About ME

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Grand Prairie, Texas, United States
Mr. E is a Christian, Husband, Father of 2, former Army Officer and Texas Rangers Baseball fan.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Surving Without the Wii

Way to go DAD! About one week ago I was playing with the family's Nintendo Wii. I was playing an old N64 game called Pokemon Snap, where you take pictures of Pokemon. My son had spent $10.00 of his own money to download it for me as an early birthday present. While playing the game, I accidently pulled the Wii off of its perch. It fell almost 2 feet to our hardwood floor below. I thought for sure I had broken the entire thing. When we plugged it back in, all seemed to work just fine...UNTIL...my son tried to eject the previous game he was playing from the system. He pressed the eject button and nothing happened. He pressed it again and nothing happened. Apparently the system works just fine, except for the eject button which was broken in the fall.

We called the Nintendo Wii support line, and we were told, "Unless we wanted to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the rest of our lives, we would have to send the game to them to get repaired." So this afternoon, we packaged up our Wii and sent it back to the Nintendo Co. of America to get repaired. This means my children and I have to wait about 15 days for the game to get there, get fixed and then returned to us.

I'm not worried about me, but I'm a little worried about my kids though. My son has already started shaking and crying (Just kidding!) Really he is just fine. I know they will miss the game but it the Wii will return to us soon. At least they have a Game Cube and a Nintendo DS to play with in the meantime. They are also getting in more bicycle riding too.

I just feel bad, considering I always seem to get on to them for playing the game to much, and I was the one who broke it. Way to go DAD!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Remembering 2007

I know it's a little late to be looking back, but I just got bored and decided to go back and review my first 7 months of blogging! I started in June of 2007, so I am going back and posting a link to one blog each from June-December of 2007. Don't know why, I'm just doing it.

From June 2007 -- Shouting All The More --my early blogs were more spiritual in nature and this one just stood out.

From July 2007 -- Second Chance Cards --a neat idea took on a whole new meaning for me.

From August 2007 -- Feeling Small and a Little Scared --one of my first posts to get a comment from someone other than my wife. Thanks Tech Daddy!

From September 2007 -- An Incredible Weekend --this really was the best weekend I've had in a LONG time!

From October 2007 -- 100 Things About Me: My 100th Blog! (really it was my 104th post, but who cares?) --well, this one is just full of random stuff about me, the title kinda explains itself!

From November 2007 -- How to Turn a Dime Into 100 Dollars --A must read!!

From December 2007 -- Dying to One's Self Is Not Easy --it is amazing what stands out in books you read.

Here a couple of honorable mentions -- Tears of the Singer and I Hate This Stuff, but I Want More.

See Ya Next Post!

Introducing President Nolan Ryan

You heard me correctly. Nolan Ryan is our new President. Former Major League pitcher and Hall of Famer, Nolan Ryan has been named the new President of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. I remember skipping a few college classes in order to go and see him pitch for the Texas Rangers. Let's hope he brings good luck to our team and we can go the playoffs this year.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

What an Incredible Story -- It's a Miracle!

You have to read this!!

After the recent tornadoes and storms that hit the central states, and incredible story has emerged. A baby in Tennessee was found alive in a field after being missing since Tuesday.

One Less Person to Vote For (6 Little Indians Left)

In a stunning announcement today, Former Mass. Governor, Mitt Romney is suspending his bid for the White House. Wow!! I guess he got tired of spending his own money on what seems to be a loosing battle.

This leaves 6 Little Indians looking to become Chief and move into the Big White Teepee!

There are 3 Democrats: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mike Gravel (who has no chance in H*!!, but he's still hanging in there.)

There are 3 Republicans: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul.

For biographies of the remaining candidates go to You Decide 08 and click on the pictures of the individual candidates.

It's going to be an interesting and historical election year. Who knows I may get to vote for Huckabee in Texas after all?

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Feeling Like I Don't Even Count

Today is what many News and Political agencies around the nation are calling "Super Tuesday!" Almost half of states are having their primaries today to determine which candidate they wish to win their party's nomination for president of the United States. Somehow, however; it dosen't feel very "Super" for me.

According to the news, the Republican nomination should be determined after today, with Sen. John McCain becoming the Republican candidate for President. As far as the Democrats are concerned, at least they have a race that may not be determined after today.

My problem is that I tend to lean towards a Moderate platform and I am a religious conservative. (I hate that word by the way. There are some things I believe that would probably "tick off" many so-called conservatives.) That being said, I would like to cast my vote for Mike Huckabee if I voted Republican and I would have liked to have voted for John Edwards if I voted Democrat. It looks like I may not get that chance. Texas will not hold its primary until March 4. Edwards is already out; and by then my other candidate, Huckabee, may not even be in the race. Then who do I vote for? I really have no strong feelings towards any of the other candidates for President. (Well, I have a few strong feelings against a few of them.) I feel like my vote in March will be a wasted vote.

I feel like Hawaii and Alaska on General Election Day. I have Electoral votes but they don't matter because the rest of the country has already chosen the President by the time I even get a chance to vote.

Voting in the Republican Primary will be a moot or lost point, if McCain does pull of the nomination after today. I guess I could still vote in the Democratic Primary. It's possible that Clinton and Obama will still be fighting for their party's nomination. I do tend to support at least small parts of one of these guy's/gal's ideas. At least then I will have some say so on who gets nominated in at least one party.

Best of luck to you guys who get vote ahead of "poor-ole-me." I envy you!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Stephen Colbert

First of all let me congratulate the New York Giants on their Super Bowl victory over the "perfect" New England Patriots.

Do any of you guys/gals watch The Colbert Report? This political satire show is hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert and it is hilarious. Ladybug (my wife) and I used to be faithful followers of the show and after a year's break, we are now watching it again. We don't always agree with Mr. Colbert, but the way he presents his information is down right funny! He is obviously a Republican (for now) and so he sparks some interesting conversations between Ladybug and I.

The show appears on Comedy Central! It follows imediately after The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart. The Daily Show is a more Democratic version of The Colbert Report. In fact the Colbert Report is a spin-off of The Daily Show.

Watch the show and learn the Truthiness of the world around you!

{By the way my spell check is not working for my blog; so if anything is mispelled, just go with it and know that even teachers are not perfect when it comes to our spelling. I am also having trouble posting images. Does anyone have a solution or know where to look for help?}

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Fighting Our Way Through the Red-Zone

Comparing Spritual Warfare to a football game is seemingly becoming a manly theme. My Wednesday night men's Bible classes is currently reading a book called, Every Man, God's Man by Stephen Arterburn and Kenny Luck. One of the first chapters compares the struggles men have to being bogged down in the "Red Zone".

For those not familiar with football, the "Red Zone" is the part of the playing field between an opponent's 20 yard line and the End-Zone. It is at this point where some of the most dramatic moments in football take place. The Defense is now protecting their end-zone. They are focused on preventing their opponents from gaining even one more inch. They play tougher here than on any other part of the field. They seem to do even better than their best to keep their oppenents out of their end-zone and scoring points.

The offensive strategy also changes from looking for large gains in yardage to focusing on short yard gains to push past the hardened defense to reach their desired goal, which is their opponent's end-zone. They often resort to trick plays or the use of brut force to push their opponents backwards.

I guess you could compare a man's struggle to become a man of God to playing football. The Bible tells us to put on the armor of God, much like putting on a playing uniform. The Bible gives us strategies and moral guidelines in which to live our lives and guide our families, much like a playbook. It is our manly responsiblity to study the "playbook" and put on our "armor" before we attempt to take on our enemy. Believe me, the enemy has studied our playbook and he knows our battle plans better than we do.

The enemy, however; has convinced us that since he knows God's strategy for us, that we must switch strategies in order to try and trick him. This is just what the enemy wants us to do. What we fail to realize is, that even if Satan does know our playbook, that the playbook will still work against him. Satan has no defense against the Truth, and the Will of God for our lives. It's when we switch to our understanding of the game, that we get bogged down.

The closer we follow the game plan of God, the closer we get to our goal of an eternal life with God. This is our Goal. This is the Red-Zone. Satan's defense and attacks against us get stronger and he will do anything to distract us from following the gameplan set forth by God. It seems we can get no closer to our goal despite everything we try. We get bogged down and many times collapse under the pressure of a battle toughened Satan.

We must stay focused!! We must not give up!! We must remember, we already know the outcome of the game. WE WIN!! God will get us trough the Red-Zone, if we just rely on Him.

As you can tell football is not my sport of choice, so my thoughts may wonder a bit. I still hope you understood my message though. Maybe next time I can use a baseball reference.