Goodbye Raven!

Goodbye Raven! I hope everything works out for you and your son. I will miss you.

The Pickup Artist on VH1

At first the concept of a TV Show teaching guys how to pickup women sounds like a sleezy concept. But really the psychology behind the human mating ritual is quite fascinating.

You can not watch this video clip without feeling sorry for these gentlemen and you will have to admit these guys really do need some training in social skills.

Not Going to Trial

It is a good thing for dog murderer Michael Vick that he will not be going to trial since the jury has already been set.

It Is Never Too Late...

It is never too late to follow your dreams.

Christian Polygamy

Here is a great research paper by Blaine Robison on Christian polygamy. Western Civilization is a mix of both Roman tradition and Juedeo/Christian tradition. What I find interesting is that monogamy comes from the Roman tradition and not the Judeo/Christian tradition.

Also, I was unaware that John and Charles Wesley's sister Martha married a Christian polygamist. I was able to find out a little more information about this here at the Christian marriage site.

What Would You Name Your Horse?

I am at work now. There are 2 trash cans. One for normal trash and one for white paper to be recycled. The cleaning person just walked by and dumped them both into the same rolling dumpster. Hmm....

I took the little kids to see Surf's Up at the Round Rock dollar theater last night. It cost all of $2 for all four of us. It was really good! It has been out forever it seems like, and yet the theater was still packed.

I am thinking about going to the Austin Inklings at the Dog and Duck pub tonight. Looks like it might be fun and interesting.

My hearing with the IRS that was scheduled for today has been postponed for 2 weeks. Should not be a problem. My lawyer is confident. Me, less so.

Dentist appointment this afternoon for 2 crowns. Fun!

A Different Kind of Reality Show...

Tired of the same old reality shows? How about take 8 teenagers and send them to visit the church in a country where it is illegal?

Flight Home

In the next terminal over was the flight from Nashville to LA and Pauly Shore saw me and wanted to take a picture with me.

Nashville Day 4 - The Finale

There are a lot of country and western celebrities hanging around Nashville. Here Garth Brooks and I are discussing football. He likes Vince Young.


Dolly Parton and I discussing what is real and what is fake. Apparently she wears a wig.


The Shaklee talent show called "Shaklee Idol". I thought this would be dumb but everyone was really good. This family saw another family musical act and decided they wanted to do the same thing. Just a couple years later here they are on stage in Nashville playing before thousands and they were very good!


This Shaklee member did a version of "If I were a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof" with the words changed to have Shaklee references. He was very good and it was very funny.


Famous country singer and songwriter. I forget her name.


A sargent came home from the front and surprised his girl with his presence and a ring to a roaring ovation. She said yes.


Julianne Hough who won "Dancing with the Stars" danced a couple of times for us. She is very pretty and talented.


This is the Shaklee home office staff performing for us. On the piano is billionare owner Roger Barnett. In addition to business skills, singing and songwriting, he also speaks 5 languages including Swahili. There is apparently nothing he can not do. He makes me sick.


The night finished up with a LeAnn Rimes concert.


This is a rather poor picture of one of her two lead guitarists. As you can see, he looks more punk than country, and this is no accident. She rocks! She played her old favorites like "Blue", but for me the highlight was a rocking cover of a Janis Joplin tune, although I missed the name of it. The last song in the set was a cover of "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane that was simply amazing.

Nashville Day 3

An "Opry" house is apparently a house that is good for collecting tourists money.


Someone named "Minnie Pearl" wanted to get a picture with me. Maybe she heard of NewIO?


Ruth Ann with someone who seems entirely too charming. I do not like him, whoever he is.


Free music outside!


Not so free music inside! This is Buddy Jewell. Alas, we missed Loretta Lynn by one night.

The cool thing is that it is actually a live radio show. They actually take breaks and have an annoucer that does the radio ads just like you might have seen them do in the old time radio shows in the movies.

Nashville Day 2

We are actually here for a Shaklee convention. The convention is too big for even the Opryland Hotel so we meet at the Somerset Center which is in downtown Nashville.


Kristy and Ruth Ann with Elvis at a downtown gift shop.


LP Field where the Tennessee Titans play. The play a pre-season game here Saturday night, but all games have been sold out since the stadium opened a few years back.


This is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where we are staying at. It is the biggest hotel in the world that is not also a casino. There used to be an amusment park next door, but they converted it into a mall, so apparently there is an Opryland Hotel, but no Opryland anymore.

Nashville Day 1

Dad and Fran in fron of President (General) Andrew Jackson's home. His nickname was old hickory as he would bend but not break. Apparently hickory would is very bendable. General Jackson kicked the British fannys at the Battle of New Orleans when they attempted to deprive us of access to Mardi Gras.


Burial place of Andrew Jackson and his wife.


A view from the back of the house.



Ruth Ann, Kristy, Tracy, Dad and Fran before the "General Jackson" steamboat for a dinner cruise on the Cumberland River.


A view from the bow looking up river.


My Dad, Fran, and Kristy doing "the funky chicken".

Thanks to Perry for working for me!

Looking for a Sign

I had a friend going through a fairly serious problem with a decision to make. The friend was telling me that they pray but do not feel that they get the sign from God that they need to be able to make a good decision. Right then the phone rang with the answer to the problem. It was pretty funny. God has a sense of humor.

Ruth Ann and I leave for a convention / vacation to Nashville tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. Thank you to everyone who are taking one or more of my children.

Pleasing God and Trusting God

"I think we get caught in this idea of pleasing God rather than trusting God. And I think once you learn to trust God, it's a lot easier to please God." - Jay Bakker (Larry King Live, December 15, 2006)

Last Call!

Last call to play in my fantasy football league. Draft is tomorrow! Click here to play. I still need 6 more players.

P.S. You do not need to know anything about football to play. It is just numbers. It just so happens the numbers come form the football field, but you do not need to know anything about where the numbers come from to play.

The thing is if you do play you will probably start to take an interest in football when you see your player on the field. That is just they way it usually goes.

Also, the game plays on its own, so you will not get yelled at for making a mistake or not logging in enough. What will happen if you do not give your team enough attention is that your team will play poorly. For example, if you have a player that is injured or underperforming you will want to replace that player with a better player. If you do not your team still plays, it just has less of a chance to win. Of course it is more fun to play with active players, but it is not the end of the world if you are not too active.

Not that it takes much time. Probably only a few minutes a week.

Plus you get a free pony at the end.

Its Working!

I know that Ruth Ann loves me for my money, so I figured I would get a second job so that she would love me twice as much, and so far it is working!