Chris

Old School

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I never really went past the Atari 2600 video game console, in fact, I have one hooked up in my basement right now. So I am not what you would call a "gamer". Recently I have seen some VERY cool things from video game makers that is making me change my mind such as the sports and action games. I’ll plop down some money eventually for an X-Box 360 or a Wii. Amazing graphics, story lines, interaction from players across the globe and media extensions are making it very difficult to say no to. Of course, now that I have a baby, the choice is simply "diapers or games"?

What I am used to:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Atari Combat circa 1982(?)

What is available now:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Microsoft’s Halo 3 circa 2007

Taste Of 4th Jazz Festival

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Saturday September 29th from 12 to 12 outside the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. The jazz festival is outside in the streets of the 4th Avenue Historic District. Come hear old favorites like Foxxy Fatts & the Birmingham Heritage Band. Enjoy first time Jazz artists to Birmingham Ronnie Laws and Jean Carne along with Annie Sellick from Nashville. Children’s Area, Art village and many food Vendors.The best part? Free.

I’m shooting the event and will be there mostly at night. Give me a shout and we’ll meetup.

website link:

Also, I don’t know which graphic I like better so I’ll post both. Use them as desktop wallpaper! Hopefully they’ll have tees designed with these.

Wallpaper1

Wallpaper2

New Father Reflections 

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I’m one of those guys that breaks stereotypes in that I have always loved children. My empathetic and sanguine nature reveals this to be true. I’ve always wondered what it would be like when I have my own. Now, I can answer this question with authority. Having little Daphne come into the world last week literally made me cry, for joy. Side note: As much as I loved kids, most newborns are butt ugly. Without bias, Daphne was an exception.

Another question I have always asked, and will remain to be seen, is: “Will I be a good father”? What makes up a good father? How do you do it? The Bible is the ultimate example of successful and irresponsible fathers and even a perfect One. A lot of us would try to emulate fathers from classic television shows. You know the ones that create a dire situation and had a resolution that teaches a moral lesson all in thirty minutes. Most of us glean our parenting knowledge from our own examples of growing up with two parents: one mother, one father.

Just like the Biblical examples of old, there is a mixture of what to do and what not to do. We swear we will never make the same mistakes our parents did but yet, how can we not? Aren’t we starting to resemble our parents in ways we never dreamed of? Are certain annoying mannerisms creeping up when least expected? I tease my father constantly about how he is looking/sounding/acting like my grandfather to his chagrin, but wait! His wife points out a few mannerisms of mine that emulate my father. Doh!

Daphne is daddy’s little girl for sure. She has the majority of my physical attributes including a thick head of dark hair when born. What behaviors/traits/skills will she pick up from me? Why haven’t I thought of THAT before? Previously, I was selfish in that my life only affects myself and Wonderwife. I have no regrets. My choices, both good and bad, make me into the man that I am. How will my choices reflect on her?

Before Wonderwife, I treated women/girls better than most guys would (another stereotype broken). However, I dated heavily/frequently from all over the social food chain and enjoyed every minute of it. Will this come back to haunt me when she is old enough to date (21 yrs)? Hey, my house. My rules! The saying goes that daughters are a man’s curse for the way they behaved as a teenager. Let’s hope THAT stereotype/saying will break.

Above all else, I love the Wonderwife. She had a great pregnancy, an almost effortless labor and helped create a gorgeous baby girl. Her newfound mommy skills are kicking in and she is adjusting to her new role with ease. Her supportive role in the development of baby girl makes me love her even more.

Daphne

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Daphne, originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo.

Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

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My condolences to all of the football widows in losing your spouses to the idiot box to watch 22 guys go head to head on the gridiron. College football starts this weekend and the NFL will follow soon. I just completed my NFL fantasy football team and FINALLY have the killer team I’ve always wanted. All of the other chumps in my league might as well give me the trophy now and fight for second place.

On the college front, my beloved Sooners from the University of Oklahoma is recovering from a great but screwy 2006. Before the season began, two key players were kicked off the team due to NCAA violations. Coach Stoops did the right thing and OU still managed a great season. The Sooners got ducked over royally by Pac-10 officials against Oregon to suffer the first "loss". Everyone who hates OU but loves college football agrees that the game should have been given to OU as a result. The next loss came at the hands of Texas, at the Red River Rivalry. From there, Oklahoma managed to win out and play for the Big 12 championship (Texas lost too many times after that and OU took over). OU beat Nebraska soundly 21-7 to go on and play in the BCS Fiesta Bowl and wow what a game that was. This game was back & forth with Boise State going for the mother of all upsets against a perennial power and winning it 43-42. OU finishes out the year at 11-3*.

OU should have yet another good year despite losing great players like Heisman candidate Adrian Peterson. There are a few challenges this year that concern me. OU hosts Miami, Texas is always a threat and Oklahoma State is putting up some pig numbers offensively.

Major League Soccer is in full force.

Formula 1 racing is burning up the tracks with great competition between Ferrari and McLaren teams.

The rugby World Cup is being played in France 10 days from now and the USA Eagles never looked better. They don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades to defeat New Zealand or Austrailia but they should do very well. Finally. First match is against England. Ouch.

With the baby being born and family coming into town, my DVR is set to overdrive and will fill up quickly.

How was your Fantasy drafts? College picks, anyone? How many other people watch F1 racing, pro soccer and rugby besides me?

Combo Mojo

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I spend a lot of time on the internet. OK, make that a ginormous amount of time. I also contribute to the web frequently and in various fashions via text, photos, video etc. Even I can’t keep track of it all. I’ve found a way to pull more than a few of my content feeds together so people won’t HAVE to visit my websites, just this one. Yay!

Introducing, Combo Mojo: http://mojodenbow.tumblr.com/

The RSS feed is here: http://mojodenbow.tumblr.com/rss 

screenshot from Tumblr.com: 

2007-08-25_225136.png

Busted

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No, not me this time. I am innocent. Twice within a few hours we’ve had flying glass shards attack in the kitchen. The first incident involved a toaster oven. Since it has been so unreasonably hot, we don’t turn on the big oven, we delegate this to our small toaster oven. For reasons unknown to us, the glass shattered and continued to go off like popcorn. It is less than 6 months old, and nothing was touching the glass. Freaky.

The second glass incident involvedWonderwife moving some things around to organize the kitchen and knocked over a huge glass vase. Glass/shards/glass dust went everywhere. Glass in the kitchen, into the living room and even down the stairs to the basement.

Wonderwife enjoys her beverages in a plastic tumbler from now until the baby is born, thank you very much!

Pics below…

Back & Forth and Deja Vu All Over Again

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Office Space, originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo.

A few people may remember that I lost my job at the beginning of the year and found a better job shortly after that. Well, last week I found out that me and more than a few others were put on the cut list with the last day being August 15 (today).
But before that happened, I was able to have an internal transfer into another division. So tomorrow I am starting fresh and moving back across the street to the main building overlooking Inverness Lake.
So I am starting on my 3rd position this year in 2 different buildings. Craziness. At least I didn’t get laid off a month before the baby arrives. I have given thanks many times for this.

What do you have to be thankful for today?