- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Home

Lola's

Lola's is my favorite restaurant. I don't think there is a restaurant more representative of Houston anywhere. But, more on that later . Here's a taste.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I was getting really frustrated because I couldn't send this photo to facebook, but I realized that I could just add it here, for you!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Taking a break at work

Blue Light Special

I don't know about you but every year around September I get a little down. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I won't get into it with great detail, but essentially I'm solar powered without any of the cool cyborg functionality. I don't know, I guess I'm pretty good with Excel. That counts, right?

Seriously though, lack of natural sunlight makes me sluggish, irritable and overwhelmingly sleepy. Most people call it the winter blues, but to those who struggle with SAD, daily tasks can be overwhelming at times. This is due to the body's lack of "light cues" that regulate the sleep cycle. Without the correct amount of natural sunlight in the morning, your body does not know when it should get it into gear and when it should power down.

Philips makes a new product appropriately called the Energy Light. It is a small LED device that uses BLU light technology to mimic a clear blue sky. The benefits can be very dramatic for people suffering from SAD. By the way, I hate that acronym. I always picture some snarky doctor putting up air quotes and saying, "Oh no, he's "SAD"". Shut up clown, I'm a cyborg.

So far the Energy Light has been great. I feel a lot more alert and I don't feel like I'm made of lead. Philips has a range of devices in the lineup ranging from travel size models to large bedside lamps with iPod docks. Models range from $99 to $299.

A New Crush

I get excited about technology. Really excited. Like jazz hands smirky grin first time I saw Dana excited. I've come to terms with it.

We are in the midst of a true technological shift. Telephone companies are no longer utility companies- they are great enablers.

Who remembers snake and brick breaker on their phones? Now we can check email, snap a photo, run a business, check into a flight, hotel, or concert AND improve our gamer scores from the same device. AHEM- GreatnessJT24, I'm takin you down son, just so you know what's coming.

I think the late gen-Xers and early gen-Y kiddos experienced the growing pains of adding data plan charges to their monthly expenses but hey, I can safely say we're all over it.

Tablet PC, smartphone, WIFI 3G laptop- gimme all of that. I want it like I wanted to pump my kicks full of air and have a phone that took pictures. Dude, VGA ON MY PHONE!!

I can stream video on my handheld device, read a book on my tablet PC, adjust my thermostat from my phone which doubles as my GPS, movie player and video came console. Shazamit all I want more.

There are a few of us twenty-somethings that still shun the information age. Our phones still flip and have MIDI ringtones. We still have home numbers and VCRs (I'll explain what a VCR was at a later time, I don't want my younger readers' heads to explode).

Jump in guys. If your grandparents have friended you and your cell phone looks like the handset sitting in the cradle in Mom's kitchen, call me. We need to talk.

I get excited about mobile tech and I want you to get excited with me. Twitter, Facebook, text, email or even, if you must, call me.

Forever 21

Forever 21 is inversely proportional to my happiness. I love my soon to be wife, but I cannot wait to make enough money that I can just hand over a black card and not fear the reaper. And let there be no doubt that women's fashion is the reaper.

Shoes and accessories are right below meth as the most addictive substances on earth. I'm all for
stimulating the economy, but another half hour surrounded by tinny voices and the echoes of Twilight gossip are going to kill me.

I already want to tell my kids to turn their music down.

And Dana, baby, if you read this- you look beautiful. Despite my bitterness.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Tomball Pkwy,Houston,United States

Work Work Work

I'm not even going to TRY to put an artistic, or sardonic, or ironic twist to this post because I am TIRED.

TIRED!!!!

I haven't seen my buddies in four, going on five months. Well, except for Dugan's birthday- which was fun. Damnit Sean, you HAD to move to Katy.

I guess we're at that age where you decide to hunker down and work, and save and build.... or try to stretch out that college life a few more years. Well boys, I am TIRED.

But I'm happy.

I'm nine months from getting married, just got promoted and love each day more than the last. But it comes at a price, I think. For instance, I'm ranked WAY too low on the MWF leaderboard. I mean, how am I supposed to improve my kill ratio with a full time job?!?

And, I had to all out cancel my World of Warcraft account all together. That, consequently really helped my weight loss since my daily consumption of Mountain Dew really fell.

I guess at the end of the day, I really value all of the positive change and growth. But damnit, how many days do we have left to BE kids before we HAVE kids?

** To all of you trying: Josh is a wonderful name. It means "God's chosen leader". Just a thought.

Feliz Ano Nuevo

Happy New Year folks. Last year was rough, but it ended on a good note, I think. The promise of really starting a new life with Dana, a new job and a little more stability left me optimistic and largely renewed. I heard a man say that you need four things in life: something to do, something to believe in, someone to love and something to hope for. So far, I'm batting 1.000 in 2010.

All the changes were phenomenal, but I learned that even positive change can be stressful. I have all the elasticity of a No. 2 pencil, and while the changes have been challenging, I finally have a firm sense of priorities, sacrifice and fulfillment. It was a hell of a road getting here.

We all think that we learn these wonderful life lessons through mentors or epiphanies. But in reality, the lessons whose weight we learn to measure with the greatest precision come from our failures and the leaps of faith that leave us rearranging our faces. But as another wise man told me, "It's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get up."

Now if all that wisdom is cloaked in vagueness it is because I prefer to keep some shortcomings private. Do you like hot dogs and wine? Of course you do. You're an upper-middle class American sophisticate. Well, fellow patriot, if you saw the process of how our favorite snacks are made you would either be repulsed or bored to tears. The same applies to my lessons. The guts we hide, the fruits we share with dear friends.