4th of July-Baseball and Fireworks

Well,

We (my wife, Olivia and Owen) went to the Mariners game yesterday at 1:00pm at Safeco Field. We got the tickets from a season ticket holder off CraigsList and they were great seats!  This was the first game that I can recall staying to the very end of the game. The Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1. It was hot and a lot of interesting fans. It's fun just doing some people watching. We also got to see a few foul balls land near us as we were about 17 rows behind the Mariners dugout and that's where  a lefty pitcher had a bunch of the right-handed batters hitting the foul balls. We really enjoyed the game.

After the game, we were orginally going to stay down and watch the Ivar's fireworks show. However, we decided to go grab some dinner at Chinook's in Ballard and then went home. My son asked  me to get some fireworks, so we hopped in the car and went to the local corner stand.

The stands are a cash only business and we hit the ATM machine first. With $60.00 bucks in our hands we went there. We ended up getting over $100.00 worth of stuff for only $60.00 and then went home and waited for the sun to go down. Man, what a fireworks show we had. It was a blast and out neighbor brought out some of his from last year and we proceded to blow up the entire neighborhood for about an hour.  Of course, yours truly had to get out in the rain this morning and I spent over an hour cleaning up the street and sidewalks - all in the name of fun! I think that everyone enjoyed the fireworks.

I missed the Women's Singles final this am between the Williams sisters and turned on the TV just as they showed Venus running around with the trophy. It was a great win for her. She's a tremendous champion and so is her sister. And.... they won the doubles too! I know Serena would have loved to win, but it was Venuses time to win.  Still, in head to head, Serena has more Grand Slams.  I wish the tennis community would really appreciate what talented girls these Williams sisters really are.

The men's final will be tomorrow am and it's going to be "breakfast at Wimbledon" for me and I Will be up for the match at 0600am pst tomorrow.

We went to the beach the other day and I found a really cool stick that I thought I'd used to help reach my bird feeders. My feeders are 12 feet high on my custom feeder pole that I had build by a welding shop.

I really love the beach and the sound of the waves. It's a calming sound and the smell of the sea air just does something to you.  This was down at a beach in Mukilteo Washington, in an area called Picnic Point. My wife used to go there when she was a kid and it's a great place to go and relax on a hot day.

As you can see, I had my Washington State Open tennis T-Shirt on from last year. I lost to a guy in the first round that I should have beat. In fact, in the Seattle City, he got beat two straight by the guy that I beat in 3 sets to win the tournament for a second straight year.  I am looking forward to the Wa State Open this year and have been trying to practice some outdoor matches.  I have been going back and forth about a racket change and I am leaning on trying to got to a smaller head and even perhaps a smaller grip size for a change.

I am really still a bit angry at Starta8.com's inability to show professionalism and respond to me about why I didn't get their customer service manager position. I find it utterly disrespectful that they didn't take the time to offer me any constructive criticism. I am actually glad as I would NOT work for a company like this who's people don't even say "thank you" for interviewing with them - at least 3 of them didn't and they are NOT that busy to do that.  Moving on to bigger and better things...

It's been 5/2/2008 that I was officially laid off from Verizonbusiness - all due to some incompetent Microsoft employees that I took the blame for. Part of me really wants to let those idiots know what they have done to me and my family. However, they were all miserable people that I dealt with and are not happy. So, I'll let them wallow in their own misery and hit the "delete" button in my brain about wanting to really give them a piece of my mind.

I am beginning to wonder how my Life Insurance is going to turn out with Met-Life. I applied for a $250k policy and had the "in-home" nurse come by last week for the urine/blood and miscellaneous 100 other questions. As and aortic dissection survivor, I will be curious to see how this tracks throughout their systems and if it spits out a "reject" or "yes..we'll take em" and then come up with the monthly premiums. I know many other AD survivors are looking for life insurance or Long Term Care.

We have some new neighbors. What I mean is that we have the same pair of birds build a nest each year under our roof eaves near the front of the house. You can open the towel closet door and hear the baby's chirping. However, in addition to this family, it appears we have a new family that's moved in very close to my den window. And, I can see/hear them at work on their nest or perhaps taking care of their new born chicks already as well. I thought about putting a web-cam out their to watch the repeat customers and document them building and raising their chicks for next year. Might be worth doing.

Still haven't heard from AFV about the video I sent them of our trip to San Diego, CA. I had tape a male bull drinking a females (urine) and then putting on a huge -what looked like -grin! We all laughed and I sent the tape into them about a month ago. It might be too offensive for that "rated G" show.

Take care,

Brian

A trip back in time.... the Drive in Movie!

Wow.. I'll bet it's been 25+ years since I have been to the drive in. The last time I can recall was in high school. We went to see "Wally" and we took the Expedition. It's amazing how many people were at the drive in last night! The second feature was "Get Smart" and we'd seen it with the exception of my daughter. However, I could not get comfortable in that Expedition and literally never even saw the movie, I just laid between my two kids and tried to sleep - which didn't happen.

It's the 4th of July today and I am so thankful for our Indepence!  We are a blessed country and so fortunate to live in the US. That reminds me... I will hang up my new US Flag that I have in the garage - still in it's package ready to be flying high!

We might go to the Mariners game today for something to do. I am playing tennis at 8:30-10:00am with my friend Joe C. The men's semi-finals are on today at noon in all time zones and I think the Nadal match will be quick, but really want to see how Safin does against Roger. 

I am bidding on a new racket myself. It's been 20+ years that I have played with the Original Prince Graphite OS. Granted, they still make it and it's a great racket - perhaps the best of all time! However, I have a one-handed back hand and am playing more doubles, so the 100 (mid plus) head size will be a down grade from the (107) oversize. Also, the top tennis pros that have one handed back hands, with the exception of Roger, use the Head Microgel Extreme Pro.

I sent the folks at Strata8.com an email asking what were the reasons that I didn't get the job and/or to provide me with some constructive criticism on what I can improve on. I spoke with my mom yesterday about this and she said to leave it alone - that you'd already sent them the email and not to pesture them. As much as I know she's right... I am a bit pissed off to put it bluntly that they don't have the respect to at least follow up.

Happy 4th of July!

Brian

Through every adversity comes a seed of equal or greater value!

My wife told me about a "routing specialist" position at Nintendo that I had actually applied for before. I had told the recruiter that I was not interested due to it being a "contract" position and with no benefits. I am covered for my health benefits through my severance package with VerizonBusiness until 2/2/2009. So, I contacted Nintendo directly and just spoke with the new recruiter and he said I had good timing and was forwarding my updated resume and project history to the hiring manager. I am hoping to get a call about an interview.

My friend Jack wants to play some tennis this evening at 5:30pm outdoors. It's extremely muggy today and humid.  However, based on today's event with the news about the rejection from Starta8.com, I am looking forward to getting out some aggression!

BST

No go at Strata8.com for me!

After spending an hour on a phone interview and then 4 hours of in person interviews with various folks at Strata8.com, I got that email that we all hate to see:

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to interview with us this week.  It was a great opportunity for our team to meet with you, learn about your background and discuss the Customer Service Manager position.

This past week, we have had the opportunity to visit with a number of other individuals with a variety of backgrounds and experiences and we have decided to pursue another candidate at this time.

Again, thank you for taking the time to meet with the Strata8 team and for the interest you expressed in the position.  

We wish you the best of luck in your job search.

HR Department

So, my take on this entire situation, "It's their loss and my gain" in that the GOOD LORD has something better for me in store. In fact, I just got a call from F5 Networks - the place I originally wanted to go to work for in the first place! I realize that I might have to start at the bottom, but I WANT TO WORK!

Every no I get just means I am getting closer to YES -YOU are hired!

BST

Self Improvement=Self Confidence

I am working on my Fear of Flying. One of the CD's that I found was from the Virgin Atlantic's http://www.flyingwithoutfear.info website.  The CD is by David Landau - Psychotherapist and it's a great CD. It's called "Confidence & Relaxation. I HIGHLY recommend it as it really relaxes you. In fact, I sometimes can't make it through the entire CD w/o falling a sleep. Today, I fast forward to about the middle of it and listed to the "confidence" building section.

I also found this link about a fear of flying customer named Sarah. It was a story about her first flight, http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/articles/2004/10/25/my_first_flight_feature.shtml.  There's also audio (upper right hand corner) about all her conversations along the way. Hopefully, this will be me too someday soon!

Cheers!

Brian

Starbucks Coffee-Consistantly inconsistant

I am addicted to Starbucks coffee. I have been drinking a double short free pour cappuccino for many years now. However, I can go into 5 different Starbucks on any given day and get 5 different versions of a cappuccino. It appears to me that Starbucks does not properly train their employees how to make cappucino's correctly. Even the baristas that are in the new black aprons - they still don't always do it better either. I often times will go to the local Chevron station and get a great drip cup of coffee for half the price. Yet, everyday, I try to strategically figure out which location has the barista's working that I have gotten a good cappuccino from before.

For instance today, I went to my local Top Foods Starbucks. They guy ringing up the drinks (a black apron dude) knows how to make them. However, the barista making the drinks looked new to me. And, she appeared to not have a smile on her face. I figured.. OK.. rookie, here goes another waste of $3.00+ for a lousy drink. I stepped up to the bar and asked her how it was going. She said, "I am not in a bad mood", and I thought that was interesting and she asked me how I was doing. I told her, "OK" and that I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to play my morning tennis match - I was stood up today.

To make a long story short, the cappuccino was above average, not perfect, but acceptable.

Thanks again!

Brian :)

My Fear of Flying-

I have struggled with FOF for almost 15 years and have let it literally prevent me from moving forward in my career. And now being laid off, trying to search for new jobs has been very stressful. When I search the Job Postings, I first look for "Travel Required?" and if so, I move on.

I finally contacted Captain Ron Neilsen and ordered his program along with my own personal battle of what it is that is really holding me back?  Is it a fear of death? Is it a fear of plunging 30,000 feet to my death and that I can't fathom the 30 seconds of horror that I would experience? Wait a minute! I am a Christian! I have already survived being literally dead (except my brain) for 45 minutes while they cut out part of my aorta. Perhaps the real question is" Are you really actually afraid to die" and not necessarily afraid to fly?

As a Christian, this is a viciuos circle that I got around in my mind every day. It's really a matter of FAITH and the entire Christian religion is based on FAITH. I TRULY believe that Jesus Christ is my LORD AND SAVIOR. Yet, why do I literally say to GOD, "GOD, you are not big enough" to handle my fear of flying/dying and I am trying to rely on my "self" still to figure this out. Well, Brian.. it's not working nor will it EVER work.

At 45 years of age, this major impasse of losing my job and now trying to find a new one is really shedding some light on my life and just who/what/where/why I am here.

I like John MacArthur at Grace To You (gtw.org) and I just found a great article:

Face Tomorrow Hopefully

At times you can lose focus on your security after death and tremble over tomorrow. God, in His fatherly compassion for our child-like weaknesses, has given us biblical instruction on how to deal with that kind of worry and anxiety. Matthew 6:25-34 contains tailor-made instruction for peace and contentment. In that passage, Jesus gives us three reasons for not worrying about this life: Worry is unnecessary because of our Father, uncharacteristic because of our faith, and unwise because of our future.

Unnecessary Because of Our Father. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they (vv. 25-26)?

Uncharacteristic Because of Our Faith. And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith (vv. 27-30)!

Unwise Because of Our Future. Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (vv.31-34)


Face Today Actively  

 

Just as Matthew 6 is Jesus’ great statement on worry, Philippians 4 is the apostle Paul’s charter on how to avoid anxiety. The teaching is clear, compelling, and direct. In Philippians 4:6–9, Paul says not to worry, but he doesn’t leave you there. He helps you fill the vacuum by directing you toward positive steps: right praying, right thinking, and right action.

Right Praying. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (vv. 6-7).

Right Thinking. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things (v. 8).

Right Living. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you (v. 9).

Reflect on God’s truth expressed in those verses, meditate on the Bible—especially the Psalms—and you will find your heart settled by a kind of peace that abides no matter what circumstances or uncertainties come your way.

** I WILL get over this FEAR issue and it will be by FAITH in GOD and that there's nothing I can't do. As Paul says, "I can do ALL things through CHRIST who strengthens me" Phil 10:13.

Best!

Brian