Today marks Heidi and I four year wedding anniversary. I am so in love with my life and it seems to grow every day. Four years is such a short time to enjoy somebody so great as Heidi. I am looking forward to spending many, many more years with such a wonderful person.
Heidi if you are reading this, I just wanted to say: “Thanks for all the great times and memories. I love you very much!”
I hate cats, well that is not entirely true. I hate people who likes cats. Well that isn’t true either. I hate people who like cats and think they are caring for them by giving them food. (That doesn’t sound as good as I hate cats, but we will go with that.) All to often do I see people “caring” for cats. It is an easy thing to say and they feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But giving an animal food doesn’t mean that you are caring for them. Your caring shouldn’t mean my wife starting off a horrible day cause of it.
If you are “caring” for cats, look at the definition and ask yourself are you really “caring.”
At the very least remember waht Bob Barker used to say.
Back when I was in high school I ran cross country. That was over 10 years ago. Since then I have tried to get back to it but I haven’t succeeded. However I have found a workout program that is getting me back on track. It is call Couch to 5K. It is simple in nature. It works gradually to get you off the couch and to start running without jarring your system. It operates off the run/walk routine over a 30 mins.The program runs on one day on one day off schedule for 9 weeks. .
My wife and I have been doing this program for three weeks now. I am so proud of Heidi. She is really kicking butt. However I am not. I am doing the workouts but my knees are so week, it is tearing my body up when I run. I am more at a fast walk pace. However I am keeping at it. My goal is to be able to do a whole 5k in a total of 9 weeks even if it is at a slow pace. I am hoping that I will build up knee strength over this time to help me along the way, meanwhile pushing Heidi to achieve her goals. I have decided that I will do all of the family races and let Heidi do the competitive ones. This gives me time to run with Memphis as well as get in shape.
A few weeks back my brother introduced me to a new album by Ziggy Marley, “Family Time.” He was looking for an album that was family friendly to listen in the car and somebody recommended it to him. Nakia in turned recommenced it to me. Ever since, it has been added to the nightly rotation to Memphis’ bed time jam. The other album added was Bob Marley‘s “B Is For Bob.” The two albums are penetrating my daughters mind as she sleeps on a regular basis. I am so pleased to be able to introduce my little girl to such great music at such a young age.
Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the new Freestyle Park in Myrtle Beach, SC. Thanks to my association with the American Advertising Federation of Coastal Carolina, we got to visit for our end of the year bash for free!
I will go ahead and put this out there: Freestyle Park is a top notch park all the way around. They seem to only have one downside – not enough visitors. This becomes apparent just driving into the parking lot and follows you throughout your visit of the park. The park looks like it can hold A LOT of people. In doing so, when it is not busy – you can tell. However this has a major upside to it, you don’t have to wait in line for anything!
In the past few years my family and I have had the opportunity to visit a number of theme parks and think this ranks right up there with them. It is really easy for me to compare the park to that of Dollywood due the fact that we just visited that park not a month ago. Like Dolloywood you can tell that the new owners of the Freestyle Park are in it for the long hall. The small crowds don’t scare them. It seems they have figured out how to scale down without taking away form the overall feel for the park. When the crowds start to come in I can see how they would ramp up with smaller shows, places to explore and new things to eat.
Just like Dollywood there is a good mix between shows and rides. While Dollywood focuses on the mountain lifestyle, the Freestyle Park is centered around different forms of popular music. The synergy of theme and music is there but I think it may have some more appeal if they could add some worldly type music fractions. Song and dance from other cultures may open the fan base up just a bit and give an opportunity to learn while you were at the park. However the Freestyle Park seems to have the pop culture on lock.
The roller coasters were tons of fun and I would rank them above many others that I have ridden. The new “Time Machine” coaster was amazing and Heidi and I had a blast. They seem to be spaced out just enough to get your legs under you before wanting to ride the next one. Adding small things such as the famous Abbey Road picture spot and moonshine still gives the family fun opportunities to explore and relax.
Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to check out the show side of the park. I have heard good stuff about them and would love to try and make it back just to see the Ice Cold Country and the Flip 5 Live show. Time was just to short in our little visit.
Call me impressed. The park seems to have a lot going for it. They seem to have embraced the locals (something the former owners didn’t do), understand how to scale the park accoring to attendence and may even know a few thing about how to read market forecasts. Yes sir, they seem to be in it for the long hall and not just a quick buck. I really think the bucks will come if they can just shave off the horrible reputation that the previous owners have bestowed on it. I encourge all locals and vistiors alike to go out and visit. Don’t be scared by the immence parking lot with few cars. Embrace it and have fun.
This was the first large comic book convention that I have been to. I have been to a few smaller ones, but none on this scale.
On Saturday my Wife, Memphis and myself attended Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. Prior to that day I was excited about the convention. I had rough plans of meeting up with a few people, checking out the vendors and looking forward to the indie tables. While I followed online conversations between Dave Slusher and Derek Coward about their planning and list gathering and nervousness I joked about “Plan, what plan? I am going to have fun.” I didn’t realize what type of production went into attending a comic book convention.
The day of the convention Heidi, Memphis and myself got to the convention hall around 11:30. We paid our fee and quickly went down to get a lay of the land. Soon after we entered it became apparent that there was huge crowds. I hate crowds. It was also very had to push a stroller trough the aisles and amongst the lines of fans waiting to get autographs. We got a good scope of everything and I stated to wondering around picking through this and that, while the whole time looking for friends along the way. Memphis started to get cranky and I could tell it was lunch time.
My wonderful wife said that she could feed Memphis and that I could stay and look around. This was super cool because to be honest I was a little frustrated with trying to look at things while at the same time making sure Memphis wasn’t eating a $400 comic. So a little time had passed and I knew that I had to get back up to the wife and kid for a bite to eat. Still haven’t seen any of my friends, I picked up the phone and gave Dave a call. He was down for some food, so off we went.
Over lunch I confessed to Dave and Heidi that I thought that I was not the convention type. I am not a star struck fan, I don’t care that much about autographs, I hate large crowds and at best I am a passive reader of books. I was glad to be there, but I wasn’t having that much fun. However there was still some stuff that I wanted to do and check out so after lunch we headed back to the convention for another quick round.
Still huge crowds, long lines and a bunch of people that I don’t know about – plus Memphis was ready for a nap. Once again my great wife to the rescue said that she would take Memphis up for a nap and let me look around. I finally got to make my way around to the indie tables, where I met a few cool people and picked up a ton of books. I figured that I can find most everything else at my local comic book store (who also had a booth there) so why not spend my limited cash funds on some indie comics. It was cool to talk with people, find out where they were from and there creative process. I think I invited everyone that I talked to, to next year’s CREATE South .
By this time it was getting late and I still haven’t met up with Derek or Kreg Steppe . Heidi came back down with Memphis and we went through the vendors long boxes far a few comics that I had on my wish list. However do to the fact that Comicbookdb.com was down for two days prior to the convention and the WiFi in the hall was spotty at best I was limited in my memory of what I wanted to try and find. I didn’t know which vendor was which, who had the better deals and what to really focus on while looking through all of the long boxes. I picked up a few titles and told Heidi I was ready to call it a day.
On the drive home I realized a few things that I leaned from the convention:
I had a great time at the convention, but I was also new to the game. I may have been a little too hasty saying that “I wasn’t the convention type.” I think with my new knowledge that next year I can have an even better time.
Last Sunday I went to church for the first time in a long time. I have been disinterested in organized religion for some time, but I had the opportunity to attend a sermon by somebody I deeply respect. The sermon was on 1st Samuel Chapter 15. There was three main points to the sermon.
These three points I totally agree with. They are moral grounds and lessons that every body should live by. However it is the source material that I have a problem with.
I went into that sermon with an open mind. I put away my biases and listened intently. After a few minuets I found great faults with the Book and how it fits into my belief system. While I know that many can stretch, distort and construe messages into their own meaning, how one arrives at the point seems to still have a great bearing for me. In my heart I can not agree with the sayings of 1st Samuel Chapter 15 or for that matter many of the things that were said and done in the book. If we take what was said by Samuel to Saw and replay the event it in today’s day and age, we get something along the lines of Hitler speaking to Heinrich Himmler.
While I know this may alarm some, I am not trying to tear down anybody’s belief system. I am just merely stating one of the reasons why I have such a hard time accepting organized religion. There never seems to be a question and answer point in church. The sermon always comes after Sunday school so you never actually discuss what the preacher has to say. It is forced feed upon you and you are merely supposed to accept it. Church seems to always be a one way conversation. If we are trying to instill a moral fiber into people, who is to say that Aesop’s Fables may not be a better teaching material?
It has been exactly one week since I have started a new way of thinking and consuming food. (Some people like to use the word “diet,” but I think of too many negative things when I hear the word diet.) Last Sunday my wife and I stated An Adventure of Food.
We wanted to look at food in a new light and figure out ways of experimenting with it. The main purpose of our Adventure is we wanted to find out creative ways of reducing our body weight while enjoying better foods. We took a base weight of our selves and set goals. From there using a pretty nifty little iPhone application (Loose It!) we calculated our target weight and calorie intake. This gave us a baseline for the experiment with food to begin.
Since last Sunday my wife and I have eaten many more meals together, shared conversation over long walks and developed a new since of family bonding. We still eat what we want, but we control our portions. We now exercise, along with Harley and Memphis, on a regular basis. We even formulate meals that neither one of us ever thought we could. So far the Adventure of Food has been a great success. Even if we do not loose weight, I think Heidi and I both have gain much more out of it.
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For those of you who were wondering:
My Daily Calorie Budget: 1,637
I was 2,162 calories under my weekly budget.
So far I have lost 4 pounds.
At current rate I will reach my target weight July 10, 2009
Favorite meal of the week: Marinated Italian Chicken Breast over a bed of Rotini Pasta Salad
I now know there is a point and time in your life when you have to be selfish. It is not a good thing, but a necessary thing. It is weird to say, I know, but it is the truth. I have always thought of myself as a very giving person. When it comes to work, helping or money – if I have it then it is yours. However, as I have recently discovered, sometimes you have to say NO.
You work hard to provide a future for you and your family. Sometime circumstances creep in that threaten to take away that future. You have to make hard choices. You give a little and when that is not enough, you give more. But what happens when you have to give even more, give to a point that stretches you so thin you are not sure where it is going to come from? You have to become selfish. You have to say no. At the same time understand, that when you say no, it is ultimately going to hurt somebody else.
You can say “it’s nothing personal,” but deep down it’s all personal. Maybe not to the person it directly affects, but personal to you. Because if you don’t say no, it’s going to hurt you and your family.
This is the point where I am at right now. It sucks.
That is a question for the ages. It is also one I have struggled with for the past couple of years. I am ever changing, adapting, conforming and rebelling to my surroundings. I am the product of the environment, an environment that I have created. One that has cause and effect, rewards and consequences, victory and defeat. I see the truth in lies and tell lies to sell the truth. I am a country boy in a city environment.
Stick around as the layers of mud get knocked off the boots as I come into my own.
