January 1, 2011: New Years Resolutions

Well looks like it is that time again. I have been so busy with the new things in my life that I have not had the time to update my blog. Unfortunately, tonight I am also busy so I will save the updates in my life for a blog on my day off :)

This is a time for New Years Resolutions and instead of putting down lofty goals I am going to instead put down goals that will be attainable and have positive impacts in my life. They will also be numbered by importance rather than just jotting down random resolutions. So without further ado, here they are:

1. Live a better, Christ-filled life.
2. Finish the Police Academy
3. Complete my Thesis by March to finish my degree
4. Pass my one year probation with the Santa Ana PD
5. Log 1,000 miles of running
6. Finish my first Triathlon
7. Pay off $12,000 in debt
8. Drop down to 14% body fat
9. Re-adjust my financial plan for the future (investments, retirement, budget)

PERCEPTION: Something to think about

THE SITUATION

In Wash DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold Jan morning in '07, this man with a violin played 6 Bach pieces for about 45 min. During that time, approx 2,000 people went through the station, most on their way to work. After about 3 min, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace & stopped for a few sec & then he resumed his schedule.

About 4 min later: The violinist received his first $1. A woman threw money in the hat & without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 min: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch & started to walk again.

At 10 min: A 3-yr old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard & the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 min: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped & listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hr: He finished playing & silence took over. No one noticed & no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 mil. 2 days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 ea to sit & listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the DC Metro Station, was organized by the Wash Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste & people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:



*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hr, do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not take a moment to stop & listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made...

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

What a beautiful Tuesday

Surprisingly having a great day at work :-) LML (Love My Life)

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too weak and sick to walk to my desk and type this out

Day 3. . .the only thing keeping me going is my diet consisting of tomato bisque soup and thera flu. And tons of water!!!!

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Flu: Day 2

Ugh. . .I really can't stand being sick. This is so embarrassing and crazy. While everyone is going out and having a great time I'm stuck in bed drinking Thera-Flu. Oh well, luckily today is Sunday and I will have plenty of Football to watch, Fantasy Football games to win, and a 4 game parlay to watch out for :)

All of you have a blessed Sunday. Despite all my troubles, I'm still going to church :)

May God get all the glory!!!

where was this quote last night!! lol

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently

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Let's get back on it

Good Morning Internet and your followers,

I'm sorry that I haven't had the time to blog and update you guys as much as I want to but be rest assured it's because of a good reason. . .I'm busy! lol

Actually, there are no uses of "lol" in my apartment today, this has to be the worst weekend of the month and latter part of the year and it even happens on my birthday week :(

Last night was a total disaster to say the least. Anaheim was a 2 week project. Everything seemed fine; the servers were operational, all the PCs were operating fine, and the software and other elements were all in place. When we ran the debugger we kept getting so many error messages and to make this short and to even leave out a LOT of cuss words, we had to start over! A 2 week project had to be completed in one night and this whole fiasco started around 8ish!!

Well, thanks to my incredible IT team we were able to get things going by 2 in the morning. . .ugh

And now to make things worse, I wake up and I can't even breathe! My lungs and nasal passages are all congested. I have a terrible migraine and the worst sore throat ever. Not even soup soothes it at all. So now I had to miss class because of it and I also can't see my grandpa because I can't risk getting him sick.

So here I am laying in my bed blogging away until I fall asleep and hopefully wake up with all the symptoms gone.

Anyways, God is good! Through all these troubles, I was paid and I learned a lot about the debugging program. Had it not been for this incident I would have never opened up that book to learn. You can always take away something from everything, no matter how bad the situation.

To all a good night. . .or good morning! :)