A Week Off from Work

Hey there.   I have the whole week off from work!  It's kinda a double edged sword though.  I don't have to work, but it's not a paid week off, so the company is going to take 40 hours of my vacation time to offset that week so that I can get paid.  It kind of sucks.  It's more like a forced vacation than a week off from work.  Either way, I have more than 40 hours vacation time accrued so I'm going to enjoy the time off with my family.  So far, we've been lounging it.  We have to recharge our batteries after all the holiday madness that went on the week before, you need the time off to just relax.  Now, with the New Year just around the corner, we need all the rest we can get now so that we're ready to be alive when the New Year's Eve rolls around.  Take it easy friends and rest up cause 2009 is almost over.  Later.

Motivational Sunday - Dear Children

Hey there.  Staying in Christmas mode, today's poster contains a special message from Santa. Many of us parents ponder as to when would be the ideal time to let the kids know the truth about Santa.  I thought that below was a pretty cool perspective on Santa's existence.  Later!

Merry Christmas Friends

Hey there.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas.  Enjoy your time spent with your family and cherish these moments that will eventually be memories.  I took a few days off from the online world to focus on family and friends.  This year, we plan on passing down some pretty important items to our kids. Well, to our two oldest at least.  We feel that they are old enough to be able to know the value of an item that has been in the family for years.  With that in mind, we passed down my first guitar to our son.  I have this junior sized Peavy that I received around my 14th birthday.  It was my first guitar and the reason I really took on music and inspired me to become the music lover that I am today.  When presented to my son, the first words spoken were, "You have got to be kidding me!"  lol  He's not one to get overly excited, but that's about as good as gold when it comes to him.  I also got him a small amp so that he can practice on.  Nothing too elaborate, but nice enough to have overdrive and clean sounds.  He being a fan of Metallica, will want to be able to have that heavy sound.  Even though it won't be anywhere near high quality.

To our daughter, my wife decided to hand down some Hello Kitty items.  For those of you not in the know, my wife loves Hello Kitty.  Dolls, jewelery, clothes, and all sorts of other Hello Kitty items can be found in our house.  lol  Well, my wife decided that she would like to hand down a bracelet and necklace to our older daughter.  My wife literally shed a tear when wrapping it up.   Our daughter quickly exclaimed, "That's what I wanted!", which leads us to believe that she may have had her eye on it before.  lol

All in all, it was a good Christmas.  We spent time with both of our families and had us some pretty damn good food.  I hope that all of you had a wonderful evening.  Later!

Holiday Shopping

Hey there. Holiday shopping is getting tougher! I cant find a Pop the Pig game that our young one wants! Find at a Store feature... Dont fail me now! Later.

John C. Fremont High School Being Shut Down

Hey there.  A few weeks back, I received word that my high school in Los Angeles is being taken over by the state.  Yeah, it's that bad friends.  It's right in the middle of South Central Los Angeles and it's in a pretty bad neighborhood.  That's my school, folks.  lol  Well, it turns out that the city got tired of the low test scores and high drop out rate so they've decided to start from scratch.  They are firing the whole staff and new hires will be brought in.  From what I hear, teachers working there now will have to re-apply.  It kinda sucks, since a class mate of mine is a part of the music staff at Fremont. 

Fremont has always been bad.  I remember that when I first started going there, an older cousin of mine would tell me to not linger around the school and to hurry home to avoid any gang violence or thug altercations.   From the picture that he was painting in my head, this was the school from hell.  Stabbings, shootings, theft... it was all there, according to him.  And I must say, it wasn't always the case.

I was a band geek, so I was part of the marching band.  The band had long rehearsals that usually ended well after school was over and on Wednesday, we would be at school until 8 PM.  Now, I don't remember experiencing MUCH of the violence and what not.  I used to stay after school and what not and I can honestly say that I've run into trouble of that nature once or twice but nothing in the scale of what was said.  We did have lock downs from time to time.  Which occurred during school, and usually during class.  For those of you not familiar with the term, it's when NO ONE is allowed to leave their classroom until the "disturbance" has been taken care of.  Usually, police would be involved.  It wasn't uncommon to go through an armed policeman before entering the school. 

I remember, after graduation, hearing the news that Fremont was deteriorating.  More armed policeman were patrolling the quad, a fence was built around the school to keep students inside (or the "bad" people out), and the student body just didn't seem to care about their academics.  So now, the Los Angeles Unified School District, LAUSD, has stepped in to take control of the school.  It's tough to say what's going to happen to the school.  What I do know is that this year will play out and then once the year is over, who knows.  Just my luck too.  2010 would be my 10 year high school reunion.  lol  For all the negativity that can be said about Fremont, I think it sucks that it's fallen so low.  I can never wash away the memories and friendships that came with my high school experience.  So here's to you, friends.  Whether our school is still "functioning" or not, I say we take care of business and do our reunion anyways.  Just gonna be a lot harder to get everyone together.  We'll see what transpires, but all I got to say is, "Find a Path, or Make One."  Later!

Motivational Sunday - Overconfidence

Hey there. You know, growing up as a child, you 're told that you should reach for the stars. That you can accomplish what you put your mind to and be successful if you work hard. Well, guess what... We were lied to. We can't accomplish everything we want. We cannot rely on our confidence to achieve and be set up to fail.  Sometimes, there are tasks that are just impossible for us to reach. As an adult, I know now that if I stand outside and reach for stars, I'll look like an idiot with my hands stretched way above my head.  Just like the cat in the picture below.  Yeah, you may be good at catching birds, but trust me, my friend, that eagle is going to kick your butt.  Later!