Thursday Random Thoughts 4/29/10

Stuff I have been thinking about:


-Yay, Jimmy Buffett is back on tour this year. Under the Big Top Tour 2010 kicked off last Saturday in Tampa. Check it out I bet he is coming to a town near you.

-May is my favorite month of the whole year and there are lots of reasons why. The weather is getting nice and warm. Baseball season is just heating up. The Charlotte NC area has so many things going on including PGA golf tournament, the NASCAR races for two weeks and all kinds of festivals and other things to do. I can't wait for May to get here.

-Last weekend I was at a child's soccer game and couldn't help but notice the names of all the kids. I kid you not on the same team there was a Kayden, Aiden, and Jaden. Also a Jada, a Kenton, and a Colton. Nothing against these names but it seems like all kids are being named things like this these days. Doesn't anyone name their child Bill, Fred, or Tim anymore?

-Why is it that I have heard the song "I don't know why" by Nora Jones about 10 times in the past week? It's a great song and it's older but for some reason it's been on the radio repeatedly recently.

-I was wondering the other day what the song of the summer will be this year? Last summer it was probably the Black Eyed Peas "I've got a feeling" or The Michel Franti and Spearhead song "Say Hey." Two summers ago it was Kid Rock "All Summer Long." I wonder what it will be this year. Probably something I haven't even heard yet.

-At our house we were able to go the entire month of April without using either the heat or the air conditioning. This is really nice and actually quite a feat considering where I live in North Carolina we generally have to turn the air conditioning on by now. Our electric and gas bills will certainly be better this month.

-Ok one last thing. I am going to start posting a weekly Odd sign of the week from a new website I have found. Oddly Specific Signs. So here we go with this weeks actual sign. I hope you enjoy:

Until next week...

-Doc

Sweet Little Lies

Yesterday I just finished a book that was filled with lies. It was about a 12-year-old girl who lies about being friends with a classmate that died in the first chapter. She also lies about various members of her family. The town is suppose to be fairly small at least the side she lives on and I kept thinking that someone would call her out - and that never happened.

This got me to thinking about lies and lying. I will be honest I'm a horrible liar. All you have to do is see my face to know if I'm telling you the truth. Most of my lies involve pranks so I'm usually trying not to giggle.

Is there a difference between lying and not saying something? I personally think it depends on what you are leaving out of the story.

I'm not a fan of being lied to either. I dated a guy a few years ago that I met though a mutal friend. It was going to be a long distance relationship so I firmly believed we needed to cut though the BS and be totally if not brutally honest with each other. With much discussion with the mutual friend the guy isn't honest with himself. The ex isn't too happy with the mutual friend having both sides of the story. Needless to say the mutual friend finds a lot of similarities in his reasons for breaking up with some great women - and realizes it might be more of the friend than the girl.

I know there is being nice - but don't lie about it. I hate it when I meet a guy that I think we really hit it off and never hear from him again. A guy from a couple weeks ago I looked at his Facebook page, while most of it was private there was a girl in the picture. He certainly didn't act like he had a girlfriend.

Awhile back I saw a stand-up comedian. She was talking about being at a bar and it is about closing time and she's drunk. She can start flirting with this guy and go home with him, or she can go home alone and get a DUI. Her thoughts: You can always lie about a one night stand, but you can't lie about a DUI - that goes on your record.

Regret

With Doc on the shelf, I guess I’ll pick up the torch today. I have often said I don’t have any regrets from my life thus far. Are there some things I wish had gone differently, definitely. The experiences I’ve had make me who I am today and I have so much to be thankful for that I can’t say I’d want things differently. However, as some of you know, my father passed away late last year. It has caused me to reflect on things that I hadn’t given much thought to over the years. And, it turns out that I do have regret.

For the past few years, I have really second guessed my decision to not join the military. Growing up, I always believed that I’d be a Marine like my father. But as I went through and graduated from college, that became less of an option for me personally. I had become lazy and wanted to take the easy/have fun road instead. When people ask, “Why didn’t you go into the service (like your father)?” I usually respond jokingly with, “I served my 18 years.” In truth, I was selfish and made excuses for not signing up. Excuse number 1: My wife’s father was also a Marine, but her military childhood was not as memorable as mine. I rationalized that if I chose to enter the Corps, she may not stay with me (we were still dating when I graduated). I have come to realize it was not the service, but the man that made it that way. He took off when she was 16, leaving a wife with 4 daughters behind. Excuse number 2: I only wanted to be a pilot and the services were only taking engineering graduates, not business administration grads into aviation training. It was the same when my Dad went in, but he got in and was an incredible pilot…with a sports education degree from Carson-Newman. He did a lot of studying to make up for his lack of engineering/science knowledge the other students had already. He made his childhood dream a reality, never having stepped foot in a plane before his first training flight.

Tied to this regret is the fact that I always told Dad that one day I’d at least get my private pilot’s license so we could fly around together. I always made excuses for not getting this done, as well.

This all came to a head this morning as my mother gave me Dad’s ’03 Tahoe. It still has the Marine Corp license plate (which I have to give to her when I get a regular FL plate) and a few flight wing markings. These are things I must take off because I haven’t earned them.

Regret, it really sucks. My goal from this point on is to never have to look back and have anything else added to this list.

I'm with Matt-Man

My buddy Matt-Man from Bagwine Rumination's has a brilliant posting this morning on his blog.

"I got nothing...absolutely nothing. In fact, I'm just not feelin' it and may never again."

This pretty much sums up my feelings this morning as well. I mean I know I will get that feeling back again sooner or later but I am going to do exactly what Matt is doing and declare that I am on blogging hiatus until Wednesday. Thank you for the inspiration Matt and I will catch you all very soon.

-Doc

Motivational Poster of the Week 4/24/10

This one submitted by AbsolutGator:

Enjoy your weekend.

-Doc

Hitting the High Notes 4/23/10

Stuff I have read in the news lately that I thought I would share:

-So you think you have a drinking problem? I know somebody who just might. Meet Laura Hall who at 20 has the distinction of being the first person ever banned from every bar and pub in all of England and Wales. Umm just my opinion but if your partying antics are so legendary that the police know about you and have to ban you from all bars in the whole country before you are even 21 you might need to seek some help.

-Everyone has heard of the Donner Party right? The folks who legend says resorted to cannibalism to stay alive during their move from Illinois to California during the harshest winter ever on record. Maybe that was just an Urban (or rural) legend all along says this article about research done at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.

-Here is an article about a recipe book that has Penguin publishers in Australia very embarrassed after a missed typo suggesting that a pasta dish required "salt and freshly ground black people" instead of freshly ground pepper. Umm hire a better proofreader guys.


-By now I bet most of you have heard about the guy in England who got arrested for DUI driving a pink Barbie kids car.

-One more mugshot for you... This is Julie Root a candidate for mother of the year who was arrested for child neglect when her sons were found outside playing in the rain wearing only their diapers. Umm Julie I think you heart the hippy lettuce just a little bit too much. Put down the ganja and TAKE CARE OF YOUR KIDS DAMMITT!!!!

-Last but not least you have to check out this article in which an Iranian cleric spells out exactly why there seem to be so many earthquakes recently. Promiscuous women of course. It's all you ladies fault (hee hee bad pun intended) that the earth is angry. Quit being such hoochies. Actually I was wondering if this was the case that bimbos cause earthquakes then why hasn't Hollywood fallen into the ocean yet?

Until next time keep reading the news!

-Doc

Thursday Random Thoughts 4/22/10

Stuff I have been thinking about:

-Reason # 23,496 that I don't ever want to travel to Europe. Volcanos in Iceland. I never want to go some where that I get trapped and can't get home to the USA. *Shivers*

-How about a little Happy Birthday shout out to EvilTwinsWife Today? Happy Birthday and enjoy your day!

-The Carolina Panthers 2010 schedule released the other day and highlights include opening the new NY Giants stadium, (they closed the last one out beating the Giants why not open the new one with a win) A return date with Julius Peppers on Oct 10th, and a December 23rd game at Pittsburgh meaning they will be off on Christmas while other teams are practicing. I can't wait for football season.

-While I am on football and the Panthers the NFL draft starts tonight. The Panthers don't have a first round pick so I am not all that enthused, however there is one thing I am dreading. I will not rest until Tim Tebow has been drafted by some other team. If and when in the next 2-3 days you hear that Tebow was drafted by any team other than the Carolina Panthers please know that I am celebrating somewhere!

-Cyndi Lauper can sing in octaves that ordinary human beings simply cannot. Is she really an alien?

- I just love that AT&T commercial where the guy is playing a TV news anchor and is reporting things like, "according to Twitter the search for cute boots is on...Fabcebook confirms." Makes me laugh but sadly reminds me of my life in some ways.

-Yay, Today is also Earth Day. I love the earth and hope that it stays happy for a really long time.

-I heard on the radio the other day that the country of India has more (way more) cell phones than working toilets. Scary, but not surprising.

-Just found out that a friend of mine is moving to Raleigh, NC from New Jersey next month a and am pretty excited about it. (No, it's not the Mt. Cat)

-Bon Jovi is in concert here in Charlotte tonight. W00T!! But sadly my wife and I are not going...Blah. Poor planning on my part actually. I had no idea that tickets would sell so quickly for this show. They were gone in a matter of hours. Two years ago when they came it wasn't even a sell out. So oh well I guess we will catch them next time.

Until Next week

-Doc

Summer vs Winter Parking Spaces

I park in a different place at work depending on the time of the year and I was wondering if anyone else has a quirk like this. I do this for a specific reason of course and it's the weather. Our parking lot like most is pretty wide open to the sun but it also has trees that provide shade near some of the edges. During the winter I park in the space below:

As you can see it was snowing the day I took that picture. There is my little red Grand Am sitting out there in a parking space that not only gets sun and keeps it warmer on cold days but I can see it all the time from the window in my office. (just in case anyone tries any funny business)

Now during the summer months I want to keep my car cool so I scouted out the entire parking lot and found the absolute best parking space for doing this:

There she is sitting there in as close to total shade as you can get in our parking lot. It's amazing that even on the hottest August days the shade of this parking space keeps the car so much cooler. Ahh what a relief.
I get to work early to ensure that I have my choice of the parking space I want especially in the summer because that space is in demand. It's not uncommon to find it taken if I go out to lunch either. As you can imagine I'm not very happy when that happens.
Anyone else have a special quirk about where you park at work?

-Doc