I did it, it sucks, but I did it

Well, I did it.  I posted my first video log.  It sucks ass, but that means it can only get better, right?  I’m still not sure if I’ll continue it or not.  I do know that I will keep them short if I do since it’s taking about half an hour to upload a 2:26 minute video.  I actually did a previous one, it was a lot shorter but I feel like I didn’t say enough so I redid another one.  I recorded the first one in the school parking lot after dropping Samantha off at practice.  As I was driving home, I kept thinking about it and decided to do another one.  So I pulled into a business parking lot that was closed so there was nobody there and did the 2nd one there.  After I recorded that one, I felt like I still didn’t say enough but said screw it, I’ll post it anyways.  I don’t know if I should make notes of what I want to talk about or just keep winging it but I did figure out that this might be good since I usually think “I should blog that” at work so now, I could step outside and do one.  So maybe this will be better.  Like I said, it can’t get any worse.

I’m not posting it here because it wasn’t very good but if you want to view it, you can go view it on YouTube.

Music Mondays #11

Welcome to the next edition of Music Mondays.  It’s pretty basic, I take a playlist and put it on random, and post what comes up.

• Playlist – “Anything & Everything”
• Description – Anything from Christian to Rock, Rap to Country, Classical to 80’s.  It goes from the 1960’s to current.  Pretty much anything and everything that I like.
• Number of songs on the playlist – 1,577 songs (up 33 songs from last post)

 

1. Raise Your Glass (P!nk)
2. I’ll Be Alright Without You (Journey)
3. Music For The People (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch)
4. Any Way You Want It (Journey)
5. I Will Be Here For You (Michael W. Smith)
6. Another Day in Paradise (Phil Collins)
7. Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
8. No More (DC Talk)
9. Dancing on the Ceiling (Lionel Richie)
10. Always (Atlantic Star)
11. Somebody’s Gotta Feel This (Kid Rock)
12. More Sold Out (Whiteheart)
13. American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
14. With You (Linkin Park)
15. ABC (Jackson 5)
16. Hate My Life (Theory of a Deadman)
17. If You Were Here (Thompson Twins)
18. Paparazzi (Lady Gaga)
19. When The Going Gets Tough (Billy Ocean)
20. Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Elton John)

You can see I added another 33 songs.as I’m closing in on 1600 songs.

#1 is from P!nk, my wife got me on her, she has quite a few songs that I enjoy.  Yes, #3 is Mark Wahlberg.  Shhh!  I used to have the cassette and his music is for the people.  #7 Forever Young is from his Unplugged album.  Do you remember those from back when MTV actually had music on it.  I loved the Rod Stewart and the Eric Clapton albums from the show.  The Rod Stewart one I have all the songs from the album on the playlist.  I also used to have the album that #11 is on from Kid Rock.  It’s a great, roll down your windows and jam album.

I’ve decided to randomly choose an artist from above and show all the songs I have on my playlist.  I used Random.org, put the numbers 1-20 and click random 3 times, the number 6 came up at the top which would be Phil Collins in accordance to the list above.

8 songs by Phil Collins, I probably should include songs by Genesis as well but they aren’t labeled as Phil Collins so I’ll leave those until Genesis comes up.  I think as my favorite I have to go with In the Air Tonight, you have to go with the Miami Vice theme song.  But most of these songs are pretty good.

Written Word Wednesdays #3

Since I’ve been combining my WWW Wednesdays and Stacking the Shelves into one post, I’ve decided to rename the posts to Written Word Wednesdays. 

WWW Wednesdays #29

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Children of the Fog by Cheryl Kate Tardif

This has been pretty good so far, I’m a little under halfway.  Her son gets kidnapped right in front of her and she has to let “The Fog” take him or watch her son die.  But when her husband figures out what she knows, he tells the police which only enrages “The Fog”.

What did you recently finish reading?

Tankbread by Paul Mannering

Zombies in Austrailia?  Tankbread refers to the human clones that the geeks put out to satisfy the zombies enough to have a peace treaty.  But what happens when a tankbread could become the cure?  It’s a fight against the dead and the living who don’t want change.  I enjoyed it, it was definitely different which is always a plus.  I gave it 4 stars.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Sea Sick by Iain Rob Wright

A cross between Groundhog Day and Titanic, only with a virus outbreak.

If you want to join on WWW Wednesdays, click the logo on top or go to http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment.

Stacking the Shelves #13

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

I actually purchased some more books this week.  It’s been a good week for free versions for the kindle.

 

Next Move, You’re Dead (Next Move, You’re Dead #1) by Linda L. Barton

A police thriller where someone knows everything about the detective and all his cases.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle Version

 

 

Dead Drunk: Surviving the Apocalypse. One Beer at a Time by Richard Johnson

After a bachelor party, the zombie apocalypse hits.  A bunch of drunk guys try to survive.  Sounds like a zombie book with some humor.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle Version

 

 

Beyond the Eyes (Beyond the Eyes #1) by Rebekkah Ford

A girl with premonitions has lived with it for years.  But when the premonitions are about her and something coming after her, it all changes.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle Version

 

 

 

First Promise (Blood Run Trilogy #1) by Christine Dougherty

A vampire trilogy, it’s been awhile since I’ve read one.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle Version

 

 

 

 

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

I know, a classic?  While what I purchased was the poem with the original illustrations it also has commentary and other.  I’ll just read the poem as I’m not sure if I ever did.  If I did, I don’t remember it.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle Version

Music Mondays #10

Welcome to the next edition of Music Mondays.  It’s pretty basic, I take a playlist and put it on random, and post what comes up.

• Playlist – “Anything & Everything”
• Description – Anything from Christian to Rock, Rap to Country, Classical to 80’s.  It goes from the 1960’s to current.  Pretty much anything and everything that I like.
• Number of songs on the playlist – 1,544 songs (up 0 songs from last post)

1. Born on the Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
2. Faith (George Michael)
3. Spinnin’ Round (DC Talk)
4. Count On Me (Jefferson Starship)
5. Ho Hey (the Lumineers)
6. Closing Time (Semisonic)
7. Said I Loved You…But I Lied (Michael Bolton)
8. We Didn’t Start the Fire (Billy Joel)
9. I Can Love You Like That (John Michael Montgomery)
10. Savin’ Me (Nickelback)
11. the Power of Love (Huey Lewis & the News)
12. A Change Would Do You Good (Sheryl Crow)
13. Rodeo (Garth Brooks)
14. From This Moment (Shania Twain)
15. Liberate (Disturbed)
16. VooDoo (Godsmack)
17. Affair of the Heart (Rick Springfield)
18. Girl Can’t Help It (Journey)
19. Epiphany (Staind)
20. If God Is For US (Who Can Be Against Us) (DeGarmo & Key)

Wow!  I made it 20 songs without a repeat artist.  Lots of 80’s and modern rock, and not much Christian.  My wife would be happy with that, she doesn’t like it when the Christian songs pop up in the car.  I actually made another playlist without the Christian songs (and minus a few others) that I play when she’s in the car now.

This is also the first time that in 10 posts that I hadn’t added any songs since the previous post.  Maybe I’m finally running out of songs, although I doubt it.

I’ve decided to randomly choose an artist from above and show all the songs I have on my playlist.  I used Random.org, put the numbers 1-20 and click random 3 times, the number 10 came up at the top which would be Nickelback in accordance to the list above.

I’ll probably lose followers for admitting that I listen to Nickelback.  To be honest, I’m not sure why everybody hates them.  I don’t not listen to someone because everybody else doesn’t like them.  If I like their music, I like their music.  As you can see above, I enjoy at least 7 of their songs.  My kids love Rockstar, I think my favorite is probably Photograph.

Track – Piano Man

Artist – Billy Joel

Billy Joel has a crap load of songs that I like and that could be considered Greatest Hits of the decade.  My personal favorite song of his is Piano Man.  I don’t really have a reason for it, but I love it.  Lots of different stories all in one song, but what I really like is the chorus

Sing us a song you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feeling alright

I’ve always liked piano music too, maybe that has something to do with it as well.

Podcasts and a proud parent

A friend of mine started a podcast (TwoBoredVets.com) that I’ve been listening to and have enjoyed it, so I’ve been searching for others.  I went through SoundCloud and looked through there.  I found a couple but not a lot.  Part of the problem I have is I don’t have the time to listen to a bunch of podcast that are over an hour long.  So ideally, I would like to find a fairly short one, even if it posted daily.  If it’s something I really want to listen to then the length doesn’t matter but I haven’t really found anything that will peak my interest for that long.  Two Bored Vets I make an exception for because one of them is a friend, they usually run just under an hour.

So, like I said, I’m having trouble finding some good ones so I’m looking for some suggestions.  My wife probably won’t appreciate this because I sit on the couch and put my headphones on.  I tell her its not loud enough that I can’t hear her talk, but she probably feels like I ignore her.  She should enjoy it because while I’m listening, she can watch her stuff on the DVR that I don’t watch.

Speaking of podcasts, today I was listening to Mayor Gia’s podcast with her boyfriend and I thought, I could do this.  Really, I could.  I’m actually a pretty funny guy.  The problem is what makes me funny is my quick wit and my lack of filter.  That kind of humor just doesn’t come out on a blog so you’re probably all going, that dude ain’t funny at all.  I kind of randomly threw it out to my wife about doing one, kind of gauging if she would be interested.  I’m pretty sure that was a no, there wasn’t much interest at all, even with me doing one.  I had been thinking about doing short vlogs (video logs) for about a month or so and now I’m thinking about podcasts.  I really need to get some more friends (in general) that have my internet interest.

I wanted to say how proud I am of my kids.  Samantha finished cross country and while she has found out that she is not a runner, I found out that she is not a quitter.  She struggled and there was only one person on the team that she could beat (that was her best friend on the team) but she kept running.  She never skipped practice and she ran all the meets.  She never even asked to stay home and not go.  I asked her after a meet if I would let her quit (she knows I won’t let her) if she would?  She said no, because it would disappoint my team mates (that’s what I always told her).  I went to all her local meets even though for the most part I watch her start, wait, then watch her finish.  I must admit that I loved seeing her in the sweat suit with the school logo and her number on it.

Basketball is up next for her.  All the school has is an intermural league and she is doing that plus I signed her up for Upwards which is through the local churches and she’ll play there at the beginning of the year.  Definitely looking forward to watching her play the sport that I loved growing up.

As far as being proud of Trevor, we got an e-mail from his teacher that said he was getting an award for making the Principals High Honor Roll and told us when the awards program was.  I took off work and Cheri, my mom and I went.  First he got his high honor roll (all A’s) certificate.  Then he got called up for the school pride (exceptional behavior and academics) certificate which they only picked one kid per class, then he got called up for his perfect attendance award.  So he ended up taking home a certificate for all 3 of the awards they gave out.  It was awesome, I was very proud.

So it looks like I have a brain and an athlete (Breakfast Club reference).  I’m proud of both of them and they are both growing up to be really good kids.

I took time to update my Tumblr pages for the next few days.  I hadn’t posted anything over there in probably around a week.  See, I slack on all my blogs, not just this one.  I also have been scanning and doing other things for my sports card blog instead of just random posts that I’ve been doing.  Tomorrow, my mom is taking the kids to get their pumpkins and then we will sit down and carve them.  It’s one of our many holiday traditions.

Written Word Wednesdays

Since I’ve been combining my WWW Wednesdays and Stacking the Shelves into one post, I’ve decided to rename the posts. 

WWW Wednesdays #28

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Tankbread by Paul Mannering

Tankbread refers to humans that we clone to feed the zombies in order to keep our peace treaty.  Yeah, already different than your typical zombie books.

What did you recently finish reading?

Atrum Terra:  Dark Lands by Brenton J. Cox

I liked this book.  It wasn’t your typical zombie apocalypse book.  It actually started before it happened and explained how it did.  It also had another aspect as in while we are fighting zombies, we are fighting the countries that did this to us as they are trying to attack our borders.  It was a good read.

Keys to the Coven by Vicky Loebel

This was a good book but it got confusing.  Between all the characters introduced and all the different types of magic.  I followed it ok and the more I read the better I followed it but it was difficult at first.  But all in all, I did enjoy the book.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Children of the Fog by Cheryl Kate Tardif

A non supernatural book.  A mother’s son is kidnapped and she has to keep quiet otherwise get her son back in pieces.  But what happens when the husband starts getting mixed up in it as well.  This book sounds like a thriller.  I’m looking forward to it.

If you want to join on WWW Wednesdays, click the logo on top or go to http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment.

Stacking the Shelves #12

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

 

Brightest Kind of Darkness (Brightest Kind of Darkness #1) by PT Michelle

It sounds good, I’m just hoping it doesn’t become more of a romance novel.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle version

MGoAuctions

I was asked to plug an auction site and after checking it out, It’s definitely something I would like to help out.  After checking out mgoauction.com and reading what the funds were going for, I was all in.

Mgoauction raises money for 3 scholarships for the University of Michigan.  The Bernard “Pat” Maloy Cancer Scholarship, the Shelly Kovacs Scholarship and the KAS Governor’s Scholarships.  While I’m all for raising money for all 3 scholarships, the first one hits home with me.  I lost my father to cancer in 1981 which I’ve spoken about here.  But my sister-in-law battled breast cancer and while she beat it, she has some lasting effects from the chemo and radiation.  My grandfather has also battled cancer a few times and it has taken a toll on his as well.  There is also a classmate of mine and a friend from work all battling it as well.

Not to mention I’m always up for helping out some kids go to a better school, and what better school is there than the University of Michigan?  But the nice thing about this donation, you get something in return.  Check out the banner below to see just a small portion of items on the site.

That’s right, you can go and purchase autographed memorabilia or photos and help the kids out.  Get autographs from NFL players such as Ben Roethlisberger, Clay Matthews, Calvin Johnson, Mike Ditka, or Steven Jackson.  MLB players such as Matt Sherzer, Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera and Torii Hunter.  Or NBA players such as Bob Lanier, Chris Mullin and Dwight Howard.  All those professional players have autographed memorabilia listed and that doesn’t include all the Michigan alumni who have autographs listed.  Such as Michael Phelps, Barry Larkin, Chris Getz, Jim Abbott, Rich Hill, Zach Novak, Gary Grant, Jalen Rose, Juwon Howard, Will Campbell, Anthony Thomas, Anthony Carter, Brandon Graham, Braylon Edwards, Chad Henne, Brian Griese, Jake Long, Charles Woodson, Chris Perry, Dan Dierdorf, David Molk, David Terrell, Denard Robinson, Desmond Howard, Elvis Grbak, Jeff Backus, Jason Avant, Jim Harbaugh, John Navarre, LaMarr Woodley, Les Miles, Lloyd Carr, Mario Manningham, Marlin Jackson, Mike Hart, Mike Martin, Roy Roundtree, Steve Breaston, Tai Streets, Tshimanga Baikabutuka and Tyrone Wheatley.

Even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend, they have a $10 M bin, a $5 M bin and even a $1 M bin.  So please go and purchase something to help with scholarships to the University of Michigan

Even if your not a Michigan fan, I am, so feel free to buy me anything on the site and I’ll send you my address.

Click on the banner in the middle of this post, or go to mgoauction.com and check out the merchandise.  I will also leave a banner over to the right up so if you forget where to go, come here and I’ll lead the way.  But hurry, because some of the auctions are ending soon.

Music Mondays #9

Welcome to the next edition of Music Mondays.  It’s pretty basic, I take a playlist and put it on random, and post what comes up.

• Playlist – “Anything & Everything”
• Description – Anything from Christian to Rock, Rap to Country, Classical to 80’s.  It goes from the 1960’s to current.  Pretty much anything and everything that I like.
• Number of songs on the playlist – 1,544 songs (up 10 songs from last post)

1. I am a Man of Constant Sorrow (the Soggy Bottom Boys)
2. Purple Rain (Prince & the Revolution)
3. Open Book (Petra)
4. Bitch Came Back (Theory of a Deadman)
5. Circle Slide (the Choir)
6. Conga (Gloria Estefan, Miami Sound Machine)
7. There’ll be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) (Billy Ocean)
8. California Love (2Pac)
9. Open Arms (Journey)
10. Making Love Out of Nothing at All (Air Supply)
11. Second Chance (Shinedown)
12. Last Chance Café (Allies)
13. Rollin’ (Limp Bizkit)
14. the Diary of Jane (Breaking Benjamin)
15. If You’re Gone (Matchbox Twenty)
16. Weathered (Creed)
17. When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going (Billy Ocean)
18. Everybody (Ingrid Michaelson)
19. How Deep is Your Love (Bee Gees)
20. Prayer (Disturbed)

Definitely a good mix in here.  I like the song Bitch Came Back sandwiched between 2 christian songs.  Over 1500 songs and I end up with 2 Billy Ocean songs too  Told you the random sucked.

I’ve decided to randomly choose an artist from above and show all the songs I have on my playlist.  I used Random.org, put the numbers 1-20 and click random 3 times, the number 15 came up at the top which would be Matchbox 20 in accordance to the list above.  This might take a few screen caps.

I have 6 songs from Matchbox Twenty.  I used to have the CD Yourself or Someone Like You and really liked the whole CD but I only took the 4 from above.  I’d probably have more of their songs if I took the time to listen to them all.  I don’t ever listen to CD’s anymore, usually I’ll hear the song somewhere and like it and add it.  Don’t tell my wife that I only have 6, she loves Matchbox Twenty, luckily she probably quit reading my blog or at least these posts because she doesn’t like half my music.

Track – Dreaming of You

Artist – Selena

I had never heard of Selena until I saw the movie about her career.  I’m not even sure where I saw it, someone else must have thrown it in somewhere.  But there was a song or two that I liked, this being on of them.  A tragic story, she gets killed right before she hits it big in the states.  I want to say it was the president of her fan club (an employee of hers) that did it after she was fired.  Something like that, it’s been awhile.

Some lyrics.

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I wish on a star that somewhere you are
Thinking of me too

Cause I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Than here in my room dreaming about you and me

Social Media Sunday

For awhile now, I’ve been taking some time on Sundays (usually, sometimes Monday) and tracking my social media accounts.  I don’t know why, I just do.  I don’t really do anything to go out of my way to gather more followers.  For a month, I did the A to Z Challenge on this blog and that was to gather some followers.  I also went through a time where I made an effort to get more Twitter followers for (@jccsst1022) and (@sportobsession6) but I don’t anymore.  I don’t even post much to my Vine or YouTube accounts, but I added them to the list anyways.  Let’s take a look at the graph.

The left side of the red line is followers, the right side are content posted.  I didn’t post up to my usual standard this week.  I really haven’t been online as much as I usually am.  That is sometimes typical on the weeks I am scheduled for 5 12 hour days.  The chart shows my online presence at 2410 followers, technically up 5 followers but I lost 3 on my SportObsession6 Twitter account.  That’s a regularity on the 2 Twitter accounts with a bunch of followers.  I follow anyone who follows me so people will follow me just to get a follower and then unfollow me.  But I use a service that tells me who unfollows me and they will get unfollowed as well.

I realize none of you really care about any of this, but I’ve been struggling for content and like I said above, I’ve been doing this for awhile so why not blog about it.  We’ll see if I continue this every week.  I should have time for a Music Mondays post tomorrow.

Flashback Friday - 10/10/1999

10/10/1999.

No, I'm not confused on what year it is. That is the date that I started working at my current place of employment. Before I started there, the longest I had held a job was 3 years and I had done that twice. I was 26 years old and married but had no kids yet. Lets go back to 1999 and see what has changed.

I was working at a steel construction place, where we built steel warehouse type of buildings. Yes, I used to walk steel, on beams that weren't even as wide as my foot, up to 50 feet in the air. It paid pretty well but the hours sucked. We had to be on the job site at dawn. The problem with that was sometimes the site was a couple of hours away. So that means getting up as early as 3 am on some jobs. We would usually be out at the site till around 5 pm so sometimes I wasn't getting home until after 7 pm. I was playing on a couple of softball teams and a bowling league at this time so I usually had to beg my foreman to leave early. Plus, look at the date, October, it was starting to get cold. So I was casually looking for another job. My coach on one of my softball teams told me they were hiring. The pay wasn't as good hourly, but between overtime and bonuses, I could make close to what I did in construction so I took it.  I started off where I work on 3rd shift (11pm to 7am). I had never worked a 3rd shift but it's what I had to take to get my foot in the door.

My first night, I sat and racked small parts all night and morning. I was struggling to stay awake. My 2nd night was a little better because I racked big parts. I was standing and moving a lot more so staying awake was easier. My 3rd night, the buddy that got me the job got me moved over to run the overhead crane. I ended up doing that for a year waiting on an opening on the anodizing line and got over to where I work now. Base pay wise, it's the highest paid production job in the plant so within a year, I was making pretty good money. Plus we were working every other weekend mandatory and our monthly bonus checks were $300 to $400 take home. But I was young and stupid, I skipped work all the time and my wife (theEx) never would keep a job so we spent it.

Now, hear I am, 14 years later, doing the same job. Only now I never miss (that changed when I had kids) and I'm making less money. Last year was the first time I had ever made less money than the previous year. We got switched over to 12 hour shifts so the company didn't have to pay as much overtime (Sundays is straight time with the new hours).

Our bonus checks now are about $50, quarterly (every 3 months). I still like my job as in what I do but I no longer like where I work. It used to be a place where you could joke around and have a little fun, it no longer is. It used to be a place where you felt like the company cared about you, it no longer is. It no longer is a lot of things it used to be.

Well that post took a turn to the depressing so lets liven it up a bit by naming some stuff that has changed since 1999.

Ok.  Some of that is depressing as well but I am much happier in 2013 than I was in 1999.  I’m with someone who loves me and I wouldn’t give my kids up for the world.  I’m this close to buying my first home.  While I do hate where I work, I am grateful to have job security or at least as long as I can keep my mouth shut.  I don’t know where I’ll be in another 14 years but I know every year gets a little better so I’m looking forward to 2027.

Written Word Wednesdays

Since I’ve been combining my WWW Wednesdays and Stacking the Shelves into one post, I’ve decided to rename the posts. 

WWW Wednesdays #27

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Atrum Terra:  Dark Lands by Brenton J. Cox

I’m a little over half way through, I like the storyline of it.  A very plausible explanation on how the zombie apocalypse starts.  A developed virus as a weapon, definitely plausible.

What did you recently finish reading?

Touched (The Marnie Baranuik Files #1) by AJ Aalto

I really liked this book, it reminded me of the Hallows series by Kim Harrison which is one of my all-time favorite series.  The main character is trying to find her way with her powers and makes mistakes along the way but she’s always trying to do what’s right.

Six Days with the Dead by Stephen Charlick

This was pretty good as well.  I gave it 4 stars.  As it always happens to be,  You end up more afraid of the other human survivors then you do the zombies.  Instead of just crazy survivors, you get religious nuts killing in the name of the lord.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Keys to the Coven by Vicky Loebel

Supernatural instead of Zombie?  It’s probably time, I’ve had a run of zombie books lately.

If you want to join on WWW Wednesdays, click the logo on top or go to http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment.

Stacking the Shelves #11

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

 

Offworld by Robin Parrish

Astronauts come home to an empty planet.

Purchase Price – Free

Kindle version