It's a Blog

Irony

2011-12-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

So I will make one comment about the delay in posts and that is it. It is ironic that as I am working on these character traits and get to follow through that once I start working on that it is almost half a year until I post again. I am going to be working on a new yet similar project next year and hope to capture a good portion of it here. This one will involve George Washington.

In keeping with character and irony, it is character that matters most above anything else. Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain seems to be fitting into both of those recently. Keeping it short and sweet, a few weeks ago a couple of different women came out and said he sexually harassed them back in the early 1990s. That becomes a he said she said and we do believe in innocence until proven guilty. Then a couple weeks ago an Atlanta woman came out and stated they had a 13 year affair and she had some documentation to back it up. He had also been providing financial support to her. He did say he had been providing support to a friend that was in financial need. I can sort of understand that but there is the whole avoiding the appearance of evil thing. Now that it has come out that his wife did not know about this woman or the financial support that he had been giving he is dropping out of the race. That is a good decision as character does count for everything and even still going on the premise of innocent until proven guilty, the fact that his wife did not know about all this is a huge indictment of Mr. Cain's character.

So on to the irony of this whole situation which really chaps me after Herman had campaigned as a outside the establishment candidate. Which quite honestly made him very appealing. They are saying that he is going to come out today and endorse Newt Gingrich. Hello! Newt cheated on his wife. He is also the ultimate establishment candidate. So you have one alleged cheater endorsing a known cheater for President.

Does character not count for anything anymore?

In regards to presidential candidates, I firmly believe the only two with great character are Michelle Bachman and Rick Santorum. I think that Romney and Perry are probably decent guys but they lack consistency.

Increasing ability through developing character traits - Tranquility

2011-07-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

When I decided to work on the virtue of tranquility I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I enjoyed it so much I extended it by about a week. It was an amazing experience and look forward to the next rotation to work on it even further.

How does one work on the virtue of tranquility? It was something that I really did not know where to kind of start. Just before I started this week I heard somebody say, “If you really want to get to know yourself, go for a whole week driving your car in silence.” This would mean no radio, no phone calls, pretty much nothing. The first morning I did this I thought I was going to go crazy. It is amazing how much your mind bounces and wanders when you are left alone with nothing but your thoughts.

I have so much going on in life that it was nice by the end to be spending some time just being quiet. With work, family, school, and all the little projects I am trying to work on life gets really hectic. I really believe that what Franklin meant by the virtue of tranquility is to just be quiet and listen. As someone I know is fond of saying, Shut your pie hole!

Another thing that I did was to make sure that I spent a couple minutes in the morning and evening meditating and praying. I don’t think I am the only that when I pray I kind of say a prayer but don’t pause to listen for an answer. I believe that there is a lot of power in pausing and listening for an answer. Meditation also helped to clear out my head.

With the time I spent just being quiet I had time to recognize more about how my mind works and how I process thoughts. It was a nice additional benefit I did not expect. It has helped me to slow down and focus my thoughts a bit more when I process things. This has helped me to increase patience and truly think before I speak.

I was just thinking that it is funny that after having worked on tranquility I don’t have a whole lot to say about it.

Next week is persistence.

Increasing ability through developing character traits - Visions

2011-06-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I was first directed to that quote as I was in the Missionary Training Center preparing to serve as a full-time missionary. One of my instructors wrote that down for me as we were getting ready to leave. It is something that I really thought for a long time only applied to the Lord’s work and did not make the connection on how it can be beneficial to one’s personal life.

Fast forward a couple years in life after the mission was over and I started working with a few businesses. One of the first books recommended to me was Think and Grow Rich. I believe a great deal of what is taught about using the principle of vision to increase not only your business life but personal life, comes from this book. There are several ways of looking at applying this principle.

I have personally tried a couple different kinds at different points. I have gone the Think and Grow Rich route, writing out a “vision statement” and reading it once every morning and once at night out loud. I have also worked on daily meditation where I have visualized how I would feel upon achieving certain goals and milestones. Both have worked well to increase vision. It is something that I have not made a truly concerted effort at for some time. I decided this week would be a good time to start working on them again.

I have found a great way to start the day is not only to visualize achieving my goals but to envision how I would feel as I accomplish them. This has tended to put me in a great frame of mind and feel pretty good. My attempts at this the last week or so have been kind of hit and miss.

The next thing I did was to pull out some of my old vision or goal statements and kind of review them. I then started to think through where I would really like to be and start to map out a vision. I did this not only for myself but for my family as well. The latter I need to sit down and chat with my wife about as it is a team effort, but I was looking for a starting point to bring to the table.

Working on the above was a starting point for me. They are also some things that I have worked on hard to do in the past and felt I started to get some results from. However, I am admittedly bad on follow through which leads to another virtue or trait I will be working on later. I have applied these concepts haphazardly across the last few years. I hope to rectify that by my program of self improvement.

One of the sources of my decision to select Vision as a virtue was the list that Benjamin Franklin worked on. As I have gone through this week the following question kept coming to mind. How do you apply vision on a daily basis? How is it something that you can regularly work on? I of course thought of the daily visualizing and the goal statements. I also felt there was something that I was missing. I believe it was in how I view other people.

When we interact with other people we tend to immediately have some preconceived notions. How can we use vision to guide our actions with others? I believe that when we interact with or see others we should see them for their potential. That is not to say that we should just go along with whatever another person decides to do whether good or bad. People are still responsible for their choices. I did however notice that when I worked with others and kept this in mind my attitude towards them was different. Things that might have annoyed me before really didn’t seem to matter because I could recognize what they were trying to attempt and the potential for it.

How have you been able to apply the principle/trait of vision in your life?

Increasing ability through developing character traits - Faith

2011-06-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Choosing to work on the personal virtue of faith was quite an interesting task. First, I had to decide what aspect of faith I wanted to work on. Do I concentrate on the spiritual? Do I concentrate on faith in myself? When initially looking at it I did not think it would be that complicated to figure out. I did however figure something out. I decided to focus on faith as I went through my daily activities. How would my decisions affect my faith?

Being conscious of your faith in making decisions and reviewing at the end of your day how your decisions proved to be interesting. I found that while a lot of the choices I made would have been the same without this active focus, the focus did help me to see how our choices effect our eternal progression. Would the environment some of my potential decisions put me in have a negative or positive influence on my faith?

In looking at some of my routines and habits I did a couple of things a little differently. First, I wanted to actively increase my faith during the week. I made sure that I read scriptures before going to bed along with books and talks of a spiritual nature. I also continued to pray on my knees before going to bed. I have been doing the latter consistently now for about 3 ½ weeks. It is starting to have a profound impact on my life. I see things much longer term and can see with more clarity the roads my potential decisions would lead me down. Doing both of activities mentioned above helped me to close out on a peaceful note and therefore sleep a little better.

Another decision and change of habit that just kind of came about with this focus was how I spent my commuting time. On average I usually just drop the radio on whatever type of music I’m feeling like. Some occasions I would listen to some talk radio. The last week I haven’t played any music at all while driving. I have either listened to downloaded recording of talk radio shows or listened to some books on tape. This has had the effect of increasing my knowledge both intellectually and in regards to a basic awareness. By focusing on faith I viewed the news of the day and other events through the prism of faith. It is amazing to see how differently you internalize information when viewed through this particular prism.

Jesus Christ in the countless times He healed others during His earthly ministry would often send the recipients off with the phrase, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” I have always just viewed that as a combination of their being physically healed as well as spiritually healed through a forgiveness of their sins. This week has brought me a new perspective on this. In focusing on my faith it has allowed me to see things much more clearly. It has allowed me to see all the components of my life and how they fit together within the big eternal picture. All of the pieces of my life are now coming into picture as one complete whole. As I slowly bring these pieces together and find balance between them it makes me whole as a person.

As I go through this little experiment of working on a virtue every week and thinking back on it in review, I am just going to continue blogging about them. I will just keep the rotation going and see how each instance builds upon the last.

My virtue for this next week is going to be……vision.

Increasing ability through developing character traits

2011-06-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Cross posted from my other blog.

The two major cornerstones of what I have dubbed “Individualbility” are individual ability and individual responsibility. This week I want to look at individual ability and how it can be increased by developing character traits.

Improving your character is a great way to improve individual ability to achieve success in anything that you do. There are a plethora of character traits one can look at improving upon or acquiring. On our site we mention five off the top.

• Integrity
•Courage
•Persistence
•Faith
•Vision

There are also many others that people would argue you can work on. Our site includes even more, including those things that Benjamin Franklin picked to work on. Franklin made a conscience effort to work on what he dubbed 13 virtues. He would pick one to work on every week and then rotate through them continually. Looking back at his life I would say that he did very well at developing those character traits and is a great example of increasing your chances at success by building your character.

I personally decided to start working on a character trait every week. Last week was my first week working on this and decided to focus on integrity. My focus was not only on being completely honest with those I interacted with but being honest with myself and work to cut out the little internal lies we tell ourselves. It made for a very interesting and eye opening week.

There is one example that really stands out in my mind. I was chatting with some coworkers about midweek and the subject of getting in shape came up. I was comparing notes with a couple people and one of the ladies mentioned that she likes playing the Zumba dance game on the Nintendo Wii. I mentioned that we had a Kinect for our Xbox 360 and loved the dance central game. I was about to say, “I usually play it about once a week, but I want to play it more often.” Well, although it would only be known to me it would be a blatant lie. I haven’t played that game in at least 2 months. Some people would say, that wouldn’t harm anybody because how would they know anyway. As I caught myself and refrained from making that false statement, I thought about my integrity. If it is ok to tell one little lie like that, then where does that lead to?

I do not share the above story to brag, but to illustrate a real life example of making an effort to focus on that weekly character trait. If my focus on developing the character trait of integrity had not been at the forefront of my mind, I probably would have made the statement without thinking about it.

We all have things that we want to improve on and do better in our lives. I firmly believe that by focusing on developing good character traits, those other areas of our lives will start to fall in line. Our personal character really does determine our path. The type of individual we focus on becoming will bring those types of individuals and opportunities into our lives.

As I move on each week focusing on a different character trait, I will post my progress on my personal blog. For a great discussion of integrity, I suggest John Huntsman Sr’s book Winners Never Cheat.

What character traits do you think are the most important develop? Why?

Love me Some Duke Ellington

2010-05-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Online Education

2010-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

So my school's Twitter feed had an interesting article posted. It was a CNN article I believe sponosored by CareerBuilder. It was supposed to discuss the emergence of Online only schools as a viable alternative to traditional schools, particularly for those of us that cannot find the time to get into a traditional campus. To me it read more like a hit piece against Online education.

It did have the obligatory section on what to look for on the sidebar. I did agree with a good portion of it such as making sure it is truly accredited amongst them. However, it stated that you should make sure it charges per credit hour. Why in the world would that make a difference? The only thing I can think of was it was a plug to push people towards online classes at a traditional school or a more expensive online/classroom university. The article stated that if you can accelerate your program or use "life" experience towards your degree then its not really viable. One graduate quoted in the article discussed earning a "true" degree by going to a traditional school but taking some online classes.

Some good things mentioned in the article, 61% of CEOs and small business owners are familiar with online or distance learning programs. 83% of executives in the survey say that an online degree is "as credible as one earned through a traditional campus-based program."

Although the basis of the article and the minimally covered main point is that business owners and executives see online degrees as viable and just as good as long as the programs are properly accredited, the writers couldn't help but take a shot at the schools as well. That's not surprising to me coming from a news outlet such as CNN. It does however paint the picture that the author is somehow in the tank for traditional universities. I think one has to look at the subtle digs made by the writer in an article to discover some of their true intent.

I love my school! It is awesome! I think it has better accredidation than most traditional universities. I LOVE the fact that I can accelerate my program and save the money. Who can honestly be served by an online program that requires you to pay per unit. To me its just the school trying to increase the cost and therefore their income. Of course, I attend a non-profit school. I love the fact that it is "competency" based. So yes, I can use that life or career experience, whatever it is and use that knowledge to help me pass my exams to show I know the material. After all, isn't that what exams are all about. Employers love the fact that the school uses a competence based approach. It ensures that the graduate actually knows the material and wasn't just sitting through the class with drool coming down the side of their mouth.

Long Long Time Ago.....

2010-03-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

....In a galaxy far far away.

I used to post here. Ok, now that I am done with the obligatory I never post here comment.

I am really excited about my program for school. Using the mentors advice I am really accelerating my program. Monday he suggested I take the Pre-Assessment for one of the courses listed several terms down because he figured I would do well. If I pass with 70% or better I should just schedule the Assessment. Bam, I scored a 78% on my critical thinking Pre-Assessment. That means with all going according even better than my original plan, at the end of this month I will have completed 16 units for this term and I will only be half way through it. I will also have my A+ Certification. He then suggested I look at adding the network security class next. He knows I have my eyes set on working for the NSA. Speaking of that, the Masters program at school in Network Security and Information Assurance was just certified by the NSA last week.

Mentor also just set himself up on Facebook and is having all the students he mentors kind of join the group. It gives a whole lot of encouragement and excitement to see what everyone else is doing and to sort of taste of all their successes.

I will try to blog a bit more about personal life here. We have a cruise coming up, Lisa just went into business, we got a new flat panel tv, there is just a whole lot going on in life. Of course, my conservative blog I will keep posting to once a week. After taking the Nolan test though it should probably be my Libertarian with sprinkles of conservatism blog.

Dancing Kid

2009-06-25T13:52:00.001-07:00

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Schooling Begins Again

2009-05-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Just got the application finished, and then just have to get to payday to pay the filing fee for my school app. I am going to get into Western Governors University and get my IT degree. It begins a fine balance in my life now between work, school, family, and business. I will do it all because I am the bomb diggidy!

HCG Update

2009-03-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

So I have finished the first round of the shot protocol. I've lost 34 pounds as of today. I probably won't do another round, but it's reinforced some better eating and getting exercise in. I am still losing although I am not on the shots. It is awesome!

HCG Diet

2009-03-01T20:45:00.001-08:00

So the weightloss program we have started a little over a week ago is totally kicking my trash. I have however dropped 15 pounds. If I hit my benchmarks I have set for myself, I don't believe I will be doing another round. It has been a huge strain on my mental health. When I hit the benchmarks I have set, I can use the healthy eating habits I have learned and the good work out habits we are forming and slide myself in to the weight I want.

Diet Program

2009-02-21T09:16:00.001-08:00

Well, we have started our weight loss program that we are doing. I will have to occasionally post an update and share how I am doing. We are doing the HCG program. It is really structured, which is good for me. I know that Lisa is probably posting about it, so I will let her share the details on how it all works.

On another note, 75 days until Disneyworld....WOO HOO!!!!

Can you tell i'm excited?

New Computer Piecing Together

2009-02-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

The new computer is starting to come together. I finally found the right drivers for the ethernet card. Got the right driver for the onboard sound card. It is 7.1 dolby 3d stereo surround sound. Now I just need some righteous speakers.

New Computer

2009-02-09T21:57:00.001-08:00

I have a new computer I just built. It is super sweet. It is installing everything right now as I post via the laptop. I am going back to advancing the new cool computer now.

Playlist

2009-02-08T14:24:00.001-08:00

Well, being that the songs kept coming up all screwed up I decided to take off the playlist. As soon as I get a new one set up, I will get it posted.

Oh, for those that want to follow our Disney adventure, I have set up a Disneyworld blog for my family. Let's see how big a mess it turns into with ALL of my family having posting access. It ought to be fun.

First Post of The Year

2009-01-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

So, this goes to show how one of those resolutions is going. That resolution was to post in my blog once a week. I hope to do better.

So, as Lisa mentioned on her blog we had a nice trip to Disneyland. Although she did kick my trash on Toy Story Midway Mania. When we ride it at Disneyworld, we're almost at the 100 day mark woo hoo!, she is so going down. Same thing on Buzz Lightyear! Love ya honey!! It was really nice to have a weekend alone with Lisa. I really want to hit a goal of doing that once every quarter. Even if we just have someone take the boys and we stay at home. Our little trip away just reminded me how much I love her. It also brought funny Lisa back out for a while. Funny Lisa needs to make more regular appearances.

Work is going okey dokey. The contract was finally settled upon and now I know what my raises are going to be, so I can better budget. Actually we are going to start doing something old school that I think will really work. We are going to budget by pay period and use envelopes with cash. That will help solidify a bit more personal control.

I am excited about business this year. I had been kind of blah about just about everything in life up until the beginning of the year. Allowed myself to get a bit too down on myself. But now, I am totally pumped. I love the ad click bar thingy we have going. To get a free tool to help you make some extra cash, just click on the turnkeyleadership site link to the side. I am so excited about it I rerouted a business website to it. I love the email that comes with it too. It is super duper user friendly. I like it more than my gmail.

Oh, for all those interested, the calling I received and accepted was for Elders Quorum Secretary. I am totally pumped about it and we have a good Presidency that is willing to go out and work. I feel some great things are going to be happening in our little ward. Speaking of great things, I was in the temple doing initiatories the other night. I feel the Lord is going to be unfolding some good size changes in my life in the near future. It's a feeling like great blessings are in store. That is a nice thing, but the unknown is kind of scary. I do feel confident it will be a good change and movement though. I also felt an urgency to get the Lord's work done. The amount of time to do it is getting a lot less very quickly.

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, a fun New Year, and here is to a prosperous New Year for everyone!

I ROCK!!!

2008-11-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not really anything I did, but I did find out I could access my blog account from my work computer. So much for company software blocking personal sites, woo hoo! (Said as the IT spies are probably watching me type this going, hahaha, we will shut him down)

I figured, as usual, it was time to say something. Not that I really think much before I post anything, but hey that's part of the fun and I have to kill 25 minutes before I get out of here for the holiday.

Oh, did I mention that I have holidays off now with pay! Woo hoo! No more being forced to use flex that you get in minimal amounts. Yes, that is a shout out to all my peeps still stuck at the MGM. Suckers!

I am just so excited about a lot of stuff recently. Lisa and I had a rockin trip to Mesquite. Not that we did much outside of the room, but it was nice to hang out and relax. Besides, there really isn't a whole lot to do in Mesquite. I am so very excited for the new business division we have just launched this week, loan modification. I get to spend my business hours helping people to stay in their homes. If you guys know anybody that needs help, I pay a nice referral fee. :-)

I am also just excited in general for the holiday season. I love the season, but sometimes it is depressing without several trips to Disneyland during the holidays to celebrate. Oh well, there is always next year! Oh, and Dad is taking us to Disneyworld in May. Woo Hoo! All those years of flying American Airlines is paying off big.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Wednesday boredom.

As Always, About freakin Time

2008-10-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

So, I guess it is about time to throw another post up on here. So much for trying to get one up every week, eh? Well, this is what's been happening, in a nutshell . (Insert favorite nutshell joke here)

The new job is working out very well. The people are awesome, and the money is much much better. Plus there is not this pervasive feeling of foreboding like there was working at the MGM. I don't think it was the MGM so much as it was certain people that worked in the hallway where I was. Bad vibes from the way they treated their people and ran their department. Plus there were a couple people there always trying to find a way to try to get me in trouble. Guess they can't stand the site of somebody succeeding, especially when they have no power to pull that person down.

Anyways, the job is good. Lisa and the boys are doing good. Bryan started truly crawling this week. Now we have two little ones that are mobile. Should make life very interesting.

Lisa and I are going away to Mesquite on the 24th for our quarterly weekend away. We can't wait! A whole weekend to ourselves. Any time we can get to ourselves is definitely a valuable commodity. Not that I don't like being with the boys. It is fun, but as a couple you have to have time that is just yours together. I think that is true with any relationship, whether you have kids or not. We are also taking the boys down to LA for Halloween. Yay! One of the perks of my job is that we get Nevada Day (aka Halloween) off as a paid holiday. Did I mention how much I love the new job? We are going to have a nice three day weekend down at my mom and dad's. So anybody down there that wants to say hi, feel free to stop by their house on Saturday to hang out in the afternoon.

I think that does it for now. Back ot my yummy chicken nuggets and a rare few minutes of game time.

New Job

2008-08-30T14:37:00.001-07:00

I know I know, I said something about posting once a week or something like that. Be thankful that Lisa keeps reminding me to post more regularly and specifically about my new awesome job. Between the new job, family time, and business, I haven't figured out how to squeeze in regular blog time. Maybe I will just stop sleeping. That will give me lots more time.

I started a new job 2 weeks ago working for the Southern Nevada Health District, or as I like to call it, The Man. Some of my carpool buddies call it, Payton Place. Some of my Libertarian friends like to say that I am now contributing to the problem. They are just jealous that I don't have to pay into social security anymore. Like it's going to be there when I retire anyway. My friends that like to travel to Vegas will probably be sad that I don't get random free show tix and hotel discounts anymore.

So, on to the new job. I am the Administrative Secretary for one of the Community Health Nurse Managers. So, yes, I am a male secretary in the Nursing Department. At least my name is not Gaylord Focker. I love my new job. The hours are better, the pay is better, and the people are just way cool. None of that high school crap I had to deal with at the MGM.

Something Fun

2008-07-26T13:54:00.001-07:00

1. Add a comment on my blog about one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot just do anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play, suit yourself.

Running from Problems vs. Being Blessed

2008-07-26T13:30:00.001-07:00

So I had some intersting thoughts on my drive home from work yesterday. Don't ask me how I happened onto this thought process, but it just jumped out. I was thinking about how as humans we try to run from our problems. Or, another way to look at it is we focus on our problems and what we would like to change so much, we think of the best way to run from them. One area that I hear that a lot in is when people are evaluating where they live. I hear both sides of this too. One is, we don't have enough space. We are on top of each other and we just need to give the kids a little room. The other side is, we have too much room, I never see the kids anymore. I think in either situation you need to focus on what you have been blessed with. If you think everyone is on top of each other, just remember that you are blessed to have a roof over your head, and at some point as the kids grow up, they will start to do their own things and you will see less of them. If on the other side, you don't see them too much, the house is too big. Remember, as your kids grow up they start to do their own thing. So, I think the focus to fix it ends up being the same thing, right? At some point our kids start to break off and do things on their own.

This comes up for people on the financial side too. I see people with little money feel like they are the richest people in the world. I see people with a good income and lifestyle feeling like they have no money. I think if you have your basic needs met that is all you need. Also, if you feel like you have no money, the best way to solve that is track every dime you spend. If you know where your money is going, you'll at least feel a bit more in control.

I know from experience that you cannot relocate to another area to correct your problems. Even if it fixes one issue, there are others that crop up. Just remember that the secret to wealth is gratitude. Think of the things the Lord has blessed you with and everything will be alright.

A Year Half Gone

2008-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that we are into July now. Half of the year is gone. Well, in some aspects of my life I am right where I want to be. In others, I am just a bit behind my schedule I set for myself. However, things are catching up quick so watch out.

We went up to Lisa's family reunion on Cedar Mountain this last weekend. Her family has a ranch up there and it was just awesome. We had a blast. I also got to meet some more of her cousins. It was great to let Josh get around and get super dirty. I don't know how his close survived. Although it was nice to get home on Sunday, the weather was much nicer up there. When we pulled into town on Sunday at 7pm, it was 110 degrees. It wouldn't be bad if it actually cooled off at night. (thanks for the insight there honey :-p)

I am thinking of starting up a blog detailing the stuff I am doing business wise and to document the building of my business. I just don't know what to call it. I am open to suggestions. Things have been picking up fast and moving forward. It is exciting and a bit scary at the same time. It's nice that success is starting to come through the door and at the same time you think, wow, how is this going to change my life. I am all for change, especially when it is good, but it can still be scary.

Summer Begins

2008-06-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Happy first day of summer everybody!

Things have been great out here. Even with the triple digit heat. I am going to try to update this on a somewhat more regular basis. I am going to schedule at least weekly time. It's nice to let everyone know what I am doing and it's a good little record for myself too.

I am also done studying for my life insurance exam. I am working with Amy and John in launching a new company. It is taking financial services and applying it to what we are already doing to give a full picture. I am really excited about this and so is Lisa. It is a crusade that I can really get behind one hundred percent and go full speed. Plus, I get to be in the peace of mind business. I really like being able to help give families peace of mind by helping them to get their financial house in order and provide them a little education along the way. Anyways, the site below is where things are starting out.

http://www.mpsguide.com/

I have been able to go back this week and help some friends and a couple former clients start getting the financial house in order. What I really like is we are building that long term relationship. I look forward to doing the follow ups every 6 months. It allows me to see the progress of friends, family, and clients that I have been able to help get on the path to financial independance. As you can tell, I am way excited about all of this.

This weekend is Father's Day, so I would like to say Happy Father's Day to all the other dads out there. I hope you are having an awesome weekend like I am.

Next weekend Lisa and I will be celebrating our third wedding anniversary. Time is just flying by. I can't believe it is three years already. It has just been absolutely wonderful. I never thought the love you have for somebody could continue to grow so much and so fast. We are sending the boys up to Lisa's parents for the weekend and we are just going to spend the weekend here alone by ourselves. It is going to be soooo awesome.

The other big thing that I am really looking forward to is the trip we are planning to Disneyland in September. I am so uber excited. I can't wait to take the boys.

A Template

2008-04-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the site Lisa uses, I found a template for my Blog. I think I will change them from time to time. It is a pain however, because when I put in the new one I have to redo all my links. However, I think maybe I will change it once a month.

Oh yeah, don't mock me. The Smurfs freakin' rock!

Random Musings

2008-04-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting here in my living room listening to AC/DC. Not that it is really relevent to the post, but I thought you all would like to know.

Lisa and the boys have gone up to Moccassin to stay with her folks for a couple days and get away from the increasing heat. Normally I would be at work on a Monday and then doing business in the evening, but today I really needed a mental health day. So, now that the house is empty I have been able to catch up on a couple of my projects. The one I am most glad that I have finished so far is getting the wireless network finally working properly. I was having trouble getting it set up here for the longest time. Then I finally got smart and went to the Linksys website and downloaded their latest config and setup tool. It took care of everything for me and even set it up as a secure network. I really like that. So, now I can blog, do business, or whatever on the laptop from anywhere in the house, front yard, whatever. I even finally got the house setup as a network. So, I can magically print from the other side of the house too. I told Lisa when she called, she is totally psyched.

In other projects, I am getting the office here in the house cleaned up. Now it feels a bit more conducive to being able to conduct some business out of it on the weekends. The one thing that would be nice is a new desk. My current computer desk isn't as sweet as my last one was. The previous one actually had a stand on top for the monitor which gave me space on the desk to use it as a desk. That would be really nice. I also organized some of my certificates and licenses on the wall. Only thing left is to vacuum. I believe my other project this evening will be to get the weeds along the patio and the sidewalk outside. Then I will spray that stuff that is supposed to keep them from growing back up again. After living here I now know where the phrase growing like weeds comes from. It comes from Overton, NV.

Business wise, things are super duper awesome. I have a couple deals closing this week, Yay for cashflow, and I have some more appointments to help a few more people. We have a new financial analysis and profile we can use for our clients. It really spots out the holes in their financial plan and shows how they can improve it with existing resources. I love it.

In other plans for the day, I will probably play some video games and figure out how to make this blog a bit more stylish and how to upload pics on it.

Now that you are to the end of the post, I thought I would let you know that I am now listening to Big Joe Turner.

Ahhhh, Spring

2008-04-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, in honor of the first day of spring and earth day and all that coming up, I wanted to start out this evenings post by saying, "Screw Ethanol". That's right, no foreseeable benefits for several years, will cause more pollution then gas, but the thing that really upsets me right now is that it is driving up the cost of food. When you have a family you are supporting, even if you are making good money, food costs add up.

Now that i've gotten that out of my way. I wanted to send you guys to my new favorite cat video link. You know, they are just hilariously stupid.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

I hope you all enjoy.

In the latest business news, I have just about finished studying for my Series 65. I am that much closer to lifetime residual income. Which we all know, is the best kind. As I mentioned in my previous post, things have been crazy crazy. I am finally learning how to leverage my time a bit more which is nice. Oh, I do have an interview with the county tomorrow. Trying to get a job in the assessors office and get county benefits. Cause they are the best. Besides, I am just tired of walking through the smoke filled casino 5 days a week to get to and from work.

Everything else is just hunky. The boys in my young mens class are as rowdy as all young mens classes are. They are starting to pay a bit more attention now, so that makes lessons easier. For mutual on Wednesday we are having a texting competition. I am preparing to get my butt throroughly kicked.

The Craziness Never Ends

2008-04-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would be able to get back on here and keeps things updated a bit more. Maybe at least like once a week, or maybe throw in the occasional rant or whatever. Business has picked up so much that I hardly have time to check my personal email. let alone blog.

Things are going pretty good. I came just shy of getting my promotion to Regional Marketing Director. I did however, surprisingly enough, manage to get enough points to be promoted to Marketing Director. Hey, a 5% raise is better than a swift kick in the butt. Hubert is running a new contest now and I will at least hit Regional Marketing Director in this next quarter. However, I did discover that leading each of the good solid people on my team right now to Regional Marketing Director themselves, will get me to Area Marketing Director. That is where I wanted to be by the middle of the year in my original plan anyways. I am totally psyched.

The boys are still the boys. To take a line from Lisa, Bryan still pretty much just sits there, and Josh is entertaining to say the least. We actually started a "family" blog as well. I think she may be the one that posts on that the most.

http://raisingoverton@blogspot.com

Well, my first appointment of the evening is going to be here in about 5 minutes. I better get offline and get the last couple things set. Having 3 back to back appointments tonight is awesome. I can feel that million dollar goal this year screaming towards me.

I'm Alive

2008-03-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

That's right baby. I am still alive! Ha ha ha ha!

Yes, I forgot about this thing for like 3 years. However, when Lisa said she wanted to start up a blog here on blogspot, I was like, Oh yeah, I have one of those.

Still working for the big behemoth company and started my own business.

I will try to get a small but somewhat substantial update here in the next week. I am so busy I don't know how often I can blog, but we will see.

Free Stuff

2005-10-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Free stuff from work rocks. They got too many promotional posters for next months concerts in. So I have extra tour posters, with the Vegas performance dates stamped on them. They are for the groups below.

U2
Rolling Stones
Paul McCartney

Any of my known friends out there in cyberspace want one.

Blues and BBQ

2005-08-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you that keep up with this little thing. You'll already know that I am hitched. Yep, been married for about 6 weeks now. It is awesome. I love it. Very nice to have someone to come home to.

So, now that you've been updated on the last 6 weeks.

Tonight I get to see a blues legend. I get to see BB King. I scored the killer deal on discount tix through work. He's playing with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Another great guitarist that has been on my list of people to see. I get to hit two in the same show. I'm like, woo hoo, I get to see the King. Yay!

No, there is no BBQ in this post but hey, something had to rhyme.

Later on, my thoughts about this summers reality trash tv. Speaking of trash, Dukes of Hazard this weekend. Yee Haw!

Moving In

2005-06-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

So, we are getting things settled into the apartment finally. Well, we have all of Lisa's stuff over there. Of course, just starting out we don't have too much furniture to move in. At least we have a couch, a bed, and a table with some chairs. Later today we are going to head to the mecca that is Walmart to find a cheap computer desk, entertainment center, and possibly some bookshelves.

I just got off the phone with my Aunt Lurlene in Florida. We are going to have Sunday dinner with them when we are down there in a couple weeks. She just told me that the beaches down there are still pretty torn up after the hurricanes from this last year. We will just have to see how all of that goes.

Well, it's back to repacking some of my stuff. For those of you coming to Vegas at the end of the month, I just wanted to mention that Wayne Brady is playing town that weekend and Tony Hawks Boom Boom Huck Jam is that weekend too. Just in case I don't chat with you before you get to town.

Keep it real kiddies. Don't know if i'll have time to post anything before the wedding again, but we'll see.

4 Weeks Left

2005-05-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

What I have 4 weeks left of I haven't figured out yet. However, I do know that I am getting married to the most awesome girl ever 4 weeks from today. Yep, just 4 weeks left. For those of you that I have not received an address for, you should know who you are, I need that so I can mail you kids the official announcement. We should be sending those out on Tuesday as Monday is a holiday.

We are signing the lease for the new apartment tomorrow. That is going to be cool. I have to figure out if they will let us do satellite or not. The cable situation out here is unjust. I'll post more on that later. It deserves it's own post.

In other news, it looks like they are working on getting me into the company on a permanent basis. Yeay, no more being a temp. They are doing the background check and I have to go in for the pre-employment drug screening on Tuesday. I wonder if they'll give me a free haircut with that as well as they are going to pluck out some of my hair. After all that I just have to interview with the Executive VP and General Counsel for the hotel. A nice little chat with a high ranking executive at the hotel is exactly what I need next week. Well, it is all about the people you know, right?

For those of you looking into employment law and want to get a working perspective of it from the corporate position, let me know. It's actually rather interesting, plus I still get to deal with the idiots of the world. I just can't escape them.

Engagement Photos and Such

2005-05-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Being that 1, I haven't figured out how to post them, and 2 after working with them on photoshop, here is the link to the engagement photos. Well, at least the two we had been thinking about using.

http://photos.yahoo.com/mike_c0ntr0l

For those of you that may read my journal, do me a favor and email your snail mail address to me so I can send you an announcement.

mike_control@earthlink.net

I would update some more but I have to head out for dinner and a movie. For those of you with t-mobile, send me your phone number. I have t-mobile and get free mobile to mobile.

Random Rambling

2005-04-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

So, in the interest of keeping up with the peeps and the fact I have nothing to do, here is a random friendly whatever update.

Lisa is up in Salt Lake City with her mom and a couple of her sisters. They planned on taking a couple days to find her wedding dress and then come back on Wednesday. I had a message from her when I got out of work that she found her dress in like 90 minutes. That's very cool. I am happy for her cause she's all excited and giddy. Although, I was disappointed to find out that they were not going to be heading home any earlier. Eventhough I miss her I think a couple days apart is good and healthy. It gives me an opportunity to take a break from all the planning and catch up with some internet stuff. You know, things like Homestar and Foamy.

Work wasn't too shabby. Got our response to an amended charge out to NERC (Nevada Equal Rights Commisson). Oh yeah, as promised here is the basic rundown of what my boss does and therefore I type up and file. Anytime an employee or generally former employee files a complaint with either NERC or the EEOC, and they generally file together, it comes to our office to respond and defend it. Any subpoena's for employee information, general request from law firms for employee information, or employees/other people companies requesting employee info also comes across my desk. We also act as the liason between the company/departments and the immigration attorney in New York for any immigration issues with the employees. My boss also provides basic legal insight and guidance to the employee relations team. That being the case, our offices are down in employee relations. It's pretty cool cause I am making all the important contacts as I am temping here.

Although there was a decent amount of stuff that came across my desk today or that I am waiting on information for, I still played a lot of solitaire today. I'm glad I discovered my computer had it as I don't have net access to kill the dead time. I'm still using the boss' log on with my computer cause IS still hasn't set mine up yet. It's been two weeks since we put in the request. Should have been done over a week ago. I'll give them a call again tomorrow and find out what's happening.

So now i'm sitting at home debating what to heat up for dinner. There are some enchiladas from this weekend in the fridge. Lisa is like the world's most awesome cook. Of course, I am tempted to just go to Arby's cause they have those arby bacon melts on sale and who knows how long i'll be able to take advantage of that deal.

Viva Las Vegas Baby! Yeah!

2005-04-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

So, I have moved up to Vegas. I had made the decision a couple weeks ago that I couldn't leave out the possibility of looking for work up here before the wedding. It's good to be open to new opportunities, you know. So, I came up here the Thursday before Easter. Instead of just spending my normal rotation of a trip up to visit Lisa for the weekend, I decided I was going to spend a whole week up here and hit the pavement. Get registered with some temp services, apply at all the groovy hotels, and all that good stuff.

I walk into Millenium Staffing on Friday as they are having an open house for admin assistants. I figure I have all the necessary skills and people experience, plus it pays good, I might as well start out doing that and then move on from there. So I go in and talk to the recruiter, take their little battery of tests (which I always ace) and head back to where i'm staying. Recruiter says that he didn't have anything on his desk right then but to call him back on Monday or Tuesday as he always has stuff coming in. Two hours later I got a call back. He had an order come across his desk from MGM/Mirage. They were looking for an admin to support one of the guys in their legal department. It's temp to hire starting at 12/hr but will go up significantly if I go perm. So I thought, sure why not. He sent my resume over, they liked me, and I started that following Monday. Good thing I brought a significant portion of my clothes with me.

So, my official title there is Administrative Coordinator for the Director of Legal Administration. Or as the others refer to me, Ted's temp. Ted is their lawyer that deals with all the employee relations stuff so our office is down in Employee Relations as opposed to upstairs with the rest of legal. It's ok though. I get my own little office. My lunch hour is paid by the company and I get free employee buffet across the hall. It's the good stuff in the buffet too. Not a bunch of crappy stuff. I'll start posting more about some of the things i'm picking up on and get to work with in a bit. Especially for all you peeps that are interested in corporate legal. I'm hoping to go perm with this job. I don't see it as something I will do forever. At least while I finish up my school. However, it is my foot in the door with the most powerful company in town.

Work, Joyous News, and a General Update

2005-03-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

So, on the work front things have been a bit shaky. My pops ran out of the necessary funds to pay me a couple weeks ago. Now, I knew that was a definitely possibility which is why I have been looking for a seperate full time gig for like 5 months now. It is starting to get very frustrating. At this point I am just looking for some decent paying temp work as I will be moving yet again at the end of June. However, there is definitely good reason to be moving at the end of June.

So, now out with the joyous news. It's something we've kept kind of under wraps for a couple weeks but is now out there for everyone to know. I am getting hitched at the end of June. To give you all the basics on Lisa.....She is 29, she works for the Clark County Health Dept, and has got to be one of the coolest peeps i've ever met. Well, I guess she would have to be if she is marrying me. We are getting married on June 24th in the St George, UT temple. Her family is mostly from southern Utah although she is residing in Vegas. So, yes I am going to be moving to Vegas. We've thought it over and prayed about it a lot. It just makes a lot more sense. She has a very good job up there with good pay and benefits and all that. So the current plan is for me to keep looking for work both here and up there. Getting some good paying temp stuff here would be good cause I would save huge amounts of cash.

So for those very few of you cool friends whom actually read this blog, after the end of the summer it's basically an open invite if you need a couch to crash on in Vegas.

In regards to any other things going on besides those, it isn't a whole lot. I'm still doing some stuff for my pops to keep me occupied. However, now we have it worked out for me to do stuff for him on a percentage base. I actually think that's a better deal. That way when he closes deals I get a nice chunk of cash all at once. We are hopefully getting a listing for a very large project in downtown LA which will actually work through and close very quickly. It'd be nice to get another decent chunk of change just before the wedding.

Halo 2 is the Bomb Diggity

2005-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

So I stopped by a friends on Friday and played some Halo 2. It was AWESOME!! I will probably buy it shortly. Everyone needs to buy an X-box so you can get this game. It is just so clean. The visuals are stunning and there is no lag. It just moves so well.

I'm finished with real estate school but I can't take the course exam for another 18 days. California state law. Pesky red tape always getting in my way.

My buddy Joel is premiering his movie on Friday. Finally! I helped them do all of the sound/mic work on it. I wasn't sure if they had finished all the post work or what. They got it all done and it's ready to premiere/test screen. They are going to start shopping it to distributors next week. It would be really cool to see it up on the big screen. That way I get to see my name in credits.

Until the next random update, enjoy the extra six weeks of winter.

Just Remembered This

2005-02-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to drop in a line about this. I only caught the first night of it, but the LA Lindy Binge last week was great. For those who have no clue what I am talking about, Lindy Hop is your basic form of swing dancing. Every year most cities will do a Lindy Exchange. So it's like taking in foreign exchange students for the weekend, well it's basically hosting crazy lindy hoppers for the weekend. I didn't host anyone this year but I did make it out for some dancing.

Yeah, the dancing went from 7pm to 2am. Generally somebody moves the party to their place when the venue closes but I was beat. It wasn't as well attended as I was expecting but it was still full of lots and lots of cool people. Lots of great people to dance with and the girl/guy ratio was about equal. It turned into one of those nights that you dance with so many people that you may ask somebody to dance a couple hours later and have a hard time remembering you had previously danced with them. As soon as my schedule mellows out a bit i'm working dancing into my schedule a bit more regularly again. Probably about twice a week.

Until the upcoming exchange down in the OC, keep it real.

Yadda Yadda

2005-02-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

So i'm in the process of finalizing things for my real estate license. Yay! I bigger chunk of the pie. I finished just about all the updates to the company website. I just have two more pages to reprogram. I need pops to get me the content for those and it will be all set. With the new sponsorship thingy we set up with CAHF that should be bringing in lots and lots of new clients. Always a bonus.

Went out to my sisters place last night for her birthday. Her roommates were glad I came out for a visit cause they needed someone to get her out of the house for a couple hours. You know, to make all the final preparations for her surprise party. She was surprised too, it worked. So after the insanity started to wind down at about one we threw on The Grudge. Those of us that were still around had not seen it. I thought it was ok. Definitely the best flik of that genre that I saw this last year. It had a bit of that creapy feel The Ring did but not quite as good. I couldn't sleep for two days after I saw The Ring. Oh yeah, couldn't watch tv for like a week.

It's a good thing I set my own hours from day to day cause I didn't get home last night until 3.

What other random stuff can I mention. This weeks episodes of American Idol weren't quite as entertaining as the previous two. I was actually disappointed that Orlando got such a minor treatment. I wanted to see all those Disney and Universal performers get ripped.

I'm still missing my hockey. A great deal. This lock out isn't good for the sport. Well, hopefully there will be a season next year. I haven't been able to convince myself to go to a minor league game. I used to have access to two NHL teams in this town.

Spraining my stupid finger

2005-01-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

So, I slightly sprained the ring finger on my left hand this past Thursday. We were playing dodgeball of all things. I went to catch a ball and jammed my finger into my other hand. It should have been a real easy catch. It was thrown by a girl. Well, that's what I get for underestimating things like girls playing dodgeball. All things aside, my finger is at least usable for typing. It's still a bit tender.

Yeah, that is about the end of my pretty much boring week or so. Nothing too exciting, but i'm doing good at keeping up with this thing.

Don't forget people, LA Lindy Binge starts in 3 days. Yay! Lots of dancing late into the night on Thursday.

Brat Camp

2005-01-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

So, I just caught this little show last night. I think it's absolutely hilarious. For those not in the know, they took these 6 teenage kids who are just absolutely beligerant and off the wall horrible from the UK and shipped them to this camp for wayward teens in southern Utah. There parents weren't like, we're gonna send you to a shrink, we're gonna ship you off to the middle of nowhere in Utah of all places. Real shock for those Brits.

So basically they strip them of any individuality and ship them off in groups into the middle of the wilderness to hike out and camp. It's absolutely one of the most hilarious train wrecks I have ever seen on tv. To think that disney exploited these kids and their situation for a low budget show on abc family makes it even better. I haven't been that entertained in a while.

I hope you have all enjoyed this surprise mid-week update. Who knows, maybe there will be more to come before Saturday. Oh yeah, and don't forget these words of wisdom.

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."

Almost on Top of This Thing

2005-01-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Look at that, I am almost on top of this thing. Just a couple days behind on my weekly update. That's ok though.

The dance class thing I did was sparsely attended, but I did get some really good dancing in with Lora before and after the class. At least there was something positive that came out of it.

Only other thing of interest was a request from my Sister. She needs a new roommate out there in Toluca Lake by April 1. She was like, you wanna split a place with your little sis. If I end up working in Glendale it would be pretty cool. It would definitely be a shorter commute than from Covina. I'm just not too sure how I feel about moving back out to the Valley. We'll just see how that goes.

Until the next update, be coolio.

Keeping up and Stuff

2005-01-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

Well, what can I say. Nothing extraordinarily significant happening the last week.

Went to the temple on Saturday evening. That is always a good experience. It's always nice to sit down in the Lord's house and have a conversation with Him that pretty much confirms that everything I am doing with the various tasks in my life is taking me in the direction I need to go. I am also set to get my home teaching done on Wednesday. That'll be nice to get out and meet and provide a bit of service and support to some new peoples. Always interesting meeting people you don't know.

On Thursday I am teaching a dance class for our Single Adult activity for church. We have invited other kids from the surrounding area to come. My cousin kind of fell down on the reminder invites and we had to scramble last night to make sure they got out. I hope people got them in time. If it's a poorly attended event i'll be disappointed. I always put a lot of effort into everything when I teach a class. Particularly in lining up someone good to teach with me. Lora is going to be teaching with me and we've taught all over the US together. Having someone that is an exceptional dancer to come in and help teach takes a bit of coordination.

Until next week, stay out of trouble, and remember the LA Lindy Binge starts in 17 days. Woo Hoo!!

Hey! It's actually a New Year

2005-01-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

Oi vey...where did the last year go.

Well, my New Years Eve was quiet. As witnessed by the fact that I am up before noon on New Years Day. Actually I was up at 8am this morning and working. My plans kept getting shuffled around. My cousins canceled the thing they requested my help on last second. So, I stayed at home and worked on some new business ideas. I kind of took some time to formulate some of my goals for this new year. I won't recap the last year as I only do that momentarily myself to take note of where I am and where I can improve.

I have taken note of the things I want to do this year and what I need to improve for myself and am charging forward with those. As I hit those things and accomplish I will share those.

I am also working up my knowledge to get this web hosting and design company up and running with a couple of my buddies. Actually, they have the hosting company and a couple things already running. I just need to get my programming knowledge up so I can fill that nitch and jump in. Plus the marketing experience I have will really help push them up and over the envelope.

Other than that and my church responsibilities to take care of it looks to be a slow weekend.

Until the end of next week, or whenever I get bored and feel the urge to post something, keep it real kiddies.

My Almost New Years Update

2004-12-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

I have made a goal, not a new years resolution cause I never keep those, to try and write in this thing once a week. Not to share everything with the rest of everyone else, which is cool, but so I can keep track of things as they happen and look back on them. You know, something written for posterity and all that. I can't write things into my regular journal to save my life. I always get busy. However, I am always on a computer somewhere.

See all youse after the New Year.

Disneyland

2004-12-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

Disneyland Disneyland Disneyland tomorrow...Woo Hoo! I love Disneyland at Christmas. I get to go tomorrow....nah nah nah nah nah.

Ok, now that i've got that out of my system. Things have been good this week. Maybe that's cause i'm back up to workin out 5 days a week. Could be all the endorphins. It looks like we may close a property deal this next week. Well, contracts should be signed on Monday morning. Then the escrow has to happen, but I think Chabad has the money already lined up for this project and is ready to make it a go. Just have to transfer the proper funds. The company also got some more consulting for this law firm this week. It's good that my dad has the expertise he has. For the three reports the law firm needs he's getting 15k. Not bad for 3 days worth of work.

I'm trying to convince my dad to take me up to Sacramento with him next week. He gets to hang out with the Governator and Adam Sandler for the first day of Chanukah. Rabbi Cunnin who is the head of the Chabad for California told my dad he should come on up with them. That is awesome. He better bring back a picture.

Time to head to the driving range.

Horror Nights Review

2004-10-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

So here is the Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights review by yours truly. Sorry I didn't get this up last night but the ball game went into 14 innings and I couldn't turn away from it. The only time I watch baseball on tv is in the post season. However, I love to go to a Dodger game. On to the review.

Jeff and I, or as Mike and I refer to him (the jewish comedian), got to the gates about 30 minutes before the event was supposed to start. Oh yeah, the nickname for Jeff was his idea. He's Jewish, and he used to make an attempt at stand up comedy. So we stood out there with about 300 other people waiting to get in. Checking out the map and making out a plan. They opened the gates a couple minutes early. We made it through security rather quickly. I did not recognize one person up front there. It also seemed a lot lighter than the presence of guards we had up there last year. Maybe that is because all the green shirts working there to help out.

We went up through the port of entry there at Islands of Adventure. Entrance and exit for the event were through that parks entry gates. The comedian and I wanted to make a right and head towards the stuff on the Studios side of the event to beat the crowds but apparently that side hadn't been cleared and prepared yet. They shuffled everone to the left into Marvel. There was one maze in Marvel, Disorientorium. Let me tell you, although I liked a couple of the effects, this maze is an OSHA nightmare waiting to happen. Talk about potential for guest injury. The primary cause of this being no lighting whatsoever throughout most of this maze. I know I know...haunted houses are supposed to be dark. I do agree. But there needs to be some kind of minimal lighting so you can see where you are going. Particularly when you have your guests going up and down a few ramps in there. The best part of that maze was the psychodelic painted up stobe light room with the techno music. As soon as we walked into that room the guy in front of us said, "The cheat is grounded". I nearly lost it. The other problem I had with this house was lack of scareactors. When we were walking up the queue to go into this thing you could see them coming from there dressing trailor into the house. They opened it up for guests when it wasn't even show ready.

So, after we finally stumbled our way out of that maze we headed back through Marvel across the port of entry to the other side of the event. The only other things to see in Marvel were of course the Hulk Coaster and the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. I love those two rides but I really wanted to see the event specific attractions and activities. We started making our way into the sections that lay between the two theme parks. It's mostly sound stages and a couple back roads. Along the paths they had set up a couple of decent looking scare zones. I liked that they were made into the walking area so you had to go through them. This particular one was called Field of Screams. It really had potential. If it had been dark. The sun wasn't down and you could see where a few of the scareactors were hiding out waiting for those not paying attention. After meandering through here we made it over to the House of Wax thing. Good idea, one minor problem, it wasn't as bad as the lighting in disorientorium but it was dark enough that you couldn't see the elements of the maze and what looked like a somewhat decent amount of detail. The real pleaser in this one was going through in the middle of a group of Japanese tourists. Those kids scare so easy it was almost painful to laugh that hard. Oh yeah, I saw one of my former supes outside. Not that they would recognize anyways. I'll make a list of the people I ran into or saw at the end here.

After this house we wandered through the soundstage section over to the next house, Lightning Gulch. It's like your old wild west ghost town. This house was one of my three faves. Great detail, excellent use of story, and the scareactors in here were cool. Once again we had the Japanese tourists behind us but I think we left them in the dust hanging out with the people ahead of us. It was nice having people that were jumpy go ahead of us. It makes it more amusing for me causeI am a wuss but love to scare other people and see them get scared. I loved some of the distraction gags in this house. You know, something makes a noise or rattles elsewhere and the guy jumps out from the other side. I also liked the bartender offering to make drinks for the 11 year old kid in the group ahead of us. He did however refuse to make me a shirley temple. He said he only makes manly drinks.

Jeff says he likes wild west haunted houses cause they are cool.

After dusting ourselves off we wandered around looking for the entrance to the vampire maze, Castle Vampyr. This one had to have been my fave out of all of the 7 houses. It's not just because there were hot chicks dressed up as vampires in here. I think Jeff wanted to stay behind with them. The detail was absolutley amazing. All the scareactors were very cool. They really worked to pull of the them of the maze. They didn't just necessarily jump out at you. They would walk up behind you and act like they were going to lean towards ya and take a bite. Also something they added this year were screens and tv's out in front of all the houses to try and give background story. The one for this house was done very very well. Maybe they spent too much on all these little video segments playing outside the houses. Anyways, back to the house. They really tried to pull elements of all the popular vampire stories together into one place and it was pretty seamless. Even the room that was a shout to Blade. A little meat locker rave party. We enjoyed this house thoroughly. I even ran into Wagner out at the exit. Got to chat with him for about three seconds.

So after this house it was time for a potty brake. Although the vampire chicks were hot there were scary things in there too and it was just time to pee. Oh yeah, speaking of hot...did I mention the jello shot girls. Probably the best thing they have done to try and market those jello shots for while you are waiting in line. Nice black t-shirt, plaid school girl skirt, black fish nets, and black knee high boots. Yeah, I was just salivating.

After our short break we headed around the corner to ride Revenge of the Mummy. The one at Universal Orlando is so awesome. The one at Universal Hollywood is sooooo weak it's not even worth a 0 minute wait. So it was good to finally get on this attraction and witness another great attraction that was done right. Plus we only had to wait like 5 minutes. When we finished the mummy it was almost time for the parade of the dead. So we grabbed some sodas and waited a few minutes curb side. It was just what you would expect. Parade floats pulled by tractors with dead people on them. Throwing out mardi gras beads of course. A few giant dancing skeletons, some vikings, and some cool tribal type drum music. We followed the back of the parade around the corner to our next maze, Horror Nights Nightmares.

Let me tell ya, this was kind of a let down. This was the maze I anticipated most and I will tell you why. It was a combination of previous years Icon characters and mazes. Most years up until this year they had an event icon. Of course they icon's maze was the featured maze of the event. Last year was the director, the previous year the caretaker, and so on. Although a couple of the elements were cool, both the caretaker and the director scared the crap out of me, it was just very disjointed and they really didn't put the effort I believe they should have into something that was supposed to be a tribute. Especially since all these icon mazes had been done in the past and were very good.

After this we headed over to Deadtropolis. It was the first maze we really had much of a wait for. I think we waited like a half hour for this. The premise of this maze was of course the dead becoming reanimated and feasting on the living in the middle of downtown. Decent idea. The opening film thingy at the begining was kind of cool. Not quite enough scareactors for this maze. Plus only 1 or 2 memorable scenes. I think what really would have put this one back towards the top of the list would be a nice industrial/metal type soundtrack. Like maybe some pantera or ministry. I think that really would have added to the metropolis zombie kind of idea. Still, it wasn't at the bottom of my list.

After this we headed towards the other path that starts leading back to the IOA side. This is where I got some of the industrial music I was looking for. Plus there were chain saws and flame guns. Plus this was one of the best done up areas for fog. Nice sections of fog where you really could not see. Giving the numerous scareactors room to work with. I believe the area was called Fright Yard. Oh yeah, it had all those nice helicopter noises too.

When we pulled out of the Fright Yard we wandered over to the last maze of the evening, Hellgate Prison. The wait for this maze was about 35 minutes, but that was ok cause there was another Jello Shot Girl! The video sequence set up for this section was cool too. It's your basic what would happen if you walked through the worlds most notorious maximum security prison after the inmates took over. The scareactor interaction in this maze had to be the best. Inmates playing along with people. A couple of note. The first section of the maze is like walking into the visitor area with the whole phones on glass thing. Of course there are inmates on the other side chatting at ya. There was this mom and teenage daughter in front of us. One of the inmates was like how about the both of your being slices of bread. I almost died laughing. They got comments in on the couple behind us too. The girl was holding on to her boyfriend from behind. The other inmate in there was like, hey sweetie you got a good one there. He's got a really nice smile. And holding onto the back you are definitely protecting the right end. So yeah, some good gags in this house. The scene with old smokey was cool. Great distraction type tool to allow the other scareactors to scare the crap out of everyone. Plus there was lots more funny interaction. Some of the inmates were hitting on Jeff which Ifound extremely amusing considering his background.

After this we wandered through the other path back into IOA. Past the scareactor on top of the truck inviting everyone into the fright yard and hellgate. He mentioned something about hellgate being the finest establishment in the penal system. Then he told some girl, you like it when I say penal don't you. That's the kind of funny interaction I love at these events. Anyone who thinks of bringing a kid to this is an idiot.

We made our way back over into Marvel for the Bill and Ted Show. This year they actually did a fantastic job on this show. They lampooned just about everyone. Excellent jokes and gags. We loved it. After the show we went over and rode spiderman. We got a snack. After that we headed back over for the last show of Bill and Ted. I had though about another run through my three fave houses but they were on the other side of the event and my feet hurt. Besides, that show was just freakin hilarious. For those going to the event remember it is a pg13 rated event. That is why you have some slightly racy humour. Particularly in the Bill and Ted show. I tell ya, seeing darth vader do the robot was one of the funniest things I have seen in years.

I am debating about going again. We could go to the event on thursday night and then I can get up early to fly home on Friday. Jeff found a connection that can get extremely cheap tix. Better than the deal than he got on the previous nights tickets. Being that I am running out of things to do on my trip I might go for it.

Overall I think the event was entertaining. This year could have used some slightly better execution. The one last year when it was just in IOA was absolutely incredible. I think they were more concerned about the logistics of getting it into portions of both theme parks. However, now that they have the whole cross section figured out and executed very well. I can see this expanding to being in both parks completley opened up. That would just be awesome. As long as they don't cut back on quality for quantity. I give this years event 4 out of 5 stars. I think something that would have made this one immensely better was a better and larger group of peeps to go with.

Oh yeah, for those who want to know whom I ran into but they did not recognize me.

Ron Lamada
Ron Mane
Perry
Barry
And other random guards.

I thought about poking them with a stick but I didn't wanna end up in a holding area for the night.

Mid Vacation Report

2004-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Soooo, here is how the vacation has been going. Not too exciting. We went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal my first night in town. That was basically the only thing that I had definite plans for here in town. The rest of it just time to sit back and relax. Basically to do nothing and recharge. This is cause I am going to be making major pushes and planning when I get home. Although the plan is basically still the same, there will be a bit of fine tuning.

So aside from catching a few fliks I have just been sitting around the apartment, spending a bit of time on the laptop, working out, and watching a little tv. Oh yeah, I got a bit of reading in too.

Movies turned to a good option cause I can get student discount at citywalk here. That comes to $5.75. That is almost 3 bucks less than the student discount at the movies back home. So it has been a good time to catch up on fliks.

I am hoping to hear from Chris in the next 24 hours or so. I know he has today and tomorrow off work but still has school. It would be nice to be able to get together with some of the other kids here in town for dinner or drinks or pretty much anything.

Although I am pretty much doing nothing it would be nice to get some time away from Jeff while I am down here. Hanging out so much and crashing at his place reminds me of one of the numero uno primary reasons I moved. Cool to hang out with on occasion but not be roommates with. Too many issues. Anyways, more on that at another time.

I'll probably throw the horror nights update on later tonight sometime. Maybe during the ball game.

Vacation Plans

2004-10-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

So, for all you peeps in Central Florida that want to do something while I am here now is your chance. Either send me a note or call my cell 626-373-6873. This is your one announcement. If you don't contact me than I won't be sliding you into the schedule.

Although I really have no plans for this vacation, I have valuable things I can be doing with my time if nobody says hey come out and cause some trouble with us.

Bloggin at 37,000 Feet

2004-10-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so now I am getting this posted the day after but yesterday was busy. And I had to get my net connection established. So here it is direct from the plane.

Ahhhh….here is a new one. Bloggin from 37k feet baby. Well in a sense. I am writing this at 37k feet. I just need to copy and paste it into the blog when I get net access on the ground.

So here is how my flight has gone so far. Traffic on the 105 was absolutely horrific. It sucked. I almost missed my flight. Well, I would have if I hadn’t weaseled my way into the line for first class and business class to go through security as opposed to the normal one. Gave me time to hit the restroom before jumpin on the plane. In flight lavatories just suck. Then I walked into the plane and got my seat.

It is nice having the middle seat empty. Although I am on the aisle which sucks. I like the window so I can look out and go ohhhhhhhh. I think the looks I get from people when I travel, particularly fly, are pretty funny. I believe in being comfortable and not having to readjust for the sake of going through security check points. So I wear my running pants, t-shirt, ball cap, and sandals. The funniest reaction was from the guys sitting across the aisle from me. You know, the nice businessman types. This is cause they saw my appearance and kind of wrote me off. That is until I pulled out this laptop that is way nicer than anything they have. Then they really looked at me funny. However, I pulled out my headphones to listen to some tunes and started programming some web pages. Then they glanced at my screen to see what I was doing and saw the html, which they probably couldn't understand anyways, then just kind of nodded. It was like, oh, he is one of those internet guys.

Anyways, they just put out the announcement that we are starting our decent. That means I got to put away the laptop as it is an electronic device. I'll post this when I get some net access in town.

Later peeps

General Randomness

2004-10-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

So, to catch up a bit. Going to the temple on Thursday was awesome as usual. Just to be focused on serving others and being in a place where it really shuts out the influence of the world is envigorating. We didn't have the turn out that we were really looking for as far as local people going with us. We also headed to the Los Angeles temple as opposed to Redlands. That was a good thing too. They were short on people there and really needed our help. It was kind of disappointing in that fact though because Thursdays are designated as young single adult night at the temple. It used to be you would see so many more people there. Well, it's just motivation for me to keep going more often myself.

The weekend was decent. I took my pops to the airport Friday morning. He flew to Miami for a conference and then he flew from there to Chicago for a different conference starting today. Maybe he will bring me back a pizza.

I've decided to really start concentrating a lot more on my financial goals and strategy. I have had my sort of general plan and ideas set up but now I really need to focus and lay out a good stategy. For those that haven't visited the site I suggest going to

http://www.richdad.com

There is a wealth of helpful information there. Part of something I am trying to do is surround myself with people who have similar goals and want to get out of the rat race. I have emailed a few people to see if they would like to be part of my little group. Just a nice group of intelligent people with knowledge in different areas that can help each other evaluate ideas and support each other in their individual goals.

Well, it is back to the marketing grind here. I have to go to Staples for more return address labels. Then I get to continue the marketing crusade to get my dad's company name out there and draw some business in for ourselves.

What a Busy Day

2004-09-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Oy...I tell ya there are too many old people out there. Well, i've come to that conclusion after the latest round of updating the contact database. That is good for me and my pops though. With all the baby boomers starting to get too old to take care of themselves the market is increasing for companies acquiring or developing more retirement facilities. I guess that means tomorrow is printing and verifying labels, printing all the letters going out, and that means Monday is the day for licking 500 envelopes. Oh boy...can't wait.

I am heading to the temple tonight. It's nice to go and participate in ordinances there. A large group of us are going to the temple in Redlands to do baptisms for the dead. For those that are scratching your head, may I suggest the URL below.

http://www.mormon.org

It will answer most of your questions. If you have more feel free to email me.

The bonus is this. My car is in the shop, not that the car in the shop is a bonus, but that means I get to use the convertible. I am one of the drivers for the evening that means driving all the way to Redlands and back on a very nice So Cal evening. Plus maybe some of the hot girlies will be like...oh we wanna ride in the fun car. Now that is always a bonus.

We Come From Planet Jive

2004-09-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

That's right folks. Those wacky guys from Planet Jive, you know the Jive Aces, are coming into town this week. Nice to be able to catch them on Saturday cause these cats are from London. They don't get to this side of the pond that often. Just trying to get some plans finalized with some peoples to dance with.

The thing with the show is that it's at PBDA (Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association). They used to have a pretty decent regular crowd at their events. However, these days it can kind of get a bit scary. Plus I like to have a wide range dance skills in the peoples I dance with. Sometimes it is kind of like bring your own friends to dance with. So, being that the ladies said they wanna dance with me now that I am back in town, I am giving them a golden opportunity. It looks like Chris might make it. I haven't danced with her since a couple months before moving to Florida. I am pretty sure Lora will go cause she owes me. I am just now trying to convince Jamie to go. Oh yeah, if I can get Megan and Kelly to go that will round out the group pretty nicely. Of course I should probably get a couple of the guys out to. Although I will wear myself out dancing it wouldn't be fair to the ladies to only have me to dance with. Hopefully I can convince both Trager and Ben to come out. Hey if Ben comes out that means Sheri will be there too.

It looks like the startings for a really sweet party on Saturday. I will try and get some pics up.

Web Site is Finally Done

2004-09-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got my dad's company website done and it is published. After a long time of pushing my pops finally has an online presence for his company. Which as all of us know is so crucial these days. So hopefully it helps to draw in lots of business. The company can really use the cash influx so I can go from hourly to salary. Then I would just need to work on the next part of my slow but methodical evil plan to take over the world.

For anyone that wants to check out the website the URL is below.

http://www.seniorrealtyadvisors.com

I am still having a couple issues with the email servers but those should be fixed by the end of today. Now I get to finish the groupings in the never ending contact database. After that it is on to the marketing campaign. It's going to be old school yet uniquely personal. It is also going to involve me licking at least 1200 envelopes. Yeah, that's gonna suck.

Lyrics and the Brain

2004-09-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

So as I sit here programming a couple web pages, ok learning to program some web pages, something just dawned on me. There is a great deal of my brain filled up with song lyrics, particularly songs from the 80's. It doesn't matter what genre of music, I just seem to know the lyrics to way too many 80's tunes.

Or course I have brought this on myself this evening as I am currently listening to said 80's music. But honestly, how much of our brains are filled with lyrics to random music. Stuff that you don't realize that you remember but as soon as the song is going you are singing right along with it.

Case in point....

Thinking of a master plan
This ain't nothing but sweat inside my hand
So I dig into my pocket all my money's spent
So I dig deeper but still comin up nothin but lent
So I start my mission leave my residence
Thinking how could I get some dead president's