Hiatus, what hiatus?

Yea yea yea. I'm sorry. I couldn't stay away. I just found out something very exciting that merits a blog entry.

Starting next Sunday, The Lion King will be showing in the IMAX theater at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg! How exciting is this? You can see a little bit of info here. I will definitely be catching at least one showing.

And for my snow friends, normal snowfall for the month of december is 11.0". But we have seen nothing yet. I do hope it snows for you guys soon. Just as long as it's on a weekend. And I'm not on the worship team.

Warning: Gas Tax Increase Ahead

Yes, that's right Pennsylvania residents. Starting Sunday, gas will cost at least four cents more per gallon. Sorry.

So I was thinkin' this morning. I was thinkin' that many times, being a friend is a thankless job. When you're in a friendship, people have certain expectations that "this" is just what a friend does. And they don't think anything more of it. I was thinking back to a friend who had gone on a mission trip who I had prayed for, and in fact told this person that I would be praying for them. I received a "thank you" when I mentioned that, but nothing after they returned from their trip.

It's funny, because at the time, I didn't even think about it. However, I have to admit that as of late, I've been thinking about the times when I don't get thanked. Lots of times it irks me, and I suppose that's fair. But then I stop to try and figure out why I need people's thanks. I suppose it boils down to a need to feel appreciated. The funny thing is, most of the time I believe people are thankful, so why do I need to hear it? I think that while I believe people are thankful, there's a small doubt in my mind that doesn't go away unless I get a verbal cue. Did this person like my Christmas gift? Did that person enjoy that card? Did they understand that I just complimented them? I may never know. So perhaps I need to be less concerned about other's appreciation and more concerned about where my heart and motives are at. While it's nice to be thanked, I don't do things to be thanked. I do it out of love.

And in restaurant news: In two weeks, there will be a Fisaga opening on the West Shore. The Fisaga Cafe will open in Camp Hill on Market Street on January 10.

I got your previews right here...

First, is the new one from my girl Sandra. It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch from the first one.

The second movie is a little indie-type from Paramount. His name is Schultze.

For your Colin Farell fans out there. Look here to see Colin play the pilgrim-type.

AnnaSophia Robb is an odd name for a little girl. She's in a movie called "Because of Winn-Dixie." And she's good. Unfortunately, Dave Matthews is in it too. But I don't think he's a main character.

Planet Weeble Wobble

So I found this article on Yahoo today. These scientists are making the claim that Sunday's earthquake caused the earth to wobble on it's axis. I'm skeptical. How can you even tell that the earth wobbled? The earth is really big. Really big. So how are we teeny-tiny humans supposed to know the earth weebled? I ain't buyin' it.

Also in earthquake news, the tidal waves reached Somalia, on the east coast of Africa. For perspective, that would be akin to waves from an earthquake off the new england coast, traveling all the way to the shores of Ireland. Some 3,000 miles. That's nuts.

File this under "Good news for me, bad news for my snow lovers." This weekend it's supposed to be in the 50's....and raining. Check last week's archives if you want to know the rain/snow equivalency. Sorry snow lovers. I do hope it snows sometime this winter, just as long as it's: not a lot, on the weekend, or when I'm out of town.

2005 Goal Preview

Here's what I'm shootin' to accomplish in 2005:

1. Run a 10k road race
2. Learn how to dance
3. Travel to Europe
4. Volunteer 100 hours
5. Learn how to cook something besides rice
6. Learn how to sail (I would really, really like to learn how to do this, but it's rather expensive to learn so there are no guarantees here).
7. Go to a Red Sox game at Fenway

For those of you who are wondering, I had a good Christmas. Thanks for wondering.

On a technical note, the blog will be taking a hiatus from 12/29 - 01/05.

The Word

Colossians 3.1-17

1.Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2.Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3.For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4.When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5.Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6.Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8.But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9.Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10.and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11.Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12.Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13.Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14.And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15.Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17.And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Owww.

I went snowboarding this morning. Actually, in all truthfulness, I attempted to learn how to snowboard. My new friends at Ski Roundtop had this deal where you could learn how to snowboard before Christmas for only $19.00. It's a great deal because normally it can be like $50-60 to get the package that I had.

So I got put into a group of six. There was one person older than me in our class, and he was the father of two of the younger members in our group. First we learn terminology. Then we learn how to "skate" with our boards. It's kinda like walking, but you have one foot on the snowboard and one foot on the snow. Then we learned how to turn right and left. And then we got on the ski lift to go up to the top of the hill they call Drummer Boy. You would think a beginner hill would not require a chairlift to get to the top. Not here. Oi. My problems started getting off the lift. I got out of my seat okay, but I only travelled four feet or so before I fell. That's when I felt the first twinge in my left knee. It would also be the first of many falls.

What our instructor did was slowly get us down the slope by introducing us to different ways to board. Frontwards, backwards, then we learned how to turn, and the last big test was doing an "S" curve. I would not be exagerating if I said I fell more than ten times. I fell alot. And one time, I ended up flipping the board over when I fell and I believe I slightly twisted my right knee. And if I wasn't falling on my knees, I was falling and sliding on my behind. It took us around 70 minutes to get down the hill. It was rough.

Would I do it again? Maybe next year. I might do it this year, but it's too expensive, unless they got a deal goin' on. But I definitely showed signs of progress. And my knees definitely show signs of pain. Both of them. And my behind. It hurts too.

Christmas Eve Eve

First. Sometimes I have things that I would like to share on this blog, but I can't entirely convince myself that this is the proper venue. To make a long story short, something happened last week which bothered me, but I forgot about it until tonight. And now it's on my mind again.

Second. There's an article in the Washington Post about USO tours in Iraq. Well, there's one paragraph that caught my eye which I wanted you all to read. The latter part really helps show the compassionate side of our military effort.

Their last night in Bagram, the celebs are invited to a steak and lobster dinner (with plastic utensils) by the Morale, Welfare and Recreation unit hosting them. Morale is a constant concern in Afghanistan, and each base, no matter how small, has its big-screen TV and movies, often a theater-style popcorn machine, and events, events, events to take the soldiers' minds off the loneliness. There are contests to throw a pie in a colonel's face. There are karaoke nights and bingo games and latte bars and massages for $15 an hour. Food is so plentiful that soldiers' wives complain about how paunchy their husbands get, fighting this war. The troops often ask for toys and school supplies and clothing for the Afghans instead of goodies from home. One base puts up an "angel tree," decorated with envelopes for money to buy items for local schoolchildren. Their requests are written on the outside of each envelope. Nadya wants a winter coat. Ludmila asks for shoes. Galya needs $100 to buy a gravestone.

Sweet.

Sorry snow lovers..

One inch of rain equals out to roughly ten inches of snow. Sorry =)

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

So I was talking with my co-workers and I mentioned how much I like coming to work in the winter. They said "Why's that?" So I proceeded to tell them that I liked coming to work because we have heat here at the office. And then I shocked them with this fact: My thermostat is currently set to 59 degrees. That's right folks, it's cold in my apartment. My co-workers could not understand how I could keep it that cool. Plain and simple, I said, gas costs money. I got burned last year with $100+ gas bills and that was not going to happen this year. It's just not in the budget. So I keep it cool and just wear sweatpants and long sleeves.

I was also emailing a friend and I made the comment that I couldnt wait until I no longer had to worry about money running out (we were talking about Christmas shopping). But the more I thought about it, the more I thought how silly I am for being concerned about the money running out. Yes, my budget is definitely more on the tight side, but if I spend wisely and save (heaven-forbid), I don't think God will let me run out of money. He won't leave me hanging, cause he wants the best for me. However, a lack of fundage will not prevent me from blessing others in various ways. So if you ever come over to visit, I'll offer you a beverage or a snack, and if you have a birthday, I'll try to remember it.

And if you come to visit my apartment, I'll even turn the heat up. Just for you =)

I heart insurance

Okay, here's your insurance update. I called my guy at Allstate yesterday to check to see if the other driver had corroborated my story. Guess what? He went on vacation last Thursday, and he's out all day this week. What's up with that? So now I'm stuck waiting for him to come back next week. Grrrr.

This morning I went to the Allstate Collision Center. While it sounds impressive, it's just a house sandwiched between El Rodeo and AAMCO on the Carlisle Pike. So the guy goes out and inspects my car. Asks me if I had already gotten any estimates (no). I wish I had gotten at least one estimate because I think that might have given me some additional leverage. Oh well, I know for next time (which, by the way, there will not be). So they've estimated the damage at $996.50, which should include repainting the driver's side doors, reparing a dent in the rear door, new molding for both doors and a new wheel cover for the left rear wheel. But he couldn't cut me a check, cause my claim was still open. See paragraph one for why that might be.

In other news, I went to Borders to do a little travel reading last night. Since it was so cold, I really enjoyed reading about Aruba. Your Aruba fun facts for the day include the fact that Aruba is 20 miles north of Venezuala, and that it is a Dutch territory of the Netherlands (as opposed to a dutch territory of Sweden).

And your quick quote of the day from my man C.S. Lewis:

Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.

So there you go.

2004 Goal Review

So I thought as the end of the year is approaching, I would review my goals for 2004 and whether or not I achieved them. Please note, they are goals, not resolutions. So here we go:

1. Read the biographies of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Deitrich Bonhoeffer.
Done,done, and done.
2. Lose ten pounds.
Done.
3. Learn to eat lettuce.
Done. This sounds pretty basic, but I just don't like eating greens. The only green vegetable I would eat was green beans. But I'm better now. I've eaten more lettuce this past year, then I have in my entire life. And that is the truth.
4. Run a 5k road race.
Done. I did this back in the spring, and it was awesome. I finished like 120th, but it was still a great feeling.
5. Volunteer more of my time to others.
Done. This isn't as easy to quantify as the other items on my list. I feel certain that I volunteered more this year, than in year's past, but it still doesn't seem like enough.
6. Lean a new hobby/craft/skill.
Not Done. This is the only goal I did not achieve. In my pursuit of this goal however, I have made myself aware of things I would like to learn to do. But that doesn't count for beans.

So there ya go. Next Monday, I will be posting my goals for 2005. Stay tuned.

So how did you do with your goals?

Cool stuff to see

I should actually qualify that by replacing the word "stuff" with "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Here is a cool link to some neat video on the production work with TLTWaTW. I'm all excited about the Buffalo people (or whatever animal they are). I should warn you however, that this video is about 25M, so if you have an option, you may want to download it first, as opposed to playing it online. Just a suggestion.

My musical weekend.

Friday, checked out "Sharers of the Promise" performed at West Shore Free Church. Apparently, it's the first time this production has been performed in the States. It was a different kind of production. I enjoyed some of the music, as well as the dancer who did interpretive dance to I think, three songs. But some of the stuff wasn't as enjoyable, and I thought some of the attempted humor was forced.

Saturday night, I checked out a concert featuring St. Paul's Brass, at Mechanicsburg Presbyterian Church. This was a good concert. It was a quintet featuring trumpet, trombone, french horn, and tuba. They did a really nice job. This was probably my favorite concert of the weekend.

Sunday night, I attended the "Canticle of Joy" Cantata at The Grantham Church. This was actually broken up into two sections. The first portion consisted of congregational carols mixed in with a brass performance and a youth choir. This was probably my favorite portion. The second portion was an actual musical program which featured readings, along with choir numbers, and scattered solos. I wasn't a big fan of the music, but I was real impressed with the orchestra they put together and I thought they did a good job. They even had timpani!!

And since we're on the subject, I need to state for the record that I am a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas carols. Don't give me some new modern arrangement of God Rest Ye Marry Gentlemen. I am a tradtional man who rather enjoys the traditional arrangements. So if you try to jazz something up or get crazy, you're only going to make it worse (at least IMHO). I'm old-school.

Consumer Report

I recently purchased some "cotton swabs" by Johnson and Johnson. You see, I had run out of Q-Tips and I could feel the wax building up in my ears. Not wanting to shell out a lot of money at the time, I went to the trial section in Wal-mart to find a small package of Q-Tips. No luck. And I didn't feel like looking for the big sizes, so I grabbed the "cotton swabs" and left. These things suck. Seriously, if you took the cotton off each end, you could use it to suck. That's because it's made of plastic. Hollow plastic. I'm workin' the swab in my ear and I can't get any leverage because the swab is bending on me. What's up with that? My friends at Q-Tip are smart enough to make their product solid, even if it is made of cardboard.

So in summary, stick with Q-Tips. They cost a bit more, but such is the price of quality.

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't...

Ya ever had one of those times where you discovered yourself trying too hard to fit in? Among people you already count as friends? Here's my story:

So a bunch of my friends are getting together this weekend to watch the extended edition of Return of the King. Nothing wrong with that, right? But I'm not a big fan of Lord of the Rings. But I still feel like I need to go. I almost feel like I need to be there just to keep up. But I'm trying to figure out, keep up with what? Is it because they're all doing something together, and all I was going to do was attend a brass Christmas concert? Maybe so. I have a yearning to spend quality time with people. But I can't exactly say that watching a video is quality time. So then what is it? Maybe it's just that I want to feel like I'm part of the gang. Of course I'm already part of the gang, but my attendance at this event would cement my membership. Right? Hmmm, I don't think I'm insecure, but I can't exactly figure out what. I'll be following this story over the weekend and will keep you updated.

It seems rather ironic, but my mom found an article about falling asleep at the wheel. Check out the Drowsy Driving website.

And one more item. Have you ever been given a card or gift and then asked to open said card/gift in front of the gift giver? I don't necessarily enjoy being the one receiving the card/gift. I feel like the giver is expecting me to have some sort of reaction to their card/gift. And if they don't get the reaction they are looking for, they may think that you don't appreciate their card/gift. Sometimes I feel like I have to "act" when I open the gift. I especially like to open cards when I'm out of the company of the giver. I can't say why, but I enjoy it more. Maybe cause I relish it more when there's no "pressure."

But that's just me..

Everybody loves coupons!

15% off Borders coupon here.

LeFou, I'm afraid I've been thinking...

A dangerous past time, I know.

I went to Christ Community last night for their Christmas program. And I have to admit, I got a little bit nostalgic. You see I use to be in a ton of musical-type productions back in the day. Through high-school, I was in dinner-theatre in school as well as church productions and other fun musical-type things. So as I was sitting in the audience waiting for the program to begin, I reminisced about what I would be doing if I was in the program. Peeking out through the curtain, or the side door to take a peek at the crowd. Were my parents out there? Was the pretty red-headed girl somewhere in the audience? If I wasn't checking out the crowd, I would be talkin' to my friends, maybe doing a little reading, just generally chillin' like a villain. And as I reminisced, I kinda wished I was still involved in some kind of drama/musical production. Cause it was fun.

Snow on the mountain

But nothing in the valley cause it's fake snow on the mountain.

No insurance news to report today. However, if I don't hear from my Allstate buddy Chuck today, I'll have to ring him tomorrow and find out what the deal is.

In other news, I've been thinking about my life. Specifically, the part of my life that occupies my day from 8:00 - 4:30. And if you haven't figured it out yet, this would be work. I've mentioned to a few folks that I no longer feel motivated in my current position. And as of late, I've started to wonder if human resources, isn't where I'm supposed to be. I rarely get any sort of satisfaction out of my job and I think I yearn for satisfaction. So as I've been looking around for employment, I've started to entertain ideas of doing something besides human resources. Maybe I'm just getting restless and it's probably true that I would like to be better compensated for my services. So I've been thinking about what else I could do. Maybe work for the state as a park ranger, or something random like that. Perhaps random is a bad word. How about "purposeful?" What about a real estate agent? Hmmmm. Would you buy a house from me?

May I have your attention please!

The Mechanicsburg Cracker Barrel will open Monday, January 31. Please mark your calendars appropriately.

Thank you.

Oh, and Blockbuster is getting rid of their late fees. Read here.

But baby, it's cold outside!

No insurance news to report this morning.

Saw a great quote this morning in the Washington Post. There was an article talking about parents who are concerned with teen drivers (specifically their own). Check out the quote by this girl's mother:

"My mom is flexible with me, and I have a car," she says. "But I wish she'd respect my judgment more about whether it's safe to ride with someone."

"Parents need to be parents and not noodles," her mother insists. "It's okay for families to have family rules that are more restrictive than the laws are. It doesn't matter if teens argue that 'everyone else can do it.' "

You hear that? Parents, not noodles. Great quote.

So I was out shopping last night for a Christmas present. I had seen a book at Borders which I thought would be perfect for someone on my list. So last night I went back to look at it. And I'm glad I did. While the cover looked cool, the contents of the book were not quite what I expected. I mean it was okay, but when you're buying something for someone else, you want to get all your money's worth, cuz ya certainly don't want to cheat them. So I decided not to get that book. As I was searching around the store, I found another book. I looked at the cover and said "This could be a winner." Well, by my estimation, I would say that a third of the book is good solid stuff. The other two-thirds.....well, let's just say that if I could rip out the latter two-thirds of the book and leave the rest, I might do it. But I still didn't buy the book. Still just not quite sure.

The Governor's Residence

So yesterday I visited the house that Ed Rendell is currently living in. It's a very nice house. They even had a doorman who opened and closed the front door. It's a pretty cool house. They had one room that had this real cool mirror which was a half-sphere, which was neat to look at. They had a woodwind quartet playing in one room and then farther back, they had the Chancel Bell Choir from Camp Hill United Methodist Church playing in another room. This was the room where I first saw Governor Ed Rendell. He was listening to the bell concert with his two dogs next to him. You may or may not know, but Rendell is a big fan of trains. So they had a train set up in the adjoining room, along with a railroad-themed Christmas tree. And the governors dogs were wearing bandana's around their necks, just like real train conductors. I should also mention that they had some excellent hot chocolate. But the governor shouldn't get too comfortable, cuz Lynn Swann is going to run a corner route and beat him to the endzone in 2006 (for the record, I should state that I am currently endorsing Lynn Swann because of his football prowess and his announcing abilities).

This morning I talked to Chuck from Allstate Insurance Company. Allstate is the insurance company for the girl who sideswiped me Saturday night. He asked me some questions, and then he asked permission to tape the next segment of our conversation. So he asked me some more questions and asked me to describe what happen, as well as details of any conversation that I had had with the girl. It was all pretty much straight forward. So the next step will be for Chuck to contact the girl who hit me. He said if she coroborates my story, then they will cut me a check and we'll be on our way. The check amount will depend on what they estimate the damage to be when I visit the Allstate Collision center next Tuesday. And that's how things currently stand.

I would also like to congratulate my Washington Redskins for almost beating the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm getting more and more excited for next year. Sad, huh?

Oh..

and if you should ever be in an accident, please don't be like me and forget to get the other driver's driver license number and license plate number. D'oh!

And in other news I talked to my insurance company again and they advised me of my options. I can file the claim under my insurance, pay the deductible and get my car fixed. This would be the quick way to do things. Once my car was fixed, Geico would go to Allstate and try to get reimbursed for those expenses. I'm going the other way and filing directly with her insurance (Allstate) to have them pay the claim themselves. I will be talking with Allstate tomorrow and I'll let you know how that goes.

Later: my visit to Ed's house.

Oceans 12 and Sideswiping

First, your review of Oceans 12.
***Minor Spoilers Ahead.

This is a good movie. if you liked Oceans 11, you will like this sequel. The whole gang is back, and as the title suggests, they recruit another member to their intrepid team. Who was it? Well, you'll just have to wait and see the movie to find out. The story line was good and did a decent job of keeping me interested. Of course, the fact that the Arsenal football team was in the movie was also a bonus. I feel kinda bad for Bernie Mac as his character didn't get much screen time this time around. And he's a funny guy. Matt Damon was great. I had just seen him in The Bourne Supremacy about a month ago, and his two characters (Jason and Linus), couldn't be further apart. But he's a great actor. George and Brad were okay. Julia was extra funny this time around. Catherine Zeta-Jones was ehhh. It would have been better if she had been played by ummmm...somebody else. So I liked it. I gave it a "9."

Now on to the sideswiping. I got sideswiped on the way home from the Thurston Christmas party. I was minding my own business, driving down 283 and listening to Telecast. And I got sideswiped. Apparently the girl fell asleep and drifted into my lane where my car happened to be. She hit me and I got all swervy in my car and ended up at a right angle to the center barrier wall. I didn't have any substantial damage to the car, save for a lack of molding on my driver's side door and some scrapes and the door is a little creaky now. I didn't sustain any serious injury, although I think I may have jammed my wrists while I was gripping the steering wheel. And the girl was okay too. A little hysterical, but I gave her some reeces pieces and that seemed to make her feel better.

So now I get to deal with the insurance folks. I spoke this evening with my insurance company as well as hers. We're gonna try and get this paid by her insurance. My deductible is like $500. So be sure to check back as I update the progress of this fun exciting process.

So there ya go.

Entertainment News

First up, here is the link to the first teaser trailer for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My Mr. Depp looks young.

In The Lion, The witch and the Wardrobe news, the voice of Aslan has been cast. Brian Cox will be the voice of the great lion. You may know Brian as bad-guy Abbott from The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. They have also set a release date of December 9, 2005.

In conjunction with the new Universal release Meet The Fockers, Universal Studios is hosting a Focker Family Reunion. Okay…..

And in theme park news: the Turbulence ride which was scheduled to be built this off-season at Hersheypark is now on hold. Apparently the ride manufacturer tried to tack on some additional cost to the final bill due to increased production costs on their end. Well, HERCO (Hershey Entertainment and Resort Company) is having nothing to do with that and is suing the ride manufacturer. Details here.

Freitag

Hello hello hello.

Even though I'm not a big fan of his, I would definitely vote for him if he ran in 2006. And he is a good announcer.

Look for my Oceans 12 review this weekend.

Some of you may be aware, others perhaps not, but I'm headed down to Nashville on January 2nd to help out with the latest and greatest Passion Conference. It's subtitled: A Generation United for His Renown. I'm unfortunately too old to go as an attendee, but I am instead going down to volunteer. I will be working in several areas, including the lunch line. So I get to be the male version of the lunch lady. =) And when I'm not serving lunch, I'll be helping out in other areas like registration or directing traffic. It WILL be a good time.

Check it out!!

Hey y'all, check out this link. Page down about three-quarters of the page, and look for "Aslan." Yeah, that's right, jazzed.

The best Christmas gift returned is love.

Got that one from a church signboard.

I've learned a lot in the last 24 hours, and I thought I would share with you what I've learned.

Last night I pulled into a parking lot opposite a BMW. As I looked at that familiar circular logo, I figured something out. The blue and white in the center of the logo are taken from the Bavarian state flag. It didn't occur to me earlier and I don't know why. I had known that BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works, but didn't make the color connection.

There was an interesting article in today's USA Today. I never knew that German scientists were (pardon the pun) the main thrust behind the US Space Program. You can read specifics here, but in a nutshell: at the end of World War II, a bunch of German scientists got together and sought out the American army as they approached their camp. These scientists had developed the V-2 rocket for Hitler, but really wanted to use their skills for space travel. So the military brought over approx. 150 folks and set up a research facility for them. And well, the rest is history. But very fascinating history.

Today I spent the day in Pittsburgh. Actually, I never left the airport, but we consider it Pittsburgh. So a couple of firsts occurred today. Today for the first time, I got to ride out on the tarmac. If you've ever flown, you may have noticed vehicles driving around on the runway area when you were taking off, or landing. Well, I was in one of those vehicles. It was kewl! And then I got to see the Operations Control Center (OCC). The best way to explain the OCC is that it's air traffic control for all US Airways aircraft. They basically track all of our planes 24-7 and assist pilots if they have to divert due to weather, or other assorted reasons. Even the international flights. It was cool cause they had a ton of monitors showing flight progress, as well as current weather reports. Very neat.

So yes, lots of education going on.

And if anyone is interested, Oceans 12 at Regal Cinema at 9:40 this Friday night.

Everyone knows it's Wendy..

My favorite fast food place (even though I only occasionally eat there) has done something cool. Read about it here. This is good. I'm all about the baked potato.

And for those dying to know, my second favorite fast food place is Burger King, with Sheetz filling out the top three? In an effort to be as forthcoming as possible, I only buy burgers or milkshakes at BK(but never both together), and i take the burgers and put them on whole wheat bagels. Cuz ya know, that roll is the worst part of the burger (unless you put mayo on your burger - ewww). And I get my M-T-O on wheat as well.

And since I'm digressing on edibles, I found a link to the candy I got to try at Chocolate World on Saturday. In case you forgot, or I didn't mention it, it's called Take 5.

And finally...

we were sitting ducks.

numbers

So I went to a Christmas concert last night at the Grantham Brethren-in-Christ church. Several years ago, they changed the name of their church to The Grantham Church. Their use of the word "The" struck me as unusual. Until I recalled that they were the ONLY church in Grantham. And that got me thinking, "How many churches are in other areas?" Would you believe that Dillsburg has more churches than Hershey? Dillsburg has 28 congregations, to Hershey's 18. The little town of Marysville has nine churches, while the tiny town of Bowmansdale (which I think is smaller than Grantham) has two churches. Mechanicsburg appears to be the granddaddy of the west shore with 64 congregations, while the upper-class of Camp Hill (no offense meant Camp Hill residents) has a mere 28 congregations.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that we have a lot of churches in the central Pennsylvania area. And we have more churches than some countries. Which makes me wonder: "Do Americans need more churches?" I'm currently answering this question with a "no." I think we need to do more with the churches we have. Once we see more people coming to Christ and causing a much-wanted strain on resources, then we should consider additional churches. But I'm not a big fan of the field of dreams mentality when it comes to churches (for those non-movie buffs, that mentality is "if you build it, they will come"). I suppose I'm more practical in that regard, in that I would plan ahead, but I wouldn't try to plan way-ahead, if that makes any sense.

And that's what I've been thinkin'.

Tollbooth workers

Here's a link regarding the proposed contract that the unions have agreed to. If they were striking for this, they were wasting their time.

Here's how it went....

I hada good weekend. Saturday went very well. All of the roommates showed up and we had a great time. It was interesting because I was the only person who has kept in regular/semi-regular contact with all the roommates. And because of that, I was kinda torn between who I should hang out more often during the evening. But I think it all worked out okay. Dinner at the Red Robin and Chocolate at Chocolate World. Good times. And they all want to get together again. So we'll do it again.

So I was watching some football this afternoon. And I was thinking... At what point did players start feeling the need to act like every play they made was worthy of a mini-celebration? They tackle a guy after a 20 yard kickoff return and they think they're "the stuff." Whatever.

In other football news, my Redskins won today!! And they broke 20 points for the first time this year!!!

Cereal?

Check out this website. All they serve is hot and cold cereal. Crazy cool.

This weekend has the potential to be rather exciting. My crack team of engineers (sorry, we're not currently hiring) has worked to reunite all five roommates from the 95-96 academic year. This is unheard of. I got the art teacher, the seminary student, the guy who hasn't yet figured out what he wants to do, the accountant, and me. We all haven't been in the same room, much less the same zip code for maybe seven years or so. So if things go through, I will be quite pleased. I will be sure to provide an update on Monday. And if you're attending, it'll be a good time.

Boo on you, NFL.

Ben Rothliesberger loves Jesus. But the NFL doesn't want him to show it during the game. But Ben's a fighter. Read his comments in this article. You go boy.

Lots of thinkin' going on today...

I found this article in today's USA Today. Which got me thinkin': How crazy would it be to work with my friends? How crazy would it be for you to work with YOUR friends? I've always enjoyed the comraderie that's found on sports teams. You don't find that as much outside of sports because we don't do everything with our friends like a team would. We don't have team meals or team workouts. We do have team meetings, but we don't have a team name. Eh, maybe I'm just way off base....or crazy.

Knock, knock. Who's there? December.

Apparently Wal-Mart didn't do as well as it hoped over the holiday weekend. But that's good news to the rest of us.

I can't believe that Notre Dame University fired Ty Willingham. He has done wonders for the football program and has pulled it out of the muck that it had been in since Lou Holtz left. While the past two seasons have been rough, he was still over .500 for the three years that he has been there. Everybody makes a big deal about the losses to USC, but they have been top three the past two years. That's not a crime to lose to one of the best, if not THE best team in college football. Anywho, it was wrong and when Willingham goes somewhere else, he will do well. I think that with a few more years of experience, he will definitely be NFL material.

Finally, a fun email that I got from ABC27. I wrote:

----- Your Feedback Sent On Monday 11/29/04 at 5:57P -----

Hello! I was wondering if someone could tell me why your floating time/temperature logo showed 46 degrees during the five o'clock newcast and Chuck Rhoades stated on his weather map that the current Harrisburg temp was actually 40 degrees. Which temperature is correct? And as a follow-up, why don't they match?

Thanks!

and here's the response from the station:

From: whtm27@aol.com
To: s.monserrate@att.net
Subject: Response To Your Feedback To whtm
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:14:39 +0000

Dear Stephen,

You've brought up a great point, one that has been an irritant to me since we started doing the time and temperature. To this day, I don't know where that temperature comes from. I'm told it's the airport temperature that is displayed but I've noticed the same discrepancy you saw. Perhaps if you directed your observation to our news department, we might get an answer. I've tried but sorry, I don't have an explanation.

Regards,

Mick O'Hearn

Mick O' Hearn people!! My third favorite weather forecaster!!!