Seek The Substantial

Seek the substantial in life.

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  • What To Remember?

    Because I deal with death nearly everyday I asked Miranda what she would take of mine to remember me. For you, is it a pair of boots, or a book, or an object that I couldn’t conceive if given a million chances?

    As an aside, Miranda didn’t have any idea what that might be (I can’t really blame her), but I started thinking that this would be a great writing assignment for everyone. I assume the reason I did not get a flood of responses is because I didn’t really provide a specific topic, so now I am.

    If I had to pick one thing of Miranda’s it would probably be Olive. Olive needs Miranda (as silly as this appears to sound it is true) and Olive would never be the same, but I cannot imagine letting her go anywhere else. Unless of course, I could be convinced that she would be happier with Miranda’s parents, but it would take some strong convincing.

    On a more permanent scale, I have a lot of trouble answering this question. On some level when you grieve there are only so many things that you can hold on to without depressing yourself everyday. I know that I could say something like pictures, but that would be cheating. On a tangible level, I would take her wedding rings. I know that this does not seem like very much to take, but there would be nothing else that I would want that would bring more sweet and wonderful memories of what was. As I said above, anything else would be too much, all I would really want would be the very most important thing.

    Now, that I’ve given out the assignment, I expect each and every one of you to talk about this with your significant other. I don’t think that this is too depressing (I am probably biased on this point), but is meant to spark a conversation about what is important and maybe more importantly about what we have that we do not really need and what is not important.

    No links tonight, just food for thought.

  • Snuffer’s




    Good times at Snuffer’s last night. I wish I had gotten pictures of everyone with their full belly faces afterwords, but I figure no one really wants to pose for that type of picture. Please notice that Tony is only partially seen here as his identity is to be concealed, and thus, the picture of Tony and Leslie has not been posted.

    The cheese fries (I’m sorry about the incredible glare off of the ranch) did not beat Miranda and I as I believe that we finished the most.

    On another note, please notice the Flickr badge on the right side of this page. I don’t know what else to say other than I think it is very neat.

  • Late Night Random Stuff

    Linkys:

    With so many new babies that will be running around, see if your baby’s name is popular.

    The Dallas Morning News has a new recruiting blog for Big 12 schools.

    This is the camera that I want.

    By the way, a person who stated that she was the mother of the child from the Flickr video requested that I remove the link to her son’s photo due to the exposure. I have complied, but I wonder how she found that link?

  • Google Pack

    Good times.

    Ashley F. wanted to know how I got my screen saver and so I give to you Google Pack. You can pick and choose which applications you want to download and the screen saver is one of them. I recommend Google Earth, Picassa and Firefox.

  • Write

    (I want to preface all of this by stating that this post will ramble, but please bear with me.)

    So this is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I think I have gotten Miranda on my bandwagon. Miranda and I bought journals this past weekend.

    I believe that we as humans do not do all that we can do to exercise our minds. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have an incredible time turning off my mind at night, my brain is constantly churning ideas ranging from every topic. We are always concerned about getting in shape, but we all resort to doing nothing once we get home from work. I believe that this thought process of mine does go to waste, which is one of the reasons why I started this blog. I really felt that I needed a forum to express myself. Not necessarily for any one person or group of people to be impressed with my writing skills. I love the fact that people can come to this website and share what is going on in my life, but the reality is that I needed a release, I needed to be creative. I know that few of us have jobs that would be fulfilling from a creativity standpoint, but that doesn’t meant that your mind has to stop.

    Thus, I am encouraging everyone to start writing. Not to post on the internet or to write a novel or to compose a sonnet, but to simply write. I do not think it’s important that you are a good writer, this can be something that is simply for you, but you should write about something which you are passionate.

    I will write about the horrible pent-up feelings I still have with what happened with Rage and the fact that there was nothing in the world that I could do to make her better despite the fact that I drove to College Station to save her life and ended up putting her to sleep the next day. I will write about my version of how my wife and I met and fell in love. I will write about fantasy football and the method to my madness. I will write about my goals and aspirations. I will write about my memories in law school. I will write about my family.

    I don’t think that it’s important to write about one thing and it’s not about being perfect or grammatically correct, it’s about getting something on paper. All it would take is the 30 extra minutes that most of us have during lunch. Instead of sitting at your computer, write. Get up early Saturday mornings and write.

    What about the people who are about to have kids? What are your fears or your dreams for your not yet born child? There will be memories that you will forget that will be so precious to you at that time. There is no reason to let them slip away.

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but memories fade, very quickly. Memorializing those memories isn’t about necessarily capturing the moment, but it can be about capturing those feelings.

    It doesn’t take much. Go to the store, but a notebook and write.

    Write about your favorite football team and the fact that they lost their offensive coordinator and who you would like to see them hire. Write about your favorite baseball team and what hopes you have for Danks, Volquez and Diamond to do in the majors. Write about your grandparents, they will not be here forever. Write about how much you love your significant other. Write about anything.

    I must also admit that I am a horrible writer. I always have writer’s remorse. When I put pen to paper I always think that I could have been more specific or more colorful, but there is no reason why you can’t come back to that thought and expand on how you feel.

    I do not know how many readers I have, but I think I can count the number of people who will actually do this on one hand, but I hope everyone takes a minute to think about doing this and then do it.

    For those of you who will ignore my request – Linkys:

    Corvette stolen in 1969 and returned.

    I have 20 invitations to a neat website, Newsvine, where you determine what news you feel is important. All you have to do is ask.

    SI.com grades the baseball offseason of all AL teams.

    Former NBA’er, Ralph Sampson, is in trouble (from TrueHoop).

    “Is George Clooney dating Teri Hatcher? Cuz if he is, he could do a lot better. A lot better. (DListed)” (from Egotastic)

    Check out the interesting things that have been scanned on the National Archives.

    If you have not checked out flickr then you are doing yourself a disservice. Funny picture of a kid and snot (link removed as per the mother’s son request) .

  • The Ghost Dog

    I’ve asked two folks what they think about me posting links versus simply writing. Both have said that they appreciate the occasional links, but that they appreciate the content even more. I always believed that this little project was intended to be more of a creative expression than me posting links from the internet. I believe that I’ll always post links, as I told Ben, I feel like an internet filter – only giving you the good stuff or the pretty stuff or the interesting stuff or the entertaining stuff, but as I hope to explain tomorrow or this weekend, I want to write, more and I wil.

    Ben wanted this link and here’s the Chronic of Narnia.

  • Old Photos From Home



    No links today, I probably won’t update until Wednesday night.

  • It’s A Boy

    Mad props to Tony & Leslie, they’re having a boy. We can call this photo either artsy or bad, nevertheless, can you feel the love? Respect.

    Linkys:

    This one’s for Ashley B., Farley and Swayze.

    One neat project, a guy in NY takes one picture a day on his way to and from work.

    Make a website for your puppy dog.

    Have you ever wanted a website where you type in a musical artist’s name and then the internet elves will pick music that they think you will like based on that artist? Well here’s pandora.

    Funny Napoleon Dynamite Utah State Fair promos. There is a Totzilla.

    James Fey is a guy who wrote a book about being hooked on drugs and Oprah decided that this book belonged in her book club. Now we find out it’s reported that he’s a big fat liar.

    Could the Chinese have discovered America before Columbus?

    This guy quit his job to be a pirate.

    The baseball stuff: If you love the Texas Rangers and you are interested in their minor league system then, for the love of God, please go to the Newberg Report. If you are too lazy to do this then go here for the top 10 pitchers in the minor league system.

  • The Horns

    It’s a little late, but I haven’t given any type of props to the Longhorns for their national championship. Considering I have a brother who goes to school there and since he did let me go onto the field with him (once, but I’m not ungrateful) I figured I could show some love. I was actually cheering for UT, Vince is a beast, and stuff.

    Nevertheless, because they are losing Vince, I demand and expect to Tech to completely whip up on Texas next year behind Graham Herrell.

    Links:

    Britney tops Blackwell’s Worst Dressed List.

    Gawker reports on Lindsay and Kate’s night out. By the way, if you don’t read Gawker and you’re a girl who likes gossip then this is the site for you.

    Three really good travel websites:
    1. DoHop
    2. Kayak
    3. Site 59

    Texas Rangers minor league article.

    Tom Cavanaugh is filming Love Monkey in NY and opens the door for people.

    The worlds best quotes in 1 to 10 words.

    Playstation 3 is to be $500.00? Chris will pony up.

    Nano belt buckle.

  • Today In Sports

    Nothing really new to report of today so I’ll just give you some sporty-sports links (and one extra):

    True Hoop has been investigating who is William Wesley. From what I can tell he is an NBA powerbroker who is not an agent but seems to broker deals with players, is aligned with an agent (Leon Rose) and is crazy rich.

    From Bob Sturm: “In battle of the sexes, US Olympic Women’s Hockey team loses to Minnesota High School team …and, if you thought that was impressive, keep in mind, the boys had to play “no-checking”, too.”

    Greggy was asking me how long of a plane ride it was from LA to Sydney, Australia, well, here’s the answer.

    If you are Jones-ing for some Cowboy discussion, then read Cowboy’s Blog.

    Don’t look now, but the Mav’s are only 1/2 game behind San Antonio.

    Mark Cuban says the stock market is for suckers. There’s a lot of truth in what he says, considering he’s a billionaire, you should maybe read and listen.