Logged for another day

Today has been such a great day!! It was Jane’s birthday! She is now 23. We celebrated first thing this morning by me giving her a Disney Princess ribbon that said Birthday Princess. She was suppose to wear it all day. She didn’t want to so we compromised and she wore it for the presents and cake. I was lucky and only had to work until 1400 which I will talk about after this. I ran home and snuck her presents inside the apartment. I made her favorite cake, german chocolate. We then went to Olive Garden for some very tasty Italian food. It was so good! We filled up so much on dinner that when we had cake and opened the presents we were both to full to eat cake, go figure. So, after dinner we lit the candles, which were suppose to sparkle but they were just like any other candle is a little spark here and there. I thought I had got sparklers like on Independence Day. They were so difficult to blow out. Jane had to blow one candle four separate times before it finally didn’t relight its self again. It was humorous. But don’t tell her I thought so. (She will problaby read this and I will be in the dog house anyway, oh well.) I got her a card, the new Taylor Swift CD and Narnia the Lion, witch and the wardrobe. Now she is listening to Taylor Swift because she is so excited about it. I also promised to take her to the opening of Twilight on Friday. She says that sometimes I’m like a little boy, well sometimes she is like a little girl and it is so cute.

Today at work I discovered that the first flight is defiantly flying to Kuwait tonight. I’m so glad I’m not on that flight. I was suppose to be. But I got bumped to a later flight. It would have sucked flying on Jane’s birthday. I spent the day weighting Tuff Boxes full of equipment that the companies are going to put in the belly of the plane. It was so cold today though. I was freezing. Then about a half hour before we were done clouds roll in and it starts to snow. It is so crazy to see snow in North Carolina. It didn’t stick at all but it was coming down. It was really cold! But as soon as we were done I jumped in my Ford Escape, blasted the heat and tried to warm up my hands. It felt good.

Joural Entry # 4

Well, it’s been a couple of days since I last talked to world about my life. Okay its been a week. I’m sorry, I get distracted. I’ve been working on my book. I hope it gets published. Last Tuesday we rented Star Wars Clone Wars. It was so good. Now I’m addicted to the series on Cartoon Network. I can’t stand the commercials on Cartoon Network so I watch the show at the web site, fewer commercials. The cool thing is Jane like the movie as well. She has never seen the Star Wars movies all the way though and doesn’t completely understand the story so we have question and answer period before and after the movie. I don’t mind. If I can get her to like the story, some day I will get to live my life long dream: watch all six movies in a row none stop!!!!! Jane will have to be really into it for that as well because we do everything together!!! I can’t wait for the live action series to come out in 2010. It will be awesome.

I spent the rest of the week going to work, doing nothing at work and disappearing from work around 1400 on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we had an enlisted battalion run. This meant that somewhere around 300 people got in a group and ran in formation. The bad part was it rained and it was cold. So we are all soaked. Then the Sergeant Major that is leading the run wants to take a dirt road. So, we end up running though puddles that are at least a foot deep. My socks go from white to dirty to brown forever to chew toy for the puppy. The entire run I’m thinking how bad this sucks and I wish I was a civilian and still in my bed sleeping like I should be. Hence, after the run I’m grumpy and go home to shower and I don’t go back to work the rest of the day. Ya, I played hooky from the army. I know that is so bad! But with my new job no one really keeps track of me and the run went over the time it was suppose to so by the time I got home and showered I was already late for the only meeting I was kind a suppose to go to and my philosophy is that it is better to not show up if your going to be late, everyone sees you come in late but if you don’t show up, out of sight, out of mind!

This weekend Jane and I just hung out, sleeping in and working on blogging and writing. Today Golden Coral celebrated Veterans Day, a week late but I still got in for free and we got a great dinner for 10 bucks only having to pay for my super sweet wife! Rock On!!!!

Life Log for today

Today has been fun. I spent all morning reading homework and cleaning the apartment. Okay so I didn’t wake up until 1030. Sleeping in is so good. I guess that means I spent the afternoon reading homework and cleaning the apartment. It was fun. Poor Jane is just feeling sick. So I cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom and folded the monstrous pile of laundry left over from washing closes last weekend. Jane came in and sat with me while I folded closes and we talked about controversial religious doctrine she had read on a blog called Ask Anything and had me help her find answers to some religious questions out there. Some lady had said that you should never question the leaders of our church because they are inspired and would never lead our church astray. So while we were there Jane found a quote by one of the earlier leaders of your church, in fact he was our second prophet. He said that members shouldn’t blindly follow their leaders, but should ask and pray for themselves to get personal revelation. After discussion the finer points of our religion we came to the conclusion that there are some really closed-minded and extreme in the box thinkers plaguing our church. The problem is they are the majority and they try to smash anyone that thinks outside the box down until nothing is left but a little pile of dust. Oh well, “From dust we were created, and unto dust we shall return” or something like that.

Anyway after cleaning we played with the supper hyper, energetic puppy. She is like the energizer bunny she keeps going and going and going and etc. you get the point. At least until we put her in her crate and she is forced to crash. Blissful quite time!

When then when and rented two more movies, Kong Fu Panda and some other girly movie that I’m going to be forced to watch tomorrow. (Don’t tell my wife but I enjoy those girly flixs, they just don’t go well the male ego). I really wanted to get Star Wars Clone Wars but they wouldn’t allow me to rent it until tomorrow because that is when it comes out. But Panda comes out tomorrow too? And I rented that, what the Hades!!? I think they are just prejudice against Star Wars fans. Panda was really funny though, so I’m glad we got it.

Dear Journal / Dear World

Another day is done. One more day closer to whatever it is you are looking forward to.

We have this puppy, a female golden Lab named June. We have had her for two weeks. She really enjoys crate training. It must be so fun to sit in a small crate all day. Okay so we have felt really bad about this but she just keeps thinking the carpet is grass. Not a good mix. Well, after a full week of crate training we decieded that we would try to let her out today. All day she did so good. We were so proud of her. She even when up to the door to whine when she needed to go. It was such a good feeling. Just before cooking dinner we took her out for a potty break. Then after dinner, out of no where she forgot all her training. Oh brother! During this wonderful venture I am calling my mother for our weekly Sunday evening talk, and we are on speaker phone, so Jane is trying to disapline the puppy and clean up the mess. Our poor puppy has a very soft spirit. A snap of the fingers and she thinks it’s the end of the world. So the puppy tucks tail and runs back into her crate. Then Jane tries to clean up the mess. Remember how yesterday I said that Jane wasn’t feeling good. Well, she made it though, but we almost ended up with a second mess on the full.

So that is the drama of today.

This morning we both sleep in way to late, because we stayed up way to late last night working on our blogs. So when I got up I started working on homework, writing the essay I just published for my online college class. Well all of this builds up to the climax of… we were not paying attention to the time and missed church. Oops. Now most people would be like that is so bad right? Well the problem with us, we are usually late and there isn’t any sitting available. So we only stay for the opening then leave. So missing entirely isn’t much of a bigger sin than we already are committing. I know, we are so bad, we really need to be going to church more. I mean how can you profess to believe something and not live it. Well there is the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. I totally believe in living the spirit of the law. Plus, our church has a be problem with accepting anyone different. Like Democrats. When 90 percent of your church is Republican, anyone that thinks different is an outsider. It is a really good thing we have such a strong belief in God.

So instead of going to church we spent the day, cuddled up on the couch watching several different movies playing on TBS and a puppy sleeping puppy at our feet. At least until dinner and she decided to end the fun filled night by leaving her last drink on the carpet.

In the wonderful phone conversation with my mother, we talked about the situation I’m currently in with the army. I was originally suppose to separate from the military in September 2008. Due to the upcoming deployment to Iraq I was involuntarily stopped from leaving, known as Stop-Loss. Well the military can only stop loss a soldier from exiting the military 90 days from the time they are suppose to step boots on dessert soil. I was suppose to deploy last Thursday. That changed, now I’m being told that I’m to deploy in a little over a week. But, that is only tentative. We are still waiting on order from the Department of the Army. Which doesn’t make me since, how can I be stop lossed if there aren’t any orders? Any answers? Your ideas are as good as mine. Plus, Iraq is saying that America has to be out of Iraq by the end of the year if we don’t agree to allow Iraq to try our soldiers for murder. This can not happen. If we agree to this, any time someone is killed in Iraq by an American Soldier will get arrested by the Iraqi Police. Right, like that will happen, I wouldn’t allow Iraqi Police to arrest one my soldiers, there will be fights between Iraqi Police and American Soldiers. Iraq knows this and we know this. Iraq is trying to kick us out because they don’t want us there anymore. I think that Department of the Army is waiting to see what will happen before they waste money to send up to Kuwait just to being us home again. Which is good for me, come December and I’m still here, I get to separate and return home. I pray that is going to happen. Two years over there is two to many!!!

Learning Spanish as a Second Language/Essay for School

Most people have some sort of skill. There are butchers, bakers, and candle stick makers. We have engineers, bankers, designers, accountants, builders and so on. If you can think of it there is a skill for it and money can be made doing it. People make money designing blogs for the growing blogging community, never having to leave their homes. Some skills come naturally, some with little practice and some take a life time to learn. Today we live in a predominantly white country but this could change. Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States and, they continue to grow. Many of these people come to America, not able to speak English. People need to learn to speak Spanish as a second language. Many people have jumped on this band wagon but more need to.
Today Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States of America. In 2007 the US Census reported that there were 44.3 million Hispanics in the United States on July 1, 2006. This makes up 14.8 percent of the American population. In one year, from July 2005 to July 2006 there was an increase of 2.9 million. In 1960 Whites made up 85 percent of the population while Hispanics made up only 3.5 percent. In 2005, Whites dropped to 67 percent and Hispanics increased to 14 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, it is projected that in 2050 whites will drop to under 50 percent while Hispanics will grow to 29 percent. It might not happen in our life time, but if the rates stay constant everyone can see that one day, Hispanics will be the majority and out number whites in the United States.
Reported in the 2007 American Community Survey Spanish is the primary language for 34 million people. Roughly half of these people speak English as well. That means there are at least 15 million people in the nation today that can only speak Spanish. Most of the Spanish speaking residents live in Texas, California, and Florida but that doesn’t mean they migrate to other states as well. It is reported that Alaska, the furthest states from Mexico has 22,649 Spanish speaking residents making up 3.6 percent of Alaska’s population. This is not much, but it does prove that every state has a Spanish Speaking population. California has over 12 million making up 34.6 percent of its state population.
With Hispanics the largest minority today and with 34 million people considering Spanish as their primary language it is smart for people to learn Spanish as a second language. This skill for employees and employers is invaluable. Owning a small business the owner wants to be able to serve whoever enters their doors. Small Business owners that are able to accommodate anyone that walks in results in more sales and more profit. National companies have a much larger need for Spanish speaking employees as they have a 29 percent chance of selling to a Hispanic-American. It’s just good business to be able to cater to the costumer. The business that caters to the Spanish speaking costumer will have the costumer return for future business. A lot of people believe that if they are in America then they should speak English, as it is our primary language. But, no business made money by expecting the costumer to humor an ignorant business owner.
Where can we learn this new skill? There are many ways to learn Spanish. In Yahoo Search, typing in “How to Learn Spanish” will result in 269 million hits. Spanish is taught in schools across the nation, from middle schools to universities. Spanish can be learned online, from a computer program, books, and even a tutor. Rosetta Stone is one that claims to be fast by providing a six month guarantee. Spanish is considered one of the easiest languages to learn and is Latin based with several words similar to those in the English language.
With 29 percent of the population Hispanic today and expected to grow to 47 percent by 2050 and with 34 million people claiming today that Spanish is their primary language it is a smart business move for people to learn Spanish as a second language. It is a great skill that can be utilized in the business world. One day, Hispanics will be the majority and non-Hispanics Whites will be a minority. In order to survive as a business it will take employers and employees speaking Spanish. Plus, with Spanish so readily available, why not start now?


References

1. Passel, Jeffrey. (2008, February 11). Immigration to Play Lead Role In Future U.S. Growth. Message posted to http://pewresearch.org/pubs/729/united-states-population-projections

2. Wikipedia (2008). Spanish in the United States. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States

3. Bernstein, Robert. (2007, May 17). Minority Population Tops 100 Million. U.S. Census Bureau New. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/010048.html

Life Log

Today marks the first full day of the long weekend. Tuesday is Veterans Day, for the military is it a four day weekend. I got off of work yesterday at a little past noon and don’t have to be back to work until 0630 Wednesday for physical training.

I was so nice being able to sleep in. I really enjoyed it. I woke up at 0900 which is so much nicer than the 0400 I had to wake up at yesterday. Before I joined the army I didn’t know there was a 0400, I had never stayed up that late and never woke up that early. The army makes you do some crazy things. Normally, I wake up at 0500, but yesterday we did a Division Run where we formed up somewhere around 10,000 soldiers and ran four miles, everyone singing cadences. The run didn’t start until 0630 but getting 10,000 people in a bunch of square formations takes time.

But, that is besides the point. I’m writing about today. Lets see, we spent a good portion of the day, Jane and I, packing our spare room/storage room up, sorting garbage, donate, storage, and take home piles, preparing for the up coming trip to Iraq. Jane has been working on it here and there for the past week so it didn’t take very long to get the rest done.

After that Jane and I decided we were hungry. It was a tough decision. My stomach really made it for me. The real problem came when deciding what to do for dinner. Jane has been having stomach aches lately, so she got to make the decision. IHOP, here we come! Breakfast is easy on the belly.

The funny part about the whole thing came just before we realized we were hungry. Jane is playing on the internet, doing her whole blog thing, I head to the kitchen to find a snack. I start making me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which was divine by the way, Jiffy really knows what they are doing! While I was thus engaged in spreading the creaming smooth peanut butter, Jane asks if I’m getting hungry. My mind and my mouth have a disconnect somewhere, Jane would argue that is in the male genome and there is no fixing it. So instead of just saying yes and that I’m having a sandwich, I yell back sheepishly NO, then proceed to eat my sandwich.

Five minutes later, Jane finishes working on her blog and says she is starting to get hungry. I’m not now. So she get a little upset with me because I said no earlier and then had a sandwich. What is wrong with me? So, to try to fix the situation, I say, yes dear, I’m still hungry. I can be such a dork sometimes.

I’m not complaining about having to eat twice, no, no, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy IHOP as much as the next guy, if not more. I’m just saying, no asking, what is wrong with me? Of course my wife is asking the same question.

After dinner we chilled cuddled together on the couch watching a movie from the instant Net Flix. We watched a western about Billy the Kid. I don’t remember what it was called but it was pretty good.

After the movie, Jane wants to check her blog again. I think she is addicted to it. But that is okay, I’m addicted to her, she is addicted to the blog, so now I’m blogging. What men will do for a little action. I’m getting her to design the blog for me too, all I have to do is write.

While she is working on her blog, I’m getting ready for bed. I’m always tired. What can I say, when you wake up at 0500 or earlier most days, and then stay up late every night, when it comes to the weekend all I want to do is sleep. Plus, don’t forget I’m a man, and when man gets tired, man gets grumpy! I am papa bear for a reason.

However, Jane is very excited, and a little mad at someone that commented on her blog, and want to read it to me. Despite my best efforts to hide my true feelings, she reads right though me and sees that I’m not interested. Crap, saying I’m just tired stopped working a while ago. But, I tried it anyway, to no avail. Then I hurt her feelings. So then, we have great make up… hugs and kisses. No sex tonight, remember she isn’t feeling good.

Hello World

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I have been watching my wife play around with it. She is an expert, with several of her own blogs. I will probaly have to ask her for help at times. Anyway I thought I would use this to write a journal and pratice writing as one day I want to be an author. Well thats all for tonight.