Grilled Meat Loaf at 10:00 AM

As impossible as this sounds (grilled meat loaf) we unknowingly attempted to cook this dish. It started out with the ladies (I won't mention Karen and Lauren's names) having the job of pattying some burgers and me and Matt grilling them.

Moving on...

Matt and I are out there on the deck, grill fired up, ready to go. The ladies bring out the burgers to us and we throw them on. All is fine and going smoothly... until.... we try flipping the burgers.

We flipped (or I should say "attempted to flip") a burger. It falls apart like a dirt clog. All down between the grill grates and underneath. Flames begin flaring ridiculously (capturing the attention of the ladies inside as they rush out with high shrill laughs).

Turns out, they didn't actually press the ground beef. They simply took some out in their hands, made it appear to be pattied as they shaped it nicely, but never actually pressed and meshed the meat together before pattying them. Therefore the meat was still "ground meat" textured on the inside instead of all meshed together to hold it's shape.

So, burger after burger we attempted to save them but they all continuously fell apart, down through the grill grates, flames going crazy, smoke everywhere, the ladies laughing in our ears (taking pictures...) as us guys (like a rescue team) hastily attempted to revive and save as much as we can of this meat. But it was too late. Over half of the meat is sitting in the bottom of the grill... burnt black, smoking away. It looked like we had chopped up meat loaf spread out all over the grill (and in the grill).

In the end...

We ate barbeque from Parker's.

Next time the guys will handle the burgers from square one and the ladies handle the sides.

(just giving you a hard time ladies... it was fun and it gave us a story to tell)

Small Group Night April at 5:50 PM

I'm excited about small group tonight. As usual. Can't wait to see what topics come up. I love bible discussion. Plus, it's cool just to hang out with such positive and fun people.

Back from Vacation at 1:52 PM

Well, I'm back home. Even though I had a great time... it's always sweet to set foot back in the ol' house again. There's no place like home.

The trip went well (I guess you can say that). Traveling there and back went smooth. No issues. However, I did manage to pick up a "bug" before I left for my vacation. The first night and entire next day of my trip... I was sick (horribly sick). I caught a bug.

Vomiting, diarreah (yeah... I know), cramps, churning in the gut, head aches, fever. For the first time in a looooooooooooong time, I actually felt like I wanted to cry because I felt so bad. Head and stomache... throbbing away for 24 hours. I ate 4 small salad packet size crackers the entire day (with a sip of water). I was afraid to eat anything.

But, the next day... I felt all better. Then Karen and I decided take some photos. All the colors everywhere.... it was awesome. The shots are great. I did however bring back a piece of the beach with me in my finger (splinter). So now I have a sore finger tip.

Finally we agreed to stay an extra night. That night I had terrible anxiety for some odd reason and fell asleep at 6:15am (waking up at 7:00am to head home). So I got 45 min. of sleep. Then drove all the way back (about a 3-hr drive), had a client for photography on the way and decided to cut the grass. Then I set up the photography showcase. Next unpacked all the luggage. I felt SOOO tired. After our client meeting... I saoked in a hot tub, got out and went to sleep.

Whew! That was an exhausting trip. However, I'm already ready to go back. We plan to spend a lot of time up there this summer.

Going To The Beach at 10:43 PM

Finally... Summer is coming back around and I'm headed back to the beach. Can't wait. Actually, I can't wait to take some photos down there. I'll have to post some shots when I get back. We're leaving in the morning.

Myrtle Beach... here we come! (hopefully we'll make it there seeing as to Karen nor myself have any sense in driving long distances).

Talent Show at 9:24 PM

Tonight, me and Karen went to a talent show to support my little niece, Jessica. She sang "If I Aint Got You" by Alicia Keys. I was really nervous about her choosing this song but have to say... she did a REALLY great job. She shocked me. The crowd seemed to like it too. Jessica placed 2nd place. I'm proud of her!

Ironic however, was that 1st place was given to a group of 3 girls whose microphones were broke (squealing) the entire song... everyone one was chanting and fussing at the back to the sound guy. However, even though we couldn't hear the girls sing, they won 1st place. Weird. I'm sure they would've sound good though.

But aside from all of that... HO-LY-COW!!! This place was a nightmare. I honestly didn't think I'd get back to my car and still have my wallet or camera. The whole competition was based on very young teenage girls shaking their hinies, humping the floors, guys ripping off their clothes (bare-chested and rubbing themselves... young girls pretending to faint and screaming), homo-sexual performances (for real... I'm not just saying that... this guy was PROUD), tons of rap (with cussing), etc... this was a night of chaos. Excuse me while I say a quick prayer...

"Dear Lord, please for give me for going to that tonight. I honestly thought that since it was at a high school with young teens, there would be at least somewhat censorship, but I was mistaken... forgive me O' Lord!"

Me and Karen have always had the "public-school" vs "private-school" debate. Now we have a unanymous decision... "Home School."

This world is going down hill... and FAST.

Lord Bless Us!

Mail Call 2 at 3:24 PM

Today my Alesis LineLink Dual 1/4"-to-USB cable came in the mail. I'm excited. This will further aid me in my attempt to create some cool music on the computer.

This cable allows me to stick the 1/4" end of the cable into most musical instruments (keyboards, electric guitars, some bass guitars, some acoustic guitars, electric drums sets, etc...), the other end of the cable (the USB end) of course goes to the computer. This allows me to record into my computer recording software all of my musical instruments.

Now I have my Sonar software (virtual recording studio), my high quality USB studio microphone, and my LineLink cable to connect my instruments to the computer. Look out music world, here I come.

I will post songs as I record them!

Lowe's Theif at 10:45 AM

Okay, so I was at Lowes yesterday and my dad and I were looking at a calculator for construction there. It's really cool, you put in the dimensions of the room and press "carpet" or "tile" etc... and it will give you details as to how much you should buy. Perfect for our line of work.

Anyway, so we don't see any on the shelves for sale (just the display). We ask a lady to help us and she can't find it either. She searches for about 15 minutes around the store. Never found it. She asks another dude to help... another 15 minutes of searching. Finally they decide to look it up in their computer to order online. The product does not even exist in their inventory for the Lowes business. They supposedly don't carry that product (even though they had a display to play with).

So, in frustration and lack of time, we offer to buy the display. The manager says "Since there is no bar code or price, we cannot sale this item off the shelf like this." So now, after wasting over half an hour of our time, they tell us they don't carry that item (even though I'm looking at it) and that we are not allowed to buy the display (like it matters since they won't be selling anymore anyway).

So I get a little ill. I tell the guy, "So, technically, I can go over there, grab that calculator and walk out of here... taking it for free and you guys can't do anything about it. Because if you bring it up in a court, I can always say... Lowe's is lying. I didn't steal anything from them. They don't even carry that product in their stores." The manager laughed and was kind of stunned that I would even say that. He shrugs his shoulders in confusion with a "I'm sorry" kind of look.

Of course I didn't steal the calculator... I just wanted to express my frustration. So, in the end, all we got was a waste of time.

Population Theory at 9:25 AM

Okay, so I was thinking about how over populated the world is becoming and how in one century alone, we'll have big problems.

As of now, there are 6.77 billion people on this Earth. Let's pair everyone up with a partner so they can have kids (yes, I know not everyone gets married but there are people who aren't married that still have kids... so just go with me here). There are 3.385 billion pairs of people. Now for my demonstration, I'll use 2 kids as an average for a family. Some families have less, some have more. This is just a basic average for demonstration purposes.

Let's start out with 2 people. We're going to look at a time span of 100 years (1 century).

Notice how 2 people (1 pair) turned into 30 people over 100 years. This is just using average numbers (such as 2 kids, 1 marriage, etc...). That 15 times the amount of people than started with (1 pair of people multiplied by 15 equals approximation of people in 100 years).

With that in mind, there are approximately 3.385 billion pairs of people on this Earth as of 2009. Multiply this by 15 as demonstrated above and you'll have 50.775 billion pairs on Earth (101.55 billion people). In one century, the number of people went from 6.77 billion to 101.55 billion. Can you imagine in 2 centuries.... 3?

What I believe will happen (as it is already happening in some areas of the world) is that that law will preven people from having children or only allowing people to have 1 child and then are surgically prevented during birth from every having another child. This will not prevent the world from over populating but it will reduce it by 50%. Eventually, only certain people will be allowed to have children (not everyone).

Because you can't stop people from having sex, abortion will become legal every where and will be one of the most common medical procedures out there (in order to save the planet).

Also, just a another side thought... what happens when all these people die? 100 years from now (or even sooner), if you had over 100 billion people on Earth, where would they bury everyone? There wouldn't be enough land to bury people. Population rising, people need to live somewhere, but the death rates have risen as well and land gets taken up as grave yards. Thus leading me to my next point. Cremation!

I believe the law will eventually enforce that when you die, you "must" be cremated. This will prevent the above issue. People will no longer get to choose their burial preference (this may even happen in our time).

God bless the future world...

(of course us Christians know that the Lord is coming back and we won't have to worry about all of this but in the event he doesn't come back within our time, this may be what people have to face in the future).

So in conclusion, what does the future hold? I believe it holds an abundant population, abundant abortions, the loss of the right to have children and the loss of choice for burial (amongst many other things). More people, more problems. More wars. This world will be like one big ant hill that was just kicked over. Swarming in panic.

Thoughts anyone?

Mail Call at 8:05 PM

Today my Samson C03U microphone came in the mail. The Samson USB microphone came with Sonar 6 LE software to record with. It looks good and all but I can't figure out how to record with it. I can set my inputs and outputs and can actually hear myself on the microphone, however, everything I say has a delay. That stinks!

So, I'll probably be worrying myself to death with this. I've sent Sonar a message asking them for help. We'll see.

I'm ready to get some songs uploaded. I have a ton I'd like to do.

Oh yeah, my Xbox 360 game, Dark Sector, came in as well. Awesome!

2 Year Anniversary at 6:42 PM

Today is mine and Karen's 2 Year anniversary. However, it is also the day that we were scheduled to do our business/personal taxes. Ironic huh? Closing out chapters and starting new chapters in both areas of life.

Congratulations US!!!

Go UNC!!!! at 11:48 PM

I had to get up at 10 minutes to midnight and express my excitement for UNC! They did GREAT! That made my night.

Go UNC!

Online Shopping at 9:22 AM

eBay has become my new friend. I've always known about eBay and have even purchased things on there before... but for some odd reason, I've been eBay crazy lately. For the past 5 days straight, I've bought something from eBay (I know... I need to chill out). However, I have learned some valuable lessons.

Tuesday a Chillow (which is a "chilled" pillow for those of you who don't know)

Wednesday a video game for Xbox 360 (still sealed and brand new... sweet)

Thursday a studio recording microphone to hook to my computer (for music recording with my professional software... oh yeah)

Friday 2 more Xbox 360 games (still sealed and brand new... awesome).

I bought 2 Xbox 360 games this day (because they were so cheap, the game didn't really matter). I got Indiana Jones LEGO and Kung Fu Panda. I got them both for $9.00 with free shipping. Pretty good deal considering at the Best Buy, Indiana Jones LEGO is $49.99 and Kung Fu Panda is $29.99. About 80 bucks of games for $9.00.

Anyway, my brother heard about my deal I got and says, "I'll give you $10 for Kung Fu Panda." Wanting the games for my own collection, I told him, "I'll look on eBay and if I see another good deal like that, I'll get it for you." So I look on eBay and I find it. This same GREAT deal again. I bid and win it. I now have another set of the same 2 games coming. Next thing I know, my brother calls me up and says "Hey Mark, I just won both of those same games you did off of eBay." I told him I had already gotten it for him. Between the two of us, we now had 3 sets of these two games. So, in the end (to make this short story longer), I just decided to cut my wooping $9.00 loss and just find someone to give the games to. I decided to give them to Tim (worship team member from the church). Lesson learned, actually call and confirm when buying for someone before you hit that "Confirm" button after placing a bid (just incase they already bought it).

Saturday a cable will connect all/any instrument to the computer (for the recording stuff as well).

Sunday (not from eBay but from somewhere else), another REALLY EXPENSIVE photographer camera for our photography business.

Here's the thing. My wife and I give ourselves allowances every month... we call it "spending money" (so we can have some money for leisure and not hurt our bank account or home money... our own personal money saving method... if you save up your spending money... then you can get whatever you want with it and not feel guilty about spending the "house's" money). I've been saving my money up for about the past 8 months or so. Last night, Karen comes in and says "I'm about to buy another photography camera but this will come out of our spending money." I say alright and agreed to everything. But in the end, it costed me over $700 bucks. Keep in mind after saving every penny for the past LONG time now, I've saved up to $1000. But, that was gone.

Then, in closure to this irrelevent long blog, I was hit with my eBay bill for this week... thus bringing me down to a measley 100 bucks. So yeah, a week ago... $1000... today, $100.

Thus concluding my one week experience in "online shopping."