Logic Police

Alright we're gonna tap the breaks on the previous post. I do enjoy writting but seriously. I'll continue to write for fun...maybe someday down the line I'll give the song writting thing shot.

The hills are alive...

So today I helped a great friend set up a vendors booth at a local "Octoberfest"...Yes I know it's September...don't ask questions! He started a t-shirt company from scratch only a year ago and is about to start showing profits, Amazing! (by the way his link is on the right side of this page)

I got to thinking, "why can't I start something of my own like that?" There are so many things I'm interested in, but I decided on something so far fetched I'm gonna have to really try to make it work. I want to be a Texas Country Song writer. I know, I know, don't quit your day job. But I really do love writing in a casual diction, and I stopped doing poetry like I used to do. Why not write songs for a living?

I completely understand I will have to do lots of research on how to get "in" with the artists' or labels who produce the music. And I also completely understand that I may never sell a song to anyone...but why not try? My goal is to have 4 or 5 songs completed by the new year. That should give me plenty of time to work through the lyrics, come up with a good hook, and see if I can really do this.

"If we live our lives wondering if we can do something we will never know if we could have actually done it"- I'm sure some famous person said it...but if not I'll take credit for it.

So from now on the Texas hills will attempt to be filled with the sound of my music!

Bossier City BABY Bossier City!

In an effort to not go more than two or three posts' without some light- heartedness, I present you with this...

Timeline for Friday 9/1/2006 - 9/2/2006
5:30pm...Ricky and friends go to Chuys for happy hour and 'green chili fest' (yea that's right they are roasting green chili and everything...I love it)

6:30pm...Ricky and friends decided to go to Lousianna for gambling and fun

6:31pm...Ben realizes that he wants to go, but needs to be at a wedding in Austin, TX by 3pm Saturday.

6:33pm...Ben realizes he's not a bitch and decideds to come with to Lousianna.

7:30pm...Team Lousianna breaks for showers and second thoughts

10:45pm...After showers and nobody bailing out on the idea (amazingly) Team Lousianna leaves Dallas

11:56pm...Earnest turns the music down in his car looks at Ben and I and says in an authoritativly upset voice "This is f'in stupid, are we actually doing this?!"

11:57pm...Ricky and Ben laugh at how stupid this event is but continue eastward

1:12am...Team Lousianna arrives at "the boats" (all the gambling is done on river boats).

4:00am...Ben is down and sad, Earnest is even and okay, Ricky is up and dominating the poker table.

5:00am...I LOVE WAFFLE HOUSE

8:30am...Holy crap I made it back to Dallas without dying.

9:14am...Ricky finally gets to go to sleep after being awake for 26 straight hours

5:25pm...Good morning sunshine!!

Sometimes you just have to love poor decisions

Take control

Who is in control? The religous tend to think god is in control. The dreamers think fate may be the one with the answer. A gambling man may waiver from the cards to their skill being in control. To an addict the addiction is surely in control in that situation. So which one are you? Do the actions or reactions of someone or something control what you do on a daily basis? Does fate, god, the cards or anyone else dictate your life for you?

I maintain a pretty level persona and don't tend to get too excited or too upset about much...it'll even out won't it? I am very much in control of myself (or at least I think I am). But at certain times I like to release that control and become a follower not to a person or philosophy but to the world. Just wake up and let stuff happen to me, it's more interesting that way...but only if you do it every now and again. This weekend I just let the world take me around by the hand, it was wonderful, miserable, disgusting, and beautiful all within 36 hours. I didn't really have a plan, I had no restrictions, no weekend aspirations, I just went on the wings of the world.

I had a great time.

The more interesting point is why did I do that? Why do people give up control of their lives, be it for a weekend, a month, or a lifetime. In retrospect it wasn't all it could be. Maybe it's the alpha male in me or maybe just my control freak attitude but, not being in control scares the shit out of me. One of the definitions of insanity is "extreme folly; senselessness; foolhardiness". I got a little insane this weekend, I knew it was going to happen and I let another thing make decisions for me.

I'm a grown man...or trying to be...why can't I be in charge all the time? I'm an independent thinker (just like everyone else) I try to follow no one or no thing without careful decision making, but on the weekends, less often now as I grow older I tend to 'give up' that control. That's done, I'm better than that.

Take control, before control is taken of you.

The Holy Trinity of Tuesday Rants

I have three things of varying importance for ya'll on this early Tuesday morning, they deal with; baseball, snakes and myspace...Does it get better than that? I think not.

Baseball:
It entertains the hell out of me that when referring to the pitches a pitcher has the ability to throw it is common place to call it "his stuff". Does nobody else just find this to be completely ridiculous? America's pastime, the great ball game, more than a hundred years of play and the best term we have is "his stuff", you've gotta be kidding me. The best is when some well respected guy like Peter Gammons goes on ESPN and talks about another man (who wears tight pants and ALWAYS wears his glove before he gets any action) by commenting on how good "his stuff" is...but if they keep doing it I'll keep laughing so..."His stuff" is great!

Snakes:
Yes folks, as if I need to remind you but, Snakes on a Plane makes its long awaited debut Friday. Myself and a couple of buddies have come up with a genius way to enjoy this otherwise ridiculous movie. What do you know about 'Snakes on a Plane Bingo'? We already know Samuel L. Jackson will call a snake a mother fuc%$#, and hopefully he uses a racial slur...that will only leave me with 3 empty squares on my bingo card. If you want a bingo card hit me with your email on the comments and I'll send you one.

Myspace:
I HATE MYSPACE! But like the rest of America I sign on everyday, sometimes multiple times a day, to check my account. I have a theory that the gov't put crack in the ghetto to bring down the black man, and as revenge the NAACP put Myspace on the internet to "level the playing field". It thrives on the need for people to feel a connection with their fellow man --the most sensational social being of them all. Myspace connects old friends, I'll admit I've found several old friends that I had lost touch with thanks to Myspace. The site gives youth their first attempt at their 'own' (I tried not to use My there) space in this world. So why, why then Dick are you so against this site that seems to do no harm.

Let me tell you.

I would like to see the amount of time people spend on Myspace doing mindless bullshit, like filling out the same damn survey they filled out last week and sending it to the same freaking people, and telling me what kind of Laguna Beach character they are most like...I could care less. As I write this I am a victim of the later (I'm donatello, and the French guard from Monty Python) but that's not the point. The point is what could I have been doing instead of this? I got an email today with a survey in it, and the subject line said "for those of you who don't have myspace here's a survey"....AAAHHHH! Are the children we are raising and the young adults of this country so bored with their daily lives that they must create this false world of 'friendship' around them? And if they are so bored where is their, basketball, instrument, PARENTS, or real friends? Another downfall of myspace is the "top 8" which can now turn into a "top 24" cause apparently too many people had so many cyber friends they couldn't choose only 8. This section requires you to choose your favorite 8 friends and put them on display for the world to see. Whatever not a big deal right? Wrong. "Why am I not on your top 8?" "Why is that person ahead of me?" The answer to the previous questions is probably that you are annoying and ask questions like this. So today I changed my top 8 to contain only my sister, my best friend, an entity, a tv show, and my favorite songwritters. So if you're not on my top 8...get a record deal!

The ideas behind sites like; friendster, facebook and myspace are great, afterall communication is the most important survival tool (in my opinion). But get off your damn computer, go for a run, read a book, think, live, love, learn. And I'm out..to the 5 oh 5!

The facade

I like to talk about those moments in life that you don't expect, but that hit you like a handful of extra strength gold bond right out of the shower(refreshing yet a little too intense at the same time). You never know when one of those moments will happen, but when it does you know.

This weekend I was at the Pat Green concert, oh ya Kenny Chesney was there too, and I had one of those moments. It's amazing what the power of song, and the medium of music in general can do to people. It wasn't any special concert, a good one, but nothing spectacular. It was held at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco Texas, one of the first stadiums built just for soccer I might add, and there were 30,000 people packed into this place. I was there for Pat Green but a majority of the crowd was there to see this Chesney cat. He put on a good show and the crowd loved it.

But the thing I'll remember most about this concert was not the artists' who played it nor the music they played but the semblance of perfection that a sold out concert can give to a massive group of blended humanity. Granted this group of people were probably all pretty close demographically, they are still all so different. And in this period of time they (I say they like I wasn't one of them...but of course I was); sang the songs together in unison, cried together at a well orchestrated moving slide show, waived their hands in the air (like they just didn't care--I couldn't resist), swayed back and forth to the music, and they did all these things without anyone telling them to.

At one point of the concert (when it hit me) I just kinda stopped, did a 360 and was in awe of how one man can get 30,000 people to run the gauntlet of emotions within a two hour concert. Music connected these people to events, persons, or memories in their lives so much, that the song didn't have to be about them or their particular situation for them to feel this intense connection sounds...That's really all they are.

So what if we all are that simple, all week we put on this tough guy facade but come Saturday night a 5'6" redneck can bring a large majority of 30,000 to tears? What if we showed this human element throughout the week? What if it was okay to feel so passionate about something, that emotion spewed from your pours? I felt myself choked up at one point, but not because I was sad, but because I felt so united with these complete strangers that I was overwhelmed.

So go out tomorrow, and feel. Feel for something so strongly that it makes your heart beat faster, your blood boil, your eyes glaze over, your fists clinch tight, and your lungs fill with more air than ever before. Live your life not for yourself, but for a reason greater than you. Take that sense of humanity, that 30,000 people felt last weekend, and help bring it to the weekdays...WOW what great things could happen then?

Are you kidding me?

Right now it is 1:15am and it is 90 degrees! What I want to know is hundreds of years ago when there was no industry to keep settlers here as opposed to any other place, why did they stay here? They couldn't have possibly thought..."oh this isn't bad". WTF!

A home, house or here?

I'm taking a study break to bring up a subject I've been thinking about since I went back to Albuquerque last weekend.

On Tuesday afternoon my mom was taking me to the airport so I could catch my plane to Dallas. She said something that really got me thinking. I said "well it's time to go back home" and I was quickly told that "this is your home". It wasn't angry or anything like that, it was in a very loving tone.

So I got to thinking, truly where is my home? Is my home in my apartment in Irving where I lay my head to sleep at night? Is my home in my parents new house, that I only lived in for a year? Is my home a building that just got decimated by the renters that were in it, that I had lived in for my first 18 years of life? Or is it somewhere else? Is there a point in ones life ,where that intangible place we call home changes? Is it a turning point, a year, a promotion, a wife, a death, a birth or does it just happen over time? All these questions and I really don't have an answer yet, even though I've been thinking about it for the last week almost non-stop.

I know my Mom is going to say that my home is there with them, but is it? I don't ever hear her refering to Milwaukee as home (my Dad is a military brat so he's kinda outta the discussion). I guess I just feel that I really don't know where my home is right now (don't get all sad, not in a bad way). I just think that I'm in a sorta limbo. A point I keep going back to in my mind is that when I got back to my apartment Tuesday night my first thought was "ahhh home". I feel comfortable here, not that I didn't anywhere else, I feel like this is a place of my own and who says this can't be home?

Then you have the age old addige of "home is where the heart is". So where is my heart? Right now I am too busy trying to get my MBA and trying to prove my worth at work ,that I don't think my heart rests' anywhere right now. Maybe it's back in Albuquerque or Rio Rancho, or at a particular address, maybe it's with my family, or maybe it's wherever I feel at home. After all home, like I said before, is an intangible place...the unicorn of buildings if you will. So I think I'll continue to contemplate this obscure question (or series of questions), and continue to look for the answer to where exactly my home is...or maybe I'll stop looking...isn't that when you find things anyway??



I

fading into the friendship

When I first moved out here Ryan Horn told me "you really get to know who your true friends are when you leave". He moved from Albuquerque to go to school at Texas Tech. He said this because it seemed to him that a lot of his friends became disinterested in him once they were unable to go out drinking with him on the weekends. I too notice the difference in who my true friends are and who my drinking buddies were. There are only a handful of people that I still communicate with on a regular basis from back home, they'll call just to see what's going on or talk some shit about the Mavs, but it becomes apparent that they weren't just drinking buddies, but true friends (or brothers).

Since I was in the ER this week I was able to find out who my true fiends were out here in Texas. I have been astonished at the amazing friendships I've made while being out here. There were several people who were willing to leave the comfort of their homes and spend the night in the ER with a guy they just met a couple months ago. Now I know I'm not that awesome of a guy, so it must be that I have a great ability to find amazing friends. I can't count the amount of "if you need anything at anytime let me know" text messages and phone calls I got this week. I'm trying to say thank you to everyone but it is hard because fortunately there are so many people to thank. From my mom who had her bags packed by the time I hung up the phone, to Rachel who called cause she "sensed something was wrong with one of her friends". I didn't need anyone with me cause as it turns out it wasn't as serious as it could have been but...the people that mean the most to me were there if needed, and that's important.

I've been feeling a little home sick of late, but the friends I've made out here are easing that sickness. So as I recover from my physical sickness, the home sickness is fading into the friendship.

Can we fix Emergency Rooms?

So as I promised I did much thinking and much observing while in the ER on Monday night. {I'm a little high on hydrocodone right now so excuse and nonsensical statements}. The thing that got my attention the most was the complete lack of attention I received while in the emergency room. From start to finish I probably only had about 40 minutes of patient to hospital employee contact...That's in 10.5 hours! So being the aspiring manager that I am I thought how could this be better? What could I do as a hospital manager to make the experience better? Can it be made better? And here's what I came up with...

This first thing I would like to do is ask who ever is reading this to try to think of an industry that provides a service to its customers yet thrives without any attention to customer service.

Well I've thought about that for the last 48 hours and the only answer I can come up with is a hospital. As an economist, I am very interested in the fact that the demand remains high for hospitals that provide little to no customer service. It has become the norm for a hospital to sit you in a waiting room for hours on end, upset patients at the ridiculously high prices ($20 for an aspirin), and yet their waiting rooms are always full. So have they just found the greatest industry to be a part of? One which requires no focus on your end consumer. Or is it that we can't give ourselves the medical attention we require so we must sit through their maze of paperwork and then ask for more?

I truly believe that we as consumers have the ability to change things we don't like...Even in the medical sector. So why haven't we done so? I will never go back to Baylor Medical Center of Irving. I know I won't individually change their balance sheet but if everyone who was dissatisfied changed the hospital they would go to...It would change.

So you ask "alright Ricky enough complaining already what do you think you could possibly do to make the situation in emergency rooms better?" Here's what I'd do, in a dream world if I ran a hospital.

The first thing I would do is make the waiting room a more welcoming place. Since it seems this is were most of my anger grew (and I'm sure most everyone else's), I would attempt to make it a place you wouldn't mind waiting. I would take out all those boring rows of uncomfortable chairs and replace them with a lounge or cafe atmosphere. I would begin with putting tables, ranging in seating capacity from 2-8 people, in the waiting room. These tables would be attended by nurses/waiters. I was told I couldn't have anything for my pain until I saw a doctor...What if a doctor saw you in the waiting room (all I wanted was some tylenol or something)? They could also bring you something to eat if it was feasible for your ailment/situation. Throw in some couches, better selection of reading materials, coffee on the house, and some soft music and the experience would be much better.

Unfortunately I don't have enough medicinal knowledge to explain how to fix the rest of the process, but it seems as if there was way too much waiting. For being highly educated, doctors seem to be highly disorganized and unconcerned with their patients needs. At one point I went up to the nurses desk and 8 of them noticed me but did nothing. I just stood there until someone asked me how they could help me...It took 5 minutes. One was having coffee, one was eating, and the 6 others didn't seem to be doing much of anything.

Maybe I'm just frustrated with my recent experience but I truly feel that we as end consumers of emergency room care can fix their problems for them with a reduction in demand at slow ER's. What do you think?

What an experience

If anyone needs to do a bit of thinking about; life, humanity, inefficency, or any other matter...GO to the ER! I just spent the last 10.5 hours of my life in the ER and if I wasn't so freaking tired I'd expand on this. But good for you I did so much thinking while at the hospital...there is MUCH to discuss.

p.s. I'm okay

I need bigger boobs

The Mavericks employees are getting flown out to the game on Sunday night and getting free tickets from the team. I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to go because I am classified as a 'part-time employee'. It's kinda crap anyway since I worked 100 hours last two weeks, but it's the classification of my position and I was over it. Until today. I was getting all the shirts that the employees were gonna wear to the game on Sunday together and noticed that 2 interns were on the list of people who needed shirts. I have been with the organization longer than both of them, work more than them, and since I get a paycheck and they don't I believe I get paid more than them...but apparently my boobs aren't big enough. They are two attractive 20 year old females and get to go on this free trip but poor little ole me gets to stay at home and watch it on tv. Either I need bigger boobs or we need some horny female VP's so I can hit on them! but I guess that's just the way the world works...just have to prove my worth the old fashion way.

sorry...

And we were singing
bye bye mr. mustache guy
took the razor to your face
now the stache is replaced
them good ole boys were laughing and cryin
singing this'll be the day that it died.

Yes everyone I'm sorry to upset the masses...but I shaved the stache. Two days ago I looked in the mirror and realized it wasn't funny anymore, but begining to get creepy. It was so creepy I almost signed myself up for the local sex offenders list in my city. An intelligent and fun to look at young lady said something very appropriate for the situation "A mustache has never added to the look of anyone...can you picture someone who you can say, you know that guy would look better with a mustache?"

So there it is my experiment and therefore the laughs are over. I'll try to keep the masses entertained but using a less...sex offenderish route.

World cup rant

In the 6th minute!!?? So you're the 5th ranked team in the world and you get your freaking medicine in the most important game of your lives? I can't believe how horrible the United States national team played today. In their 3-0 loss they seemed as if they had never played a game together before in their lives.

Here's what needs to happen before the USA can be a soccer power:

1. Play real competition. You can't win 30 games against 3rd world countries and then come into a world cup and expect to be ready for competition. Go play in Europe, go play Brazil...so what if you lose, you will learn the standard.

2. Have a clue what to do with the ball. The US didn't know what to do with the ball once they recieved it. The Czechs were moving passing and being so creative...it was a clinic for the midfield.

3. Teach the beauty of the game and not the arrogant US image of "you need to score for people to want to watch/play the game". Soccer is a beautiful game and we need to play it as if it is so.

I'm pissed.

Chics might not dig the stache

I don't grow facial too fast so it is taking some time but it is still looking pretty funny. I don't know how much longer I can take it but...it's funny so I'll let it slide.

Day 10

Chicks dig the stache

Well I've decided that it is time to grow a mustache. Not for the reasons you might think; it looks cool, some girl wants me to do it, I think I'm burt reynolds. I'm not doing it for any of those reasons, but because it will look hilarious! Yes folks I am putting myself at the hands of comedy. If you're mad that you won't be able to see the humor...WAIT! I will photo-document the process. Enjoy!!

Day 1

Day 3

Hump day

wow what a finish to a boring ass day...So I get to work today and we called in extra help for an average amount of work to get done. I decided I was gonna leave early and since I was sitting on the table playing with the tape guns...the man incharge felt that was okay. I thought (remember this is just a thought) hey it's 4 o'clock and I got nothing left to do today, gonna go fix myself some food watch a little tv, hit up a little myspace action, then knock out a good hour or two at the gym...WRONG!

On the way home I realized that my truck was very near overheating and when I turned on the heater to cool off the engine (yes it does work try it, it could save you thousands) it only blew out cold air...problem number 1.

So I figured that was a priority for the evening. I went to the bank to deposit my checks and get a money order for rent tomorrow (the damn bank hasn't sent me my checks yet) they were only open through drive-thru and guess what...they only give money orders inside (but that was closed AT FREAKIN 4:30PM!!!...problem number 2

Well at least I got the money in the bank I can use my lunch break to get the rent money, not that bad. I then proceed to find someone to check out my vehicle. Turns out my radiator was cracked and i was probably about a day or two from a blown head gasket ($3000 to fix). A cracked radiator sux but at least it aint three grand...problem number 3

I make an unsufficient amount of money to have "hey someday my radiator might crack and I could be (for lack of a better word) thunderfucked (yes it is one word)" funds available...problem number 4

Gotta rent a car cause one of the busiest days of the year at work will be tomorrow before game 5, and need to be there. So I got a car reserved but need a car to get there...doesn't make much sense does it? Apparently the airport enterprise doesn't abide by the famous advertising slogan of "We'll pick you up"...problem number 5

The crazy ass chinaman that drove me to the airport knows about 7 english words so hand signals were very valuable...but apparently road signs weren't on the test to aquire his visa! I was about 2 seconds from losing my right leg and most likely breathing from a tube for the rest of my life. Oh how I love anit lock breaks!...problem number 6

I get to the rental car place...and they don't take debit cards from local renters. Why? I don't know they don't like money or something...problem number 7

Well if you've been following along (you like how I pretend like have all sorts of readers who are following along with my life? Even though I know I don't, the last post was only checked 8 times) I was just presented with 7 problems here are their solutions in the appropriate order; called dad he said not good so i stopped driving asap, i get to spend my lunch break tomorrow at a bank of america, at least I caught it in time, dad does make enough money to have "hey my son's vehicle might have a radiator crack some day, crazy chinaman drove me there, seriously I almost died, i have primetiime negotiating skills. So it is now almost 9 and I'm beat...WTF just happened to my sweet ass evening? Good thing today was hump day!

An easier goodbye

This weekend my parents came up to see me, and it was great. I tried hard to be a good host and take em' to do stuff but it's hard when all you do is go to school and work (don't really know any 'tourist' stuff to do). But more importantly than having things to do it was just important to be around family. I spend all my time with the people at work or the computer, and while I really like my friends at work, it's not home. They are the friends I've grown up with or more importantly they are my brothers, whom I also miss dearly. My parents provide me a piece of home away from home...green chile can only do so much. And really they gave me a chance to see them, I can't believe I've already been out here 4 months and the thing I miss most is the family, from the parents to the sister, and yes even all the way down to the puppies (are they even puppies anymore?). It was instilled in me early that family is more important than anything else in life and I completely understand why, now that I am away from home (if you don't know...you need to find out).

The weekend was great, relaxing and all I could ask for (even all the sweet left overs). But the thing that was odd for me and I think will stick with me the most from this trip was how easy the goodbye was. I've had to say goodbye now 4 times to my parents either leaving home or them leaving here. The goodbye wasn't easy cause we were tired of eachother or we don't care. It seemed the goodbye was so easy cause we have slowly become desensitized to it. Is that a good thing? Does it matter? I kinda liked that the goodbyes were so sad, it made the time seem more important. I'm not saying I would like a tear jerking goodbye 'session' everytime there is a goodbye because it just doesn't work that way. I think we has humans have the ability to let things that we do more often not effect us; a doctor who has a paitent die, a star athlete who lets his team down, a family that says goodbye a lot. I know the goodbyes will continually get easier...it's just a fact of life and our ability to cope. I do think that it is important to realize how important moments in our lives are and not let them slip by the wayside just cause..."ya we've seen that before". So for now I guess I will just have to deal with an easier goodbye.

More Funny pictures

Here's more pictoral goodies for my humor loving fans...sorry this is all I got. I figured the last picture in this set was a fitting "finish".

Well you know what they say...A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is 5,000 of the funniest words I've ever written...I'm gonna add more too (they only let me download 5 at a time).