Book Review: Eden

I hardly ever read, so this is the first book review on my blog. I first heard about the fictional book “Eden” written by Andy Merritt on www.StevanSheets.com.  Stevan read the book and said it was great. I told Stevan I am not much for recreational reading. Then I ended up reading a few sample pages from the books site. I was fully hooked after reading just a few pages and ordered the book on the spot. I couldn’t stop thinking about those few pages I had read and couldn’t wait for the book to come in the mail box.

Once into the book, the pages just fly by. The words are common, nothing big and fancy. It took me 2 and half days to read it…. and I had a busy schedule during those days.  I think I would of read it in one day had I gotten it on a day off morning! I would rate this book a 10, and will definitely order anything that Andy puts out there!  I don’t want to give away to much on the book, so if your even a little interested in it, check out the books website by clicking HERE.

What in the world is “Happy Holidays”?

I had someone the other day say, “have a Happy Holiday”.  Made me think why don’t they just say, “have a Merry Christmas”?  Well, I believe its because the stores have trained people that you shouldn’t say “Christmas”.  All the stores are wanting to be so politically correct that they don’t dare say “Christmas”.  They love the fact that we will spend 450 BILLION (thats the real number, not an exaggerated one) this year on buying gifts for the 25th day of December- Christmas!  They play “Christmas” music in the stores. They decorate for Christmas with Christmas trees. They hang Christmas lights.  The run sales and ads up until Christmas.  They have specials on shipping, that if ordered by a certain day, you will have it in time for Christmas! Yet, they want to change the name to Holidays?  Holidays (plural) would refer to Christmas and New years day right?  Whens the last time you got a gift for “Happy New years day” under your “Happy new years day tree”?

It just drives me nuts.  I will say Merry Christmas, and when I do, I mean that I hope you have a great Christmas day celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Oops, I said it, the word “Jesus”.  That is whole new topic and blog post for another day!

Merrell Shoes ROCK! I got new kicks!

I am short on time tonight, but HAD to blog this quick like.  About 2 years ago I bought some really nice hiking shoes (Merrell Brand).  They have been great shoes, but the other day I tried kick starting my dirt bike…. it would not start, so I got mad, and kept trying, and trying, and trying.  To hard of kicks that were to hard tore off a lug on the bottom of my shoe. Oops.  Other than that, these shoes wore incredibly well and didn’t look more than a month or two old.   I called Merrell to ask if  I should caulk the hole or what, and they said that that should not of happened.  The really nice lady at Merrell (who by the way is in Michigan and I can understand her!) tells me to mail em back and MAYBE once they inspect them I will either get my shoes back or a new pair.  She says it will take 3-4 weeks if they decide to replace them.

Here is the timeline. I talked to Rachel at Merrell on wed.  Mailed the shoes out on thursday.  I called on Tuesday cause I am curious, and they tell me they ARE replacing them with a slightly newer/better model and I even got to pick the color!  She says she can have them to me NEXT WEEK! Do I get them next week? NOPE,  got em THIS week on Friday!  Thats 6 business days that I was without Merrell’s!

Long story short, I think I paid about $115 for the first pair, the new ones retail for $130.  I will definitely buy more in the future if/when these wear out.  Oh, and of course, both pair are very comfortable.   You can see my new kicks by CLICKING HERE.

New Puppy!

Here is Noka…. our new Chocolate lab.  Picked her up today at a breeder in Silverlake, IN.

We were looking for a name, and Gary thought Godiva would be cool because its expensive (like a dog) and chocolate (like our dog).

Well, I think Godiva is a lame name for a dog… BUT, there is GOOGLE!  And a quick search tells me that Noka chocolate is in the top 5 most expensive chocolates in the world!  It is over $800 a pound!  That makes my dog a bargain at 13lbs and cost MUCH less than that!

Bryce 8th birthday party video!

Here is some video footage of Bryce and his buds partying down.

more about “Bryce 8th birthday party video“, posted with vodpod

Whew! Summer is busy!

I am realizing more and more that I really should not have a blog.  I am to busy to update it, and really, who reads it anyway?

Anyway, I will try and do some real updates soon.

Things I could of blogged about today:   Saw “Up” the other day with the kids, got icecream after, that was good.  I want to see “The Hurt Locker” when it comes out.  I have a great friend 1 Srgt John Woodson serving in Afganistan right now… I am proud of him and all military peeps…. everyday, not just on the fourth of July.  According to the news, we could get nuked by North Korea in two days on the fourth.

As Forest would say, “Thats all I’ve got to say about that.”

Help keep me out of jail!

Help keep me out of jail by donating some money by CLICKING HERE.

Thanks for your help! It means a lot to me.

Survive This…. With Les Stroud!

This looks REALLY cool… so cool, I wish I was a teen again.  READ HERE to find out why Les Stroud will NOT be doing his show Survivorman anymore.

This is truly inspiring!

This reminds me of my motorcycle “trials” days.  This is a video of Danny MacAskill in April 2009.  I saw this video on my buddy www.StevanSheets.com blog, and I just had to copy it.  It is truly unbelievable and unthinkable what this guy can do on a bicycle!! Make sure and watch to the end…. it gets better the whole video.

more about “Inspired Bicycles – Danny MacAskill A…“, posted with vodpod

Bible for Nokia 5800 Xpress Music!Or any s60V5!

Update: December 09, www.ovi.com added a bible app to the app store! The app is called the Olive Tree Bible Reader.

I have been looking for this since before my phone went public!  I just found it on THIS FORUM! Wow am I stoked, now when my mind, kids, wife, who ever has a Bible question, its right here in my pocket.  I downloaded the NIV version, it has search, etc, full screen, all kinds of other stuff, super easy to navigate.  BUT, most apps are SUPER easy to install on the 5800, this one is by far the hardest app I have installed yet

To get the Bible on your Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, follow these directions in the EXACT order you read them.

1.Go  to this link, then scroll down to the download that says s60bible-0.99-s60v5.sisx, down load that.

2. Install it to your phone like any other app via USB and using Nokia PC Suite (NOT ovi suite, as it won’t recognize the 2nd file).  Now if you open your bible app on your phone in applications, it will say “Bible not found.”

3. Go to this link or do a search and download a .PDB file, save it to your desktop.  Then Open your Nokia PC suite.  Drag this file to the pic of your 5800 on the left side of the Nokia PC suite.

4. Open your applications on your phone, click on “S60Bible”, then go to bottom to bottom left, click on “options”, then click on “Bibles”, at bottom of that list, click on “Update bible list”. Now EXIT the S60Bible app.

5. Re-open your S60Bible app, and read away! Clicking on options will show you all the different ways to search, navigate, and explore. I like the “goto” option as you can quickly find verses you already know.  There is even bookmarking, full screen, and it automatically flips the screen from portrait to landscape.

I know that sounded hard, but it should take less than 5 minutes total to do…. which is less time than it takes to go buy a bible!  And this one is ALWAYS with you!

Happy BIBLE reading!

I have a web page?

This is kind of odd.  I want a blog, yet I am not sure why.  Maby its because Stevan and Shawn have one… and they are some pretty cool guys I tell you.  I just spent the last 2 days with them.  It was an absolute BLAST!  I had a ton of fun and I seriously cannot stop smiling.  You can read about it here

Here are a few pics:

WAY to cute and fun!

Ella was alot of fun, it was good to hang out with her.

If you look close, you can see Stevan in the truck.

good times to say the least.

 On another note,

I even ran spell checker on this.  That way no one can make fun of my spelling… but every know and than it will miss something….

Friday….

Friday morning and excited to get back to work….  I am sure lots happened while I was gone for the last 2 days.  But its nothing Gary and Geoff Can’t handle.  Tonight we are going to the Northwood football game in Nappanee, should be a blast, Lisa’s family is having a huge tailgate party (her family is HUGE, much like the descendants of Abraham in the Old testament)!  Change of plans, Lisa and the boys went to the game.  Jenna and I stayed home for a movie “date” night.  She choose “Enchanted”. It was great! We even got to “Dance” like in the movie.  Ended the night by reading a book.

Soccer Night

Franco’s rule Soccer…

Tonight we loaded up the family into the van and headed to Argos to watch our cousins Tony and Matthew play some awesome soccer.  Had a great time watching them play and ultimately win with a 3-0.  That “Sealed the deal” on Their Warsaw team winning the sectionals! Go Tony and Matthew!  Had fun in the stands hangin out with family and Jenna had a blast with Matthew’s “Friend” Liz.  Here is a poor quality pic of them getting the sectional trophy:

Sectional Winners!

 

Then off in a whirlwind from the game Tony and Rich drove off to head down to TN for Tony to hangout with a college team.  Good luck Tony!

Awesome Sunday!

Ran Media Shout on the screens in Church today….

Had a blast today in Church.  They even let me run the video’s for all three services.  Here is a pic of my view:

View from Media Shout

Then they brought out the “little kids” chior and I got to hear Jenna and her pals sing.  Here is a pic of her on the big screen… I think she is about 7′ in this pic!

7' Jenna!

After Church we got to go to 2 birthday parties.  First to cousin Reagan’s for for fun and a great taco salad, then off to our Nephew Collin’s.  Him and his little brother Blake are growing fast.  Had fun hanging out and Billy did an awesome job grilling out some great burgers.  If nothing else, it was totally worth it to see MY dad put a kids helmut on his head!!  (backwards I might add! LOL)

Cool Helmut!

Gotta love that guy.

Thats is about the day for today.  Still not sure why I have a blog, but I am having fun figuring out how to post this stuff.

Shawn French Nominated ME for President!!

Jason Knepp for President?

Ok, if your not one of us who hangs out on the Jeep forums, then you will probably find this very hard to believe.  The jeep forum guys are a very tight knit bunch.  Anyway, long story short, Shawn got this all started on a jeep forum as a joke that I should run for president of the United States! (Remember there are countless thousands of folks on the forums)  It just took off uncontrollably from there!  Click here to see the VIDEO about it all. 

 

After you watch the video, you can view Shawns site to see more of how it got started.

Did you know?

Click HERE for a video that is pretty crazy.

Guitar Hero’s!

Guitar Hero’s at Terry and Kyla’s house…

Friday night was a blast hanging out with a bunch of fun folks from Church at Terry and Kyla’s house.  We had lots of good chili and other yummy’s, played guitars, and sat around the campfire telling jackalope Storys.

Check out this sweet video of our Friday night version of GUITAR HERO! (live, no gamers here)

I love watching and playing with Fire.

Terry's fire

Welcome to my weblog!

This is normally where you would read the latest whatever I am posting about.  But I am going to send out a e-mail for all to know I have a site to check.  I just finished adding my testimony (you can click on different topics at the top ↑and to the right. → )  I will add more pics and stuff as time goes. 

You ask why I have a blog?  I don’t know, but I am having fun with it so far.  It has only been a little over a week now that has been up and running. 

Normally you will just find stuff like this:

Little Toilet!

I dare anyone to find a smaller WORKING toilet.

OK, now that you know this blog is mostly going to be pointless, you won’t be disapointed when you return.  So, look around, please comment on anything you want!  Read my testimony, check out the pics of family and jeep, and check out my work website, and check out my buds blogs.  If you have a blog, let me know so I can add you to the list!   Oh, and almost forgot, you can scroll down to see the stuff that I have been posting to learn this blog thing out….

Catch ya later!

Jason

Fire Hydrant explodes!

 

Water everywhere!!

Ok, that is a great headline, but really there was no explosion. It sure makes a great headline though.  I wonder why they do this every once in awhile?  Anyone know? Leave a comment of what your guess is or if you know.

 

I really posted this for my friend in Pennsylvania… he has some sort of wierd fire hydrant fetish.   Other wise, this would of never made my blog.

Football?

Funny Video

I am not a big football fan, but thought I would post this for Geoff and you other football fans.  It’s pretty funny to watch even if you don’t like football!   I first saw this on Stevan’s web site.

Click here for video.

 Now, the question of the day, (after you watch video) is, What the heck was that guy thinking?  Has anyone seen what he said? (I assume he was interviewed?)  Does he get to keep his job? Please post anything you know in the comments below!

Drive a FREE car!

This is WAY cool video.  Some of you saw this awhile back when I forwarded it via e-mail.  Watch this video to learn how to drive your free car!

Click here for amazing video.

Fancy New Restraunt….

Went to a new place in Warsaw on Friday to eat out. It is called: Fusion.  Great food.  This place is pretty fancy, not really my style, but I will go back for sure.  The Creme brulee dessert is amazing! 

Me and Her

 She is the best wife on all planet earth!

Hang Loose

 Above is a doodle that happened with 8 friends, passing a pen around, each adding a doodle to the previous persons doodle.  How we ended there I am not sure!

Shawns Shoes

A friend of mine wore these shoes to dinner.  They are much like the fine dinning, a little fancy for me, and not really my style, but looked great on him!

That is the basics of our fun night out without the kids.  Had a blast, partied like rock stars, and laughed alot.

Jeeps and Birds

On the way to Church Sunday, my kids thought these seagulls were super cool.  So, here are some pics.  You would think we are in Florida.  The pic does not do it justice… I am guessing there were thousands of them.  Where do all these birds come from?

Sea Gulls!

Then today while I was in Warsaw, I saw a twin.  Well, almost a twin.  Who in there right mind would wanna modify a jeep just like mine?  I bet that guy is weird!

Jeep twins

By the way, if you don’t know which is which, mine is the cool one.

Broken stuff…

This is bad.  This is Gabes jeep.  We are going to try and fix it.  More to come….

that is not good....

 

Gabes awesome jeep

Gabe’s Ring Gear bust on his jeep…

Click here on this video to see what happened!

According to online jeep forums, you cannot possibly swap a broken ring and pinion yourself.  It is some sort of black magic that only “trained” people can do.  Sounded like a challenge to us.  So we decided we could give it a shot.  Here is right after we pulled the carrier out.

Dirty Housing

See all the metal particles at the bottom.  That is bad.  I lost track of how many times we installed and un-installed the pinion, and then the carrier for measurements, but it was somewhere around 12!  We started in on it Sunday around 1:00, worked until around 8:00.  Then resumed Wednesday around 5:00 and worked till 11:30pm. Then today (Thursday), Matt went over and got 3 hours work done in 1 hour by himself, then we started back in around 7:30pm, and finally rolled the jeep out the door around 9:00pm.   There was normally anywhere from 2 of us there up to 4 at a time.  I think if you figure it out, we probably spent WAY to much time doing it!  BUT, we learned alot, and had fun, and busted the myth that you have to be a trained jeep tech to do it. Here are some pics of the install.

Sparks

 

Uni-bits are amazing...

And last but not least, the end results of all of our work.  Here is the pattern we ended up going with.   You would be amazed how much 10 THOUSANDS of an inch make to this pattern!  (that is .0010″)

great pattern

See how even that is? I have some amazing friends.  We saved all the bearings that we honed out for “next time”.

Now we are ready to go beat the jeeps on Saturday at Doug Armey’s Jeep party.  Looking forward to that for sure!

Return of the REAL Survivorman!

Les Stroud is back for season 3!

I am so stoked, Discovery Channel’s host and survival expert Les Stroud is back for his third season of SURVIVORMAN, premiering Friday, November 7 at 9PM ET/PT in the US, and airing for the first time in high definition.

I say he is the REAL Survivorman, as myself and 2 buds tried our hand at it. To see the not so serious video, click here.  I guarantee you will smile if you watch this video…. we are super geeks!  It was so much fun making that video.  The chicken was a little “tuff”, but it sort of tasted like…. chicken.

Jeep, eat, sleep, Jeep….

More Jeep stuff?

Usually doesn’t seem to be this much jeep stuff in my life, but here it is again.

Went wheeling at Doug Armey’s amazing 180 acres of pure jeep goodness on Saturday.  It was an absolute BLAST.  Good wheeling with good people! Here is the only pic I got before the sun went down

Jeeps!

I think all total 17 jeeps were there (plus a few wifey rides: van and Xterra).

Well, normally I am very fortunate in the fact that I don’t break much.  Well, not this night.  Not to far into the trail, there was a big tree across the trail that came almost to my bumper.  In order to “jump” it, I had to use a little to much momentum so I didn’t get hung up on it.  Hit log, did nice big “wheelie” then landed… hard, very hard.  That plus some rocks dragging on bottom about 50′ prior to log, caused some pretty odd noises.  Ended up, I very lightly bent a frame rail, broke a welded exhaust mount, bent a thick Warn after market steel Transfer case skid plate, and really bent my cross member… mangled may be a better word for the cross member.  But, before we knew what was making the noise, we thought it was a front hub/bearing, so I dropped off $61 dollars at Napa for a new one, here we are putting it in on Sunday

Mangled view #1

Mangled view #2

Turns out, the old bearing was fine (now I have a spare).  What was making the noise was the entire drive line got moved to the passenger side somehow…. weird.  Don’t know how that happened.

tree chunks from under jeep

 So tonight, I loosened all the skid and cross member bolts, took a uni bit to “relax” the holes. and used a redneck come-along (read ratchet strap) to pull everything at least close to where jeep engineers intended it to be.  Drives great again, no noise.  The noise was the CV joint on the drive shaft rubbing a plastic mount that protects some wiring in the trans tunnel…. sure was loud!

All in all, had a blast!  Oh yeah, and somewhere in the middle of all that, I lost my phone SOMEWHERE on 180 acres.  I walked around on a trail where I knew I had gotten out, said a prayer, and found my phone. It had been run over by several jeeps.  1 small crack, some very minor scratches, but works great. I love Nokia phones.

Anybody wanna go jeepin this weekend? My heep is ready!

My new amazing phone to be… Nokia 5800 music Xpress

I gotta have this….

OK, so ever since the iPhone came out, I have dreamt of the day that Nokia would come out with a touch screen phone.  I have patiently waited… and the day is almost here!  It is released across the pond, but not in the states until feb, 09.  It pretty much does everything you can imagine.  I can hardly wait to get one in my hands.  3.2 mega pixel camera, free music downloads, Plays movies, games, calendar, internet, 16MB memory, etc, etc.  You can buy all sorts of programs for it… some examples are, it can be your new TV remote control, an alarm clock that listens to you sleep and wakes you when you are in a “light” sleep cycle, microsoft office, e-mail, maps with satellite view, gps, and on and on.   And it is supposed to cost much less than the iPhone.  And from everything I have read, is a much better phone.  Basically it is a slightly outdated laptop…. in your pocket.

Nokia 5800 Music Xpress

 

Also called

oh my...

Some body really should buy me this.  Anyone want to volunteer?

Breakfast with the boys…

Last night my father-in-law told me that the Lions that he is in is having a breakfast this am.  Pancakes and sausage.  I love breakfast… I normally eat 5 or 6 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, and sometimes a couple waffles.  So the boys and I got up early, had a great time stuffing our faces with yummy pancakes.  Then we came out, and the jeep was parked next to a big “double” curb and all of a sudden they both thought they were “big”.

Little jeep or big kids?

Wow, my kids are so slow…

Serious, my kids are slow!

Click here to watch the video.  Don’t judge me until you watch the video!

The end of the Internet? “The Grid” is coming…

From Fox news site:  “The Internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant on-line gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.  Sounds pretty crazy to me.  Remember when there was no internet? Remember shared house lines at home? Remember no cell phones?  Well, now it sounds like someday we are going to add to that list, “Remember the internet?”

What I want for Christmas…

If I am on your shopping list, please take everything you have already bought me back to the store and return it and just buy me one of these.  Just one.  No point in excess!

Gary’s Bank!

This is SO cool, Gary, my boss, bought an old bank building about a year ago, and has been rehabbing and repairing it since.  I just got the chance to go check it out last night.  It is in the big town of Claypool, and the vault door is SUPER cool. He has brought back the door and bank building… keep in mind this vault is from the early 1900 hundreds!  We measured the concrete walls at 17″ thick!!  Gary has always loved vaults and banks… I can see why after getting to open and close the vault door several times.   I don’t know how much the door weighs, but it is A LOT.   If I had to guess I would say about 3,000lb?  Here are a few pics:

Gary and his Vault

The above pic cracks me up… he is like a kid in a candy store!  This door a year ago was covered in a thin film of brown rust, and the old owner was going to turn the bank into an apartment! (Gasp!)

Vault Guts

I am sure there is a more technical name, but Vault Guts is all that comes to mind.

Timer

The above pic is from inside the doors.. it is the timer which can be set up to 72 hours.  It was really amazing that EVERYTHING was still in perfect working order.

Pretty cool stuff from the past huh?

David Letterman Letter.

I got this from Stacey Ritter in an e-mail… I have no idea if David Letterman actually wrote this or not, but I really don’t care.  More people need to this attitude.  Here is the speech:

David Letterman wrote this; it’s the David we don’t often see….

‘As most of you know I am not a President Bush fan, nor have I ever been, but this is not about Bush, it is about us, as Americans, and it seems to hit the mark.’

‘The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some Poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?
The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction t he country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President.. In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ‘What are we so unhappy about?’

A. Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week?

B. Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?

C. Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

D. Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

E. Maybe it is the ability to drive our cars and trucks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state.

F. Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?

G. I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough either.

H. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

I. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.

J. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family, and your belongings.

K. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

L. This all in the back drop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

M. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that is what has 67% of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don’t have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? ;

Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11?

The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession?

Could this be the sam e guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks?

The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?

Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn’t take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad!

Think about it……are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the ‘Media’ told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn’t have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ”general” discharge, an ‘other than honorable” discharge or, worst case scenario, a ”dishonorable’ discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?

Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by ‘justifying’ them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn’t kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way… …Insane!

Turn off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.’ ‘With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunder-storms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, ‘Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’
-David Letterman

I know a TV star!

Wow, this just in minutes ago, on live NATIONAL TV, my friend Stevan Sheets was on a food cooking show called Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  Here is a pic I took of my TV screen just a few minutes ago! (Stev is in the greenish polo shirt center of TV)

Stevan on TV!!

12 year old calls radio station….

This 12 year old boy called into a radio station, click here to listen to the 2 minute and 24 second conversation.  Sure sums it up pretty well.  Hard to believe he is only 12!

Design Jason a T-shirt on www.cafepress.com, win MONEY!

This has got to be the coolest contest EVER!  I am really counting on Stevan and Shawn to come thru!  Here are the 3 rules:

1. I will be the sole judge, no exceptions

2. You can mark your shirt product up a max of $5.

3. The shirt must say: “Driving a Jeep is like peeing in your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.” (feel free to change wordage slightly)

Thats it! The “winner” will be awarded me buying one of their shirts!  And, I will post a link on the highly trafficked www.jasonknepp.wordpress.com blog for the rest of the world to buy!  Think of the potential, by my estiamtion you could possibly rack up one or two sales. 

To submit your tee, e-mail the shirt link to me, if you don’t know my e-mail, then I guess you can’t play…

Fine print: Shirts must be submitted by this Sunday at the latest.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for?

I woke up at 6am…as I laid in bed, I started thinking of what I am thankful for.  I am thankful for a lot.  Here are just a few that come to mind.  I am thankful for a forgiving God that loves me even when I do things he hates.  I am thankful for my Wife, she is amazing.  I am thankful for my 3 amazing kids… they make me smile just thinking of them!  I am thankful for awesome parents, they to have always loved me, even when I am not a great son.  I am thankful for all my friends…. both old ones and new ones. It’s great having friends isn’t it?   I am thankful for our Church, it has made a big difference in my life.  I am thankful for an awesome job, an awesome boss and great customers, thanks for your loyalty Gary!  I am thankful for the right and ability to make choices… that is one of the greatest gifts God gave us.  I am thankful for the country I live in, and the freedoms that we have.  I am thankful for all the men and woman that serve in our Armed forces and that have died for my freedom… that sounds pretty repeated, but it takes on a whole new meaning when I remember that people I personally knew and worked with on a daily basis in the Army are now DEAD…. they died fighting evil for you and me. I am thankful for great health and a bunch of other things that I take for granted all the time until I sit down to think about.  I am thankful I still have my legs (read My Testimony, its on a tab at top of page.)

Last and for sure least, I am thankful for stuff.  Its hard to remember that all material things are just “stuff”.  Not saying I am not thankful for stuff like Houses, cars, etc., but stuff is nothing without all of the first paragraph.

T-shirt contest winner!

Well, after judging all the entries, one contestant was the clear winner: STEVAN SHEETS! Here is his fine creation:

To buy one of these limited time offer t-shirts (limited time because it says jeep on it and cafepress will make him delete it!) click HERE.  It comes in a bunch of different colors… just not yellow.   Mine is ordered and I can’t wait to wear it!

Are you a Computer geek or High tech savy?

If you are NOT a techy kind of person, ignore this post. If you are, then you will really appreciate this link!  Click here to check it out. I actually came across this site by pure chance!  Pretty cool to say the least.  I expect everyone to post a comment about what they think of the link.

Video of my Dad growing up…

Click Here to watch a short video of my Dad growing up.  He is the kid eating the corn.  He still eats like this.

Yes, this concerns me!

HUGE Angel..

My Mom and Bob made this and put it up every year near my Grandpa’s barn on US 12 in Edwardburg, MI.

This picture is pretty poor quality, but you get the idea…

Angel

Keep in mind that barn is HUGE. The first floor easily holds large tractors, etc, and the upstairs can hold more hey than I want to remember stacking!

Christmas…

OK, I don’t wanna “copy” off a buds blog, but I did take this from Stevan Sheets blog.  It is a video, that pretty well sums up my feelings at the beginning and end of every Christmas season…. but I somehow lose track of it in the inbetween.  Click Here to watch 2:39 video.

From the web page of www.adventconspiracy.org

Please leave comments on what you think of video!

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!!

BIRTHDAYS EVERYWHERE!

In the last 3 days, there has been several people I know celebrating their birthdays.  Here are the special people:

Dec 5th, Dustin Mast (my older brother ), and Chandler Ritter turned 10!

Dec 6th, Laura Jo Franco turned 11.

Dec 7th, Matt Vankirk and Geoff Gilbert.

Hope you all had great birthdays!

To-do list is DONE!

Big day today, Rob and Brian came over (they do all the service work at Sherlock Homes) and we knocked out a huge honey do list that I made for myself.  These guys are efficient! Here are a few highlights of things we did: Laid carpet pad in most of the basement (from the flood), re-stretched said carpet, fixed a bunch of trim, replaced the sump pump (that was a much bigger job than anticipated), replaced the kitchen faucet, fixed 3 non working fluorescent lights, Insulated 80′ of pipe so it would stop the condensation, spread a little drywall spackle  and some other misc odd jobs.

On a totally different note , here is a guy that must not have anything around his house that needs done.  Monica Lamb e-mailed it to me.  I didn’t really “catch on” until about half way through.  I am very proud of myself, as today I finally figured out how to post a video IN my blog, instead of having a clickable link.  (it was very easy actually) and I added snow!

more about “200712_casa-iluminada-musica-navidad3…“, posted with vodpod

Whew! I just ran 3.5 miles!

Wow, I am so out of shape its crazy.  Just ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill while watching the end of Code of Silence with Chuck Norris. (I am not willing to publicly admit how long it took!)  Its an old school cop movie.  I am not a great movie review kinda guy for a few reasons:

1. I hardly ever watch TV or Movies.
2. I am very easily entertained.
3. I hardly ever think a movie is “bad”.
4. I almost always think a movie is good!

With that said, here is my review.  I thought it was a pretty awesome shoot em up old school movie…. I mean C’mon, it has Chuck Norris in it!   Maybe it was just runners high, I am not sure.  How can ya not like a movie that has 1 good cop, an entire police  force of corrupted bad cops, and in the end he is a 1 man army that kills all the bad guys and saves 1 good girl.

Thats my review.  If ya watch this movie and don’t like it, I guess you should re-watch it while running on a tread mill!

My phone to be, the Nokia 5800 Music Xpress….

This phone does it all, should hit the states around middle of February. THEN it WILL be mine…

more about “My phone to be, the Nokia 5800 Music …“, posted with vodpod

Contest winner! Here is the t-shirt.

Awhile back, there was a t-shirt contest on this very blog.  We only had one entrant (Stevan Sheets) , but he won! Here is this wonderful T-shirt, worn by me.   Everyone (who drives a jeep) should own one!

New Jeep T-shirt

To get your very own T-shirt, click HERE.

NEW LCD TV for Christmas!

So, I have an awesome boss.  Gary got us a LCD TV for Christmas!  It is a 40″ LCD Samsung.  It rocks, and most importantly Lisa loves it…  for real, I hardly ever watch TV. I am WAY more likely to be found wasting time on the web.  Our old TV was slowly dying (anybody want a FREE 35″ TV that works most of the time and some of the time is black and white?)  The only real problem was we could not find a new TV stand…. even the ones we did not like were several hundred bucks, AND were fake wood.  So whats a man to do?  Bust out the CHAINSAW!

OLD Tv Cabinet

Above is what the old $olid oak tv cabinet looked like before being chopped….

After the saw...

OK, really I didn’t chainsaw it… I called the master wood worker in the area… Jay Glon.  He picked it up on Monday night and had it back here on Thursday.  Now that is service… and as total bonus, Jay is to nice to charge what he should of, so he only wanted $50, but  Lisa wouldn’t let him leave without less than $60!  It looks better than any cabinet we saw, and its real wood!  The TV looks sort of smallish in this pic, but it really fits our living room nice.

Just ordered more RAM for my PC

Wow, so apparently when I ordered my current desktop PC 4 years ago, it was a “good” one with a whopping 512 of ram…. it has been really slow lately, so I called up Dell.  I really WANT a laptop, but NEED a PC that works, so I ordered up 2 GB of ram! I found a generic spot online for 79, dell was 99, but came down to $65!

Can’t wait to get it and install it…. anybody got any install tips?  I have NO clue!  I don’t even know if the old one has to come out.  He said I have a 4 slot ram thingy and my new 2GB is a 2 slot??  Can I leave the 512, or must it come out?

PLEASE leave a comment if ya know!  Thanks in advance for your help!

Google Maps on the Nokia 5800

More videos of my phone I am getting when it gets released… hopefully in Feb. 09!!

more about “Google Maps on the Nokia 5800“, posted with vodpod

ICON Aircraft, SUPER COOL!

OK, many of you know I have dreamt of the day that I can fly myself to and fro to this and that…. well, even though this little dude is $139,900, I think it is a sign of things to come!  Maybe buy a used one in 10 years for $40,000??  I hope so!  The main web page is here at www.ICONaircraft.com Watch or drool over this video….  [Edit, I took video off because it kept playing in background with annoying music.... click above link to check it out.]

The kiddos love this….

Type in the Christmas song you want them to sing…..  you can even type in non Christmas songs and they will tell you something else….  (Credit to Aunt Brenda for forwarding this to me!)

more about “card.swf (application/x-shockwave-fla…“, posted with vodpod

The Christmas Story in 5 days…

OK, for the next five days(starting today December 20th, 2008), I am going to try and post on this blog what I read to my kids every year the 5 days leading up to Christmas and then we end on the morning of Christmas.  This is going to be copy and paste from the NLT (New Living Translation), with LOTS of text missing… I am only selecting the text I read to the kids for THIS story..  Here goes:

Starting in Luke 1:5b ending with Luke 1:25

Zechariah was a member of the priestly order of Abijah.   Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes.  He was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary and burn incense in the Lord’s presence.  While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.   Zechariah was in the sanctuary when an angel of the Lord appeared,  Zechariah was overwhelmed with fear.   But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah!  For God has heard your prayer, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son!  And you are to name him John.  He must never touch wine or hard liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.   He will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing the people for his arrival.” Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know this will happen?  I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.” Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God.  And now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you won’t be able to speak until the child is born.” Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months.  “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children!”

Wow, what a Sunday, and 2nd day of The Christmas story.

WHEW,  Sunday was not the day I had planned!  Woke up early, got the kiddo’s and wife up and ready, and off to Church we go.  Oops, half way there my mother in law calls to say our Church is canceled due the horribly bad weather.  So we just decided to head to her house for our Christmas get together.

Then a tenant called to say she had frozen pipes, that was around 10:00am.  Meanwhile, all the relatives are calling saying they can’t come because they have so far to drive and the bad weather.  So my wife invites several of our friends to help eat all the food.  I assumed (mistake) I could quick thaw her pipes and get home to food and friends.

Long story short, got the pipes thawed, but didn’t get back to the “party” till around 5:00 when everyone was pulling out of the driveway.

So thanks to my pal Gabe who really helped me out on thawing the pipes, and sorry to Shawn who sat at my in-laws all day without anyone to talk to!

Day 2 of the Christmas Story.

Sorry I am late posting this 4th day. Here goes, and remember, I skip some versus for the sake of story telling.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to bless you! You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.“ Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! She’s already in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.” And then the angel left.

Day 3 of the Christmas Story.

Ok, Here is day 3 in the countdown…  (remember I took some versus out for the sake of story telling)

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived.   She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.  At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  “When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.  You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. “ Mary responded,  “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

Day 4 of the Christmas story.

OK, running a bit behind on posting, but here is day 4.  Tonight we went to Christmas eve service with Billy and Sarah and Mom and Bob, and even Grandpa was there.  It was a good time, I always enjoy Christmas eve services.  Tonight I am using The Message bible translation.  Here is day 4 of the story:

When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: “No. He is to be called John.”

61-62“But,” they said, “no one in your family is named that.” They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.

63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, “His name is to be John.” That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!

21When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! And its day 5, the end of the Christmas Story.

From the Knepp house to your house, we wish you a Merry Christmas!!

Here we are, with the end of the story that really started everything. From The Message translation:

22-24Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.

25-32In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

God, you can now release your servant;
release me in peace as you promised.
With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
and of glory for your people Israel.

33-35Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,

This child marks both the failure and
the recovery of many in Israel,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will force honesty,
as God reveals who they really are.

This sums up gun control…

This video sums up what I have been saying for a long time about gun control…

more about “gun control criminal – Google Video“, posted with vodpod

I made a Hiking Stick/Monopod…

I thought I would throw up some pics of a Hiking Stick/Mono-pod I made for my mom.  This summer she had back surgery, and that is when this all got started.  I thought it would help her get around once she was up and around, but thankfully she was up and around VERY quick.  Now she is doing great and has no need for a “cane”, but she is a photographer, and does need a mono-pod for her camera in the great outdoors.    I ended up finishing it Christmas eve morning and gave it to her for Christmas.  Here are some pics:

Here is a pic showing the adjustable hand lanyard. It adjust up and down and the loop itself can be made bigger or smaller. It consist of 3 complex knots. The knot holding to the Hiking stick will slide up and down by hand, but will NOT move by pulling down on the lanyard if your hand is in it! There is a guy on the web selling a lanyard exactly like these for $25 PLUS shipping!! I of course made this on my own.

This shows my art-inability of what is supposed to be a horse shoe (my mom has and loves horses). The top section screws off to reveal the threaded camera mount.

Here is where the camera screws on.

Here is a pic with my old camera on it....

Here is pic of the top with a high end liquid filled compass embedded down in the top section.

Please leave comments if you have any!

busyness.

As in crazy busy.  On top of all that, My lovely bride let me get a PSP for Christmas and I have been playing way to much Socom Fire team bravo 2!

Shawn got me onto this crazy thing.  If you don’t know what this, its a waste of time…. but its a get away from the world and is a BLAST.

If you do know, let me know ASAP so we can play together.  My name is 33rd-19Delta   (because 19D was my MOS when I was in the Army as a Calvary Scout).

Happy New Year!

Here is hoping you have a blessed and awesome new year!!!

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately… been pretty busy.  Still playing to much Navy Seals with my buds, and I have been trying to beat my kids at our new Jeep Wii game and the old school (no electric) battleship…  I have yet to beat either of them on the wii, and Ethan rocks at Battleship!  I have tried my hardest and he still winsEVERY game.

Tomorrow I am really looking forward to going to Gabe’s house after Church to help him work on his house remodel…. big time stuff, rippin out walls, kitchen, etc… can’t wait to to finally help him for once.  He is always helping me and everyone else out.  A few other pals are going to join us.  guys and hammers, can’t imagine a better day.

Anyway, I am going to make 2009 an awesome year, I hope you decide to make your 09 awesome as well!

Rantings…

This rant is going to be as short as possible.

This morning I turned on some morning show while eating breakfast. (I normally don’t do that for this very reason).

What has this country come to?   They had some lame news that wasn’t news at all.  Then, what really got me, was this fashion thingy.  They had some little chick on saying what the hottest fashions are for 2009.  She went on to say how this big gaudy plastic jewelry is “so in”, and what a bargain starting at only $350 made by blah-blah guy.

Then the absolute icing on the cake and in my face, she starts showing these special “numbered” t-shirts that are special made by artist and have “art” (it was computer generated graphics) on them.  To me, they looked like the graphics every teen has on at walmart.  The kicker???  she said they were a superb value starting at a mere $100 each and you better hurry to get one because they are very limited production.  My friend Stevan Sheets can design any shirt I can think up for $5 plus the $12 shirt…. and his look killer! I even one, that is a ONE of a kind!! Wow am I lucky.

Are you kidding me?

For the record, I work in an office, wear a shirt and tie.  I can buy a high quality shirt on sale for $19, some nice dress slacks for around $30, and a pretty sweet tie for about $20.  Some dress socks for $5.  That is $74 TOTAL.  And, I look better than any kid in a t-shirt.

My favorite t-shirts I got while going somewhere or doing something, and normally pay no more that $20… usually less!

OK, I am done ranting. Thanks for reading.  Please don’t buy one of those T-shirts…. I have some I will sell you for $50!

Stevan gets a PSP!

Hey, I figure nobody really cares except Shawn and I, but oh well.  Stevan Sheets just got a Play Station Portable and I am stoked to play Navy seals online with Him and Shawn.

Along the same lines of useless info, my decal for my PSP from www.decalgirl.com should be here soon.  It will look like this:

my new PSP skins....

If your online with a PSP playing socom Fireteam Bravo 2, my name is 33rd-19Delta.

The Sling Shot Man

This is amazing… at least to me!

more about “Carolina Camera: The Sling Shot Man“, posted with vodpod

Old pic and updated Family tab!

I was thumbing thru some old pics and some not so old pics.  Here is an old pic of a kitchen…. it is a cool kitchen, but one of my favorite customers.

Sherlock Homes Kitchen

Also, I just added a few pics to the tab “Family”… check it out by clicking above on the tab.

SNOW ICE CREAM!!

I always make the kids wait until the first BIG snow, you know the kind, big snow that stops school buses!  Then we hop on google and type in “Snow ice cream”.  There are a ton of variations, but they are all close to this one.  This one is VERY simple and we had everything, so here is the one we made:

• 8 cups snow
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

“When it starts to snow, place a large, clean bowl outside to collect the flakes. When full, stir in sugar and vanilla to taste, then stir in just enough milk for the desired consistency. Serve at once.”

We just scooped up some snow in a huge bowl, then made it.  It was OK, as long as your not expecting it to taste like…. ice cream.  But then Ethan had a GREAT idea, he took oreo cookies and crushed them into powder in a ziplock.  We added that to our snow ice cream, and it was then fantastic.  Hint: make and consume immediately!  The taste and texture drop very quick as it warms up!

Let me know if you make some, and let me know what you think.  Did you try a different recipe or add something extra?  Post in comments to let us know!

My review of the North American International Auto Show.

Also known as the NAIAS, held in Detroit every January, it the most rockin and latest metals from around the globe.  I am going to keep the wordage short and sweet, and let the pics do the talkin’.  My uncle Mark invited and took me up here, we had a great day together hanging out and drooling at all the shiny stuff.

JEEP! This is the vehicle that all vehicles should be judged by! (and will be for this review)

Rich mans "jeep". This is what you wheel if you have more money that brains. Its cool, but not for me.

This may have a jeep sticker, but is not a Jeep! I hope jeep is reading this, because that thing needs to be deleted from the line up. We need more locking axles, not cars.

Another wonderful example of what should have jeep stickers ripped off of it.

This is not a jeep, this is a Lambo, or also known as, just plain old badness. This drew ALOT of attention.

Another pic of a pure wicked speed machine.. cool... even when compared to a jeep.

That's my uncle mark in the blue, the other people are a special inside Chrysler/Dodge team that makes videos, commercials, and inside videos for dodge trucks. They interviewed him with a personally mounted mic for quite awhile!! They were telling me they were a big part of the commercial of the Dodge Truck Ram Challenge! They said he will likely be on a you-tube promo in a few weeks.. I will post again when I see it, they said they would e-mail me a link to post on this blog! Cool!

Name that guy! Hint: MTV!!! Click below link to see them pimp a stang in 4:30!! Mark and I watched in person, then rubbed shoulders with the big shots.

Video of Mustang pimp out.

Ford Raptor! This is ultra trick... think factory truck in the Baja 1000.

Raptor guts.... rear end

What I would drive if I were cool. Vette's are just classic cool in a rich guy kinda way.

I am buying one of these! 4:1 transfer case, selectable lockers front and rear, pretty much unstoppable off road. I should take delivery of my pre-owned 4 door in approximately 10 years! LOL

Ever see that show "what not to wear" on TLC? Well, this pic describes "What not to drive, or buy, or take off road".... Unless you like boys! Yes, I am serious.

Same deal here folks... its just not a jeep.

Jeep, jeep hat, jeep sweatshirt. Yep.

This is an awesome piece of machinery. I can see my Cuz Todd driving this bad boy someday.

R8. Yep, that is the car from "that" movie! Anybody care to be the first to comment on what movie?

Dodge Circuit. Cool looking electric concept car.

Sweet rearend! That is pure Dana 44 action with an electric selectable locker in her! (in my jeep to be)

one more view of awesome.

The army recruiters were there, and brought a rock wall to climb. This is not the actual wall we climbed, but it was this same design. I jokingly said we should climb it. Next thing I knew we were in line! All I can say is, we are very fast climbers, and both hit the buzzers at the top in record time.

Well, there you go, that is my review of the NAIAS.  Short and sweet (in words atleast).  Hope you enjoyed.  Love to here you comments, post em up.

Get Amber alerts via text! FREE

Ok, this just seems like a no brainer that anyone and everyone that has a cell should sign up for.  I just signed Lisa and I both up.  Pretty simple, if a kid gets abducted, and they issue an Amber alert, then they text it to you.

Click here to sign up, it takes about 50 seconds, and they don’t sell your number to anyone.

No brainer if you have kids.  Also, a no brainer if you don’t have kids.  Of course, your regular text $ applies.

Inclinometer for the jeep!

OK, first I gotta wait until the Nokia 5800 comes out (hopefully in Feb.).  Then I will load this app to my phone, and put the phone in its mount on my dash for off roading!

inclinometer

Then, this one seems really useless, but maybe cool for a day when your doing lots of walking at a show or something to see how far you walked.

Step counter app for nokia 5800

Pastor says: 7 Day SEX Challenge!

Check this video out.  I saw it on www.StevanSheets.com blog (he is a youth pastor).  I totally agree with this pastor (Ed Young)…. post your opinion in comments!  Video below is from The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

more about “Ed Young | January 26th | ColbertNati…“, posted with vodpod

Bullrun 2009!

Mark you calendars, make a phone reminder, put it in your outlook, tie a piece of string to your finger or whatever you do to remember really important stuff!

Bullrun the TV show is back and will be on YOUR TV on Feb 19th on Speed channel!  What is Bullrun you ask?  Remember the movie “Canonball Run”?  Sort of like that, but turned reality TV.

12 teams and there rides will travel 4,000 miles in 12 days.  This show is good enough that I actually watch it (I watch almost ZERO TV) and even my wife totally digs it.  Our DVR is set for the season.

Click HERE for more info on the REAL Bullrun.  It is in July, and starts in New York, and runs to Austin TX.  Here are few quotes from the real Bullrun:

‘I’m more excited to do Bullrun than when I won the Indy 500′ – Mario Andretti

‘Seriously, the best week of my life’ – Dennis Rodman

My new favorite commercial…

This is my favorite commercial.

I can totally see this happening to Shawn or Stevan!! LOL

The last line is my favorite part   

more about “Full Meal – Arby’s Commercial – Video“, posted with vodpod

Genius!

This is genius.

I forwarded this to a the missionary’s in Haiti where I went on my mission trip… they said it was an awesome idea that they would look into.  He said it even looks safer than the merry-go-round they have now.

Las Vegas!

As I type this, I sit in Sunny LAS VEGAS!!  I am here with Lisa’s cousin Matt Franco (ya, the soccer/football high school star/wonder).  I was fortunate enough to get to bring him out here for his soccer tournament.  We got here LATE friday.   Its early Sunday morning here, but back home most people I know are in Church right now (3 hour time difference).  We fly out late monday night and will get home around 3:00am.   Check back here on Tuesday evening…… I am hoping I will of caught enough rest by then to post some pics!

Busy, busy!

Hoping to give a real update with lots of pics sometime soon on the Las Vegas trip!  Just e-mailed all my tax stuff to my dad (he is an awesome accountant) to do our taxes.  It took me 2 hours just to get everything together and input just to e-mail to him.  I sure hate paper work!  I was definitely designed to be a salesperson and NOT an accountant!

Las Vegas… with pics!

OK, finally after a long week, here are some pics and an update after getting back from taking my cousin Matt to his huge soccer tournaments in Las Vegas.  

Everyone wants to know how I did in vegas…. I WON BIG!  When I say big, I mean I didn’t gamble any money and walked away a winner that kept my money and had a total blast.  We rented a car from priceline for only $13.00 a day!  And a TOTAL bonus when we got to the avis counter, the guy upgraded us to a pontiac solstice!  FUN.  It was great having almost no schedule and acting like a high school kid again!   You can click here to see all the pics I uploaded.

Here are a few must see’s!

Matt posing for his valentine girly LIZ. This is the funniest pic from the entire trip!

Cruzin the strip in our $13 toy!

Small trunk! Glad I was driving! LOL

This pic is posted solely for the viewing pleasure of Shawn French!

Mountains. Best view in Vegas! I personally thought the buildings and lights were WAY over rated!

“I’m Good”

This commercial cracks me up.  That last one could SO be Gabe! LOL

more about “Super Bowl 43 ad: Pepsi Max – “I’m Good”“, posted with vodpod

New Cell phone on order! Nokia 5800 Xpress Music!

I have “Pre” ordered my new cell phone directly from Nokia…. I am hoping it will be here this week!   It is a Nokia 5800 Xpress Music (NAM version)!  It is somewhat similar to an iPhone, but only much smarter…. maybe not quite as pretty though.  All touch screen.  I will be sure to post when I get it!  Meanwhile here is a short video that touches just the tip of what this phone is and does.

more about “Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Demo“, posted with vodpod

Sparkler bomb!

Today, a buddy of mine stopped in the office…. we were slow and he had some sparklers he just bought in Tennessee.  Next thing ya know, I am out in the field watching my first sparkler bomb go boom! He said we used lame tape (all we had in the office) and it normally is 4 times louder than this! They were also the “mini” sparklers.   I will say it was much louder than the video shows.

Here is a pic

Sparkler Bomb!

And here is a video for your viewing pleasure,

more about “Kyle Sparkler bomb“, posted with vodpod

Insane? Or cool?

I tried this when I was a little kid… only I was using arm wings made of cardboard and old jeans, and I was jumping off of a deck.  It didn’t work, LOL.  I will rate this as super cool, but I am to old to actually try it!

more about “moogaloop.swf (application/x-shockwav…“, posted with vodpod

Hack yourself!

Hack yourself!  This is from G4TV.com on the attack of show segment of the site.  Cool site, with lots of cool videos.  Thanks to my Cuz Todd for sending me the site.

Click here to watch the video of how to hack yourself!

Thought for the day….

…or could be a thought to live by!  I was driving thru Goshen yesterday, and saw this on a Church sign.  This may not be the perfect quote, but close,

“If we don’t enjoy that which we already have, then what makes us think we will be happier with more?”

Really got me thinking how grateful I am for my family and all the other blessings in my life.

Anyway, thats as deep as it gets. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment.

What DOES 1 Trillion dollars look like?

That is a question I never really thought of, but Todd from www.familymanweb.com had this link in his weekly e-mail to Dads that I get.

Click here to see exactly what 1 Trillion dollars actually looks like!

Pretty stinkin cool if ya ask me!  Yet kind of sad how easily some of these terms get thrown around by our Government and society.

Radio made for YOU!! Last.fm

This is SO amazing…. it just blows me away!  I just learned of last.fm tonight, and within minutes I was registered and added several bands I liked to my new “online library”  (and it actually scans your windowns media player or iTunes for artist you like).  Then it recommends bands that you will like to listen to and makes a “radio station” that you can listen to anywhere you have the web (I assume high speed only).

Here is the best part though….. I downloaded an app for my amazing new Nokia 5800 Xpress music phone.  The new app is called Mobbler. With this app, I simply click on the app, and music that is in my last.fm library OR music last.fm thinks I will like plays right on my phone!  For example, my phone is sitting beside me right now playing Stellar Kart(with album art!) and that is not in my library, but it is music I would like to have in my library.  Of course, if some reason I get bored with the currntly playing song, I just hit next and another song comes up! Uber cool! Looking forward to using this to sort of pre-listen to bands/albums before I actually buy.

Pics with new phone….

Bear with me…. I got a new toy.   It is my new nokia 5800 Xpress Music cell phone.  One thing cool is I can take pics with its 3.2 megapixel camera and then while on the go, upload directly from my phone to sites like Flickr!  Here is a cool artsy kinda pic I took and uploaded the other evening.  I used black and white and changed the contrast settings.   To view more pics I have uploaded and will continue to upload, check out my flickr photostream, it is on the right side of the screen if you scroll WAY down… there you will find the most recent photos from my photostream.

New phone update

OK, I have now had my snazzy new Nokia 5800 Xpress music for a whole 12 days now.  It is in someways what I thought, in someways WAY better, and in a few minor ways not what I thought.  I do really like it…. ALOT!  I can go geocaching on it, twitter on it, has a GPS, google maps with satellite view so I can spy on you, its an AWESOME music and video player, has the weather forecast right on it, has a dictionary, Mobbler (for music on-line, read below), to many games (as silly as this sounds, I like plain old checkers), quickoffice for viewing word, excel, etc. e-mail (which I really haven’t used much),  GPS tracker to track my runs outside (that’s if I ever actually run again! LOL),  a camera that keeps from toting around my “regular” camera and I can upload directly to the web!, as its a 3.2 mega-pixel, which is just big enough for casual stuff,  I can make a wireless hot-spot for laptops if I have a 3G connection, and of course it has the world wide web.  I use the calendar more than anything on it… that’s great for work.

So, there you have it.  All in all, its a great phone, have my camera and music player with me, the web…. basically its a lame laptop in my pocket.  I am glad I waited for this to come out instead of getting the “fruit phone” (yes iPhone).  I got it for the pre-order price of $339, BUT, since I didn’t get the phone thru centennial, they gave me $200 off upfront, and $10 off a month for a 30 month contract.  Yep, thats $500 bucks baby, they paid me to have this phone! I love cheap.

Biggest let down for me is the qwerty keyboard… I am so used to the numbered key board, that I am WAY slow on qwerty BECAUSE it is not predictive!  I am hoping that is in the next phone update like rumored on the web!  The handwriting recognition is neat, and works excellent, but still to slow.

ShoZu app is cool!

Well, i have yet another app. This one lets you post text, pics, and videos to all posts of different sites. The ones that i primarly use are this blog, youtube, flickr, twitter, facebook,  and twitpic. I am posting this from my cell more as test than anything. Hope it works.

$8,000

Buy a house!