Hedge clippers

Can do bad things. That is all I have to say about that.

Silence

OK. Here is a quick story from my Army days. Wait, let me rephrase. From my reserve component days. I might bounce around a bit, so hopefully this will all come together and make sense. I joined the Army Reserves when I was 17. I have pretty much always been a small guy and it actually took me 2 tries to get in the Army. I didn't make it the first time because I was actually under-weight. I think I was given about 2 weeks to gain about 10-12 pounds and then come back to MEPs and try again. Second time, I made the weight minimum. I'm in the Army now!

Fast forward through basic training. I come home from Ft. Benning to my new home in Fountain NC. I went to basic training for infantry. Well guess what? There isn't a Reserve infantry unit within 50 miles. So I wound up getting assigned to a field artillery unit in Rocky Mount. So after hanging out with field artillery for a couple years, it turns out that my unit will be "deactivated" due to military downsizing. Clinton was president; enough said. So I was given the choice to change MOS (job) or switch to the National Guard and hopefully not have to re-train for a new MOS. It turns out that there was actually an infantry National Guard unit in Tarboro. So I went ahead and switched over to the Guards and back into the infantry.

Even though I have been in NC for a couple years, it was still a little challenging adjusting to a new unit. But during the time I was in Rocky Mount and Tarboro, I had noticed something - it really bothered people that I didn't talk. I was all the time asked, "you don't talk much, do you?" No, no I don't. When I was in Tarboro, I found out that this actually scares some folks. There were a few black guys that actually told me, "Williammee, you a scary white dude. You look like you could just kill somebody." What? Ok, whatever. I didn't think much about it. Then later when I was home, I realized that a little guy like me was able to intimidate some big black dudes. During my time in, nobody ever gave me a hard time or hassled me.

I was in this unit for about 6 years. We had a good deal of camaraderie. Of course, there were a few assholes (they were white guys, believe it or not). But somehow I managed to gain respect from the other guys that I supposedly scared the shit out of. The last few years while I was in the Guards I somehow managed to become a "cool white dude". All this, just from not talking.

I'll Try To Remember

Seems that I haven't done this in a while. Duh...you say.
Fall semester was fairly interesting. I took 4 classes and got A's in all 4. Whenever I have been enrolled full time that has NEVER happened before. I have a feeling it won't happen again though. I am a little bitter that I did not get any recognition from ECU from getting straight A's. I thought they sent some letter or something or there was some kind of honor roll/Deans list crap. Oh well.

I think I may start doing something a bit different in my pitiful little blog. I seem to have a tough time remembering stuff from when I was younger. I'm going to try to put down some stuff that I do remember. Then maybe, It will help me remember other crap. I'm not sure how far back I will be able to go. It will probably be a bunch of stuff when I was out on my own.

Lately, I've been checking out some of the pictures that we have save to our external hard drive. I think that's where the inspiration came from to do this. I wish digital cameras were around when I was a kid. I'm not sure where the pics of me are when I was small (not that there that many to begin with).

I will just leave this post with a couple pictures of the house I grew up in. These were taken when my wife and I went to Wellsboro in February 2006 for my grandma's funeral. It had probably been since I graduated high school when the last time I went to Wellsboro and I haven't been back since. I hate to say it, but I have no real desire to go back and visit. It seems most folks were smart enough to move far, far away or just didn't really do anything with themselves (from what little I've seen and heard). It's weird looking at these pictures and thinking that this has been somebody elses house for like 15 years and that I used to live in a house like that!

Wii Fit

Ok. Becky and I have an affinity for getting the latest and greatest gadgets.

Our latest and greatest addition is of course...














We both got set up and we each messed around with a few activities for about half an hour.
But, oh yeah, it's pretty slick. Even though this is really just a fancy bluetooth scale. I tried doing one of the strength training exercises, the push-up. Even though there were only 6 reps, it still whooped my ass. Finally, Wii Fit calculates your "Wii Fit age". I'm 45...I guess I'll have to work on that.

Trader Joe's

Yesterday, Becky went to Clayton NC for a party at her sister's and afterward, she went to Trader Joe's to check out their stuff.
While she was there she bought me some of their brand beer, Frugal Joe's Ordinary Beer. And well, that is what it is. Plain 'ole light beer. It's not bad. Price is typical of a cheaper micro-brew, about $5 and some change.

Tent cat will ambush you.

So about a week ago Evan got a play tent and we put it in his room. The funny part of this is that Lucy spends more time in it than Evan does and has turned it into her new lair...

Where's my stuff?

Well, I've really gone against Chad Warden's advice and ordered a 360 and not the PS "triple".
if you don't know who this guy is check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25LceCPO1ys

(this guy created a MAJOR commotion on the youtube with this vid)

So, we got a Wii and now we're gettin' the new Xbox with the HDMI AND hard drive.

The part that angers me though is I ordered on Sunday and it Amazon waited to ship until today. Not cool. I ordered a HDMI cable from Amazon on the same order and it come today.

Now all I need is an Xbox...

Organic beer

Yes, there is organic beer. This particular brand is not even that expensive. A six pack costs $4.99 and it sure beats the "macrobrew" stuff. I wont name the store we get it from, but I will say you need to use a VIC card there. The color is a little darker than is should be. I tried taking it without a flash, but it turned out blurry.

Blogging again.

Ok, I figure I'm long overdue for a blog...
2008 is here and there have been a few changes. I am now a permanent employee at ECU; I'm off probation now! The Mustang is GONE. I sold it. It was getting tiresome. I like the car, it wasn't quite "modern" enough for me... most notably no keyless entry and no cup holders. I shoulda got a '94 or '95 - last of the 5.0's or better yet, I probably could of found an older Mustang Cobra. Oh well, can't have it all. But literally, I sold my car in ONE DAY. I listed it on craigslist at lunch on a Friday and a guy came with cash money Friday night. I made him wait a couple days before I handed the keys over to him since I hadn't gotten a new car yet. I got a 2008 Honda Civic LX four door. I'd post a picture, but well, its a Civic. I see new ones around town all the time. I really wanted a Civic Si sedan, but they a bit out of budget. I keep joking with Becky that the civic needs about 400 horsepower and then I would be happy with it. But at least I got the 5 speed, so that makes the car a little less boring. But now I have a car that get about 24 mpg in town instead of 13. Big improvement.

Changing the subject, I installed Vista on my computer at the beginning of the year. I was able to get a legit copy of Vista Business last semester for 25 bucks, so I figured I'd take the plunge. So far, its worked pretty good. I have found some stuff that doesn't work with Vista.

Then, this week, Becky and I each got a new toy... new cell phones. We bought them straight out from Motorola. It wasn't as cheap as getting them from US Cellular, but then we aren't locked in another 2 year contract...like thats a big deal. They are nifty little mp3 phone that came with a 512 meg AND a 1 gig micro sd card. It even has a real headphone jack for whatever headphones you like. My only complaint is that all these phones nowadays are "pocket phones"... no clip/hoster/case is included. I bought a cheap holder from the store where got them activated at, but I hate it. We both had Razr's previously and I had found a nice leather case from Best Buy that worked really good. I found something on Amazon similar to my old holder that maybe I won't hate. I hope it comes soon...

Hot damn.

Its about time to update my blog again. I figured now would be about as good a time as any.
I've been using excite a looong time for one of my email accounts. Of course I have the others : hotmail, yahoo, gmail, my ISP, ECU...the list is big. I seem to prefer excite as my "main" address for ordering online.
Anyways, I think I found an interesting glitch on "my" Excite main page regarding current temperature. It was 117 degrees today in Greenville and I got the screen shot to prove it, so it must be true. Ha! Now thats technology at it's best.