A day of growth and X-mas

Today I grew a little more in my capabilities at church. Josh is out of town on vacation and he asked me to make sure things went alright at church in his absence. I was a little nervous at first, but it ended up not being a big deal at all. I was able to get the sequence down, get everyone signed off on doing extra things, get everyone circled up before, etc. The service went really well and I was really excited to hear my friend Eric speak. Not that I am bored with Josh and his sermons, but it is nice to hear a new perspective and a new style every once in a while.

My Christmas was very good. I got almost everything I wanted. From Josh and Katie I got a really cool piece of art. It is my tattoo (without the date) done in steel. It looks really freakin awesome! I will try to remember to take a picture and post it. I think I know the exact place I am going to put it. It was really cool that they thought of something like that for me. It is definitely a unique gift. It also fits because Josh’s present from me was part of his tattoo, and I got Katie the fire pit that we have been enjoying for a couple months. I know, it seems odd to get someone a Christmas present in October, but it was totally worth it! I got from my parents a gift certificate for a bike. I have been needing to exercise regularly for a while now, and Josh and I have been talking and I decided that I am going to start biking with him. I’m really excited about the prospect of me actually doing something outdoors. From my sister I got a digital picture frame. I put all sorts of pictures in there already. The only thing I didn’t get (to do) was see my brother and my best friend Juan. My brother couldn’t get off work to come down and Juan had his own family things to do and this is the busiest time of year for him at work. It is understandable, but it still bummed me out that I couldn’t hang out with them. I had half a mind to go up to Farmington to see my brother, but there was no guarantee that he would be able to even go have a coffee.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone that reads my blog, yes both of you, a very merry Christmas. It was a good Christmas here. I got a bike! And before you say anything, it did NOT have training wheels. I also got some jerseys to wear while biking and even some “porno pants.” You might be wondering what kinds of pants I get for Christmas, but they are just the normal biking shorts. One of the characters in Chuck called them porno pants in an episode. Now Katie calls them that and jokes with Josh about his. I called them to wish them a merry Christmas and she asked me if I got my “porno pants.” I nearly choked on the eggnog I was drinking. It was pretty funny. Anyways, the only thing that could have gone better was having my brother here, but he couldn’t get any time off. But it’s ok, cause I’ll see him when he comes down to Albuquerque for my dad’s surgery. This whole season has been a roller coaster. But there have been more ups than downs, for instance going to Winterhaven with Josh and Katie was awesome (see pics here).

All I want for Christmas…

So last night I had a really good night. I hung out with some of my friends and had some awesome conversation. To me that is what this season is all about, hanging out with friends. Every month, Billy, Rita and I try to get together and go to dinner or breakfast. Last night we went to a small restaurant named Fio Ritos.  It is a small family style restaurant that serves Italian food. It isn’t the best food, but that doesn’t really matter. We sat and chatted and caught up on life in general. Rita is a teacher and she had to get up early, so we left there around 8:30. Not wanting to go home, I called up a few other people to see if I could find something to do. Eric didn’t disappoint and suggested we go to 58 Degrees and Holding.  I have never been there but have heard really good things about it. Everything I heard was totally true. They had a pretty nice selection of wines and cheeses and even have a dinner menu. I didn’t eat, just drank. They have a bar that is really cool. It looks like the glass bar top was shattered, but its between 2 smooth panes of glass so it isn’t sharp or anything. It reflects the lights from above in amazing ways. Of course they could be ordinary ways, but you really shouldn’t be paying attention to the bar top in a wine bar. After we closed that place down we were both still in the mood for some more wine so we ventured over to Eric’s house. He is a bartender and wine lover, so he had quite a nice little selection. We decided on a Chianti and popped in the first episode of Firefly. That is definitely an interesting series. It is a western set in space. There are no aliens though, which totally goes against the sci-fi genre in my opinion. Even the fact that it’s trying to be a western doesn’t detract from the absurdity of an alien-less sci-fi series. Don’t bother trying to find it on your local listings cause it was canceled before it’s first season concluded. According to Eric, they only aired 12 episodes of the 14 that they made. One of the funniest things is that after the series was canceled, they made a Hollywood budget feature film entitled Serenity. The movie was really cool, there were definitely some hot women in that. I would not mind at all having them show up at my house. During all of that we polished off the bottle of wine we opened. I really had a lot of fun last night. The only bad side was this morning. I didn’t get home till around 4 in the morning, I know it’s scandalous isn’t it? I wanted to go see Katie this morning for coffee, but I had a lot of trouble waking up…go figure.

Really last night is what is really truly important to me: hanging out with friends having good conversation and drinking good wine.

Oops…

I re-read the post I made yesterday, and despite the title, there was no more than a fleeting thought on the movie I am Legend. Let me correct that here. I am going to review the movie, so if you don’t want to know what happens…

The basic premise of the movie is this: a man-made virus that was made to cure cancer mutates and “changes” all but a fraction of the global population into creatures of the night. No, not vampires, but what they refer to as “darkseekers.” Will Smith‘s character, Robert Neville, is military and he has stayed in the city to try to fix the outbreak and help humanity. It is slightly reminiscent of Cast Away in that for the majority of the movie it is only the main character and a non-human supporting character. In this case it is a dog that Neville’s daughter gave him before they were killed trying to evacuate the city. Neville, like Chuck Noland, goes a little stir crazy after 1,000 days of solitude. Neville puts mannequins in the video store that he is meticulously going through for entertainment. He even goes so far as to flirt with one of the female “patrons.” On one of his outings, Neville comes into contact with a different sort of darkseeker. This one he notes seems to have lost it’s sense of self-preservation and comes out into the sunlight which it has a potentially deadly reaction to. Little does Neville know, but this particular darkseeker is organized and has some position of leadership in the darkseeker nests. Several times after that this leader is present at attacks on Neville. At one of these attacks, Neville is overwhelmed and is rescued at the last minute by 2 other survivors, a woman and a small boy. Because he is injured, he does not realize the woman is taking him home, allowing the leader and the other darkseekers to track them back to his home. As the darkseekers attack, Neville discovers that his latest attempt to cure the darkseekers and turn them back into humans worked. To save the cure, he gives it to the woman and crams her and the kid into what looks like an old coal chute as the leader and darkseekers break in and kill him. The movie ends with the woman and child making it to a colony of survivors somewhere in Vermont.

I liked this movie for several reasons. It was a different twist on a zombie movie, but it wasn’t really a zombie movie. It wasn’t a boring movie, there was something going on almost all the time, unlike Cast Away. Plus, going to see it with a friend helped make it an enjoyable evening.

“I am Legend” and a horrible week

Last night I went to go see the movie I am Legend with my friend Eric. I have to say that it was a completely unexpected plot. It was also a really nice way to try to salvage a really crappy week. So, where to start…Wednesday night I went to get dinner from a local pasta shop a mile from my house. I get in my car and all is as it should be. I get my dinner to take back to my house to eat and when I try to start my car all I get is “click…click…click…” I take a deep breath and try it again. Same result. I try taking the car out of park and putting it back. Same result. By this time I notice that my clock has reset to midnight and the dome light is browning out. I then call a few people to see if I can find someone that can give me a jump. I finally get a hold of my good friend Billy who lives not 5 minutes away. He jumps in his car and comes over. We give it the ‘ol college try but my car doesn’t seem to want to start. We wait and rev his car a little more and finally my car starts, albeit rather sickly and generally not sounding well. So I try to pull out into traffic to get my car home and it refuses to get up and go. I finally make it home and by this time I am really pissed at the whole situation.

Then Thursday morning I call AAA and get it towed to the dealership. After several hours I get a call that it made it into a technician. Then at 4:30 I call and they still have no idea what is going on with it. I had told them the entire story, and after several conversations with my dad, I was pretty sure that it was at least a dead battery. They didn’t believe me or they didn’t really have my car in with a technician.

Friday morning I have little hope of having my car back before the weekend, so I go ahead and rent a car. Not 20 minutes after I get the rental car and head into work I get a call from the dealership. Guess what, it was the battery! They then told me my car would be ready at lunch time. Let me tell you, this just annoyed the heck outta me. Anyways, I have my car fixed and back in my possession.

Saturday was a lazy sort of day. I was going to go with Josh and Katie to Costco to buy food for our small group, but they ended up going without me. They were kind enough to get the one thing that I needed from there since they changed the plans on me. Small group that night was interesting. This being my first small group to attend, I don’t have a basis for comparison to “normal.” We watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. It is a hilarious movie and I encourage anyone that hasn’t seen it, there is probably one person out there that hasn’t, to go see it this holiday season.

Sunday had a rough start, but it turned out nicely with seeing the movie.

Tomorrow I start vacation until the new year. I can hardly wait. They only down side is I won’t be able to spend any time with my friends here in Tucson during the break. I really was looking forward to hanging out with them but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards.

Freakish weather

This morning I woke up to the strangest sight. Well, ok…I didn’t really wake up to it. It took me opening my garage door to go to work to realize it. But it is REALLY foggy here. It has been storming a lot lately, so I attributed the lack of sunshine shining around my blinds in my bedroom to another storm. So I got ready like normal and when I opened my garage door I noticed that I no longer had neighbors. I couldn’t see across the street! I then went out in my backyard and looked around and it is eerie. Here are a few pictures I took.

Suffice it to say, I was prudent and decided to sacrifice going into the office and work from home today. I wouldn’t want to drive with Tucson drivers in this. They are bad enough drivers without any bad road/weather conditions!

25 years of computing

It is hard to think that personal computers have been around a mere 25 years. But as this article from CNN tells us, they have been alive and frustrating their operators for a while. Personally, I have never really known a time when I didn’t have a computer. I started with an Apple II, then “upgraded” to a desktop PC. Since then I have been through many a laptop, desktop, etc. I usually try to get a new computer every 2-3 years. This may seem like a really fast turnaround, but I find that technology usually makes tremendous leaps every 6-8 months. It is funny to me that some people still run Windows 98. I was at a friends house yesterday, “fixing” their computer, and they had a desktop that was still running Windows 98. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It took me a while to remember how to actually do what I needed to in such an old OS. I haven’t messed around with 98 since … 1998! Well, here’s to personal computers, may they continue to provide their users with an excuse to curse! GIGO!

“The Wizard of Oz” vs. “Tin Man”

This past weekend the Sci Fi channel premiered their mini-series “Tin Man.” First and foremost, it was really well done. There were a lot of special effects, but they did not detract from or completely define the plot. It was a lot darker than the original movie released in 1939, but hey, what isn’t these days? One possible explanation for this could be the fact that quite a long time has passed between the time of the original movie and this mini-series. The original Dorothy had a small, yet instrumental part in the remake which tied the two adaptation together. I am not sure about the mixture of magic and machine that was prevalent throughout the series. To me it never quite works. If there are such powerful sorcerers out there, why would they need to rely on man-made gears and sprockets to work their mighty evil?

So I guess where I am going with this is I liked the remake.

Conversing with Jesus

My dad recently sent this story to me, and as I sit here in my office craving anything alcoholic that will take the edge out of everything that is happening today, I can’t help but laugh hysterically.

Many times when I am troubled or confused, I find comfort in sitting in my back yard and having a vodka and cranberry along with a quiet conversation with Jesus. This happened to me again after a particularly difficult day.

I said “Jesus, why do I work so hard?” And I heard the reply: “Men find many ways to demonstrate the love they have for their family. You work hard to have a peaceful, beautiful place for your friends and family to gather.”

I said: “I thought that money was the root of all evil.” And the reply was: “No, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool; it can be used for good or bad”.

I was starting to feel better, but I still had that one burning question, so I asked it. “Jesus,” I said, “what is the meaning of life? Why am I here?”

He replied: “That is a question many men ask. The answer is in your heart and is different for everyone. I would love to chat with you some more, Senor, but for now, I have to finish your lawn.”

I can totally see where Jesus is coming from. I work hard to have a house that I am proud of, even if I am made fun of because of my taste in art/decoration. I work hard to enable me to spend time doing what is near and dear to my heart, ie play video games, etc. (oh, and go to church I guess). I am trying to relax about work, because I don’t want to die young because of stress related illness. Jesus really does know what he’s talking about.