Memorial Day Numero Dos

Well another successful Memorial Day party at WJCC. Family and friends gathered around our place and enjoyed some great food & fun. Among those folks was my mother who brought lot of chicken that Mikey loves to eat and eat it he did. Even took a bag home for later.

We also had some hot dogs, burgers, sausages, veggies, calico beans (I hope I spelled it right), potato salad, cupcakes, and many many more. The folks ate well and we a little later sat to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in preparation for Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (going to see on Tuesday).

After some folk had left, a few of us chilled and had some Wii time. Sin and Mikey especially enjoyed the games while Lindy and me crashed on the couches (Not together).

That night Jen, Sin & I went to pay Lisa & John a visit at the hospital and as normal Lisa was in great spirits. We talked and spent some time looking at some funny pictures with captions on a site that I can remember the name yet. It was great. We hung our for a couples hours and then headed home to retire. I know I have said this before, but we love you Lisa & John. I love all of my DFW homies. Stay up G's.

Later......................

Preparation On Happy Day

Working hard cleaning like mad men. We are cleaning the entire place to be ready for the brief visit of our brother-in-law on Saturday for a pit stop on his way to El Paso. We got a great deal of work done, but still have a lot more to do.

It is our anniversary, but don't have the financial means to really celebrate. That's fine because we have each other. We are very happy and so in love it can make you sick, but don't. 7 years it has been in our marriage and still in it. For all of you in strong relationships, stick it out and you will realize how much stronger you can become.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall. I know it's very cheesy, but it is so true in marriage. Now back to work in preparation of Memorial Day.

We love you Lisa & John!!!!!

Later...................

Well Damn

Man. I swear damn it all!!!!

Lisa, a friend we met through a friend, who we met through a friend has been in the hospital for a few weeks now and now has been diagnosed with cancer. She will be going through therapy starting tomorrow and it just turns into a wait and see game.

"This is just not fair", I said. I sit on the side of my bed and all of a sudden I start crying. Literally crying. This hits me like she was the closest relative I have, yet I have only known her a little under year. "Why is it hitting me like this?", I asked my wife. She says that Lisa is just one of those infectious people. It just doesn't matter how long you know her. So, I guess once she connects with you or even just speak to you, she got ya. Right at the heart I guess.

I don't know I guess I'm feeling very selfish right now, but I need to get that out and start to show more support to her and John. I just can't imagine what he is feeling right now. My thoughts a shifted to him and to one other person...............my wife.

I don't know how John feels now, but I can relate to the feeling of just not wanting your spouse to leave.

BUT DAMN IT SHE'S NOT LEAVING and neither is Lisa.

Please help me pray for Lisa & John. Even for what some folks might say is the impossible.

Too young, too young. Stay up & stay strong you two. We are still with you.

Unusual Accident

We I was on my way to Tyler for work and about 8 miles before my exit traffic just came to a near stop. Luckily there was another exit about a mile ahead to Tyler so I immediately took it (via the emergency lane. Hey it was an emergency.

Finally made it to work and lost no time. Others filed in about five t o15 minutes later all wondering about what happened. The boss man mad eit at 10pm and later informed us in a meeting that what he leardned about the accident is that a semi flipped over and someone got shot. "What?!?!", came over our faces. He said that by the time he reached the jam caused by the accident it was 5 miles before the detour exit I took and everyone was forced to take the exit.

Luckily by the time we head back to Dallas, the highway was clear and all we had to deal with were the thunderstorms.

We later have to go to Longview, but we don't know when. Oh well.

Opportunities

Well we had gotten word last week that a new project team is going to be created here in the DFW which opens up doors for a lot of us. I have been debating on what I want to do and I finally decided after talking to several people that I will apply for a position.

I turned in my application yesterday and now I am scared as hell just waiting to see what will happen. My biggest concern is who will be the manager of this new team and how will they be compared to my current manager. I should compare, but I am so use to my current manager that change can be very tough, but we will see.

I haven't heard anything new for my boss is off of work for the next couple days so we will see on Monday what will happen. Hope for the best.

Updates later...........

Pray For Jue

Scary times for Lisa Jue Bishop as she is contained in the hospital with a blood clot in her lungs. She seems like it's not a big deal, but it is to me at least. I just hope nothing worse happens to her.

We had a visit with her on Tuesday and it was a fun visit. Listening to her hellish time in the hospital especially about the clear & full liquid diet. She is now finally back on full food, but for how long? We also shared more stories including a hilarious road rage story from John and Lisa about a guy who decides to drive along side of their car (after being passed up) and attempt to spit at their car. The look Lisa showed to this guy was great. That was probably my favorite store of the night.

I left at 9 to get to work and the rest of them stayed until 10. Good visit. I pray for things to improve for Lisa & John and hopefully they can make it to the Memorial Day party. More updates later.

Pray for them.

Wii Time

Well I just slept for a couple more hours on Friday until my lady came home. We decided to just go out and eat some Chinese (Not The People, Heh).

BTW we were going to see The Last Mimzy, but decided to postpone it because one of our friends who wanted to see it was celebrating a birthday. Later we learned that she was in the hospital because they found a blood clot in her lungs. Very scary. I hope she ends up being fine. She states in a post on our groups page that she will reschedule The Last Mimzy when she is out. Hey Lisa, don't worry about The Last Mimzy take care of yourself and we will see you when we see you.

Back to Chinese we were chowing down and my wife noticed that we were in a section of the restaurant where there were mostly interracial couples. Kind of funny given what me and Oscar experienced in Texarkana. We talked a lot about our life and the opportunities being presented to us. We are pretty nervous about the new project team. Hopefully I will get something either PTL or LFT.

Later we went to Best Buy to find the job postings for the new project team and also decided to make purchases for something else: The Nintendo Wii. Heather's boyfriend wants to sell his Wii to us and so he decided to let us do a trial run of the system and determined if we want to buy it from him. Well last night we pretty much made out decision to buy it because we purchased Wii Remote Covers & a new game, Wii Play, that comes with an additional Wii Remote Control (Nice).

We went home and played some more Wii (Hence the Wii Time). Played the Wii Play game which was a lot of fun, created some Miis for Stephen, Naomi & Jay Lynne, and got as far as we could on Super Paper Mario. Man do they talk a lot on that game. More than any other RPG or adventure game I've played.

Looking forward to more Wii Time with my lady. I am very excited that she is excited about this system. Definitely will be playing this on Memorial Day.

Later...............

Day 3 - Texarkana

We (Oscar & I) arrive in Texarkana hungry as hell and had a couple hours to spare so we decided to eat at an actual sit down place. Olive Garden (The OG) was the choice to chow. When we entered I noticed a weird look from one of the hostesses and then got a bad vibe (haven't gotten those in a long while, but I trust them). One whispered something to the other and then took us to our table...............in the back..............with other minorities.........near the kitchen. We weren't upset, but found it pretty funny. Our dining experience was alright though.

We later went to the store where we noticed the rest of the team had started working. Well Damn!!!! Let's get started. This scope was much smaller than the previous stores so it didn't take us long. In fact, we finished at 12:30am. I guess it's save to say we started the reset at each of the three stores at 9:30pm.

While we were working I was surprised to see something. You remember the video from Heuy (Pop, Lock & Drop It) we saw in Shreveport, right? Well the song started playing on the radio and Joshua decided to do the dance moves from the video. OMG. I just had to walk away and keep working, but that image will be stuck I my head for a while.

Well like I said before we finished at 12:30am and decided to head straight home (3 hour drive back to DFW). We knew it was going to be a rough ride given there is nothing between Texarkana and Dallas so Oscar decided to play some hard alternative rock featuring Korn. Great band, but one thing caught us off guard. I don't know if it was Korn or what, but a song came on where they were pretty much singing nursery rhymes back and forth. Pretty entertaining. Finally made it to DFW and I had some spaghetti before crashing for a couple hours.

It's good to be home.............

Day 2 - Shreveport

After crashing for several hours we left beautiful Longview for a much more appealing city.................Shreveport, Louisiana.........NOT!!!! I don't know Shreveport doesn't seem that bad, but it's not attractive. They only big thing I hear about this city are the casinos, which I haven't been to yet. Maybe if we do the Bossier City New Store Opening (NSO) (Don't know when) I will check one out.

We checked in at the Jameson Inn, which was okay, but they didn't have a business center. Damn it all!!!! I really need a notebook computer. Please send us more money or help us get rid of our debt. I should start a Wil Notebook Fund. Anyways, Oscar and I decided to grab some dinner and went to Pizza Hut. I love the Hut. (Tangent) I use to work there for a couple of years as a manager, which also got me to my current form. I should have known better. Live and Learn (End Tangent). I had my favorite, Supreme Specialty, on their new hand-tossed crust. Like Borat I'd say, very nice.

Later we went to the Shreveport store and began work when I shocked my co-workers on my knowledge of Def Leppard. "Oh yeah", I said, "I grew up on them along with a few other rock bands." I like them. Never learned their history though. Don't really need to. Just enjoy their music.

Working for a while I decided to take a short break and went for a drink out of the vending machine where I was greeted by a new product, Barq's Red Cream Soda. Saweet!!!!!! I haven't had red cream soda for years. Pretty much my favorite soda of all time, followed by Pepsi and Mountain Dew Code Red. So I purchased one and prayed not to be disappointed and I wasn't. It is very good. Try it some time.

The rest of the night went well. We left at 2:30am. Not sleepy yet, me and my roommate (Josh) watched some TV when we ran into an interesting video on MTV, "Pop, Lock & Drop It" from a rapper named Huey. I was one of those things you just can't turn away from for a while, a train wreck as you will. Another hip shaker I'd say. We then saw a new video from Ciara called "Umbrella" where she was wearing a wife beater (I hate that name) and was doing some serious dancing with other tough looking ladies. Not quite a train wreck, but I was good.

A weird night, but we finally went to sleep. Next stop..............Texarkana, TX.

Day 1 - Longview

If you haven't been to Longview, TX............Don't Go unless you have to. We had to. Staying at the same Fairfield Inn that the last small crew went to in November 2006. Oscar stated that he was getting bad looks from the front desk folks the last time, but the lady we were checked in by was very nice.

We chilled for a bit and then went to the store where we were greeted by our boss man, Jon, who gave us per diem (I love per diem) and some great news................NO MIDLAND!!!!!!

That's right we are not going to Midland, TX this summer to do the retched remodel for 6 weeks. Sweetums. Jon is one persuasive guy when he wants to be. Convinced his boss to remove us from that assignment. He also has some other good news on opportunity. Dallas, TX is getting another project team. Chance for us to move forward in our careers. No word on who the new Field Deployment Manager (FDM) will be. There are a couple I might work for and a couple that I don't.

I am planning on applying for Lead Functionality Technician (LFT), which if successful gets me closer to my goal of Retail Functionality Trainer (RFT). It was recently recommended to me that I should go for Project Team Lead (PTL), which took me by surprise. I never thought someone would think I would pull that job off, but some do. I'll think about it, but not for too long for the team must be built now.

Pray for me. More to come later...........

Adventures In East Texas

Well we (Project Team) are off to do small resets at three stores in East Texas: Longview, Shreveport & Texarkana. I am riding with one of my co-workers, Oscar in his Chevy Silverado with 24 inch dubs (rims). They look nice, but too much for me. He also has a sub woofer system in his back car with 2 15 inch Kicker subs and 2 Alpine amps. He was nice enough though to keep the bass down for me. My ears are not like they use to be.

We are traveling with a small crew chosen by our Team Lead Aaron. Kind of makes me feel good to be chosen. It's kind of good that this will be only for 3 days and then no more travel until either June or July. Midland...........Ugh.

More to come later.........

New title and location

My Entertainment Junkie blog has changed names to Entertainophile. Pretty much the same as a junkie, but someone already had that title.

Here is the link: http://entertainophile.blogspot.com/

I try to update as much a possible. Check it out.

By The Power Of Greyskull

3 Stars


From The Makers Of Shaun Of The Dead


Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest cop London has to offer, with an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He's so good, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel's superiors send him to a place where his talents won't be quite so embarrassing -- the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford.

Hilarious! I don't like to set expectations on a film, but this one was what I expected. Simon Pegg & Nick Frost team back up now as cops wanting to make a difference in a small town outside of London. I agree with a co-worker of mine in that the best part is definately towards the end.

Timothy Dalton was also pretty entertaining in this film. If you don't remember him, he was James Bond between Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. He unfortunately only did 2 Bond films, The Living Daylights & Licence To Kill. Other than that he was a pretty broad actor with no limits starring in films like Jane Eyre, Lion In Winter, Flash Gordon, Beautician and The Beast, Rocketeer, Hildalgo & even Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Like I said no limits.

Other actors include Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Art School Confidential & Narnia) & Edward Woodward (Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Christmas Carol & The Wicker Man ('74)).

I do highly recommend seeing this film especially if you even just liked Shaun Of The Dead. Owner.

By The Power Of Greyskull

3 Stars


From The Makers Of Shaun Of The Dead


Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest cop London has to offer, with an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He's so good, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel's superiors send him to a place where his talents won't be quite so embarrassing -- the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford.

Hilarious! I don't like to set expectations on a film, but this one was what I expected. Simon Pegg & Nick Frost team back up now as cops wanting to make a difference in a small town outside of London. I agree with a co-worker of mine in that the best part is definately towards the end.

Timothy Dalton was also pretty entertaining in this film. If you don't remember him, he was James Bond between Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. He unfortunately only did 2 Bond films, The Living Daylights & Licence To Kill. Other than that he was a pretty broad actor with no limits starring in films like Jane Eyre, Lion In Winter, Flash Gordon, Beautician and The Beast, Rocketeer, Hildalgo & even Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Like I said no limits.

Other actors include Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Art School Confidential & Narnia) & Edward Woodward (Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Christmas Carol & The Wicker Man ('74)).

I do highly recommend seeing this film especially if you even just liked Shaun Of The Dead. Owner.

By The Power Of Greyskull

3 Stars


From The Makers Of Shaun Of The Dead


Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest cop London has to offer, with an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He's so good, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel's superiors send him to a place where his talents won't be quite so embarrassing -- the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford.

Hilarious! I don't like to set expectations on a film, but this one was what I expected. Simon Pegg & Nick Frost team back up now as cops wanting to make a difference in a small town outside of London. I agree with a co-worker of mine in that the best part is definately towards the end.

Timothy Dalton was also pretty entertaining in this film. If you don't remember him, he was James Bond between Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. He unfortunately only did 2 Bond films, The Living Daylights & Licence To Kill. Other than that he was a pretty broad actor with no limits starring in films like Jane Eyre, Lion In Winter, Flash Gordon, Beautician and The Beast, Rocketeer, Hildalgo & even Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Like I said no limits.

Other actors include Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Art School Confidential & Narnia) & Edward Woodward (Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Christmas Carol & The Wicker Man ('74)).

I do highly recommend seeing this film especially if you even just liked Shaun Of The Dead. Owner.

Blah

Well heading to work tonight and was feeling like crap, but I felt I would convince myself that I would muscle through it. The rain storm wasn't helping much either. I get there and I was doing okay, but people notice I wasn't my usual self.

I looked up some stuff on the computer then I rested my head until the first meeting was called. All of a sudden I hear, "Wil?". I replied "yes". "What's up" (What's wrong in the language of Jon). I told him, which was headache, dizzy spells & nausea and he immediately told me to go home. Now we were already 2 people down due to the storm and he was willing to still send me home. I check to see if he was sure and he said to just go home.

Later overnight I look at my email to see that a recap was already sent out by Jon at 1:45am (Recaps are what we send to the store to inform them what we accomplished during our visit). I was like damn. I knew it was going to be a short night, but not that short. Oh well, they really didn't need me. Saweet. I'm still trying to bare through this crap, but it is very irritating.

Pray for me.

Future Changes

2 Stars

Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a secret which is a gift and a curse which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings."

I would say this film was a cross from Matrix, Momento & Final Destination. People would complain about Cage's choice in movies. Cage always have an unusual choice in movies. Just like Depp or Travolta. I don't know.

The majority vote on this film was that it sucked. Mostly because of the ending. Now if folks were paying attention to the preview(s) of this film they would have heard them say that you wouldn't believe the ending. That prepared me for anything. People are so stuck in the traditional ways of movies that they are no longer open to different things, but that does stop the industry because even though folks complain they still see the films.

I thought the flick was okay. Cage was his standard self with his serious, out-of-it way with a touch of dry comedy. The only thing that threw me was Julianne Moore. She plays this bad ass Federal Agent who just don't take any crap from anyone. It was shocking yet a bit impressive. She kind of pulls it off.

I am a little bit worried about Jessica Biel for she is getting this reputation of being this movie slut or whore. This is thanks to films like Summer Catch, Texas Chainsaw, Stealth, The Illusionist, and now Next. We will see how her future films will be. Hopefully people will view her as more of a well rounded actress.

I would say to check it out when you like. Maybe not worth full price.

Future Changes

2 Stars

Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a secret which is a gift and a curse which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings."

I would say this film was a cross from Matrix, Momento & Final Destination. People would complain about Cage's choice in movies. Cage always have an unusual choice in movies. Just like Depp or Travolta. I don't know.

The majority vote on this film was that it sucked. Mostly because of the ending. Now if folks were paying attention to the preview(s) of this film they would have heard them say that you wouldn't believe the ending. That prepared me for anything. People are so stuck in the traditional ways of movies that they are no longer open to different things, but that does stop the industry because even though folks complain they still see the films.

I thought the flick was okay. Cage was his standard self with his serious, out-of-it way with a touch of dry comedy. The only thing that threw me was Julianne Moore. She plays this bad ass Federal Agent who just don't take any crap from anyone. It was shocking yet a bit impressive. She kind of pulls it off.

I am a little bit worried about Jessica Biel for she is getting this reputation of being this movie slut or whore. This is thanks to films like Summer Catch, Texas Chainsaw, Stealth, The Illusionist, and now Next. We will see how her future films will be. Hopefully people will view her as more of a well rounded actress.

I would say to check it out when you like. Maybe not worth full price.

Future Changes

2 Stars

Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a secret which is a gift and a curse which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings."

I would say this film was a cross from Matrix, Momento & Final Destination. People would complain about Cage's choice in movies. Cage always have an unusual choice in movies. Just like Depp or Travolta. I don't know.

The majority vote on this film was that it sucked. Mostly because of the ending. Now if folks were paying attention to the preview(s) of this film they would have heard them say that you wouldn't believe the ending. That prepared me for anything. People are so stuck in the traditional ways of movies that they are no longer open to different things, but that does stop the industry because even though folks complain they still see the films.

I thought the flick was okay. Cage was his standard self with his serious, out-of-it way with a touch of dry comedy. The only thing that threw me was Julianne Moore. She plays this bad ass Federal Agent who just don't take any crap from anyone. It was shocking yet a bit impressive. She kind of pulls it off.

I am a little bit worried about Jessica Biel for she is getting this reputation of being this movie slut or whore. This is thanks to films like Summer Catch, Texas Chainsaw, Stealth, The Illusionist, and now Next. We will see how her future films will be. Hopefully people will view her as more of a well rounded actress.

I would say to check it out when you like. Maybe not worth full price.