Woman of Great Inspiration

I still think she's one of the greatest ladies that ever lived. Born Mary Kathlyn Wagner, however decided to use Mary Kay instead. She decided to kick some serious butt after she was passed over for a promotion by a man even though she could out sell him in a heartbeat. She launched Mary Kay cosmetics and has been an inspiration to woman all over the world ever since.

Wikipedia says "Ash was widely respected, if not always understood, for her unconventional approach to business. She considered the Golden Rule the founding principle of Mary Kay Cosmetics, and the company's marketing plan was designed to allow women to advance by helping others to succeed. Unfailingly supportive and enthusiastic, she advocated "praising people to success," and her slogan "God first, family second, career third" expressed her insistence that the women in her company keep their lives in balance."

I hope to get to see her pink mansion in Dallas some day soon. If I could affect 1/1 millionth of the folks that she has, I could say my life was complete.

SuperCross Houston

Last night we went to the SuperCross at the Reliant Stadium. This was a blast. Only 1 of the 5 of us had ever been to one before. We had really great seats too...so good in fact that they had been sold twice apparently. (We didn't move...that's all I'll say.) I REALLY want a dirt bike now, or a dual sport bike. This looks like it would be so much fun.

Once we saw a few of the big boys round the track a number of times, they brought out the big guns...well...maybe just the crowd pleasers... 8 year olds on 60s or 80s. Oh, it was a riot. Easily 1/8 the speed of the other folks...these are their Mini Me's *insert pinky in mouth* Mwuhahaha! Check out the video, and pay attention to the first 45 seconds where the big dog pile happens at the bottom of the screen.

Pink is the new Green

I knew Mary Kay was a phenomenal woman, this just reinforces what I already knew. Anyone that wants to be a part of such an awesome organization, just let me know. MKBeautiful.com

Ever have a Monday like this?

Actually I'm totally kidding, I didn't have all of those on a single Monday. Our cleaning folks apparently don't take cans to recycling so I started storing them up on my desk to recycle them later. It just looks really funny to have so many cans of this stuff on my desk. Folks ask me often if I work for RedBull...I don't but I should. My can count is up to 5 now, 2 large, 3 small. Have you seen the ginormous size? It scared me.

Is this not the cutest thing?

I came home to be greeted by this absolutely adorable box of chocolates. Have you ever seen something so cute? The zipper is even fully functional. Awww, "You Rock My World" too :)

Constellation

Constellation

You gotta watch the video. It's pretty sweet. 8.5 minutes of NASA talk. I can't wait to see what the future holds for space flight.

Where I Work...

I thought I worked for an engineering company...but based on the title above, it seems it's a little sketchy what we do :) I don't know if it seems funny to you too, but I had to vacate the area I was laughing so hard at this title page on a co-worker's desk. And yes, this is for real. I've been told that there are even better ones than that. I will have to upload those as soon as I get my hands on them.

HA HA HA... Butt Welding... and this is for real!

Have You "Had It Your Way"?

Well, I have, so to speak. So my curiosity got the best of me today. It's been a few days since I first saw the Ketchup & Fries flavored BK Chips but every day I have continued to wonder WTF? So today I was able to muster up the guts, change, and support I needed to purchase these crazy creations from our vending machine.

Well, here they are for a full $0.50. I am a little nervous at this moment, but I press on. The guys that are sitting behind me agreed that if I were to buy these, they too would be willing to try them. I tore in to the bag and the guys poured some out on the desk to examine the evidence. And I must not fail to mention, these seriously smell like a pile of fries with ketchup smeared ALL over them.
Here they are on the notebook on the desk. They don't look so bad from a distance. (Sidenote: the guys said that only a woman would have a camera in their bag with them at all times) And let me stop to say that in normal terms, I don't like Ketchup on my fries, I prefer mustard, but, I planned on keeping an open mind about this. I was simply wanting to see if they truly did taste like Fries with Ketchup. I wasn't really looking to find a new snack for myself as I really can't stand Ketchup.

The verdict was in. I asked a total of 14 folks to try these (well 15 but one refused for diet purposes) and of the 14 people 2 (guys) would buy these for themselves. 1 different person would buy them for their kids as they felt that young ones would totally dig these though he didn't. Then there was the rest of us, the other 11 and we wouldn't buy them as they are 1. too weird and 2. if we were going to waste the carbs we'd just go to Burger King and have the real thing. I guess the final stat on these is that no female tester would purchase them again.

Sorry, BK, I think this shouldn't be in adult only vending machines. I think this is totally a product for kids. I can say this was one of the better $0.50 that I spent as I did have a great time offering them to others and then watching their reactions. Sadly enough, I still had 1/2 bag left at the end of my test (and every body knows these tiny bags have hardly anything in them).

Trip to DomaTex

On Saturday, Jess and I went out to DomaTex to visit our friend Danny. We wanted to see his place of business and get the grand tour. The facility is amazing. We were amazed at the huge machinery and the size of the facility. There is so much going on and these guys work so fast. We had a great time touring the place and even got a cool coffee mug.

http://domatex.net/

Butt Darts (This is for real)

During the Superbowl (can I say that, can I call it the Superbowl?) I was introduced to a new-to-me game called Butt Darts. Yes, you read correctly, I said Butt Darts. I would like to say that the following video is rather graphic............. but that would be so far from the truth. We are all fully clothed, and yes, it's even work safe :).

The object of Butt Darts is to get the quarter (that is nicely tucked in between your butt cheeks) into the jar or shot glass on the ground by walking like a penquin over to the container and freeing the quarter from your tightly squeezed butt cheeks.

I thoroughly sucked at this game, but others at the party were pros. Some folks made it just about every time. It was a fun game to learn, and I'm sure I'll be practicing in the privacy of my own home so I can master this game.

Who Knew?

I was waiting for my coffee to brew at work in the kitchen and curiosity got the best of me as to what was in the vending machine. Did you know Burger King has Ketchup and Fries flavored potato snacks that you can "Have Your Way"? Who Knew. It sounds really weird and kinda gross but I can't knock it till I try it. So I guess I won't be knocking it.

Here are 2 links to more info on these crazy things:

Ketchup&Fries
VendingMachineReview -- This one is pretty funny

I can't say as I plan on trying these things. If I do, I'll be sure to report back. If you do, please please please tell me what you think of them!!!

View from the Back Seat

I decided today's ride would be from the backseat. I wanted to have some fun with videos so I road in the backseat.

This video was shot just after the helmet cam battery died and I didn't want to change out the battery while booking it down the road so I started video'ing with just the camcorder. It's a little crazy wobbly, but I thought it was fun... wave to the camera!

On our way to Yankee Tavern in Carlos TX we stopped by the Confederate Memorial Plaza. I cannot remember who this is, but I got a snapshot of us together.

This is the view as we arrived at Yankee Tavern. It was a really nice day today so it seems every bike within a 100 miles was at the Tavern. Bikes came and went the entire time we were there. This really felt like a mini ROT testosterone fest.

As we were leaving Yankee's Tavern, Danny was blasting some crazy music, Rachel motioned to turn it down, so Danny turned it up. :) HA! Jess and Danny have CB Radios and headsets so they can communicate with each other on the road. Rachel has an iPod she's listening to and I have the silence in my head as I use fancy earplugs to block all the noise.

In front is Bob on his V-Strom, then Danny and Rachel on the Venture, then Jess and me on her Venture (of course we're not in the picture cause I'm taking it).

Danny and Rachel at our last gas-up.

Danny and Rachel right before we got home.

A Windy Ride

It's so awesome to be out on the bike on a nice day hanging with a cool friend. Can life get any better than that? Why yes it can. We had bar-b-que sandwiches to die for, I think Amy had a heart attack, as it was called, and MAN were the sandwiches delicious. This place was awesome and I hate that I can't remember the name. (Check out a tiny BBQ place between 90 and 5th in Brookshire TX.) We both did the prairie dog motion as we passed by with the fantastic smell that wafting from this place. So we took an immediate right and circled the block to go check it out and it was well worth it. The seating was all out in the elements, but that was really cool. They were very nice folks and I hope to go back again soon.

Having Fridays off rules the world cause it allows me to get in some riding like this. We went south down 59 to 90 to 359 (which is an awesome road) up to 1093 to Fulshear to Simonton (detoured for a minute to see that town) to 1489 to 90 into Brookshire. Grabbed the sandwiches in Brookshire then headed back up 359 thru Monaville to Pine Island (where we passed a cool looking biker bar so we'll have to go back and check it out and somewhere in the mix passed Hardtimes BBQ so we'll have to make a trip there too) on to 290 for a few minutes where we about got blown off our bikes by the wind to Magnolia than on to 249 into Tomball. Then we headed back in to town to the Heights to take a rest and hang out at Onion Creek on 6th street. I love that place.

What a fantastic day followed by a fantastic evening of Country and Western dancing with friends. We were learning to 2 step. I suck at it but had a blast.

Social Retardism

Just when I thought I had left the location with the most amount of social retards... I'm reminded that it's not necessarily the number of social retards at your location, it's the severity of the social retardism as well.

There's a lady here at work that goes to such drastic measures to keep from having to communicate. I walked into the kitchen area here, and she was waiting at the microwave facing toward me. I was in the kitchen for just a few minutes, however, she managed to turn completely around, put her back to me, and stare at a wall instead of having to potentially say "good morning". Yes, just a simple good morning and she couldn't do it.

I like to call this Social Retardism. And she seems to have a severe case of it.

I sure hope I don't suffer from Social Retardism. I'll say "hi" and "hello" with the best of them, I don't care if it's the Pres, VP, the janitor, or the security guard. I want folks to remember me. I want folks to show me the same kind of respect that I show them. At the end of my career here, folks will only have one thing to say about me, and that's that I was kind and friendly to everyone equally.

I will have to do a little more reconnaissance work regarding this thing I call social retardism. I hope that my findings in this study will help some of those that suffer from it, figure out a way to get past it. I plan to develop my theory of what all encompasses this thing I call Social Retardism in the next few weeks or months.

One thing I can quickly spout out as another example of what can be considered social retardism, is the person in the crowd at the table that no matter what the conversation is at hand, they will continually throw in things that are completely random and unrelated. Generally these things point back to them directly. I guess 1-upping can be considered a level of social retardism. The person that is 1-upping cannot determine for themselves that it is inappropriate to tell a 1-up story at that point in time.

A definition I like from Urban Dictionary for retard is "An offensive term used to refer to someone acting in an irritating or generally stupid way." I see a social retard as someone that 's irritating and generally acts in stupid ways. Social retardism is spawned from there being a social norm and then there are these folks that cannot function within that socially acceptable norm.

I don't want everyone to fit in a perfect mold, of course not. Then life would be boring. I would like for folks to consider that they have a case of social retardism and change their path in life by learning to communicate.

Okay, stepping off the soapbox for a bit to go back to work.

Thank goodness the 4th quarter changed

The highlighted square was the offending winner for 2 of the 4 quarters...and the pot was $50 a quarter. Was fun that the highlighted square was mine...but man, I would have needed a bodyguard to get out of the house if the 4th quarter score didn't change :)

An Impromptu Ride

2 of us did an impromptu ride today. It was chilly, but it was really pleasant. We ended up doing a bit of the route from the beginning of the year, mixed with a bit of a change. I'm wearing the video camera. This video was taped at the end of the ride so we were messing around a bit having a good time on hwy 90. I really need to learn how to edit these videos to add music and such to them.