I’m still alive

I believe those were the words of Pearl Jam. but it’s true. I’m still here and everything is all good. I have been super busy with work, school, the Shepherds’ Conference and bloggers block. I am excited to announce that I am now an contributor to the Fellowship of Nicaea and I am very excited about that. The Lord is doing some amazing things in our lives, things that have made me think about my life and things that have convicted me. It is to this end that I will be sharing.

With what has been going on, I have decided to do two things. I am leaving wordpress to go back to blogger. I thought I would try wordpress to see how it went and while it is very cool, I am just used to blogger more and I like it also. Think of it like the guy who tried the new video game systems, but always keeps going back to his NES for some joy and entertainmet. Secondly, the new name for my blog will be the journey of j crew. My take on that is, the Storekeeper is what I do, but not who I am. If I ever changed jobs, then the thrust of the Storekeeper would not be the same. I hope this all makes sense. There is a link to your right that will get you to the new sight. So link me up again and look for more stuff from J Crew at the Fellowhship and at the journeyclick on me

Top Ten Fridays: Buildings Edition

Today’s list is of the worlds tallest buildings. I have never been to any of these, but I would like to one day. Also, I still need help on what name you like for this site better. Please refer to yesterday’s post. Thanks.

World’s Tallest Buildings

1. Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan 2004 101 1,667

2. Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998 88 1,483

Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998 88 1,483

4. Sears Tower, Chicago 1974 110 1,451

5. Jin Mao Building, Shanghai 1999 88 1,381

6. Two International Finance Center, Hong Kong 2003 88 1,362

7. CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China 1996 80 1,283

8. Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China 1996 69 1,260

9. Empire State Building, New York 1931 102 1,250

10. Central Plaza, Hong Kong 1992 78 1,227

Help Wanted

The last few days have been crazy with school and my computer at work going crazy. I actually am going to be getting a new computer for work soon, new to me at least. Anyway, there are some things that I have been musing over and I need some help as to what you like better. I would like some response as to what name you like best or what name you think would be cool. Here are some that I like: Journey of J Crew or Team J Crew. If you have any suggestions or if you like one of these let me know. For whatever reason, I am not that creative when it comes to this kind of stuff and I am indecisive when it comes to this stuff. So, let me know and I will weigh the options.

Thanks,

The management of J Crew

1 Billion Served

Yesterday, after I watched the Nascar race(I can’t believe I just said that) in which my team did pretty well, the news was on. I normally don’t watch the news or even read about it. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe it is because I don’t like to hear all the bad news that is going on in the world in which we live. Maybe it is so I can be in denial about it or maybe it is because it seems boring to me. Regardless, I found myself watching the news and I watched a very interesting story.

Netflix, established in 1998, is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail to customers in the United States. Headquartered in Los Gatos, California, it has amassed a collection of 70,000 titles and has about six million subscribers. Currently, Netflix spends about $300 million a year on postage to ship 1.4 million DVDs a day. It is the largest purely online DVD rental company, and its success has inspired a number of other companies to enter the market.(the previous statement was taken directly from Wikipedia) This past weekend they delivered their 1 billionth DVD to someone is Helotes Texas. You did hear that correctly by the way, 1 billion DVD’s delivered. It only took them 7.5 years to do it.

I currently am one of those 6 million subscribers and Saturday I received a DVD from them. The DVD was The Greatest American Hero, season 2. In honor of the 1 billion served, Netflix is awarding the customer from Texas a lifetime subscription to it. I think that is pretty awesome and it makes me wonder, what number was I on the list this weekend? I mean we received our DVD on Saturday. I bet I was pretty close. I wonder if I was like 10 or less away from being that person. That would have been awesome.

Instead, I’m just one of 6 million subscribers who will continue to pay for the likes of the A Team and Knight Rider. No worries. It’s well worth it. I just had a thought. Maybe I was the 1 billion and 1 customer. That would have been a sincere bummer. Now that we know that Netflix has passed the 1 billion mark in deliveries, I think as a courtesy to their customers, they should tell you in your que what number you are. I would like to know if I have a shot at being the 2 billionth delivery. If they showed the numbers, then I could order accordingly. It’s just a thought, but I think it would be very beneficial.

In fact, I bet if you started numbering the deliveries in people’s que’s, you would get even more customers because they would treat like a game. Let’s me see how close I can get to being the blank customer. Point of clarification. That blank is a fill in the blank and not an expletive blank. It is amazing to me that many thought that this idea of sending DVD’s through mail would be a stupid one. Oops, I guess they were wrong. Apparently, it’s pretty popular. If you desire to read the article concerning this story, click here

Top Ten names for pets

Today’s top ten is of the most popular pet names. The name of our dog did not make it. I personally think that Ellie is a way better name than Smokey, but that is just my totally biased opinion.

Most Popular Pet Names

1. Max

2. Sam

3. Lady

4. Bear

5. Smokey

6. Shadow

7. Kitty

8. Molly

9. Buddy

10. Brandy

A little sluggish

Do you ever feel like the picture above. I currently do right now. I’m not sure why, but the past few days I have felt sluggish and lazy and even unmotivated. This is not a good time to be feeling that way considering that a lot is going on in the life of J Crew. From the adoption process kicking off to Greek, things are pretty busy and yet, I find myself just wanting to nap all the time.

I don’t even feel motivated to write a post and am currently having some bloggers block. What do I write about? I can’t think of anything. How about what is going on? Nah. How about something funny? I can’t think of being funny? How about school? I’d rather not. It’s just one of those times I guess. I just wonder why I feel this way.

Maybe it’s because I have had two three day weekends in a row. Maybe it is because I haven’t been going to bed at a decent hour. Maybe it is because of studying or homework or maybe I am just being plain lazy. There have been times this week at work where I have been so unmotivated that I start walking somewhere and forget exactly what I was going to do or where I was going. It seems my mind is wandering or something.

The problem lies in the fact that this not normally like me. On top of that, I need to be dilligent to get things done. I’m hoping that this post will kind of jump start that. I know that everybody goes through times like this. In fact, just over a week ago Ando posted about this very thing. At that time, I wasn’t feeling that way and now I am. That is why I am writing this.

Maybe I need to read kludge’s post to the uncaffeinated again. It could just be that I need a little 6 pack of Dew to cure me right up. What I probably need to do is ask God for strength and end this post and start working my tail off. I think I’ll try that and some Dew.

Gameday Again

This game has now become common place here at The Storekeeper. The rules are the same as they have been. Enjoy and take luck!!

When dreaming I’m guided to another world
Time and time again
At sunrise I fight to stay asleep
Cause I don’t want to leave the comfort of this place

Paid Workout

There are a lot of people out there that pay a lot of money to workout. The workout industry is seemingly making hand over fist. In every town there is a 24 hour fitness or a Gold’s Gym or a Stan Bennetts or whatever gym name you can think of. There are places for yoga and for meditation. There is even places just for women like Curves. In all these places, you have to pay money to join and you have to pay a monthly fee. This adds up.
On top of this, many others have gyms at home, most notably the Bowflex or Soloflex that will turn your spare tire into a wash board stomach. There are videos to help you workout and most infomercials out there involve some new device to get you into shape and they have some washed up athlete or actor/actress telling you that this machine changed their lives.

In each of these instances money has to be spent in order for you to workout and feel great. Very rarely will you get paid to workout unless you are a professional athlete or something. I think I have figured out what the something is. That something is the Storekeeper. If you are a Storekeeper or if you do physical labor for your job, then you in essence should be grateful because you get two for the price of one. You get paid to do a job which feeds your family and you in essence get a paid gym membership.

Think of it as the Worlds Strongest Man, but for average Joes. For instance, when I “workout” at work, I’m not lifting 40lb barbells or benchpressing with weights. When I work out at work, I am moving 40lb boxes of paper from one side of the building to the next. Generally, when that season of work rolls around for me, I move 3 pallets a day until it is finished. We generally order 9-12 pallets a year and each pallet has 40 boxes of paper on it. So 3 pallets is 120 boxes at 40lb’s a piece. That is not a bad workout.

Secondly, each day I have the opportunity to carry large Arrowhead water bottles to various spots around the office. I generally move 3-5 bottles a day every day. This also is a great workout. It is because of this lifting that one can say to someone else. “Did you get your tickets?” “to what?” “To the gunshow.” There is also the opportunity to lift up pieces of modular furniture every time you adjust someone’s workstation or build an office.

Now this is just what the Storekeeper does during his paid workout. Others get a much more intense workout then that. They might be hammering all day or lifting large pieces of plywood around. Others might be delivering large bottles of water to various places. Still other might be shoveling or digging post holes all day. As you can see, one of the perks to these jobs is that you essentially kill two birds with one stone(I don’t do that literally by the way). You get paid to do a job and it in turn gives you a workout.

So if you are in a job like this or if there are times that you are getting paid to do some hard labor, remember that you are getting a paid workout. I bet you never thought of it that way. I didn’t either until I started working at my job as The Storekeeper.

A New Game

I know that I have said this many times before, but I really enjoy sports. I love playing them. I love watching them and I especially enjoy playing fantasy sports. My 3 favorite happen to be baseball, football, and basketball and as such those are the three fantasy sports that I play. I enjoy playing fantasy baseball the best even though it is by far the most involved.

Recently though, Christine and I went over to our friends, the Writebols’ to watch a Nascar race. In all honesty, the race is and was pretty boring except for the start, finish and if there are any crashes. The Writebols’ play in a fantasy league for Nascar with Stephanie’s Father and they encouraged Christine and I to join. I didn’t want to because I am not a big fan of auto racing, mostly because I don’t know anything about cars. I wasn’t going to play until my wife decided that she wanted to. My wife is a pretty big fan of sports, but has been anti-fantasy sports for some time. I don’t exactly know what made her do Nascar, but any chance I can get to play and beat her, I’m in.

Which brings us to yesterday. Yesterday was the Super Bowl of Nascar, the Daytona 500. It is the first race of the Nascar season and it is the most prestigious by far. Everyone wants to win Daytona. It is like winning the Masters in golf or Wimbledon in tennis. Again, the wife and I went over to the Writebols’ to watch Daytona, this time with a vested interest. The league that we are in is with the Writebols’, Steph’s Dad, Christine’s Dad, and myself. The fantasy aspect works this way. Each person has 100 points to use on 5 drivers. If you spend more than that, you can’t play. This means that feasibly we all could have the same driver. Each driver earns points for you depending on what place they finish in the race.

My 5 drivers were Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Ricky Rudd, Casey Mears, and Kyle Busch. I know nothing about Nascar so I had no idea if these picks were solid or not. I did some research, but I am a fantasy novice when it comes to this. As the race began, I was quite nervous and I was actually excited only because I want to beat my wife and Father in law at Fantasy Nascar. Daytona is a 500 mile race, which is 200 laps around the track at Daytona International Speedway. It actually was a pretty cool race with a lot of crashes. In the end, I had 3 guys finish and 2 were knocked out as a result of wrecks. As far as the points go, I am currently in second place, about 20 points behind SJ’s father.

I have to tell you that Fantasy sports makes you care about sports that you don’t even particularly like. I mean if there was fantasy chess, I would probably play it. There is just something about feeling like you have some ownership in something even when you don’t. I’m not sure what the Nascar season holds, but I know one thing, I hope to win in this Fantasy sport and I hope to win with the help of my partner Brad Carlson in Fantasy baseball for the 4th time in 7 years(but that’s for another post).

Top Ten Fridays: Park Edition

Today’s list is of the top ten most visited National Parks annually. I am sad to have to say that I have never been to Yosemite, but from what everyone tells, it is a must. I hope that I get the opportunity to be able to visit it sometime in the near future. Also, I thought that considering the fact that I am taking Biblical Greek, it would only be fitting to have the blog tile be in Greek. Pretty cool huh!

Rank Name Location Visitors

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tenn. 9,192,477

2. Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. 4,401,522

3. Yosemite National Park, Calif. 3,304,144

4. Olympic National Park, Wash. 3,142,774

5. Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.-Mont.-Idaho 2,835,651

6. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo. 2,798,368

7. Zion National Park, Utah 2,586,665

8. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio 2,533,827

9. Grand Teton National Park, Wyo. 2,463,442

10. Acadia National Park, Maine 2,051,484