Richard's Ramblings...

Fair warning, this is a rant. Read on if you dare.

I went shopping with my BIL today to help him get stuff for his apartment at our Wal-Mart (yea I know). While there I saw a member of our military shopping. But what I witnessed was people just ignoring him. A man who risks his life to protect us, and the general populace ignoring him like he wasn’t even there.

I did what I’ve started doing of late and walked up, shook his hand and said thank you. What I saw in his face astonished me. First it was the expected “who is this guy and what does he want.” But when we shook hands, he expression changed. A look of relief and a smile appeared as though someone finally acknowledged what he was doing.

What I wondered next was had anyone ever done that to him before? How many of our citizen don’t even bother to do that? Seriously?

These are our men and women, fighting for us, dying for us, and barely anyone thanks them for what they do and sacrifice, much less their families. Almost every soldier I have walked up to has given me a similar expression.

I hear by issue a challenge to every person reading this post. If you don’t accept it, get the fuck out of this country. For this year, EVERY soldier you see, thank them. If they are with their family, thank them as well. If you can’t be bothered to thank those that give their lives so that we have the chance to be free, you don’t deserve that chance.

It’s shit like this that pisses me off, and I don’t get pissed off easily.

Well, it’s been 2.5 weeks since I started the regime and I’m down over 10lbs. I would be more had I not splurged a bit last friday with family. Took 3 days to work that off. Still moving forward and clothes are definitely looser. And for those that want the video, here ya go!!!

A little late on last weeks so I’ll just do them both here.  ”Officially” started the weight loss about Wed last week. I say “officially” because I didn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until then (and I’m a nerd!!!). Well, since last Sunday, I’ve lost 3.2 lbs. I’ll admit, I went overboard Friday on food (quite a bit), but otherwise did quite well for the week. As part of the process, video diaries are requested (not required). Instead of recording them on our Xbox, I’ll record them on my phone, post on YouTube, then link here. I think it’ll have a much greater impact by doing that since not only does it show progress, but it also holds me a bit more accountable.

Here’s the first one!!!

See you next week!! (I’ll start uploading pics next week as well).

I was originally going to rant about some recent customer service issues, but I decided that I should be more positive. I’ve made resolutions like everyone else, but a recent article I read really changed my mind. No more resolutions. That’s right, I’m not going to resolve to do anything. I’ve decided to fix my life. This year I WILL:

• Lose weight.
• Take my business to MUCH higher heights.
• Get the RVP Contract.
• Enjoy more trips.

Have I started? Of course!! I started back in December. Eating smaller portions and smarter. Just recently started on the exercise portion. Of all things, we picked up the Xbox Kinect along with The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout. Did the setup last night and already feel good about it. Why did we choose this one over some of the others? It’s a name we recognized to be honest. We know the system works IF you keep at it. Granted the TV show is in a controlled environment but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Just means you have to work HARDER to make it work.

I just got done listening to Brandon Jenkins – Unplugged and have to say, it’s good. Especially if you like guitarists. You can tell from how he sings there is plenty of emotion behind all of his songs that make it that much better. He wrote and sung all the songs on the album as well as performed the final track himself. As an added bonus, I believe the last track was also inspired by his sister. Easy to listen to with nothing over powering. The lyrics and music flowed well together and complemented each other nicely.

Now, I haven’t met Brandon personally, but I do know his mother and sister and have met his father. If he is anything like them, he will have a great career. Both his mother and sister are accomplished business owners in their own right.

You can find his album on iTunes. At $4.95, it’s a great deal.

Every year we try to go out to a friends house to watch the fireworks. We avoid the “bigger” shows since frankly, they don’t hold a candle to what their neighbor does. And he does it for FUN!!!! Watch it below or view it here.

That is a statement I hear often. I offer a counter statement though, if you can’t afford life insurance, you can’t NOT afford life insurance. And I don’t just say that because I do sell life insurance, I say that from experience. My brother passed away at the age of 24 due to an aneurism. No life insurance to cover final expenses or to pay off the house he had. I do miss him terrible, however it is because of that incident that I am so adamant about making sure people have life insurance. Even young, single people. But not just any life insurance, the right kind and the right amount.

Do I sell it to every one? No. If you have the assets to cover final expenses, you have NO need for life insurance. If you ask for it will I sell it to you? Yes. You want it for a reason and extra money for those we leave behind is rarely a bad thing.

Now on to why you can’t afford not to have it. Your married, you have kids, both of you work, and you live a decent life style. Now, take away one of your incomes, could you still maintain that lifestyle? How long? A few weeks? Months? How long before the working spouse burns out? That’s what I thought. For most of you, it MIGHT be 1 month. Now there are some benefits with one spouse staying home. They can take care of day to day cleaning and maintenance on the house that you normally wouldn’t be able to do since you’d be working.

You’re probably asking now what that has to do with life insurance right? Well, more than you might think. Take the same situation, but instead of just losing one income, you lost your spouse.  On the way to work one day, they get ran over by a semi, killed by someone shooting up the place, had a heart attack, or any of a thousand other events happen. Now in addition to the loss of income (not to mention loss of a loved one), you now have an additional $6k-$10k for a funeral, probably another couple weeks, if not more, of lost wages as you take off of work to cope and take care of everything, and probably another $10k-$25k in final medical expenses.  If you’re like most people, you don’t have that much cash lying around. If you were to die today, your family will be the ones having to cover those expenses.  In many cases, for several YEARS after you are gone. If that how you want them to remember you by?

Oh, what’s that you say? That wont happen to your family? Let me remind you of my brother, age 24. We never expected that to happen either.

Life insurance is meant to replace your income and cover final expenses for an unexpected event. If your family can’t afford to cover those expenses, then your family can’t afford to NOT have life insurance. Don’t let your family suffer because you failed to plan.

Things have been going crazy.  Business is picking, birthdays, anniversaries, trips, contests, great dinners with friends. Hence why I haven’t been back lately.  I’m going to try to start posting more in between all the rest of what I do.  Come back soon to see what is going on.  In the mean time, I’ll post my GV info on the right hand side so that if anyone wants to chat, they can.

It’s been awhile since my last post.  What can I say, I’ve been busy.  Had a contract that started late last year that was suppose to be 6 weeks that took 6 months.  Then another project right after that that was another 6 week one that took another 7 months.  So yea, those were some fun 12+ hour days.  Anyways, I never really left, just couldn’t do much.

During that time though, I launched a couple sites and an iPad app so it wasn’t a total waste.

I also have a few more iOS apps in the works.  A companion app for the Arlington 4th of July Parade Association’s website, a digital version of the 90 Day Planner offered by PFS Media.com, a game based on the D20 rule book that will fully utilize several features of iOS 4, the iPad, and the iPhone 4.

Got more news to come as well as some informative posts in the works.

I’m gonna try not to spoil the movie with this review, but no promises.

Over all, it was a good movie.  When my wife and I walked in, her first words were “If it sucks, I’m beating the shit out of you.”  Needless to say, I didn’t get my ass handed to me, again.  The acting was a bit sub par from what we are used to, however from researching the actors, they never really had a “big gig” before this movie.  With that in mind, the only real issue was a lack of emotion.  But what do you expect with your main cast being kids with little previous training?

The 3D part of the movie was, well, way below what it should have been.  The movie wasn’t filmed in 3D (or so it appeared) so they had to fake it (assumption).  That actually detracted FROM the movie. Made us both dizzy and gave us headaches.  The special effects were nice though, above average in my opinion.

As for the movie itself, if you are a fan of the series that the movie is based on, don’t see it.  You will be disappointed.  It was basically a summation of the first season crammed into an hour and a half.  That is over 6 hours of history, side stories, love arcs, fight scenes, misc area, history, etc crammed into 90 mins.  Much of the back story (and small story arcs) were cut out.  No diving into HOW Aang got into his hibernation (other than a quick side comment), no how the water tribe got to trust him, just quickly going from spot to spot.  Just much of the emotion and feeling of the series was lost in the translation to live action, at least with this incantation.

Now, if you have NEVER seen the series, it is worth the matinee price at least, just not in 3D.

Will this be a movie I get on DVD/Blu-Ray when it comes out? Unless they have another 2 hours of deleted scenes, no.  There is just too much cut out of the movie from the animation series to really be worth it.