In-tro-spec-tion:

Getting You Caught Up

2011-02-24T07:38:00.014-06:00

I was hoping to start posting weekly or bi-weekly. I have let that get away from me, but with good reason. I have been busy. Sticking to my goals pretty well. I have signed a family member up for a 5K, we are doing the Warrior Dash in April! I also have a friend doing it with me. I am really excited! I am trying to figure out what outfit/costume we should wear. Most everything has been done before at this point so originality is out of the question. We can take something and make it ours though. I really want to do a brave heart or ninja theme.

I maxed out my Army PT test a lot faster then I anticipated. I actually did the best I have ever done in 2 out of 3 events. Resulting in the highest score I have ever received. I scored a 320+ (a 300 with 100% in each is considered a perfect score) I did over 100% in push ups and sit ups tweaking my triceps in the process, but it seems to be healing nicely. I did right at 100% in the 2 mile.

As far as the future goes I have no clue what is going to be next. I am in a unfamiliar position. Not that I don't have any options or ideas. I have so many options. I am handling it differently then usual though. Instead of having a plan for the future I am instead preparing for several options; ensuring I can pursue any option when I leave here. I have completed my FAFSA and sent it to 7 different schools across the state, based on where I predict to be job searching or finishing my degree. I will begin looking for jobs in the biomedical equipment field in April and May. I graduate June 25th(ish) so I am hoping that I can have one secured before graduation. I still have my Best Buy job, but I am uncertain if I will be returning. That is a last resort and will include another raise and full-time option if I do return (I should be a Supervisor or assistant Supervisor of a department with my training) The Military is more then sufficient for all of the civilian BMET jobs out there. Most actually prefer military BMETS over the college trained, because we actually get experience with the equipment instead of just learning from a book. That being said I plan on being both. I will have all the credits necessary for a degree in the field after this. All I have to do is transfer credits to a College and give them some money for a few classes to get degree. I plan on doing that so I have both areas coverd. Many people are making 60K+ in the field. Lots of them starting out. My dream is to work for GE. Another option is to go on a deployment. I have been contacting a few units that are leaving late 2011 early 2012. I want to get a deployment under my belt and now seems like the best time to do it. I am currently looking at Qatar as the most likely place if I do go. If I found an option anywhere in Europe though I don't now that I could turn it down. I could see a lot of Europe in a year. I still have the ultimate goal of finishing my bachelors too. I don't know that I will ever use it. It is something I know I can achieve and I am too close now to give up on it. I think I will only continue part-time for now on. I don't know that I can go back to a full-time student lifestyle. I was never good at it. I always wanted to work more and school less.

I think I am taking this approach because I get tired of people always expecting me to have a plan and know what is next in life. I hate talking about what I am planning on doing and having to answer so many questions. Mainly because I don't want to here people opinion on the matter unless I seek it out. You will be able to tell when I am seeking it out.

I have a few other plans that are certain to happen soon after I leave. I am going to get my E-5 Sergeant. I know this is something you have to earn and is not just handed out. I am going to get it. I wil be going to the Warrior Leader Course this summer when I finish up here.

Leave comments with ideas for out costume during the Warrior Dash

For what its worth; its never too late. Be who you want to be.

2011-01-17T17:07:00.001-06:00

Great scene from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2011 Lifestyle changes and goals

2011-01-17T12:02:00.002-06:00

I thought this was a fitting video for what is going on in my life right now.

In the beginning of 2010 I sent out a mass text to my closest friends. It read this:

“I realized that my thoughts of myself and the son/brother/friend/boyfriend/husband I want to be in the future has to happen now. If we can't make time for a quiet time, community, serving others, church, working out, and everything else we envision the best version of ourselves doing in the future for God, ourselves and our family how can we possibly plan on being that person when we are married with children. The habits for the future our formed now. Lets become this person now.”

I made several changes in 2010. In all I would consider 2010 a good year. I had many successes in life. I was a groomsmen in two of my best friends weddings. I was able to get into a course in the Army that may end up setting up my career. I grew closer to several friends that I had become disconnected with. I live without many regrets, but 2010 had several things I would have liked to do differently. I did not make the strides towards becoming the man I need to be for the future.

2011 will be different. In 2011 I will live this text out. I am attacking it in a different way. I am following the path that God has provided me. This is not always a path to success in the world. It is always a path to success in his kingdom though. I do have several changes I am making this year. I am not overwhelming myself by attempting to change everything all at once though. I am working towards the diet I would like to maintain. I am slowly building up my run again. My plan here is to compile a list of all the things I would like to achieve in 2011 or at least make strides towards. Not only that though, I am going to also note how I plan on achieving these things. I include you in all of this for accountability. To ask me how its going from time to time and encourage me when given the opportunity.

2011 Resolutions

Sport/ Fitness goals

Run… A lot. I want to encourage my brother and as many other members of my family as I can to run 5K’s with me.
Run 5 10K’s – I think the obvious answer here is to run.
Run another half marathon (hopefully during the training for a full-marathon)
Do the Hotter Then Hell in Wichita Falls. I am from the area so I think it is necessity to conquer the toughest endurance challenge it has to offer.
Do a sprint-triathlon- despite the fact that I was a lifeguard for 3 years I am not a very good swimmer. That will be the biggest challenge for me here. I will focus on that.

Change of Pace Goals

Go skydiving/ bungee jumping/ anything to take away from the monotony of everyday life.
Find a outdoor hobby I can passionately get involved with (other than running) Such as rock climbing or hiking <- probable choice, It’s hard to pull 200lbs up the side of a mountain. – I plan on getting involved in some organization that offers different outdoor sports and outings. Then trying several different things.
Visit a foreign country. – I am not sure exactly how I am going to come up with the funds for this. Or if it is going to even be a vacation. It could easily be a mission trip. I just know that I want to see more of the world. I am hopeful my next job will be able to fund this. I pray that it is in God’s plans.
Go to Rangers game and Cowboys game in the same day. I imagine I will attend several Rangers games this year with my new found love. I would like to save the money to make a Cowboys game in the same day.

Personal goals/lifestyle changes

Learn to dance – I really just want to become a respectable 2-stepper. Nothing drastic. I plan on doing this by going out to the dancehalls more often and letting girls teach me. I learn by repetition and I see nothing wrong with holding on to pretty women while they teach me lead them and spin em’
Work towards the beach body- I put this here because its hopefully going to be a lifestyle change. Not just a fitness goal. This is going to be very hard considering my love affair with carbs. I can get toned with little effort and lose weight pretty quick. Getting those bottom four abs to show up has been hard since I was 19 though.
Max out the Army PT test again. I have done it before, and came close several other times with little effort. I put this here because I want it to be a permanent change.
Limit my Facebook/ video games/ and other technology distractions. I doubt I can give these things up completely for any significant amount of time. Its just who I am. Its how I interact with several friends on a daily basis. Video games is part of how my closest group of friends bond at times. If I can resist the urge to play “1 more game” though a few times I think it will help in the whole scheme of things.
Pay off all credit cards and other debts and pay down truck significantly. – I am just going to have to be smarter with my money. I have made a good income for a single guy the past several years, yet I continue to struggle financially at times. This is the year that changes. It’s going to be hard to claw back and change my spending habits. I plan to do just that though. I have compiled a Dave Ramsey type debt snowball. It seems to be the best way to pay it all down.

Spiritual

Although the most important, I will spare you the “grow closer to the Lord” goals and things like that. They are goals of mine for the year that would be classified under lifestyle change. I plan on attending church regularly and getting involved in small groups. I just feel like that is all very cliché of Christians to list them and is something we should all be working towards. I will sum them all up like this. I want to orient my life towards Proverbs 3 and Ephesians 5. That is the best example of what I want to become spiritually in 2011.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
— C.S. Lewis

Making a come back in 2011

2011-01-17T09:52:00.000-06:00

Jimmy Needham–Hurricane This song has become a rock in the foundation of my faith.

I have been really busy and really lazy when I am not busy. I had to let rhyananderson.com go. It was a expense I couldn’t justify keeping with how much I was using it. I wish I had taken the time to copy all the post off of it. I had a few good ones. Anyways I am back here. AND MOTIVATED! As always I plan on writing a post every couple of weeks. At least every time I have something good happen (which is in abundance lately) in my life.

So to catch you up quickly on what’s going on in my life. I have been at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio since August of last year. I wanted a new job in the Army and they decided this would be a good place for me. God definitely had a hand in it. This is the job field I want to be in. I had no idea it existed before this. I am training to be a Biomedical Equipment Technician. Which means I am learning to repair/maintain hospital equipment, or in other terms they are trusting me to handle life saving equipment in the hospital. When you look at it like that it gives you a much deeper understanding of the importance of what I will be doing. This training is a year long. If I had gone a few months before I would have been at Shepherd Air Force Base in my hometown. At first I was happy it had moved to San Antonio. Now I wish I had easier access to my family and friends.

The course started with 19 soldiers and airmen in my class. We are now down to 13 of the original 19. The course is designed into 12 separate blocks of instruction. I am currently in block 6 which to this point has been my worst block. To this point I have never had the highest grade in the class, but I have never been lower then 4th. I have been 2nd twice. I have started to understand my learning style a lot more with this course and the workload I am able to handle.

This has just confirmed to me what I was already planning. I am pretty confident when I get done here I will be going back to school part-time and working full-time. Because of where I have gotten myself financially I can no longer really live off of part-time wages anyway. I will be looking for employment in this field when I get done here. Most the starting salaries I have seen in this field make much more then I have made in the past. So it should be more then sufficient to pay off what debt I can not while I am here. I just have to figure out where I am going to live/go to school now. I LOVE TEXAS TECH. Several good things: I enjoy all the people I know there, I still have several close friends there, I own a house there, my dad is there, and I miss the environment and Tech Football. I HATE LUBBOCK. I don’t think I can go back to Lubbock.

I had previously decided that I want to find the best job I can and just let that decided where I live next. I have changed this though. Most of my friends and family still live in driving range of each other. I want to move off for a while eventually away from accessibility of a few hour drive to the old front door. I want to live near mountains, water and trees. I want all four season. That time is not now though. While I still have the benefit of being able to see my friends and loved ones easily. I want to stay in that area for now.

2010-12-12T17:43:00.005-06:00

Pray for you!

2009-12-28T20:58:00.001-06:00

Finding random comics

2009-12-27T18:39:00.001-06:00

Dirty Orphans

2009-12-21T21:15:00.001-06:00

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Best Buy Happy Holidays!

2009-12-21T10:27:00.001-06:00

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Happy Holidays!!!

2009-12-21T09:20:00.000-06:00

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Technology and Life all in one

2009-12-14T00:48:00.001-06:00

This is just going to be a completely random post. Aren’t they all though. So I am beta testing Office 2010. I really like it so far. You can download it for free here if you want to try it. Not a whole lot of differences as that I can tell yet.

Google wave is another google tool that I am trying out. I have not been able to tinker with it yet really though. It is a EMAIL/IM/Conference program all in one. Along with Wave I am also using the beta version of Google Chrome. For a long time I have sworn by Firefox. I recently have been experiencing a lot of crashes with it though so I decided to try Chrome and love it. I am in love with everything google really.

I forgot what I was going to write about life! My computer has been sitting for 30min while I got the fire together for me and Jeff to enjoy and sip our AMAZING hot cocoa. I will have to finish later.

Really just a friend?

2009-12-13T17:54:00.001-06:00

So I read a article in Men's Health that I really liked. Being a pretty jealous person a lot of times the article was informative. I agreed with most of what the article said and thought I would write a response to it. You might understand this more if you read the article. I linked to it up there and here Is She Really Just a Friend?

The article is mostly written from a perspective of men with female friends outside of the relationship. So I will start with this. Men are all the same. Men can successfully have female acquaintances, but when their is a “friend” their is no doubt that he thinks the same way as other guys. When you have a good friend of the opposite sex that you have dissimulated your feelings and told yourself you would never cheat you begin share more and go deeper “people think they aren’t violating the basic code of being sexually faithful, so they don’t put up the same defenses.” (Ronald Efron) I have seen this first hand and been part of it. I don’t think that their is anything wrong with having a opposite-sex friend or confiding in them emotionally. I like what the article says about about this. From a jealous persons perspective I can be bothered if I feel like my partner has been investing more emotionally into her “friendship” then she has in our relationship. When you do that you empower the friend over your chosen Husband/Wife/Boyfriend/Girlfriend. I agree when it says that in order to co-exist their has to be boundaries that are agreed upon between the couple. You also have to be able to comfort and empower your chosen relationship partner by dishing on your chosen pal every now and then. Men's Health words not mine. I couldn’t have said it better myself though. Men’s Health also says “Men also know how other men’s minds work. You know that the man is in the friendship at least in part because of physical attraction.” Bleste-Rechek, studies show results that prove that is probably right. –the woman being in a committed relationship does nothing to deter a male friend’s desire to date her. I am done on this cause I am missing the Cowboys game. I love Pysch though!

Their is a Comment section under each post..I would greatly appreciate comments on this one. Even if its as anonymous. I am not looking for a debate. This is a subject I am really interested in and am really looking to grow in this area. I have had the problem in my life of choosing unfaithful partners where my assumptions have always played out to be right. This in turn has ruined any chance of me having a relationship where without question I can trust another person. If their was any area of myself that I could grow other then spiritually this would be it. The only way for me to do this is acquire a better understanding. I would also like it noted that I have been on both sides of this. I have been the guy that girls in relationships have been open with and enabled this “affair” to happen. I also have had girls that have invested too much emotionally into outside relationships then in our own. I also have been in a relationship where I walked the line of emotional affair with someone of the opposite-sex while denying it and taking away from my committed relationship.

Perro ladrador… � Pixfans

2009-12-13T11:21:00.000-06:00

Perro ladrador… � Pixfans

Detention

2009-12-03T02:05:00.001-06:00

I applied (reapplied actually) for a job at the Juvenile Detention Center and the County Jail as a detention officer. I sent the application in on Friday and got a call on Tuesday! I was really excited when the call came in. They scheduled for me to go take a test on 10th at 9:00 AM. If I can get this job then I will be set. I will be making way more money and get benefits. I will also get some additional education benefits to top off my Army benefits. I will probably be making too much to qualify for FAFSA anymore. I'm ok with that though because after I reclass in the Army I will be getting 100% tuition in TX under the Hazelwood Act! I have changed my mind and decided I don't want ROTC to get in a hurry to release me. I get paid more being in ROTC. Being this late now I would not sign up for a ARMY school until after Teddy’s wedding anyway. God has truly blessed me with this opportunity. Just include this in your prayers and also my grandpa and family.

Digg it

2009-11-11T17:45:00.001-06:00

It’s 1:31A.M. and my internet just went out. I called Suddenlink and they said that it was on their end and not to worry. OK. Considering my sleep pattern is off again I need the internet to entertain me late at night. I can not play Xbox or get on do anything on my computer without it. (I have not been sleeping in….yet. I have just been staying up until 3A.M.) I just wanted to update you on a great blog nerd fitness. It is a very knowledgeable blog. I agree with everything I have read on their.

David Dunn

2009-10-21T19:13:00.001-05:00

I really like this song....What cooler about the video is Dave is one of my friends. He left a booger on my wall!

2009-10-19T19:08:00.002-05:00

I know you have probably seen this before. It is such an amazing video and I was just thinking about it so I put it on here.

2009-10-14T07:06:00.001-05:00

Don't you wake up yet
Give me some time to watch you asleep
Oh angel of mine
And I
I will be fine
As long as your near me
Oh angel of mine

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

Here in this cozy room just me and you
Oh cuddling and kissing making sweet love shooting star wishing and watch the sun come up
And then we'll sleep all day
Meet in our dreams and live life our way
Drop it all off and we'll fly away
Dip through the stars and wake up slowly

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

One thing I know fore sure
Is my love for you is deeper then any root or stone mamma told me
So don't walk the streets alone (x2)

I said
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

Heey hey
Ooh, oh
Would you go or would you stay?

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you staay.. with me

When life gives you lemonade

2009-09-30T14:15:00.002-05:00

So go ahead and ask her
For happy ever after
'Cause nobody knows what's coming
So why not take a chance on loving
Come on, pour the glass and tempt me
Either half-full or half-empty
'Cause if it all comes down to flavor
The glass is tipping in my favor

Life gave me lemonade and I can't imagine why
Born on a sunny day, beneath a tangerine sky
I live life without pretending
I'm a sucker for happy endings
Thanks for the lemonade
Thanks for the lemonade!

Now take your time to answer me
For the beauty of romancing
Is to calm your trembling hand with mine
While begging love to fill your eyes
I can hardly breathe while waiting
To find out what your heart is saying
And as we're swirling in this flavor
The world is tilting in our favor

Life gave me lemonade and I can't imagine why
Born on a sunny day, beneath a tangerine sky
I live life without pretending
I'm a sucker for happy endings
Thanks for the lemonade
Thanks for the lemonade!

I've got it made
Rest in the shade
And hold my love
While God above
Stirs with a spoon
We share the moon
Smile at the bees
More sugar please
He really loves us after all
We're gonna need another straw!
We're gonna need another straw!

Life gave me lemonade and I can't imagine why
Born on a sunny day, beneath a tangerine sky
I live life without pretending
I'm a sucker for happy endings
Thanks for the lemonade
Thanks for the lemonade!

Love it

2009-09-30T14:10:00.001-05:00

Here come those eyes
There goes my ability to breathe
Those legs are walking her to me

Well tell me I ain't dreaming

Here comes that smile
I can't even move, Can't even blink
Cause I don't want to miss a thing
And I'm not even fooling
When I say the boys are drooling
And the girls are all staring her down

My knees go weak, and
My heart starts to pound

It happens every time
She saunters into the room
It all blurs and
It all starts to zoom
And then my head starts spinning

She gets a few feet away
And sudden;y we're both in slow motion
Like were alone in the deep blue ocean
I know it's just a feeling
But it might as well be real
Because I think I might be fixin to drown

My knees go weak
And my heart starts to pound

She takes my hand
I don't know what to say
She understands anyway

And here come those eyes
'Can she what I'm think of?'
If this is what the call love
I can't believe I'm in it
Thanking heaven every minute
I'm the luckiest boy in this town
My knees go weak and my heart stops
And I can't catch my breath
I think I better sit down
Because my knees go weak
And my heart starts to pound

Sequence of events for great day

2009-09-28T20:02:00.003-05:00

Nothing was very exhilarating, I did not rise up and accomplish new challenges. I didn't win anything. I just woke up like normal. If you wonder what normal wake up is like for a depressed 22 year old with no job and out of school. It is just what you would imagine. After hitting the snooze a couple times and ignoring my mom's phone call. I hopped up feeling pretty refreshed. I watched some sportscenter to catch on the weekends football and contemplated brushing my teeth. I rinsed off my face and smiled at myself in the mirror while doing a dance move that would get me on so you think you can dance for all the wrong reasons. I laced up my tennis shoes and went for a 2 mile run at the dog park. When I got home I took care of the three S's (s!*t, shower and shave) and then got dressed for my interview. Thanks Teddy for the shirt! After making to to the Job interview at Best Buy where I have worked before so I assumed the job was a lock considersing I made it to the point of interview with the G.M. He said we would make this quick because he alradey knew me. He asked where I wanted to work in the store. I replied with I can do anything on the sells floor but I would rather work in the warehouse or Geek Squad. He pretty much told me to choose it was up to me. He was allowing me the opoppurtunity to work anywhere in the store. I did not know that I had made such a impression before. When I worked their before I had attendance issues with calling in letting them know I would be late or get people to cover my shifts. It was not a priority because I did not need to work. Now I need it. He offered me a postion in geek squad. That is the highest paying job starting out in store. 5 seconds after I walked out of the interview I got a call about a job I had bid on A MONTH AGO. I got the job needless to say. I will now be taking care of Dollar Generals lawn care. that will help out. I also got a call about a quick job in slaton. Just picking up some brush. That was some quick and easy money. Well that was the best part of the day and that was all before 1. I had lunch with my mom and hung out with my brother which were just icing on the cake.

First page

2009-09-14T21:36:00.001-05:00

As he sits in the recovery room with his beautiful wife he takes a deep breath. He exhales his breath and running his hands through his hair he closes his eyes and bows his head. He says a prayer for his new born son just as he did for his two children before. He thanks God for the health of his wife and son and prays the same prayer that he has twice before. He prays for strength and wisdom in raising the child. Life has not been what he has expected when he was young to this point, but he could not be happier then in this moment. As a young Captain in the Army he has been recognized for his efforts in psychology and counter terrorism. His oldest son is soon to begin his first year of football as he is turning 7 in a month. His daughter who just turned 4 is in her 1st year of dance. He stands up from the chair and kisses his sleeping wife on the forehead. He walks down the hall to the Nursery where they are caring for the newest edition to his family. There he finds his father-in-law watching the new born sleep. “Looks like a future tight-end” says the proud grandfather. “We will see” says the father, “He has the legs like Barry Sanders”. Football was always the passion of the Army officer. He still keeps his dreams alive of evaluating talent and character of young football players.

School

2009-08-24T00:17:00.002-05:00

Yay! School is starting! Wait! why am I excited!? What is the deal with all the exclamation points? I usually am not this excited about school, but I don't think anything can get in my way of staying motivated (other than me) I am excited about working out in ROTC and making more friends threw that organization. I have been playing alot of NCAA on XBOX. I have finally gotten some more calls for my business. I got a contract with Dollar General! I will be taking care of their lawn care. I am also going to be cleaning a womans house every week! That should almost be enough to supplement a part time income! Whomever has been praying for me keep it up. Things have been looking up. I have been anti social lately, but that almost turned around completely when Jeffery got home. So pray that God provides community in my life.

A poem by anonomys

2009-08-06T23:06:00.000-05:00

I am a Liar
You are too
I have been lying
My whole life
My mom taught me the golden rule
And told me not to lie
Got in trouble everyday
I became a better liar
It’s easy to become a liar when you live a lie
I often lied to myself
Told myself he would show
Believed he did it because he loved me
Said she didn’t cheat
I will never get over the lies
Until the truth is clear
It is who I am
As you read this you are probably thinking
I’m Crazy
Your right
My heart wears scars that no love can heal
I deal with it my way
You deal with it yours
I know I love her
She won’t let me make her happy though
So I will tell another lie
I don’t love her
I don’t want her to be happy
I don’t dream about her smile
I don’t want her to love only me
I don’t want her until she wants me

The Temptations

2009-08-06T22:15:00.002-05:00

Sunshine, blue sky, please go away, My girl has found another, and gone away With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom,So day after day, I stay locked up in my room
I know to you it might sound strange, I wish it would rain (oh how I wish that it would rain)Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
Cause so badlyI wanna go outside (such a lovely day) Everyone knows that a man ain't supposed to cryBut listen, I got to cry, cuz crying, ooooooooh,Is the pain, oh yeah
Yeah you know people, this hurt I feel inside,Words, they, could never explain,I wish it would rain (oh how i wish that it would rain)Oh let it rain, rain, rain, rain (oh how i wish that it would rain) Ooooooh baby
Let it rain (rain, rain) Oh yeah, let it rain
Day in day out, my tear stained facePressed against my window paneI search the skies, well, desperately for rainCause rain drops will hide my teardrops and no one will ever know That I'm crying (crying) crying (crying)When I go outside
To the world outside my tears I refuse to explain, I wish it would rain (oh how I wish that it would rain)Rain, rain, rain (oh how I wish that it would rain)ooooh baby
Let it rainI need rain to disguise the tears in my eyesYeah, You know I'm a man, I ain't got no pride,Til it rains, I'm gonna stay inside,Let it rain, Let it rainOh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...Oh how I wish that it would rain...

Time to do stuff

2009-07-21T12:54:00.003-05:00

So I haven't done anything in a while. Anything that I can really be proud of or that has required a lot of effort on my part. What I am trying to say I guess is I have not worked for anything in a while. So I am going to step out of my comfort zone and do some stuff that I may fail at. I have not really set down and thought about it. I think I probably wont. I will probably just do some things as the opportunity presents itself. One thing I have decided on is.........I am going to ride my bicycle from Lubbock to Iowa Park! I am going to start training tomorrow. Riding a few hours in the morning and evening hopefully. For those of you who are going to be downers on this. DON'T! I don't mind some advice on the situation: "wear sunscreen, drink water, take breaks, whatever it is" I just don't want anyone to tell me not to do it. I think the plan as of now is leave the week of the 3rd of August whatever the coolest day that week is and just be like Forest Gump. I will ride when I want to ride and rest when I want to rest. I will not be in a hurry to get there. I will have my cellphone and GPS with me. I plan on taking both camlepaks full of water, and stopping regularly to refill them and drink a sport drink. I don't know if I will ride back or beg someone to take me back. That will depend on how the trip up there goes.

I met with my dicipler last night. I love what God is doing through him in my life. We relate very well. He is very blunt with me and does not mind telling me how much I SUCK. We both agree the sooner I can truly accept this the easier it will be to truly appreciate what Jesus has done for me.

Tony Romo is amazing

2009-07-20T22:53:00.001-05:00

Tony Romo: Product Spokesman from Tony Romo

Giving up

2009-07-19T22:56:00.002-05:00

I am giving up Facebook until further notice. at least until August. It has become a unneeded distraction. Sometimes a cause of frustration, so I am giving it up. If you want to contact me and normally would do it there leave comments here or pick up the telephone.

Google Voice

2009-07-16T02:20:00.002-05:00

GOOGLE!!!! Google has came out with a new application called Google Voice. It has not been out long and I believe at this point you have to ask for an invitation. I requested one a few months back and just got the invite today!!! I set up my account and was off. The way it works is you choose your number based on whatever area code you want. Next you set up Google with all of your numbers, for me that was two numbers. when someone calls your Google number it will ring all the phones you put on the list. The coolest part though is it gives you a separate voice mail where it transcribes all your messages. That means it types them out! You can send and receive text on it as well. Google is taking over the world. I recommend being on their side when it happens.

Thanks

2009-07-08T19:09:00.002-05:00

Also thanks to Mimi, Papa, Nenae, Nathan and whomever else pitched in on the Toolbox!!! i alrady have it on and will take some pictures later. Love ya'll so much!

Jeffery please live with me!!!

2009-07-08T09:20:00.003-05:00

So it has been OVER A WEEK sense I wrote on here. Let me feel you in. Last weekend was 4th of July; Kali and I went to Lake Nocona to spend the 4th with some friends and Robbie's Family. Kali got to go to Julie's baby shower and seemed to really enjoy her opportunity to get to meet one of my best friends wife. I don't know exactly what it is about Bryan and Julie, but I love them. They are both great friends to me who show an good example of a relationship built on love. Julie is due in a month or so. I plan on heading back to IP when that time rolls around as well. I am down to 205 right now on my diet. I was at 201 last week, between some late dinners and this last weekend I put back on 6 lbs. Oh well. I will make my goal. Yesterday was my birthday! I had a really good time. I got to hang out with a lot of people I had not got to in a while. Phil Cotton! I love that man. I wish we were best friends. My parents were all very generous. I feel like my family life is as good as it has ever been. I am very thankful for my parents and that they have the ability to take in my cousins. It is an amazing thing that thye are doing. Mom and Dave got me a tool box for the bed of my truck! I really really really wanted one. I knew they were going to try and get one. I did'nt know they were going to get a NEW one. It is perfect though. If I could just figure out how to put the dang thang on. Kali got me some underwear which I have been joking about for a long time about needing. She also got me Madden!!!! I just did a little dance with a gangster face as I wrot that. Wish I could of put it on here. Last night I did some rewiring in my future bedroom. I put up an extra ceiling fan and put a switch by the door so you dont have to walk across the room to turn on the lights. Today it is back to the real world. I have been on a vacation from responsibility. I have not worked in a week, I definately did not stick to my diet. I already got a call this morning though. God is so amazing the way he works.

GOD Is showing me the way.

2009-06-30T23:53:00.003-05:00

So today I did my largest job yet. I worked for 11 hours and made $500! That is not the best part about it or even the most exciting. It was how the lord was there the whole way. I saw the lord right in front of me. The job was to move three sisters who all live in 3 separate house into 1 house where they were moving in all together. They were the nicest people. At the first house as we were moving the woman asked me if I had any use for a blower. Hecks yes!! See most my jobs are mowing jobs. I make a big mess with the edger and it takes for ever to clean up with the broom. Me and my dad are always talking about how I need a blower. She also gave me a garden sprayer that I have been needing to spray my fence. Then I leave to the last house and as I am driving there I see a guy on his bicycle and I was like man I can't wait to ride the bike to school again. It was very short lived last year because I tore my ACL so early in the school year. Then I thought how I will have to ride Mr. Fireman himselfs bike because I did not have one of my own. It is tough to make the Trek to school on the mountain bike though. Speaking of Trek that is exactly what I got as soon as I got to the last house. A Trek road bike. in amazing condition. It needs new tires, but the bike frame alone is probably woryh over $500. That is why I did not have one to begin with. I was thank you SO MUCH. This is literaly and answer to prayers. I am also excited to see what God is revealing to me in the relationship. He is reminding me through my dicipleship and study that he is the way. I hate to accept that his will must be done. That is very hard for me. I want to control it myself. I see that we are moving forward in the right direction. Tonight my biggest prayer request is that when I know what God wants, I make that happen. That I give all my fears and struggles to him and him alone. This is one of my struggles that need to be given to him. So I will need a lot of prayer! THANK YOU SO MUCH JESUS.

IN IP

2009-06-28T03:47:00.002-05:00

So I went and Saw Transformers 2!!!! It was so good. It had a lot of unneccesary but it was very good overall. I can't sleep cause I am not feeling well. I have visited the bathroom way to many times tonight. I thought I was going to get on here and write a long post cause I can't sleep, but I don't really have anything to say. I think my girlfriends grandfather past away today. He is in a much better place though. I am not sure because I have not talked to her sense thursday night. I just gathered that from her brother Facebook status. He was a very great man. I am honored I had the oppurtunity to meet him. He seemed to be a man who loved his wife, kids and grandkids. I am hoping that Kali gives me a call when the reception for the wedding she is at finishes up.

SWEEEEEEEEEEETTTT

2009-06-24T13:58:00.003-05:00

Currently listening to FIREMAN!!!! LIL WAYNE

So Teddy got into fire academy!! I was very excited for him. He was so happy though, It was good to see that side of him. I think it has been a long time sense I have. He was whooping and shouting. I think he even shouted a few times in his sleep!!! Now that he is in, I am sure he will be fine. I have seen him working hard in his EMS course and the work is paying off. Keep praying that the focus remains toward God, and that Teddy can maintain the discipline and intrinsic motivation that it going to take to make all the way. I know he will be fine.

I have been working quite a bit the past few days. I have to makes sure I have enough money to make it to and from Iowa Park this weekend. I am going to be putting a fence up this week or next with the people at the pre-school! They have been giving me a lot of work.

I am continuing in my counseling appointments, They have been good, not because I am solving any problems or making leaps and bounds. She is just someone that is knowledgeable that I can listen to. She reminded me in our session yesterday that Gods grace is enough!!!! I knew this but its not one of those things that is always in front of my mind. I am always putting very high standards on myself, and judging my faith based on how much I read the bible or go to church. These are very important things in building a personal relationship with god, but his grace is enough!!!! Even when I fail his grace is enough, even when I sin his grace is enough. Even when I lose sight of the cross and my priorities get so far out of order that I should kick my own booty, his GRACE is enough! I have fallen off on my reading sense last week. I am going to try and have a few separate sit down sessions today so I can get caught up. I also don't want to take in to much at one time.

Well I think I am off to the pool!! two weeks until my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Finally

2009-06-21T21:07:00.002-05:00

I really have not wanted to get on here and right. Nothing super exciting going on. Ate a bunch of Pizza yesterday. unloaded a guys truck today. Made $100 in 1:30 hours. Got two more jobs! Business has been really well. I am definitely making more than I would part time anywhere. i only have to out in about 10-15 hrs a week and before expenses on things like gas and equipment I could make about $250 a week! I have not been very profitable lately, but I am getting about 4 calls a week and the business keeps coming in. I have almost all the equipment I need now or I just borrow from my step-dad! That has helped a lot. From here on out most everything I make will be straight profit. I cant wait until tomorrow so I get back to working out. I am slowly becoming the person I want to be. I did not expect the change to be easy having to battle my lazy self and the devil. It is coming though. I am a sinner, I know that. God has greater plans for me though. I can not wait for school to start so I can start making some money again. I believe with my new diet I will be able to save a lot of money on food. It has helped so much in my eating habits and my budget to plan out most meals in advance. I have actually been eating quite large meals that have been enjoyable. My problem with my normal eating habits is that I just eat large serving of several things throughout the day added to my 1000-1500 calories of tea and juices and it makes for a day with a lot of extra calories. my goal is to work really hard and disciplined until I get down to size and weight I want, and then let up on the rains and just work to maintain it. After tracking calorie intake and calories burned for about a week. I am starting to understand what Michael Irvin meant when he said eat with a purpose and not for pleasure. I could do 100 or so push-ups vigorously and burn maybe 70 calories. while in that same time eat 1/4 cup of skittles and consume over 100. The only thing is i love fruit candy!!! I could eat the whole king size bag in less than 10 minutes. That is probably over 600 calories. I am not doing without everything I love and in general I love food so it does not matter what I eat, however until I am able to get below 196 I am going to be very disciplined. i am not going to let it interfere with dates and outings with friends though.

The living situation next year may change dramatically in my house. Josh is probably going on mission trips for a long while. I am going to work with my brother to gt in a situation where he can get a place on his own. I want him to get involved in a christian organization first though so he can find community that way, and hopefully good reliable roommates. I am hoping that my really close to the top of the best friend list Jeffery makes the decision to live with us. He would take over for Josh and be our 4th person. Seth may also stay with us until December when he is getting married. If that were the cases I would probably share the large room with him or my dad until he moved out. I am very excited about the future, and the challenges that it will present. It will test my vulnerability, I will also be forced to not live so comfortable with my lifelong friends who are their no matter what. Pray for these things. Also pray that my friend T-Lyte gets into the fire academy or whatever the outcome is he will see Gods chosen path for him.

Catching up

2009-06-18T21:29:00.003-05:00

So I don't journal for 1 whole day and I feel like their is a whole lot of catching up to do. First my workout yesterday was good. I did crossfit in the morning. Then I did Ab-Ripper at night. I had a job to mow a yard yesterday and made $40 off of it. Not bad wages considering I only have to pay my day with dinner and a strawberry shake. I also looked at the scale yesterday and realized that I had lost 7 POUNDS in 3 days! That is a crazy unhealthy number. I am making sure I am getting all vital nutrients, Vitamins and minerals every day. These two-a-day workouts mixed with only drinking water and milk(sparingly just enough to get calcium requirements) are really shredding the weight. I know this will not continue at this rate but I am on a 90 day program so I am sure that I will reach my goal of 25-30lbs by the end of August!

Yesterdays verse was just as applicable as the ones before it.

Luke 6:46-49 (New International Version)

The Wise and Foolish Builders

⁴⁶"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. ⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

My bible breaks this down referring to the foundation stuff. It talks about it will all seem fine to live in Christ without a good foundation during peaceful times, but as soon as a storm hits; BOOM everything is wiped out, and you are left with nothing. Lucky for me, even though my walls were torn down buy the storms, Jesus still loved me.

More Wishes

2009-06-16T07:56:00.001-05:00

Also for my birthday you can contribute money to my new Tattoo. My mom is going to get me one she just does not know it yet. So get with her if that what you would like to do.

Come and I will make you fishers of men

2009-06-16T07:24:00.003-05:00

Matt my discipler gave me some expectations/requirements if I was going to continue meeting with him. I need to be in the word every day. I need to get involved with a community of believers. He also told me not to read Rob Bell. He said until you have had the Gospel drilled into you enough to pick and choose what to take from Mr. Bell just to avoid it, he did not dislike him. He brings people to Jesus. He does not always do it based on the Gospel though. He gave me a verse to read every day as well as a list of versus that his bible study was going through. This morning after Waking up at 4:30 ( I did not plan on waking up at 4:30 I just did) I went on a 1.5 mile run which I will talk about in another post. I then ate breakfast and then opened the word to read the "assigned passages". They were spot on. God is battling satins 7 types of smoke he throwing at me with a full out attack of air support, ground troops, and up-armored Humvees with mounted .50 calibers!

This is the verse he want me to read every day so much that I have no choice but to memorize it:

Colossians 1:21-23 (New International Version)

²¹Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²²But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

This is an amazing verse that is just what I was needed in my life right now. We talked last night that the "IF" in verse 23 is not used in the usual definition of if. He is not saying this has to happen. He is assuming you are going to.

Today verse was:

Mark 1:16-20 (New International Version)

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

This is one of my favorite versus already. I was reading in the New living Translation, but I did not like their interpretation so I got out the NIV version. It is closer to the way I have always read it.

My bible say that fishing was a major industry at the Sea of Galilee. It was a means for survival. Jesus calls us to fish for people with same energy as fishing to survive. It also talks about how Jesus called them and dropped everything and came. This was not the first time they were called upon though. They faltered the same way we do, but we must never quit following Jesus.

God Hates Sin

2009-06-16T07:01:00.004-05:00

I am going to start with the a prayer request cause it is on the front of my mind. So everything right now is going well and the lord has given me the strength to stay motivated and encouraged in this journey back to him. I already knew this to be true, but while talking about my brother the other day my grandmother told me about how when the devil has you in his grasp indulging in sin he does not mes with you as much. However when you decide to change and take steps in that direction he come at you with all he has. I AM A SINNER. We all our, but my biggest struggle is living comfortably and coasting in the sinful times. I am doing well in my thoughts and actions and Jesus has remained right at the front of my mind. The devil is coming after me with his 7 types of smoke though. I am tempted in EVERY moment of the day to let my mind wonder away from Jesus. To get into that comfort zone where no one can touch me, where my sins are in charge of my life. Please pray that I avoid drifting in to be comfortable.

Hi my name is Rhyan Anderson and I am a sinner. I have a new way of looking at sin. I met with what is hopefully going to become my discipler last night. Everything he told me in out "get to know ya" meeting was so simple. I was so far away and starved that it was just what I needed though. Everything he said was spot on. We related very well as sinners, and he has shared some of my same struggles. God was definitely speaking through him. Two of the simple things that he said that really stood out in out meeting was "God hates sin" even though he gave us his son to die for our sins, and he does not love us any less when we do. It does not make him not hate sin. As the creator of the universe and my father looking at sin with that aspect makes me want to do it a lot less. It brings a sort of shameful aspect to it. The other was the focus has to be on the cross and what happened their. I told him of how I was a hypocrite and I used my brother as an example often expecting standards even I can't achieve. I will tell him what it is supposed to like and what it is not supposed to look like when it comes to making decisions and right or wrong choices. However when I do this although my intentions are good my focus is not on the cross. I am not pointing him to Jesus, which is the right way. Another thing he spoke about was a love for Jesus that is strong that it will make everything else you love seem like hatred. This is very intense I told him. It is what I need though.

Workout 6/15/09

2009-06-15T23:16:00.002-05:00

I am going to attempt to pull double workouts for at least a month. It nearly killed me today. ITS SO HOT!

Today I ran about 1.5-2 miles this morning after warming up on the bike.

I am on some new supplements combined with a low dosage ephedrine pill. I hope my body adapts soon cause today was crazy.

I stuck to the diet that I planned out for the day and I was satisfied.

In the evening around 6:30 it was still 96 degrees outside. I could not wait anymore to workout though cause I had to meet with my new discipler at 9. So I started the P90X shoulder and Arms routine. I love this one and I need to do some biceps. I finished with Ab Ripper X! I do not do as well in the p90 workouts alone as I do with someone, didn't matter though I am sore as bleep!

When I was in high school I had a 2X4 in my shower and I would do calf raises on it while I took showers. I have started this again and am already seeing the results.

Wishes

2009-06-15T17:56:00.002-05:00

My birthday is just around the corner! In case anyone was wondering what I want:

Gift Cards to either GNC or Complete nutrition preferably Complete Nutrition.

Book about War Heroes and/or Biographies

Nike+ Ipod Adapter mine is out of commission

NewEgg gift certificates.

GOD IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2009-06-15T15:51:00.002-05:00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was just because I could not fit enough exclamation points in the title!!!! So today was the day that I decided las week I was getting things in line. I was going to quit talking about doing the write things and the person I wanted to be. I was going to take steps toward being that person. I got up and worked out then made a good breakfast and took my new supplements. (I am shaking with excitement right now trying to get to the best part, or maybe its the ephedra who knows) I went to my therapy session which went well and then I got home and continued to stick to the Diet that I laid out for myself. I have not opened Gods word yet :( I will get there though. I took care of some things on my to-do list and then got a call from an unknown number. It was Redeemer finally returning my call. I reached out a few weeks back to Redemmer and E-Life church to see about finding someone to diciple me. I thought that it was just set to the side because I had heard nothing. Apparently God was waiting until I was really ready and not going through the motions because we are meeting tonight at 9! He is only 26, but he is married and can relate to some of the things Im sure. He said if it does not seem like we are a good fit he knows a ton of guys in the church that could be! I just want to thank everyone who has followed this. Thanks for the prayer and thoughts. It is starting to come together now. Please continue to pray because the struggles are all still their. HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

2009-06-15T12:07:00.003-05:00

Currently Listening:

Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried

"I thank God for my life
And for the stars and stripes
May freedom forever fly, let it ring.
Salute the ones who died
The ones that give their lives so we don`t have to sacrifice
All the things we love
Like our chicken fried"

Chris Cagle - Chicks Dig IT!!!!

"Scars heal... glory fades
And all were left with are the memories made, oh yeah
Pain hurts, but only for a minute
Yeah life is short so go on and live it
Cause the chicks dig it"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa9mNistHSs

Where have you been?

2009-06-13T15:05:00.003-05:00

I saw someone today that I have not seen in a while. Together this guy and me used to have so much fun. It was nice to see him cause it has been a long time. You see we go way back as far as i can remember. We used to do everything together. He always demanded respect and gave it in return. He was really a good role model. He loved Jesus, he was a great friend, he stayed out of trouble most of the time and had morals and values that were rarely compromised. If you have not realized who I was talking about by now it is myself. I don't know where that person went, but for a moment today I was stuck in that frame of mind and enjoyed it. I want to rewind a little bit and find that person. You see although that person was very shy and often avoided confrontation. He was still a silent leader who you could have faith in. I know that person is just around the corner, I have been down the yellow brick road and seen the wizard. He helped me realize what it will take to get my courage, heart, brain and most of all find my way back home to my creator. Why do I sit in this mode of eternal starvation. I thirst and hunger for the lord so much, but when he appears and shows me the way. I falter right back into temptation. I used to be verbal with my battle with satin. When I would find myself falling into temptation I would shout out loud for him to leave me alone. I would stop in that moment and call on God for the guidance and strength I needed. Where did this go? I have never been disciplined in studying the word, but I have always studied and listened and tour apart everything that people who do say. That was how I learned. Now I see myself living with a lack of focus. I still have goals and dreams, but I am not near as excited by them as I used to be. My friendships have faltered, my relationship is on thin ice. I am undisciplined with my usually strongest areas. I am a little boy on the inside when it comes to finances. "I want" "I want" all the time, when I want something I don't say no I get it. Not just material things either. I have decided that Monday morning I am waking up at 5:30 to work out. I will study the word some and/or do a devotional. I will then walk my dogs and spend time with the lord. I will try to maintain constant conversation with the lord throughout the day. Sharing my struggle with him as well as my friends. I am going to use all 5 therapy sessions that I get. If I am seeing that this is helping me I will get on my own health insurance to avoid the copay's and continue the sessions on a weekly/ bi-weekly basis. I am refinancing my truck next week hoping I can cut at least $100 off my payment. I have one credit card that I have continued to pile on debt sense paying off all of them earlier this year. That will stop. Pray that everything I am confessing with my mouth and the steps that I need to take to get where I need to be become my focus.

Getting you mind right

2009-06-09T21:37:00.002-05:00

While dealing with trying to get my mind right as well as being on orders from the Army their has not been a lot to write about. Probably wont be anything to exciting in the next few weeks. I found out today that the Space Available flight that I was planning on taking wont be able to happen. they told me I have to be on leave. I can not take leave unless I am on active duty. I did pretty well teaching some different classes Yesterday and Today. A lot I just read straight from slide, but I think they got it. Being around all these guys and seeing men who just met already building relationships and camaraderie make me a little nervous. If I was a medic instead of an MP I am pretty sure I would drop my ROTC and volunteer to go with them. Me and Kali took a dance lesson last night. I am definitely going to need a lot of work. I learn by repetition though. So it will take time and practice. I did have a lot of fun though.

Workout

2009-06-09T21:33:00.002-05:00

I think I am only going to use P90X for Abs and some chest and arm days for now. I am really liking crossfit! Its usually pretty quick and demanding. Always changing. So for today:

The goal was to do as many complete sets in 20 min as you can.

5 Pull-ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats

I Did 8 in about 16:30 minutes!

That means I did 40 Pull-ups in 16 minutes! I did the swing style but was still very impressed, AND TIRED.

Work

2009-06-08T16:20:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day of my Army orders that I actually had something to do. I was tasked to teach soldiers about 5 certain awareness and readiness briefings. I got through four of them today! today actually went pretty smooth and my teaching partner also taught 3 classes. I'm sure it was a lot of information to take in one day but they will be taught these things several more times before they get boots on the ground in the combat zone.

Currenlty listening

2009-06-07T16:03:00.002-05:00

So I have been jamming Avenged Sevenfold all day. Almost Easy is the song of my life right now.

If my life were a movie this song would be plying in the background during this part.

Lyrics

Makings of a great day

2009-06-07T11:18:00.003-05:00

This is looking like it COULD be a great day. I got to sleep in till 830 which is late considering I have been getting up before 7 almost every day. I made a little breakfast for me and my brother P.J. then I got my best run in sense I had knee surgery. No I just have to find some stuff to do until Kali gets in town probably this evening. She had mentioned going to see up tonight. That sounds like a plan to me.

6/7/09 Workout

2009-06-07T11:01:00.002-05:00

So this morning I was felling like the time is now.

So I went and got on my stationary bike and went about 5 min on that to get my knee warmed up. Then after warming up and doing some light stretching I walked with my dog Witten down to school about 3 blocks away. I thought that their playground would be a better place to start running then on the road. The grass is better on my knee. I was OFF!! Witten is a good running partner unless birds are around....And they were! She did good though. This was the first time I was able to run without my knee going out before my endurance. I only made it about 10 Min. That a good start though. I was keeping a pretty good pace prabaly about a 8-9 minute mile. I walked back with Witten for part of a cool down, then walked my other dog to finish it off.

6/6/09 Workout

2009-06-06T23:18:00.004-05:00

Got this off Crossfit

5 sets of Max reps
Body Weight Bench press
Pull-ups

I didn't do my body weight on bench cause I would have only gotten 3 and I didn't do max reps cause I did not have a spotter.

1st set: Bench 185x8 Pull-ups 5
2: Bench 185x6 Pull-ups 7
3: Bench 185x5 Pull-ups 6
4: Bench 185x6 Pull-ups 4
5: Bench 185x6 Pull-ups 3

I get to see KALI tomorrow! As she would sing "YAY YAY YAY YA YA"

Accountability

2009-06-06T18:05:00.002-05:00

So i am not going to come up with my own workout. I am going to use a mixture of P90x, Crossfit, and my own knowledge to come up with a workout everyday based on my home equipmen. I am going to try and record what I do everyday and log it on here. If I am not putting stuff up you know I am not working out. Feel free to call me out on it as well. I appreciate the comments. It will also serve as motivation.

A liitle bit of Chicken Fry...Cold Beer on a Friday night

2009-06-06T14:21:00.002-05:00

Last night was the first time that I went out with a group of friends in a long time. I really had a lot of fun. I drank too much. Way too much, but I had fun. Ted, Ben, Mark, Michael, and me went to Caboose and ate dinner. Ted, Ben and I all had Chicken Fry and Cold Beers. Zac Brown Band got that one right. After dinner we went to the Bowling Alley and met a larger group of friends there. I lost every game. Literally got last! Then when we got home, Ben taking advantage of my intoxicated state pushed me down because he thought it was funny. Or maybe I pushed him first. Either way I was on the ground and he somehow hit square in the Testicles. i still felt the pain this morning. I really just wanted to put the pics up that why its so short and brief. More Pictures in my Web Album link!

New haircut!

2009-06-05T15:27:00.002-05:00

Ok so its the same haircut I always have. If its not buzzed. Darn male pattern baldness. It looks like me and some friends may go grab a few beers and dinner then go catch a movie or bowl or something. I'm excited. Today is the day of the wedding that Kali has been preparing for the last week. Thank GOD. One down and one to go. I hope I get the opportunity to go as her date to the next one. I wanted to go to this one, but the Army made that impossible. I would have rather gone to this one so I could have seen Georgetown and the area she is from. The other one is in Dallas so there will be more for me to do when she is busy. I have a few friends in Dallas that it would be fun to see anyways. The suckiest part about today is that I know she looks beautiful and I don't even get to see her. I hope she has fun and get to visit a little with old friends. Apparently the Bride and Groom are trying to hook her up with the grooms brother. To bad for him. I told her to just say sorry their is no comparison. That would end the conversation quickly. Well I got to go do work. time to keep the business running strong.

Bidness

2009-06-04T14:09:00.003-05:00

So i am very bored at work waiting for the clock to hit 3 so I can shut everything down and take off. I got a returning customer this weekedend. She was so happy with my work that she decided she wanted me to help out some more. I may talk to her about gettin on the payroll! Friday after I get off I have to go and help set up playground equipment. Then on the weekend I will help her husband set up an irragation system. Putting PVC pipe in the ground and such. Today after I get off I am going to go and Mow Kali's yard. She has all but told me to! Then I plan on going to The other job that I was supposed to finish earlier in the week and wrapping it up. I also plan on going by GNC and looking at some Supplements. I can't go with Kali this weekend because of my job. unless their is a chance of rain here. I will probably just stay here either way. I can wait an extra day to see her:(

One step at a time

2009-06-04T13:51:00.003-05:00

I think that I have found a Discipler/Mentor! I called two churches today like my wise aunt advised. I have no coonfirmation from either, but both had ideas of people who might be interested. i am waiting for return phone calls from both. I hope this works out because like I said before I believe this has been a big void in my spiritual journey.

Random

2009-06-01T17:15:00.005-05:00

I was on my first day of orders today. Got there at 0730 and didn't have anything to do until around 10. After that I got on the worlds slowest computer and googled some different Army training PowerPoints that I will learn and teach next week to some soldiers who are deploying. Their was good news that came out of the sitting around today. I started reading different reserve documentation and learned that when I commision I will be making a minimum of around $50,000 a year with GREAT MILITARY BENIFITS. Thats if I am single/unmarried. The Army pay rate goes up when you are married or have dependants. Knowing the way the promotion system works I should be around the $75,000 a year within 3-4 years about the time you traditionally would make Cpt. Remember these are minimums. If I get OCONUS (outside continental U.S.) duty it will for sure be more. Kali is still in Georgetown area. They have been getting a lot done in preperation of her friends wedding. Looking at a calendar I realised that this weekend will be the last time in June that we will both be off work at the same time. So I have decided that I am going to go be with her if her mom decides to stay an extra day or two after the wedding on Friday. I would probably leave Friday after I get released and I would try to get an early releasal. They may be going to float the river. That would be fun, I have only had that oppurtunity once before. If they don't do that I have no idea what their plan will be or reason for staying. So then I will just drive to where ever Kali is. That way she can show me around where she is from and things in that area. She seems to think that they may have "things" to do that would meant that we could not be together. It would not be worth my time to make the drive. If they don't go float I see no reason she can't ditch them so we can go explore. It will probably not make her momma happy, but I would be excited about seeing her neighborhood. My real hope is that they would just come home on Saturday morning. This may all be just dreams if my check does not come in.

New brother and Sisters!?

2009-05-31T15:12:00.002-05:00

So my parents legalized and finalized the adoption of my cousins who have been staying with them. So now in a sense I have another little brother and two little sisters!? I am excited about the finalizing of the adoption. Its good for the kids and my parents. I dont know how i feel about calling my cousins "brother and sister". In a way I already treated them like so, but now that it is official. i am not sure. I'm grown and out of the house so either way it does not really affect me. Im sure it will all work out OK. They will have their hands full with the girls. Neither of them have any experience. Nor the patience I am afraid. So pray for them. Pray that God will have his way in the development of the children. It is a scary time to grow up in America.

2009-05-30T00:45:00.001-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLI!! Take care of my man Jeffery.

Long day??

2009-05-29T18:21:00.002-05:00

So today was my longest and largest job that I have been hired for. I got a call yesterday from a women who owned a preschool. She said that she needed someone who can/will do a lot of the jobs that her husband and others didn't want to, or didn't finish. I was excited! This is the sort of things I was hoping to get into when I started my business. I went by that afternoon to check out the job, and see what all she was wanting done. Nothing I could not handle. Showed up this morning around 9 and got to work. It was a building about the size of a Hastings, with classrooms set up. The first project was to clean the vents. THEY WERE DIRTY! Especially the ones in the bathrooms, which their was 9. That took most the morning. Then around the kids lunch time we didn't want to get dust everywhere while they were eating so we got started on the second job. Putting together 5 shelves, a dresser, and a trash can. All made from the fine WalMart material of particle board. We finished those and then took a load to the dump for her. She wanted me to haul off some wood piles, a desk and the cardboard trash. That's when Ben (who came with me) and I took our lunch. We got paid for that also. Not bad. Came back and they were having their preschool graduation so we finished up the vents. All we lacked after the vents was putting up some crown molding that she was going to use as a support for the hooks that the kiddos back packs went on. We did that and I got asked to come back tomorrow and help move some furniture and rearrange some stuff with the teachers. That will be a good 4 hours work as well. So today I got 8 hours in and should get 4 or more tomorrow. Sometime in the near future I am going to work with her husband in putting up a fence and putting down some PVC pipe irrigation in their playground. While I was up on the ladder all the kids in every classroom I went in would say "WHOA" that's high! It was really funny. They would then begin to ignore their teacher while I cleaned and stare at me instead. One kid said that's what I want to do when I get older. The teacher immediately explained to him that I was in college where he needed to be. I just did this for extra money. I really enjoyed being in that environment working. I like being in the role of person who doesn't have to discipline the kids just play with them and joke around! I am also excited cause it is all women who work there so I will give out my business card tomorrow to them and hopefully get some more jobs out of it.

Freinds

2009-05-28T09:24:00.004-05:00

So I got the chance this morning to talk with and pray for some of my friends. I know I can pray for them anytime, but this morning I was asked by one who is on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ to pray for him as he is sharing his struggles with other people on project. It made me feel proud to be his friend. Then another friend called from the airport on his way out to FUGE, a camp where as I understand it, their ministry is with kids and high schoolers, and its like a church camp. A really good one though that is all over the country, plus my friends is their. He didn't ask me for prayer, but I figured while I had God on the line I would send one up for him, his safety on his flight and that God will use one of his sharpest swords to speak to the kids. Then I thought about my other friend who is in Dallas fresh out of college and looking for a job before his seminary starts in June. So I prayed for him to. I know these are things that should be automatic for me, but they are not. It really amazes me though how happy I was after. So if your reading this if you could also send up a prayer for my friends this summer. While your at it pray for my friend in Lubbock who is starting his EMT training Monday. It will be an adventure for him that he has never experienced. He is looking to be a fireman and if he can get through all of this training he will be a dang good one. It might even land him a calendar modeling career. HAHA... He will be a good looking fireman though.

Navy

2009-05-27T20:21:00.003-05:00

Went and picked up my friends Ben from the airport today. He is on leave from the Navy. I miss his humor. After I went and got him he didn't want to stay at my house so he went and helped me with a job. The job only took an hour. I have been doing a two hour minimum though so it turned out very good. Tonight we are considering bowling we will see. Kali is probably going to come over after work. She is leaving Friday for a week so I want to take advantage of every opportunity I have with her. June is going to be tough cause I will be working everyday. I think. I haven't gotten my orders yet. So we will see. Tomorrow I should get to hang out with Kali for a little while. I want to finish Arrested Development. We started watching it when we first started dating. We are on the last season, but we only watch it when their is nothing else to do. So I am going to recommend that.

Videos

2009-05-26T14:11:00.002-05:00

I waste time looking at videos sometimes. I need to be cleaning my barn right now, but this is funner.

Stop motion is probably the coolest type of video. I am not sure I love the song but the video is AMAZING!!

Ehh... entertaining

Prayer Request

2009-05-25T22:26:00.003-05:00

I really need this prayer request. Kali and I have been doing fine. We don't fight, don't really even argue. We need prayer though. Our relationship is at a critical point. We need guidance from God and help following what he has called us to do. Their are so many external things that effect our relationship that shouldn't. Its hard because We have only been dating for going on 7 months, and neither of us really know what a Christ centered relationship looks like. We both know it is what we want, but it has become one of the most illusive goals. Sure we love Jesus and try to hold each other accountable, but good old Mr. Webster wouldn't define our relationship as "Christ centered". So I want to ask that God provides for us someone to look at as an example or something that can lead us in the right direction. I also want to pray that God will provide someone to me that I can meet with regularly for guidance and wisdom from a Christian standpoint. That has been something that I have needed for a long time. I took it for granted when I had two people trying to reach out to me and meet with me regularly, now that they are gone I really need someone else. I am not ready though to meet with someone and just discuss my ministry. I have a lot of things I need to talk about and struggles that if I could just get off my chest I know it would help. So when you are dialing the big man send some love my way. I sure could use it.

Kelli I know you will read this eventually and when you do feel free to put it out their as a public prayer request at your project or what not. Cause now it the time for me to be serious with this. Plus I have really become disconnected from CRU the past year and plan on staying that way, but I don't know where else to look for guidance. If you know of anyone not necessarily just CRU who might be interested let me know so we can try and set it up. I really need a weekly dicipler though. I understand that all the staff is working on support right now so it would be difficult.

Starting over once again

2009-05-25T19:35:00.003-05:00

So P90x started out really well and we blew through the first phase. Take vitamins,work out, drink shakes, repeat. That was the routine and we did good sticking to it for a while. Then towards the end of phase two we started skipping workouts and eating unhealthier again. So now that Josh is going to be gone for the summer Teddy and I decided to start from scratch and motivate each other every day. So today was the first day of that and it went as expected. I ate ribs before and Teddy got light headed. We are not discouraged though. We will stick it out this time. So hold off for a little longer on seeing the progress pictures.

"H"aving fun!

2009-05-24T13:33:00.006-05:00

So this was a pretty good weekend. Made plans to go to Palo Duro for the weekend. Me and Kali were going to camp out Friday night and then go on a Bird seeing hike Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we were supposed to go on a horse back ride and then I thought we would cast the fishing lines out for a few hours and then that evening was a guided hike at night time through the canyon's. I made plans and reservations for all these things a week in advance. It never crossed my mind that it was memorial weekend and i would need to make a reservation to get a camping spot. So when we arrived we got told buy the women at the gate "No reservation, No camping" so then I called a few places around Palo Duro just as a place to camp so that we could still do all the things I had planned for us on Saturday. No luck! I put an exclamation mark because that turned out to be a good thing. We went to a travel store bought a map. Picked a place about 2:30 hours away. I made a few calls to assure that they had camping grounds made sure I was on the right interstate and then took off. We arrived at Black Kettle Grasslands in Oklahoma, bought a map at the information center, talked to an old local for a while about the area and good camping spots. After driving around for some time in the "grasslands" we decided on a veiwing area that was right by a creek. We set up camp, ate some chow and then went on the viewing trail. Immediately we saw an Armadillo about 10' from us. Then around the first turn of the viewing area trail we saw three deer running and jumping doing watever deer do. Along the path their was signs set up showing you pictures and giving you information about the different animal you might see out there. Bobcats, Cardinals, Owls, Deer, oPussum, Racoon, and others. The hike was about 1.5 miles long. It was a pretty area of the country with a lot of greenery. That night after the trail we sat and watched the sunset and read a little. Then we made smores and talked for a while. While making smores A flaming marshmallow fell on my arm leaving a blisters and a small 2nd degree burn. Kali got the action shot, she was trying to capture the flaming marshmallow then the stick broke and it fell right when she captured picture it was quite funny and hurt like H*E*Double hockey stick! The next morning we got up and made breakfast. I made Kali eggs and Cheesy hot dogs with some toast. I ate an egg sandwich!! **TIP: The mayonaise makes the egg sandwich. <<---thanks Josh. We cleaned up and drove over to the lake about a mile away and went and hiked the lake trail. That was about a 2 mile hike. It was also very pretty. Their was not as many anilmals on the trail, we did see some deer again though. Knowing it was gonna rainand having done everything that the Grasslands had to offer us we decided to pack up and head back to Texas! I will put the rest of the pictures up soon.

Cha Ching!!

2009-05-21T15:31:00.002-05:00

So the calls have continued to come in on my business. Craigslist has really been helpful to me. i have gotten 4 calls this week and 3 jobs out of that. it has been really well cause with 2-3 jobs a week at 2-3 each i am doing just fine. This weekend i ma taking Kali on a weekend getaway. I can not say where because she doesn't know. I really don't want anyone to know actually. My plan is to turn our cell phones off as soon as we arrive. Not to be turned on until we get back on the road home. I am planning on just coming home on saturday evening. We will see though. Today I have to go take some things back at the mall and pick up some supplies for this weekend. We are hitting the road earlier tomorrow. This will probably be my last post for the weekend but Check late on sunday and I will tell you how it went.

Hooah!!

2009-05-19T11:22:00.002-05:00

So I just found out that I will be on orders with the Army from June 1-5 and then 8-18.
This is very good news. It will be an opportunity to make some money as well as develop some soldier skills. I am not allowed to publish what I will be doing, It is an excellent opportunity though. I have to do some make up drill still this week and next, so I that will help a lot. I got a couple calls on my business this past few days. I got one of the jobs. Tomorrow I will be going to a woman's house to paint some trim and doors. Tonight me and Kali are going out. We are taking turns planning dates weekly. I am not sure what all we are doing but I am sure it will include her making dinner. That's exciting. I gotta go workout. I have the weirdest habit. i like to workout clean, so I always shower before I workout and then shower afterward. I don't always do this, but when I am sticky dirty I like to shower first. Well I'm out. Good day.

Funny Crap

2009-05-18T12:08:00.001-05:00

My grandpa got this from from my cousin this is a hilarious story!

ONLY A MAN WOULD ATTEMPT THIS_
Just try reading this without laughing till you cry!!!

Pocket Tazer Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. A guy who purchased
his lovely wife a pocket Tazer for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that
sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was
looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came
across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse- sized tazer. The effects of
the tazer were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse
affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to
safety....??

WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it
home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the
button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I
pushed the button and pressed it against a metal surface at the same
time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth
between the prongs.

AWESOME!!!
Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is
on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that
it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?
There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently
(trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking
that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving
target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of
a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I
was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am
I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one
hand, and tazer in another. The directions said that a one-second
burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was
supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a
three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the
ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds
would be wasting the batteries.

All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5"
long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and
(loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself,
'no possible way!' What happened next is almost beyond description,
but I'll do my best.. .?

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one
side as to say, 'don't do it dipshit,' reasoning that a one second
burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I
decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I
touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . .

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . WHAT THE
HELL!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me
up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and
over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the
fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples
on fire, with my left arm tucked under
my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs? The cat was
making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture
frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid
getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to 'mug' yourself with a tazer, one
note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you
zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged
from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.. A three
second burst would be considered conservative?

IT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at
that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and
surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of
the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so
from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples
were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with
Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the
drooling.

Apparently I pooped on myself, but was too numb to know for sure and
my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head
which I believe came from my hair.

P.S... My wife, can't stop laughing about my experience, loved the
gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

If you think education is difficult, try being stupid !!!

Last night

2009-05-18T10:33:00.004-05:00

last night the talk went really well. We cleared up some things and discussed how we need to make our relationship Christ centered and what that would look like. I'm really glad we did. Don't have a lot on my plate today! I'll prob just knock some things off my list. I really need to do laundry as well so I will do some of that. Well short post, but I got nothing else.

"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best is the wrong thing, and the worst thing is nothing" --Theodore Roosevelt

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything" --Theodore Roosevelt

Drill Weekend

2009-05-17T15:45:00.003-05:00

The best things about these weekends is the mula. I get paid very well for two days work. I am going to also be making up some past drills during this next two weeks. I will probably also be doing my Annual Training at my home station from June 7-19. That will be some good money at the right time. I paid my truck off through July 14th. With me not working right now though I will need to come up with some money to make the July payment. This will make that easy. Me and Kali are going to have a talk this evening. Just about us. Their are no real problems or anything, we just think it is good to talk from time to time just to rally see how the other is doing. Deeper then how was your day conversations. I need prayer and will be praying. I already know the things I want to say. I need the lord to guide my words and allow me to say them in a way that is glorifying to him. I really want our relationship to last and for that to happen we have to be on the same page with expectations and things. It will be good. Please just pray that we are able to truly listen and not just think about are next comment. I have been hit with the realization of how hard it is and is going to be to be my significant other. No matter what my career is I am sure it will be a stressful one. Considering my need to serve my lord, my country and my state. I will need a strong woman who can be faithful and responsible if I have to go.

To-Do-list

2009-05-15T15:18:00.002-05:00

So I have been keeping my To-Do-List on the big dry erase board in our dining room so I will always see it. I have been knocking things off and then finding three more things I want to do, mostly around the house. My roommate made the comment that my list keeps getting bigger. Not right away, but when I had time later I thought about that. Shouldn't all out To-do-list always be growing? You here some people jokingly complain about their ever growing list. I think that is how it is supposed to be. I'm just thankful that I was given the ability to do several of them by myself. What do yo do when you finish your list? Sit and watch T.V.? Read a book? Hang out with your girlfriend/wife? Take a vacation? Spend Time with God? Die? I think that these are all the wrong answer but only part of the answer. You should never finish your list, you should always be looking for things to do or ways to better yourself. What I think some people don't understand is that these things and many more are things that should be on your to-do-list! I would say that everything you want "to do" should be on your list. If that means your like me and you want to climb Mt. wannahockalugie with my best friend then its on my list. If I want to hang out with my beautiful girlfriend its on my list. Prioritize though. And make sure you are working on something.

Been busy

2009-05-15T14:54:00.003-05:00

So to get you caught up. I took Kali on sort of a day date yesterday. We went out to the park had a late lunch and painted puzzles for each other that I picked up at Mardel's. I couldn't finish mine cause I needed a sharpie. Then we went to Go Kart, Putt Putt and Laser Tag. SHE BEAT ME AT ALL THREE. Well we tied once in golf but she beat me in the rest. I had her beat in Go Kart then the pace car spun me out in the first corner. After that we went to the drive in movie and saw ghost of girlfriends past which I didn't really like that much. The following movie though was really funny. 17 Again. I usually refuse to watch movies where pretty boy Zac Efron is the lead role, but I have to admit this was a humorous movie. We watched the season finale of the office late that night and then she went home. Today I took Milly to get spade then went and got a pedicure with my mom. It was part of here mothers day. It tickled! I went and cleaned out my old car and found my camping chair, fishing pole and cooler. I had forgotten all about them. I fixed my front door knob and then replaced the front and back doors knobs and dead bolts. So far that's it but its only 3! My roommate helped me remove the metal stitches that Witten had in from her surgery. This weekend is my Mom's birthday, she wont be here though. I am going to stay at her house and look after her dogs for the weekend. I have Army drill Saturday and Sunday so their wont be a lot of news but keep reading.

2009-05-14T00:44:00.001-05:00

NeNe I though you would like this one. Mimi make sure she sees it.

i just thought this was so cool. This is why I love football!

This is funny!

Roomate Pictures

2009-05-13T23:48:00.003-05:00

Here is some of my roommate pictures! I would like to think my dad for my male pattern baldness. It stand out like a bump on a log. This is a few of them the rest are on my Web Albums.

Finally!!!

2009-05-13T19:29:00.003-05:00

Everyone check in tonight, We are gonna get are pictures tonight. The ones that we took last week of all our roommates. I am excited. So check in later tonight and I should have them up. If not it will be early tomorrow morning. I also have a lot to say about my day. I got tons of stuff done. Gotta go now though....Going to go bowling with my father.

Not your typical success story!

2009-05-12T07:31:00.003-05:00

So I went to PT this morning. I biked for 10 minutes and then got pumped up and motivated. I was determined this would be the day that I ran my first straight mile sense my surgery. With my knee warm I started running around the padded indoor track at the REC. 8 1/4 laps to go. 1st lap was going well, then I felt it. :( the dreaded soreness. This is not a unbearable pain. Especially for someone with a high pain tolerance like me, but man it makes it hard to run. I start favoring my knee as I run. I am barely on lap 2 this is not looking good. I start thinking back to common sense things I have learned throughout my life and one of them is if you start favoring one thing while you are running something else will start hurting. usually my hip or back. SO I called it not even 400 Meters in. My dominance on the track will have to wait until another day.

Today I got a group of friends together and we are going to go paint a senior woman's fence that I met putting together her water bed. Depending on the weather it should be a fun time. She doesn't have enough paint so pay that between us volunteers we will be able raise enough to buy enough.

TIE A TIE

2009-05-11T19:02:00.007-05:00

So today with all my spare time that i was blessed with I took it upon myself to learn something new. So i bought 40ft of nylon rope and started Googling how to tie different knots. i learned several knots including: overhand (basic knot), fisherman's knot, taut line, a few hitches, bowline, slip knot and a butterfly knot. I still need some practice to master all these knots but I did them all pretty well. I also decided to learn how to tie a noose. Right now it is hanging from my cieling fan. NO I AM NOT SUICIDAL. I just thought it was an interesting pull chord for fan! So after some thinking I decided to practive tying a tie. I have been showed several times, but I never really paid attention. So I took some pictures of the learning process. this was my recource for learning. I chose to start with the half windsor. It seemed the simplest.

First Attempt! Not quite.

Second Try. Better?

Third try. Kinda!?

Finally getting close!

Got it!

yes I took pictures of myself. Yes I am a sale out. I thought it would be a funny thing to remember though.

Why is it easier to serve stranger than your friends sometimes.

2009-05-10T15:02:00.005-05:00

This week as I mentioned earlier we got our floors cleaned. I am used to being the one who take initiative around the house and getting the non-normal things done. By non-normal I mean things unlike dishes and sweeping. Things like: Carpets cleaned, roof fixed, shed door fixed, front door knob, Flower bed weeds pulled, or in my house picking up your own shoes and sock is apparently a non-normal chore. I really appreciate all my roommates do. Especially being so open to my dad staying with us. I I just wish they would do more sometimes. Things that don't have to be done, but they really make things run smoother. Anyways so in order for the carpets to be cleaned we had to move all the furniture into the front room with hard-wood floors. One of my roommates helped some but for the most part all the help I got doing this was by Jeffery and my dad. Then after they were cleaned my original plan was to just not do anything until one of my roommates/best friends decided they wanted to help move it all back. I wanted them to take initiative. Not gonna happen. So after some thought I decided to have a servants heart and get the stuff moved because I understand that all my roommates are leaving soon or their girlfriends are so they are spending as much time as possible with them. That is fine, so I got it taken care of for the most part.

Happy women in my life day!

2009-05-10T10:46:00.004-05:00

Good day to all the women in my life who aided in my raising. Especially the ones who made me food. Really then one who releases me out into the world with just enough knowledge to survive, but not enough to completely stay away from home.

I wish I had a maid to do my laundry.

I wish I had a cook to make me breakfast and dinner.

Finally my last grade was posted. I passed all my classes!

The reason I dislike all theses months is that it seems everyone in my family has a birthday in them. There is one at the end of April, Then 2 in May plus mothers day. June is slower with just fathers day, but I have 2 of them! Then July there are at least 4 I can think of.

Today I am going to make my mom lunch, and when she is ready I am going to go with her to get a pedicure. I think I may bless her even more and watch my cousins this afternoon.

2009-05-09T23:24:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day! Two of my best friends graduated from college, I got a great hamburger, I went to the pool, and then there was a surprise party for Matt one of the graduates. I didn't work out today, but I was pretty busy most of the day. It just hit me today when my friend Jeffery left for the summer that this is going to be hard summer. Jeffery has become one of my closest friends and i really appreciate him because he puts me in my place. He has got a great heart and is very compassionate when others are in need. Josh and Matt are also leaving mid May and Matt is leaving for good. He is off to seminary in Ft. Worth. I am so proud of my friends. They inspire me. That leaves Teddy as far as my good friends go. Me and Ted have fallen off a little from where we used to be. He is still my best friends, and the only friend I would rely on if I was in a situation I really needed help. We just aren't as close though. This should be good for us. I am glad that God has presented us with the opportunity to grow our friendship. His GF will also be gone, so I expect we should have a lot of time to hang out. I am going to need him as a workout partner as well.

Pray for the graduates of 2009. They have not graduated into one of the best environments, and older generations have not made this easy. AMERICA will prevail though.

Paint Fight Pictures

2009-05-08T23:59:00.001-05:00

If you want to see all the pictures click on Web Albums

Updated

2009-05-08T20:50:00.004-05:00

Here is a quick update of the past few days. Yesterday we celebrated Andi's birthday by having a paint fight. We got some water based paint and then played dodge ball with the squishy balls that you use in a swimming pool. Afterward we laid out a piece of tarp and used it as a 40' long slip and slide. The catch is it was also covered in paint. This turned out to be a very fun birthday. Josh was very creative in planning it. After everyone got cleaned up we went and ate at on the border. Its always fun when everyone can get together. I enjoy hanging out with all my IP friends together with a few stragglers who follow us around.

Today was a pretty productive day. I fixed the door on my shed and put a lock on it. I secured the dog run so my dog can no longer get out. well not for now at least. She always seems to find a way. I want them to be able to be inside dogs at night, but they get so dirty it is nor fair to my roommates. Me and Josh worked out after that. It was a very good workout and the summer heat is making it harder. After getting cooled down and drinking my recovery drink. I got Josh's graduation present and went to the post office to mail off a computer part to get fixed. I deposited some mula at the bank and then came home to straiten the house. We got our carpets cleaned today and they turned out very nice considering how dirty they were.

Kali is gone for the weekend with her mom and grandmother. I am going to fill my time with reading and working out. I am making lunch for my mom on mothers day and getting a pedicure for both of us when she ready to go.

Listening to: Mambo # 5 - lou bega

Pray for discipline.

I will put pictures of Andi's party when I get them. I am also still waiting on the roommate pictures. Have a good weekend.

Currenty Listening

2009-05-08T14:13:00.002-05:00

I was hoping there was a application or widget to tell people through my blog what music I am currently listening to. I have not had any luck lately in finding one. So instead from time to time I am just going to post what type of music I am rocking. I spend a lot of time at my computer or just doing routine things around the house or in my room. While I do this I usually like to listen to a certain genre of music. This genre usually goes with my mood. The most typical is 90's alternative rock. I lived the 90's but most the music I like to rock was a few years before my time. Some of it came out while I was in Junior High. I didn't develop a appreciation of it though and it slightly grunge acoustical sound into later in high school long after they had all fallen off the charts. Another popular genre off my iTunes is 50's, 60's and 70's rock. I like alot of 80's stuff as well but that is a completely different mood. I really used to have a fascination with KISS when I was younger, but I didn't really know what I was singing when I said "lets put the X in sex' or talk about shooting someone with my "love gun". Once I realized what was going on I didn't like sing it quite as loud. I have a few 80's "hair bands" in my collection of 2062 songs or 5.7 days worth of music. They are really good on road trips though. There is only a few rap songs and most the rest is my angry music that talks about smacking people and/or leaving them with a "fat lip". I really typed a lot longer then I was planning. I started rambling though.

Currently listening:

Hootie & the Blowfish, Jack Johnson mix with a touch of Don McLean.

2009-05-06T19:33:00.002-05:00

Waiting on my stats grade:( I should be fine I got B's on the first two test. Went today to put up a water bed for a senior woman. She was very nice. She told me about her daughter who had passed with breast cancer, and how she raised her grandchildren. She showed me a whole bunch of stuff that she needs done around the house. I am going to try and get a group of people together to go volunteer for her next week. Pray for it.

Grades Posted

2009-05-06T10:59:00.002-05:00

So My grades didn't turn out the way i would have liked. They did turn out how I expected and what I deserved. You get out of something what you put into it. I am still excited about summer though. Today or tomorrow Kali and I are going to sit down and write out some short term things we would like to change and some goals. Then we are going to write out what we are going to have to do to achieve these goals! That way we can have some accountability in it. I gave up sweet tea and she gave up cokes. I think a big portion of my weight gain is drinking sugar filled drinks like Sweetened Teas and Koolaid. So I am giving them up. I am also going to try and cook two meals a day. Well have a good, day no rants yet

2009-05-04T19:33:00.001-05:00

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better,
To paint a picture or write a letter,
Bake a cake or plant a seed,
Ponder the difference between want and need?
Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
Music to hear and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.
Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come 'round again.
Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not always kind.
And when you go and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust

Wear Sunscreen

2009-05-04T17:51:00.002-05:00

I used to think this "song/speech" was real cool. I ran across it and decided to put it up.

Belated

2009-05-04T17:12:00.002-05:00

So I did not forget your birthday, but I did forget to call you. Sorry I'm not real big into birthdays anymore. I hope you had a happy one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA

Love ya

Here in the real world they're shutting Detroit down

2009-05-04T08:13:00.004-05:00

This is a great article I ran across while looking for the song. If you don't read the article listen to the song. Its written by a democrat but I like most of what he has to say.

Here in the Real World They’re Shutting Detroit Down

by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais 04/29/2009

Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a city at the heart of the American continent, General Motors produced cars, like Pontiac’s “Little GTO,” celebrated in Beach Boys songs that captured the thrill of driving Detroit’s latest creations. Today, as GM struggles to appease the government’s auditors just to stay alive, Kris Kristofferson, with a little help from Mickey Rourke, curses the financial wizards from Wall Street that are “Shutting Detroit Down” while “livin’ it up in that New York town.”

Never has the inherent tension between the investor class and the country’s manufacturing sector been more pronounced or the stakes in this particular poker game higher for the future of America. Chrysler may be forced into bankruptcy first, but it’s GM's downfall that represents the true mid-American earthquake.

Back in the late 1950s, General Motors so dominated the American automobile market that its corporate goals were focused on achieving a 60% market share. The hubris of its executives led them to decide to pick up more and more costs for medical insurance, pensions and retiree benefits, beginning GM’s slide down a slippery slope of poor financial performance

This posed a huge but not initially recognized risk to GM. By taking on these obligations that didn't show up as a cost or balance-sheet liability until the government changed its accounting rules in 1992 and required companies to show the cost of “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB) on their books, General Motors lit a ticking time bomb that has now exploded in its face. In 1972, as GM came the closest it would ever come to achieving its sixty-percent market share goal, GM was paying the entire health insurance bill for its employees, survivors and retirees, and had agreed to "30 and out" early retirement that granted workers full pensions after 30 years on the job, regardless of age. Its world then began to come apart.

In 1973, OPEC’s embargo tripled the price of oil. GM failed to respond quickly enough to the consumer’s sudden demand for fuel-efficient cars. At the same time, the Japanese with their then superior, lean manufacturing techniques stepped into the vacuum, gaining a foothold in the North American car market that they have continued to expand. Ironically, thirty years later the very same inability to shift product offerings during a spike in oil prices precipitated GM’s current difficulties.

GM’s reluctance to go green is often cited by its new government owners as the reason it’s in so much trouble now, but the crux of GM’s problems really go back to those heady days of market domination and financial profligacy.

In the 1960s GM’s annual operating margin (profits divided by revenues) averaged 8.7%. The turmoil of the seventies and the pressure from Japanese competition drove those average margins down to 5.5%. Margins fell by about half to an average of 3% in the 1980s, and about half again to 1.3% in the 1990s (not counting the $20 billion hit GM took when the new accounting rules for OPEB took effect.) Finally, in this decade the slide has actually taken the company into an average of negative margins. Now only the government’s suggested radical restructuring seems to offer a way to stop the bleeding.

It is estimated that the cost of OPEB, essentially GM’s retiree pension and health care programs, have cost the company about $7 billion each year since 1993 and are probably around $10 billion per year now. The bargain auto company management made back in the 60s with labor to provide generous off the balance sheet benefits has now become an albatross that threatens the manufacturing jobs for the Big Three’s own current workers and suppliers across the Midwest. It’s the kind of problem only government can solve.

But the Obama Administration’s early efforts to do so have been far from promising. First it selected Steve Rattner as its “car czar”, a politically well-connected private equity investor and turnaround artist from “that New York town,” someone with no significant automobile industry experience. In addition, the government's demands that GM dismantle more brands and shut down more dealerships suggests the process may get a lot uglier by the May 31 decision deadline.

Luckily the United Auto Workers remain on watch to try to ensure that whatever concessions are demanded of GM’s current and retired employees reflect an equitable shared sacrifice with the company’s bondholders and investors. The kind of GM that emerges from these negotiations will have a huge impact on these workers and on the many industrial towns that depend on the car business for their basic existence.

Ultimately, the decision on how best to “rescue” GM may turn out to be the most difficult call President Obama will make in his first year in office. He will be pulled by pressures from the green gentry left to force GM’s future products to conform to a pre-determined environmental agenda. He also will face predictable Republican calls to let the market work its will, even if it means the end of the company.

President Obama will need the wisdom of Solomon to recognize that today’s workers no more deserve to be punished for the mistakes of prior management than CIA agents do for carrying out the orders of their equally arrogant Republican counselors during George W. Bush's administration. To paraphrase the President’s words, it’s “time to move on” and offer GM the support it needs to “Catch a Wave” and start producing more “Good Vibrations” for America’s hard pressed, but still very critical manufacturing sector.

Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are fellows of the New Democrat Network and the New Policy Institute and co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics (Rutgers University Press: 2008), named one of the 10 favorite books by the New York Times in 2008.

7 Lessons in Manliness From the Greatest Generation

2009-05-04T06:36:00.003-05:00

Re-post From The Art of Manliness

Every generation has its share of men who fully live the art of manliness. But there may never have been a generation when the ratio of honorable men to slackers was higher than the one born between 1914 and 1929. These were the men that grew up during the Great Depression. They’re the men who went off to fight in the Big One. And they’re the men who came home from that war and built the nations of the Western world into economic powerhouses. They knew the meaning of sacrifice, both in terms of material possessions and of real blood, sweat, and tears. They were humble men who never bragged about what they had done or been through. They were loyal, patriotic, and level-headed. They were our Greatest Generation.

Tom Brokaw gave them that name, and while it’s a bold claim, I wholly support it. They weren’t perfect by any means, of course, but as a whole they were a cut above the rest. One of the inspirations for Kate and I starting the Art of Manliness was our grandfathers. When I looked at them, and then at the men of today, the chasm of manliness seemed jarring. These are men cut from a different cloth of manliness; they simply don’t build them like that anymore. Their extraordinary manliness is not something you can scientifically measure. But you can sure feel it. And you can see it in old pictures. It seems every man back then was dashingly handsome; their manliness practically leaps off the page.

When I was taking a tour of the USS Slater in Albany last summer, Uncle Buzz and I were looking at the tiny, closet-sized kitchen where a couple of men prepared meals for hundreds of sailors as the ship rocked to and fro, and at the giant guns the men used to blast the enemy and knock planes from the sky. One tends to picture 30 year old guys doing that stuff; Tom Hanks and Co. always leap to mind. But a lot of them were just 18, fresh from the prom and varsity football.

In Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, he remembers his mother telling him the story of the day Gordon Larsen came into the post office where she worked. Larsen was typically a cheerful and popular member of their community, but that day he had stopped in to complain about the rowdiness of the teenagers the night before, which had been Halloween. Brokaw’s mother was surprised at his tone and asked him good naturedly, “Oh Gordon, what were you doing when you were seventeen?” Gordon looked at her squarely in the eye and said, “I was landing at Guadalcanal.” He then turned and left the post office. These were men who were surely mature beyond their years.

There’s a saying that each generation is most like their grandparent’s. And while we’re not there yet, I do see a lot of people these days who are dusting off the values of the Greatest Generation and embracing them once again. What were those values? Today I’d like to take an opportunity to enumerate a few of the Greatest Generation’s lessons in manliness, using some of my personal observations along with various stories and quotes taken from Brokaw’s book.

Lesson # 1: Take Personal Responsibility for Your Life

While today’s generation often shirks responsibility as too much work, the Greatest Generation relished the chance to step up to the plate and test their mettle. One son of a WWII Medal of Honor winner remembers of his dad and his peers, “For them, responsibility was their juice. They loved responsibility. They took it head-on, and anytime they could get a task and be responsible, that was what really got em’ going.”

And when the Greatest Generation accepted responsibility for something, they also accepted all the consequences of that decision, whether good or bad. They were not a generation of whiners or excuse makers. They took pride in personal accountability. In a time where individuals and businesses reach for a bailout or the easy fix of bankruptcy to make things right, stories like that of Wesley Ko inspire. Soon after the war, Ko started a printing business. After 35 years of working hard to transform it into a successful company, he decided to relocate his business from Philadelphia to upstate New York. Ko personally guaranteed the 1.3 million dollar loan needed to make the move. The transition did not go as expected, and Ko’s company faced several setbacks; after only a year, he was forced to go out of business. Ko said, “It was a big decision making time. I couldn’t retire. I hadn’t taken out Social Security. So at the age of seventy I had to go get a job and start paying back that million-dollar loan. I just didn’t feel comfortable with declaring bankruptcy. I just didn’t think it was the honorable thing to do, even though it would have been easier.”

Lesson #2: Be Frugal

If your grandparents are anything like mine, then their house is stuffed with doodads and boxes of stuff. They have a sort of pack rat mentality because they grew up in the Great Depression where the next canister of oats or pair of pants was not guaranteed. They learned to live on less and be grateful for the things they had, no matter how humble. It didn’t take a new Wii to brighten their Christmas morning; an orange at the bottom of a stocking was enough to knock their socks off.

This was not the generation that purchased Corvettes to soothe their mid-life crisis, nor the generation that equated success with the purchase of a McMansion. This was the generation that was thrilled to move into the small houses of Levittown, which at 750 square feet were as big as some people’s garages are today.

One of the mottos of the Greatest Generation was “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Of course, it’s hard to “make it do” if you don’t know how to fix it, and thus handiness was also central to this generation’s frugality.

Tom Brokaw remembers this about his own dad:

“My father, Red Brokaw, was a blue-ribbon member of that fix-it generation. My mother learned not to say aloud what she needed, say a new ironing board, because my father would immediately build her one. She liked to buy something from the store occasionally. When I was a young man in need of spending money I mentioned that I could mow many more lawns if I had a power mower. I had a snazzy new model from Sears Roebuck in mind. My father went to his workshop and built a mower using an old washing machine motor, welded pipes for handles, a hand-tooled blade, and discarded toy wagon wheels mounted on plywood platform. He painted it all black and it was a formidable machine. At first I was embarrassed, but then as it drew admirers I was proud of its homespun place in a store-bought world.”

Lesson #3: Be Humble

Typical of the Greatest Generation is the story of a son or daughter who finds a war medal stashed in the attic after their father passes, he having never told them about it. Even if their exploits had been brave and heroic, the Greatest Generation rarely talked about the war, both because of the difficulty in remembering such carnage, but also from the sense that they had simply been fulfilling their duty, and thus had no reason to brag.

Brokaw observes: “The World War II generation did what was expected of them. But they never talked about it. It was part of the Code. There’s no more telling metaphor than a guy in a football game who does what’s expected of him-makes an open-field tackle-then gets up and dances around. When Jerry Kramer threw the block that won the Ice Bowl in ‘67, he just got up and walked off the field.”

Lesson #4: Love Loyally

The men of the Greatest Generation took their marriage vows seriously. Brokaw wrote, “It was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment and divorce was not an option. I can’t remember one of my parents’ friends who was divorced. In the communities where we lived it was treated as a minor scandal.” The numbers bear Brokaw’s anecdotal evidence out: of all the new marriages in 1940, 1 in 6 ended in divorce. By the late 1990’s, that number was 1 in 2.

This was a time where there was no hanging out or “hooking up.” Men asked women on real dates, and had serious intentions in doing so. When a particular gal caught a man’s heart, he proposed, and they got hitched. And they were married for the next 60 years.

Peggy and John Assenzio had the kind of commitment to marriage typical of the Greatest Generation. They were married right before John headed off to basic training. Peggy kept her husband constantly in her thoughts while he was away. “I never went to sleep until I wrote John a letter. I wrote every single day. I wouldn’t break the routine because I thought it would keep him safe.” When John got home, he and Peggy picked up right where they left off. John would sometimes have nightmares about the war, and Peggy was always there to comfort him. John said, “The war helped me to love Peggy more, if that’s possible. To appreciate her more.” Their commitment to each other was unshakeable. Peggy believed that young couples today, “don’t fight enough. It’s too easy to get a divorce. We’ve have our arguments, but we don’t give up. When my friends ask whether I ever considered divorce, I remind them of the old saying, ‘We’ve thought about killing each other, but divorce? Never.”

The cynical among us are apt to think that while the divorce rate was low, that simply means that more men were stuck in unhappy marriages. These days we’re quick to think that anyone who gets married in their early 20’s and is married for decades after that, is bound to be living a life of quiet desperation. Yet I’ve met a lot of Greatest Generation couples and almost all of them are and were quite happy together. They’re companions and best friends. What’s their secret? The answer can really be found in changing expectations. As Brokaw observes, “When they got married and began families it was not a matter of thinking, “Well, let’s see how this works out.” Some would argue that marriages were less happy because divorce wasn’t an option. But could it be that the opposite was true? That with the divorce option off the table the whole tenor of your marriage would change? Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t think there was an escape hatch, and you knew that whatever bumps in the road you hit, you had to work through them together.

Lesson #5: Work Hard

In war, these men had learned to focus on the objective at hand and not give up until that objective and the mission as a whole was accomplished. When they got home, they carried that focus over to the world of work. They didn’t fall into the fallacy that Mike Rowe has been busy denouncing, that you have to find “your passion” to be happy. They could find happiness in any job they did, because they weren’t just working for personal, self-fulfillment; they labored for a bigger purpose: to give their families the financial security they hadn’t enjoyed growing up.

As soon as they graduate college, many men today want the things it took our parents and grandparents 30 years to acquire. But the Greatest Generation knew that going into the debt was not the way to get the things you want. They understood that the good things in life must be earned by honest toil.

Lesson #6: Embrace Challenge

The Greatest Generation wasn’t the greatest despite the challenges they faced, but because of them. Today many men shirk challenge and difficult pursuits, believing that the easier life is, the happier they’ll be. But our grandfathers knew better. They knew that one cannot have the bitter without the sweet, and that true happiness comes from overcoming the kind of challenges that build character and refine the soul. The challenges they experienced made their joy all the more sweet because it was tinged with the gratitude of knowing how easily it could all have been taken away.

Image by iamthelorax

Lesson #7: Don’t Make Life So Damn Complicated

If there’s a common thread in these lessons, it’s having a common sense and a level-headed approach to life. In our day, when men are obsessing about finding themselves, their holy grail of a woman, and their “passion,” the Greatest Generation’s uncomplicated approach to life is refreshing. They didn’t go on a diet, they simply ate whole food; they didn’t exercise, they worked around the house; they didn’t obsess about their relationships, they just found a gal they loved and married her. They always looked sharp, but never fussed with fashion trends. They didn’t mull over which appliance better suited their personality and image, they just bought the machine that worked the best. They didn’t think about how to get things done, they just got em’ done. When Joe Foss, a celebrated and daring WWII pilot and then governor of South Dakota was asked if he missed his younger days, he said, “Oh no. I’m not a guy who missed anything from anywhere. I’ve always been a guy who just gets up and goes.” Instead of spending you time navel gazing your life away, just get up and go!

Related post:

The Case for Marriage

Asking a Woman’s Father For Her Hand In Marriage

5 Personal Finance Discussions To Have Before Getting Hitched

Stop Hanging Out With Women and Start Dating Them

The Art of Manliness Weekly Roundup: Men’s Grill Edition

Summer Reading List

2009-05-03T23:59:00.002-05:00

I am going to have A LOT of free time this summer! I already have a few books picked out that I want to read through but if I get as much time as I like I should be going about a book a week or so. So if you have any recommendations to add to my list leave a comment with book title and Author if you know it. Also a brief description of why I should or would read it or how it is applicable.

1. The Shack
2. Boundaries
3. Wild at heart
4. 5 Love needs of men and women
5. 7 habits of highly effective people
6. searching for god know what
7. Something John Grisham
8. Sacred Romance: drawing closer to the heart of God

Please give me ideas you think I would like.
Most of these books are all personal improvement books, I need to find some that are fiction or a great Biography.

I recommend Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and The Christmas Sweater by Glen Beck

Early Bird

2009-05-03T23:50:00.002-05:00

I came across a good article about waking up early yesterday and I am going to try it. It said that waking their is several ways to wake up early but after trying several this is the one I have found the most intelligent and physiologically accurate. Pretty much get up at the same time everyday no matter what time you go to bed. Your body will adjust the next night by making you tired earlier. Don't go to sleep till you are tired. When you are truly ready for bed it should not take longer then 5 minutes to fall asleep. If it does get up be productive or read. Reading is a great way to tell how tired you are because if you cant finish 1 or 2 pages straight without veering off track cause your tired its bed time!! So pretty much the first night you will probably stay up pretty late and then be groggy in the morning, but just get out of bed. don't give yourself time to debate about how good it would feel to hit the off or snooze. Some night you may get tired at 9:30 and some night past midnight. You body will adapt to this biological clock and set itself knowing how when to get tired and know when to get up. Eventually you most likely wont need a alarm clock! I actually have living proof of this because this is very similar to how my grandpa operates.

I'm gonna start out at 6 AM I don't need to but I am much more productive on early rise days. I feel like I am about 30 min away from that 5 min fall asleep. Good night.

Pictures

2009-05-03T17:49:00.003-05:00

Me and my roommates went and took pictures today. I'm usually not into these sorts of things and would and will definitely make fun of other guys who do it. We have all been friends for a long time all of us have at least been friends sense freshman year of high school. Two of my friends are graduating next weekend and one of them is moving off to go to seminary in Dallas. We all thought it would be a fun thing to take pictures of just us. I had a really fun time and think that their might actually be some fun and good pictures in there. As soon as I get a copy I will put some of them on here.

Why don't you try this

2009-05-01T19:59:00.002-05:00

I have had several opportunities in the past few weeks to have pretty much the same discussion with different people. I'm tired of it. The discussion goes something like this. "I can't do this ____" or "It's not possible to _____" This is ridiculous talk in most cases at least in the discussions I am having. I will give someone advice on how to spend their time or money or something like that. They will then continue to tell me the reasons this is not possible. I will then tell them that they can accomplish this task or whatever and then more excuses. The discussion will end like this and this is my message to you. STOP LOOKING FOR REASONS YOU CAN'T DO IT. Look for reasons you can. You can live on $150 a week. You can ____. Don't try to spend all your money make a effort not to. Don't go out to eat so much. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Please people excuses are like butt holes, they all stink. Make it happen, or at least own up to your laziness and quit blaming exterior things and blame yourself. Or if you are in the Military "what the maximum effective range of a excuse?" "0 Yards"

Just find a way to make it happen, not a way to be a failure.

Summer??

2009-05-01T17:49:00.005-05:00

So I am excited about this summer and am starting to make my goals for things I need and want to accomplish. My original plan this summer was to work way too hard and try to pay off my truck, but as I stepped outside of my self consumed mind and took a look at myself I decided that was not what I needed. God has been putting everything in place for me to have a joyful summer and showing me what I need to do. I have been going through the past few months as close to stressed as i can possibly be. I don't really get stressed although I have realized I can cause other people A LOT of stress. **SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ MY RAMBLE. I AM ABOUT TO GET OFF SUBJECT** I have been through a lot up to this point in my life, much more than most young men (I wear big boy underwear, but until the day comes where I am faced with the challenges of providing for someone else well being other than my own. Not necessarily a family but maybe a comrade who was injured in battle. Until then I consider myself a young man). Most of the things I have been through have helped me for the good and I was thankfully able to learn from others mistakes. Some of the things forced me to mature much faster emotionally and mentally then other people my age. I believe that emotional maturity+mental maturity= COMMON SENSE. Through everything that GOD allowed me to go through, he never put me in a situation I couldn't handle, and it has always been fine. **BACK ON SUBJECT** Me and my roommates have been helping my dad (Allen) try to get his life back straight and having him around is like taking care of a 14 year old boy. He has made leaps and bounds but I have to use patience with him. Then you have my brother who is getting it but not got it. I have had to help both of them out financially though. Then you have me the worst of all. Mister I can do it by my self. I have still, with all my big talk been living Luke warm in my walk with the Lord. I yearn to have my fire sparked for the Lord again, but when God hands me a match and shows me what to do with it I allow it to burn out. I am living comfortably in step 1 to recovery. I will be the first to admit my problems, but when It comes to fixing them. I choose to live comfortably. I don't always treat Kali like she deserves. I am never mean to her and rarely ever even get upset with her. She deserves to be treated better though, every woman does. I can't sit here and tell you honestly that I try my hardest every day to make sure she smiles, and the bad thing about that is her smile makes me happier, so I am doing us both an injustice. Anyways these are some of the things that have driven me to "almost stress" and I am ready to do something about it. The things that make me happy are working hard and being recognized for it. Setting goals and achieving them. Helping others with small things that mean a lot to them. Doing things for my roommates or friends when they don't ask (like setting up their T.V. and programming their remote control. Or cleaning up after their valentines dates). So I am going to make my summer goal list based on these things and try to make it as stress free as possible. So far I got this:

1. Go see Transformers 2
2. Go watch a day of Cowboys mini-camp or training camp
3. Work on signing people up for the Army
4. Pay off my last credit card (only like $300)
5. Get my business going
6. Fix my fence
7. Walk dogs at least 4 times a week
8. Go from 210lbs to 190lbs
9. Visit with ROTC cadre weekly to utilize them so I can become the best officer I can
10. Go camping with friends
11. Paint walls
12. Get carpets cleaned
13. Go to church and follow Jesus when he speaks to me
14. Serve the people around me (MLK JR. has a great speech called "The Drum Major Instinct" you should read it or listen here)

more to come!

2009-04-30T21:53:00.003-05:00

Here is a list of some things that make a girl desirable. I agree with most of it so I decided to post it.

Here are the qualities that make you more desirable to guys. Think of it as your pre-dating to-do list.

1. You're just that into yourself. A woman may have smarts, sensual appeal, and a sense of humor, but if she doesn't have self-confidence, most guys will take a pass. Single women with low self-esteem come across as extremely needy, explains Jim Houran, PhD, relationship psychologist. They have to be the center of attention and are constantly looking for reassurance and compliments. And even if you find a guy who at first is willing to be your personal cheerleader, before long he's probably going to start to agree with all the demeaning stuff you say about yourself and take a hike.
Surprisingly, the way to show you aren't that girl isn't necessarily to promote yourself, but rather to simply display interest and curiosity in the guy, says Houran. He'll take that willingness to share the spotlight and put someone besides yourself first as a sign of confidence.

2. You've got a burning passion... and not just for him. Whether it's a hobby, a job, classes, or a buzzing social life, single men are undeniably attracted to women with clear interests and lots of enthusiasm, according to Houran. It's as easy as dropping a few subtle hints about, say, the adventure you and your friends went on last weekend or how psyched you are to be on a new project at work. The benefits are twofold: The guy won't feel totally responsible for your happiness -- a huge weight to put on a new love interest -- and he'll be more inclined to want to be a part of your multifaceted life.

3. You know how to compromise. This is one of the most important skills to have if you're looking to get into a long-term relationship, emphasizes Houran.
“Being flexible is a huge turn-on to guys, since it means less conflict and a smoother partnership in general”
Being flexible is a huge turn-on to guys, since it means less conflict and a smoother partnership in general, he adds. If a guy senses that the girl he's dating isn't willing to try to meet both their needs, he envisions a future of trivial disagreements, fighting, and ultimatums -- not exactly the makings of a happy twosome. Prove you know how to compromise early on by letting him weigh in on the restaurant choice or not acting annoyed if he needs to reschedule plans.

4. You dress for guys, not girls. If you're not turning heads, it could be because you dress to appeal to a woman's taste and not a man's taste. Skinny jeans, babydoll dresses, peasant tops -- all super cute, but you might as well be wearing a Snuggie. Men want to see curves, so stick with boot-cut jeans and a top that shows off your shoulders and waist. Just don't reveal too much, since that can come off as desperate.

5. You're over your ex. Nothing kills a budding romance quicker than being hung up on an old boyfriend. So before you get serious with a new guy, make sure you're not hoping -- or worse, trying -- to get back together with the ex or looking for someone just like him. It's relationship-repelling for two reasons: No eligible bachelor wants to feel like he's in an unwinnable competition, and if you're living in the past, you won't truly be motivated to meet and make a connection with new guys. So ladies, move on and get an upgrade.

The Office

2009-04-29T16:23:00.004-05:00

I thought about it and realized that I had not mentioned NBC's "The Office" on my blog/journal yet. The Office is by far my favorite show on television. Here is some great videos I found from the office I am going to also periodically post some office "PSA" public service announcements from the office that I found.

"Doing Work"

2009-04-29T09:12:00.002-05:00

I haven't been able to keep up with my blogging everyday. Rhyan Anderson Services got its first TWO jobs this week! I cleaned a vacant house that is on the market and today I am going to go clean a womans backyard. This is right where I want to focus my workforce. I am very excited about whats to come. I think I may even get two lawns to maintain bi-weekly out of it. This is finals week at school and I need some prayer to stay focused. I already took one final yesterday for sign language and I feel really good about that one. I only have one other final I need to study for. In order to pass the class I have to get 18-32 on the last test so It shouldn't be that difficult. Well I go get ready to do work.

playing ketchup!

2009-04-26T21:42:00.003-05:00

So I don't have a lot to write about cause I have spent the last two days in isolation sitting in front of the T.V. watching every moment of the 15+ hrs of the NFL draft. Sitting, Waiting and Wishing my beloved Cowboys would make wise decisions. Overall I am happy with the way the Draft turned out for Dallas. We addressed several of our needs and got some player with high upside in the later rounds. I am really excited about the Kicker we drafted out of USC. We already have a solid kicker in Nick folk but this guy out benched several Offensive lineman and outran two of USC's linebackers that were early round picks. Draft day is the signal of great things too come. It means school is coming to an end and OTA's and Training camp is around the corner. I am hoping to go to a Cowboy game next year in there new stadium. We watched the draft at a Robbie's lake house and left a little early so I could make it into Lubbock at a decent hour. So much for that. I got to my Grandparents to say Hello and Goodbye when they told me of a Storm that I would hit along the way. It was a Tornado warning and producing golf ball size hail. I decided to take a nap and watch a movie with my grandpa then hit the rode early tomorrow. This week I have four finals. ASL on Tuesday and STATS and Psych next weekend. I'm not sure what I am going to do about ROTC. I have to make it up.

I can't wait until summer begins. Hopefully me and Kali will be able to do more and go more. Plus it will be a good chance to take some breaks and rest and enjoy all that god has blessed me with. Right now I am marketing my business and getting good feedback. My mom is handing out cards for me as well so hopefully I will get enough work to get by. I'm not hoping to make a lot of money. just work for myself and make my own hours. Plus I think if I can manage a somewhat successful business I can use that as a highlight on my resume. Right now my dad is working and he is probably gonna help me out a lot for awhile. I hate relying on people but I need it and it would actually hurt his feelings if I didn't let him. My mom just blessed him by lowering his child support. He is extremely grateful for that. It is going to help alot immediately. Well have a goodnight and Go COWBOYS!

I use the words "A LOT" a lot and often misuse it as alot. SORRY sue me