BBQ Kick Off 2017 | Casa de Smith

I would like to start by thanking Lisa and Aaron for inviting me to their BBQ.  I had a great time and I love your new home.  I will have to admit that I was falling in love with Una and wanted to cuddle with her, but she cannot be on the couch and I cannot sit on the floor.   It's all good.  She is a beautiful pit terrier (I hope I spelled that right).  I look forward to your next event and hope I CCNA make it.

Now on to everyone else.   Budnek, it was awesome to see you after so, so long.   It looks like you were doing well and I was happy to see that.  Just want you, Burris and the rest of the FTs I have work with that my decision to pursue Network Support was in part because you all.

Brandon, great to see you again.  Enjoyed the stories especially in your unique trip home.  I really enjoyed seeing and talking to you and Chris A.

As for Chris Aimes, thank you for standing there and listening to me yap off about whatever tangents I went off into.   It was good to see you again.  You are of the skinny dude and I will admit that I am extremely envious.  Keep up the great work, sir.

Speaking of Chris, Mr. Horn, very happy to see you and your wife, Jennifer (got it from Facebook).   Had a great convo with you and thanks for that.  It is good to see your career is doing well.  I hope it is not too stressful.

Keeping around the horn, Jay!  I was very happy to see you when you arrive.  I was funny that me and your bro was talking about you just before your arrival.  I am glad to see you are still doing well and showing those fools in the world what you are about.  I don't think you realize how proud of you I am.  You are one of my inspirations for me to keep pursuing my degree and starting a hopefully strong career in IT.

I am also glad that I feel that I may have found a geek friend in Sara.  I understand that we may not be of the same Hogwarts house (Slytherin 4 Life!), but I feel we can agree on some fun things in the geek world.  I look forward to visiting your store very soon.  Stay geek!

Moving back to the tokens, Matt!  It was great to see you as well.  Sorry we didn't talk much, but maybe we will get in some next time.  Chris and I was wondering when the other token was coming and later you showed.  Very happy.

Danish was wondering why he wasn't added into this circle.  Sir, you are in this circle.  I think I have talked to you more Saturday night than I have even since the few times I have seen you.  It has been a very long time.  Was fun talking it up with you.  Looking forward to next time.

I haven't forgotten about you Deanna.  I was very happy to see you, too.  I really enjoyed the talk with you and Lisa on the couches.  I enjoyed listening, too.  You and Matt continue to do well and keep up the Twist Cone or Oreo or whatever you would like to call it movement.

My man Sivo!  Always excited to see you my friend and former carpooler.  I had fun talking and joking around with you until you wanted to shock everyone.  Geez dude.  The setting at 40 was enough for me.  I am a serious wuss.  Hey, if there is anything one the musical world you would like to suggest to me, please let me know.  I always would like to check things out.  The same to you Aaron and Budnek.

Johnathan, good to see you again as well.   Talked a lot with you, too and you were hilarious and fun to listen, too.

And of course, Alyssa!  My eyes got big when you arrived.  Was sad that I had to leave not that long after.  I am sorry we haven't got a chance to talk it up, but so many folks wanted you.  You are too popular!  We will hopefully see each other again very soon and then we must make sure we talk.

I am sure I hit everyone.  If I missed someone I am very, very sorry.

Again, thank you Lisa and Aaron for inviting me.  I love you guys and everyone else.   The most love go to Una.  She is just too precious.

Until next time……...

A Centrist View: New Details On The CBO Report | American Health Ca...

A Centrist View: New Details On The CBO Report | American Health Ca...: It is interesting to see how all this turns out.  I guess Ryan and Trump knew that they would not get an outstanding report on this bill, wh...

Jacked Them All! | Team Trivia

So coming back from a major ass kicking from about 8 teams last night, the Tangent returned and decided to try a random name just for the hell of it.  The new name was No Phone Jacks in honor of the new iPhone 7 feature.  

Our quizmaster was very worried because we only had 3 teams there and the rule is to have at least 4 to play otherwise it is cancelled.  We managed to find a fourth team of UTA students who had just finished studying.  Or so we thought.  So it was game on.  

The first half we did pretty well and of course Aged & Confused with as killing it well.   After the halftime question the scores were:

34 - Aged & Confused

24 - No Phone Jacks

17 - Lucky Kermits

14 - Smart Asymptotes

The second half went ok as we hanged in there and stayed around 10 below the leader.  Those scores were:

53 - Aged & Confused 

43 - No Phone Jacks

24 - Lucky Kermits

14 - Smart Asymptotes

So we reached the final question and we had to list 3 of 5 magazines that start with the letter 'P' that were in the top ten magazines in 2015.  We managed to get the three correct and bet enough get to dominate the game.  The final scores were:

58 - No Phone Jacks

47 - Aged & Confused 

34 - Lucky Kermits

14 - Smart Asymptotes 

This match goes to my co-captain, Heather as she ruled hitting most of the questions.  Very outstanding!!

See you all next week. 

First Snapchat, Then XBOX Kinect And Now Amazon Fire | Rant....Kinda

So we are going to watch a show on our Amazon Fire and I had to do a search for the show.  So I hit the microphone and said, "Fear of the Walking Dead".  This is what the screen shows:

I say, "What?!" and my wife just busts out laughing.  She then said that I must annunciate.  Sigh.  So this damn thing could not understand me and thought I said "You're the Walking Dead".   Oh boy.  

She then tried it and it worked.  So is my Amazon Fire racist?   Hmmmm.... First Snapchat, Then XBOX Kinect And Now Amazon Fire.  

Of course, I am kidding, but damn!

Ok.  Enough of that.  

Later......

Noted Conversations | New Sweet Tea

So we are out having our Spades Meetup and while we are waiting on a newly shuffled hand to be dealt this quick conversation happened:

Dianne, My Game Partner, notices a sign on an adjacent table and says, "New Sweet Tea?"

Me: New? Sweet Tea?

Dianne: Yeah, They have New Sweet Tea!

Me: But Wait!  Didn't they have sweet tea before?

Dianne: Yes!!!   I guess they got a clean pot! 

I guess you had to be there.  

Proud Of My Baby

Anyone who is a big fan of Star Wars who has a spouse who is ok with it will understand this story.  

It is a proud day for Wil as he discovers that he has crossed over his wife.  Now this may not be verbatim and I apologize for that, but you should get what I am saying.  

So, I was walking Da Crittaz this morning, but before I did, I send my wife a picture via text.  When Tyson, Violet and I returned, the following happened:

Her: "I am mad at you!"  

Me: Turned the corner and look towards her with a very puzzling face just running through my mind all of the possible things I could have done wrong from waking up to coming back in from the walk.  

Her: "I saw what you sent me and I got it!", with a frumpy look on her face.

Me:  Remembering what I did, I bursted into laughter and said, "YES!!!!"  

You can't imagine the joy that over came me at that moment.  My wife got........A Star Wars Reference Joke.......by just looking at a picture.  

She said that as soon as she saw the picture she did a good chuckle and then said, "Aww Man!!" or something like that as she couldn't believe that she actually got it without thinking about it.  

I am so proud of my baby.  So, so proud.  Throughout 17 years, more and more of my influence is rubbing off on her.  😁👍🏾❤️👏🏾

Here is the infamous pic that made this all possible:

Anyways, that is the story I wanted to share to you all today.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  Probably not, but thanks for reading.  

If any of you have a similar story that you would like to share, please leave in comments below or email me at becauseimwil@gmail.com.  

Until next time.......

Thank You, Mr. President! Thank You. | A Centrist View

As me and my wife sat.  Ignoring all the other tasks that stood before us.  We watched and listened as this man came forward after so many amazing speeches before him and resurrected the young senator from Illinois who spoke at the 2004 DNC convention in Boston, Mass.  

My wife was starting in tears and my heart started to get heavy as President Obama approached the podium and we became focused as he spoke.  I have felt pride in a president before with Clinton and believe it or not Reagan.   I even felt pretty good about Bushes as well.  Because I managed to see how good their hearts are despite the rough times they faced and decisions they tried that went bad.   I knew that all of them truly love this nation.   Oh Carter's my boy, too.  Still is, but I digress.  None matched the pride in how I felt and still feel about Barack Obama.  I'm not going to lie, as a black man I felt an extra sense of pride because, like black folks much older than I, I never felt that I would see a black man, let alone a minority, make it into the White House in my lifetime, but it did happen.   

Did I vote for him?  Yes.  Because I knew in my heart that he was the one.  Especially since McCain and Romney sorely disappointed me by trying so hard to be so, so conservative instead of focusing on the true objective, America.

Anyway, when Obama made it to the White House I started to look beyond the color and start observing him as I did every other president.  When he spoke about all he wanted to get done, I was like whoa, bruh!   I am not sure if you can accomplish all of that, but he would be damned if he didn't try.  

Obama was optimistic and determined, but he was realistic as well.  He knew the hard battle he was going to face in his future, but he fought on.  Now here he is after delivering the same type of amazing speech he brought 12 years ago.  Did he achieve everything?  No!  As he said, "There is still so much I want to do!", but we all knew how hard it was going to be, especially with the congress he was working with.   

So now we we moving on.  Approaching November 2016.  I will say my goodbyes later, but for now we all must remain focused and (I can't believe I am going to say this) do as Senator Ted Cruz suggested, "Vote Your Conscience".  Follow your instincts and your heart.   Do what you feel is right and GET OUT THERE & VOTE!!!!!

If you haven't seen President Obama's speech last night, I have it here below.  Also if you want to see or re-see the other speeches from the DNC Philly 2016 , go to the Democratic National Convention's YouTube Channel.   

Enjoy

#ACentristView

2016 RNC - Day 1

The time has come for the 2016 Republican National Convention.   Taking place in Cleveland, OH, this convention is expected to be pretty interesting and could become chaotic.  The big new before the convention started was that a good amount of people decided to sit this event out including, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, John McCain and the entire Bush family.  There is a rumor that Laura Bush may endorse Hillary Clinton and that would be pretty interesting.  Newt Gingrich kind of said that all of the people that are not attending should just get over it.  Wee doggie!

Anyway, the convention started with chaos as the Never Trump movement tried to call for a Role Call vote and change the committee rules.  It got shut down and a lot of them walked out.  I thought it was a brave and foolish attempt.  If they had succeeded, it would have turned into more chaos with the uncertainty of who would end up becoming the nominee.  I feel that the committee foresaw this and decided to nip it in the bud.  

So on with the show as after a spectacular national anthem was sang, speaker after speaker came up and made their voice heard.  From Scott Baio (Yes, Charles In Charge spoke) to Sen. Joni Earnst, William Robertson to Rudy Guliani.  All of them spoke with some bravado and tried their hardest to beat down the Democrats and win the delegates support.

Below are some videos shared from YouTube channels ABC and other news channels.  29 total.  oh can pick and choose or watch them all.

Enjoy

Oh and there is some bonus stuff you probably already heard about.

#ACentristView 

Paddle Ball Challenge w/ David VanBurkleo | BecauseImWil

Grazin' Chi | Da Crittaz

Hey folks, Violet of Da Crittaz here.  

So daddy has caught me doing one of my favorite things.  I don't know what it is, but I find outside grass so yummy.  I know it should be rare for us dogs to munch on it, but me and my brother do it almost all of the time!  Not very often does my mommy and daddy see us do this, but in the past they have wondered.  Well now it has been made possible for you all to see one my fun habits.  

The video below is not eventful, but it is kind of entertaining.  Enjoy!

#DaCrittaz