A Fun Long Weekend

folks, i'm here to tell you that i had an awesome weekend. it all started on friday night when i went to see monte montgomery in concert @ the granada on lower greenville. i had no idea who he was, but my employer had bought all us employees ticket to go see monte with him so i was game. monte is an amazing guitarist and when he comes back to town i'm all for seeing him again.

saturday i attended a picnic with my financial planning team and i had a blast. we ate wonderful food, played frisbee, football, and volleyball. i had a lot of fun, but it sure did wear me out. somehow i also got sunburn only on my feet. i'm still trying to figure this one out because i didn't have sun block on any part of my body, and i spent most of the day in the shade.

monday was my friend z's pool party. once again i had an awesome time. there was good food, even better company, and i think the most fun was karaoke revolution. that game was wild. i didn't do to good @ it, but i sure did have a ton of fun.

A Time To Stop, & Remember

The United States of America

It started as a thought,
then it became a whisper.
As people talked
it became a dream.
There dreams combined
to create a movement.
Resistance was added
and a war beget.
With valor, hope,
and determination,
the war was won
and a country was formed.
Lines were drawn
and sides were taken.
Friend against friend,
brother against brother.
After death and time,
again became one.
Bonds were formed,
and lands protected,
but at a cost of life
that we shall not forget.
On the last Monday of May
we stop, we remember.
On this day in May
we remember not to forget.

-J. Lay

Pain

the pain will come.

which will you feel?

the pain of change?

or

the pain of regret?

Say Good By To TV

i have several goals and dreams for my life and i feel that there are things holding me back from achieving those goals and dreams. something that is dramatically effecting my progress is tv. that's right, the boob tube. i find myself loosing time watching shows on tv that in no way are enhancing my life. i have test to study for, a business to work, and an apartment that needs some serious organization, but instead of doing any of the three i find myself zoned out in front of my tv. it is as if it is an addiction. how do you get rid of an addiction? well, you start by getting away from that which you are addicted. so tonight i turned off my tv with no intention of turning it back on for a good while.

I'm Being Chased By Beautiful Women!

okay, i'm exaggerating a bit. what i am being chased by is victoria secret. two and a half years ago i ordered a victoria secret gift card online and gave it as a christmas present to a friend. soon after i started receiving emails and catalogs from the company. i finally got them to quit sending me emails, but i have yet to stop the catalogs. i've called them and asked to be off their mailing list. i've even moved to a new address since i ordered the gift card, but somehow they get a hold of my new address and continue to send me mail. do i mind getting catalogs full of beautiful woman? not so much, but i do mind them killing trees to send me catalogs that i will never buy anything from. all it does is go from my mail box to my recycling bin.

It Is All About Who You Know

friday night my younger brother, chad, calls me on the phone to thank me for knowing a guy named jeff in high school. jeff was a grade below me and we knew who each other were and shared common friends, but the two of us never became friends. i always considered him to be a good guy and i guess he felt the same about me. evidently i have enough credibility with jeff to get my brother off the hook for driving his new mustang gt 93 mph in a 70 mph zone. it turns out that jeff is an officer out in the lubbock area and pulled my brother over for speeding. while checking out chad's information he ask him if he had a brother, and chad said yes, jason. they talked for a moment and jeff told chad that he was going to let him go with a verbal warning because is my brother!

i think that was very nice of jeff and i do appreciate him doing that for my brother, but i'm not sure if this really helped my brother out in the long run. getting off the hook then just meant that he would get caught some other time, and guess what. that other time was two days later. chad called me today to look up the price of a radar detector on the internet. after i tell him the price of the radar detector he proceeds to tell me that he got a speeding ticket 20 miles away from home. 70 mph in a 55 mph zone. you would think that he would be drive a bit slower for now on, but instead he goes out and buys a device to help him detect our law enforcers attempting to catch him in the act.

i'm not knocking my brother speeding. i do it all the time. i am knocking his choice of speeds to drive. you can find me driving 75 mph in 60 mph zones up and down 35E or I635 most weekends, but i know i'm allowed to. how do i know? well, i've passed many police cars while driving this speed and all they do is watch me go by. there are several areas of dfw i won't drive 15 mph over the posted limit much less 20-25 mph over because i know i'd be toast. what i'm saying is i still drive within the unspoken limits, but my brother blatantly drives his 300 hp beast at speeds that will get him a ticket. the ticket he received this past weekend was his one freebie. he will pay $130 and take defensive driving to keep it from affecting his insurance premium, but the next one won't be so kind. i don't know all of the officers out there and his radar detector won't always save him.

Quotes From This Weekend

while at a conference this weekend i heard a few quotes that i really liked.

1. "success and failure hinge on whether we can overcome ourselves."

2. "what is hard to do is often right. what is easy to do is often wrong."

3. "a big step towards achieving your goals is facing your fears."

4. "everybody wants to change the world, but no one wants to change them self."

5. "any price we ask of life, life is willing to pay."

6. "enthusiasm is a people magnet. if you want people to follow you, be enthusiastic. light yourself on fire and people will come and watch you burn."

7. "be patient with your results, but urgent with your actions."

8. "you attract what you are not what you want. if you want to attract the right people you must become the right person."

9. "FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real."

10. "it is hard to make love to a hungry woman."

$35.25

friday afternoon i went to a self-serve car wash and pulled up to the automated brushless bay. i pulled up to the machine, pressed the $2 wash button, and then started to insert my checkcard. before i could fully insert my card quarters started pouring into the change return dish. for a couple of seconds i was in shock, but i quickly came to my senses and started scooping the quarters out of the dish. four times i had to scoop quarters out of the dish to keep it from over flowing! $35.25 later the quarters stop. believe it or not i didn't count the quarters. the reason i know how much it gave me is because it also gave me a receipt that stated $40 had been inserted and $38 of change was due, but it ran out at $35.25 and said that it still owed me $2.75. i hit the jackpot without putting in any money! it was totally wild. after i washed my car i called the bank to find out if my card was charged and no evidence suggest that it was. my friends, this doesn't happen every day. more people win the lottery than what happen to me. unfortunately they win much more than i did, but they did pay to play.

Quiz Results Say...

17 people have now taken my quiz, and this is what i've learned.


most people know i love all types of music, but could not live without country music

half knew why i quit coaching softball

half thought i was more educated than i actually am

several people thought my dream was to live on a farm, which wouldn't bother me, but the lake is much better

most people didn't know that i'd been on dates with 15 different people from online personals

almost everyone thought my favorite number was 23. 19 people, 19 being the number that has been on my softball jersey for 6 years and wore in little league baseball

almost half guessed that scottie pippen was my favorite chicago bull

three people know that i'm cost conscious enough to set my thermostat at 80 degrees

almost everyone thought i wanted to create children like everyone else, but the truth is i have a heart for the homeless children in the world

Car Repair Scam

today i went to work around 8:40 am and after about an hour of doing nothing i asked the owner if he had anything for me to do. he response was "no, take the day off." needless to say it didn't take me long to get out the door. from work i went straight to merlin muffler & brake to get my oil changed and car inspected. for whatever reason there emissions machine was out of order so they told me they could change my oil, but i would have to go elsewhere for my inspection.

after about 15 minutes larry, the manager and all around cool guy, asked me to come check something out under my hood. we go out to my car and he shows me my transmission fluid. specifically the fact that it isn't close to red anymore. he proceeded to tell me that it should be changed about every 30k miles. this is true, but mine didn't need changed at 30k. well today i'm at 45k miles so i told him i would happy to have him change my transmission fluid, but i don't have $90 to do it today.

so larry says, "alright man, let me help you out. i have a coupon that will knock $20 off and i'll give you your oil change for free." my response was "cool, do it man." after they finished and i paid my bill i drove to the econo lube n' tune next door to get my car inspected. while sitting in the waiting room i watched them men inspect my car. i noticed the guy named barren checking my transmission fluid. i started to think to myself, "why is he checking my transmission fluid? that has nothing to do with my inspection. i bet he is going to come show me how dirty it is. no, i shouldn't assume that barren is a guy that would scam me." ten minutes later what does barren do? he walks over to me and shows me some transmission fluid on a piece of paper and proceeds to tell me that my fluid is dirty and should be changed every 30k miles.

now in my head i'm thinking "this son of a bitch is trying to scam me. i just watched my transmission get flushed 15 minutes ago." despite this going through my head all i told barren was that i just had it changed next door and i didn't need it done again. all he had to say was "it should be okay then." as he walked away i wanted to curse him under my breath, but instead i prayed for him. after i left i drove next door and checked the fluid myself and it was very clean. it was so clean it looked brand new, go figure. i decided to go back into merlin's and tell larry about the wool that barren tried to pull over my eyes. the next thing i know larry is telling me about another time that someone at econo lube n' tune tried to scam one of his customers by telling them they need new brakes a few days after larry replaced them! it's a wonder people don't trust car mechanics.

New Computer / Digital Aquarium

yesterday i decided that it was time that i broke down and bought a new computer that could handle the adobe software that i use for some freelance work that i do. my four year old laptop is still good for playing music, watching dvds, and surfing the web, but it has been struggling with the latest adobe software and it cannot be upgraded anymore than it already is. i didn't go out and drop a couple grand on a new system. that would be stupid of me since i don't have a couple grand to throw around. i'm a big fan of ordering my computers online, but after looking online at the cheap stuff i decided that i could basically go buy a computer from the store for about the same price and have it now and not later.

i made a trip to fry's and read the specs on several computers. after spending about 30 mins thinking about what was the best bang for my buck i choose a refurbished compaq desktop. it runs on a 2.2 GHZ AMD processor and 1 GB of RAM; it is all about the RAM people. it also came with a 250 GB hard drive, a DVD+RW, a a regular CD-ROM, and a 9 in 1 card reader. i also decided to pick up a 17 inch flat panel monitor. my total bill after tax, $870.

while sorting through and removing all the junk software on the computer i noticed that i had an aquarium screen saver. i loaded the screen saver and after loading it i stared in amazement. this screen saver is awesome! i can't believe how life-like it is. i feel like i have an aquarium without the maintenance. the screen saver is made by prolific publishing. feel free to check it out.

My Quiz

this is a disease and i've been infected. you too can be infected. all you have to do is take my quiz.

who knows jlay?

Love vs. Sin

which is stronger, love or sin? that is my question. is love stronger than sin because people forgive sins out of love or sin stronger than love because people commit sins against those they love? when i think about this i want to say that love is stronger than sin, but i'm just not sure. people sin against those they love the most, all of the time. he loves her, but he cheated on her. she loves him, but she lied to him. he hits her because he is mad at her for lying. this stuff happens all the time! maybe love is stronger than sin. being selfish is basically loving yourself more than others, and sin equals selfishness. so you sin because you love yourself more than anyone else. does sin come from a form of love, and if so does that make love stronger than sin? i think it does because sin cannot bore love, but love can bore sin. thus love is more powerful. it is as if love is the most powerful thing in the world. one has the ability to save the world with it or destroy the world with it. the difference is where you aim it. if you aim love at yourself you cause chaos and destruction, but when directed towards others you cause peace and tranquility.

wait, what about hate. what if you hate yourself, God, the world, and everyone in it? did love bore this? i don't think so, but maybe it did? hate is the absence of love, but where did the love go? i don't think we are born with hate. we are born with the desire to love. how about this? you love yourself more than anyone or anything else for so long it causes a life full of enormous amounts of chaos and destruction. so much that you hate yourself for it. you become so angry with yourself that you forsake the love within and replace it with hate. hate for yourself and everything around you. making hate a product of using love the wrong way. wow love is powerful! my advise is to use it wisely.