Category: Travel

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Blogging Career Driving Nature People Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– It’s time once again for my weekly montage of ‘Mini Thoughts’.
– They are spontaneous, and they are in your face in 15 words or less.
– It’s been a busy week at work after being away from my desk last week.
– It all culminated in back-to-back PowerPoint Presentations this morning.
– My weekend away from work commences at or before 4 PM tomorrow.
– My road trip mini vacation begins bright and early on Saturday morning.
– I plan to extensively use the Google Maps / GPS feature of my new phone.
– I also hope to take a bunch of cool pictures along the way.
– I’m looking forward to checking out Lake Okeechobee for the first time.
– Fort Pierce, Stuart, Jupiter, and Palm Beach – Be warned – I’m on my way !
– I also can’t wait to laugh hysterically to comedian Jim Gaffigan.
– It should be a lot of fun on the road this weekend.
– Be sure to follow me on Twitter for all of the breaking news on the road.
– This past Tuesday night I became an Uncle for the first time ever !
– My niece was born at 6:33 PM CDT / 7:33 PM EDT on the 20TH of April.
– She was born to my sister-in-law Christina and my little brother Danny.
– She weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces, and she was 20 inches in length.
– Here are some pictures of my gorgeous little niece – Taylor Lesley Day:

– 3 weeks from tonight I’ll be introducing myself to Taylor.
– It’s going to be very exciting watching her grow up through the years.
– I’m reserving my right as her Uncle to take her to the zoo at any time.
– In fact she’s not allowed to go to the zoo without me.
– That’s just the way it’s going to be.
– It’s going to be a sizzling hot weekend coming up.
– We could see mid-afternoon temperatures approaching the 90°F mark.
– It should be our hottest weather in about 6 months – since the end of Oct.
– Stay cool and be safe my friends in whatever you do.
– I’ll be back to blogging again next Tuesday night with the ‘Grab Bag’.

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Blogging Computers Driving Internet People Television Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  April 20TH 2004 – April 19TH 2010 – If you follow me on Twitter then you probably already know by now that I made a somewhat radical (some would even state shocking) upgrade to my technological life. I replaced my often ridiculed 6-year-old antique cell phone with a brand new modern one. Here’s the most fascinating aspect of it all. I unknowingly did this almost exactly 6 years to the date that I bought that antique cell phone. My T-Mobile service agreement that was given to me upon leaving the store yesterday afternoon showed my original 1-year contract period (from my original phone) for the 20TH of April in 2004 through the 19TH of April in 2005. I thought that it was a misprint until I came home and looked at my old credit card statement from April of 2004 that shows me buying that antique cell phone exactly 6 years ago today. So there’s something quite special about the 20TH of April that makes me want to go out and buy a brand new cell phone. Here’s hoping that I buy my next modern new cell phone before the 20TH of April in 2016 !

II.  Hablo Inglés, ¿ Como ? – I found this rather fascinating. It was a question on a recent episode of “Are You Smarter Than A 5TH Grader ?” It’s the most spoken languages in the world by number of native speakers. Arabic is in 5TH place – followed by Hindi in 4TH place. The TOP 3 are fairly obvious with Chinese at # 1 (one billion people who understand each other) – and Spanish and English virtually tied for 2ND place. But there are evidentally a tad more Spanish speakers than English speakers, so Spanish is at # 2 and English is the 3RD most spoken language here on the Planet Earth. I wonder if there are more English-speaking people that can speak Spanish as a second language, or if there are more Spanish-speaking people that can speak English as a second language. I’m guessing that those two numbers are fairly similar as well.

III.  Road Trip ! – My self-imposed ‘Vacation Of The Month Club’ kicks into high gear this upcoming weekend. I’ll be visiting a large chunk of southeastern Florida that I’ve never seen before during my 22 years of living here in Homestead. It’ll be roughly a 400-mile road trip as far west as the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee – and as far north as Fort Pierce Beach along scenic Florida State Road A1A. This week is a rare two-blog-post week. I’ll have your ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just about 48 hours from now, and then I’ll have no new blog posts until next week’s ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. Be sure to follow me on Twitter. Now that I’ve got a 5 megapixel camera with my brand new cell phone I can take some cool pictures of my adventures on the road and then upload them instantly to Twitter and this blog. I’ll try not to get too carried away with the taking of pictures on my new toy.

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Blogging Career Computers Driving God History Internet Money Nature People Shopping Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s roll.
– I got off work like 90 minutes earlier than normal this afternoon.
– I’m actually away from the office all this week in a network security class.
– I knew next to nothing about this material when we started on Mon. AM.
– Now I think that I can pass the big test first thing tomorrow morning.
– That was the goal of this training – to pass the big test.
– It’s material that has next to nothing to do with my daily job.
– Next week I go back to the wonderful world of MONEY !
– That’s my real job is all about – the ‘dolla-dolla’.
– Like – you know – like – you know – like – you know – like – you know – like …
– That was my impersonation of a 16-year-old kid talking.
– It’s gonna be a nice and peaceful and relaxing weekend starting tomorrow.
– I’m hosting the 9 AM service again this Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church.
– That means Scripture study on Fri. and compilation and rehearsal on Sat.
– Next weekend I’m embarking on a nice little road trip not too far north.
– The furthest north I’ll drive is the A1A on Fort Pierce Beach.
– I’ll be visiting a large chunk of Florida that I’ve never seen before.
– I’ll also be checking out Lake Okeechobee for the first time ever.
– Less than 3 weeks after that I’ll be flying to Dallas Texas to visit my family.
– My niece is due to enter this world sometime in the next 15 days !
– I want to be known as the ‘lovable’ uncle – not the ‘scary’ uncle.
– Happy Birthday to my lovable sister-in-law who turns 29 this Saturday !
– My little baby brother turns 35 in a little over 2 weeks.
– I’m just about 50 days away from turning 43 (an odd age).
– People that don’t know my age usually think that I’m in my 20s or 30s.
– Of course there are the anomalies.
– Like that lady that thought I was a teenager over in Estero last month.
– Flattery will get you nowhere you cougar !
– Hear Me Now !  I am serious about buying a modern new cell phone !
– I actually watch intently all of the cell phone commercials on TV now.
– My bud Jonathon told me to donate my current cell phone to the Smithsonian.
– I have a Seiko watch that they may also be interested in.
– I like to rock it ‘old school’, but there’s a certain point where it’s just time.
– It’s just time to say ‘good-bye’ to a longtime friend.
– So long 2003-era cell phone that everyone makes fun of.
– Speaking of rockin’ it ‘old school’ I’m rockin’ 1988 on ‘Retro’ this Saturday.
– And don’t forget ‘My Fantastic Journey’ on its new day – Sunday !
– Until then my friends – keep on doin’ your thang.
– Be safe.
– Love all.

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Career Driving God Politics Shopping Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

My Tuesday night tradition since 2007 continues now:

I.  Numbers That Drive Me Crazy – This next section is for my own personal amusement. This morning I started out with 67,613 miles on my car. That’s about 10,100 miles over the past year – a bit above average for me. I generally average between 7,500 and 8,000 miles of driving in a typical year. It’s been a busy year of driving for me – especially with the Thanksgiving Week trip to and from the Dallas Texas area. As far as gas prices are concerned they were much lower exactly a year ago – over 25% lower – right around $2.199 per gallon. It does appear that as the economy slowly improves the price of oil (and thus gas) will slowly increase – especially as we approach the summer driving months. $3.00 to $3.25 per gallon seems very likely as April rolls into May.

II.  Extreme Politics – I know what it’s like to be an extremist on the political spectrum. For the simple fact that I believe in God and unconditional protection of the unborn (that means Pro-Life) I am allegedly a proud member of the extreme right-wing radical contingent of the political spectrum. I am also a registered Republican. The fact of the matter is that one would be rather surprised to find out that I am much closer to being a centrist than an extremist. I actually hold a few strong viewpoints that would have some people out there accuse me of being a liberal. Here’s what I think. The loud and boisterous Hollywood elite are so far to the extreme left-wing of the political sprectrum that I can’t even see them. I think that President Obama appears to be a nice guy – but not a very good President that represents my views or even a majority of this nation’s views. I think that the Tea Party is an awesome movement. They are mainstream America as far as I’m concerned. Those who disagree with their viewpoints have simply hit the easy button by dismissing them as racists, hate mongers, and violence inciters. As a new follower of God over the past 44 months I have removed all hatred from my Life. It’s all about Love. Love thy neighbour. Is that so extreme ?  In this turbulent world – perhaps so.

III.  Modernization & Restoration – This is a frequently-utilized term where I work. It’s essentially any construction work that’s done on base under $30,000 that serves to modernize or restore a facility. My entire financial management job is based upon that concept. We have meetings throughout the week in which we discuss whether or not a job is M & R or not. Having stated that here at home while I have a few pockets that have recently been remarkably modernized or restored I am for the most part living like it’s 1988. I can best describe my living room as ‘Late-20TH Century Dorm Room Deco’. It’s just the way I like it dude – don’t be a hater. It’s hard to part with what I love. Nevertheless I have a revelation to make. This may shock and awe you to bits and pieces. Here we go. I’m interested in retiring my 2003-era cell phone with a brand new modern one made in 2010. I want one of them ‘3G’ / ‘4G’ deals in which I can surf the web and tweet anywhere with a full ‘QWERTY’ keyboard. I’m ready to upgrade soon. I don’t mind switching carriers either. I’ve been with T-Mobile since before they were T-Mobile. (They were originally Voicestream.) I’m actually thinking of switching to AT&T since I already have their U-Verse (HDTV + Internet). In fact the Motorola Backflip definitely intrigues me. I dig.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ up next on the blog.