Month: December 2009

Categories
Career Home Life Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1. As blizzards, ice storms, and cold and wind events sweep across the free nation from California to Maine we seem to be stuck in a summertime weather pattern aqui a America’s Riviera / El Sur de Florida. I’m forecasting a continuation of our well above normal temperatures for at least another 7 to 10 days. That means afternoon high temperatures well into the mid-80s (with heat indices approaching or exceeding 90°F). We’ll have to wait awhile to get in on some of that cold and crisp air not too far to the north of us.

2.  If you’ve been following me via my Twitter account then you already know that I’ve been working on my first big speech that I give tonight at my Toastmasters club. It’s an ice-breaker speech, so that means that I have to talk about a very familiar subject that’s near and dear to me – ME !  It’s all about me for 4 to 6 minutes. I think I’ve got it down to about 5½ minutes, so we’ll see how it all works out. I’m really looking forward to the evaluations afterwards – positive and negative. I can only get better from this point forward.

3.  I felt like a Toastmaster today at work. I facilitated a 1-hour and 40-minute briefing over at our Base Conference Center this morning in which I stood behind a podium at the front of the main briefing room and guided the slide presentation and introduced the various speakers. It was actually some great practice for tonight and future nights at Toastmasters as well as my hosting duties on occasional Sunday mornings at Life Pointe Church.

4.  On January 04TH 2010 I make the momentous 100TH monthly payment on my current home (out of 180). I’ve got a 15-year mortgage loan on my current home that I bought during the week prior to ‘9-11’ in 2001, so it’s about 55% percent paid off now. It feels weird to know that I’ve been living in this home for 14½ years now – longer than any other by far. (I rented for 6 years before I bought.) When I moved in to this home I had just turned 28-years-old. Now I’m 42½-years-old. (Yes Kelly J. I just said ’42½’.)

5.  And now I’ve got a new home on Fleming Island in Clay County Florida (southwestern fringes of the Jacksonville area) that I need to get officially transferred over to my name to make it all legal and everything. My parents lived in it for about 6 years up until this past February when I moved them over to Fairview Texas (within 5 miles of my brother and sister-in-law). Once I get their home officially transferred over to me then I get to pay for it !  BRING IT $ !

Be sure to catch my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !

Categories
Humor Sports

Monday Night Funnies

Are you ready to laugh ?

USAF HUMOR – F-16 VS. C-130

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.

The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, ‘Watch this !’, and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that ?

The C-130 pilot said, ‘That was impressive, but watch this !’

The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes, and then the C-130 pilot
came back on and said, ‘What did you think of that ?’

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, ‘What the heck did you do ?’

The C-130 pilot chuckled, ‘I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun.’

When you are young and foolish – speed and flash may be a good thing.
When you get older and smarter – comfort and dull is not such a bad thing.

Categories
God

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

– This AM I returned home to Life Pointe Church for the 1ST time in 3 weeks.
– It felt great to be where I belong on a Sunday morning.
– Our teen youth group – The Belonging – took over the services.
– They did the services their way from start to finish.
– ‘The BBC Theory’ is a call to Belong, Believe, and Change.
– Everyone in the entire world belongs in God’s Kingdom.
– It doesn’t matter what you look like or where you live.
– It doesn’t matter how you speak or how much money you have.
– We ALL belong !
– Some non-believers just need to be invited into God’s Kingdom.
– That’s all the’re waiting for – an invitation to belong.
– Once you’re in to the Kingdom all ya gotta do is to believe in His glory.
– What are your priorities ?
– What do you believe in ?
– Do you believe in the ways of the world ?
– Do you believe that with Jesus Christ all things are possible ?
– If you believe then you must change your old ways and follow Christ.
– The only Jesus Christ that some of your friends may see may be in you.
– Represent Christ by being His arms, His hands, His legs, and His feet.
– You have been selected to expand His Great Kingdom.

Matthew 9:12-13 (NLT, 2ND Ed.)
12  When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do.”
13  Then He added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Categories
History Holidays Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

Starting next Saturday night and continuing through the remainder of December it’ll be a very ‘Retro’ Christmas with three consecutive Christmas hits in a row from Shakin’ Stevens, Band Aid, and José Feliciano. Be sure to not miss the festivity of that as we celebrate the reason for the season.

This week on the ‘Retro’ I’m flashing back a decade ago to 1999 for some cool European trance music. It’s from German DJ / Producer André Tanneberger – better known to his fans worldwide (including myself) as simply ‘ATB‘. In this 1999 European pop and dance smash featuring female vocalist Yolanda Rivera he simply wants us to keep on going – “Don’t Stop”. This song actually enjoyed later success on South Florida radio via the former PARTY-93.1 during August, September, and October 2002. That’s when I discovered it, and danced to it at the clubs in and around Orlando Florida. “DON’T … STOP“: