The story goes like this. We stopped in Best Buy in Salem, OR (I was with friends Paul, Paul's mom, and Paul's wife Zea) on the fabled Black Friday of 2006. For those not in the know, black friday is the day after Thanksgiving when many retailers, online and not, display sales information about products with fantastic prices. We were going to go to Best Buy as our last stop before heading home after being out since 3:30am this morning. Here's the gist of how I technically got a PS3...

I was staring at the Sony Playstation 3 demo unit, when a sales associate walks up and asks me if there's anything he can help me with. I pointed at the PS3 behind the plastic, and request a PS3. I wasn't thinking anything of it, and purely requested one out of pure lust for the device itself. The sales associate (#1) requests the presence of another sales associate (#2, the geeky associate) and the two reapproach me (still standing pretty much alone around the PS3). Here's the dialog between us:

#2 "Do you want one?"

Me: "Do you have one?"

#2 "Do you WANT one?"

Me "DO YOU HAVE ONE?!?!?!"

#2 "Here's a ticket. Take it up to the front of the store during checkout to get it".

Me "......................."

In shear disbelief, I walk around the rest of the store with my friends, all of us not believing what we really held in our hands. I immediately handed the ticket and brochure off to Zea, several of us thinking it was a raffle of sorts. We got up to the checkout line, and showed our ticket saying we'd like to exchange the ticket for "one of these", pointing to the PS3. The clerk (#3) said "OH!", took the ticket, walked into an office across the isle, and came back with a shiny new SONY PLAYSTATION 3 with a 60 GB HARD DRIVE. The 60 gig version comes with a few more internal console features as well. This is the device I'D go for if I were to buy one for myself. We got back to Paul's house, and took some pictures, all of us still in shear disbelief that we actually got one of the PS3's, and the 60 gig version no less!

Here are the photos:

Yeah, I know it's not mine, but it's fun to think I got to hold one before many today, and that all I had to do to get one was ask. ;-)

Yes, I'm that good.

2007 Honda Civic Hybrid, built October 3rd, 2006. I don't have any pictures of it yet.

I've been doing a bit of thinking tonight. I was watching tv, and one of the topics on the tv show that was on, revolved around 9/11. 911, 3 numbers that will probably always be remembered when combatants engaged in some serious crimes against my country. Heck, we've been at war ever since. Years have passed, and still one man on such a tiny world cannot be found. The most advanced technology, that mere consumers have yet to fathom, and the ones responsible for these horrible acts are still out there, plotting and planning for the next incursion. As with any system, there are holes. In those holes are ways to bring the system to its knees, and these people who just happen to believe something else, launch these attacks on the United States of America. How can a person, or two people in love, bring a new life into this world, knowing so much hate is directed at us? People can live in fear of what may come, or they can stand up and defend this country. Our troops around the world defend this country from afar, knowing what they do elsewhere, makes us feel just a little safer in this grand country of ours. Sure, we have our faults, and have made our mistakes, but one thing unites every person in this world. We're all here for a time, and then we must go. We are given life, we give life, we take life, and life is taken from us in many ways. There may or may not be a cosmic design to how all this works, but if we just sit back and think about our own lives for a second, we may just realize, that life is worth living...

Mariners won, I let an Australian beat me at bowling, went shopping at Nordstrom, and spent way too much money. After shopping, met for drinks and saw the movie Jackass 2. Horribly funny movie. I still can't believe what they did with that...

All in all, a great weekend!

If I knew it would be the last time
that I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.
If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.
If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute or two
to stop and say I love you,
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.
If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
well I'm sure you'll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.
For surely there's always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything right.
There will always be another day
to say our I love you's,
And certainly there's another chance
to say our "Anything I can do's?"
But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance you get
to hold your loved one tight..
So if you're waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you'll surely regret the day
That you didn't take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.
So hold your loved ones close today,
whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you'll always hold them dear,
Take time to say "I'm sorry, please forgive me,"
"thank you" or "it's okay".
And if tomorrow never comes,
you'll have no regrets about today.

Every time one person plugs into the consciousness grid, they increase the signal from the grid. There will come a point where people will just start remembering and start breathing this way. Children will have the least problem. The older you are the harder it is.

A friend helped me put things in perspective. Working on a project that you don't want to do, just think, you're not in the fields of Africa getting shot at. *goes back to work*

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
~ "Popular Mechanics," forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
~ Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." ~ The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
"But what is it good for?"
~ Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
~ Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

A Matter of Perspective
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...
you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very rare, even in the United States.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.
If you prayed yesterday and today...you are in the minority because you believe God does hear and answer prayers.
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
FOUR. When you say, "I love you," mean it.
FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye. SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
TEN.. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.
TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?" FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze. SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson
SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving
to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe
trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe
is winning." -- Rich Cook
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do
him absolutely no good." -- Samuel Johnson

Anything worthwhile, takes time.
Chance has nothing to do with it child.
The future is not determined by a throw of the dice.
It is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me. - Reboot, Fong

Scifi closing the Stargate