John's Writings.com

This Blog has Moved!!!

2007-07-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

If you are linked to this blog, or, if you have this blog RSS feeding somewhere on your start page, please update it with the new address: http://john96021.wordpress.com

Once again, this is the last entry in this blog, all of the entries in this blog should have been transferred over to my new one and most of the comments as well. I'm only leaving this one up for traffic.

John Hunt
JohnsWritings.com

So, I stumbled in to an armed robbery last night !!!

2007-02-25T07:54:00.001-08:00

Last night, after work, I decided to gas up at Valero. I know the guy that works graveyard in there because I go in there a lot to pick up a beer or two after work. Today was a serious case of bad timing, or good timing, depending on how you look at it. Our local 7-11 was just robbed the other night, only the robber got away.. That time!
I turned on to main street to see a male running as fast as he could from the store, he was wearing all dark clothing and possibly a ski mask, or pantyhose on his head, I'm not absolutely sure. He ran in between two churches and he was moving so fast that I knew exactly what was going on without question. I took a quick look through the windows of the gas station and I didn't see the clerk and that made me worry, I hoped he didn't get shot. I turned the corner and hit my bright lights to find this guy.
I know what your thinking, it is dumb to chase after someone that just robbed a store, but what if the clerk would have been shot and I would have just drove on. The police never would have found this guy because nobody had a description of the car, or that he was even driving a car because he fled on foot. I would have had a guilty conscience for not doing anything in that situation.
It didn't take long to spot the guy because I had noticed the dome light come on in his car parked in the alley way behind the church, it was a small white car. I drove towards him and he to me, as he passed I looked right at him and he looked away and drove at a normal speed as if he was just another driver in the night. I drove around the block not to make it too obvious that I was watching him and I ended up in front of him. I drove at a normal speed to avoid raising his suspicion.
I knew that he didn't know that I was on to him until I made a sharp left and slid in to the police dept parking lot as I saw a cop running to his shiny black and white explorer. I already knew what he was in a hurry for so I slid up beside him and pointed.... that's the car, he knew exactly what I was referring to so he said thanks as he jumped back in and took off.
By the time he jumped in and took off the car had turned on a side street, luckily I shot straight through the alley and just happened to turn right behind the car again. By this time I wasn't going to lose him so I was right up on his bumper. My 35" tires were screeching as I rounded the corner and I think this might have tipped off the PD because they came up behind me out of nowhere and I pulled out of the way and pointed as they flew bye me, flipped on the sirens and the race was on. The bad guy is behind bars, that's all I can say at this time, it will make the news tomorrow I'm sure.
Enough said for now, until it becomes public news sometime tomorrow.

Scams-o-matic Transmission shop in Chico, Ca.

2007-02-23T00:43:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, my transmission started lightly slipping and I observed that it was leaking fluid from the space between the transmission and the transfer case (2000 F-150). I took it in to my local repair shop (Corning Auto Center) because they have a pretty good reputation, myself and several of my friends have been going there for years and they have always done us right. I'm a firm believer in talking good about local businesses when they treat you right.

Well, after Corning Auto checked it out, they had determined that I was correct and that the seal just needed replaced. Unfortunately, they didn't have a certain tool that was needed that had something to do with dropping the torsion bars, I don't know the exact tool or it's use so I won't try to quote it. Non the less they didn't charge me a dime for looking at it, and they even added a couple of courts of fluid to it and didn't charge me for that either. (good guy's I'd say)

Since they were unable to do the job they recommended that I take it to a transmission shop in Chico that rhymes with scams-o-matic. I called and talked to one of them on the phone and told him that the seal needed replaced and I told him everything that Corning Auto had told me. He instantly started off bad mouthing them and saying that it was a very simple job, he then told me that he's not surprised that they couldn't fix it bla bla bla...

He said that it should only cost a couple hundred bucks to replace that seal, I said wow, only a couple hundred bucks, I'll bring it over right now. <-- I wasn't being sarcastic at all, I really did think that was a good price, I still think it would have been. Let's move on... So I dropped the truck off and drove back to Corning. The next day I called them and the male receptionist said that it's going to be 2400.00 to fix the truck.

HUH!?!? 2400 to replace a seal?

No, we have to replace the transmission.

What's wrong with the transmission? It was shifting and operating smooth.

You ran it low on fluid and it needs replaced.

Needs replaced? It was a little low on fluid because of the leaky seal, not way low, just a little, it was operating and shifting just fine, it just needs a new seal, can't you just install a new seal?

We can do a patch job on it and replace the seal, but you are going to need a new transmission and the replacing the seal is going to run you 300.00 plus parts so you might as well replace the transmission if you plan on keeping it, specially since your truck has so many miles on it. I'm on lunch right now, will you call me back at 1:15?

Sure.

So, I thought about that for a few minutes and called up an older friend (who is not a transmission specialist) but did do this line of work for many years for local large dealers. I told him what I was told on the phone and he said let's drive over there and fill it full of fluid and drive it around the block a few times and see how it feels, sounds, and shifts. 2400 is a lot of money to replace something that we arrent sure is even broken.

We drove over there and he waited in the parking lot and I walked in to the office, I was not mad or even in a bad mood, I'm a pretty mellow person that hates drama and I was very polite and not even slightly sarcastic in any way. I told the male receptionist that I wanted to fill the truck with tranny fluid and drive it around the block a few times and listen to it, that way I can make up my mind if I want to pay $2400.00 to replace the transmission, or just pay the $300.00 + parts to replace the seal.

Was there anything wrong with the above statement? I don't see anything wrong with it, they certainly should not have been offended by any of that. One would think that it is perfectly okay to want to test drive the truck before paying a shop 2400.00 for a new transmission, I mean after all, I brought it in because of a leak, not direct transmission problems.

The guy said no problem and walks through the door and tells the mechanic that the owner wants to make sure that it is topped off with fluid and test drive it in order to determined as to whether he wants us to replace the transmission, or just the seal.

Here is where my mood is about to change, I heard the piece of shit mechanic yell, “Why?!?” and them make a loud CCHHHHAAAAA!!!!! sound. As if the owner (that's me) is a total idiot because I didn't just whip out my wallet and pay them 2400.00 for a transmission but instead, how dare I question them that it is bad.

But guess what? I'm still not pissed off.... I knew that he didn't know that I heard him do that and who knows, maybe he's just having a bad day or something. So I walked around to the side of the shop and I saw the mechanic walking towards my truck, apparently he didn't know that the guy standing in the lot was my friend that had came with me, because my friend walked over to me and said that right before I came out, this mechanic came walking out with his head down and he said very rudely, “This guy is fucking with us!”, and he was referring to me being “this guy”.

First off, it's very unprofessional to get an attitude with your customers. Second, I wasn't fucking with anybody, I was just wanting to make sure that I needed a new transmission before forking out 2400.00. I lifted my hood and my friend (who didn't even know what was going on other then the fact that a rude mechanic was talking crap about me) reached in to pull my out the dipstick and see how low I was on tranny fluid. It turns out I wasn't that low, but this apparently really pissed off the mechanic with a stick up his arse so he threw his hands up in the air like a little bitch and walked back in to his shop. How dare we get in his way.

My friend and I has decided to go get our own fluid from Wally world and add it ourself, no big woop, so I locked up my truck and we started to drive away in my other vehicle when another guy comes out with a piece of paper and says, “Here is our estimate for the transmission.” I told him that I don't need it because I'm done doing business here and you can tell your rude mechanic to fuck off! <--That was the redneck in me. By this time I had that trembling adrenaline feeling going on and really wanted to open up a can. I realize that's a very immature thing to say, but sometimes it's easy to lose control of your maturity when your really angry.

We went to wally world and picked up two courts of transmission fluid, came back to their parking lot and added a quart and drove the truck home. When we arrived home we were short a half quart. It has a simple leak, the transmission is fine, it is shifting fine, there is no burnt smell it discoloration on the dipstick. I have a freaking leak, and they were going to install a transmission and charge me 2400.00 for it.

You know, it wasn't the fact that they were trying to sell me a 2400.00 part that I didn't need that really torques my shorts, it's that rude fat guy that claims to be a mechanic came out of there bad mouthing me when Idid nothing to deserve it.
There, I feel better now!

Careful where you shop..... for transmission work. .02

An 80-year-old man went to his doctor...

2007-02-20T03:12:00.000-08:00

An 80-year-old man went to his doctor for his quarterly check-up. The doctor asked him how he was feeling and the 80-year-old said, "Things are great and I've never felt better. I now have a 20 year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. So what do you think about that?"

The doctor considered his question for a minute and then began. "I have an older friend, much like you, who is an avid hunter and never misses a season. One day when he was setting off hunting, he was in a bit of a hurry and accidentally picked up his walking cane instead of his gun. As he neared a lake he came across a very large male beaver sitting at the water's edge. He realized he'd left his gun at home and so couldn't shoot the magnificent creature but out of habit he raised his cane, aimed it at the animal as if it were his favorite hunting rifle and went 'bang,bang'. Miraculously, two shots rang out and the beaver fell over dead. Now, what do you think of that?" asked the doctor.

The 80-year-old said, "If you ask me, I'd say somebody else pumped a couple of rounds into that beaver."

The doctor replied, "My point exactly".

I don't care who ya are.. That's funny Right there!

I haven't written very much in my blog lately. I mainly blame my absence of blog entries on my laziness and the weather. It has been so nice here in Northern California that I have been spending most of my time outdoors. It's not that exciting things haven't been happening around here, I just haven't taken the time to write about them.

Just for kicks; I will pretend that you are all interested in what's going on in my life and I will give you a quick update on some of my many personalities.

THE NERD ME:
I've been building a PLC Trainer. I'm creating a Working demonstration model of a Modicon Compact a984-145 Programmable Logic Controller. I will use this to teach people how to setup, install, and program PLC's. I will also teach people whom are interested how to write programs in Ladder Logic. I'm not going to bore you with the details of what PLC's Are. I'll just say that they play a very important rule in Industrial Automation and Controls. If you want to know more... just ask, and I doubt that you will :-)

THE REDNECK ME:
So, Wednesday, I took my wife out to Dinner and we played some slots at the casino. Thursday morning the weather was so nice that I spent the first half of the day playing around outside, drinking beer and cleaning up the yard and so on.
Well, then I get a call, and a few friends want me to meet them at the casino. I told them that I didn't really want to go because I had just spent several hours out there last night and I've been drinking beer all day so I've already polished off a 12 pack. I do not like to go out with friends after drinking all day because they always try to bring on a drinking contest and I have a major disadvantage when I'm already drunk before we get there. See my logic?
Several hours later...
So there we are, seven or eight of us piled around a table in the bar at the casino. We have been cut off several times (Casino's don't like loud drunks). I've now consumed the 12 pack at home plus four more beers, three coma cozies, one alabama slammer, one strait shot of tequila , and then... I don't remember what I had after that.
I didn't get a hangover, and I didn't get sick, but I still have some regrets. One of them being that I whipped it out in the parking lot and took a leak, um... and apparently this was spotted on surveillance, because we were approached by a security officer with no since of humor what so ever. We handled the situation in a professional matter, we told him "were sorry and we won't do it again ossifur" as we piled in the car and drove away. NO I WASN'T DRIVING!

THE MR. NICE GUY ME:
I have a CB friend whom lives in a small place a few miles away. He uses wood heat, and he had mentioned that he was running low on wood. Actually, he had plenty of wood because I gave him a bunch and dropped it off at his place, oh, and I stacked it for him too. But he told me that some of it was cut too long to fit in his wood stove. Poor guy!
Being the "nice guy" that I am, I loaded the chainsaw in to the back of my Jeep and went over and cut some wood for him. Now, just as I had finished the job, he comes trotting out of his house with a chainsaw just like mine and fires it up! Umm, and he needed me because?
I didn't say anything, but I had a chuckle on the way home, for some reason I find that incredibly funny, if you knew this guy then you would too!
BTW: (If you travel with a chainsaw... You might be a redneck) <--Not so funny, but fact!

THE MR. NICE GUY ME: X2
Last night, a friend of mine called me up at 1:36 in the morning and asked me if I would help him pull his daughters car out of a ditch. No problem, I said. When I arrived at the scene it turned out that she had totaled the car, it wasn't stuck in the mud, it was stuck nose first in the side of an embankment, ha!
Nobody was hurt, other then some scuffs and scrapes, the duel airbags fired like a charm.
So, here it comes again... Being the "nice guy" that I am, I towed it back to my place and it is sitting on the back side of my property. Actually, it's setting very close to my redneck burn pile. I'm not sure what he plans on doing with it yet, anybody want a totaled Honda?
Maybe I'll post a picture of it here in the blog.

Well, it's 5:30 in the morning. I haven't been to sleep yet and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. I've already written too much, so much that you will not likely read this far down anyway so I can probably say anything that I want about your mother and you would never know it because you probably stopped reading way back at the first few lines of PLC talk.

I'm out!

John

Prejudiced people..

2007-02-03T03:20:00.000-08:00

Ya know the Jeff Foxworthy jokes "If you.....Bla bla bla... You might be a redneck"?
Well, I'm a redneck, I'm not ashamed of that. I fit right in to most of those redneck jokes. I should have taken a picture of my Jeep Wrangler up on blocks under my carport a while back. It was when my ring and pinion went out. It was surrounded by Beer cans and a BBQ grill in arms reach.. Oh, and I had a freezer next to that BBQ full of meat that I had butchered from right here on my property. But wait, there's more! I also keep a burn barrel out there so that when friends come over we can sit around that burn barrel to keep warm while we talk about random redneck things, and of course CB radio. After a few brews some of those friends stories get so big that you just have to nod your head to prevent hurting their feelings. Are you convinced that I'm a redneck yet? I could go on... Would I make this stuff up?

Part of being a redneck is talking on a CB radio. I'm also a licensed Ham Radio operator, but I mostly prefer to talk on the 11 meter band (Citizens Band) radio. When you talk on the CB radio the odds that you will be talking to 'other rednecks' are about as likely as finding a fly on a cow turd in the summertime.
I listen to the CB while playing on the computer several hours a day. Between the two, I find myself fully entertained. One major problem that I have with the CB is that some of my redneck friends are prejudiced. I can't stand hearing people judging people by the color of their skin. It just bothers me. I was not raised this way and when I hear them rambling on 'niggers' this, and 'niggers' that, it makes me embarrassed for them. I usually just turn the radio off.
I'm really surprised how many prejudiced people there are out there. I hear it all the time at work, at the store, it's hard to avoid the crap, here is my .02 on the matter...

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Thank you,
That's my rant for the day... Am I right or am I just being too sensitive? You decide!

BTW: I have completed my refresh course on controls. Now I'm ready to drop in to the nearest nuclear plant and re-write the ladder logic for their PLC's (Programmable Logic Controllers).

-John

Donny is now censoring my comments in his blog?

2007-01-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well?

Enough said for now!

Trouble on the Hunt Ranch!

2006-12-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

My son and his friends are always doing something stupid and getting themselves in to trouble. Why, why, why? I understand that (at his age) it is normal to do things like the things that I'm about to mention. I occasionally did smiler things myself, but after getting in trouble I learned from my mistakes and moved on. My son, however, doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes and he is building a history of repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I'm debating as to weather I need to come up with a new form of punishment. It appears that what I'm doing just doesn't work with him. I may need some help on this one.

A short while back, I took a walk around the property and found that my kids had took the pruning sheers and made an attempt at pruning some trees, about 20 of them. They must have worked for a couple hours at it judging by the amount of brush that they left all over the ground. My poor trees did nothing to deserve this. It wasn't the attempt at pruning the trees that made me so angry, it was the hitting them with hammers and scaring them up for no reason that angered me. Oh, and cutting a 4 foot hole in the hedges so that they can walk through them... ERRRR!!!! I made the kids take all that brush and walk it around to the burn pile a couple acres away, all of it! There was two weeks of groundation to follow, with no video games, no computer, and no company.
Here's the problem, I felt bad for (my son) after a week, so I decided to let him work off his other week by hauling wood and stacking it. That's my fault!

A week or so after that incident, I had discovered that my wife had let my son buy a BB gun from wal-mart. I informed her that I feel that he is not mature enough for a BB Gun yet, and that I don't think he should have one, "he'll put somebody's eye out" I said. My wife gave me the "he's 12 years old", give him some credit, "he isn't a baby anymore" lecture.
I cringed my teeth and said you'll see, I have a bad feeling about this one.

Two days later I had discovered that he had shot the window out of one of our out buildings. I was so ticked off that I couldn't talk. I was so mad that, in fact, that I didn't talk. I decided to wait a day or so before telling anybody that I had noticed the window so that I would have time to cool off and handle the situation in a non aggressive way. I called him outside and told him the story about how I wanted to confiscate the gun, but mom said that I shouldn't do it. I told him that I'm not mad about the window because I knew that it was doing to happen and so by letting it happen, I feel just as responsible for it happening as he is for doing it. He said it was an accident and promised to be more careful and I believed him.

Two days ago I found a hammer on the ground outside. I hate it when the kids use my tools and leave them all over the property. I find tools clear out in the field when I'm on the tractor. Why would a kid need a damn pair of vice grips out in an open field? Anyway, I look at the closest tree next to the hammer and my son had hammered a bunch of nails in to it for no reason, not to make a tree fort, or anything like that, but just for the hell of it. I brought him outside and told him how disappointed I was that he didn't learn his lesson about defacing the property out here. I explained to him that I work full time in order for us to afford to live here and he is being totally disrespectful to me by doing things like this. "Sorry dad"

Well, last night I has a visit from my neighbor. Guess what! My son and his friend went over to my closest neighbors property and shot the windows out of his cars. Not one, but two of them. Two cars that is, several windows. I guess the groundation thing isn't working out very well, I don't think my son is learning his lesson. I'm so angry right now you would not believe.

For the record, my closest neighbor is many acres away, he doesn't actually live there, he has a shop there on his property where he repairs race cars and tinkers. The two cars were not his every day cars, they were two cars that have been sitting for a year or so, but they were nun the less his cars on his property and they has no broken windows a few days ago. Oh, and one was a truck, now you have the facts.

I'm holding off with punishment long enough to get some advice and opinions from others... What do you all think? The redneck side of me wants to spank some ass right now, but the softer side just think that I need to find a creative and intelligent way of dealing with this parenting problem that I'm facing.

I'm open to suggestions!

The Apple iPod is the 'Best Foods' of Mayonnaise!

2006-12-16T01:07:00.000-08:00

John,

I have a question for you on ipods. I want to know how to download and hear music. (without ITunes) is that possible?

Troy

--------------------------

Troy,

First off, iPods are gods gift to music. I could not live without one, it is as handy as a microwave oven. The iPod is the 'Firefox' of web browsers, it is the 'Best Foods' of Mayonnaise, it is the 'Snap-On' of tools, are you picking up what I'm laying down?

Now, with that being said...

You will likely need iTunes in order to sync with your iPod. There may be some iTunes clones out there, but I don't know of them. However, You don't have to pay for your music. There are two ways to import music in to iTunes without buying it.

1. Take all of your music CD's and insert them in to your computer one at a time, with in minutes iTunes will rip them and turn them in to MP3's and then send them to your iPod as well.

2. Download MP3's via other software such as limewire, and then just highlight them and drag them in to the iTunes window. iTunes will add them as if they were downloaded.

If you do buy music through iTunes then it will only let you burn a certain amount of Music CD's with each song because the songs are encrypted. The work around for this is to Burn the purchased songs to a CD, delete the original purchased files, then, put the burned CD back in and iTunes will think it is an original music CD from your collection and thus it will import it into iTunes with no encryption.

Better try that with only one song at first to make sure that they didn't fix that on a recent iTunes update.

Another handy hack is called Copypod. Copypod is a handy little program that will allow you to export all of your music from iTunes, and then save it as a backup, or share it with a friend that recently bought an iPod and doesn't have any music, he can import your entire music collection to his iTunes and then of course it will sync with his new iPod and he will have a ton of music.

If I were you I wouldn't try to avoid iTunes, it is a very handy program. Like everything else with the apple name on it, it is quality. Of course some of what I mentioned above is considered illegal but I wouldn't feel too guilty about doing it considering that I suffered a hard drive crash a while back and I called apple and told them what happened and asked them how I could take the songs off from my iPod and put them back in my newly installed iTunes on my new hard drive. There answer was that "it can't be done". I said I legitimately paid for hundreds of songs and now they are lost forever? "yep", I said nope, I will find a way around it, and I did.

Actually, I found two ways around it but I will only give one of those ways as I'm probably begging for a law suit already. This email is also going to be posted in my blog. The work around for transferring the songs from your iPod back to your hard drive is by plugging in and accessing your iPod via windows explorer, it will appear as a hard drive. Click on that folder or drive and highlight it, now click on 'tools' in windows explorer, then select 'folder options' and then 'view'. Now put a check mark next to show hidden files and folders. Now when you click on your iPod in windows explorer and explore the contents in the folders you will find your music. I prefer the Copypod method however, because copypod remembers all of the data that goes along with your music, your rating, the artist title, and so on.

Hope this helps. I will also post this email in my blog which can be found at www.johnswritings.com

Things sure aren't the same without you in the work environment, let me tell yah!

Talk to you later,

John

Chuck E Cheeses... Save the Robots!

2006-12-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

This blog entry will not get many comments.. and it will bore the hell out of nearly everyone who reads it. Don't say that you haven't been warned.
--------------
My personality is strongly characterized in to two categories... The Redneck category and the Nerd category. For the past several days I have been in 'nerd' mode.
Let me explain...
When I was kid, around age 10 or so, I would love to go to Chuck E Cheeses Pizza Time Theater in Chico, Ca. It wasn't the Pizza that I enjoyed so much, it was the animatronics. I love robotics, controls, automation, and industrial machinery. That is why I love my job as a "Industrial Mechanic" today; because I love working on that stuff. Oops, I leaped to the present, OK! Back to age 10.

At age 10, I would sit and stair at those animatronic puppets for hours while my friends were all off playing video games. I was fascinated by them. I wanted to know what was under those costumes. I wanted to know what the control systems looked like in the back room. It would have made my week if I could have been taken on a quick tour to the control room back then to see what made those boogers tick.
The Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. It's not doing so well today, in fact, I'm sorry to say that I don't believe that there are too many of them left in existence. Up here in northern California there is still one in Chico, and one in Redding that I know of.

As of the last time I visited the Chico store it didn't look very busy. I'm surprised that it is still open and I will be even more surprised if it stays that way very much longer. The Chico store used to sport what I believed was a 2nd generation stage of The Pizza Time Players, it could have been first gen, I'm not sure. They were some nice vintage animatronics. It has been a while since I have visited that store and they may have converted to the more modern Rock-afire Explosion stage of animatronics which I believe was made by "Aaron Fechter" a true animatronic guru. I spoke with him earlier today via email. Talk about a dream job.

I spent some time in the Redding store tonight after hearing a rumor from a friend. Rumor had it that the Redding store was closing and selling everything in the building because they were opening a brand new store with modern animatronics across town somewhere. I'm guessing that when they said "modern" animatronics that they were referring to the Rock-afire Explosion stage.
I also talked to the owner of that store tonight and confirmed the rumor, however, he is not aloud to sell any of the animatronics because of some contract with CEC. He said that he will likely destroy them... EEEK! I tried talking him out of it but he apparently isn't hurting for money and he must fear the CEC people will chop off his arm if he were to let them go to a good home, such as my home!
RIP robots :-(
If I could, I would find the dumpster and salvage the parts :-(

You think I'm crazy huh? Well there are many more just like me. There are clubs and millionaires that buy out these animatronic stages and set them up in their houses. One man owns like 8 different complete stages with the lighting, curtains and all. Check out THIS WEB SITE full of nerds just like me.

One of my favorite machines was a 8 foot tall singing, guitar playing Elvis impersonator called "The King". This scary looking beast could be found in the Chico store many years ago, but disappeared and was replaced by a big screen TV. The Elvis character was pretty cool because as the machine was dead and lifeless in between shows it would pop open one eye and look around for a second and then go back to sleep. I thought that was the coolest. I'm guessing that was an intentional tone in the programming, but it could have been a pneumatic problem also. Those machines were ran by air and the valves would often stick, I could hear the air compressor running in the back room between shows. Aaron Fechter created the control system for that machine also.

I found one on eBay about 8 months ago and it only went for about two grand. It was complete and in fully working condition. Identical to the one that used to be in the Chico store. I wish I would have bought it, but my wife wasn't so happy about the idea of spending that kind of money on a 8 foot animated teddy bear. I should have done it anyway.

In the early 80's, these pneumatic machines were ran by valves opening and closing, control boards, and reel to reel players for the music. I think they may have been upgraded to a bank of 8 track tapes that started on que, but don't quote me on it.
Today, I believe that the more modern Rock-afire Explosion puppets are controlled by a controller called the "Chris Thrash controller" or "Thrash Controller". Again, don't quote me. This controller consists of a control board for each puppet in the show, a power supply, and an iPod. That's right, they are controlled by an iPod. Aaron Fechter has created a way to put both the music, and the motion programming in to a MP3 player format that loads on to the iPod. Much more modern then a reel to reel or a bank of 8 track tapes. Very cool indeed!

So today I emailed Aaron and asked him why he chose not to create a pc software based controller in a time line format. This would make it easy to program the shows by just about anybody. I'm referring to software similar to the LOR (Light-o-rama) software that is used to produce modern xmas light shows.
His reply was that it is all about cost and reliability and specs. After all, his controller has two boards in it, why add a computer to that?
I guess that makes perfect since. Computers aren't yet stable enough for most industrial applications anyway, that's why we use plc's (programmable logic controllers) instead. PLC's are capable of performing the same task repeatedly day in and day out for years and years without a single error. They are reliable work horses and you can count on them. If you have ever visited a theme park then you have counted on them. Could you imagine running the drop zone on a pc running windows... EEEEK!!! You might as well jump. (lol)

Here are my last words..
SAVE THE ROBOTS IN REDDING... THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE DESTROYED! They are vintage, they are history, they are cool.

-----------

I told you that you would be bored to death. Maybe next time you will listen!

John

"Letters from a Skeptic" -by Gregory & Edward Boyd

2006-12-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Last night, at midnight to be exact, My friend Donny showed up to my door with a brand new hard copy of a book called "Letters from a Skeptic". This book was purchased for me, and mailed to Donny to bring to me. With the thought in mind that someone that I have never met took the time and money to purchase this book and mail it out just for me was pretty flattering.
Because of this effort that was put fourth by a total stranger, I dove in to this book with the determination to read the entire book weather or not I believe any of it's content, or weather or not I feel that it is a total waste of words.
Nearly three hours later.. I had to put the book down knowing that I had to go to work the next day (today). I had already read half of the book. I'm devouring this book like candy, I can't get enough of it. I can't get over the fact that the very same questions that Edward Boyd has written are the exact questions that I had asked earlier in my blog. And the majority of the answers that were given by his son Gregory Boyd are satisfactory to me. I have to work for the next four days, so I won't have time to finish it until Wednesday, but I'm looking forward to continue reading where I had left off.
I take pride in the fact that I call it as I see it. If I didn't care too much for this book then I would have not hesitated in saying so. I believe that honesty is a virtue, even to non believers. This book is like an early Christmas present. I can't say enough how much I'm getting out of it.
I want to thank 'John Smulo' for sending it to me.
I highly recommend this book to people as myself that are agnostic. You will get logical answers to your questions. I will keep you posted on my final thoughts on this book when I finish it. So far, at half way point, it is fantastic.
Here is a fact that you will find hard to believe. Even though I'm a good reader, I have only read 2 books in my entire life. I read web pages, I read magazines, but I can only read things that I'm strongly interested in or my eyes keep following along with the words and my mind changes channels without even notifying me. Next thing I know, I'm half way down the page and have no clue even as to where I had left off.
I do not have that problem with this book due to my strong interest in it's content.
Thanks again John for sending this book to a total stranger.

I may have some more questions at the end of this book, I'll have to wait and see.

John

Keep'n it Short & Sweet.

2006-12-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in this blog for a while because there really hasn't been much new and exciting to write about. It's pretty tough to come up with anything really exciting to top my last entry about my door handle. '-)

Seriously though...
Last night we lit up a bond fire. Donny and Belinda came down and we drank beer and kicked back around the fire. Did I mention how much I enjoy living in the country? Last night I told Donny "I bet you forgot to bring that book down again" referring to the (letters from a skeptic) book that was sent to him for me quite a while back. He said "nope, it's in the car" but I have a feeling that it is still in his car today, and he is back at home... In Redding!
Maybe we can all pressure him in to mailing it to me or something.

This morning I woke up alone, the kids were in school, and the wife was at work. I flipped through the channels and ended up accidentally watching a very good movie called "A Perfect Stranger" by Danielle Steel. I love those sappy love stories... My gay?

Anyways...
I haven't worked out in two day's, therefore, the guilt is kicking in. I'm hitting the gym tonight for sure. I just finished not one but 'two' tuna and avocado sandwiches. Sounds nasty? Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's like pouring peanuts in coke and drinking it while eating the peanuts at the same time. It's actually really good.

I'm thinking about taking on a second job. Two thought's just rolled through my head while writing this update. Number one, my hat makes a really good fly swatter. Number two, it makes no since that I have three days off from work, every week, and I chose to spend the first 3/4 of each of them doing absolutely nothing. Then I spend a couple hours in the evening at the gym to make up for my lack of physical activity during the first 3/4 of the day. I need to keep busier during my days off. A second job might help. I just may give it a try.

Well, I'll keep it short and sweet. -John

Door handle update..

2006-11-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Remember when I wrote that tragic story about my door handle a while back? If not then CLICK HERE and read it, then come back and finish reading this.

Okay, Here is an update!

I had a friend order me a new exterior handle two weeks ago, he gets a better deal because he works for a dealer so I'm getting it for $70.00 instead of $120.00, not bad. Keep in mind that I'm still driving in and out of the mud and mush that I call a driveway. And, I'm still climbing in and out through the passenger door! My Jeep is still lifted so I'm covering my mid section in mud every time I do this. Therefore, I'm still taking a mud bath each and every day :-(
But hey... good news, so I though!
When I came home from work a few nights ago, the box was sitting on my desk, FINALLY!
NOPE! It couldn't be that easy, it was the wrong part. I needed a drivers side door handle and I came home to find a passengers side handle. Today, we discovered that newer model jeeps use the same handles, only on the opposite doors of the jeep. Therefore, when ordering a handle for my WranglerYJ, I have to order a passengers side handle for my drivers side, and vise versa. Confused yet? Me too!
I have a passengers side handle showing up this evening, if it fits, I will be one happy camper.
I'll keep you (my millions of readers) posted :-)

-John

UPDATE: 10:29 AM 12/1/2006
It works :-)

I now have an exterior door handle on my Jeep. This is world breaking news... I'm jumping on a plane in a few minutes where I will be speaking live about my door handle in front of a very large audience. I may also have a book coming out soon. I'll keep 'yah posted!

John

Some peoples kids :-(

2006-11-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, as I was coming home from town, I encountered a very late model black mustang flying around the corner totally out of control. It swerved severely left and right and nearly rolled. Tires were screeching and this guy could have killed himself, or someone else.
Just after all that going down, I had realized that my kids walk home every other day down that very rode. It made me so angry at the time that I spun around and followed him with the intent of ripping him out of his pretty little car and slapping him back to reality.
After following him for two blocks he parked his car in front of the High School and started walking across the street. It was obvious that he couldn't have been over 16 years old and I really didn't want to go to jail for roughing up someone's kid. I went to the police department instead, and was going to report what has happened and the location of the black mustang with the last three digits of "300" on the license plate.

When I arrived at the police department two things came to mind.
1. The police won't do anything because it is hearsay.
2. I was 16 once and did the same thing.

What if he was trying to be cool and nearly lost control and scared the crap out of himself. Then someone twice his size puts the smack down on him. Maybe it wouldn't have been the right thing to do.
It just pushed my button because my kids could have been walking on that road 30 minutes or so later.
There I feel better now that I released some anger. :-)
-John

HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING!

2006-11-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my Friday. I'm off from work for the next few days. I drank many beers last night and woke up early this morning. No headache, in fact, I was feeling pretty good.

So anyway, I jumped on the tractor and hooked on to the disk. Next thing I know I'm disking up some of the property. I had no intention of doing this, it was a spontaneous decision.

While disking away, a few thoughts ran through my head...

1. I'm so lucky to be here right now, it's such a nice day, city people really don't know what they are missing.

2. Hey, there's my nephews missing shoe... Damn dogs!

3. Shit, I'm stuck!

HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING!

John's Reviews - a spamming experiment!

2006-11-18T03:19:00.000-08:00

I realize that most of the readers who may accidentally stumble in to this blog have never even heard of "Corning, California".
So why would I take the time to write this blog entry?
Because... I know that search engines suck up key words from my blog.
Since that be the case, I just 'might' eventually get some comments from local people (and some animals) that find my blog via this post.
_______________________________________
My reviews of some GREAT local businesses...

Need auto parts?
I've found that Kragen Auto Parts has the lowest pricing around. They will not only price match, but they will beat all others pricing by 5% guaranteed. I like that!
Also, you don't have to wait in line like in 'other' local auto parts stores.

Coffee?
I can't help but to preach Starbucks. I realize that they charge a ridiculous amount of money for a cup of coffee, but hey, some things are worth it.

Does your car need some attention?
Dickie Kings Corning Auto Center is the lowest price in Corning on auto repair, more importantly, they are also the most 'honest' in the business. This is not just based on my own opinions or experience, this opinion is shared with most of the town.

What ever you do, do not take a "short drive" to any certain large dealer in town to get your car worked on. I've had a bad experience with the "good ole boys".

Got tires?
Bob's Tire is the best in Corning when it comes to honesty, pricing, and customer satisfaction. It's a small place with a two man operation, but they sure beat their competition which I have previously mentioned.

Hungry?
I saved the best for last... FOOD!

In this small town of "Corning" food is not available. You can't get it here, don't even try.
Okay, we do have a local Casa Ramos if you like Mexican food. I must admit that they are really good. Other then that If you want 'good' food then you are going to have to travel to Chico or Redding.

I should confess that my opinions are biased. I like Chinese, Asian, and Sea food. My wife hates it, she prefers Mexican food. I think she's having an affair with a Mexican. Raul?

My favorite place in Chico is Kwando. (..again, my opinions are biased). Kwando serves some interesting stuff, "chicken feet" for example. I eat it all. They have a sushi bar, it's pretty good, but not as fresh as most.
I looooove....... Sushi!
I don't eat it very often because it is so dang expensive. My friend Donny has taken us out for sushi a few times. It is delicious, but nearly $250.00 for one meal seems a bit expensive to me. I try to keep it under 50 bucks for the wife and I. If it is a special occasion such as our anniversary then I can justify up to 150 bucks for dinner, tops! My cheap?
Kwando is an "all you can eat" Chinese, Asian buffet with a sushi bar. I'd give it a 7 1/2 out of 10 on my personal rating system. (which "I" haven't even figured out yet! :-)

If you should stumble in to Redding then you must stop off and eat at the Grand Buffet. We drive to Redding all the time just to eat there. That's an hour drive from here so it must be good food right? It is!
The grand buffet offers the same food as Kwando only they offer more of a selection, and the food tastes even better. Oh, and the sushi is fresher. I love that place.

If your in to fine dining, or if your wanting to take that special someone out and impress her then disregard the above. In that case you should go to a more expensive place for sure. But if you are out and about shopping or something and if you get hungry, those two places offer really good Chinese/Asian food.

One more place in Redding that you may want to try out. This one is for those of you whom are 'sick minded' and think that Chinese/Asian food is disgusting. It's called Jeff's California Cattle Co. They have the biggest and the best burgers that money can buy. I challenge anybody to come up with a place that makes bigger burgers. I'm not over exadurating by saying that the burgers are as big as a birthday cake. I ate "The Forman" which is the second size down from the biggest, I regretted it and decided that I would never show off and attempt to do such act again.
If you want to blow the mind of a co-worker or family member, take them to Jeff's California Cattle Company and ask for the bigg'un!

__________________________________

There, now, since I did keep it honest up above, let me throw in a few key words here... This is just a one time experiment so don't think that I'm going to start spamming my blog or anything like that.
corning corning, ca 96021 530 824- olive pit bell carter rodgers theatre java lanes rolling hills casino John Daly Signature golf Course maywood school solano truck stop olive view olive city alumni classmate classmates friends haunted ghost ufo sightings property business realty woodson bridge park
I do not expect this experiment to work right away, it will take some time for search engine robots to pick it up. Please do me a favor, if you have found this blog entry by a search engine such as google then please let me know by commenting below. I will also track this via a web counter.
To read my blog CLICK HERE!

Thanks,
-John

$1500.00 Brake Job!

2006-11-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

John's Disclaimer:
The content that is published in this blog contain rumors, speculation, assumptions, opinions, and factual information. Postings may contain erroneous or inaccurate information. I do not insure the accurateness of any content presented on JohnsWritings.com

les snob tires. <--Notice I didn't capitalize :-)
Oh boy, I can smell a law suit coming..

I have spent several thousand dollars at my local les snob in the past year or so. I have three cars sitting in my driveway at this moment and all of them have brand new tires and custom rims on them.
When I drive in there, they should be huffing and puffing to help me out, I would think. My experience with them has been quite the opposite. This wasn't always the case though, this local store was once under different management and it was an excellent place. That manager (I think) has transfered to the Red Bluff store. Good guy, bald man! I don't remember his name, but he had always remembered mine.

First off, the prices are far too high!
My wife mentioned to me that the brakes on the truck were starting to make a raspy noise the other day. I was thinking "oh no", I hope the rotors are okay. When you start hearing that raspy sound it's time to replace the pads, if not then the rotors will go next (that's more expensive).

She took it in to snob tires and I received a phone call that morning.
I refuse to quote them to protect my own butt, it went something similar to this...

THEM: It's going to run you around $1500.00 sir.
ME: HUH? For a brake job? 1500?
THEM: You need all new pads, all new rotors, new calipers, and all new ball joints.
ME: WTF? Don't do anything, put it back together and park it out front. I'll pick it up.

Well I was already too late, the wife had already approved the brake job on the front. I'm not trying to make my wife sound dumb. She, like most females, has minimal knowledge of working on cars. They had replaced the calipers, the rotors, and the pads.
Total cost for "front" brake job... $420.00

Did the rotors and calipers really need replaced? I seriously doubt it.
The pads needed replaced, the rotors likely needed spun, 15.00 at Napa auto parts. I'm not going to continue ranting.. let me just say this. I believe that they just 'might' take advantage of females sometimes.

I did the rear brake job myself last night.
My wifes truck "Ford F150 4x4 5.4 triton V8" has disk brakes all around, this means that the front brakes and assembly are the same as the rear.
I found that the calipers and the right rear rotor were in fine shape. The pads were obviously in need of replacement, and the left rear rotor was pretty rough. I could have taken it to Napa this morning and had it spun for $15.00, but instead, since I was in a hurry, I decided to just buy a new one from Kragen Auto, so I did! $50.00. I also bought new pads for the rear, $24.00. The job took me 45 minutes.

My total for the rear brake job..... less then $85.00
Les Snob's total for the front brake job.... $420.00

I'm not claiming to know all there is to know about brake jobs. I'm an 'Industrial Mechanic', not an 'auto Mechanic'.
I'm not a 'veterinarian' either.. but I know a horses A$$ when I smell one.

I know, I'm being a crybaby. It just seems to me that they are over pricing parts and worse yet replacing them unnecessarily, thus taking advantage of people.. but maybe not!

I have several other les snob stories that I could mention right about now, but I will refrain from doing so because I want this blog to focus more on the positive things in life and less on the negative.

-John

"bunch of bible thumpin going on."

2006-11-16T02:14:00.000-08:00

The following email was sent to me from an old friend that I went to school with.....

--------------------------

Hey, just checked out two of your pages and I gotta say, bunch of bible thumpin going on. I don't know about that. I am not much on the whole religion in the Christianity or Catholic aspect of it. I have a totally different outlook on the subject. I think the bible contradicts itself in too many parts and I don't trust it. I think the most of the people who wrote the books of the bible may have exaggerated and possibly took too much opium before writing about what they witnessed. But if you have questions maybe I can help you a little here and a little there, I have read the bible thoroughly from front to back. Not skipping around or anything. If you want to know then read from the beginning and don't stop till you get to the end. You will see that the books and stories all say the same thing and really don't have a purpose other than to bring the reader in. Kinda like a Stephen King book. LOL.

Anyways, I was gonna post alot of stuff on your page but thought that I might piss a few of your friends off. If you want another way of looking at the bible then read on....

Point #1

The bible is written by many authors on the same subjects(More or less). Why?

Possible to make it seem as though it is real? If more than one person is saying it is so then perhaps it is. Or, could it be that in fact they all did witness the happenings and miracles. Base it on the facts: Back then, if someone said the sky was falling all the people would run and hide. So it must be true if two people said it. Another fact: Bible says Jesus is the son of God, but so was David, so was Adam, so when the bible says John 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.....so on so on.... it only concludes that Jesus was just the newest son of God for everyone to talk about. Thus, like a soap opera booms into a long and inspiring new rumor.

Point #2

The bible is written by mostly men, mainly because there was possibility of more men around than women? Maybe because women were the lesser and therefore their opinion wasn't worth shit. Lets see if I can track down the truest form of contradiction: Ahhhh Luke 2.23 As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. That does it. Men are more holy, yet there are less men than women these days so is it that saying that God is abandoning us, by making more unholy than holy.

Point #3

God created the heaven and earth. God is in heaven. We are mere mortals awaiting our decent into the skies above. If god created heaven and earth then where was god before he made heaven? Only someone on drugs would start a book with a beginning that is so open to scrutiny.

Point #4

Just as in todays traditions it was so back then as well, you alway consummate a marriage my having sex with your new spouse. So Mary was a virgin. She was a married virgin. Yeah right. You can bet he tapped that ass as soon as he got her home. The bible recognizes the consummation rituals. The bible also recognizes Mary as Josephs wife. Therefore she couldn't have been a virgin.

If you want me to go on you just let me know... I got plenty more.

By the way if you are asking my religion........ you don't want to know. I am not a sadist or anything. I just believe different strokes for different folks and mine is less unique than most believe. I am still learning. In order to learn about what religion you want to be it is better to learn all kinds. Before making the decision to sign a lifelong contract with one. Besides, I have to admit the bible is good reading if you like a good mindfuck.

-------------------------------

My reply to your letter is like this:
You are more then welcome to post in this blog. I encourage you to do so. I'm looking for everybody's opinions, not just those of Christianity.

If anybody should have answers to her questions then please do reply below. I would like to hear them.

-John

Lesson learned

2006-11-14T02:58:00.000-08:00

Each day I learn something new, it's an ongoing process. My wife teaches me lessons in life all the time. Today was no exception!

A few days ago, I made a comment that ticked off my wife. (Lets call her Jennifer because that is her name) I don't remember what it was that ticked her off, but, there is a strong probability that it had something to do with money.

A few minutes later she (Jennifer) stomped off and jumped in to my Jeep Wrangler. She has her own truck, why my Wrangler? Anyway, when she grabbed the door handle on 'MY' Wrangler she apparently jerked it way too hard and broke it internally. I didn't find this out until the next day when I couldn't get my door to open :-(

I approached her with it the next morning, she was settled down by then, and she semi admitted to it. I chose the words "semi admitted" because she didn't deny it when I asked her about it.

So I'm forced to go all the way around to the passenger side of the Jeep, open the door, and then 'reach threw' and open the drivers side door and then walk back around to the drivers side to enter my Jeep.

If this isn't enough of a lesson learned then keep reading, it gets way better!

So I go up and help a friend roof his house this week and as I'm a bit tired from the job. I reach in (through the passenger side) and pull on the door handle, only this time it seems like a longer reach, must be because I'm tired. Take note that my Jeep is lifted. I jump up and grab the inner door handle on the drivers side and oops.. It breaks off!
Now I have no way in to my jeep unless I climb in and out of the passenger side.

Lesson learned? Not YET!

I ordered a new interior handle and drove my old Honda (back up car) until my interior handle gets here.

Night one driving the Honda I had a flat tire (brand new Schwab tire) in the parking lot at work.
Night two of driving the Honda the battery light came on and I ended up driving home at 1:30 in the morning with no headlights. They started getting dimmer and dimmer until they were gone. It's not the recently purchased $100.00 Les Schwab batteries fault. Instead, I believe that it is the recently purchased $300.00 alternator that is to blame, it isn't charging. You may be thinking he's making this up, alternators aren't that expensive. Look up the price of a Honda Accord Alternator and then add the cost to have it installed.

I'm still learning...

Finally my new interior door handle comes in and I installed it, but still no exterior handle yet so I'm back to that old 'reach through' trick again. After all that the Honda has put me through I made a decision to park it and drive the Jeep with no exterior handle.

I live on a dirt road that becomes mud bogging material after the first rain of the year. Our first rain has already happened, therefore, on the way to work today I threw her in to 4WD and did some playing in the mud. She was covered too... so covered that when I went to do my 'reach threw' from the passenger side I covered my (um.. gonads) in mud. You may find that as being funny but I didn't think so at the time.

If I were living on the income that I had two years ago I would have just taken it to a dealer and said FIX IT! but, since money is tighter now days, I want to order the exterior handle and install it myself. I called up the dealer this morning before work. It's $128.00 for the outside handle. Must be made of gold, or something.

Interior door handle... $18.00 (ebay, not bad)
Exterior door handle... $128.00 (Dealer. Sorry, not in stock, must order)
Gonads covered in mud, daily... PRICELESS!

LESSON LEARNED!

The Lake House

2006-11-11T06:24:00.000-08:00

Here I go again. It's 6:20 in the morning and I've been up all night. I have to work today but not until this afternoon. The fire is burnt out in the wood stove and the temperature is just right in here. I hear the rain pouring down outside. I wish I could get off from this current schedule where I sleep all day while my family is up enjoying life and then I stay up all night by myself. Life is too short to be living this way.

I'm not too proud or macho to admit that I enjoy tear jerking movies. One of my favorite movies is a movie called "Notebook" It's a tear jerker for sure. If you haven't watched it yet please do yourselves the favor and do so.
Well I just finished watching another movie that made me cry like a baby (lol) so I feel that I had to log in and tell you about it. Run, don't walk, to the video store and rent "The Lake House". I'm not sure if it is out on video yet or not so you might want to call first. I just watched it on Direct ticket via Direct TV. If you have been thinking about sitting down with your wife or anyone that you care about and watching a good movie this one is highly recommended.

I spent the last two days helping a friend do some roofing on his house so I haven't blogged as much. Your comments are always appreciated and encourage me to write more. Not that I'm writing specifically for you or that I'm expecting you to get anything out of my writing. Truthfully, I think I'm writing to myself, for the benefit of myself. As funny and selfish as this may sound.
If your reading this blog then I hope you have a great day. The weather is rainy here in Northern California but It's good weather to spend some time with family and to watch a good movie.

Is your life speeding by as fast as mine is? We need to figure out a way to slow it down. Looking to my left out the window I see that the light is illuminating through the trees on the back side of my property. I didn't used to notice these things.

-John

Dr. Phil's Test:

2006-11-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

I took this test this morning as it was email to me by a friend. I usually delete this things but I was bored waiting for the coffee to finish brewing so I humored myself and took the test. I found it so accurate that I decided to blog about it.

Take the test, It's only 10 questions and it will only take you a minute to answer them. After you answer them simply post your total number and I will reply to that number with your test results. I'm wondering if it will be as accurate for you as it was for me.

-John

-----------------------------------
Have pen or pencil and paper ready. This is a real test given by the Human Relations Dept. at many of the major corporations today. It helps them get better insight concerning their employees and prospective employer.

It's only 10 Simple questions, so...grab a pencil and paper,
keeping track of your letter answers to each question.

Begin...

1. When do you feel your best?
a) in the morning
b) during the afternoon &and early evening
c) late at night

2. You usually walk...
a) fairly fast, with long steps
b) fairly fast, with little steps
c) less fast head up, looking the world in the face
d) less fast, head down
e) very slowly

3. When talking to people you..
a) stand with your arms folded
b) have your hands clasped
c) have one or both your hands on your hips
d) touch or push the person to whom y ou are talking
e) play with your ear, touch your chi n, or smooth your hair

4. When relaxing, you sit with..
a) your knees bent with your legs neatly side by side
b) your legs crossed
c) your legs stretched out or straight
d) one leg curled under you

5. When something really amuses you, you react with...
a) big appreciated laugh
b) a laugh, but not a loud one
c) a quiet chuckle
d) a sheepish smile

6. When you go to a party or social gathering you..
a) make a loud entrance so everyone notices you
b) make a quiet entrance, looking around for someone you know
c) make the quietest entrance, trying to stay unnoticed

7 You're working very hard, concentrating hard, and you're interrupted......
a) welcome the break
b) feel extremely irritated
c) vary between these two extremes

8. Which of the following colors do you like most?
a) Red or orange
b) black
c) yellow or light blue
d) green
e) dark blue or purple
f) white
g) brown or gray

9. When you are in bed at night, in those last few moments
before going to sleep you are..
a) stretched out on your back
b) stretched out face down on your stomach
c) on your side, slightly curled
d) with your head on one arm
e) with your head under the covers

10. You often dream that you are...
a) falling
b) fighting or struggling
c) searching for something or somebody
d) flying or floating
e) you usually have dreamless sleep
f) your dreams are always pleasant

POINTS:
1. (a) 2 (b) 4 (c) 6
2. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 7 (d) 2 (e) 1
3. (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 5 (d) 7 (e) 6
4. (a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 2 (d) 1
5. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 2
6. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 2
7. (a) 6 (b) 2 (c) 4
8. (a) 6 (b) 7 (c) 5 (d) 4 (e) 3 (f) 2 (g) 1
9. (a) 7 (b) 6 (c) 4 (d) 2 (e) 1
10. (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 6 (f) 1

Now add up the total number of points, reply in this thread and I will reply to you with your results.

-John

Beautiful Morning..

2006-11-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful November morning here in Northern California. I looked out my window this morning and it looked so nice that I decided to grab my camera and snap a few photos of my property. The sun was just coming up and there was a mist in the air but it was surprisingly warm. Tell me what you think...

How long should I wait? BEER!

2006-11-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

How long should I wait?

So far, I have went nearly six weeks without Beer. The Doctor told me that I should cut out the Beer because of my acid reflux problem. I didn't take him very seriously about the Beer thing because I really like the taste of Beer.
I've never had a problem with alcohol. I would not consider myself an alcoholic and really I didn't even like the taste of Beer until a few years ago. Your taste buds change supposedly every so many years and mine like Beer :-)

How many times can I say the word Beer in this post?

Well I started drinking a little more in the past year... More Beer that is! I don't like hard alcohol unless it is a mixed drink served at a bar which I only frequent maybe three times a year. So what I'm getting at is that all I like to drink is Beer!

In the past year I started drinking a little more Beer then usual, not a whole lot, but I would have 4 to 6 bottles of Beer each night after work. Is that too much?
Oh and then once a week (my Friday) I would drink a 12 pack to celebrate the end of my work weak. Now, is that too much?

So therefore we are talking about a total of 47 Beers per week. That balances out to nearly 7 Beers a day. Yeah, if you look at it that way then I guess that might be a little too much Beer, but it isn't an extreme amount. I'll bet your average alcoholic drinks much more Beer then that.

It wasn't hard at all to quit drinking Beer so I don't feel that I had a problem with it, but, since I like the taste of Beer, I really do miss it. So I'm asking you, my readers... How long should I go without drinking Beer in order to prove the likelihood that I simply like the taste of Beer and that I do not have a problem with alcohol?

Know what sounds good right now?

A Cold BEER!

-John

Caution: The word Beer was used 22 times in this post. This post is Rated (B).

The Bible in the Beginning.

2006-11-02T03:22:00.000-08:00

The Bible in the Beginning is a movie that was referred to me by a good friend of mine. I picked up a copy of this movie off from eBay... I'm an eBay junkie!
I'm not trying to 'get religious' I'm simply trying to be open minded and explore a little. I just want to make it clear to the readers of this blog that I'm in to exploring truth and not religion, however, I'm interested in the beliefs of all religions right now because I think I need to see all views in order to make an accurate assessment to form my own opinion during my personal exploration. which isn't that personal, come to think about it, because I'm writing about it in my blog. LOL!

Okay, back to this movie.
I started watching this movie and right from the start it had became obvious to me that it was going to require a notepad, a pin and several touches of the pause button.
I'm going to give my honest opinion about this movie and it might not be what you people are wanting to hear. I'm keeping it honest here. Here is what I wrote down on that notepad...

----------------------

First god created light... and THEN the sun?

God used the word "we" in the bible before he created man?

God had punished Atom and Eve from eating the apple from the tree of knowledge. If I'm not mistaken we are still reaping the punishment today. Should I punish my future grandchildren, and theirs, for the mistakes that my children make today?

Why did God put that tree there to begin with, just to tempt them?

If I remember correctly I think it was Kane that killed his brother. Even if I'm wrong on the name, it is irrelevant. To me, it makes since that he killed his brother because he was created imperfectly and that he was created with the capability of murdering his brother. His fault?

So God is unhappy with his creation.. so he floods the earth and starts fresh and kills all life accept for that which was on Noah's ark. I have to wonder if all of those people including children deserved to die.

The people that god spoke to were prophets, correct? Noah was a prophet right? Not making a point with that.. just a question?

By the time Ishmael is born I am totally lost and confused in this movie. I will have to watch it again and maybe It will be easier to follow along the second time.

The set of this movie is very dark through out and the words are hard for me to understand, partly because of the accent, and partly because of the audio quality. I realize that this is because it is an old movie. George C. Scott looks young in it.

I think, so far, I'm left with more questions then when I started watching this movie. Why did god need several days to create the earth? Why did he need rest? Why is Gos a he?

Keep in mind folks that in many way's I'm pretty intelligent. I'm really good with machinery, electronics, automation, controls, electrical and such... But, when it comes to things like 'this topic' I'm just a simple minded redneck.

Okay, now I'm at a point in the movie where people are using a log to ram through a castle door. I have no Idea what for and once they get through they shout out the words "Bring them out!".
I'm so lost and confused at this point of the movie that I'm turning it off. As I mentioned up above, I may try and watch it over again real soon and perhaps it will make more since to me the second time through.

----------------------

There you have it! I'm open to comments, suggestions recommendations, or even constructive criticism if you feel that I need it..

-John

This is my new blog!

2006-10-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

If your reading some of my amazing (work of art) writings in this blog... and if you are wondering how such golden masterpieces could go several weeks with out a single comment the answer is quite simple. I just created this blog two days ago and I've imported several posts from my old blog over to this one. Unfortunately I could not import the comments from the old blog to this one and it wouldn't be appropriate to ask each poster to come in to my new blog and re-post the same comments. See what I mean?

Let me explain why I created this (new blog) to begin with.

For several years I was involved in an adult business. I created and ran an adult site and occasionally shot (photographed) models for the web site. I didn't shoot hardcore just simple soft nude shots just as you see in playboy magazines. Well the site was owned by my friend and I did the html work and the nightly updates for it and we were in a partnership with the membership fees. The sites became fairly large but my friend found them to be a nuisance because even though they were becoming very successful, he made the majority of his income shooting content several days a week. He didn't have the time or the desire to mess with the sites any longer so he sold them.
You still with me?
When he sold the sites I lost a pretty good chunk of monthly change, no hard feelings though, business is business. Money is nothing amongst friends and that friend has given me more (even financially) then I could ever possibly give back. So I no longer work in the adult industry. I'm not currently shooting any models but I haven't totally ruled it out in the future.

My friend has recently made the announcement that he was leaving the adult business. I was totally shocked by his announcement. Truthfully, I thought it was a joke when he told me that he was out and that he was giving his life to god. ...TO GOD! Where did that come from?
In the adult business my friend has made millions and lived very well, at least financially. Now that he is out of the business I fear that the transition from that kind of money and working for one's self back to the (paycheck to paycheck) deal may be far more difficult then he predicted. You don't make that kind of money handing out bibles on the street corner. I know that he will make it because I've seen him pull objects the size of a semi truck out of a hat over and over again in the past several years. However, it's not going to be an easy ride for him.

I've always been an agnostic. I don't believe in heaven or hell and I don't believe in God or the Devil. I don't have a problem with peoples religion and I respect their beliefs. Well, now I'm searching for answers myself. I'm trying to figure out what it is that other people see or feel that makes them believe in God. I feel a bit left out to be quite honest, I'm a bit jealous. So I'm doing a little bit of open minded investigating.
I'm not trying to walk in my friends foot steps, I'm not trying to 'copy' him. I'm simply trying to see what he and several other friends from my past are seeing. If there is a God out there then I need to know. Donny must be seeing or feeling something in order for him to up and walk away from the very business that paid his bills. Large bills!

To sum it up...
Here are my two main reasons for creating this blog.
1. It contains no nudity and it is family, friend and children safe. (non-offensive)
2. I'm no longer involved in the adult business so I have nothing new to post in my old blog.

This blog is going to be all about me, family, friends and everyday life living in the country.

A quick note before I end this thread and basically the reason that I started this thread to begin with. I mentioned the above background on my and Donny's relationship both as friends and former partners in the adult industry because I want to take a moment to talk about him.
If I were someone that were to stumble on to his current blog and start reading I might think to myself "this guy is a nut case". You simply don't go from producing porn to surrendering to god, going to church and quoting bible scriptures in one month. He's a nut case.
First of all it wasn't a 1 month transition, this has been in the works for a long time, I just didn't believe that he was going to give it up.
I've had the privilege of Knowing Donny for a very long time. I can assure you that he is not a nut case and that he is 100% telling the truth in all of his writings. I read his blog every day and I have never seen him tell a lie. To be quite honest I've never seen him even stretch the truth for entertainment reasons as many people often do. If this guy were to write a book on his life it would be a 'top seller' because he has lived and done more things in 32 years then most people would ever have the pleasure to experience in a lifetime. With Donny as a friend there is never a dull moment.

You can read more about this guy by clicking here and reading his blog. I guarantee that you will enjoy it.

BUT FIRST you should click here and read a recap of his leaving the adult industry. Again I will certify that this is 100% no BS.
Enjoy your reading!

-John

What happened to John?

2006-10-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

I know what your all thinking, my millions of faithful readers and fans.

You have been wondering... What happened to John? He hasn't posted in his blog for over a week! Did he win big in Reno and is he sitting on a beach in the Bahamas right now sipping on UM.. Budweiser?

Well I'm back, and now as you are reading this you are thinking to yourselves... How does he do that, is he a mind reader? My answer to that is Yep, I've got that ESPN thing going on.

I've been out for a week or two because my step father passed away. This may not sound very good but I'm going to say it because I'm not in to being a fake. Personally knowing that he is gone is a bit of a relief to me. It's a relief to know that he is no longer suffering as he had been for the past few years. It's hard to watch someone suffer and it's even harder when there is nothing that you can do to help. I'm glad that he is no longer in pain.
I'm left with a little guilt because I didn't visit with him nearly as much as I should have near the end but I'm trying to let go of that guilt because I feel that I had good reason for not doing so.
For one, it was too hard to see him in that condition and I also didn't want to have to go through this all over again since I went through it last year with my dad. Now that I put that in to words it sounds kind of selfish on my part. It was easier on me this time then it was last year when my dad passed away because we knew that this was coming for a long time, we had the time to say goodbye. Man that's tough, I loved im a lot. Still do!

Last year when my Dad passed away I had no warning at all. We were removing brush from his front yard that morning and I left to take my son home and go out to look at some property that we were buying. A short while later I was notified, it was a heart attack. I didn't get to say goodbye and there is a ton of guilt for not staying and finishing the job with him. So much guilt that I'm going to stop talking about it because it will just bring you (my millions and millions) of readers down.

It is easier on the person when they go suddenly and without warning like my dad went, however, it is far harder on the family because nobody gets to say goodbye. Here goes my selfishness again... I hope to go fast and unknowing, preferably in my sleep when the time comes. My kids will hopefully feel a strike but then move on with their lives.

Okay enough of the depressing talk...
My good luck streak is still on. I think it has a whole lot to do with how you look at life. If you look at life with your glass half full then things will seem to be going your way. I'm enjoying not paying so much attention to the negative things in life.

On a positive note:
I'm always trying to figure out ways of connecting with my son Brian. I think to myself... I could buy him and I a bow and arrow set and we could practice together on the property. Or perhaps I should buy us dirt bikes and we could ride together. I've even thought about buying him a gun (of course under controlled circumstances) and we could go to the shooting range together. Well It turned out easier and far less expensive then I thought. For the past few days we have been going through boxes in the shed cleaning it out so that we can put together a workshop. We both have really enjoyed doing this usually dreadful task. We have been talking and going through boxes of my tools and such. I'll pull out a strange tool and he will ask what it is and I will explain to him what that tool is used for. I'm enjoying this one on one time with him and I know that he is enjoying it also because I see how anxious he is to start sorting boxes as soon as he gets home from school.
I can't wait to get the welder hooked back up so that I can teach him to weld and cut.

Anyway.. It's 6:45 in the morning and I still haven't been to sleep yet and I have to work today so If I'm lucky I will get a few hours sleep and then I will head that way.

Night!

Lets go to Reno...

2006-10-12T02:49:00.000-07:00

Lets go to Reno...
I'm ready!

My luck in the past week has been fantastic. Seems like someone up above is on my side. First off I won a Motorola Sliver L7 off of the wrapper of a snickers candy bar. Then I won a coin toss with a friend whom I never win to for some strange reason. Then I won $50.00 in a safety drawing. Tonight I took a trip to Redding and took a friend out to dinner and on my way back I decided to stop off at the Casino simply because it's just down the road and what else is there to do at 3:00 in the morning. Sure enough.. I left with more than twice what I brought with me. Lady luck is in my corner. I hope she follows me to reno next week.
Well I'm off to bed now… I'll bet I don't get lucky there :-)

We just got Raided!

2006-10-07T02:47:00.000-07:00

We just got Raided!
Would I make this up?

Tonight at around 7:00 my kids came running in to the house saying the cops are here... I told them to stay in the house and I went outside just in time to see the entourage of law enforcement coming up my driveway. There were three unmarked cars and two or three marked ones as well. When they pulled to a stop I ran towards the driver and pointed my 357 at his head.... Just kidding... I walked towards the driver of the first car as he stepped out, they were all stepping out by this time. I gave a smile to indicate that I had no aggressive intentions and asked "what is going on?" The officer asked if xxxx was here. I said "xxxx who?" and he gave me the last name. By this time I felt a ton of relief come over me and I said "That name doesn't ring a bell with me" He said that he is supposed to live at xx12 xxxx avenue. I told him that I own this address and I also own that one too but there is no longer a residence on that address anymore. I then explained to him that we had bought this property over a year ago and we are the only ones living on it since that time. I gave him the name of the previous owners and their approximate location. By this time I recognized the officer that I was talking to.
I went to college for law enforcement and had planned on being in that line of work. Thank god I didn't because it is a stressful job and you only see the bag side of even people. Oh.. and it definitely doesn't pay well enough to make it worth it either.
Anyway once we both recognized whom each other was he believed me and they left my property.
As they were backing down my driveway I thought to myself... I may have made a few mistakes in life but I pretty proud of where I am today and I'm pretty proud of most of the choices that I have made. If I were to have followed in the footsteps of nearly 50% of my classmates then the story might not have ended with them backing back down my driveway.
We have a web site at our local jail that lets you view an actual photo of the current inmates and what they are being charged with, it's usually drugs. At any given time I find at least one of my classmates in jail and sometimes two or three. Over time I have seen nearly half of my class. I'm not supposed to do it, but I do screen caps of them when I see them and add it to my collection in a folder called classmates for my own personal amusement. Some of them get booked over and over again and you can see it in their mug shots that they are ageing twice as fast. It must be the drugs!
Blows me away!

Surprise package!

2006-10-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

Surprise package!

Earlier this morning I was on the phone with a friend talking about working out, supplements and such when my wife decided she wanted to call her friend up and chat. Usually she just uses her cell phone but today it needed charged so she grabbed mine. Around 10 minutes later she came in to the room and told me how crappy my phone is, she said "remember how you said that your phone always cuts out and you can hardly hear?" Yes "Now I see what you were talking about, mine doesn't do that". I made some comment to her about that being my luck because we have the exact same model of phones and hers works way better then mine, I guess it's time for me to look in to getting another phone.

We have Cingular service so I figured I would take it in to the Cingular shop in Chico and look in to trading it in next time we are in the neighborhood. The wife leaves a couple hours later to go to the store and she calls me from the mailbox... "Your phone is here... Why didn't you tell me that you ordered yourself a phone?" Um... I didn't order any phone.... "Well it's here and it came in your name to your address, you didn't order it huh?" NOPE!
When she arrived home from the store she had a brand new Motorola SLVR L7 box in her hand.

What really blows me away is that it has "this is only compatible with Cingular service written on the side of the box" It is an open sim phone or something to that effect. Basically all I have to do is pull the sim card out of my old phone and slide it in this new phone and I'm off. No need to activate or call Cingular or anything. The first thing that came to mind was that my son ordered it but after a short talk and a few threats he still denied it. This phone is loaded with features. It is an expensive phone with camera, blue tooth, it even had itunes built in and it's an mp3 player with headphones.
I'm dyeing to figure out where this phone came from because I'm a child when it comes to gadgets and I felt like a kid waiting to open a Christmas present. I really wanted to fire up this phone and play with it's features. At this point I still have no sure idea as to where this thing came from.

I have three guesses...
1. My kid ordered it and is afraid to admit to it!
2. Someone somewhere got a little confused in the shipping department and sent it to me by mistake.
3. I won it from www.snickers.com

Don't laugh at number 3 because it is entirely possible. For some strange reason I opened up a snickers candy bar about a month ago and thought to myself "I bet nobody actually takes the time to log in and enter these codes; so if I do then I would stand a better then usual chance of winning something."
I just logged in to snickers.com and over the past month I have only entered about 9 codes and just to the right side of the entered codes is the prize that you stand a chance of winning. Guess what the very first code that I entered said... You guessed it! a Motorola SLVR.

Does this mean I won? I don't know for sure but with my luck, even though it appears that way at this point, I'm not holding my breath. I'll find out tomorrow and post the outcome here. If I did win this thing it would be a first. I'll keep you posted!

UPDATE:
Holy Crap.... I WON! :-)

I contacted the shipper by phone a few minutes ago and he first asked me how I got his number because I googled it. After I told him and asked him if he knew why I received the phone in the mail he replied... "Yes I do, were a shipping company and you won that phone from snickers.com" Maybe my luck is turning around. '-)

Why are we here?

2006-10-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

Why are we here?

It's 4:00 in the morning and yet again the midst of another sleepless night. Life is such a roller coaster... It's a fun ride, but it's full of ups and downs. Right now i'm going through a loop, one of confusion. Some of my family and friends from the past are no longer alive; Where did they go? My life is slowly approaching the half way point and I'm still not sure what I'm here for.
I'm not looking for sympathy, in fact I'm a very happy person... I'm just looking for answers.
Is there a God?
I'm too much of a logical thinker to believe in God. It simply doesn't make since to me. Science makes since because it is full of logical proven explanations. The bible, the stories, I see no logic in any of that. Some people are willing to just accept it but I can't. I cannot believe in something that I can't see, can't feel, can't smell, touch... I just can't. My dad was a very strong believer in god, he preyed for me every day and night. He tried hard not to push his religion on me but he wanted to "save" me so bad until the day that he passed away, he tried hard.
I have to ask.. If there is a god then why would he let little children die of cancer? Why did an entire family "three generations" get killed in a van on the freeway a while back just because someone was in a hurry to pass? Somebody explain this to me please!
Another thing... If God is perfect then why did he create us imperfect? If he created us perfect then we wouldn't sin.. It's a fact that we were created imperfect. Were we setup for failure from the big man himself?

Say I write a computer program to randomly pick a number either 1 or 2. Then it will pick one of those two numbers every time guaranteed! So I'm happy when it picks number 1 but I'm mad when it picks number 2.
When it picks number 2 I will take a large hammer and smack it on the keyboard. Sounds kinda dumb doesn't it... Why? Because I wrote the program. We as people can randomly pick more then a simple 1 or 2. But we still can only pick with in the list of limitations "programming" that was created in to us .

My questions could go on forever... If you blame all the bad things in this world on the Devil then I will ask.. Didn't god create the devil? And then kicked him out of heaven? Well if the devil was so bad that god didn't want the devil up there with him then why would he allow the Devil to roam around down here causing harm to us? (his precious kids).

Here's another one.. Believe me I'd love to hear the answer to this riddle!
God says that if you don't believe in him and follow him then you will burn in hell for eternity (eternity) because he told you to believe in him. Okay... If you tell your child to do something and he chooses not to do it will you spank him for it, not once, but repeatedly every day for eternity? Were all gods children right? Even the naughty ones! To me eternity sounds like a bit of an over punishment for the wrong doing that may be done during our extremely short time on earth.

I remember when I was a kid hearing a story about how we humans were trying to build a tower to heaven and God got bent out of shape about it and punished us all by spreading us out and giving us different languages or something... Perhaps that's what happened to the twin towers.. Okay that wasn't very funny!
"Lord I apologize for that twin towers comment and be with the...." -Larry The Cable Guy C2004

On several occasions I wanted to fake it just to make my Father happy, but then I got to thinking... What if there really is a God? ...and what if I fake it until the day that I die then I would go to hell right?
That sure doesn't seem fair. If there really is a god then wouldn't it only be fair for him (or her) to let everybody know that he/she does in fact exist? Then people could either serve or say to hell with it. (No pun intended!)

Let me repeat some of the answers that I've got so far from "religious people"...

"you just have to believe" How can I believe in something that I do not know exists? I can pretend if that helps?

"you have to study the bible to believe" What bible? Which one? What religion? There are over 2500 religions out there and each of them believe that they are the right one. To me, this means that even if one of them were the right one my odds are 1 in 2500 of picking it! 1 in 2500 of a chance of having eternal life! Those aren't very good odds!

"your closed minded" I'm not trying to be, I really want to believe in God but for crying out loud God if your out there then show yourself!

"you have to search for God, prey and ask him.." Seriously now, do you think I haven't tried that?

Another funny thing that I noticed about religion... Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if there was truth at one time then it wasn't preserved very well. Seems to me like 2500 different people must have looked at it and said to themselves "I like that, but this doesn't fit my needs" so they simply edited everything to fit their lifestyle and called it a new religion. How convenient! Then they recruit followers. I believe that this has happened about um... 2500 times.
And here's where it gets really confusing... It breaks down even farther... Still with me?
Check this out....
Now when followers chose the religion that fits their needs then they filter it some more by following some parts of the particular religion and ignoring other parts. It's a pick and choose kind of thing. You know like they will live together unwed and have sex but they'll um.... they will stop using foul language and um.. no more looking at dirty pictures.

I may offend some of you by what I'm about to say but it's my blog so if you don't like it then stop reading it.
Until recently I believed that religion was a crutch for the weak minded, not making fun of the weak minded but you can tell weak minded people anything and the will likely believe it. Specially if they are raised to believe it because their parents raised them too. To me, that is programming!
Well I do not believe that theory anymore. I'm having friends that I feel are equal to or perhaps more intelligent then myself turning to this so called "God" possibility. In a way this gives me hope because I think that if they are as logical and intelligent as I am and they believe... then they must be seeing something that I don't see and this makes me want to try harder to figure out what it is that they are seeing. So when friends turn to god (the ones that don't turn their back on me) it gives me hope that they might say or show me something that makes perfect logical since and that, in turn, may help me believe. So far it hasn't happened and I refuse to be programmed in to religion but I try to stay open minded also.

Your probably asking yourself why in the hell is John talking about god? It's simple; I've just realized that yet another friend, a best friend has now turned to this so called God. This friend of mine made more money in a month then I make in a year, and my kids aren't missing meals if you understand, he has all the toys too. But this friend is "was" in the adult industry; he shot photography for many of the big boys like playboy. He was in a business that I see nothing wrong with because I'm not religious and I feel that there is no shame in nudity or the production of such content. We were put on this earth naked were we not? Honestly I have no idea (lol)
My friend just walked away from all that money and is in the midst of a total change of life. I simply do not understand it no matter how many times he tries to explain it. I guess I'll just have to keep picking his brain.

One more thing before I end this boring entry... It just occurred to me that I may be writing this out of pure greed (lol) People around me are eating candy, it looks good and I don't know where they are getting it.. It's just not fair... Know what I mean?

S- -t Happens!

2006-10-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

S--t Happens!

I cannot help but to notice that sometimes things happen that simply could not possibly be based on odds or randomness. Do you ever feel like there is a force working against you from time to time? As if it just wasn't meant to be?

Well I often feel that way. Let me give you an example... There are two sides to a coin thus meaning that when you flip a coin your odds should be 50/50 one would think! Two weeks ago at work a friend and I flipped a coin to see which one of us was going to do the dirty deed.

What the dirty deed was is totally unimportant. Anyway, I lost the coin flip 9 times out of 12 flips. Believe me it was fully inspected and it was not a trick coin. I also flipped it several times myself so it wasn't the way that it was tossed in to the air either. It was just meant to be! Now you all see what force that I'm referring to? Well shortly after I discovered another similar situation. So I decided to blog about it and make it public.

There is some hidden invisible force that doesn't want me to fish. Sounds funny huh?
Let me explain...
Three years ago I bought a fishing license here in California. 34 bucks but hey I also had to pick up a couple fishing poles. Total cost for the trip including gas, bait, and beer... 130.00 Now I went with some friends and drank quite a few beers and not only did I catch no fish, but I managed to lose a pole. I think I left it up in the mountains next to that secret spot that even the fish don't know about. But wait, it gets better... Some how on the way back home the other brand new pole got broke in half. "Oh well, Shit happens" I thought to myself.

The following year My kids bought me a fishing license for a fathers day present, a very thought out give I might add because this will drag me away from my computer and I will spend some family time as I admittedly need and want to do. So I went out and bought a couple more new fishing poles..... Good ones like last time. Only problem is that I didn't use that license that year and it expired on me. More money down the tubes!

Yep you guessed it... Three weeks ago I went and bought two more licenses. I'm not going to let this curse get me down. Well after a little planning the wife and I both had the day work free at the same time even, we woke up at 4:00 in the morning and got the kids up, packed everything in the truck and off to the store we go. Sure enough, I spent even more money on bait, beer, gas and so on to get to a place called lake grace and lake nora. Grace and Nora are two small private lakes side by side near Shingletown California, these lakes are stalked with trout. I figured the kids would reel them in left and right. Took two hours to get there but hey. It's a day of fun and fishing right?

Wrong!

After spending a couple hundred more and a two hour drive, oh and after unpacking everything from the truck we discovered that we were missing a bag. It could very well have been the bag of fruit that we brought along to snack on but instead it was our bait, tackle, and everything that we need to catch a freaking fish. Turns out the bagger at the Anderson California Super Center didn't put that particular bag in the cart. I was so pissed off that instead of making the best of it I told the kids to load everything back up and I drove home (another two hour drive). By this time I'm out several hundred dollars at least plus 4 hours of driving and not a single fish!!! Well I don't know how strong this force is but I was determined to find out. We shall wake up again in the morning at around 4:00am and drive all the way back to that place and I plan to bring a fish home tomorrow if I have to stop off at safeway and buy it!

QUICK update!!!

We loaded up and went back the next morning catching 6 trout about a foot long, brought them home and they ended up getting buried because we were tired and didn't feel like cleaning and cooking them. Ummm.. S--T Happens!

Good News for Quitters!

2006-09-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is for all you smokers out there!

I smoked around a pack and a half a day for 12 years. I started smoking when I was 16 years old and I dated a girl (Amy C.) that smoked. I told her that if she doesn't stop smoking then I was going to start. Pretty dumb huh? Anyway.. I smoked a few here and there over a few weeks and next thing I know I'm up to 1.5 packs a day.

I finally succeeded in quitting nearly 4 1/2 years ago and I seriously don't feel like I ever was a smoker. My wife didn't quit and she still smokes. She smokes in front of me all the time and I don't even feel tempted or desire a cigarette. I don't let her smoke in the house though. I won't allow my kids to breath it! Never did, even when I was a smoker.

I feel that it is important for me to say that one more time "I don't even feel tempted or desire a cigarette" because when I was a smoker and talked to people that quit I would always hear the usual "not a day goes by that I don't crave a cigarette" line. I always believed it and some of the people that give that line could have been telling the truth. I think that for many it is simply a bragging thing. They want you to think that it's not worth trying because you will be in misery from now on craving one. Well good news... I honestly and whole heartedly swear on a stack of bibles that I do not crave nor think about smoking cigarettes. I sit around people that smoke all the time and if anything I sometimes have to get up and move because the smoke bothers me.

I hope this is GOOD NEWS to those of you that are just now quitting.

I realize that there are many of you out there that have smoked for 40 years and you think that the longer you smoke the harder it is to quit and you might be right, I have no idea. All I can say to that is that If I can do it then you can too. All it takes is a lot of will power.

It took me three attempts to quit, the first attempt I made it 3 months and blew it. I then smoked for two more years. My second attempt I quit for 6 months and I got drunk at a new years party and thought to myself (Just a couple puffs, I won't even remember this in the morning) I was wrong!!

My 3rd attempt was a total success and I haven't smoked since.

Now for more GOOD NEWS...

Don't get me wrong it will not be easy but the good news is that the several attempts that you have failed in the past were not a waste of time or effort. I say that because at least with my experience, each time I quit, it seemed to be a little easier. Not easy.. but easier!

Therefore your failed attempts in the past were not a total loss.

There are ten million tips to quitting smoking and I'm sure that you have heard them all so I will just tell you the ones that I used.

First off I used the patches.
2nd I chewed on wooden pop cycle sticks.
3rd I chose other ways of rewarding myself instead of a cigarette.
4th I recognized my triggers and learned to re-associate my though with each trigger.
5th I thought to myself "I made it this far, I'm not about to blow it now!"

Number 5 is a good one. I quit smoking just two days before taking the kids on vacation to a southern California theme park. The whole time I was down there I wanted a cigarette soooo bad!! But I didn't give in and took control of my thought pattern. Then after we came home from the trip and I wanted a smoke I would tell myself the following... "I suffered badly down there on vacation and didn't give in so I'm not about to give in now!" and that helped.

Anyway... You can do it! Don't give up! Don't listen to people that say "you will always crave a cigarette".

Trust me; It will all be worth it in the end!

Good Luck!
John