Thursday, August 23, 2007

House M.D.

I just bought House Season 3 and have already begun reliving last season's episode. I have a theory about the character House and myself. It actually has a little bit of validity due to the fact that not too long ago, I was sitting with my former team at lunch one day and they brought the show up and how they "hate that guy" and "will not watch that show again". The conversation was more of a "roundtable" and when it came to my turn, I said, "I like him and think his methods are brilliant!" They all looked at me like I had two heads or I dropped the F-Bomb... Then one of them said "you would like him...you are very much like him". I got to thinking that maybe that is true to a point, love a good arguement, a good joke (sometimes at the expense of others) and can be arrogant. In fact, my idea of "the perfect team" that I would like to build and lead would be a team of experts that are opinionated to the point they would debate and push back to make me better as I make them better while they make each other better!! (sound familar) Now, I am not as mean as House most of the time but I can be very direct and make a room really quiet fast...the only difference is that I can love and I can be loved.

In an episode a man asked House why he didn't go into research instead of being a doctor that requires him to be with people as he doesn't seem to like them (people that is). House told the story of when he was in Japan as a young man while his father was stationed there, he and his friend were mountain climbing and his friend fell and injured his leg. They rushed to the hospital and went in the wrong door to get to the emergency room. They passed by an old janitor along the way to the ER. The doctors worked and did all that they could with no improvement, in fact, the infection had spread. The doctors brought in the janitor for a consult. You see the janitor was a Buraku and he was shunned by their culture and the doctors as his ancestors were stable keepers and slaughterhouse workers which made him low and dishonored. The name itself was a slang word of racism and shame. They brought him when they couldn't figure something out because he was that good! He dressed poorly, was unapproachable as a person but he didn't care because at the end of the day...he was RIGHT! And that was all that mattered. This inspired House and in a way it did me. As a follower of Christ, I can't be completely as House and I pray to be more Christ-like everyday but I have thought that I may be a better person and Christian if I didn't care what others think because...I am RIGHT.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Bitter Sweet B-Day

So I sit here at work on my 28th birthday and I am exhausted having worked the worst set of turnarounds a schedule could offer! In the period of five days I span from working until 3 AM to coming in at 4 AM, having to do 8 hour turnarounds leaving me with little time to myself, with Amanda or even to sleep. You know there is a period in Job's life when he was being tested where he just pretty much had nothing left and just sat in his situation (in my own words) and I am closing in on that in my period of trials. I carry around with me a scripture that I read and pray over everyday and it seems to make me feel better and it reads: (Note: I took out the middle part comparing faith to gold which even with it's value can be changed by fire)


"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a while you may have suffered grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Chirst is revealed." I Peter 1:6-9


I figure that at some point God will reveal his plan and my purpose for all of this and I will not be able to contain my joy! Until then I pray that he moves quickly and for His will to be done, I even have stopped trying to influence it which is big for me. To fully let go...maybe that's why this is happening?!

So to the sweet part (no more bitterness)...I have a mortgage and it isn't that bad. I fought hard on this, one thing about it with lack of sleep I am pretty much straight to the point with people and I had to be for this to happen. So Amanda and I are ready to start down this path...we can't wait but it will be hard to see the comforts of our parents' homes go away. Did we live at home too long...no doubt but was it bad...no way. Our parents are terriffic people and we both are very fortunate! So it's happening, I have a mortgage and a wife coming within weeks of each other!! Wow! Happy Birthday to me!

I am very excited about it all, I am just sorry that my job situation clouds my happiness at times as I miss Amanda a lot and I hate to call her or my parents and they are having fun or doing anything really without me. Family means the world to me as does church and I miss both every week and that is hard! I have job prospects each week and I know that this time will pass and I will be blogging on here about nonsense again soon but I thought I would share this as a kind of thearopy...thanks for listening, I will get off of the couch now and let someone else get on.


Oh by the way, I saw today that I share my birthday with Gene Roddenbery and Jonathan Frakes which is really cool as I love Star Trek!! So RIP Mr. Roddenbery and "make it so, number one!" Engage... (cue music)


Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Heroes in a Half-Shell...

TURTLE POWER!! So the depths of my dorkness hasn't bottomed out yet! I recently purchased the TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) movie that came out in theaters last March. I was not able to see in the theater because Amanda sometimes is hard to get to see "kid's movies" as she refers to them. I can't complain too much, see did see Transformers with me and she liked it a lot so that was cool. I love seeing movies with her but sometimes I need to go with friends or on my own, I get it as I do have a broad taste in what I want to see.

Now for TMNT, I was so excited to see it but got worried because they chose to make the cover look like a cartoon from the original series. But the movie was far from the hand drawn cartoon of my past. It was CGI and very well done! They used a company that is like Pixar but from Japan which made the fight scenes turn out very realistic. They chose to keep things like fighting realistic as they knew that jumping 30 ft in the air wasn't too realstic for a 5 foot tall, talking turtle trained by a rat to be a ninja! Seriously though it was cool. They even had a fight scene that many of us wondered about, I won't spoil it. The bad guys were cool, no Shredder this time but they brought in Patrick Stewart (Capt. Picard/Professor Xavior) to be the lead villian. They also used a lot of Men in Black type aliens to round out the fun. The Foot Clan were also involved with a hint of a sequel with Shredder mentioned...

TMNT is cool for everyone, they deal with being different, being excepted and being a family which I think in today's times and the fact the nuclear family is as unstable as it's namesake, it is good to show kid's that they are special, should be proud of that and stay with their family no matter what the world says! And be kind to animals...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Birthday Time

I was reading Amanda's blog entry regarding her birthday and who she shares it with and it made me wonder who I share mine with that is famous. It seems that the 19th of August has an eclectic mix of people who celebrate on this day.

Here are a few:

Bill Clinton, John Stomas, Kevin Dillon, Kyra Sedwick, Lee Ann Womack, Matthew Perry, Fat Joe, Ahmed Best and many more.
So I was born on the same date as Jar Jar Binks, a rapper, Chandler Bing, a country singer, Mrs. Bacon (the Closer), Johnny Drama, Uncle Jesse and a former President (by title only).

Well happy early birthday to all my 8/19ers we are a strange bunch!!


Saturday, August 4, 2007