Free Ultrasound

September 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Shawna is going on 18 weeks now. I mentioned before she is going to a mid-wife person this time. The midwife uses Greenville Tech for their ultrasounds because they let her patients get them free or something. Shawna’s appointment with Greenville Tech isn’t until sometime in November because they’re so booked up, so we’ve been kinda bummed that we’d have to wait so long to find out if there is a brother or sister for Devin & Skyler.

It is so nice to have friends like Tathie Baughman. She was listening to His Radio and heard that Piedmont Women’s Center is doing some kind of ultrasound training and needs some pregnant volunteers to come in for free ultrasounds so they can do their training. Tathie called us and told us about it and we called to set it up (the person to call is Trish Dillard @ 864-979-4631 in case you or anyone you know wants to take advantage of this offer).

So now we’re very excited that we should know what we’re having next week!! Isn’t that exciting??? 

Filed Under: Misc

Links of the Day

September 26, 2007 by Leave a Comment

There is lots of good stuff in the feeds I subscribe to. Here are some share-worthy posts in case you don’t feed on them already:
Filed Under: Faith, Money

Under 6 Soccer Update

September 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment

We’ve played four games so far and we’re 3-1. We are much better than I anticipated we’d be, but what am I talking about – these kids are 4 and 5 yrs old. The team that beat us last night is very good. They had a kid that was bigger than everyone on the field, faster than all but one kid on the field, and could kick harder than anyone on the field. I asked their coaches if he plays for Clemson and they laughed. They said we are the only team that has given them a close game so far because they’ve been blowing everyone else out.

Devin is going after it much better than last year but Skyler is having the first year timidity that Devin had last year. She just stands there, follows me around (I’m on the field with the kids), or does little dance moves when the ball is on the other side of the field. Even if the ball comes towards here she will stand there til it hits her and then she cries when some other kid bumps in to her. Maybe next year she’ll like it more or maybe she’ll stick to her real passion – dancing.

Devin took a hard spill last night. He was hustling after the ball and some kid cut him off and he went down hard – head to the ground and all – he bit it – ate dirt – however you want to put it so it sounds as bad as it was – like a blind sided blitz in football except this is soccer. The difference is last year that would have been game over for Devin. This year he cried for a minute and was ready to come back in the game.

There are a couple of kids I like to get pumped up and talking tough to theirselves to motivate them to not be scared to get in there after the ball (Devin is one of them). They’ll grit their teeth and flex their muscles before the kickoff that turns them loose. After that I just have to get Devin to focus his agression on going after the ball instead of THE KID closest to the ball.

We don’t have a team name this year like we did last year, but this year our uniforms are solid navy blue. The team name we had last year is more appropriate for the uniforms we have this year – Blue Thunder.

I think Shawna has taken pictures but I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had a chance to look at them. By the end of the season I’m sure I’ll post some pics. 

Filed Under: Family, Misc

Residual Income vs. Passive Income

September 21, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking about this post for quite some time but I haven’t known exactly what I wanted to write until today when I read this article on mymoneyblog.com .

You might recall a post I did a while back that mentioned my past involvement with ‘network marketing’ – whatever that means these days. (By the way I still have that business and still have a few customers. I just don’t participate in the networking model any more). When I was really active in the ‘networking’ (others call it pyramid) business model the higher level people would always talk about ‘residual’ income and relate it to Elvis still making millions from his music career and he’s been dead for a long time (that’s like twice in one week I’ve mentioned Elvis on here). They would talk about how you do the work one time and the money keeps coming in.

I never believed 99.99999% of the people in network marketing are truly creating a ‘residual’ income because from what I could tell only the people at the very top of the organization could truly sit back and do nothing (or die – which some of them need to do to actually help their organization) and still make money. Most everyone, even people who were perceived as extremely successful, still had to travel a lot to continue building their network and speak at conferences. If they stopped doing that their income would not be ‘residual’. Their income would tank and they would have to really work at it again – which defeats the definition of ‘residual’.

The article on mymoneyblog was about ‘passive’ income which is often used hand in hand with ‘residual’ but there is a difference. I like the definition mymoneyblog put on passive income because I think passive means ‘not so involved’ or ‘not directly involved’, so income from stocks or from business you own but don’t spend a lot of time working could loosely be defined as passive. Some of the middle level network marketers would be better off using the term ‘passive’ for their income because their involvement might be less but that income is no less dependent on the person.

Residual income in my opinion is income that is left over or still coming in after you’re gone – dead. If I leave a business that makes money for my kids without them working even after I’m dead then I think that is residual income. If a network marketers organization continues to earn money for their family after they’re gone then I think that is residual income. Of course if either one of those scenarios tanks after you’re gone then the residue didn’t stick around very long and that would show just how ‘residual’ that income really was.

All I know is none of my current income can be considered passive or residual by any of the definitions or opinions we’re discussing – except for a life insurance policy my family can collect after I die. I wonder if that can be considered ‘residual income’?? 

Filed Under: Business, Money

Satanic Subtlety

September 20, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I’ve mentioned before that my brother Matt goes to RBCC. So sometimes I listen to their pastor Matt preach either on CD’s that my brother Matt gives me or online.

The other day I was catching up on the ‘One’ series they did and the a side point was made about how satan does subtle things to get us off course. The way Matt (pastor Matt) illustrated it was to make an example of changing the time on someones clock by 15 minutes. They probably wouldn’t notice when they woke up but it would be enough to make them late. If it was off by an hour they might notice because light and dark can completely change in an hour, but 15 minutes would be subtle.

The point was to equate that example to how satan puts subtle temptations in our life to cause us to fall in to sin. An example in context of a subject I’ve discussed on here is how satan might not put a real person in your path to tempt you in to a cheating relationship but he might put some porn in front of you that doesn’t seem as bad to you. Next thing you know you’ve sinned and sin is sin. It doesn’t matter if it’s as seemingly harmless as seeing a nudy picture or as wreckless as having an affair. Both are sin and sin is sin.

I thought the subtle time change was a very good illustration. It was easy to imagine someone becoming majorly frustrated because they show up 15 minutes late for work or school and can’t seem to figure out why. The effectiveness of that illustration on me got my odd little brain thinking…

What if a church did that illustration literally rather than just saying it on stage. That wasn’t the main message RBCC was trying to teach that day so it wouldn’t have been appropriate, but what if the message was primarily about how easy it is to drift in to sinful behavior? Couuld the clock analogy be done literally to prove the point?

I think it could. I’m thinking of how NewSpring does things with their atrium depending on what the current message series theme is. (anytime I think of creativity two groups of people come to mind – NewSpring because I go there and see what they do, and corporate advertisers because I work with them all the time for printing).

So what I’m thinking is there could be big clocks in the atrium at NewSpring with the wrong time, maybe only 10 minutes ahead, and everything happening at NewSpring that day is happening by the time on those clocks. The countdown til service starting would be in sync with those clocks. The band would come out to the time on those clocks and begin playing music…

I think you get the picture. Everyone would be so confused and frustrated. People would be asking each other “Is that time right?” and everyone would be checking their cell phone because the time on those is supposed to always be right, but nobody would know what to believe because the service is starting. People like me would be frustrated because they’re late. I’ll bet there would be some interesting reactions.

By the time all the ‘on time’ arrivers are in the auditorium the person doing the greeting/announcements can come out. People will be thinking they have lost it. Just so they don’t get too mad that they missed all the music the band can do a bit more after the greeting before the preacher comes up. When the preacher comes up he tells the confused audience what they’ve just experienced and leads in to the message that explains the parallel.

I think this would be sooo funny, even if it happened to me, and it would be a great literal illustration of a point. You might be thinking this is a cruel idea. But I remember a service where Perry spent about 15 minutes telling this big ole story about how he met Tim McGraw and Faith Hill at a restaurant and then he made out like he had invited Tim McGraw to NewSpring and he was there about to come out on stage. Everyone stood up and erupted with cheering and applause. Perry laughed for 5 more minutes before he followed that tricky illustration with a sermon that made a point. Is changing the clocks to make people ‘late’ any worse than making everyone stand up and cheer like idiots for someone who wasn’t really there? 

Filed Under: Faith

More Stupid Commercials

September 19, 2007 by Leave a Comment

  • Viva Viagra – You’ve got to be kidding me. The King is rolling in his grave, and YES – he IS dead. In my opinion the ‘Viva Viagra’ ad is a lame and desparate attempt to get back some of the market share that Encyte (or however you spell it) stole with their strange smiling man and his happy wife commercials. These ads are just as unwanted as the Vagisil ad I mentioned last week but if I had to rate them all I’d say the Encyte one wins for cleverness – even though that smiling guy looks a little mentally handicapped.
  • Plavix – this drug is being advertised on every channel during the 6:00 hour. At least they’ve done a good job researching their demographic of old people who are watching the early news because they’ll be in bed before it comes back on at 11:00. I hate that the drug companies are advertising and driving up healthcare costs in our country because people see those commercials, go to their doctor, ask for these drugs specifically, the doctor gives them a prescription, and they pay for it with their insurance which is funded by the premiums of people like me who don’t visit the doctor for every sneeze and don’t ask for name brand prescriptions that might be unnecessary.
  • Speaking of unnecessary prescriptions – what is the name of that drug for RLS? You might be asking what is RLS? It is Restless Leg Syndrome. God help me I hope I don’t get that – whatever it is. Is it a muscle twitch or a leg cramp or something? Get up and walk around more. Eat something healthy or maybe take a vitamin. Stop making up ‘diseases’ and ‘syndromes’ to sell these stupid drugs that healthy people are paying for with their insruance premium – or with taxpayers dollars that fund medicaid. Saturday night live even made fun of this RLS thing with a skit about RPS – take a wild guess at what that is an abbreviation for. I’ll give you a hint: If RPS were real it would probably be listed as a warning by the fast voice at the end of the Viva Viagra commercial.
Ok, this has turned in to more of a prescription drug critique than a commercial critique, but it still doesn’t change how I feel about the commercials – they’re stupid. One of these days I’m going to get a DVR or TIVO or whatever those things are that help you skip commercials. They say the next big wave of advertising is product placement in shows and movies. Example – Instead of commercials for Coke you’ll see a Coke can in the hand of your favorite actor in your favorite movie – or whatever. t’s already happening. I can’t imagine how much ebay payed for their placement in the Transformer movie.
Anyway – knowing that is where advertising is headed it makes me wonder how companies like Viagra and Encyte are going to continue putting their products in front of the public on TV. Oh – we’re already being set up for perfect placement of those products. It’ll be in shows like Desparate Housewives and whatever this new one coming out is – Dirty Sexy Money. We don’t watch shows like this – the previews are scandelous enough. But it would be interesting to see if one of their episodes shows Eva Longevity (I made up Eva’s pornstar alias) and her partner of the day putting a bottle of their favorite pill on the night stand right before they…and that’s the part where we would turn the channel. 
Filed Under: Business

Eventful Birthday Party

September 15, 2007 by Leave a Comment

We had an awesome birthday party planned for Devin. It was going to be at the oustide ‘Water Works’ area at the YMCA. When we realized earlier in the week that the water has already gotten too cold outside we decided to do the party in the inside pools with this huge inflatable toy they put in the pool. Then right before the party the thunderstorm started, so we couldn’t get in any of the pools. So we took all the kids in to the gym and lowered the basketball goals. Most of the kids still weren’t big enough to shoot a basketball goal high enough to get it in there. Some dads were helping but most of the kids just decided to run wild all over the place making up their own games as they went. It was all good – nobody cared that we weren’t getting to go swimming. Then there was a tornado warning. Everyone in the building was herded in to the locker rooms to wait out the storm. By the time we got out of there we just went to the party room and had pizza and cake and let kids run wild some more. It was crazy but definitely memorable. The most eventful birthday party I’ve ever been a part of… 
Filed Under: Family, Misc

Wedding Expenses

September 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Shawna does weddings. I’d just like to remind everyone of that in case you or anyone you know is having one anytime in the future. She does a great job too. One of these days I want to make her a website and help her get more business because it is something she really loves to do and she’s so good at it.

Anyway, what got me talking about this besides just Shawna’s love for weddings. MyMoneyBlog wrote this about his own wedding expenses and he took an interesting survey about how much people are spending on weddings. Mine and Shawna’s wedding was somewhere in the $5000-$15000 range and Shawna and her mother pretty much did it all (I had little involvement so I don’t even know who all else to give credit to except my parents who handled the traditinal ‘grooms parent’ responsibilities). The impressive part to me is most wedding expenses are directly correlated to how many people are there. We had over 300 people at our wedding, which is well above the average wedding, but the cost was still in the range of what most reasonable weddings cost based on the survey of normal people done by MyMoneyBlog.

If you haven’t had a wedding yet or you know someone who hasn’t (we all know someone meeting that criteria) then keep Shawna in mind – she can put on a great looking wedding as cost effectively as possible. If you already had a wedding you might also find the expense survey results interesting.

Where did your wedding fall on the survey MyMoneyBlog took? 

Filed Under: Money, Relationships

You’ve Got That Itchy Feeling

September 13, 2007 by Leave a Comment

After I posted the other day about the bad Chick-Fil-A radio commercial I’ve been thinking about posting more good or bad commercials I see or hear. It probably gets on Shawna’s nerves when we occasionally sit together and watch some TV – I’ll critique every other commercial that comes on as either good or bad and why. Advertising is of interest to me because I work in printing and I like to see what is the latest going on in the business world – especially when companies are doing it very creatively. Commercials in particular are of interest to me because it is a competing advertising media to print and again – I like the creativity.

Obviously I’m not the only one noticing commercials. I was glad to read this post by Tim Sanders in which he takes note of what is going on in advertising and how new technology will impact TV commercials.

I’m no expert by any means, but I think I’ve got enough business sense to form my own opinion of good or bad advertising. Sometimes I wonder what company executives are thinking when they allow some of the commercials I see. Here are a couple of examples I’ve recently noticed:

1.    The new Cheesy Beefy Melt at Taco Bell might be a great tasting item on their menu, but the TV commercial ruins it. That isn’t real cheese in the commercial and whatever it is they used to look like cheese looks disgusting hanging out of those peoples mouths. I like cheese and beef but that commercial makes me want to avoid the cheesy beefy melt for fear that I might throw up in my mouth again like I did when I saw the commercial. (just kidding – I only had a slight gag reaction)
2.    The TV was on the other day and I was in the room, but not watching. But you know how you can hear what’s on even though you’re pre-occupied. I heard something like “…that itch you can’t scratch, that terrible smell…”. I was startled (or shocked – we have kids in our house) so my ears perked up like a curious puppy. They were advertising Vagisil. I’ve got a better idea – partner with a tampon/pad company and put a print ad or samples in their box. Better yet follow the example of Gillette. They send all males a razor in the mail when they’ve reached a certain age when they should be able to use it. Vagisil can send a sample tube of stuff to girls who have reached the age when they might need to treat that itch they don’t want everyone watching TV to know about.
3.    Again the TV was on but I was just listening not really watching. I heard something like “…Being careful is very important to me…because I have genital herpes…” It showed all these couples who are ‘looking out for each other’ by taking Valtrex to prevent giving their partner herpes. I couldn’t help wondering if the people in the commercial really do have herpes. If they do I hope the people they are with in the commercial are their spouse already because nobody who watches TV is going to touch them with a ten foot pole now.
Some things just don’t need to be advertised on TV commercials (Vagisil and Valtrex). It doesn’t matter how normal, nice, happy, friendly, or whatever these commercials look with those smiling people hugging in the park or whatever. You have to get a perscription for valtrex anyway so why don’t they just rely on doctors recommendations. Why do they have to put that commercial on TV for the majority of people who don’t have those issues to see? Whatever happened to keeping privates private? 
Filed Under: Business

Rarely Stolen Items From a Fellow Jesus Freak

September 12, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Last week as I was traveling I heard a radio show host speaking of an incident he had recently been through. A thief had taken UPS packages off his porch while he was at work. He couldn’t figure out why in the world they had not delivered yet so he called the company he had ordered from and they eventually figured out there is a thief stealing packages in the area.

What was ironic was the goods that were in the box. He had ordered some Christian CD’s of various types off the internet. There were some preaching CD’s and I think he said there were some Christian books on CD and maybe even some Christian music on CD. You have to assume the thief didn’t know that’s what he was stealing and you have to wonder what he thought when he opened the box to find all that stuff. I imagine Christian goods being stolen is probably a rare occurrence.

What I thought was even more unexpected than what got stolen was who it was stolen from. If you live in upstate SC or have ever been here for any amount of time you have heard of the popular radio station B93.7 and their morning radio show hosts Hawk & Tom. These guys are hilarious along with Kato and Heidi.

Anyway, you can listen to these guys long enough to tell Hawk is the one with the best head on his shoulders and who really knows about the rest (my opinion). I had wondered before if they are Christian or not even though they are on the secular radio station (there is nothing wrong with that). Now that I heard Hawk tell his story of having all those Christian materials stolen from his front porch and make the statement “I like to listen to all that stuff during the week too” I think it is safe to assume Hawk is a Christian. I was very glad to hear this.

Now I’ll be praying that he can first of all withstand the others around him and second of all that he can be an example to them that they need Jesus. I think Tom needs brains first and then he needs Jesus, and Kato might be alright if he stops listening to Tom. Heidi just needs to stop hugging her tree and maybe she’ll listen about Jesus too.

I’m just kidding. I don’t really know any of those people and I could have them all wrong for all I know. All I know is what I hear come out of their mouth on the radio. But I think it took some guts for Hawk to mention that he is a Christian on the radio show that he is on and I commend him for taking that stand. 

Filed Under: Faith, Misc
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