CONGRATULATIONS!

To my work friend Christi on her engagement. It's spring and love is definitely in the air!

Ok, so now everyone knows
that I am building my first home. There is no doubt that this will be quite the adventure. It's probably a good thing I'm easy-going because I've heard a lot of horror stories about having a custom home built. I'm just a tad concerned that I went overboard on the design as far as size. The footprint for the house is nearly 4,400 sq ft, with a total living space of about 3,300 sq ft. Indeed, it will be quite the bachelor pad. Well, it will be a bachelor pad until my girlfriend and I get married and she moves in. Then it will become party central! I think. I dunno.

Please note, all guests must remove their shoes in the foyer before entering the main part of the house.

I find it odd, in a good way, that we've already broached the topic of how we would handle a marriage situation, since she owns 2 homes herself and now I'm building this one. Fortunately, we still have some time to figure out how we're going to handle that. Christi is selling her house and moving into the house her man recently built. But, it's 2 stories, and she doesn't really like 2 story houses, so they are discussing selling it and building a one story across town. Communication. It's all about communication, then finding common ground and working towards your shared goals and dreams. Without shared goals and dreams, a relationship can not last.

A George divided against itself, can not stand.

Be a winner, not a loser.
Living life means something different to each of us. To me, a major portion of living in this world involves being successful... being a winner and doing things to not only further my success, but also help those around me be successful themselves. After all, when you are winning, life is better, isn't it?

Today I received an email that contained some interesting points... If we could just get everyone to do #17:

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
   
2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their
   conversational skills will be as important as any other.
   
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
   
4. When you say, "I love you," mean it.
   
5. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.
   
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
   
7. Believe in love at first sight.
   
8. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't
   have much.
   
9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only
   way to live life completely.
   
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
    
11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
    
12. Talk slowly but think quickly.
    
13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile
    and ask, "Why do you want to know?"
    
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
    
15. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
    
16. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
    
17. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
    
18. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
    
19. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
    
20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
    
21. Spend some time alone.
    

Pull The Frog Out Of The Boiling Water
And throw him back in. I have not personally had cable/satellite television in over 3 years. In the past 30 days, I've watched more television than I have in the previous 3 years, and my friends will testify that is not an exaggeration. When you work 60-70 hours a week at two jobs, and play in two bands and write music, it doesn't leave much time for tv.

By removing myself from the "entertainment" environment for such a long time, and now being re-exposed to cable, I am a little disturbed at the levels of violence, sex, and drama that are being flooded into the typical American household. It's no wonder there are so many blithering idiots these days. The amount of trash on TV is astounding.

My girlfriend's daughter loves the Disney channel. I didn't even know there was such a channel. The other day, I realized I have a problem with the types of clothes the girls wear on that channel. I don't know what shows we were watching, but there is no way, I'd let my 10 or 12 year old daughter wear skirts like what I saw on that show. Highly inappropriate attire. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but it sure seems like over sexualization of young girls to me. Disturbing indeed.