:-) is 25 Years Old

Today at 11:44a the electronic smile :-) and all emoticons was born 25 years ago. And the world has never smiled the same since. So today I sent out a whole bunch of text messages letting them know and giving them a :-) in honor of the man who started it all. Story Here So why don't you send a :-) onto someone today.

Extremely Random Thoughts

So many thoughts in my head today.... First one, of course, is whether or not Michigan an win a football game today after starting this season 0-2. Fortunately, we are playing a team that is having a worst time than we are. Notre Dame has not scored an offensive touchdown yet and has scored a total of 13 points this season, whereas Michigan has at least scored 39. So hopefully that will bode well for the team in maize and blue today. Starting the season 0-3 would not be good. I do not believe that Lloyd Carr's job is in jeopardy at all, nor do I believe that it should be. If you look at his history as a head coach he has one of the top winning percentages of active head coaches, he has a higher winning percentage than the Wolverines have overall, and in all his year's as a head coach he has never had a scandal or problem. Lloyd has kept up the Michigan tradition of making Michigan Men. He deserves the respect of the university and the fans to choose to retire, if that is what he wants to do and I think he will at the end of this season, which I think he has planned all along. Some of my other thoughts are in regards to politics and religion.... The USA Today has had a couple of articles talking about it and it has got me thinking a couple of things that I commonly hear from Christians. The first thought I had was is it possible for a "real" Christian to vote for a democrat? Seriously, I have heard twice recently from people about this, because of this post I had someone ask my wife if we were going to vote for a democrat now. The funny thing is that if you look at the comments on that post you will see two different people that have said they felt that my list was leaning more like a democrat and another that said it was leaning more like a republican. Then I had another friend, who saw me taking some recyclables out to my car from work, ask me why I was putting trash in my car and I told him that it was not trash, but recyclables. I then kiddingly said that I was just doing my part to leave more space in our Michigan landfills for all of that Canadian trash we are importing. (For those of you who do not know, there is a big controversy because we are importing Canadian trash into our state.) And then I added seriously that I was just doing my part as a Christ-follower to make sure that we took care of our environment, which I believe every Christ-follower should do. He then said to me, "the next thing your going to tell me is that you are going to now be a democrat". (insert a note of disdain in his voice) Seriously, why do Christians think that Jesus would only ever vote for a democrat? I used to think this way, but I have seriously begun to wonder about this. The other thought that I have had that is tied to this, is can a person who calls themselves a Christian vote for someone who does not have a pro-life stance politically? What if they had a list that they went into the voting booth and they voted for the person who best met that list. Wouldn't that make sense? But it seems like most churches and Christians believe that that list should only consist of one or possibly two things. Do not get me wrong, I believe that abortion is wrong and horrible. But I do not believe that that is the only issue, nor do I believe that gay marriage should be the only thing either, especially when you see so much injustice in the world and many other issues that I believe are just as close to God's heart. So feel free to comment and leave me your thoughts.

How Much Are Your Childhood Memories Worth?

Mine were worth $552! I sold three of my Transformers today on eBay: Devastator, Omega Supreme and Jetfire. They were in mint condition and, yes, I did play with them. I just took extremely good care of them. We did not have a lot of money growing up so my parents always told us to take very good care of our stuff. So I would play with them and then put them back into their styrofoam cases and then into their boxes. Yes, I know that means that I am a little crazy, but I am also the one laughing now because I was able to sell them! So Kimmy and I decided that we would buy a Digital SLR camera with the money. Especially since we will be going to Washington state in October for a cruise on the Pacific Catalyst, we wanted a really good camera to capture those memories with. Now I need to decide between a Nikon or a Canon. (Feel free to give me your personal opinion.) I posted pics below of my old Transformers.

Random Facts Meme

Well, I have been tagged in this by the big guy over at YMX. Rules to play 1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. 2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. 3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged. My 8 random factoids: 1. Like Marko my first job was illegal. I worked for a guy who owned some greenhouses and a farm. It was really tough work, but fun. 2. The month my wife was due to have our daughter, there was a tornado that ripped through the trailer park we were living in. Two years later, when she was pregnant with our son, she was in OK and they were surrounded with tornado sightings. Both times everyone was safe. 3. I had a 1981 'Vette as my first car. I got it when I turned 16 and it was a manual transmission. The day after getting it, I stalled it our as I was leaving a parking lot and kept stalling it out. Frustrated I got out and called my dad and told him to come pick me up. BTW, it was a Chevette. 4. My wife and I have known each other our whole lives, but did not start dating until 1994. But we did go to her high school prom together. It is really fun to see videos of us in the children's choir sitting next to one another. 5. I am ashamed to admit this, but I really liked the Newlyweds show. 6. My wife and I both do not like scary movies and once while watching Signs, which wasn't really that scary, we were sitting on opposite ends of the couch and Kimmy said, "Don't sit so far away come hold me, I am scared." To which I replied, "Come hold me, I'm scared." 7. Once when I was cutting my grandma's grass, two guys pulled up in a car and asked if I wanted any grass and I said that I already had a big bag of it. 8. My favorite movie of all time is Somewhere In Time and Kimmy and I used the music in our wedding. Now I tag: Derek KT Kent Kathy Dirk Bryan (who thinks MySpace blogging counts) Brian Jason

R.I.P. "N" Word

Yesterday in Detroit the NAACP held their 98th annual meeting. And they decided to symbolically bury the "N" word. And not because they believe that white people or people of other races should not be able to use that word. They did this because they believe that no one should use that word. The sad reality is that the word is probably used more often in rap songs then it is anywhere else. I applaud the NAACP for taking this bold step and calling out rappers and other black artists and telling them to stop using the word. I think that this is a bold move and I hope the message is heard and followed. There are some other words that I believe need to be buried as well. One of them is the word "retard". It sickens me every time I hear people use this word so flippantly. Do they realize how they are not just calling someone a name, but they are degrading mentally handicapped people and their families? I seriously cringe every time I hear it used and for the most part have had people that I normally interact with stop using the word, but this past week while I was camping I heard my cousin use the word and then turn around and talk about how we should not use the next word on my list of words to be buried. I think we also need to bury the word "fag". I believe that this word is on the same level as the "N" word and I even hesitated using it here, but I wanted to use it just to name the word exactly. Not only do I cringe when I hear it, but it literally sickens me when I hear christians use that word. And what is even more sad is that there is a church in Topeka, Kansas that uses that word in the name of the their churches website. The church is Westboro Baptist Church and the pastor there is a man named Fred Phelps. Sadly, you can see a picture of him on the right. This man and his church sickens me. The message of Jesus is one of love and grace, not hatred. I look at that picture and I honestly wonder what Bible he is reading. How can he honestly believe that God would laugh when a human being dies and possibly goes to hell? That is not the God of the Bible that I know and serve. That was never Jesus' message and I would dare sya that I believe Jesus would have some very harsh words for this man and his church. Okay, back to the burial of the "F" word.... I think that the "F" word is just has evil and hateful as the "N" word. And the "R" word as well. I believe that Christ-followers every where needs to stop using these words and eliminate them from our speech. They are not loving words and I do not believe that Jesus wants us to use such hateful language. But not only should the church not use the word, but I believe all humans need to stop using them. Okay, I will get off of my soapbox now....

Random Funnities

I do not like email forwards and most people know that, so I tend to no get a lot of them. Which makes me very happy, but occasionally I do get some and they tend to be some of the better ones. I recently received the following from a friend and wanted to share it here. The first one is a mind bender, because the letters are all mixed up. See if you can read what it says. The last one is just a funny list of current life oddities. Most of my recent posts have been pretty serious so this is a nice break from that. I hope that you can LOL. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig, huh? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 when... 1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave. 2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three. 4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you. 5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses. 6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries. 7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen. 8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it. 10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee. 11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :) 12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing. 13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message. (That is if I was one of those annoying friends who forwarded things on like this to everyone in my address book.) 14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list. 15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list. AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Super Bowl Ramblings

Congratulations to Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts on winning this year's Super Bowl. I did not watch the whole game, because I was playing Euchre and Risk but what I did see impressed me. The Colts played very good and simply outplayed the Chicago Bears. Although I do have to add that in the Super Bowl pick 'em that I was in with some friends that I picked the Bears to win the opening coin toss and then that Hester would take the kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. I was so shocked when it actually happened. The funny thing is that I thought right after that that in the BCS Championship Game that OSU did the same thing and lost. We interrupt the Super Bowl ramblings to bring you a slap in the face for the American autoworkers, courtesy of General Motors. I just love how GM thought it would be great to do a "cute" commercial that illustrated what has been going on with the Big 3 lately. I know that many of the autoworkers that have been let go of had to have just loved seeing that commercial. Back to the Super Bowl ramblings.... Many of you know that I do not like Peyton Manning and it all stems back to 1997 when he and many others cried about the fact that Charles Woodson won the Heisman Trophy and Peyton didn't. And there is also the added fact that he played for the Tennessee Volunteers in college and I can't stand that team. I have never really been a big fan of the NFL, probably stems from the fact that I am a Lions fan (but I digress), and so I will like teams based on certain players and what college they attended. But I have to say that I am happy for Peyton and the fact that he got that monkey off of his back. He has always struggled in big games and seemed to choke, but this past Sunday he changed all of that and played admirably. He deserved the Super Bowl MVP and I am genuinely happy for him. Congrats, Peyton! And now for my favorite commercial of the entire Super Bowl. This commercial rocked!

Phil Rocks!!!

Four out of five groundhogs agree: spring is going to come early this year. Phil's official forecast as read 2/2/07 at 7:28 a.m. at Gobbler's Knob: El Nino has caused high winds, heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures in the west. Here in the East with much mild winter weather we have been blessed. Global warming has caused a great debate. This mild winter makes it seem just great. On this Groundhog Day we think of one thing. Will we have winter or will we have spring? On Gobbler's Knob I see no shadow today. I predict that early spring is on the way. With all of this cold weather that we are having, I am ready for an early spring!

Too Funny!

I was looking at my StatCounter today and noticed that I had a visitor from Cupertino, CA. So I clicked on it and was shocked to find that the user was using Windows XP. Why is that so funny? Because Cupertino, CA is the home of Apple, Inc.

Bloggin' Through 2006

Just to recap the past year, I went backed and looked at the first post of every month and provided a link to them below. I did this last year after reading a friend's blog who had done the same thing. So here goes.... January - still following Him!!!! February - Thanks, Phil!!!! :P & New Toy!!!!! :) March - Paczki April - No Foolin'... Happy 30th, Apple Computers!!! May - I Got Tagged!!! June - I Want To Go To Hell..... July - Our Family Vacation August - More Of The Good Stuff!!! September - Which Way Did He Go? October - Drive By Blogging & I Am Done With Being a Christian November - Random Ramblings December - 11 Years Today!!!

thesnuffy.com is Now Online!!!

Now, if you want to get to my blog you can simply go to thesnuffy.com! So update your bookmarks and links, becuase there may be some changes as I go along.

5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

I got tagged by Adam. 1. I don't like playing video games all that much. I love messign around on my computer, but to sit and play a video game does not thrill me. However, I do love some of the old school 2-D games, like Zelda. 2. I will only eat grilled cheese with ketchup. There is nothing better than dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into ketchup. But a good substitute is dipping it into tomato soup. 3. I like to dip my pizza crust in my pop. Don't knock it until you try it. 4. I like to watch "chick flicks". My favorite movie is Somewhere In Time. 5. I had stuffed animals on my bed that I would occasionally sleep with throughout my teen years. Nothing further to say. I am tagging Kent and Kathy.

New Blog Layout

You may have noticed that I have a new layout for my blog. Feel free to let me know what you think about it. I have a new feature that Blogger has started. You will notice on the left sidebar that there is a section called "Categories". If you click on a particular category, it will show you every blog post made with that particular label. So it makes it easier for you to check things out. Right now there are only three, because I need to go back through and label them all. And I have over 200 posts. And I added another feature that HaloScan has added along with their commenting add-on. You can now see on the left side the most recent comments on my blog.

Drive By Blogging

I know I have not posted in a while and I have heard the complaints. I have been so busy between work, church, Caleb's soccer, my basketball and football, and just life in general. So I just have not had the time to blog. But I will later tonight..... I promise!

Blog, Blogging, Blogged......

The word blog comes from two words being smashed together: web and log. The thing about most blogs though is that they are not private. You can make them private, but most people don't. I have chosen not to make mine private. I figure if people want to read it and they don't like what they read, then they don't have to read it. Or they can comment back or email me and discuss my thoughts and views. But for the most part I write things with the thought in mind that other people are reading it and they may not like what I have to say or it might hurt someone's feelings. So I temper my opinions somewhat. But the reality is that it is not a private diary and so I need to be somewhat careful with what I say. Having said all that feel free to leave comments about what I say or even email me and tell me what you think, if you don't want to leave a comment for everyone else to read. The free flow and exchange of ideas is what will help us all grow. And realize that the opinions expressed here are my own and you need to just agree with them.

Breaking My Blog Jam

I have been so flippin' busy lately that I just haven't had time to blog in a while. Sorry, to all of my faithful blog readers. Yesterday, I went to one of my most favoritest places on the planet! I love the annual, traditional youth group trip to Cedar Point. I love the rides, especially Top Thrill Dragster, which is the coolest roller coaster on the planet! It is so much fun and I could ride it all day long! Going from 0-120 mph in less than 4 seconds is a thrill. Normally I like to ride on the back of coaster, but I must say that on Top Thrill, it is better in the front. That wind hitting you is amazing, and then seeing your self go up that 420 foot hill and then descend back down it is freakin' cool! But the other thing that I loved about yesterday was being able to spend a whole day with teenagers! I have not had that opportunity for a while, especially at Cedar Point! So yesterday I was in hog heaven! I was at one of my most favotie places with my most favorite groups of people! And now I am getting ready to watch the United States soccer team play against Italy. Hopefully, they will show up and attack the net unlike they did in their last match. Ghana beating the Czech Republic today is a big help in our hopes of getting to the next round. Along with two of Ghana key players getting their second yellow cards, thus making them ineligible for the next match, which is against the U.S. So with all of that, the U.S. still has a strong chance of making it to the next round. We must tie Italy today though for that to happen. So with out further ado, it is game time! GO USA!!!!!!!!

It Has Been A While.....

A lot has happened lately and I have been really busy, so it has been a while since I have had a chance to blog. This past Wednesday was Kent's last service at Rockpointe. It was such a cool service. They started it off with a funny video where they spliced clips from a message he spoke to make for some funny replies to questions he was "asked". I was laughing so hard.... Then a couple of students shared some personal comments about what Kent meant to them. And Kent then shared with us what he is going to be doing in Pittsburgh at Discovery Christian Church and it sounds so exciting, makes we want to pack my bags and join him. But we know that God wants us at Rockpointe for the foreseeable future! It was really cool to see the church honor Kent and send him off the right way. I love seeing churches get this right, because so many churches botch it. Then on Thursday Kent came by my dad's shop, where I work and watched me work. It was pretty cool. I have enjoyed developing my friendship with him these past 6 months. And the weather was really nice, so I got to ride topless on the way home from work, for the first time this year! And in the evening we had practice for the Memorial Day Parade on Monday. We had a bunch of drums and whole lot of fun. And on the way to practice, I knew it was supposed to rain later that evening, but I figured I could ride to the churches building and then put my top up. As I was going dowen the expressway, I could see that it was starting to rain and rain HARD!!! So i just kept going and it rained very har don me for about a mile and a half. I just laughed the whole time! Then Friday, we had some friends from church over for dinner and then went back to their place for dessert and a bon-fire. They live right near us, so it made it easy and they could put their little girl to bed and we could still hang out. It was a lot of fun. And then Saturday I went and helped Kent pack up his U-Haul. It really sucks that I just started getting to knwo him and then God moves him away. I am happy knowing that he is doing what God wants him to do and that makes it just a little bit easier. Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. Missed having Kent in youth group, but we remembered him when the clicker wouldn't work right! LOL But for the most part all I did was go to church and then relax at home. It was nice. Oh yeah and I created the album art for the churches podcast. Here it is.....

Long Weekend.....

We had a friend come from Chicago to visit, so I haven't had much chance to blog this week or weekend because of that. But stay tuned for more deep thoughts! But I did notice that I am dangerously close to having 5,000 visitors! If you are the magic number 5,000 (and didn't cheat!) Let me know. BTW, the counter is on the right hand side and looks like this....

Sad News....

Kimmy went to the doctors yesterday, because she has not been feeling well. She had a persistent cough for 4 weeks and went a few weeks ago and they did nothing. So yesterday when she went they checked her out and they gave her some nasal spray and an inhaler. Then they sent her across the street to the hospital, because of all the coughing her side hurts real bad and they wanted to get an x-ray to make sure she didn't break a rib or anything. Well, when she was at the doctor's office she went to check out and pay her deductible and the lady behind the desk says that she sees that Kim still has her insurance through her husband's work. And kim said, "Yep." Then the lady asks her if she wants to have another emergency contact person, so Kim said, "Yeah, put my mom on there" and gave her mom's phone number. Then the lady asks if she wants to add anyone else and she said that her mom and her husband should be fine and that I would be the best one. The lady then says, "Oh, your married?" Kim responded, "Yes, you said that my insurance was through my husband's work." To which the lady says, "But it says here that your husband is deceased. I am guessing someone entered that in wrong." So I am sad to tell Derek and KT that I can't be at their wedding, because I am dead!

Flag Saver

I saw this in the newspaper today.... Outfielder Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs dashes between two men in the Dodger Stadium outfield in Los Angeles, in this April 25, 1976 photo, snatching an American flag the men were about to burn. You can read the whole story here. It is a really cool story.