| What a Mess |

| Evidence of Global Warming |

| PrestonWorld |

I love Prestonwood baptist Church:

NUFF SAID...

| Growing Up |

Man, it's hard to believe our little girl is already 8 months old...she'll be asking for lunch money before too long.

| Blue Grass? |

So last night was guys night out. The Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were amazing! I will discuss there set in my next post (or will I?). The opening act took the stage and my jaw dropped.

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage is a blue grass group full of talent. Picture this, 3 stage mics shared by 5 players:

• The front woman / mandolin picker
• The banjo strummer
• The up-right bass slapper
• The fiddle fiddler
• The acoustic guitar mistro

Each one would move toward their shared mic for solos/highlights within each song. The really interesting thing about the show was watching this process. Each mic stand was straight up (no boom) which means they were set at a pretty low height (each person would 'hunch' over to sing). Also, the sound was not processed, so each note, vocal harmony, and riff was just hanging out there naked for the hall to hear.

Anywho, I'm not very good a painting pictures. Go check out their live album Ragin' Live. My favorite two tracks are 'Driving Nails' and 'I've Forgotten You'.

I let K listen to a few tracks today and she goes, 'this is country!!!' (it should also be noted that she requests ketchup when we go to Bob's) :P

| Bela Fleck and the Flecktones |

Well, I'm getting pretty stoked. I'm going to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones tonight with a few of my buddies at Bass Hall. I'm excited about this for two reasons.

1. I have never been to Bass Hall (and I hear it's amazing).
2. I have never seen the Flecktones headline a show.

From Wikipedia.org:

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is a primarily instrumental group that draws equally on bluegrass, fusion and jazz band, sometimes dubbed "blue-bop." The band formed in 1988, initially to perform once on the PBS series Lonesome Pine Specials. The Flecktones have toured extensively since then, often playing over 200 concerts per year.

Frontman Béla Fleck plays acoustic and electric banjos, mixing a bluegrass and folk sound into a modern improvisational style. Fleck has received Grammy nominations for jazz, bluegrass, pop, spoken word and country.

Brothers Victor Wooten and Roy "Future Man" Wooten form the rhythm section. Victor Wooten is widely lauded in jazz circles for his sometimes hyperkinetic slap and pop technique on bass guitar. Future Man plays percussion using the one and only Synthaxe Drumitar, a MIDI controller shaped like a guitar.

Membership in The Flecktones is little changed since the band released its eponymous first album.

Harmonica and keyboards player Howard Levy appeared on the Flecktones' first three albums. After Levy's departure, Fleck and the Wooten Brothers regrouped on the album Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the title a reference to the 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest based on Ken Kesey's novel. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the band beginning with the album Left Of Cool.

The band has won several Grammy awards.

Each of the current members of the quartet has released at least one solo album.

| HD is Here |

So we finally got Direct TV HD installed on Saturday...

WOW!!! Texas losing to LSU didn't hurt as bad in HD :D It looks amazing. One of my friends recommended getting an off air antenna to pick up WFAA in HD since it does not come across the dish yet. So I went ahead and splurged.

This leads me to the installation technician.

Could they send a more apathethetic, in a hurry, sloppy, installer? (Hint: The answer is NO)

The guy brought is son (a teenager) with him to help out. After he installed the new dish on the roof do you think he put silicone around the bolts (like the last guy did)? Is that not part of the install now? Do I have to get on a ladder and do it myself?

Then, he gets everything setup and begins his very brief tutorial. We get to WFAA and the off air antenna says, 'searching for signal'...now wait a minute, this is the only reason I purchased the additional antenna.

'Oh yeah,' he says 'you live too far north to get that channel. You can purchase an amplifier from Radio Shack and that should boost the signal enough for you to get it.'

So, Sunday I go outside to begin yard work and there is junk the guy left after he was 'finished' laying all over the yard.

Needless to say, Direct TV will be receiving a phone call from me on my commute home. Their customer service has always been great. But this contractor/installer was horrid.

MAN, STUART SCOTT'S EYE LOOKS REALLY BAD IN HD :P

| Wishful Thinking |

Well, it almost happen. But it didn't. Those Tigers are tough.

Horns Go For Trifecta

Baseball, Football, and Basketball...

Could it be true? When was the last time one university dominated like the University of Texas?

Oh, and what happen there at the end of last night's game to Pittsnogle (WV)?

Google Pages?

Looks like Google is now taking on Wordpress/TypePad. I quickly (as you will see) built this page. I took a total of 10 minutes and that includes 'figuring the GUI out' time. Go take a look a my test page

http://brian.vinson.googlepages.com/home

Landover Baptist Church

What in the world is this?

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/

Satire?

Your vote...Funny, Not Funny

Google Finance

So I go to my Google search bar in Firefox and type in TRI to see if there are any news mentions from being on Mad Money last night.

WHAT?!?!

NO YAHOO FINANCE!?!?!

WHAT'S THIS NEW GOOGLE FINANCE ALL ABOUT!?!?!

It's pretty slick so far. They've even made finance cool by adding a little Flash and AJAX to the site.

Almost Famous...

So, I finally did it. I emailed cramer@cnbc.com about my old company stock.

And someone from the show called me this morning to see if I was interested in being on 'THE LIGHTENING ROUND'. Well, I called from work and waited on the phone for like an hour. Then...I was on with 'Skeedaddy'.

He basically said to hold on to what I have since Tenet and HCA suck.

So go check it out tonight:
Monday:
6:00 PM ET
9:00 PM ET
12:00 AM ET

Mad Money With Jim Cramer

Good Bye Google IG

I've been using Google IG for a pretty good while but am about to switch my 'home page' over. I just found this sweet page Goowy.

Just go check it out.

You will not be disappointed!
BV

Mad Money

I'm hooked on this show. Yeah the constant movement and 'boo-yah's will give you tired head but this Jim Cramer guy appears to know his stuff. I have just finished his book (the one he throws all over the set) and he has some pretty good tips.

Although it's been a rough couple of weeks for the NASDAQ and NYSE, my portfolio is only down 1%. Granted that's not that great but I guess it could be worse...

ARNA has been a home run thus far (up 14% since I bought)

CROX on the other hand has pretty much 'crapped out' to use a gambling term (down 12%)

By the way, the wife hates the show :D

Rollover...

Well, I finally decided to rollover my old 401K to an IRA at Fidelity. After praying about it, seeking Godly counsel, and reading a few books, I have decided to take that retirement money and break it into thirds.

• One third in Vangards Wellington Mutual Fund
• One third will be invested in a 'sector' fund (TBD)
• One third will be split between 5 individual stocks

Last night I placed all of my orders. Let's see how they will do. The five stocks are:

• TRI - Triad Hospitals (already had these from previous employee stock option)
• MXO - MAXTOR CORP NEW
  
• ARNA - ARENA PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
• EDO - EDO CORPORATION NY
• CROX - CROCS INC COM

I have also pledged to do at least 1 hour of home work each week on these to keep up on them.

You Say it's My Birthday?

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. To quote my father-in-law.

'If you keep having them at this pace you will have to change the name your Blog to Thirty Something before you know it.'

Man, it was a great day. I had to work late but what's new?

The day before my parents took Kristie and me to P.F. Chang's (doesn't get much better than that).

Check this out...on top of the sweet new PC speakers my wife got me and my new wireless keyboard and mouse for the office my parents got me, the in-laws and my parents got me every book I had put on a wish list!!!

How awesome is that?

Here's what I have on the ole' bookshelf now:

Tim Sanders - The Likeability Factor : How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams

Steven D. Levitt - Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Tom Peters - Leadership (Tom Peters Essentials)

Tom Peters - Talent (Tom Peters Essentials)

Jim Collins - Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

James Cramer - Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World

Suze Orman - The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke

Donald Miller - Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

C.S. Lewis - The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics

My New Question...

Why?

Would you like fries with that?

How may I help you?

All of these are great questions that I have used throughout my life. Well, I have a new one, and it makes sense.

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?

This stems from a saying we had in the hospital pharmacy where I use to work. You would constantly have people (nurses) asking you to do something. In this fast paced environment, we constantly focused on volume (get it done). The only problem was about 75% of the time they would not fill in all of the parameters. That would always lead to a bunch of 'back and forth' until the issue was resolved. BBG (my boss) quickly came up with a saying:

'Give them what they need, not what they ask for!'

By asking, 'What are you trying to accomplish,' I feel that we could have resolved many issues faster. This would lead to happy nurses, happy patients, and quicker resolutions. All of this would increase customer satisfaction.

The next time you are asked to do something, think is through, how much time could you save in the end by asking this question.

VOTD: Colossians 3:23

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..."

Own Your Schedule

Do you own your schedule? Or does it own you? Just something to think about. The past 2 months have been pretty intense for this 20-something (1/25 will start my 26th year of life). Right now my schedule owns me.

• I need to do better at my quiet times
• I need to be more 'on purpose' with the time I spend with Kristie
• I need to manage my workflow process better
  
• I need to get better about leaving work 'on-time'
  
• I need to blog again (it's nice to vent to the world)

We all need to remember it should be:

1. God
2. Family
3. Work

Especially when the going gets tough.