The Holtonian

Another stinkin cell phone and the end of fast internet

So a few monthes ago i dropped the cell phone thing. I was tired of paying too much and also tired of no one calling me. Well, pretty much as soon as we got rid of it we've gone over our minutes everyone month, its been bad. So we figure we call three people that don't have sprint. The crabb's who for some dumb reason have some other brand I've never heard of and that stinks a big one. So we have to eat up minutes to talk to them. Wife's mom who calls her phone way too much. And me who also calls the wife way too much. So we figured if we took one of those out of the equation it might help. That and the sprint gave us another phone for only 15 bucks more and dropped our nights to the now standard 7 PM, which will signficantly cut back on the overtime charges. The sprint guy inquired of my wife why she cancelled my phone a few monthes back and she layed on the fact that budget's tight and blah blah blah, so i guess he gave us a deal.
      Speaking of budget tight, my two monthes of super cool internet are coming to an end. I figure I've had a good run but to pay this much for fast internet on my salary doesn't seem doable. Especially with the dog and all the added expenses incurred there. So i'll probably call tomorrow to cancel at the end of the month or something. Its gonna be sad, and might mark the end of my blog. I hope not, but we'll see. Maybe if the wife gets this job with a public school. She's applying for a job out in Ootelwah or something. 8th grade history teacher, sounds swank, far away, but exactly what she wants.
      I really miss my dog, its sad that he's having to spend the night away, though it does have some advantages. The vet likes to keep them overnight when they put a dog under. So i'll pick him up tomorrow and it will be interesting to see how he is.

My dog is already smarter than me... dang

Well its official my dog is smarter than me. I spent 30 minutes tonight trying to keep him in the laundry room to no avail. Oh well, Least i'm still smarter than my kids, granted they haven't been born yet so I still got a leg up on them.
      I took the dog to the vet today, which was a bit taxing on the pocket book. Though we're getting the works, all the shots, and we're going for the Eunuch thing tomorrow, a little snip snip if you know what I mean. Hopefully all willl go well. Its for the best, as far as a boy dog goes its not good to have all those hormones and no way to get them taken care of. Plus his sword has come out of its sheath one too many times if you catch my drift.

      On other notes, the wedding marathon continues this weekend. Lud Butz is gettin hitched and we'll be heading up to that. Then the next weekend we'll trek up to st. louey to see my cousin tie the knot, then the following weekend I'll go back to nashville for Baldwin's (cool mesh) wedding. All in all it will be busy. The dog will make the trek to st. louey but this weekend we're gonna get some friends of ours to let him out and do that stuff for us. Well gotta put the dog to bed again, i gave up trying to trap him in the laundry room, and now i'll have to cram him in his overly small cage.

Copper

As the dog barks in the background I'll try to organize my thoughts in a coherent manner, oh wait, I've never done that. Copper never barks, that is unless he's left alone, which is very annoying. Though it is nice that he doesn't bark while we're around, but trying to get him to sleep in the laundry room is very taxing on my sleep life.

On another note, I came home from work today and played with Copper a bit and sat him down next to me in the living room and got him to take a bit of a nap as I unwound from the boring monday. About 20 minutes later wifey walked in very quietly and came up to the two of us. Some how her stealthy approach freaked Copper out and sent him into the craziest dog fit I've ever seen. He just started insanely barking, jumping, and peeing everywhere. It was kind of scary as he wouldn't stop and seemed a bit crazy. I think he just got scared when she snuck up on him, but man he's wack.

Maybe if post a picture of him sleeping he'll shut up and go to sleep...

Copper the Dog

Well meet copper.

On friday I met up with Carl, so that we could check out his free dog. We looked at it, and well we got him. We love him a lot and he's super cute. Between his hyper affection and his ability to not only chase his tail but also catch it, see below.

So we got him friday night. It's been great having him and we've changed his name from Shakespeare to Copper. Sorry Carl, but we said "Shakespeare" and he didn't even give us a nod. And oddly enough he really responds to Copper, even the first time he did. So it worked. This is sort of bitter sweet though since my family tradition has somewhat died.

My family's first dog was a mutt that we named Pal, he was a great dog, though as he got older he became a grumpy old man type dog. Then we had Amigo, the second dog that was Hunt's. She was a snob and liked everyone in the family but me. So my dog's name was to be Comrade. But I figured since I chose the dog (wifey didn't use the veto power) and since I was the one who really wanted the guy, I figured wifey should be able to have an opportunity to submit a name. Copper worked, its a good name.

The first night we had him was rough. We stuck him in his cage and left him in the laundry room only to have him bark all night long. Which was strange, he's not a barking dog, in fact he won't make a noise until you leave him a lone with the door closed or in his cage. So I didn't get any sleep Friday night. Saturday we had some of wifey's friends come into town and I really didn't want him to bark all night so we stuck him in our room in his cage... not a peep. He didn't make a noise and we all slept well. So we figure when we sleep he'll be in his cage with us in the room and when we go to work we'll keep in the laundry room in his cage.

On a funny note, I called my parents to tell them, "Hey mom we got a new addition to the family..." Well she almost fainted, i guess i didn't think about what that is usually followed by. So after explaining to her we weren't pregnant, I told her how we got a new dog.

He's a great dog and we're having a blast with him. Wifey might be allergic, not sure. She started sneezy before we got the dog, but she's sneezy more now that we have it. We'll try the claritin stuff and see if that helps and if it doesn't.... well we'll just have to cross that bridge if we come to it.

Eating out too much

The wife and I had a bit of an argument/discussion. One of those discussions where there's an argument there but you don't really allow it to come to full fruition due to the desire of both parties not to fight. Basically we ate out a ton this past weekend, way more than we should've, and I went out twice without the wife which gave her some ammuntion to go, "You eat out to much!" Which is true, I admitted. Thursday night I went out with the strows to Pickel Barrel to celebrate Jesse's job. Friday at lunch I went to Pickel Barrel again with wifey cause I felt bad for going to PB without her the night before. Saturday we went out to China Moon before seeing dodgeball with the Utes. Then Sunday after a discussion/guilt trip in the car we went to Lupis for lunch. Then on monday I went out with my financial adviser type guy to Porkers but luckily he paid so to me that one doesn't count. Plus with the wife working a waitress job its like we always have cash so it never feels like we're spending money since it never finds its way into our bank account. Though we've turned over a new leaf, and are gonna pull the reigns (i'm not a horse guy) of the eating out. Right after i go to Qdoba for lunch today. One of the bosses is taking us there for lunch, which is funny cause they just had an office party there yesterday for a guy getting married. I can't stand Qdoba, i think its the worst excuse for mexicany food i've ever seen, but I will eat there for free. I've been there three times: first time was against my will and out of sheer disgust I didn't eat anything, second time: my meal was paid for by work and i had them make me the largest burrito ever, they couldn't even wrap it up. Today I'm getting another free meal so i my streak of never giving Qdoba a nickel is working like a charm. I'd so much rather go to Tortilla Factory (see the wifey!!) or La Altena, those are two mexican restaurants that are worth the money. The one out at the mall next to Olive Garden is good too, big burritos! But Cancun, makes you sick, Las Margaritas and Amigoes are good for drinks and quesadillas but their fajitas are just ok. Well work is calling. ADIOS

The Passion the Book

I'm wrapping up reading a devotional called The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper. I got it at a church in atlanta, one of those freebie books they have as you walk out. It wasn't bad, though a little on the milkier side of things. The book isn't about the movie which the author explains in the preface, but more about the actual Passion of Christ, aka the biblical version. It was a good read, and it would be good to give to someone who had just come to know Christ or even perhaps a teenager or someone who didn't know too much. It seemed rather basic, which is good, its always good to go over the basics. Next book to pull out is another freebie i got from my church that's some sort of family devotional that is based off the confessions. Crabby read it in the car for a bit and said it was really good, so we'll see.

Lowes Wins out Again

   Well Mr. Lowe got some more of my money. We went last night and dropped about 80 or so bucks there on ins and outs. A grill cover, pole for hanging clothes on, tool organizer thingy, ins and outs mostly. But we got home that night and realized we'd forgotten two things we had gone to get. So we went back tonight. We dropped a lot more though> I bought a dehumidfier for the basement as the amount of mold and moisture is getting to be a problem. We think the prior owners must have had something down there because when we looked at the house there wasn't a touch of mold or moisture and then as soon as we move in moisture city. I also bought some plastic to put down on the exposed ground down there to block the moisture. I also bought a new faucet head for our kitchen as the one we have is leaking, all these great things that weren't told to us when we closed and miraculously appeared day after closing. SUPER!

On another note we're looking into Carl's offer. We're pretty picky about dogs and we haven't found one we're completely both of us a 100% on. Though a free dog is a hard thing to pass up so we may just jump on it. Plus the idea of him going to the pound is kind of sad. We haven't made up our mind yet but we'll keep you posted. Other than that work's a drag, but say la vee right mates!?

The Great Dog Search

   We went out to the Humane Society today and it was very hard not to come back with a little puppy. Oooh doggy! It was rough. I melt when I see most dogs as I am a dog man. There were two or so we had our eye on, small puppies that were white and black. They reminded me of my old dog Pal. Pal was a good dog, until he became a grumpy old man and growled and peed at/on everyone. The puppies were so cool but we really want a Jack Russell, well I do. The wife wants a white fluff ball. This has proven to be the biggest test of our marriage so far. WILL CHRIS CRACK UNDER THE PRESSURE?? No way Hose! (That's pronounced Hose--eh) This is one argument I won't back down on. I don't put my foot down on many things, and I've compromised a lot but this is one decision I can't waver. The dog must be my choice and the name has been predestined before the sands of time. I have given the wifey the veto vote if she feels inclined to use it, but with a 2/3 majority in both the house and senate I shouldn't have a hard time overturning a veto. But I told her she can have dog 2 and can name the kids, with me having veto power.
      The shelter didn't have a Jack Russell, but I'm not confined to just that breed. The reason we want that one is its small and we think it might be easier to handle as far as mess and taking care of it. We figure we'll check out the Shelter on Signalconvenient mtn but they aren't opened at very convenient hours. The dilemma is Jack Russell's are easy to find for a price but we really feel it'd be wrong not to go to a shelter since there are so many dogs that need a home. We hadn't realized how bad it was until today. The dogs just seemed to be on top of each other which really made me want to take one home even more. So the search continues.

More expounding or impounding or rebounding on Dodge Ball

      After talking to some avid Dodgeball fans, that is fans of the movie, I began to possibly question my initial perception of the movie. I wondered if maybe I was just being too uptight or not. I concluded I may have been a little too uptight, but still stand by my first opinion: the movie was unable to find its age group. I really do think the movie could easily have been as funny as it was with taking a few things out and making it a PG movie thus making it more enjoyable to all age groups. I
don't think the obscenties really made it all that more funny in anyway.
I kind of see why the movie is funny to so many people, and have sort of come around to see that, though I still don't love the movie. I just can see why people find it amusing. And though I rescended a bit on my first impression, I've concluded that I'm really kind of sick of Ben Stiller. I think he's just really overdone himself. Zoolander was great and in my opinion his funniest movie because of its odd ball humor which I really dug, that and Hansel, he's so hot right now. But I feel we've been baraged with Ben Stiller. Something about Mary, which seemed to bring Stiller back to mainstream comedy with lots of disgusting, but funny scenes. Meet the Parents (funny but utterly frusterating--you feel Focker's frustration which makes it hard to watch). I think after that came Tennebaums which though funny felt to be a more intellectual ironical type of humor. Also that movie can't be put on the shoulders of one man, Wes Anderson's casting was so perfect that it just felt like everyone pitched in and did a suberb job. Then Zoolander as I mentioned before, Envy---heard it stunk, Along Came Polly--a chick flick that wasn't very chicky or funny. Starsky and Hutch---funny but not over the top funny, and nowDodgeball. And we still have Meet the Fockers to go, I mean the guy is just sort of overdoing himself. Its a definate case of over exposure. The same happened with Chris Farley and Adam Sandler. I kind of feel he's pulling a sandler by using up all his different sort of shtick's and making a movie about each one. I'm just sort of Ben Stillered out. I used to be a huge fan, loved anything he did, but then he did everything and it was all kind of played.
Take Jim Carey, I like what he did with his career. I mean he's a really funny guy and he knows that, but he didn't want to be relegated to just comedy so he broke his own mold and did a lot of decent serious movies. Man on the Moon, Truman Show, and Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless mind (still haven't seen this one yet). Though he also in the middle of all that did Bruce Almighty which was the more mainstream Carey and in a lot of ways was a very funny movie in the Jim Carey classical sense. But he's doing movies he wants not what people want. Stiller seems to be doing what the people want---zany inane comedies that seem to be written by the same people. The ironic thing is
Stiller used to do a lot of more serious roles and then went strait to almost exclusive comedy. He used to be a more broad actor and now it looks like he's getting put into a box.

Try to Dodge Dodge Ball

The wife and I saw dodge ball this afternoon and I must say I was pretty disappointed. For a sport that has so much humor in it, this movie failed to bring the full spectrum of laughs to the screen. Maybe its cause the hero in this one isn't really a hero. He's kind of a lazy sleeze ball that has little motivation. It really seemed to be a testament to the lazy working class, settle for mediocrity. You have ben stiller who's this self made gym mogul who's a complete jerk o but you kind of have to respect him since he made this gym empire. Where as you have Vince Vaughn who's this complete bum of a guy, but not one thats endearing like owen Wilson in Starsky and Hutch, he's just a bum for bum's sake. He's a lazy bum, which is kind of just lame. The funniest guy was the Rip Torn as the former retired Dodge Ball super star who teaches the guys the finer points of Dodge. Overall the movie had some really misplaced curse words, crude humor, and overall just this struggle to find a tone of humor and run with it. For instance the movie would be a great movie to take your young teen to except for a few parts that are just sort of kind of ruin it. The way i see it is if you're gonna make a movie crude, make it crude, but this movie was cute and fun, with crude parts thrown in willy nilly just for the sake of getting a PG13 rating. It was just gratuitous and made little sense. Like the final line in the movie "F@#@ing Chuck Norris..." I mean thats just not that funny and not a great note to end any movie on.
      When a movie's cruising a long with little obscenities or crude humor, don't just throw it in midstream cause you think its gonna spice up the movie. This movie could have been a great comedy for all ages instead it became a mediocre at best comedy and didn't seem to aim at any age group in particular. Definately not worth the price of admission. I give it a mediocre five out of ten at best, and thats with forcing a few laughs, which i had to do. I mean the "Jonnie loves Chachi line" I love but I've seen it so many times in previews, but I felt that i had to laugh at it since I had found it funny once before, it was a pitty laugh.

Stromo Gets a Jobo

Good news from the Strowmosexual. Mr. Strow Pictured below sitting next to what appears to a male model at Pickel Barrel

Has found himself working for the same corporate company that myself works ats. He found out a few days ago and he starts after the 4th of July. He might even work on the same floor as Ute, Root, Giant Ugly Head, and I work on. Which is quite a prestigious floor, I mean its five flights up. He'll be a Plan automater, which basically entails automating plans. Who knows what he'll do... who knows what I do??? Do you know what I do? Cause it could really help me out.

Anyway we went out to the Pickel Barrel to celebrate and got the good old pickel barrel burger which is quite good, one of chattanooga's best. Though chattanooga really had an abudance of stinkin good burger joints. What was funny was Wifey was working and I've never taken her to Pickel Barrel, something she held over my head all the time. So for lunch today we went to PIckel barrel again. This time i got the Immigrant which was basically Corn beef and roast beef and cheese, pretty plain, and not that great, but not horrible. Now I awate the return of the wife. Might be another long night.

C2 Judgement Day

   So i tried the new C2 Lower sugar coke today. Overall, not great though not bad. I
guess they're trying to get that crowd that thinks Coke is too sweet and
diet coke tastes bad. I like both but this hybrid seems to lack the
greatness of both sides. Coke for its intense sugar and cool flavor. And
Diet coke for its no calorie guilt free feeling. I was hoping they'd make C2
a coke with just less sugar, but Ithink they've put in artificial sugars in
as C2 contains Aspertain which is the same incredient in DC that has been
linked to some cases of Alzyemers. The Aspertain stuff scares me as I
wouldn't be surprised if it was a partical cause for alzhemers because I'm
paranoid about things like that.

My long lost friend Ed

A very interesting thing happened to me, you won't think so, but I did. My oldest friend (no not some old man) but my friend that I've been friends with the longest called me up out of the blue. It was great to talk to him and hear where he's gone and where he's going. He went to boarding school when we were in Jr High and we kept in touch all through out highschool. When he'd come back in town we'd hang out as if nothing had changed. Though college hit and we fell out of touch. I hadn't heard from him or his family since my freshman year at college.

Then again out of the blue he sent my parents a post card from Alaska last summer. My parents forwarded it to me and answered his simple question, "Whats new?" I told him about how four years of college went (abridged version), getting married, and in general how my life had changed over the past four years. We started sending post cards back in forth and then last night he gave me a call out of the blue.

He's sort of become a professional fisherman of sorts. He got his BA in Fisheries Management (I probably have that wrong but it entails boats and fishing). He's sort of become a jack of all trades when it comes to being a fisherman. He both understands the necessity of fishing and the economic benefit it has on its patrons but also sees the danger of overfishing. He spent last summer in Alaska fishing on a boat up there, this year he spent in the Carribean as the boat's primary mechanic, and then now he goes back to Alaska to fish the deep sea once more. He's attending grad school in the fall to pursue the more academic side of fishing and sailing. And its all very interesting. At least for two kids who grew up in the middle of America. For one to go become a deep sea fisherman that sounds pretty cool to me.

Here's a picture of him he sent me working on an anchor of sorts.

Just thought I'd share all that.

A Homage to my old Hall at Covenant

A friend of mine found this beer somewhere, which Blackwatch was also the name of our hall at Covenant. For those not learned in the Covenant ways I'll explain. Being a small private Christian school it didn't do the greek life thing. Instead each hall sort of made up its own identity. With the school's scottish heritage naming a hall Blackwatch seemed fitting. The beer on the other hand, wasn't. It had the taste of Cigarettes, chocolate, coffee, wood, and a little bit of beer mixed into one, but in a bad way.

I hate working out

So i decided since the wifey's working tonight that I should make use of my time by working out... i'm an idiot. I went to Covenants' gym did some weight lifting. Problem is I haven't lifted weights in a year, but i have all this pent up energy from sitting in a cube for the past year. So i was pumping like crazy and now I can't move my arms. THe good news was I went down to a low weight cause I knew I wouldn't and shouldn't lift anything too heavy. But man those 5's are tough stuff!

After that I thought I should try my hand at running, strike two! I used to run the trails of covenant like a fiend. For a husky little chubb ball I could make my way through the trails and pull of a 10 minute mile. Thats hard for me, especially on a hilly terrain. I run a 9 minute or less mile on flat land (i didn't say i was freaking jackie joyner kersey back off!). So i made it to the trails from Covenant's gym and about 50 yards into the trail when my lungs seemed to say, "Alright we played with you long enough. We allowed you to think you were in shape for the trip down to the trail, but now we're done, and so are you..." Those lungs can be so cruel! So can that thing that seems to hurt when i run.. what's it called? ...... OH YEAH! My fat belly! I knew it was something like that.

So, hopefully the pain won't be too excruciating tomorrow and I can make it out again. Not sure though. Gonna have a hard time since I have to stay up late for the wifey to come home.

Holton's Gardening Tip #1

Maintaining a lawn can be difficult and time consuming. A good time saver for mowing grass is: don't water the grass, that way it won't grow up as fast. And if you're lucky the grass will die.

Getting in Touch with Mi Mexicano Side

I was in the Dixie of Win when I realized I need coffee. I was tired of the same old fancy shmancy Greyfriars coffee, Charbucks was just a little played, I wanted something different, something that took me back to my days playing down on the calle with my amigoes con mi disco volador. Y cuando nos acabaron, bebida de we'd un poco de buen viejo café. Thats right mi amigos, I got some Cafe Bustelo....

Topics include: SPEECHLESS, Wedding shower, Sitting on Saturday, and I want a dog

So not to much people had much to say about the whole music, games, and movies downloading thing. Not surprised. Thats my second post about that and last time it took me going to people in person to get reaction. I find it very ironic how so many people I know that are die hard republicans, die hard capitalists, and even die hard Christians, but when it comes to me saying "burning/downloading cds, music, and games is wrong" they're sort of speachless. Eh, what are you gonna do? But if I ever become a famous movie person, musician, or game producer and I catch you copying my work, I'll break your thumbs, cut off your foot, and eat your kidney... then I'll go to work on you.

Jesse and I had some good email talks about the whole situation which i posted in the comments, but other than that, the blogosphere was speechless.

We just got back from Bintz's wedding shower. It was a lot of fun and good to hang out with people I normally don't hang out with. It was really cool to see what people are up to post covenant and post graduation. Life takes many different paths many of which we don't expect or desire. Two years ago I was planning on being in law school right about now, but God had his own plan for my life, and I must say His idea was much better, as I'm having way more fun than I would studying 24 hours a day. Anyway it was good to see Bintz and his future wife and wish them the best in all their wacky adventures.

Today was mainly a sit around day, though I did mow the lawn. I hung out with Stromosexual last night just the two of us which was fun. Had some beer brats here and talked and drank some crappy coffee and then went to his house to just unwind and play some Halo action. Halo is great, so much fun even to this day. It will be hard not to buy an xbox when the sequal comes out. I plan on buying one when they get to be about 20 bucks like the Sega dream cast is. I'll use the argument that we need a dvd player in the bedroom and that might work... yeah and monkey's might fly out of my butt!

I'm ashamed to admit this but the wife and I were watching the Newlyweds today (nick lashay and jessica simpson on mtv) and they were spending their gooberous amounts of money on this that and the other escalade, and they started shopping for a dog. And i must say i melted, i want a dog sooooo badly! I've missed having a dog. Back in St. Louey when i was growing up we had a dog (2 for a while) from the day i was born to the day i left for college. I always loved dogs. I want sort of a smaller dog now, Wishbone size (the dog on pbs that solves crimes or something) but nothing too cutesy. It was rough seeing that show, man i want a dog. Wife and I were tempted to go get one today, or at least go look. I told her we'd go look soon. But man soon as I see one, its gonna be hard not to get one. Oooh that will be rough. Well off to bed.

Burn me, rip me, steal me, Kill me: Reflections on copy right and the moral and financial implications for copying cds

Here's my thing. Music people, musicians, record company's, and the joe shmoe who runs the cd machine over in china or somehwhere aren't probably big fans of burning or copying or downloading music for free off the internet. Neither are the American courts, who have upheld the copy right laws even when the record companies went after little children.
   My thing is always this, in a murky issue as this can be put yourself in say the Garage Band's shoes. If you were a garage band trying to make it big, would you want people getting your music for free? Probably early on you would to get the word of mouth out, but once word was out, you'd want people to start ponying up to the bar to pay for your music. And why shouldn't you? You have no right to get it for free... you didn't make it, you did not arrange those musical notes, sing those tunes, or even pay for the equipment to record that music. So why should you get the priviledge of listening to some music without having to pay any of the costs?
   A friend of mine, Bintz as he is called, put it this way: God gives us gifts. Bintz is a teacher, his gift is explaining how to do calculus to little teenagers, Roe's gift is computers and talking people into doing things they're not really sure if they want to do (not sure if that latter one is truly a gift but he's good at it nevertheless), my gift is managing accounts and performing settlements at a large corporate company (thats not a gift but putting up with the corporate world is). We all get paid for these gifts, and we've turned our gifts into an occupation which, is our lively hood. This is A. How we keep the economy going by making money that we can therefore go spend B. It is how we earn money to live and provide for those around us or ourselves. A musician makes money by using their musical gifts to make cds, mp3s, or do live concerts. They sell they're art, if you will, to provide for themselves food, shelter, and most of the time mind bending drugs that allow them to make more music. However with the advent of mp3's cds are no longer necessarily necessary, so they're not really making as much as they could on cds anymore. And with Mp3s you can download from various sites without paying a nikel back or a nickel creek. iIlegally downloading a song, or having a buddy of yours burn a cd for you that you're too cheap to buy yourself is getting something for nothing. In no way have you contributed to the capitalist game (minus computer cost and cd-r costs). you haven't provided money to the musican who actually made the music. It was they're ideas, they're creativity or hackiness that put that music together and they in turn are done the dis-service of not being paid for their services. Or in the case of downloading a movie, did you spend monthes to years making this movie? Did you write a script, direct, act, produce, and distribute this movie? No you didn't do didly squat. You clicked a few buttons and downloaded something that isn't yours. Or for a video game. This one really ticks me off because only one Video game company really probably makes a proffit and thats EA, all the others are probably just getting by, its a hard biz to crack. Games retail for about 50 bucks, expensive yes, but still can be worth it. You get it from some shmuck you hacked is way past the codes and put it out on the net. So basically the video game company which spend monthes to years developing this game gets jack squat because you're too cheap, lazy, or apathetic to care you've taken money out of other people's pockets. Plus if you have a cash problem wait a year cause games go down to 10 bucks after a year, i know i buy the 10 dollar games from best buy all the time.

   Now do i think cds are overpriced? Yes, way too expensive. Does that justify burning a cd? No, in no way do i have a right as a citizen, a person, or especially a christian to take something that doesn't rightfully belong to me. It amazes me how many Christians don't have a problem with burning cds, downloading entire movies off the internet, or downloading entire computer games. I mean these industries, granted still pull in millions of dollars and the artists will see more in a year than I will ever see, but that doesn't justify a thing. I'm not saying Christians are not immune to the same temptations as non christians, but to see how many people Xtian and non Xtian, just shluff it off as, "Eh one cd won't hurt em.... its just burning a cd.... its no big deal..... well my pastor does it.... well my buddy does it and he's a better guy than me so....." It astounds me.

   I've always been somewhat of a legalist even prior to coming to Christianity. When something is against the law, you just don't do it. To me its pretty simple like that. I've never done drugs because, its wrong, its against the law, you don't do things that are against the law. You can find loop holes in the law, wiggle an interpretation into a copyright, but you're still just trying to justify something that is wrong. And logically I can't see how you can justify getting something for nothing. Unless the artist or company gives it away and says, "here this song is on the house" or "this movie is free it sucked.. and we won't make a dime on it..."
   I'm sorry but those ads that come on before the movie showing the set designer and "Piracy affects me..." those really get to me.... I always feel guilty.... "Was there ever a movie I watched that i didn't get legally????"
   As you work in your cube, or your desk, or whatever it is you do, think about it this way.... Would you want to do whatever it is you do: Program, answer phones, work customer service, wait tables, mow grass, sell newspapers: Whatever it is: WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT WITHOUT GETTING PAID? If so, then you're a socialist and in the wrong country. Last time I checked this was America, we paid for what we have, and worked for what we got. Pay the artists for what they create, even if you think its overpriced, even if you think you've outwhitted the copy right law, and even if you think you're a socialist.

As I reflect upon friendships and my social life, I conclude I'm boring... but like it

   We had Becca and Ute over for dinner tonight which was a lot of fun. We've never got to spend much time with them as two couples so that was cool. Plus as it turns out Becca and I found a common connection, we both broke up with the people that we didn't want to break up with and then ended up marrying (engaging) in the end. Becca broke up with Ute even though she never wanted to a year or so ago, and I broke up with wifey my Jr. year at covenant even though I didn't want to. We both agreed though we didn't regret it, because we both saw the time apart as God's will and as a time to do some last minute growing up before committing. Plus we both came to our senses and got back to the good thing God had put in our lives.
   Breaking up with my then friend/girl friend Mrs. Holtonian was a hard thing to do. At no time did I enjoy it or thought it was a great idea, it was just one of those things that I felt I had to do. And in the end the time was used to do a lot of reflecting and growing up, which is always good.
   Its kind of funny but now that i work with Ute I think I've gotten to know him better. While at covenant we ran at different speeds, me the laid back video game geek and him the super involved soccer guy. But hanging out with him at work and after work has been a lot of fun and cool just getting to know him and becca outside of the covenant environment. After covenant, friendships and life in general, is much more intentional. At school you're friends with those around you through no major effort on your own part, especially at covenant where you're placed on a hall and pretty much become friends with whomever is on your hall.
   Once college is over you go to a job where you make some friends, but never to the same level as college and high school it seems. And for some the fun times you have post college are not like that of high school or college, they're more subdued and in my opinion more meaningful. A lot of my fun times are spent having people over, or going to other's houses and merely sitting and talking. Thats what I find fun, making jokes, learning about differen't people's lives, and just sort of getting to your friends on a more personal level. I don't mind going out for a beer, but I want to go out and have a conversation over a beer.
   I guess I've always been a little bit of a square in that sense. I'd rather hang out at a coffee shop than a bar any day. And I'd rather talk to a person in a quite room than go play pool at Big River.
   Any who... weekend plans... not much. Going to Bintz's shower on saturday which should be cool... i guess... for a shower. Then some house work as i've let that go the past few weeks. I need to take some more pictures too. I've psuedo convinced the wife if i take some good digital pictures i can't get them developed and frame them and put them around the house. Since we can't seem to agree on art work to put around the house we figure pictures might work better. We'll see. I already got Pete's Ireland picture blown up but since it wasn't a 5 mega pixel camera it didn't blow up well. It still looks ok, but not great. Any who, off to bed.

My boss is no more

Some people thought I should blog about the recent shift at my corporate company. My boss of the past two monthes or so was let go. I can't say I was surprised or all that sadden, they pretty much hired the least qualified person out of all the applicants. Not to diss them or anything but everyone sort of just scratched their heads when "they" were hired because it made no sense. Thus two monthes later and with lots of really bad moves made that person was let go. We'll be managerless for a while now i guess, which as a team we're cool with cause we work well on our own. I'd love to blog more about it but the spies are always around so I should keep it short and simple. But those who know me know how I'd been struggling at work with this situation and can email me about the details or call or smoke signal.

What a bunch of tools....

Lame humor provided by Holtonbored Enterprises

A night to remember

Well we had our official annivesary dinner tonight. A nice London Broil marrinated and then cooked on the grill to a nice pink center, it was superb. Then some potatoes, asaragus, champagne, sweet tea, and topped it off with chocolate dipped strawberries and the top of our wedding cake.

I and my wife must bragg that we had the best wedding cake ever, I don't care what you think, you're wrong, ours was truly the best. A pound cake with a butter cream icing. None of that rolled fondit crap that makes for a pretty cake but has the taste of waxed lips. Nor none of that fruity stuff, or lemony stuff, we had the cake of all cakes. Plain jane and it was mighty insane! We had kept it at the inlaws and they wrapped it in 3 layers of tin foil and then zip locked it. We got it out tonight and it was precious. Sooooo good. As if it was baked just yesterday!
The London broil too was amazing, wifey really outdid herself on the marinade, and I love aspargus and the fact that she doesn't shows her self sacrificialness and makes me love her more.

The Champagne was pretty sweet too, a wedding present from long ago. They say its bad to keep champagne refrigerated for too long, but we kept ours in the fridge since we got it and it still tasted great. Though all champgne tastes the same to me so I'm not the best judge. Its not like wine, coffee, or beer where you can taste different attributes.

The wife opened up her gift, a Minotola camera that I will be purchasing off of Scott. He offered it to me when he heard i was looking for a camera for the wife. When I bought the digital camera it was sort of a decision I made, not really a consensus, though she's really come around to it, she still wanted a good old fashion camera. So I'd had the mind to get her one for sometime and scott made me a good offer so I took it. I liked the camera a lot and hopefully wife will too. She seems to like it, though she's looking forward to Scott finding those instructions.

SLR camera's are kind of hit and miss. I've seen some break without much of a reason. My mom bought a Pentax, which she thought and most people do, was one of the better if not best brands, but it broke after a few years. And I've heard similar things about other name brands. So i'm not too concerned with the brand quality. My guess is these companies copy the car companies and just make the same base model and then add their own little features. Think about it all SLR cameras pretty much look the same except for the German ones. Thats my theory, why not, Japanese car companies do it all the time, why wouldn't it make sense that their camera companies did it too???

First Anniversary Dinner At Canyon Grill

Sunday night we headed down the long road of Scenic Highway to venture to the end of the road, and the best restaurant the south has to offer, Canyon River Grill. We decided to go to our favorite restaurant for our anniversary since we didn't do any sort of trip or big gifts* (some big gifts). Plus we're eaters, we like fine dinning, but we like a lot of food, and Canyon Grill provides both. We knew what we were going to order even before we got in the car to go there. The rack of Lamb, with garlic mashed potatoes (potatos whatever), and portabella mushroom grilled to perfection. We also decided to get some appetizers since we were doing it to the nine. I got a steamed artichoke, which was ok, and the wife opted for the house salad. We sat pleasantly listening to the snobby mountain folk talk about McCallie this, GPS that and where Muffy and Buffy were going to college, and what fraternity Biff was going to join. It was quite nauseating, but we got over it. At last the meal came and it was spectacular.

For those who haven't had lamb, try imagining a steak that was so rich it made you cry. The meat is usually more tender than a steak and the flavor is more intense. Its makes steak taste like beef jerky. The mushroom melted in my mouth leaving me on cloud 8.5. The meal was not cheap mind you, in fact the lamb is the most expensive thing on the menu next to the steak and shrimp. But sometimes you gotta cut costs elsewhere to have an enjoyable night.

We topped the night off with a movie at home, Spiderman, which was more awesome than I remembered. Then we headed off to bed and as I was hanging my shirt up in the closet, the closet shelf which held all my clothing up fell down leaving all my clothes on the floor. I said, "Ah screw it!" And left it till morning. We had a wonderful night.

Today is our actual anniversary and I took a half day to fix the closet and spend with the wife. She gave me a nice leather chair for the office which is pretty swank. She also gave me Part 2 for Love is Hell which was wonderful. Also a universal remote for the tv in the bedroom that works great already. Her presents are still to come (i hadn't wrapped them yet). I'll let you know how she goes for them, and what they are.

Its been a wonderful year of fun being married.

Legend of Zelda

Check out this http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/action/thelegendofzelda/previews.html! This is the link to the new zelda trailer. It looks dang awesome and finally dang violent and dark. I think they're trying to capitalize on all the Lord of the RIngs stuff, but who cares, this game could be super swank in a bad way! Bad being good.

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes

   Just checked out the E3 video of the Metroid sequel for gamecube and it looks pretty cool. Its cool they're taking the franchise into uncharted waters as it has never differed much from the original game on NES, at least Metroids were always involved. Not sure if they aren't involved in this next one but the plot seems like they're not. The plot is basically Samus (a space bounty hunter) receives a distress beacon from some planet, goes to investigate, and finds a world split into two dimensions, light and dark. The two spheres of the world are at war, light vs dark (good and evil i guess) and she (Samus is a girl) must help the light side (i guess) to win the war. This requires using her light beam (standard issue for all space bounty hunters) against the dark creatures. It also requires teleporting from world to world as they are connected only by teleporters. Also the dark world looks quite menacing as the world itself saps the strength from her thus draining her energy. Only her light beam can make little spheres of light to house her. It looks interesting, same cool graphics as Metroid Prime but some cool little additions and another cool plot. I think you start and have all your same weapons from game end of Metroid Prime and build off those. Which is cool. Prime was annoying cause you start off with the weapons and lose him ten minutes in. Check out teh video on Gamespot if you'd like.

Crazy Weekend

We had a bit of a crazy weekend this past weekend, and its only half over I guess! Friday we had a BBQ for Jesse to celbrate his turning 23. It was a lot of fun, good food, and good times. We went over to the soccer field and played 2 on 2 me and a few of the guys. Though Jesse and I got housed because we were barefoot and Jay and Ute were in shoes and in shape. Though we used our hands a lot so it kind of evened out.

We went down to see the Grandparents in Atlanta this morning and also reclaim our top of our wedding cake to polish off tomorrow. Hopefully ours won't be as bad as everyone elses. We've heard the few couples we know who did the tradition thought the cake was horrible. Granted no offense intended to our friends, but I thought our wedding cake was the only good wedding cake I've ever had. It was a pound cake, plain simple, but dang good.

We then went to the wedding which was a lot of fun and good merry times. Then we met up with the Crabbs' for coffee up near the church so we wouldn't have to dive back into Atlanta, which was super cool of them to do for us. We hung out at borders for a while then did a little shoppin and then headed off to the macaroni grill for an appetizer dinner. for 10 bucks we ate like kings. We bought these crazy pizza pita chicken things that were great and split them as we were hungry but not famished. Then we just loaded up on the free bread, and due to Crabb dawgs bday approaching on wednesday we hooked up the free cake which was good. So for 10 bucks, 2 of that being tip, we ate like kings.

Also driving around we saw this lamborgini, and as a general rule, if you see a car that is worth more than your networth you have to take a picture of it, granted right about now a 1986 ford escort GT is worth more than me, but still it was a cool car and worth a digital snapshot. We then drove home and now the wife's tucked in bed and I'm wired on life. Tons on my mind, a lot of it personal stuff can't blog about, but the wife and I are just experiencing some serious "joyousness" with the annivesary. Its just cool to have a year under our belts in the marriage department and we look forward to many more to come. I look forward to some kids, but more to blog about that later.

Cliff aka Big Red ties the Knot

We headed down to Canton GA to see a friend of ours tie the knot. Clifford is a great guy who can be brutally hilarious and brutally honest all at the same time. He was a fun guy to have on the hall, though at times a little rough on his old RA (me). It was great to see him marry Melissa today and see their joyous occasion. Witnessing marriage always leaves you with goosebumps and butterflies. And takes me back to my own wedding day which, we'll be celebrating the 1st annivesary of this monday. We wish the Hamiltons' the best and hope they have as much happiness, love, and growth that we've had this past year.

blah

This side blog, debate on what to spend the money on at the Holton house is kind of amusing as I have resided myself to not buying a computer. Its great though to see my friends stick up for me though I A. don't want to drop the money and B. would really like to take a vacation though not NY, I'd like Europe more.

Its also funny that this whole convo goes on even though I HAVE NO MONEY! Which is all too amusing. Its all really a mute and moot point, even moo too.

We had Stromos, Utes, and Jay and Blair over for Jesse's bday tonight. Billy Byerly and his respective other Elizabeth also stopped in which was an unexpected surprise, hence the surprise involved. We grilled, we laughed, we played some soccer and i screwed up my calf somehow. I think its just tense right now but its pretty sore. I'm getting old already.

The good news was I got the wife's anniversary gift taken care of. Hopefully she'll like it. I'd love to tell you what it is but as she is a regular reader I would sort of kill the surprise. Though, I think she'll really enjoy having a new computer... i mean... new bath towel.

Tomorrow is Clifford's wedding down north of atlanta. So we're going down to the grandparents house to get our top layer for the wedding cake and then headin up to the weddding. Should be fun but we had to cut the trip short, which originally had us going to the crabbs. I thought it would be a lot of driving around to go an hour north of atlanta and then go back down into it and I'm still pretty worn out from last weekends festivities and need a little down time.

Holton Finally Gets a Tan

This picture of me after a long 3 hour mowing tour reminds me of Michael Jackson's song, "Am I black or white?"

Wife's Logic Boggles My Mind Yet Again

So the wife and I were discussing my desire for a new computer versus her desire to go on a trip to New York City. She argues, "I really want to see New York..."
I argues, "I really want a new computer, but we can't always get what we want..."
She rebutts, "We have a computer that works fine, we don't have a New York that works fine...."
      Astounding isn't it?

Man I'm Vain or Vane, either way I'm pathetic

I was cruising the blog scene tonight when I realized, anytime I go to a blog that has my link on it, i click it which sends me back home to the holtonian. I realized how sad that is since I A. always have a window open on it B. Already know what I wrote so don't have to read it. And C. For some odd egocentric reason I just want to make sure people put the URL right in their blog. Man i'm bad. In other news I got a new hat from a buddy of mine from work. Its not super swank, but its super me, which works.

The wife's not crazy about it, mostly cause I will more than often wear this black hat with brown pants and brown shoes and make the person who made up that crazy fashion rule roll in their grave. I'd been looking for a new hat and was gonna break down and buy one, but getting one for free is so much cooler.

Love is Hell reflections

As mentioned in a prior post, I purchased Ryan Adams Love is Hell Part 1this weekend at Mckays. I must say its both the most depressing and
enjoyable albums I've spun in a long while. I'm not very knowledgable to the
whole Ryan Adams controversial history. I just hear bits and pieces from my
hipster friends who I think, think he's gone astray from his greatest work
or something like that. I don't know, nor care. I figure an artist can do
whatever they heck they want. I mean if you look at U2 (yes i know i'm a
dork for bringing them into this, therefore i apologize) but they went off a
tangent with Achtung, it worked, then went off a tangent from that tangent,
Zooropa, then went on another tagent Pop. Some were annoyed, others
rejoiced, some loved them more, some left their fan base. But in the end
they did what they wanted to do, they didn't play to the crowd they wanted
to make music that they enjoyed and believed in.
Don't know much about Ryan Adams, but I've never heard music with more soul
and anguish than his. Well, not true, Johny Cash, he had more anguish. And I
enjoy just listening to his tunes, both of them.
I also like how Ryan Adams redid wonderwall by oasis. I think Oasis is one of those bands that are really good, but their personalty drove away their
fans. I mean when you come out and say you're better than the Beatles,
you're just asking for people to hate you. Also they are hacks in a lot of
ways. There music borrows insane amounts from the classics, beatles for
instance. But like I say, "if you're gonna be a hack, be good hack." And in
my opinion they're great hacks. There's one song that I think is actually
Magic Carpet Ride with different words. Actually the phrase "Carpet ride"
might actually be in the song. Anyway, I'm a few years late i realize on my
broadening of the muscial tastes but i don't care. I find being trendy or
hip offensive. Its antithetical to who i am and all that i hold dear.

I started thinking about the song "Love is Hell" and thought to myself, "I'm in love, its not really hell though..." I mean its hard at times but not hell. Hell is a lot worse, and hotter. Though it can be hot here too if you know what I mean... we haven't turned the ac on yet so it can get hot in the house. But I started thinking, "if i were not a christian and didn't have the foundation of Christ's love as the basis for my understanding of my love of my wife, i could then see how love is hell." I mean it doesn't give me full understanding of the world, but if I think loving my wife is hard, which it rarely if ever is, then think about how hard it would be for Christ to love a bunch of shmucks like you and me. I mean what have I ever done for him? He died for me, and how do I repay him??? I can't. At least with my wife I can mow the lawn to start to show her how much i love her. Maybe its the Catholic deep down inside me but I'm always trying to get God back for his grace, always trying to repay the gift, granted i never do squat, but i still feel guilty for being unable to repay him. All I can do is ask for his grace all the more I guess. I ramble. I stop now.