Do you smell that ? It’s the smell of your hard drive burning ! The most destructive virus ever created by mankind has infected your system, and it’s literally burning a physical hole right through the middle of your hard drive.
Read all about it on a SHOCKING ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ tomorrow (Thursday) at 5 PM Eastern / 4 PM Central / 11 AM Hawaiian. It’s what everyone will be talking about on Friday morning over at Denny’s in Florida City (where all of the food is).
Don’t forget about the original ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ featuring the greatest blog entries of this past week from the greatest bloggers that are near and dear to me. That includes this crazy cat who reminds me of me because when I read his blog it looks just like my blog ! Phil - One Sunday we should really mix it all up by having me guest-write your ‘Talk Soup’ on your blog in your style, and having you guest-write my ‘Tossed Salad’ on my blog in my style.
OK enough of all of that lunacy. THANK YOU BLOGGERS for blogging on here with me. Even if you don’t have your own blog and you’re just here to read what I have to write then that still makes you a blogger. If you read blogs then you blog. It’s that simple.
So until we blog again - REMEMBER THIS from 40 years ago !
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 4:44 PM
· Filed under Philosophy
OK honorary club members - Here’s this week’s message straight from my fortune cookie to my blog:
‘You are known for being quick in action and decisions.’
YES - That’s me. It seems that the longer I go in trying to make a decision the less desirable the outcome is. It’s the quicker decisions and the actions that go along with them that generally seem to work out the best.
1. Tuesday nights have become ’me’ nights at home. On Mondays I’m typically away from home for 13+ hours with work and the weekly staff meeting at Life Pointe Church. On Wednesdays I only have about 3 hours at home after work and before Life Group. But Tuesdays when I get home I stay home and catch up with stuff. It’s my ‘fun’ day - my ‘I don’t have to run’ day !
2. TODAY I extended my ‘fun’ day by 4 hours and worked just a half a day. I went to Target for the first time since perhaps last December, and I went on a 90-minute shopping spree. Actually for the amount of time that I was scouring that store I didn’t really buy too many items (17). I could have really gone wild and bought 35 items !
6. I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot too with my fresh new Panasonic DVD Recorder / VCR Combo. I bought it online at circuitcity.com a couple of Saturday nights ago, and FedEx delivered it to me (free of charge) less than two business days later ! I couldn’t believe my four eyes when it arrived that fast !
7. Since my new DVD recorder has a digital tuner I’m exploring and enjoying crystal clear digital television for the first time ever. I have 90 new digital channels (expanded basic) that I always had but couldn’t access until now. That includes 50 music channels. I dig that !
8. Last night and this morning I recorded four hours of digital television programming on DVD-RW for the first time ever. I’ve got some tweaks to make to this process. I recorded it all in EP mode (which allows for 8 hours of programming onto a single 4.7 GB DVD). The picture quality suffered a bit. I’ll have to bring it down a notch for my next recordings. I’m learning.
9. I’ve pushed back the purchase of my fresh new HP Pavilion laptop indefinitely - but not for too long. Once the initial enjoyment value for my DVD Recorder / digital television revolution begins to wind down a bit then it will be time for me to buy my next new toy - the laptop. It should happen sometime in August.
10. Bright and early this morning I was once again reminded why I rarely go through the drive-thru at the McDonald’s at the Oasis Plaza en el este de Homestead. It’s because the service is subpar. They get confused handling more than one order at a time !
Monday, July 21, 2008 at 9:25 PM
· Filed under Movies
It’s time to count ‘em down again. This week I’m counting down my TOP 5 favourite movies that I actually went to a movie theatre to see over the past 13 months. Check it out:
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I saw this one for free with (are you ready for this ?) Anne J., Venus D., and Alex S. in Orlando. Venus refuses to admit how much she laughed hard all throughout it.
2. Evan Almighty
It was better than the original as far as I’m concerned, but most critics will disagree with me. It was set in my former hometown region of Northern Virginia (just outside of Washington D.C.).
1. License To Wed
It’s religious hijinks at the box office with Robin Williams in the role of a lifetime - as a crazy Lead Reverend of a modern church. This is probably my all-time favourite Robin Williams film.
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 9:47 PM
· Filed under Blogging
OK friends we’ve got a busy week ahead of us here on the big blog. You crazy cats made this past (Monday to Sunday) week the busiest week in the entire history of this blog’s young life. We finished the week with just a tad over 900 total views ! That’s way more than double our average weekly views from March 2008. Thank You Everyone for supporting this blog and participating on it ! Let’s keep on doin’ our thing !
TOMORROW on the big blog I’ve got your ‘Monday Night Countdown’ (a fresh new regular weekly feature on here that was inspired by this cool dude). This week’s countdown features the TOP 5 movies that I’ve seen over the past 13 months. You’re not gonna wanna miss that my friends !
Then be sure to round-up your crazy crew and hang out with the hipsters for the legendary ’Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s the most spontaneous blog entry of the week. I totally plan it that way !
That’s what’s happenin’ on here over the next 48 hours, so be sure to keep it locked in to the big blog. You won’t regret it pal.
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 3:58 PM
· Filed under God
1. It’s certainly not a competition as to who gets to the movie theatre first in the morning, but (for a change) I beat Anne J. there this morning by at least a couple of minutes. Then again David C. and David ‘Ritz’ were there before me. They just didn’t know that the front door was already unlocked ! (They were waiting out front.)
2. Due to personal reasons near and dear to me this morning’s 9 AM service was the most emotional Sunday morning service for me ever - in the 18 months (exactly) that I’ve been attending Life Pointe Church. During selected portions of this morning’s service it truly felt like Pastor Travis was speaking directly to me and about me regarding some situations that are currently going on in my Life. I’m sure that some of my fellow brothers and sisters in attendance felt the same way - that Pastor Travis was talking to them and about them from the stage. The fact of the matter is that God is using our Lead Pastor to communicate to us corporately each and every Sunday morning. That makes Pastor Travis very relevant. God is truly omnipotent.
3. Pastor Travis spoke on exhaustion this morning. The following statement in his teaching caused me to get the chills and get very emotional with tears - ‘To run with endurance all the way to the end, you have to drop your dead weight.’ It’s based on Philippians 3:13-14: 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
4. A few of our regular attenders have been asking me about the next membership luncheon at The Capri Restaurant in Florida City (where all of the food is). The next one is scheduled for Sunday August 17TH at 2 PM. You can sign-up for it at the Information Booth next Sunday morning, or you can let us know that you (and your family - if applicable) wish to attend via your connection card next Sunday. If you have any questions regarding the membership luncheon then please feel free to stop me in the hallway next Sunday morning and ask me about it.
5. I recently switched over from the 10:30 AM service to the 9 AM service, and you can too. There’s plenty of seats available during that first service, so consider making that switch. Be sure to arrive at the theatre in time for the actual start of each service - whether it be precisely 9 AM or precisely 10:30 AM. Jesse leads the LPC band up on stage with at least 15 minutes of rockin’ music that will surely get you up on your feet, singing loudly, clapping proudly, and even gettin’ down with a little bit of dancing. If you’re missing the big music show at the start of each service then you are definitely missing something !
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 7:48 PM
· Filed under Home, Money
TODAY I paid the second of two homeowner’s insurance policies for the upcoming year that begins for each of the policies in about 6 weeks. One of the policies ($754.00 for the year) is for all perils except for wind, and the other policy ($949.10) is for wind only. So that’s $1,703.10 combined for the year - or less than $4.67 a day.
Here’s how my annual insurance costs have evolved since I’ve owned my current home (nearly 7 years):
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 4:36 PM
· Filed under Career, Home
THIS AFTERNOON I shaved. Why ? Because it’s Saturday !
I shave twice a week. Why do I shave twice a week ? It’s because I do not wish to shave three times a week. I had to shave every day for 8 years while I was Active Duty Air Force. I didn’t like it at all. It was 1 of the 57 reasons why I decided to get out of the Air Force when I did. Over 15 years later I’m still working for the Air Force - but as a D.O.D. civilian. I can shave whenever I feel like it, and I feel like shaving twice a week. In fact I feel like shaving on Saturday afternoons and Tuesday evenings. That’s why when you see me on Wednesdays and Sundays I appear to be rather clean-shaven. There’s about 76 hours between my Saturday afternoon shave and my Tuesday evening shave, and there’s about 92 hours between my Tuesday evening shave and my Saturday afternoon shave. A lot of hair grows on my face during those 76 to 92 hours. I like how my face feels once it’s all shaved off. It feels smooth like that !
If I decided to increase my shaving to three times a week then perhaps I would go with a Sunday evening / Tuesday evening / Thursday evening schedule. That way I would be clean-shaven on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
That just seems like a bit too much shaving for me.
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 10:04 AM
· Filed under Home
It’s the only morning of the week in which a set alarm clock does not wake me up. During the work week it wakes me up at precisely 5:15 AM. On Sundays it does so at 6:30 AM. On Saturdays I get to sleep in, and lately (especially) I’ve been taking full advantage of this once-in-a-week opportunity.
This morning I recall waking up (for the first time) at 4:20 AM. When I quickly identified the time as ‘4:20 AM’ I just as quickly went back to sleep. I proceeded to sleep right through my normal wake up times for the other 6 days of the week, and I finally awoke (for good) at 7:47 AM. I just laid there in bed for about 10 minutes as I planned out my upcoming day. It was right then and there that I decided to not go anywhere at all today. I walked in to my home just before 3:30 PM yesterday (Friday) afternoon, and I don’t plan to walk out of it again until just before 7:30 AM tomorrow (Sunday) morning. I’ll be enjoying the comfort of my home sweet home en Homestead for 40 continuous hours. It’s just me and my home. Home is where my heart is.
Most people I know don’t spend nearly enough time in their home. They are always out and about and on the go. They rarely take ‘personal time’ away from it all. They are sort of like zombies. All work. All action. No play. No rest.
That will not be me (today anyway). My shenanigans on a Saturday would be considered to be extremely lame for many, but it works on so many levels for me. I am so much busier in 2008 than in any other previous year in my entire life. Today I am taking a day off from the rest of the world. I am recharging my batteries. I am getting refreshed. I am enjoying this home of mine. It’s got everything that I need. It’s where I belong today. It’s where I need to be.
I’ll be back outside and on-the-go tomorrow (Sunday). Catch me then (if you can).
It’s a warm and sticky Thursday night aqui en Homestead, and we’ve entered another extended dry period weatherwise with an abundance of clear skies, bright sunshine, and hot temperatures through at least the early part of next week. The chance of rain will be slim to none, but I can never rule out a quick passing shower in July - especially during the late-night and early-morning hours. Get out there and have some fun, but drink plenty of water !
TOMORROW on the big blog everybody’s waitin’ for the grande unveiling of this week’s original ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’. It’s what’s happenin’ dude at my favourite blogs from my favourite bloggers. Then on Saturday morning be sure to catch my ‘Shenanigans’. You just never know what could possibly happen when I get in my car on a Saturday morning and drive from here to there - wherever there may be. (Food will probably be involved.)
Until we hang out again here on the blog or LIVE and in-person - remember this !
Chris In 1994
It’s a ‘lost’ picture of me from 1994. I found it this morning while looking for something. Check out the ENORMOUS spectacles and the obsolete telephone and computer equipment on my desk !
This is not necessarily an Internet hoax per se; however, it is a chain letter that is currently being circulated worldwide via E-Mail. It is overblown speculation based on an actual event. Read on:
Hmmmmmmmmm………..
You are aware, probably, that Barack Obama lost his bearings recently and said that he was going to campaign in all 57 states. You heard this? And everybody chalked it up to, ‘Well, he’s tired.’
Barack Obama says he’s gonna go out and campaign in 57 states, he was just tired, you know, it’s been such a long campaign, he’s been so many places, he probably thinks there are 57 states. Well, I have here a printout from a website called the International Humanist and Ethical Union. And here is how the second paragraph of an article on that website begins. ‘Every year from 1999 to 2005 the organization of the Islamic conference representing the 57 Islamic states presented a resolution to the United Nations commission on human rights called combating.’ And the title of the piece here is, ‘How the Islamic states dominate the UN human rights council,’ and there are 57 of them.
Obama said he’s going to campaign in 57 states, and it turns out that there are 57 Islamic states. There are 57 Islamic states. ; ; So did Obama just lose his bearings, or was this a more telling slip, ladies and gentlemen?
DO ALL AMERICANS A FAVOR AND FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST….. With our country at odds with the Muslems, what will happen if Obama is one? Think and pray before voting!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 4:55 PM
· Filed under Computers, Shopping
If Best Buy has this item in stock at their Cutler Bay store location then consider it to be my fresh new state-of-the-art laptop this Friday afternoon !
That’s right. I’m finally pulling the trigger on my long-standing ‘I need to eventually buy a new laptop’ initiative. I’ve had enough of talking about it (and especially dealing with my old 2002 laptop). I’m ready to act on it. I’m ready to seize this moment. I’m ready to just do it.
PLEASE - I am requesting no interruptions this Friday night. I’ll be busy setting up my new laptop - even if I have to stay up all night long (like Lionel Richie) to do so !
1. It’s a cool, dark, and stormy Tuesday afternoon in Homestead. We’re still in a drought if you can believe that. We need a lot more rain than this to get ourselves out of this fine mess !
2. My brother and his lovely wife got me addicted to the TV show TMZ while I was at their house in Texas. I watch it almost every night now. I never saw a single episode of it before my recent trip to Texas.
3. I never realized how much I actually like iced coffee … before I started drinking iced coffee ! I’ve made the new Homestead Starbucks a Monday afternoon tradition (right before the weekly Life Pointe Church staff meeting).
4. Irony ? - A coworker of mine standing barefoot on an old chair on top of a hard floor while updating our building’s safety bulletin board !
5. Yesterday I picked-up the new premium fish fillet sandwich from Wendy’s, and I brought it back to work. I microwaved it (to get it a little warmer than it was), and it emitted a wonderful smell that attracted a small portion of my coworkers. They adored that smell. It probably smelled better than it tasted. It was a fine sandwich, but I wouldn’t consider it to be ‘premium’. If anything it was perhaps a bit overpriced.
6. Watch this cool Life Pointe Church promotional video from this past Sunday morning. I’m not in this one. I told Jesse that I wanna be a lovable babyface in his videos rather than a miserable heel. Travis alleges that I have a loyal cult following at the church. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a not so good thing.
7. Every Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church I manage to get myself in to a whole bunch of pictures, yet they never see the light of day. I challenge you to put those pictures online, or send them to me and I’ll put them on the blog here.
8. Here’s my brother in a recent text message to me describing what he had to deal with regarding his beloved dog Buddy - ‘… on Saturday he ate grass outside then ate insect killer that I sprayed, then vommitted BRIGHT YELLOW PUKE in A CIRCLE in the living room’.
9. My 2002 HP Pavilion laptop is dying a slow death. I can see myself buying a brand new one sooner than I thought - like before the Summer is over. I may even donate this old laptop to the church once I buy the new one.
10. Got ‘Rock Band‘ ? I’ll be the lead vocalist. I’m good like that !
Monday, July 14, 2008 at 9:16 PM
· Filed under Blogging
Ladies & Gentlemen. Boys & Girls. I present to you this week’s TOP 5 countdown. It’s a countdown of the 5 most-read blog entries in the entire history of this blog ! Check it out:
Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 4:04 PM
· Filed under God
1. I don’t even try to beat Anne J. to the movie theatre bright and early on Sunday mornings anymore. This morning she was already working on starting the coffee by the time that I got there (well before 7:30 AM). I’ve decided that of all of the tables that are set up in the main lobby the two most important of them all are the tables for the Café (where the coffee and the bagels and the cream cheese go). Everything else comes after that !
2. The ’summertime slump’ continues at Life Pointe Church. There were a bunch of our regular attenders and members out on vacation, but we still had an above average total of first-time and second-time guests. Instead of a total attendance in the mid-to-upper 400s (kids included) we were closer to the low-to-mid-300s this week (estimated). That’s not bad at all for the middle Sunday of July !
3. While it’s fine to count people we must remember that it is always about the human lives and what God is doing to transform them. God is only going to send these human lives to us if we (as a church) know what to do with them. If we don’t have our act together at Life Pointe Church then He will stop sending them to us. Right now I think that we meet with His absolute approval. We must keep it that way. We must continue to expand His kingdom here in the big city. We must continue to lead our brothers and sisters by the hand so that they can have total access to Him. We must continue to walk His fantastic journey together as we all follow Him !
4. Pastor Travis spoke on ‘Conflict’ this morning, and he utilized the following Scriptures from the Good News to reinforce his teaching:
Philippians 3:1-11
Matthew 7:1-5
Matthew 18:15-18
Matthew 5:21-25
Romans 12:17-19
5. My favourite of the five Scriptures above is Matthew 7:1-5: 1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own ? 4How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye ? 5Hypocrite ! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
Check out what this blogging lunatic had to say about this morning’s services at the LPC !
Greetings My Friends ! For your ‘Bedtime Stories’ tonight I’ve got just a few quick notes here during my final 90 minutes or so of ‘awake time’ on this cool and wet Saturday night.
It may be cool and wet outside, but it’s cool and dry inside. My A.C. actually got a bunch of well-deserved breaks this afternoon and tonight due to the cloud and rain-cooled temperatures outside. We got a torrential thunderstorm in my little piece of south-central Homestead early this afternoon. Temperatures dropped down into the mid-70s, and they’ve pretty much stayed there ever since. I like it when it’s cool outside (and inside) in the middle of July ! What a rare treat !
Just a few minutes ago I wrapped-up the purchase online of a brand new state-of-the-art Panasonic DVD Recorder / VCR Combo. It’s being shipped to me within the next couple of weeks from my good friends over at Circuit City (coming soon to the Homestead Pavilion shopping, dining, and entertainment complex). I can’t wait to receive it. This could be my long-awaited ticket / excuse out of the VCR recording business (after over 25 years) and into the DVD recording business !
Well that’s all that I’ve got to say for now. To my Life Pointe Church family I’ll see you crazy cats tomorrow morning after 7:25 AM. You can read all about it on here tomorrow afternoon via the ‘Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad’.
Until we meet again have a cool and comfy Saturday night. Stay safe, get some high-quality sleep tonight, and - oh yeah - remember this:
I do more before 9 AM on a Saturday morning than many people do all day on Saturday !
I started my Saturday morning bright and early at Homestead’s Oasis Plaza Publix just a couple of minutes after they opened up their doors at 7 AM. Once upon a time I used to be the first person in to the original Towne Square Publix (Useless-One & Campbell Drive) on most Sunday mornings at 7 AM (sometimes on Saturday mornings at the same time). Nowadays a Saturday morning at 7 AM visit to Publix is a rare treat, and a Sunday morning at 7 AM visit is an impossibility (due to my other priorities). I was in and out of Publix with all of my groceries for the next couple of weeks or so in about 45 minutes.
Next on the agenda (after I took all of my groceries home) was Chevron on Homestead’s frantic corner of Useless-One and Campbell Drive. I filled up my car with 10.836 gallons of gas at $4.199 per gallon (an all-new record) for a total cost of $45.50 (another all-new record). It was my first fill-up with gas in 19 days (a few days above my usual running average). I averaged a daily consumption of 0.57 gallons of gas over the past 19 days.
I then went over to Walgreens where I got excellent $ALE DEAL$ on laundry detergent and videotapes (what a combination).
I capped-off my Saturday Morning Shenanigans at Burger King where I picked-up an Enormous Omelet Sandwich, Hash Browns, and Turbo Coffee. Burger King has always been my all-time favourite fast food restaurant for breakfast, and for many years I used to go there at least once or twice per week. This may have been my first or second visit in all of 2008 thus far. I just don’t eat as ‘bad’ as I used to ever since my MASSIVE heart attack and subsequent 9-month coma elevated cholesterol readings and subsequent Lipitor prescription. Eating a Burger King breakfast has now become a once-in-a-long-while occasion. I’ll do it again en Octubre !
And so those - mis amigos - are mis Saturday Morning Shenanigans. I got back home at 9 AM this morning, and now I’m watching television, surfing the web, doing laundry, paying bills, filing paperwork, and other fun stuff like that. This is the day that I’ve been waiting for since … last Saturday !
Have a sensational Saturday everyone ! Make it memorable.
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 6:32 PM
· Filed under Food, Philosophy
For the first time in 17 days - here it is !
‘Don’t be hasty, prosperity will soon knock on your door.’
I actually thought about ordering a pizza from Domino’s earlier this afternoon (shortly after I returned home from work). I decided against it once I remembered that I ate Chinese Food for Lunch (at Panda Express). There will be no knocks on my door tonight (and hopefully all weekend long). I have relaxing to do this weekend.
