I was expecting 50% Ebonic/50% Fo' Shizzle

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

20% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Well, you gotta start somewhere...

Last Friday I went golfing with my father-in-law, Paul and Brad Hutchins at Cathedral Canyon Golf Club near Palm Springs. I suck. I mean, I REALLY suck. I'm still very new to the game, and learning on the fly as far as how to use certain clubs, etc. Here were our scores

Tom - 102
Brad - 134
Paul - 145
Nick - 158

That's right, a 158. That includes a 19 on a par-5, in which I hit the water FIVE times. I also had two 14's and a 12. I had a pair of double-bogeys on Par-threes and those were my best two.

The Kids are Alright

I am on a huge Who kick right now. I've always like them, growing up under the umbrella of my dad's musical tastes, which had always been Arrow 93.1 (R.I.P.) and KLOS. I had always wanted to buy Tommy and finally did about a year ago. I don't buy music too often, so it was just a month ago that I grabbed the Ulimate Collection. I'll get "Who's Next" next. I haven't done a list in a while, so here's my top-15 favorite Who songs.

1. Seeker
2. Baba O'Riley
3. My Generation
4. Pinball Wizard
5. Won't Get Fooled Again
6. Behind Blue Eyes
7. Bargain
8. Substitute
9. I Can See for Miles
10. Who Are you
11. You Better You Bet
12. I'm Free
13. Sparks
14. Magic Bus
15. Happy Jack

Roland Morgan: Trend Setter

These things used to go around in email form. Now we use are blogs.

3 THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND
1. The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences.
2. How anybody could allow themselves to love their work more than their family.
3. America's obsession with No-Talent Ass Clowns

THINGS MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME
1. I almost went to George Fox instead of Biola
2. I hate sports.....just kidding
3. I like Chick-Lit

LAST...
1. Movie you Netflixed: Office Space
2. Movie you bought: Two Veggietales DVDs
3. Song you listened to: Babo O'Rielly - The WHO, in my car
4. CD you bought: Vineyard Worship CD with "Surrender" on it. I will by buying Billy Corgan's album VERY soon. And Coldplay.
5. TV show you've watched: Sportscenter this morning.
6. Person you kissed: My wife
7. Person you were thinking of: My wife

DO...
1. You have a crush on someone: I've had a crush on my wife for almost seven years.
2. You wish you could live somewhere else: I wish I could live in the O.C., but I'm not a millionaire.
3. You think about suicide: Not since high school
4. You believe in online dating: Not for me. I believe that it works for the right person.
5. Others find you attractive: Other than my wife, I have no idea.
6. You want more piercings: Have none, want none.
7. You drink: Not currently. I had a drink at dinner last week, but for the most part, I don't drink when my wife is pregnant.
8. You do drugs: I have a near daily Excedrin habit.
9. You smoke: Hell no.
10. You like cleaning: No.
11. You like roller coasters: Love 'em.
12. You write in cursive or print: Print.
13. You like soap operas: I have recently been cured of my O.C. addiction. Because my wife and sister-in-law watch it, I keep pretty up to date on All My Children. I used to love Days of our Lives.

HAVE YOU...
1. Ever cried over a girl: I had my heart broken numerous times in high school.
2. Ever cried over a boy: When my best (and at the time, ONLY) friend Felipe moved to Corona.
3. Ever lied to someone: Yes.
4. Ever been in a fist fight: Once. I threw a punch, missed and his mom walked in. We were twelve.
5. Ever been arrested: Nope.

WHAT...
1. Shampoo do you use: Herbal Essence.
2. Shoes do you wear: Vans, mostly.
3. Is your desktop background: This Picture at Home, This Picture at Work

NUMBER...
1. Of times you have been in love: Once. There were another handful of times I THOUGHT I was in love.
2. Of times you have had your heart broken: Too many. But I had an overly fragile heart in high school.
3. Of girls/guys you have kissed: Girls: too many to admit. I was a man-whore. Guys: I think just three: Brad Clark, Paul Hutchins and Roland.
4. Of drugs taken illegally: none. I had one sliver of alcohol in 6th grade.
5. Of people you would classify as true, could-trust-with-your-life type friends: ten-ish
6. Of people you consider my enemies: Just Garrett Anderson.
7. Of scars on your body: Legit scars, One. When I was a "roadie" in high school for my friends metal band Malicide, We thought we would be cool and try to fly into the side of a van all Indiana Jones like on a big flat rolling dolly. I headed towards the van really fast, planted to jump off, realized that if I jumped, I would hit the parking lot as the dolly slipped out from under me. I froze and didn't move, slammed into the side of the van and got a dime-sized puncture wound on my knee.
8. Of things in your past that you regret: I regret some very immature actions that I took during my second year of college. Other than that, I try not to have regrets. I try to look at every step as a part of my journey towards a more authentic relationship with Christ and with my wife.

Well, at least it was an improvement. For the second straight year, I lasted longer than Hutch and my father-in-law. After playing some pretty good hands early on, I was the chip leader at our table for a while and I lasted to the first break, and into the seventh round. I was in the top 45 or so out of 120. The final 20 were in the money, so I didn't get as far as I had hoped.

THEN, I went to play Let it Ride and BlackJack. I walked away from the Let it Ride table up five bucks and then sat down at a 15-minimum BJ table. Within about eight minutes, I was up 200 bucks and got up to around a 500 profit before I let 150 or so go. In all, after the tournament costs (for me and Tom) and lunch, I walked away ahead $195. Tom walked away up nearly 600 bucks, winning at let it ride, blackjack and then 200 on a dollar slot on our way out the door. Not bad for the a guy who was out of the tournament before the blinds ever increased!

A June Tradition

Part of the "perk" of working in college athletics is my ten-month contract. I work close to 60 hours a week during the school year, so in return, I get eight weeks of vacation. I have always taken four of those weeks to have all of June off. It was great to have the time off this year as my sister-in-law Crystal had her baby a little early (June 8th) and I have been available to take care of the kids alot so that Melissa can help Crystal and Cole. It has been such a blessing.

I also began a new June tradition last year of going to Pechanga for a no-limit hold 'em tournament. Last year we went on the wrong day and had to play a limit tournament (which was a bummer) but I outlasted both my father-in-law and Hutch, who went with me. We went out in the same round, but I stuck around about ten minutes longer!

Tommorow the three of us head back and I am pretty exited. I haven't done a large-format no-limit tournament yet, so it should be interesting. Wish me luck! This is my next stop!

I want a new toy

http://www.usbgeek.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=0230

My birthday is July 28th, if in one is interested...

My only comment on Tom and Katie

I regret even making an issue of this NON-News piece, but damn, look at the rock! What happens when that thing gives her carpal tunnel syndrom and she can't take anything for the pain because of her new "religious" beliefs?

Bob Geldof can officially do ANYTHING

Gilmore and Waters on stage again. My wife is going to cry. Un-freakin-believable.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050612/en_nm/leisure_pinkfloyd_dc

No Kidding....

You were wrong? Get out of town....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050611/ap_on_re_us/davis_energy

This week on Netflix...

Summer is great because there is about 5% of the normal amount of TV on, so we can get through more movies in our netflix cue. Since the kids came along, we get far to few dates, so we rarely see movies in the theater anymore, so netflix has been a godsend. This week we watched the first five minutes of A Love Song for Bobby Long and were so uninterested that we gave up (another great part of netflix!). Then we watched Mr. 3000. I loved the movie as a baseball picture. it was fun. 7 out of ten fastballs. Last night we saw Being Julia. Annette Benning has been one of my favorite actresses since American Beauty, when she got beaten out for the academy award by an equally impressive Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry. This year Benning got beaten out by Swank again, although more deservedly this time. Benning was amazing and she single-handedly turned an average film into a good film, but Swank was flawless in Million Dollar Baby.

Next three in the netflix cue: Aviator (Melissa saw it, I haven't yet), Office Space (I saw it once, but haven't "gotten" the cult obsession with it, so I'm giving it another try) and Lara Croft, Cradle of Life. We liked the original enough to give this one a try.

I win!

Well, we finally got Jerm to a poker night, and I tell ya, it was well worth it. He was the first one eliminated once we did a no-limit tournament, and HE was the one pushing hardest for the tourney. We had eight people and after about 1 1/2 hours and one time around the table doing dealers choice (which I could feel a lot of people weren't too stoked about), we decided to do a tournament anyway. It only took us about 1:45 to complete the tournament. After I knocked out Jerm (he went all-in on me and I had the pocket rockets) and took a HUGE pot calling Shan's bluff, I had a huge chip lead and was able to knock everyone out one by one. I finished first ($70), Shan took second ($50) and Josh took third ($20) we had a 20-dollar buy in.

It was nice to have a good tourney for once. The last few times I played I wasn't taking it as seriously, played over-agressive and got knocked out, out of the money.

Vacation Time!

Ok, so I don't have any fun white-water rafting plans or anything, but I have the next FOUR WEEKS off from work! I am so excited to get a break. I get to be at home and spending time with Melissa and the kids. I, of course, also have a long list of honey do's to take care of and Crystal is having her baby in the middle of the month and moving in, but it will be relaxing nonetheless. Here's some of the stuff I have to get done this month: Get Mel's windshield fixed, get my Corrolla fixed from when it got broken into, put the elliptical machine together, get the dogs to the groomers, landscape the backyard, clean and organize the garage, put together my resume for a possible job interview or two, get our budget back on track...I know there's more, but that's all I can think of.

I also get to celebrate the beginning of my vacation with POKER NIGHT! All I've done the last five or six times I've played is no-limit hold 'em tournaments, so tonight we'll be doing a good ol' fashioned dealer's choice cash night. Since I'll be at home with the kids (Mel's got a Girlz Night planned, too), it's easier for me to get out from a hand or two if they wake up and I need to take care of them. It should be a fun night. Jerm is FINALLY able to play with us, unfortunately, some of the crew that normally plays can't make it. We will have Jerm, Josh, Shan, Hutch, Nick, Dave Meloni from my bible study and possibly Aaron, Josh's boss.