them. The bad thing was it took more of my time away from my job.

Anyways, later in the day I proceeded to get my iSpot back and deactivate it, as I now have the AT&T unlimited data plan again. I can't believe it. On Friday I called to complain that 50 meg of data was leaking from my iPhone at night and I had used 6 gig of data over the month so they re-activated my old plan. Talk about lucky and saving me $25 a month. Anyone want an iSpot? For $25 a month your iPhone or iPad can get unlimited data.

So all is right with the world and then before I leave Holly calls me. There are tornados all around she says. So I look up weatherbug on the iPhone and sure enough there is one in south dallas and one in Plano where we live. So I call her again and tell her to get in the closet. I am not sure where the safest place is in the house. In Texas you have to be prepared. So I then proceeded to go home. As I drive home the storm in south dallas starts heading north. It apparently is following me. As I sat in yet another traffic jam I hear the tornado sirens going off. Then I see a rainbow. I do a quick video of it while saying "oh, a rainbow, and a tornado, what does it mean?" Then I drive north with the thunderstorm behind me and sunshine in front of me. Fortunately by the time I got to my house it had shifted directions. The moral of the story is this. Tornados can sometimes come with rainbows. But what does it mean?

I would like to wish my son, Brennon Graham Bass, a very happy birthday today. He is 1 year old. I can't believe he has gotten so big. That is my boy though. Over the year we have gotten to know Brennon a little more. He likes sleep like his father. He likes the iPhone. He likes laptops. He is very much his father's son. Since I have never really dealt with babies I have no idea how he compares developmentally. I suppose that is good because I never liked comparison's anyways. I know he is tall and a little skinny for his age. He is very aware of his surroundings and doesn't care to be held much, unless you flip him upside down.

Here are some character traits that I have seen come alive over the year. He loves to laugh and daddy and mommy make him laugh the most. He loves to play and can be intense in his playing. When I play with him and I have one of his toys, he wants that toy. He also is a little stubborn. Like I have seen him walk and we push him to walk. However, he prefers crawling. He also will yell at the dinner table if you don't feed him fast enough and he will cry when the food stops coming. He is also a little timid, just a little. He will grab hold of the furniture when he is standing and I can see it is like he is walking a tightrope and is afraid of falling.

He also can be very determined. The second you have your remote control in your hand he will crawl all over you to get it. The same is true for the iPhone. His favorite youtube video of all time is "I love you baby, go to sleep". I played that for him when he was in the NICU and it would calm him. Now, a year later, it still works. He loves his pacifier and bottle, however as of today we are doing away with formula. Let's see how he takes to that. The best thing about him though is the way he smiles. It melts your heart and makes you want to make him smile. I think he is a very happy baby because we all love it when he is happy. Happy Birthday Brennon!

So this weekend we chillaxed. On Friday we watched "Date Night". It was actually pretty funny. On Saturday I played with Brennon and saw him take about 30 steps, not in a row of course. The key is to put the laptop on the chair and put him about three steps away from it. He will stay standing and will walk to it. It is like he like computers or something... I wonder where he gets that? On Sunday we took Brennon and had dinner with mom at her place. Of course all of the ladies love Brennon. They make comments on how big he is getting. Brennon is a pretty happy child. I hear him whine but almost never cry, except at maybe 4 in the morning. He will be one years old tomorrow. Wow, I can't believe it has been a year.

On Monday Holly's mom, Doug and Ethan came over and we swam and I cooked burgers. I am known for making thick burgers. People are usually like, "the center will never be cooked" with how thick I get them. The key to getting the center cooked is to lower the temperature on the grill and keep it on a little longer. That way it gets cooked all the way. However, I do like a burger a little red. It is very tasty. It was fun swimming and eating and the weather was nice. Now we have a hurricane raining on us for a while. I think summer is over...Yea! Football is my favorite season. Go Tech and Go Cowboys!

Today I go to the doctors office and will have him look at my ulnar nerve. I think it is cubital tunnel syndrome. My sister diagnosed it over the phone as ulnar neuropathy. Basically my pinky gets numb and now it is getting weaker. I can no longer cross my pinky and ring finger. I can hear a clicking sound whenever I move my right hand. I think that is the nerve moving. I have since switched to my left hand for mousing. You might think it is ok because I am left handed anyways, but as a left handed guitar player that means my fingers on my right hand are used to make the chords. It is not a good time for me to get this, but I think it has been developing over the years and is now where I can't ignore it. Let's hope all he needs to do is move the nerve and give me some medicine.

So I am here at the dentists office after having cracked a crown eating sunflower seeds. resorted to baby oragel last night. It has been about 3 years since I have been. Let's hope they don't discover any cavities. I have been flossing pretty regularly so hopefully nothing is there. My gums are just so sore. I hate the dentists. I guess if Brennon becomes a dentist I should start liking it.

Brian Bass
Creator of RideSearch.com
"Carpool for a better tomorrow"

Guys night is on. Since I don't have my phone on me I can't text that information. It is amazing the stuff I can't do. I hear the hum of the air conditioner. Apparently that is supposed to be better than music in my ears. Time is going slow... Need input.. input... Going into iPhone Withdrawal... How is my house doing? Have I got any new email? What is the latest on Twit ter and Face book? Any new music to listen to? How about a little netflix episode? Auuugh. I can't see why they call it fasting. They should call it slowing, because that is what happens to time.

Anyways I am trying to get used to my new Heelbo. It is comfortable, yet a little tight. What is a Heelbo and why are you wearing it you say? Well, since I have been programming computers for some 25 years now I guess it was inevitable that I would come up with a repetitive stress injury. My right elbow up to my pinky has been tingling and numb for weeks. I talked to my neurologist sister who diagnosed it as Ulnar Neuropathy. If I don't rest my elbow and wrist I could end up needing surgery. She recommended this Heelbo thing. It is comfortable on my elbow, but the pain and tingling is just not going away. We shall see. More tests.. Definitely more tests...

Guys night is on. Since I don't have my phone on me I can't text that information. It is amazing the stuff I can't do. I hear the hum of the air conditioner. Apparently that is supposed to be better than music in my ears. Time is going slow... Need input.. input... Going into iPhone Withdrawal... How is my house doing? Have I got any new email? What is the latest on Twitter and Facebook? Any new music to listen to? How about a little netflix episode? Auuugh. I can't see why they call it fasting. They should call it slowing, because that is what happens to time.

Anyways I am trying to get used to my new Heelbo. It is comfortable, yet a little tight. What is a Heelbo and why are you wearing it you say? Well, since I have been programming computers for some 25 years now I guess it was inevitable that I would come up with a repetitive stress injury. My right elbow up to my pinky has been tingling and numb for weeks. I talked to my neurologist sister who diagnosed it as Ulnar Neuropathy. If I don't rest my elbow and wrist I could end up needing surgery. She recommended this Heelbo thing. It is comfortable on my elbow, but the pain and tingling is just not going away. We shall see. More tests.. Definitely more tests...

So life is sometimes a rollercoaster. It goes up and then down. Then I get worried about things and can't sleep. Then things stop. Then there is hope for the future. Then sometimes that hope gets dashed. Then maybe other stuff besides your car gets stolen, like your iSpot. Then maybe you get worried about your job. Then maybe you may or may not have another job. Then you get good reviews at your current job. Then people like you. Then recruiters call you. Then coworkers become ambiguious. Then you are happy with your work but maybe not happy with other things. Then things stop again and get reset and the cycle goes on and on with you just finding happiness in the little things, the day to day victories and not the prospects of the future. I have been around long enough to know that anything can happen at any time. I thank God I know 35 computer languages and can go if I need to.

How was that for vaguery? Here is some non vague stuff. I have uploaded some pics of Brennon to the media section of this site. He is so cute. People remark how he looks like me. At times I think he even looks like my dad. He's got our cheeks. Every day he gets heavier. He has taken steps on his own now, but prefers to crawl. This weekend though I let him crawl around on our patio. The hard surface made him want to walk. I could tell. He is fast at crawling though. I guess that is why some kids take longer to walk. They can see the effeciency in crawling.

Anyways, life is always good. Sometimes you just need a different perspective on things to make it good. I have decided that I am addicted to my cell phone. I mean really addicted. If left alone I check it every 2 to 3 minutes. My over 5 gig of data usage this month has shown me that I use it too much. So I am actually going to do something about it. I am not going to take it to work. It is a test. A test of fortitude and resiliance. Can I live without micro-communication? If you want to get a hold of me during the work day use my work email. Let's see what happens. Tomorrow I start. Time to listen to some music before I shut it off. I wonder how long this fast will last?