winkydo.net

Monday, September 3rd, 2007

i asked. she said yes!

last week was so crazy. i managed to get away from work for a bit to get a ring mandy and i had looked at ordered. she had no clue. thursday rolled around and i worked from 2am to 9am for a video conference in our over seas offices. i went home, then got cleaned up and went to pick up the ring thursday around lunch time.

i had planned to go to the gun range with the guys and mandy’s dad saturday morning. i emailed him early last week to setup breakfast with just the two of us. i figured he was on to me when he agreed right away.

friday i was so sick and i ended up staying home from work. it worked out so that i could take the ring by my mom’s so she could see it and i could tell her of my plans. my family was out of town all weekend so i wanted to catch her before they left for the holiday trip to arkansas. she was excited when i left and when mandy and i got together for lunch with her and stephanie and i could tell stephanie was on to my idea.

saturday morning rolled around and breakfast did not go as planned. i had already told the guys that the gun range would be only mandy’s dad and i, so they could make other plans. whenever we got in to the car from breakfast, i let him know of my plans and we spent the rest of the morning in the car and at the range talking. it was a great experience.

so the rest of the weekend rolled by. i have been telling mandy that i wanted to go to the lake to take pictures of her and i with the tripod just to goof around and see what we could do. i managed to get her up to the north shore where we shared our first kiss and decided we would work on making a relationship out of things.

at the lake, the road to the north shore point where i wanted to take mandy was closed because the water levels have been so high. mandy and i decided to walk down to the shore line to see what things looked like. when there, i setup the camera and convinced mandy we should take a few pictures and see how easy everything worked. having a remote to the camera, i setup the tripod and positioned mandy in the distance. i walked over to her and gave her a hug, then a kiss, and she thought i was just practicing for the real thing some day soon. just when she relaxed and let her guard down, i reached in my pocket and pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. taking pictures the entire time, this is what was captured…

so tonight we made our rounds to our family’s to show off the ring and get all the congrats and what not. i’m so excited that mandy and i are officially beginning the process to spend forever together. i love her, she really is mine.

you can read mandy’s take it on it all over at her blog too.

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

live from the moon

quakecon week. im not that big of a fan of the gaming scene anymore. there is just no appeal i guess. ive scored a few movies, but nothing spectacular.

imet up with mandy today and she set up her laptop. now shes interested in going to quakecon just to edit the pictures she needs to get done.

tonight when mandy and i were on our way home we passed a motorcycle that sounded familiar. as i slowed down, the rider recognised me, it was chris. we road a little way down 820 until he exited. i took my exit on down the road.

sometimes there are little things that pass you buy that you normally would not notice. sometimes, i think that if your looking for something, you will always find something.

chris, if you read this post, drop me a comment. hope the kid is doing good.

its a small world after all, its a small, small, world.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

old glory

American Girls and American Guys
We’ll always stand up and salute
We’ll always recognize
When we see Ole Glory Flying
There’s a lot of men dead
So we can sleep in peace at night
When we lay down our head

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

reasoning with the unreasonable

friday night, mandy, mom, susan, and i went to downtown cowtown to eat mexican food at cabo. after we ate, the girls where going to hang out at the restaurant while i walked back to the garage to get the truck and pick them up. on the way to the garage, the streets where much more crowded. earlier, mandy and i had told susan and mom of the bible people who stand on the street and tell everyone their going to hell if they don’t believe.

on my way back to the truck i get caught at a light with cars coming and i take my place behind a man (guy1) and his wife, an older couple. to their right was a younger guy (guy2), probably my age, with who looked to be his girlfriend. a bible thumper guy walked up and starts telling guy1 how he should learn of the word and yadda yadda so he does not go to hell. “do you want to go to hell, sir?” he asked. the man, continued looking straight, thinking it might be easier to step out in front of the cars, than to listen to this guy spill his rhetoric.

just as i’m two seconds away from opening my mouth (i was still composing words as a proper comeback), guy2 says that he thinks the bible thumper needs to take it easy. “your the reason more people do not accept faith, you cause more harm than do good,” he said. guy1 turns and shakes his head to agree. i say, “i agree. you should be looking at yourself and understand your pushing more people away than bringing to the word.” between guy1, guy2, and myself, if i where in the bible guys shoes, i would have taken a step back and accepted that i was perhaps out of line. scripture says to be questioned, and to learn from those questions.

about this time, the light turns red and we’re able to cross the street. the bible guy follows us and says that, “people don’t accept faith because of people like you, christian p#ssi#s who are too afraid to bring others into the light.”

what?!

all three of us continued walking, but that phrase has stuck with me all night. it made me really angry that someone talking of my God, my faith, my Savior, would consider those who question his teaching methods “christian p#ssi#s.” i’m fairly certain that phrase is no where in my King James Version. Jesus never called those who did not believe what he was saying any sort of derogatory term. maybe i should have asked the guy what book he read that in.

those who know me, know i’m not one who is afraid to question my faith. believe me, i was born and raised baptist, and i’m dating a girl who attends the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church. since i met her and fell in love, my faith and my devotion to God has been questioned many times. i’ve always been open minded, and always wanted to hear different takes on faith…

but this guy, standing on the corner, i’m sure, goes downtown, night after night, turning hundreds away from the word of God. not in his content, but in his backwards devotion. like he’s working harder on selling you a bible, than selling you the word of God.

i’m one who does not feel comfortable getting into a debate over passages and scriptures, not because of my devotion, but because of my lack of knowledge of the bible. if you give me a few minutes, i can find a passage for almost any man made drama. i’ve found in the past that very skilled preachers have a hard time keeping up with someone who can misquote, and misinterpret passages faster than they can rebuke them.

i think what gets me most though is how angry i got inside. more so that i look at things in a spiritual way. if God put that man there on the corner, to get our attention, he did a great job. what was the lesson, and what was the outcome? i walked away in disgust that someone was so ignorant of the word of God. how could someone honestly think that they could argue their way into Heaven, or worse, fool others into believing blasphemy to raise themselves up. was i suppose to stay back and try to reason with the unreasonable?

so that’s where i’m at. it’s times like these where i wish i had the contact information for my youth minister from high school. i laugh at the situation, in a way to not be so upset.

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

another day another story

so i’ve realised that the majority of my posts over the past month or so have all been about or related to work.  i don’t mean it that way.  i really do live a life outside of work.  the majority of my content comes from work though, mostly because i do what i love to do.  a lot of people i went to high school with, that where into technology, got out of technology.  they say, they’d hate to loose a hobby because they get tired of things at work.

i on the other hand, live technology.  sadly enough.  i hate computers.  if i could walk away from a computer for ever, i would.  i cant though.  to much of me is invested in the digital world.  i have a talent i’ve been developing since i was about 10 when i built my first computer.  here i am, 12 years later, doing things i only dreamed would one day be possible back then.  if i wasnt in IT somewhere, i’d probably be a history teacher.

so, tonight, i wont tell you how work went.  however, tomorrow night i am going to an hdi analyst of the year banquet.  shall be interesting.  tomorrow is also pot luck day.  heh.  but thats tomorrow.

mandy and i went on our first date of sorts one year ago tonight.  here we are a year later.  i love her like no way i’ve ever experienced before.  tonight we ate chick-fil-a in, and then went to walmart for me to get a new shirt and a desert for the potluck for work.  we enjoy our time together, weather we’re out walking around ikea for three hours, or at home watching the simpsons over a pan of bean and bacon soup.  i love mandy.

good night.