inner thoughts exposed

love and marriage

2010-04-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

i've seen different friends, coworkers and relatives go through some frustrating times regarding marriage. i'm by no means suggesting i haven't had my own share of frustration... dating and breaking up... but that was before i realized i loved andrea and was going to marry her. i just knew, and everything else went away.

i've seen a wide range of reasons relationships don't go to the altar due to cold feet or just it not being the right person. and i've seen some marriages end because they may went to the altar too hastily.

i'd dive in... but a good friend sent this article to me and it is as though i wrote it myself. it is exactly how i feel and approach this marriage concept.

check it out.

when it comes to love and marriage... frank sinatra put it best... "you can't have one without the other."

nice

2010-04-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

i should've died but i didn't

2010-04-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

more from my weird mind on a sick day...

here's a quick list of times i should've died, but lived instead to blog about them.

1-log ride of death at elitch gardens, co. there is an amusement park in colorado called the elitch gardens. on one particular visit long ago, i was not so amused with this park. it was an innocent ride on a log through caverns and a fake mining atmosphere, that ended with a severe drop into water and that almost ended my life. i'm not sure if i was too small for the ride, or if the bar that is supposed to secure you inside the log failed... i just know that i fell out and rode down the drop on the front end with my grandma holding onto my belt loop.

2-foam fatality. scott and i once decided to explore a cave at the coast near seaside, or. once we were inside, the ocean decided we didn't need to come back out for a while. instead we found ourselves almost drowning in that nasty foam that washes up from time to time. i've had a fear of drowning ever since. (doesn't everyone have a fear of drowning though? it's like saying you have a fear of being shot)

3-tidal terror. next up... another reason i don't really like swimming in big bodies of water. when i was 12, i went to hawaii with some family friends and a school trip. during this trip we went swimming quite a bit - it's an island... it's what you do. so on one particular day we were swimming in one of the many man-made pools found on several beaches(click on the link and you can see the peaceful and the scary sides of the "pools"). these pools have openings where the rocks are below the surface of the water to allow the ocean water to circulate. we decided to "surf" the rocks by standing on them and trying to withstand the waves crashing through. what we didn't anticipate, were the waves exiting the pool. i had the great opportunity of getting blind-sided by one, which pushed me out onto the scary side where i was immediately hit by another wave that sent me flying over the rocks jutting out of the water and back into the peaceful side. it happened very fast, but i distinctly remember seeing fish flying over the rock with me and noticing how close i was to the rocks that were 2-3 feet out of the water.

4-welcome rocket. i've told this story so many times that i'll try to do so in only 2 more sentences. the first week i was in iraq a rocket impacted in the parking lot i was walking next to, blowing out the windows of every vehicle in the lot and pelting me with dirt and rocks. freaky...

i could have added jeremy's bachelor party and how i almost hit the rocks jumping off into the white salmon river or when andrea and i followed some random asian dude into a basement in new york with promises of cheap fake coach bags... but this seemed like just enough near-death for the time being.

sick... so i blog

2010-04-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

it's been awhile and i'm sure my only fan left is someone in china who continues to flower me with awesome words (links to porn).

i am sick. first time in several months. i figured with a new baby, i'd get sick all the time... but i guess since she's not in school or daycare, she's not bringing home any illnesses - yet.

i've been drinking so much fluid to clear this stupid cold, that i barely slept last night because i was up so many times peeing. andrea told me i grumbled ever time about having to get up to pee. i guess that's kind of funny and true of me. i hate that i have to take time-outs from life to use the bathroom. in fact last night i waited an extra hour... finding other stuff to do... because i didn't want to interrupt my time with the bathroom. silly i know... but that's what blogs are for right? i'll probably miss these days when i'm old and sitting in my own filth waiting for someone to change out my adult diaper.

this blog just turned into a streaming web dialogue (hehe).

more blogs to come as i've had some thoughts i've been meaning to post, other than peeing.

happy new chinese weird text year!

2010-01-15T08:03:00.000-08:00

my last posting was in november (sorry for the laziness on my part) and just today someone posted a comment. unfortunately it was in symbol form, which i assumed was chinese. after pasting it into google's translator i determined it was probably porn based on the "babes, babes, babes adult video zone in the text over and over again.

so i was right and now have finally been spammed on my blog by chinese pornographers! i need to celebrate!

additionally, i need to stop slacking off and write something useful in here. wait, i don't think i've ever written something useful in here. hmmmm

huh?

2009-11-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

so i'm downloading video/audio compression and conversion softwares at work to deal with the many random file formats i work with everyday and this is in one of the software's terms and conditions clause.

"5. You may not use this software in any circumstance where there is any risk that failure of this software might result in a physical injury or loss of life..."

doppelganger

2009-11-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

i was told today that i look like the lead sing from the band maroon 5 - adam levine.

i'm not sure about that but i thought i'd use this web gizmo to show a comparison of me and mr. levine as well as a couple other random celebrities i've been told i look like.

first a photo that best captures "me"

then adam levine

john cusack

rowan atkinson (better known as mr. bean)

coming out of my shell

2009-11-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

i haven't been blogging lately and i'm sure my reader(s) realize it's due to the new baby.

i'd blog about the great things i've discovered about fatherhood and how wonderful it is to see new life that is half you and half your spouse... but i've been away too long to blog something serious.

so in true form and to share something that brings it back to the title of this entry, here you go.

in all it's glory - turtles with a half chub... turtle power!

and there's more...

chrome

2009-07-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

i think i'm in love with the newish google chrome web browser. it's really just a new twist on what already existed, but the top search/url bar is nice and i love the tab use where it shows your most visited sites as thumbnails.

i will admit, i am a bit biased since i have long been professing my love for google and its many products... many of which i use, such as gmail, picasa, documents, and this blog.

i recommend people at least try it out for themselves and see how it looks.

on a side note... i recently went rock surfing/fell on my butt off some loose rocks near mt.

bachelor. the result was a deep gash in my knee that allowed me to see more of my actual kneecap than i ever wanted to and a sunset photo.

was it worth the tumble?

... curiousity may have killed the cat... but all i got was a bloody knee and a bruised ego.

the eug

2009-06-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

after a stint of not visiting eugene... i am back for a weekend wedding for my cousin. in my return i noticed some things i'd forgotten. things i glossed over in my rosy memory of eugene but now remember. like when you break up with someone for very good reasons but a week later you miss them and only think of the good times.

it's like that with moving to salem. there are much fewer places to hang out... almost zero nightlife... a 10th of the running/biking trails... and hardly any local restaurants that aren't just fast food chains - so of course i miss eugene and want to come running back into its open arms of live concerts... unique cuisine... great night clubs... and outdoor escapes.

but the illusion has begun to wear off.

this trip... i was reminding of the absolutely terrible radio stations (nickleback... really?)... the counter culture that's so prevelant that it's really just culture... the ongoing competition for most hip hipster... and the ever-present passionate person with the clipboard for me to sign on.

this is by no means to say i don't still love the eug... because i always will. i just finally see more clearly some of its flaws and that salem isn't so bad either - they are afterall just places and it should be the people i surround myself that make where i live home.

planes are dumb

2009-06-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

i recently headed to virginia for a military class and noticed some dumb things about plane trips. i've noticed them before... but this latest trip brought them more to the forefront.

1-why do most airlines load from the front to the rear? then when you're in aisle 400 you have to squeeze past everyone who's still loading their 80 pound "carry on" into the overhead compartment. Loading from the rear to the front would work much more efficiently and would maybe help more flights make their takeoff times. i think for fairness, in the case of an accident we should exit in the same order. sorry first class... us nose-bleeds get to exit first.

2-will using a cellphone during takeoff or flight actually do anything harmful to the plane or ground control? according to the FCC and FAA, there isn't any sufficient evidence showing the use WON'T effect ground communication or the plane's instruments so it has kept the ban. i'd try it out you know turn my phone on and order a pizza or something just to see, but who really wants to challenge that. it's not like pop rocks and soda where you're the only one to lose, but in a plane... if that actually effects it... everyone potentially loses.

new found beats

2009-05-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

i'd heard of rjd2 before... but never really heard rjd2. andrea and i have been watching the show 'mad men' off amc and the title theme is by rjd2 and it pretty much makes the show. here's some clips of his music and some cool videos.

enjoy...

top 10

2009-04-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

i heard about some facebook thing where you list the top ten music albums that shaped your life/listening choices. i thought it sounded pretty cool, but since i don't like posting notes on facebook, i'm writing them here. something to keep in mind is that i didn't buy a cd until i was about 17, so there isn't a whole lot representing my earlier years.

enjoy and feel free to make fun of me or agree that some of these would maybe be on your list too.

in autobiographical order-of course:

1-wayne's world soundtrack
first cd i ever owned. it began my taste of "modern" music. plus it gave me a taste of several generations of music from jimi hendrix to cinderella... great stuff for a sampler.

2-collective soul (blue album)
first cd i bought and listened to over and over again. i made a tape of it since my car didn't have a cd player. this influence was direct from erick banks. i ended up buying almost every album by this band. the world i know is one of the best music videos ever.

3-nirvana (nevermind)

i'd heard nirvana before but hadn't known what to think at first listen. after a second listen or two i was sold and this began my grunge/alternative music phase, of which i still am a part of.

4-everclear (sparkle and fade)

this is another cd that rocked my world. while most of the guitar licks are very similar or basically the same but in a different key, i still to this day love this album. every time i listen to santa monica i think of cruising around in my 1980 subaru hatchback. and when i listen to you make me feel like a whore, i chuckle at the thought of the video we were going to make senior year highlighting various girls in our school.

5-weezer (blue album)

great album even though i discovered it only once pinkerton came out. i was pretty much behind the power curve here, but this album and the buddy holly music video are both fantastic not to mention it's one of those albums you can listen to front to back loving it the whole time.

6-soundgarden (superunkown)

while i discovered this later, it is still one of my favorite albums of all time. i started listening to this and down on the upside my senior year. a bunch of us went to the concert at the salem armory in 1996 or so with the announcement coming that next spring (1997) that they were disbanding. it was a sad day.

7-led zeppelin (physical graffiti)

kashmir began my love affair with this english band, which has since become my favorite band of all time. i have yet to find a zeppelin song i don't like... short of the overplayed stairway to heaven... still good just overplayed. every album is like an orchestrated score that i just love.

8-radiohead (the bends)

i got to know of radiohead first through their song creep off pablo honey, but the bends was the first album i got to know how much staying power radiohead would have and how much i would grow to love them. minus thom yorke's weirdness and how he looks like clay aiken's 'special' brother, radiohead is pure genius. while the bends at first seemed like a downer cd i still love popping in this cd rain or shine.

9-wilco (yankee hotel foxtrot)

this was the album that go me listening to what's referred to as indie music. it lead to so many other band discoveries that have since shaped my musical taste. great album.

10-derby (this is the new you)

they're local and even though i'm biased because i went to high school with some of the band members, this cd is my latest love and i have to say it's the album andrea and i listened to quite a bit while we dated and eventually fell in love to. pretty much a lot of bias going on here but who cares it's my list.

runner ups or cds i thought about putting up there but decided against it for one reason or another (not in any particular order):

no doubt (tragic kingdom)

foo fighters (the color and the shape)

beck (odelay)

dandy warhols (13 tales from urban bohemia)

snow patrol (final straw)

the cars (the cars greatest hits)

aerosmith (greatest hits)

stone temple pilots (purple)

pearl jam (ten)

beatles (sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band)

death cab for cutie (plans)

cake (fashion nugget)

Easter

2009-04-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

here it is another Easter and i find myself thinking about all the other Easters that have come and gone. as i think about them, i have to categorize my top 3.

autobiographical of course...

1-my 21st birthday fell on Easter sunday in 2000.
while i wasn't a Christian at the time... i still didn't feel it was a good idea to get blasted on Easter sunday. plus, where do you go on a sunday in salem after 6pm for something like that. come to think of it, make that any night of the week. i should also mention i shipped off to army basic training the next day.

2-spain with paul in good old 2006.
we had communion on the roof top of our villa/hostel within eyesight of morocco in the small town of tarifa. after reading from the book of John and doing our Easter "service" abroad, we finished our bottle of communion wine and went to the market for two more bottle of communion wine. we then walked/stumbled about the small town discussing where we wanted to be and do with our lives only to collapse in our room before 9pm when the locals began their celebration. we felt good, but also felt like losers since we passed out way before the real party began.

3-coming home from iraq for leave in 2008.
andrea, scott, my parents, and my in-laws took a weekend of my r&r to go to bend/sunriver and hang. after a year in the sand-box it was great to spend Easter with family and hit the reset button on life. we spent Easter in a church that met at a local high school.

this Easter was great as well. it's still far too soon to know if it will make a larger top 5 list one day, but great nonetheless. church was fantastic, especially since my dad came with us. and the night was topped off with a much needed guy-time with mr. banks as we shared a bottle of wine and a long awaited cigar. i even tried to not slobber too much on the cigar. thanks banks for a great night.

happy Easter ya'll!

for kix

2009-04-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

saw this and had to post it. enjoy.

math doesn't add up

2009-04-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

i know this has been complained about many times over... but here i go.

is it really that hard to get the sausage and hot dog folks together at a negotiation table with the buns people?

why do i have to buy hot dogs in packs of 10 or 6 (if sausages) while the buns come in packs of 8?

it's frustrating and my money is on the conspiracy theory that they have gotten together and hatched a plan to market these items deliberately this way so we the consumer would have to buy more than one or two packs in order for things to "even" out.

bottom line... they owe us an apology for frustrating me enough to write this blog and subjecting you "all" to reading it.

love isn't all you need

2009-03-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

i’m about to turn one of those corners in life where it’s time to reflect on all of my blessings. the last 2-3 years have not only seen major changes in kevin’s life, but potential roadblocks and trials. overall, i’d have to say i’ve not only weathered some rocky storms and times of solitude and great chances of depression, but i feel i’ve really come out ahead.

from deploying to iraq to buying a home to uncertain employment times, i can say three things have kept my head above the current of this crazy place we call earth.

faith, love & hope

while all work together, they also represent different points in my life…

faith: 3 years ago, i found something i’d always been looking for but had never realized it. i found the most important piece to this puzzle we call life. i found God, or perhaps simply just opened my eyes. of course i can’t take the credit. without His guidance and the help of my family and friends, specifically my dad, paul and andrea, i’d probably be just writing about how lost i feel in this confusing world. i was later baptized by another great friend, colby as a testimony to everyone who knows me and to God. i continue to learn more and hopefully grow more. this is definitely a chapter still being written and at times being picked through like a newspaper story on the cutting room floor.

love: 2 years ago, i married the love of my life and best friend. not a day goes by that i don’t thank God for his awesome power in bringing andrea into my life and for giving her the patience to deal with an overgrown nerd such as myself. i believe i have the best friends in the world and the most loving family, but i never could have imagined finding someone i enjoy spending so much time with, who allows me to learn more about what love is and how bottomless it can truly be.

hope: four months ago, my hopes and what i see as a major piece to my purpose came true. andrea and i found out our lives were going to change forever. in the first weeks of november, we were surprised to find we were pregnant. this is not to say we weren’t hoping for a child, we just didn’t expect to get the good news so soon. andrea pushed through trimester number one like a champ and is now plugging along through trimester number two approaching each shortness of breath or back pain with courage and a positive attitude i admire every day. our first baby, a baby girl is scheduled to arrive in july, a month that can’t come soon enough for both pregnant mom and jittery dad.

faith, love & hope

awesome

2009-02-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

imagine a story that takes place during the iron age in ancient norway. a flash of light streaks across the sky. it's the burning wreckage of a spacecraft crashing through the atmosphere and into the sea just off the coast. one man emerges alive. his name is kainan and while he looks just like a human, he is from a distant planet. his people have just terraformed a planet to settle and were in the process of exterminating a species of large killer beasts with knashing teeth and razor sharp claws known as moorwens. just when they'd thought they were done killing the moorwens the beasts strike back killing most of kainan's people. he was actually on his escape when he crashed on earth. little does he know that a moorwen stowed away on the ship and also survived the impact. as he struggles to survive and inevitably begins to hunt down the moorwen he runs into a local viking tribe. joining with the forces of the primitive but fierce warriors, kainan uses his new allies to continue to hunt the moorwen, which they refer to as a dragon.

if this sounds like a ridiculous plot for a story... we agree. the above is a partial breakdown of a movie that apparently just came out called outlander. i doubt it's playing in a theater near you, and that's probably a good thing. while it stars jim caviezel, an actor i think very highly of, it looks really dumb. i almost wonder if they're just trying to outdo that fabulously terrible movie pathfinder (both are named after cars i think) or just have a modern classic like america 3000. either way, it will probably prove to be another great move to torture people with.

here's the trailer

long flight to a cold landing

2009-01-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

for those who don't know... i'm in school for my next rank advancement in the army. the school is at ft. meade, maryland, the same school i attended 9 years ago for my basic broadcasting training. not much has changed, but 9 years is a long time to forget what a place is like. and with class not starting until monday... i have a couple days to settle in and remember this place. i do recall that the school is great, but getting here yesterday was not so great.
here's the breakdown:

0600 flight out of pdx headed to salt lake city. the early flight time meant getting to the airport around 0430, which meant not really sleeping that night.

0900 i get to salt lake city only to find out my flight to baltimore was cancelled. i'll let that set in because it took me off guard and i was checking every screen possible to make sure i wasn't seeing things or the screen wasn't just wrong. nope... officially cancelled. not a big deal when you're in your home-state airport, but when you're only one leg through your trip it kinda sucks.

1000 they re-route us onto a flight to dulles without saying why or anything. i figured at least i'd be on the east coast to closer to my destination, whatever.

0500 pm we finally land at dulles - one hour after i was supposed to land in baltimore. it was when we landed that we were told our luggage was flown to reagan national airport. nice delta airlines, real nice. our consolation prize was two taxi vouchers to drive us from dulles to reagan then to baltimore.

View Larger Map

dulles to reagan to get baggage - 1 hour
reagan to military base - 1 more hour
taxi fair - $200 (on delta airlines dime)
arriving at my school - priceless

that was just getting here. once on post i had to report in. easy enough... except when all the numbers and building numbers are wrong. i walked about 6 miles in circles in the freezing cold on the post trying to find where to check in. two hours later and 36 hours without sleep i finally reached someone who could help me out. i can only hope the school works out better.

love resides in the kidney

2009-01-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

i saw this story and had to share.
apparently some guy in long island, ny is demanding his wife (whom he is divorcing) give back the kidney he donated to her or pay him for it - $1.5 million to be exact.
there are messy divorces... and then there are surgically gross and greedy divorces.
i've always been curious why people think love comes from the heart when it's just an organ that pumps blood through your body. so maybe love comes from the kidney?
i don't know about that... but i do know kidney beans are good for your heart. so perhaps this dr. batista guy is onto something. i'm selling my kidney. seriously, who needs a kidney anyway compared to $1.5 million in cold hard cash? what's the worst thing that could happen? i'll just use the money to buy gatorade stock and regulate my electrolytes that way. problem solved.

click click boom

2009-01-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

saturday was quite the treat... as i was able to shoot testosterone straight into my vein by shooting several pretty sweet weapons. one of my friends/soldiers that i deployed with, invited me out to blast away with some of his many guns. from pistols to assault rifles, it was just what the doctor ordered after getting through the holidays.

one of the first weapons i fired was his ar "pistol." in his words the weapon is a:
"...rock river lower receiver with an olympic arms 10.5 inch upper on it, and an eo-tech cco."
it's very similar to the m4 i had when in iraq. we didn't have the eo-tech cco and so that was quite the treat to play around with after clocking so many hours on ghost recon using the sight "virtually." nonetheless, inanimate targets shook in their clay pigeon boots as i walked up to fire.

next up was something i've been dying to shoot for quite some time.

the infamous ak47. i saw tons of these in iraq and every male from the age of 14 up is legally allowed to carry one. it's supposed to be one of the more reliable weapons ever made - (you can drop it in a lake and come back days later to shoot it reliable) and it feels a bit more like a real gun than the m4... probably due to the wood stock and weight difference and the caliber. it was fun to shoot even if it was legal so there wasn't an auto on the fire select.

then we moved on to ridiculous weapons.

this was a rifle supplied by the other guy who came along. not sure what it was... but it seemed a bit overkill for what we were doing so of course i had to try it out. the scope made our 50-75 meter targets look absolutely huge and it was zeroed so you had to aim 2 inches high and 2 inches to the right of whatever you were shooting at. i think i missed everything i pointed it at.

the creme de la creme though had to be the m1a socom rifle.
there aren't any pictures of me shooting one... but here's a web image of what they look like.

by far one of the best rifles i've ever fired. it's meaty and pretty darn accurate. again in the words of the expert who took me out there and owns this beautiful piece of death:
"...used by the military during late korea and early vietnam as the m-14. It has been in rotation since then in about every special forces type outfit, including currently by a lot of snipery guys on straight infantry units in iraq and afghanistan. it fires the .308 or 7.62x51 nato round."
if they weren't so darn expensive and if we weren't trying to save our money... i'd probably try to go out and get one. oh well there's always Christmas 2020 to look forward to. for a look at all the types of m1as made today click here.
now for an "awesome" video of some really "cool" guy firing an m1a.
enjoy:

i am

2009-01-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

most people see the new year as a time to look not only forward into the next year... but a chance to reflect on who they were, are and want to be. many resolutions revolve around a desire to improve and become a better person. self-improvement is great, but why wait for a specific day to start. that's why i hate new year resolutions.

that aside, i still find myself looking at who i am and where i'm going. a year ago i was sitting in iraq wishing i was home. now that i've been home for more than 6 months i still think about my deployment all the time. many veterans returning home from combat go through what's called readjustment. it's the time you try to stop thinking and acting like a soldier and instead assimilate yourself back into society. the government hopes it will be a simple transition with low rates of ptsd. but i don't think that is ever the case. even if you haven't seen combat, the transition from a 24/7 fast paced, life and death job to anything back here is tough (to put it lightly).

i'd say the 6 month marker is actually one of the harder ones. it's when reality sets in and the feeling that you're just on an extended leave and could be called back at any moment finally starts to wear off. many of us feel bored and annoyed by the general populace.

for me... i find i have little patience for complaining about things i find unneccessary. after living in a tiny cubicle where the water was unsafe to drink (unless bottled), power went out daily, walking was the main mode of travel and meals were only served at specific times i have a different perspective on needs and wants. convenience versus necessity.

i also have a very hard time with how much we as americans have mostly done away with the idea of respect. i never noticed it until i'd immersed myself so much into the military structure, which is built so much upon respect. we don't respect our elders, our spouses or even a stranger on the street.

mostly though... the hardest part is facing your friends and family who expect you to be who you were. and in all honesty... you battle with that every day. wanting to be who you were but not being able to even remember what that was like. what was life like before i left. i'd just gotten married and for the first time was living with someone other than my parents or a random friend in college. i was already in a state of readjustment so does that mean i'm actually now in the re-readjustment period. that's going to take some adjusting for me to get my mind wrapped around that.

i guess i've come to the conclusion that we should never try to be who we were. the past always has a rosy color given enough time for retrospect. i believe we are who we are. there is no old me... only me in the now and the me that will be. that's not to say we shouldn't learn from our past... we just shouldn't dwell on it.

my deployment wasn't just a year lost or a waste of time... it's part of who i am. now i just have to stare ahead and move forward looking for ways to improve, not regret or try to recapture some idea of who i was.

new twist on an old favorite

2008-12-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

i recently grew out a nasty mustache in honor of an ugly sweater party. due to it's unpopularity (primarily with my wife and myself) i promptly shaved it after the party. but i couldn't resist playing around with my mustache options before saying farewell completely to my furry upper lip companion.
so enjoy...
with mustache and dog. we were more like cousins than ever!
moments after arriving at home... the reverse hitler is created.
now for proper greetings. reverse hilter... everyone. everyone... reverse hitler.
that style of mustache looks even crazier and more of a sociopath than hitler. time to pull a valkyrie on this puppy.
ahhhhhh... relief. i do apologize if this slide show frightened any children or caused grown men to weep.

Christmas cheer

2008-12-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone for good old 2008 and i must say it was a great year. much like thanksgiving, this was an especially cool Christmas since this time last year i was dinking around in iraq wishing i was with my family and friends back in oregon.

andrea and i spent our our holiday time trying to blend family traditions while also looking for ways to create new ones for our family. it only seems right to start with the tree. some of my favorite memories of Christmas growing up involve driving out into the countryside, picking out a nice tree, cutting it down ourselves and hauling it home. none of that fake plastic tree stuff around here. however, i must say... i like the idea of a potted tree that you bring into the house in December to avoid cutting so many trees down and hearing them scream the whole way home. this year though, we went out toward stayton/sublimity and got our tree from a friend (ruthless) who works on a tree farm out that way. it was very fun, and stella even "helped" pick out the tree.

the whites threw an "ugly sweater" party, which was both fun and hilarious. photos of that are here.

then it was time to decorate and switch out our music. i made a deal with andrea that we couldn't play Christmas songs until december 1st. all those years of working in theaters or walmart has me still a bit burned out on holiday tunes. so we decorated the whole house with tidings of joy and to top it off... i was able to bring one of my traditions of putting kermit on the tree.

after everything was decorated it was time to get some presents under the tree. while andrea already had most of my presents done... i was on crunch time to find her gifts. i'm a procrastinator through and through.

to make even harder to get out and pick up those last minute gifts... our "arctic blast" (the storm over sensationalized by all the local media) hit and we had to become homebodies for a few days. it definitely was an inconvenience, but i still thought it was fun. i like "roughing" it every once in a while. i know some people hated it for various reasons (cabin fever being number 1) but it is what it is and Christmas isn't about getting out and doing things anyway so arctic blast be damned, Christmas will prevail. sometimes it seems like it should be called presentmas or complain-about-my-life-even-though-it's-better-than-most-other-people's-around-the-world-mas. just go to the cia world factbook site and look at countries like laos. it's hard to be troubled by power-outages when you see there are people living every day without electricity.

to top off the holidays, we took a trip to eugene to see andrea's family. we spent Christmas day and the following day hanging out with the comptons and glaziers down there. many a card game was played as well as a bit of wii. we followed it up with seeing my folks on saturday for another holiday bash. good times all around.

merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas stache

2008-12-16T09:35:00.001-08:00

for a Christmas party i decided to grow out my nasty mustache. i started about a week and a half ago, quickly realized i could grow it in 3 days but have powered through and am still going strong. just 4 days left of this puppy!

in this experiment i've found that mustache people are a minority and are treated with inequality on a daily basis. here's what i've experienced so far

-going into tualatin high school with the prize winning molestache... do i get an award, no. i get a brief chase down by the security lady.

-those constant checkouts by women *and* men at my devilishly good looks are replaced with obnoxious staring, finger pointing and some screams (no longer of joy).

-children are ushered away and their parents take up defensive posturing.

-sweaters no longer look cool, they now look creepy.

-year two of marriage falls drastically behind in meeting the kiss quota.

the only pluses... when it snows, my upper lip is just a fraction of a degree warmer than it would normally be. and i can brush my bottom teeth whenever i feel like it.

dave, am i a pirate?

2008-12-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

darran:

Priacy is not theft!
via Damien

This is missing the whole point. Piracy is not a theft of the item, but of the money that the pirate would have otherwise had to spend to aquire the item. If you can legitimately say that you would not have bought the item otherwise, then technically the artist looses nothing, but how can you legislate that? An On-Your-Honor system of allowing piracy?

cool guys

2008-12-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

we've all met them... we've probably all been one in some capacity at some point in our lives... and i think we can all agree we don't like them or ourselves when thinking back to our "cool guy" times. they're the people who smoke to look "cool" or only listen to "cool" music or they use fancy words to show off their intelligence - basically they're people who aren't themselves because they're too focused on being "cool."
in high school, erick's brother dave referred to these people as "cool guys" (sarcastically of course). and that term has stuck with me ever since.
i was reminded of this last night at the festival of lights parade in downtown salem. i'm not usually a parade kind of guy... mostly because i had to march so many of them... but i thought it might be fun to watch the bands (especially south salem), visit with my dad (who was judging the bands) and it's always fun to hang out in butt frozen weather with andrea. anyway, at one point we were in the mall and i saw this guy with his son... and he was trying way too hard to be a "cool" dad. picking his kid up with one hand and swinging him around all the while looking around to see if he's being noticed for his "cool" talents. he'd kick his son in a playful manner that wouldn't necessarily hurt the boy but did knock him to the ground and then pull him up and yank down on his son's hood. he was acting more like an older brother than a dad.
i've noticed a lot of this with parents of my generation. they seem more concerned with being "cool" and being their kid's friend than being a parent. kids want and need parents and sometimes this means not being mister popular or looking "cool" but instead doing what's right.
being a dad has nothing to do with being "cool" by societal views. it has everything to do with selflessly putting your family first no matter what. in doing this you will undoubtedly find yourself doing some very humbling and dare i say un"cool" things. but in the end, if you've done your job right you will be an actual cool dad with non-troubled kids and one day productive citizens and good parents themselves.

finding my stride

2008-12-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

i've been trying to get back on the horse... or in this case, the treadmill. this time last year i was running about 5 miles every other day and 2-3 miles on the other days. not a lot but probably much more than your average person. at one point i'd gotten to what i called the 5 in 35. i was running 5 miles in less than 35 minutes (that's sub 7 minute miles for the non-math folks such as myself). this had me pumped because while a 7 minute mile isn't incredible by any means... it still felt great to be able to hold that pace for 5 miles and know that when i had to run just 2 miles i'd hopefully be able to do so with ease.

at some point after Christmas is stopped. this was probably due to an increase in "out of the wire" missions and it was more difficult to keep a routine. i'm very routine based so chaos destroys most hopes i have for working out.

so here i am, almost a year later working on week two of running but i'm discovering several hurdles (not real ones, think figurative) that consistently get in the way of meeting my running goals.

1-pride. this is number one because it's my biggest flaw with running. knowing that i once could run like a gazelle makes me want to push my now out-of-running-shape body to a pace that is unrealistic for my current running ability. this causes me to burn out too quick and therefore not meet my mileage goal for the day.
2-time. no further details are needed here. i'm sure everyone has this issue.
3-location. i hate running on treadmills. i did it in iraq because it was either 130 degrees outside or when it wasn't there was still sand storms and God only knows what fumes from generators and tank/humvee exhaust waiting to be inhaled. but now that i'm home, i want to run outside. but i live in the worst part of town for just heading out for a run. this last summer i'd go to bush park but then i'm cutting into that whole time thing again. i basically miss eugene's spoon-fed running trails.
4- fear of disappearing. what i mean is that i've already lost 15 pounds since i've been home from iraq. something i attribute to my weight lifting routine no longer being a routine at all.
5-forrest gump envy. okay maybe not but what kind of list only has 4 points on it?

ultimately running serves several purposes for me... i'm able to stay in shape, pass my physical training for the army, and it relieves any stress i have in my day. that last piece is vital for my sanity.

any tips on motivation are much appreciated.

the best thing ever!

2008-12-03T18:15:00.001-08:00

there are many reasons that i love this time of year. from the gambit of holidays to the great hang time with family and friends. but one of the biggest reasons is the great food that unfortunately only seems to be sold during those precious weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. my favorite... the delicious little cuties.

my reasons are as follows:
1-they taste freak'n awesome. mostly sweet with the touch of sour.
2-they're actually healthier than larger oranges.
3-they're seedless!
4-since their peels practically fall off... i'm fairly certain God designed them to be eaten by the laziest of of the lazy.
5-they're perfectly sized for juggling and won't cut you if you drop one.

the 3 f-words

2008-11-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and had as much delicious food as i did. thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays. besides the fact that it's usually not over commercialized (except for black friday) i just love the whole weekend. my favorite parts are what i call the 3 f-words.

family-is at the top of my list. it's also what i love about Christmas... having everyone get together and spend quality time playing games and just enjoying each others company. it has definitely gotten interesting now that i am married since i have two families to visit. while at a glance the planning can be a bit stressful at first... it ultimately has made thanksgiving even better. i've always had my parents, my brother and my grandparents as well as my uncle from colorado as of the last few years to look forward to seeing, but by marrying andrea, i've more than quadrupled my family to visit. andrea comes from a larger family, something that at first intimidated me, but after meeting them i've grown to love seeing each and every one of them. it's great that she has cousins in our age group who are married and have so much in common with us. i have to say though... the highlight was watching donna and cathy (andrea's mom and aunt) rock out on guitar hero.

food-is next and actually has gotten better due to the larger family group. i've always loved turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and everything else that comes with thanksgiving. any meal that you can swirl together and have it still taste awesome is my kind of meal. and now i get to have two of those wonderful meals not to mention the plethora of pumpkin pie and other deserts we get to liberally consume without feeling guilty. this year it was good old turkey and the works at donna and ken's (andrea's parents) and cornish game hens off the traeger at my folks' house. yum followed by more yum.

football/film-both are staples of the thanksgiving weekend and this year didn't disappoint. my family has the tradition of seeing a movie thanksgiving weekend (usually on that thursday after we've eaten) which tends to be either a star trek film or a bond movie - as they tend to be released around that time of year... sometimes it's lord of the rings but there were only 3 of those. this year it was the latest bond film quantum of solace. i give it 3.5 bond girls out of 5. as for football... thanks to the ducks that was a great experience as well. i think the beavs were hoping to have some duck to follow up on their turkey, but then again i guess this makes up for last year's civil war game right?

i think though this thanksgiving was especially great since i was actually home for it and got to celebrate my first married thanksgiving *with* andrea. we all have so much to be thankful for and it's nice to reflect on that... and why not have a holiday filled with family and food to help remind us of it?

thanks for reading... and i hope your holiday was a good one.

now off to the treadmills!

one home down... one to go

2008-11-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

for those who don't know (which shouldn't be too many as i'm sure i have about two readers besides the wife) andrea and i have been looking for a couple of homes in salem. the first being a house to live in and stop torching our money on rent... the second being a new church. we're still looking for that "right" home but we believe we've found our church home. more on that in a bit.

i don't know if anyone else has ever had to leave their hometown church and go through the process of finding something to feel at home at... but it is very difficult. i especially had a hard time because i only recently became a Christian and calvary fellowship in eugene was my first true church as a believer. because of this i will always have a special biased leaning toward that church and since danny o'neil, the pastor there, did our marriage counseling and the actually marrying of us, i will always remember calvary in a very happy and awesome way.

so getting past all of this religious baggage (for lack of a better term) we have had the daunting task of church shopping. as there are hundreds of churches in the salem area... we went off recommendations from family, friends and coworkers. but having never had to look for the right church, as calvary just fit right off the bat, how do you narrow down your options and finally settle down at the right church. it's surprisingly a lot like looking for the right home. you have a list of things you want in a church - good worship, great message through sermon, ways to plug in and feel like a part of the fellowship and most importantly the Godly values you believe in.

the trick is realizing you need to find the best church for you... not the perfect church since that probably doesn't exist.

we tried a few out but one would be terrible worship but a good message and a huge congregation... while another would have good worship but the church is going through finding a new pastor and seems only focused on that task. so it was hard weighing those differences and much like finding a house, deciding which things were deal breakers and which ones we could let go in order to settle in.

after months of searching... we tried out salem alliance. while it is much larger than we thought we'd be comfortable with... there are enough services and programs get into we feel confident we'll be able to plug into to the program. we love the uplifting worship that mixes old hymns of tradition with newer songs by artists like chris tomlin and the message has been great too. the church is also very active in community outreach. not to convert people... but to simply support folks in need and offer to pray for them. being someone who has never really been into the idea of Bible thumping or good deeds for the purpose of conversion rather than simply to do good deeds... this really appeals to me. the only downside so far is we've yet to have the same pastor in 3 weeks of attendance... but this could be due to the main pastor being sick.

on a more personal note: i'm not one to usually admit to feeling God or being open about the emotional side to my beliefs... but i will admit that our first visit to salem alliance had me on the verge of tears. i believe this is due to two reasons... one; it was beginning to feel like we weren't going to find a church we liked and would just have to settle for one that only kind of felt right... and two; during the worship i felt like i was where God wanted me. i can't explain it in words but i'm sure fellow believers know what i'm talking about.

so hopefully this is it.

better?

2008-11-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

after that last one... here's something that will hopefully make up for it.

-chuck norris puts the laughter in manslaughter.

p.s. tee hee hee

walla walla rocknrolla

2008-11-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

the title pretty much sums up my week.

monday i headed to the far east... of oregon... where i was set to do a little video work for a documentary the national guard is putting together. my boss and i drove out to milton freewater on monday.
while she stayed with her grandma there, i took our sweet soccer mom van of a ride to walla walla, wa to stay the night in the holiday inn express there. by the way, if you're ever heading out there either change your mind because there's nothing to really do or still go but stay at the walla walla holiday inn express... best one i've ever been in. this was found after taking the wrong turn into a part of rural oregon that looked a lot more like where jeepers creepers hangs out than where cows and potatoes live in harmony.

after a restless night in the fabulous hi-ex (my new term for holiday inn express, patented) i picked up my boss and headed to lovely la grande for our interview. did i mention winter has officially hit out there? we had snow and we're still driving this crappy van that i don't feel comfortable driving through a wal-mart parking lot (although that may be for other reasons). on our way to la grande we saw this kia sorento on the side of the road facing the wrong way with tire tracks up the snowy embankment and sharply curved back around... basically a bad day for this person. there was also a u-haul stopped 50 meters past with it's hazards on. i decided to stop and see if i could help. the driver was from florida and wearing a t-shirt and shorts with flip flops in the snow. i tried to help him out but instead watched him spin farther into the embankment. i was pretty close to just asking him to let me drive but he was kind of a cocky prick, so i wished him luck and bounced. unfortunately my good samaritan powers only work with nice people.

as for the interview... we had a great time and it was awesome hearing all kinds of interesting stories from an 88 year old vet who was a recon photographer during world war 2. he's written a book that seems pretty interesting. check it out if you feel inclined. banana splits followed and an unfortunately long drive home.

as for the rest of the title of this poorly constructed and boring blog... andrea and i watched the latest guy ritchie flick 'rocknrolla' last night. it was really good actually... especially if you really like his other films like lock stock and snatch (not swept away). the downside was realizing what movies cost these days ($19!!!!). i always forget and then feel old when i want to say "back in my day these moving picture things were only about $5." basically i'm just old and too poor to go to movies at the regular theater. insert shameless plug for northern lights here.

hopefully my next blog will be less mind-numbing and with even more links that take you to random sites or images.

divided we vote

2008-10-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

has anyone else noticed how divisive this latest election is? it isn't new but i've definitely noticed a large polarization in our nation in the last 2 elections and this one is taking the cake.

whether it's calling obama a socialist or mccain a war monger... the election process is getting very personal not just for the candidates but for the voters as well. i've heard comments and seen looks of pity or anger between friends and family that make me sick. at what point is it okay to insult someone simply based on their political views?

from bush's statement that you're either with us or against us to the comments that a vote against universal healthcare is an uncaring selfish vote there is a lot of divisive language and tactics being used by both parties.

this is not to say there are not important issues at stake or that i'm sad to see so many people so passionate about politics and their country. but let's stop making it personal and passively aggressively tearing each other down.

if i had a nickel for every time i've had a friend or family member refer to my voting choice as a stupid uninformed vote or give me "pity" for feeling the way i do... i'd be a rich man.

somewhere we've forgotten that we're all americans using our equal right to vote freely and express our political views. but in expressing our views... let's stop short of taking cheap shots and offending each other.

need for speed

2008-10-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

i love the latest followup to the coffee craze of energy drinks. it's not really new in the immediate sense... but it has been a growing trend since i first remember seeing red bull cans popping up in college. now, there are vending machines for these drinks, mixed drinks at the bar and too many people who "can't make it through the day and will die without at least one tall boy of amp." we also have more colors than you can shake a stick at and flavors that sound more like tropical or arctic environments than actual tastes.

they all boast brain boosting, muscle enhancing, night-time performance (as shown to the right) and a-d-d counteracting effects but really just taste like cough syrup and do more damage to our teeth and insides than help us jump over tall buildings in a single bound. we're more likely to shake out of our clothes than anything... which may help your sex life or perhaps not.

the other funny part for me to watch is that these power boosting drinks pick up the junkies left in the dust of the mocha madness. anymore, coffee drinkers are more like wine fanatics than caffeine addicts. they pick out their beans or roasts looking for that perfect flavour (yes the spelling is perposeful to show the snootyness of the whole thing)... while the latest group of energy drinking maniacs put aside being picky about the taste and are instead constantly looking for the next biggest fix in a can that will take them to the moon but just shy of cardiac arrest.

what will be interesting is what our next "big" thing will be. oxygen bars are still trying to keep a grip on their small market. but what kind of experience would that be outside of the bar? a can that hisses at you after you open it and you have to inhale as fast as possible as the air escapes into thin air (groan here).

but perhaps with our earth's dwindling potable water resources... the ultimate energy drink will one day again return to good old h2o.

hollandaise

2008-10-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

so from the title you probably can tell that we've arrived to our initial destination of our eurotrek... and take some time checking out holland.

the plane ride was long while the leg room was short. at 6 foot 3 inches... i almost think it's worth blowing the extra dough on first class just for the extra space to plant my size 12s. our first flight from pdx to washington d.c. had me behind a guy who pushed the limits on how far back he could get his seat to recline, while behind me there sat a baby seat that restricted my seat back from being anything but in the upright position. basically, i spent my first leg of the trip spread eagle with my right knee sticking out into the aisle allowing the food cart to smack it every time it coasted from one end of the plane to the next. speaking of baby seats... the owner of said seat was "awesome." i can't remember the last time i've heard a tantrum like we heard from that 3 year old... and i definitely can't remember the last time i was trapped on a plane with one. while i really look forward to being a dad... thoughts of smothering a screaming child have me rethinking my suitability as a father. any parents with advice on how to deal with a situation like that... please inform.

going from dulles to amsterdam was uneventful for the most part. andrea and i had stayed up the night before so we could sleep on the plane and get on the time zone here. especially since we landed at 07:00 and didn't want to waste our first day in europe.

we're staying with andrea's aunt and uncle who work for the united nations and have lived over here for about six years. so in addition to having awesome hosts... we also have some great tour guides. so that's our journey thus far... as we just got in and haven't hit the local town of den haag yet.

more to follow depending on our access and time spent on the internet.

something new something blu

2008-10-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

if there's one thing that bugs me... it's lame or untimely marketing pushes. the latest couple i'm not a fan of are the hi-def and blu-ray tag team attack. this is more of a warning to people shopping around than anything else.

many people... including myself... have been jumping onto the h-d band wagon, especially in regards to televisions. in fact you'd be hard pressed to find a non-h-d television at most stores anymore. the problem of course with newer technology is making your whole media system compatible. this is a piece often left untouched when marketing h-d. if you buy an h-d tv you need to pay extra on your cable to get all your channels in hi-def and to view movies properly you have to have h-d dvds as well as a player that reads h-d dvds. so much like every other shift in technology... it doesn't just effect one aspect.

now for blu-ray... the pitch that can't and won't go away from commercials or cardboard stands at the local movie rental stores. do we really need to experience our movies that much more and are they really worth it? in addition to all that... just like with h-d... you need a blu-ray player to play the movies.

this is nothing new and ultimately it just boils down to how much you're willing to spend to re-outfit your whole system. i'm just annoyed when the tech world flips everything with the promise of a better picture and better experience... but i just don't see the bang for the buck.

man time

2008-09-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

what is it about hanging out with the guys that helps reset life? what i mean is... every once in a while i need some "man time." whether it be poker, camping or disc golf... it's necessary. i've talked it over with andrea several times, and it's interesting to see the differences between hanging out with the girls and what guys do when they get together. while man time usually involves some form of ruggedness and or competitiveness... girl time often means going to a spa or going shopping or just going out to eat. there's nothing wrong with either of these... but the differences show me why time with the guys or girls is so important.

recently i went camping with dmitry. i hadn't realized how long it had been since i'd gone camping. have you ever done that thing where you list all your favorite activities and then you write the last time you did it? it usually ends up kind of a downer. well it had been way too long since i'd gone camping. and while our wives weren't pumped about us being gone for a whole weekend... they understood and we had a blast. there's just something about chopping wood, jumping in a cold-ass mountain lake and making fire (what i believe to be about as close to creating a life as a man can get... which interestingly still involves destruction) that makes me feel like a man. i think too many of us work in cubicle offices doing work that doesn't stimulate our brains like it should and we just need to get out and rough it every once in awhile and get back to our raw self.

i thought about this recently because i'd heard some guy on t-v saying men were becoming more feminine due to the hormones being injected into livestock. i don't know enough to weigh in on that... but i do see more and more guys in our society becoming too passive and sensitive. i noticed a huge difference when i was 16 in boy scouts. we had a shift in leadership with our scout masters being 10 years younger than the previous ones. they were so worried about their young boys that we stopped camping or doing anything resembling the scouts i loved.

there are just some weird movements in our culture that began with a good intention but have gone too far now. i could probably write a whole blog about how society has been destroying and belittling the career of stay-at-home-moms... the most noble career in my eyes... but i'll leave that for another day.

planned spontaneity

2008-09-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

last night... randomly... i decided to take andrea out to dinner since we hadn't been out for awhile. my dad was nice enough on one hour's notice to watch stella, which i said was good practice for a future granddad (this is not a hint, i mean future).

for dinner i chose salem's greek restaurant the macedonia. i'd eaten there before but it had been some time. it's located in the reed opera house, which is one of my favorite downtown salem buildings.

not only was the food great and in my opinion fairly priced... but our waitress/hostess kept bringing us stuff "on the house." we wanted to try some greek wine but weren't sure about committing to a full bottle when we'd never had it before... so she brought out a sample. this may seem like a normal thing to do... but i've noticed not very many restaurants offer this up front... usually you have to ask. she also brought out some pita bread and tiziki sauce while we waited for our meals. and after we ate, andrea asked to sample the desert wine and the lady brought us each a glass for free (normally $6.50 a glass). in addition to the great service... the food was awesome and anyone who's been out to eat with me knows... if there's lamb on the menu, kevin's getting lamb.

one of the highlights was also the dolmas. what i like to call mediterranean spring rolls. very good even if they kind of look like a green poo.

i also love hummus. but we didn't have any at the restaurant... but i plan on making some tomorrow for the debate. if you like hummus and want to try making some... here's a quick and easy recipe. my advice though is make sure you have a food processor or that your blender can really destroy the garbanzo beans unless you like your hummus chunky.

all in all a great experience and i highly recommend it to anyone in the salem area.

when we moved to salem i was convinced there was nothing to do here... but with a little searching, andrea and i are discovering some cool attractions (i.e. the northern lights). the thing with salem is you have to do some research and testing to find the hole in the wall cool places unlike eugene and portland where every corner has something to offer. it makes going out almost more fun because of the unknown adventure that may unfold.

bringing sexy back

2008-09-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

last night i was de-virginized of the sex and the city phenom.

here's how it happened...

recently andrea and i visited the local theater/pub and watched the movie "wanted." the experience was pretty good because the northern lights theater is cool and the whole beer or wine with a movie that's only $3 is awesome. the only downside was our (or rather my) choice of movie. wanted is awful and i really mean worse than cabin fever awful. in exchange i promised andrea that i'd make it up by watching sex and the city the movie with her.

we also watched no country for old men and fargo... two films that are definitely more guyish than chick-flick... so i owed her.

well, now i've seen it and having never seen more than 10 minutes of an episode i will put myself out there and admit that the movie was alright. i appreciated that the film didn't bash men as i'd thought it might, and it dealt with relationships more realistically than most entertainment media usually does. i still find sarah jessica parker kind of weird but the movie was better than i'd expected and much better (as any former roommate or andrea will tell you) than many of the random movies i bring home out of boredom.

i do not however feel the need to catchup on the show and watch all 6 seasons. i wouldn't say i'm a huge fan and have been won over (like andrea and my mom won me over on gilmore girls, a story for another blog) but it was fun to watch it with my wife... which hopefully helps me maintain a few man-points.

next film on the list is 30 days of night... sure to be a "winner" as it's my boredom choice off blockbuster.com.

radiohead still rules

2008-09-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

has anyone seen the new marketing/creative push by radiohead? i'm probably behind the curve on this but i thought it was pretty cool and worth mentioning. they have the individual layers/tracks to the song reckoner available for download so people can mix their own version of the song and upload it for popular vote. it's not completely original by any means... but i still think it's cool. especially with a band like radiohead that does so much mixing of it's own.

if you're interesting in atleast checking out some people's mixes... head here.

also... a local portland band that has a radiohead sound but is still original and i atleast dig them is climber. check them out and support a local band.

puppy fun

2008-09-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

for those who don't know... andrea and i have a puppy named stella. we got her in june after our 6 year old cat max died. she's a yorkie and a lot of fun for a little dog. there are some interesting stories but it's a new blog so new stories are in order.

(for the cat adventure at dan and paul's, refer to paul's blog for the story)

this blog is instead about our recent adventure to the portland animal hospital.

andrea and i went to see jeremy and kristy for dinner last friday. since stella was spayed just last tuesday we thought it would be best to bring her along so we could keep an eye on her instead of leaving her at home. we took her in her little carrier and the vet gave us an elizabethan collar so she wouldn't be able to get at her stitches as spaying is very invasive (removal of both ovaries and the uterus). while we were eating we kept her in her carrier. she started to wimper more and more and just as andrea was getting ready to open her carrier stella started yelping bloody murder. next thing i know, andrea is handing me our puppy with her insides on the outside. luckily kristy knew where the local animal hospital was and rushed us into her car to get there. i sat in the front still holding stella while kristy drove and andrea sat in the back praying. at first i was okay. she wasn't bleeding and she calmed down... or went into shock... so she wasn't kicking too much. but after staring at the mess in my hands for who knows how long (probably 10 minutes but it felt longer) i started to not feel so good. i started seeing stars and my hearing got muffled. by the time we reached the hospital i knew if i tried standing up i'd just fall over... so once we were there i handed off the pup to andrea to rush in. after a second i thought i was good but i only made it in one set of doors before i had to take a knee and kristy had to help me in the rest of the way. by the time i got to a chair my vision was black and i could barely hear. i don't know how long this went on but it didn't seem long... and then it all just cleared up and i was fine. i found andrea and we sat and waited to hear from the doctor.

stella's okay now... the doctor said one of the sutures failed and that's why she popped open. they figured it was a failure on the equipment and didn't charge us what most likely would have been $2,000.

God blessed us in so many ways that night and since. kristy and jeremy were awesome and i can't imagine what it would have been like to try and figure out where to take stella if they hadn't already known.

now stella just has a longer scar and an even longer story to go along with it.

new site... same banter

2008-09-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

so i decided to create a new blog site to talk stuff up post-deployment. while this one will most likely still deal with military topics, since i work full time for the army... i will also go into more personal stuff like what color socks i'm wearing (none today) to fully round out the reading experience and make my life seem more interesting than it probably is.

enjoy...