Can I Take You Home?

Last night I had a dream that I was on an airplane with Tom and Yuri from MxPx and Marques Brownlee. I sat with Marques, but I really wanted to talk to Tom and Yuri. That's about all I remember about my dream.

It's rare that I remember any of my dreams. I don't know why that is. There was a point in my life where I remembered a lot of my dreams. I even had a dream journal. Maybe that's why I remembered my dreams--because I was looking forward to documenting them in the morning.

I've always been somewhat of a documentor. My own newsman. I don't think that anyone really would care about what goes on in my life. I just like to write. It's sort of therapeutic. It's how I relax. Like now...writing in this blog. I really don't care if anyone reads these words. It's more for me than anything else.

There was some other garbage I was going to write about. Maybe it was my day... Nothing spectacular. A semi truck stopped at my house this morning and asked for directions. Luke loved that. I also did some computer shopping for Lindsey. Best Buy has gone down hill. That store is kinda crappy now. I used to love going there. Now I think it's...not so great. Best Buy will be gone within five years. I also realized that Windows computers kinda suck. I love my Chromebook.

New paragraph. Chromebook. Chromebooks get a lot of criticism. They're extremely simple. They run Chrome... and a few other Google apps (Keep, Google Photos, etc.). I don't need much more though. I can watch Hulu, Netflix and YouTube videos on it. Google Docs has gotten to the point where it's almost at the level of Word. I don't play games on my computer anymore. My Chromebook satisfies 99% of my computer needs. I also have a stinking iPad (that my school provided for me), a stinking Galaxy Note 3 and a dang LG G Watch. I'm pretty ridiculous. When I get a notification, I hear it first on my iPad, then on my Chromebook, then on my Note 3, then on my G Watch. Now that's just dumb. I don't need to be told by four different devices that I have a freaking junk email. But, that's where I am... I got sucked in. I'm connected. God forbid I fall out of WiFi or cell coverage.

Anywho, the Chrombook is nice. It's cheap. It looks nice. The only think I would improve about my Chromebook would be build quality. My current Chrombook doesn't have a backlit keyboard. It doesn't have a touch screen. The body is all plastic. The external speakers are worthless. The battery isn't that great. All of these things I can deal with for the $169 cost. $169. Yeah. The other computer that catches my eye is the MacBook Air. $899. I don't need a MacBook Air. All my computing is done here. Most people who have Windows or Macs don't need them either.

I'm done talking about Chromebook.

There's some other stuff I wanted to get down in writing. I haven't had a whole lot of time to write for fun. I've been writing for my MBA class. I'm determined to become a master of something, even if it's through an e-correspondence course.

...Thought I wanted to write more. Nope.

Universe

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV)

Interesting little tid bit here. I've had a problem with faith. Faith requires a belief in something, maybe that there's not a whole lot of evidence for. I'm like any other human, I want proof. I've been thinking a lot about that idea. There are certain things in the universe that don't require proof. How did the universe start from an infinitesimally small point and expand faster than the speed of light to where it is now? I'm living by faith knowing that it just did. 

There are parts of the Bible that are insane. In this last Bad Christian podcast with Michael Gungor as the guest, Toby brought up the point I think about all the time. Jesus was a zombie who told people he was God and was going to forgive sins... I believe this shit? Yes, I believe this shit! It's insane! But so is the universe! What's more insane? Believing there's a God who set all law (moral, natural), or that the universe is even here at all?  

Albuquerque Home

I should probably be writing for school right now. I'm not. It's a Sunday evening and it's raining. Nothing like the rain we had Friday night. That was insane! I thoroughly enjoyed that rain. It dumped over 2 inches of rain on us in a mater of about an hour. Here's a link to a news article about the flood. http://krqe.com/2014/08/02/heavy-rains-flood-downtown-albuquerque/

It doesn't seem like it should be such a big news story, especially if you aren't from Albuquerque. There are huge storms in the eastern USA that dump much more moisture from a single storm. Rain is news for us in Albuquerque. We love it so much. I start live tweeting if I even fell a drop of rain. So, the storm was nice. I hope the monsoons aren't over. August is usually when tings begin to slow down. I'm hoping for at least one or two more big storms. That would be nice.

This brings me to my next set of thoughts. New Mexico. New Mexico has really been pissing me off lately. I read an article about "Almost Albuquerque" the other day. It discouraged me. I see cities like Tucson getting a light rail. Why can't we have a light rail? I remember talk of the light rail system back when Marty Chavez was mayor. It never happened, of course. Also, what the heck's up with our skyscrapers? The last high rise that was finished, (if you want to call it that), was the Anasazi Downtown condos, and those took almost 10 years to complete.

I think Albuquerque should own itself. We need to be proud to be citizens. Albuquerque is so different. I think there's a lot of nice things we can enjoy here. We're in the shadow of other western cities. I think of Albuquerque and a half way point between Phoenix and Denver. By the way, Phoenix and Denver should be in New Mexico, stupid congress back in the day didn't draw our state boundary correctly.

I've got a lot to complain about home. I could list it all now. Goat heads suck. I wish it rained more. Poverty. Transportation is a joke. I want people to like us in Albuquerque. Most of the time when I hear Albuquerque mentioned it's usually negative. Search the hashtag #Albuquerque, or #NewMexico on Instagram or Twitter. There are a bunch of people who are just passing though on I-40 talking about how much it sucks.

There are a lot of cool things about Albuquerque. There are a lot of cool things about New Mexico. I'm kind of happy those cool things aren't well known across the country. People have no idea we have mountains. There are only 7 states with higher peaks than us. Alaska, California, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, and Utah. New Mexico has higher peaks than Montana, Oregon and Idaho. Who knew? Really, I think congress should have drawn our state to include more of Colorado, too. I would say most of the southern counties identify more with New Mexico than they do with Colorado anyway.

Let's keep our mountains a secret. I think it's okay that I can go on a hike and actually be in a wilderness. There aren't jeeps and microbrew drinking bros camping around every corner. There is nature.

I'll continue to enjoy it here. And I think a lot of the people who are "entrapped" here end up actually liking it here. The population continues to rise. I hope things change for the better here. We have so much room for improvement. Maybe all these negative news stories will motivate its citizens to want to improve the city.

Just a Day

I'm typing a blog post from an ipad. That's a first. My chromebook battery died, and my desktop computer is much too far for me to get up. I'm a lazy bitch today. 

I was going to hike a trail in the Sandias. That fell through. I'll probably head up to the peak tomorrow or Sunday. I would love to be up there especially after it rained. I'll be it smells so nice up there.

Today's a lazy day still. Cleaning around the house. Hanging out with my little buddy Luke. He's asking for fruit snacks every 10 minutes. I'll have to say no sooner or later. I might play some Guitat Hero, maybe read my book about Evolution being taught in schools and Christians hating it. 

I'm enjoying my book so far. It's taking me forever to read it. I'm a slow reader and I get distracted easily. Also, I have a job and a 2 year old. It's tough for me to get through a 300 pager. I'm over half way through. The book I'm reading is called Monkey Girl. If the book ended at page 180 I'd reccomend it. I think I'll read a little now.  

By the way, if anyone cares, I'm listening to Run River North right now. So good. 

I Don't Want Any Part of Jesus

I'm the biggest hypocrite in the world. I claim to be a holy guy by professing that I'm a Christian. I'm not so holy. I'm a jerk. I drank 3 rum drinks last night while watching Game of Thrones. Not very "Christian" of me. Does my faith bring me guilt? Yeah. A lot. I'm guilty. I've sinned. What's the whole purpose of sin? I have no idea. I'm not even going to begin to tackle that question. I'm too hungover.

So, whatever. I'll probably think about these things later. I just finished a paper for a class I'm taking. We're talking about marketing, the 3 Ps and making a marketing plan. Fun stuff. I enjoy thinking about this garbage.

I was going to talk about faith...like I always do. Faith's on my mind a lot. Like all the time. Here's some bullshit--we're born with our faith. If you're born a Mormon, then you'll be a Mormon in most cases. If you're born into Islam, then you're Muslim. If you're born into Scientology...well, that just sucks. But, you get my point. You're not going to think too much of your faith. It's true, as far as you're concerned. Just like you believe your mom when she says not to touch the furnace because it's hot, you believe that Jesus died for your sins.

That's me.

I believe what my mom told me. She said that Jesus loves me. She said that I sin and so does everyone else. She said that Jesus has grace and he still loves me and wants to be my best friend.

I believed her.

I still believe her.

I'm starting to think, though. For all my life, including now, my faith has been completely blind. My faith has not been my own. My faith is just what I was born with.

I don't want that to be... I want to seriously question God. I want to know who Jesus is and I don't want my belief to be empty. Dang it, I want my faith to be real, to be mine!

If Jesus turns out to be an imaginary guy, then I don't want any part of Jesus. I want to know for myself, though. Blind faith bothers me because if you have blind faith then your faith means nothing. This is one of my biggest complaints about the USA.

Happy 4th.

I'll have to complain about my country later because my boy just woke up from his nap.

I'll Shut Up Now

**There are probably writing errors in this blog post. I don't proof read my posts.**

My internet connection... What the heck ever. I've been talking on social media about this dang iPad. Who the heck cares? No one gives a shit. I think I need to just take it easy on these things. I don't know why I feel the need to write something down and share it over the internet...kinda like I'm doing now. Blogger's okay. Not a whole lot of people read this thing. I like it that way. Not like Facebook. Everyone's on Facebook. And everyone's got an opinion. Then there's the people who post pointless garbage like me.

So, I'm going to use Blogger to get what's on my mind off my chest so I can just move on. I usually talk about religion. Or struggling in life. Or my son. Or my wife. Right now I want to talk about an iPad. Yeah, it's really dumb. The last Apple product I purchased was an iPod touch in 2007 or 2008. Now I have this iPad. I didn't purchase this iPad directly. I'm taking MBA courses and my school provided it to me. I was pretty excited, and I am still excited to use this iPad. I'm a Google guy for the most part. I had an Android tablet (just sold it), my last 5 phones have been Android phones, I have a Chromebook, use Chromecast...you get the picture.

I'm a Google fan boy. Not like Derek Ross from Phandroid...that guy's a real fan boy. But, I enjoy Google products. I think Android has it's flaws, but it works really great. Apple definitely set the trend with the iPad and the iPhone, but I think Android perfected the phone...the tablet, I still think iOS has the edge.

So, I've had this iPad for a full 24 hours. I like it a lot. Siri is cool. I like Google Now a bit better. I like the hot word "okay, Google". It reminds me of the Star Ship Enterprise. Siri, you have to hold down the home button for a few minutes to get it to listen. I also feel that Google Now gives me more relevant information. Try asking Google something totally weird and give it enough information and it will probably guess the right thing. I'll ask Google Now something now and I'll post the screen shot...

Pretty cool, right? Google even corrected the word "gangsta". I was talking about Office Space. 

Now, I'll ask Siri...

Fail, Siri. Fail. 

There have been a few other complaints. Which is dumb. Why should I be complaining? I got a free iPad. I'm just an idiot American who complains about dumb crap. I complain about mobile operating systems. Good guy, Zo. Good guy. Get a life. lol. I'll go on... You can't select a default browser. You could set a default browser on Windows '95, but you can't on a 2014 iPad. You can't hide the crap apps you probably won't be using, like Safari. But, I might be using Safari a lot more now because it's annoying to use Chrome for most things, but if I click on a link in an email or anywhere else it opens in Safari. So, to keep things consistent, I'll probably just use Safari. There are probably some other things I'll complain about. Maybe I should just be happy that I'm healthy...that would be good.

I am happy about a couple of features of this damn iPad. The build quality is unmatched. It's a sexy-ass piece of technology. So much so that Lindsey thought I was getting aroused and just about left the room to give me and the iPad a moment. We didn't need a moment. But, I was slightly aroused. I'll move on... It has a great battery life. I've been using it nonstop with Bluetooth on for the past 24 hours and the battery is now just at 14%. And the Bluetooth is great too. It has no problem at all connecting to my Jambox. In fact, when it's connected, it shows the battery life of the Jambox, too. Something my Android or Chomebook doesn't do. Not crazy important, but cool. 

I'm happy with this. It's free and really it's supposed to be used for my text books. That's about all I have to say about this think. You'll probably never another peep out of me about it. I'll probably talk about technology again. That's inevitable. 

I've realized something else today. Well, not just today. But, I was reminded that social media is bullshit. Pure 100% bullshit. I'm sucked in, and I don't know why. I'll probably use Blogger and G+ more, mostly because I get my social media thoughts of my mind and I don't have to worry about anyone reading my post. 

Dream

I had a dream I hung out with Matt Hoopes from Relient K. He has a really expensive banjo and he was letting me play it. I think we were in Nashville.