Rekindling of Friendships

this past weekend i spent a a good amount of time rekindling a couple of friendships. friday i took my friend kathryn, who i hadn't seen in a year, to dinner and a ranger's game. i had fun spending time with her despite the ranger's getting their butts kicked, and by that i mean 11-3. on a side note they did get redemption last night when they won 15-2.

saturday i had lunch with a friend, tori, who i hadn't seen or talked to in 4 years! tori is a friend from high school who moved away either during or right before my senior year, which was her sophomore year. we had kept somewhat in touch for four years after she left, but somehow faded apart. i had a blast visiting her and her mom and talking about the good ol' days and what is new in our lives. tori is the third friend that i've found on myspace and gotten together with.

sunday i was suppose to spend time with another friend who i hadn't seen in 4 years, kirstin. i found her on myspace too. i don't know why so many people think myspace is so evil, but that is a post for another day, maybe tomorrow? kirstin and i were suppose to go fabric shopping together, but her daughter became sick and she had to cancel. i know you know thinking..."why was j-lay going fabric shopping?" well i found out that my friend kirstin makes quilts. as a child, when i would visit my grandparents, i would take naps underneithe the quilts that my grandma made. so i decided i wanted one made for me. i ended up going fabric shopping by myself yesterday. which didn't feel too awkward because my mom use to make clothes for my brother and i, and we would get to go to the store with her now and again to buy the material.

A Real Life Spiderman?

this video is wild! you must watch the entire thing!

You or God's Choice?

who hasn't asked God what to do? i'm sure there are some people out there that haven't, but as far as a christian is concerned who hasn't prayed to God and said, "what do you want me to do Lord? what are you calling me to do?" i think that there are times in our lives that God calls us to perform a particular task, but i don't think this is how it works most of the time. i feel that most of the time if we could stand face to face with God and ask, "what do you want me to do Lord, how may i serve you?" he wouldn't give a specific task. he would say to us, "my child, i've given you many abilities. i've also given you free will. you choose how you want to serve me. all i ask of you is to serve me by serving my people, your fellow "man". how you do this is your choice. serve me in the ways that bring me honor and you joy. for it is through joyful service that you will be the most effective." i might be right about this or i might be wrong, but i just can't fathom God giving us so many talents, abilities, and free will; only to order us around like drones.

Putty & Stone

from time to time we all run across a nugget, a life lesson, or perhaps a motto to live by. this morning i attended a small church that a good friend and mentor of mine was preaching at. during his sermon he served up a great nugget. "you can't drive a car straight forward by staring in the rearview mirror." meaning you can't live your life by dwelling on the past. just like driving. while driving forward you should only glance in the rearview mirror. it is good to remember the past and to learn from it, but if you dwell, sulk, or live in the past your gunna drift of course.

what if.....
if only......
i should of.....
i could of......
i wish i would've.....

are these bad phrases? i don't think so, but that doesn't mean that can't do harm. they're like ice cream. they're not a bad.... in moderation. taking a moment to look in the mirror and remember the past helps protect us on our journey. i think it is okay to say these phrases once or twice about the past, but when you constantly look in the rearview mirror of life and run "what if" scenarios through your head you will only drift off course. sometimes you might even crash and burn. i have run across a few people in my life that have this problem. they spend so much time thinking of what they could have or should have done in a particular situation or time in their life that they don't make a whole lot of forward progress. no matter what you do or think the past will never change. so why put so much time and effort into something that you can't do anything about? why not put your time and effort into something that is a lot more moldable, a lot more like putty and a lot less like stone? something like the future.

Good, But Very Unknown Music

as most know i am a fan of country music. a friend of mine, ronnie fauss (a/k/a mol junior), has a decent collection of alt country/folk music that he has written and recorded. you can't buy his music anywhere but from the man himself. at least i couldn't find a website that sells it. he might not even have any left for all i know. all i know is i bought a couple of cds from him a few years ago. from time to time i listen to his stuff, and i'm hear to say that i always love to hear it. you'll probably never hear the likes of any of his songs on the radio, even though i think they are worthy. i'm not sure he has ever tried to sell any of them and i'm not sure he could??? the thing is i don't think a one of them would make it past the clear channel review board. if you know ronnie, a/k/a mol junior, and you haven't heard any of his music. i recommend bugging him for a cd or better yet a live performance.

Child Rearing With A Tangent

last night i was a bumb and camped out on the couch to watch tv. for the second time ever i watch super nanny. it might come as a shock to everyone that i know, but i like to learn about child rearing. this is not a fact that i've shared with people. not because i'm embarassed about it. the subject just doesn't come up in conversation with anyone. probably because i haven't been in a long term relationship in 4 years.

what got me on the kick was in the year 2000 i started dated a woman with an 18 month old son. i dated her for nearly 2 years, and i still hangout with her and her son from time to time today, 4 years later. btw, he turned 7 this year! even though i don't have kids i know what parents mean when they say that kids grow up fast. anyway, ever since i started dating her i've been reading about parenting. i never bought any books or anything, but anytime i was in a waiting area, whether it be at the doctors office, auto shop, tire shop, ect. i would read the parenting magazines instead of the car or sports magazines. though i'm not currently a father and i'm not in any position to be one anytime soon. i do want a wife and kids someday, and i want to be prepared. it is very interesting to learn about the different points of view and techniques of child rearing. though i grew up in a home that believed in spanking, and it worked mind you, i have found through literature and personal experience that it is not necessarily necessary. watching the super nanny on tv really re-enforces this way of thinking as well.

something else i notice on super nanny is that a lot of parents she helps think that they are getting most of the parent principles right. when they are totally getting them wrong. one can't really put too much blame on them because child rearing isn't something that is really taught to parents. so they really don't know if they are doing something wrong until it is typically too late. this lead me to think of another subject that people don't get educated on; money. people go through life thinking they are doing the right thing with there money. when in reality they aren't, and typically won't find out until it is too late. the main problem is no one has ever taught them how. when you leave a bunch of people to figure things out for themselves, some will get it right and most will get it wrong on the first try. for a lot of things in life this is okay because we learn from our mistakes and correct them. the only problem with children and money is we tend to find out that we made a mistake a tad bit too late in the game to go back and correct it.

so i kind of feel like i'm a super nanny of money. instead of showing up to people's houses and guiding them on good child rearing practices. i show up and guide them on how to make educated financial decisions that will greatly effect their future quality of life. the sad fact is many people don't think to get a guide for the longest journey of their lives, their financial journey, until it is too late. a major financial magazine reported in 2005 that 95 out of 100 people that turned 65 in 2005 would either still be working or broke and unable to work. something that could have been avoided if they had taken action sooner in life. that is the kicker to the whole deal. the most important factor in the planning of one's retirement or a child's education is time, and time is the one think most people don't give too much weight when it comes to these long term goals.

Bird Killer

tonight while on my way home i was driving up preston rd on my way to 635. i was taking it easy and driving 40 mph. about a mile before i got to 635 i noticed a pigeon in the road. i didn't think much of it. i see pigeons in the road all the time. you drive towards them, they get scared and fly away. that's how it works right? well, that is how it has worked for me for the last 10 years that i've been driving. that is until tonight. evidently this pigeon didn't get the memo because it took flight a bit too late and i hit it with my car. first i saw it hit my grill, next i saw bird poop splatter on my windshield, and finally a bunch of feathers in the rearview mirror. it was a bid disturbing. i've never killed a bird with my car before. though i did run over one with my bicycle when i was seven. that too was disturbing. i was riding my bike with my family that day. so that i could ride next to my mom and dad i was riding my bike through the grass on the side of the road. all of a sudden i heard this awful noise. i locked up my breaks and rammed my private parts into the handle bars. after crying on the ground for a few minutes i looked back at what made the awful noise. it was a black bird. Now ever since i've been driving birds have always been able to get out of the way. especially when i was driving 40 mph. i've seen birds get out of the way when i was driving down the highway! i guess it was this birds time to go.

Sugar Packets

let's say that you went to a restaurant and ordered an iced tea. would you proceed to pour 10 packets of sugar into your tea? probably not. from time to time i will drink a soda and i'll think to myself, "i'm drinking a liquid candy bar". which is pretty much the truth. an average can of soda contains 40 grams of sugar. a packet of sugar contains 4 gram of sugar. so a soda contains 10 packets of sugar. is that not just wild or what? i know there are people out there who drink 4-6 sodas a day. that would be 40-60 packets of sugar! crazy stuff i tell you, crazy stuff.

Pictures Made Of Pictures

if you like cool stuff, you'll like this site. each picture is made of more pictures.

http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm

Four Day Weekend

so i'm back in lewisville after a four day weekend in my hometown of burkburnett, tx. i had a great mini vacation. saturday i played basketball and racquetball with my brother and best friend adam. later that night we went and saw the new superman movie. sunday was a pretty laid back day of church and spending time with my grand parents. monday night i saw a free, b y o b, mini-concert where adam and i shared a bottle of rum to go along with our coca cola. about 3/4 of the way through the concert i got a call from my friends lynz & traci wanting adam and i to go to the bar with them. originally adam and i had the plan of listening to some live music with our rum n' cokes and then getting to bed around midnight so that we could wake up to play golf at 7:30 in the morning with my dad and brother.

well, we made it to back to adams house and in bed around 3:30am or 4:00am in the morning. my cell phone alarm went off @6:00am. i drug myself out of bed and tried to wake adam up with no avail. so i left to go wake up my brother who was staying at my grand parents house. he too was out rather late. i know this because i talked to him on the phone at 2:54am. he couldn't seem to wake up either. so just my dad and i played golf. i really enjoyed it and i did okay, but man was i tired.

later that night i hung out with my dad at his house that is out near the middle of no ware. being out there comes in handy because he can see forever in all for directions since north central texas is rather flat. with this ability we sat outside and watched fire works for about an hour and a half. it was very nice, and very peaceful. which was just what i needed.