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.

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)

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...

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!!

1st Day at Hogwarts

The Sorting Hat says:

Which house are you in??

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/reviews/harrypotter/Docs/Quiz-House.html

Greatest Movie EVER (Transformers), HP5 & My Job

Well, if you know me you know that I have been with Disney for close to 11 years. I haven't worked anywhere else and I have been around long enough to not have the "pixie dust" and I have been called "old Disney" by many of my peers, friends and those that report to me. "Old Disney" means that I can turn the "Disney" on and off depending on the situation and that I realize that to do business you can't be successful by always being "Disney". So it is no surprise to me that I am at the end of my career rope and I finally have an interview for a potential promotion which would mean more money (nice to have, just look at Amanda's blog to see why), better schedule, a step up to a senior leader (I would have salaried leader's reporting to me) and I could be able to build my own team which I would love to build a team the right way and kick the crap out of every other team in existence!! I would hire like-minded people with my philosophy and work ethic...we would bring the "old Disney" style. They would not be clones because I love to debate, argue and get push back...it makes me better! Now I leave this in the public realm on my blog and I ask that everyone prayer for me on this Wednesday at 4:00-5:00 pm. I want and need this job, it may change my life!

Less seriously...I can not review the Harry Potter movie because I thought it was excellant and it reminded me of the "Empire Strikes Back" piece of the Star Wars Epic. It was a great story and I am amazed at the level of acting that Daniel Radcliffe has grown to. I guess naked plays in England help...not sure. But it is nice to see him grow as an actor because he could easily just ride this out and not get any better. I can say this, I wish that Ron would've had a little more to do or say as he at times is the comic relief.

Transformers was amazing. It was sexy, funny, action packed (they blew everything up!) and the CGI was the best ever. Michael Bay must've learned how to make a movie or Spielberg had a lot of influence on this. I actually got in my truck and thought..."am I driver a Transformer?" I hope they make this a franchise but continue to use the same amount of cutting edge movie making. I want to have this in writing: I predict that Shia Labeouf with the next Tom Hanks. This guy has great comedic timing, amazing depth and he has a great amount of momentum right now carrying him into Indiana Jones 4. Who would believe that he was once on "Even Stevens". Add that to the list of names from the Disney machine... I will do more on Transformers after I see it in IMAX.

Oh yeah, I want a H3...no way to work that in, so I just said it.

Catching Up...

Well...what friggin' crazy month this has been and it won't stop...yet! My job is in limbo, not that I will be fired or anything but my current role (Disney term) is up as I was in a temporary position. I have a good amount of prospects (finally) and hope that I will get the one that pays more and allows me to go to church again. My Ox not only got into the ditch but I think it fell into a ditch made of quicksand but I guess until then I will continue to go to my parents church via their CD ministry... Amen! Oh yeah, did I mention that I signed papers for a house...that could be THE most anxiety ridden process I have ever been through. All Amanda wants to do is talk about furniture and paint but I just want to watch the ink dry on the first mortgage payment so I can breathe again. Anyway, if you want to see it go to Amanda's blog she has posted a link.

What else did I do? Well, not too much we saw Pirates and Fantastic 4... Pirates was a good ending to that story path and I hope if they do more that Jack Sparrow [CAPTAIN] I mean "Captain Jack Sparrow" will have new adventures with new side characters and villians. What an amazing character. F4 was pretty good and would've been great if it didn't seem like two movies into one. It was like the director said "I don't like the Fantastic 4 characters...let's do a Silver Surfer movie" and then he remembered that he was doing the F4 movie so he made it good when they were on screen too. Not complaining, I will get the DVD, watch it again and probably love it. Silver Surfer movie will be interesting if they can keep Larry Fishborne as the voice actor. Now I am anxiously awaiting the Transformers Movie (seeing it tomorrow) and then HP5 which looks amazing!!! (and don't forget the Simpsons Movie)

Finally for this post I wanted to show some pics of when Amanda and I went to Disney MGM Studios for Star Wars Weekends. What a crazy event! It is 200 degrees out there and people are in full Jedi/Sith attire sweating the force right out of them. THEN there were the people who just a strange because it was dress up day... But we saw Ray Park (Darth Maul EpI & Toad X-Men I) and some other cool things... I am attaching a few of the characters we were able to see.