Miss Spectacular

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about some of the people in my office that a friend and I had given nicknames because of habits that those folks have that happen to annoy the two of us.  To show that not everybody on our floor annoys us, I also mentioned another person on our floor that we refer to as Miss Spectacular.

As you can imagine, she has been dubbed as such because she is a very attractive woman.  At least I think so.  She actually reminds me of somebody by the name of Priya Anjali Rai.  Ms. Rai, is an actress of sorts.  I am not sure I want to admit this, but she is featured in films of, shall we say, an adult nature.  <Currently trying to find a safe for work of Ms Rai>

I know, right?  Anyway, I bring up Miss Spectacular because I have had a couple of run ins with her this week.  No, nothing bad or earth shattering.  It is just that our paths have crossed a couple of times and (at least in my juvenile guy mind) made me chuckle to myself.

Our floor is equipped with two network printers that also happen to be copiers.  The machine on my side of the floor has been out of order this week, so I have had to use the machine on the other side of the floor, which also happens to be the side of the floor where Miss Spectacular works. The machine is situated in a little alcove around the corner from a small hallway.

The first run in occurred when I went to pick up a print job off of the printer.  As I was leaving the alcove, she was coming around the corner and we were headed for a collision course.  If we had been automobiles, one of us would have t-boned the other.  My only thought was, "thank goodness she is equipped with airbags!" I know, totally inappropriate and juvenile, but funny.  (I'm a guy, I'm not that complicated)

Another incident occurred when I went to pick up another print job off of the machine.  She happened to be there making several copies.  Her back was to me as I was heading to the machine.  I was waiting patiently for her to finish making copies and stood silently.  She must not have heard my approach because when she turned around, I startled her.  I must move like a ninja.

Before you get the wrong idea, it wasn't like I was standing right over top of her when she turned around.  I was a good four or five feet behind her waiting patiently.  Of course I apologize for startling her, but I still thought it was kind of funny to hear her gasp when she turned around and saw me standing there.

It just goes to show that it take very little to amuse me.  Like I said, I am a guy and I am not that complicated.  And speaking of guys, come check out Dudewrite and check out blog posts from other bloggers who happen to be guys.

Fundamental Transformation

I am about to write a sentence that I didn't think that I would ever write. Barack Obama is right about one thing. We do need to fundamentally transform this country. Unfortunately he is dead wrong about the type of transformation we need.  I am not usually one that finds "messages from God" in everything that I see and hear around me. However, there have been two books and an event, the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo at the Bowie Baysox game, that I attended recently that have left me with the thoughts that I am about to share with you here.  I will deal with each individually and briefly.

The first book was On the Precipice by Chris Hambleton.  The book takes a look at the message to Israel and Judah from the Biblical Book of Hosea and how it could possibly relate to the United States of America today.  It addresses the consequences of how Israel turned its back on God and in turn, God removed His hand of blessing upon them.  As Israel continued to turn to idolatry and foreign aliances, God left them to their own devices leading to the fall of the nations of Israel and Judah and the eventual Diaspora of the Jewish peoples.

Hambleton then compares the message to Israel and taylors it towards the United States.  He argues that the United States was a unique country in history.  Unlike Israel who was chosen by God, the United States was founded upon Judeo Christian principals and relied on God in their early days.  As we have grown stronger and richer as a nation, much like Israel, we have turned away from God and rely on our own strength and wisdom. 

One cannot read our Declaration of Independence and the writings of the Founding Fathers without coming away with the notion that at the very least, they believed in a Creator and Divine Providence.  Our Constitution does not guarantee that people will be free from religion with no reference to God in the public arena, but that everyone was free to worship or not worship however they see fit.  Its purpose was to prevent the government from forcing everyone into the same creed such as the Church of England.  Sadly, we have twisted it such a way to push God further from the public square.

Which brings me to the second book that I recently read that has lead to this post.  That book was called Why Christians Can't Be Democrats by Michael DeLance Thomas.  I have to confess that I did not fully read the description when I downloaded the book.  Originally, I thought it was going to be a humorous look.  Instead, it was a serious look at the policies that the Democrats stand for and how those policies stand in conflict with Christianity.

The premise of Thomas' book is that Christianity is based on being under God's government.  God's government allows man to be free.  He argues that man's government is here to protect our rights under God's government.  However, the more we allow man's government to take control of things in our lives, the more we push God's government away from us, thus reducing our freedoms.  The goal of the Christian should be to vote for politicians that will promote God's government over man's government.

Thomas argues that the Democrats are more devoted to pursuing man's government over God's government.  Under God's government, we rely on each other to voluntarily pursue acts of charity.  Rather than to allow individuals to act freely to help others in need, man's government forces others to pay in the form of taxes to redistribute income to those in need.  The Democrats and their policies rely on man's government to a much greater degree.  To be fair, Thomas does not argue favorable towards Republicans, but does say that they tend to rely somewhat less on man's government.

You may now be wondering how the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo relates to these two books.  Fair question.  During the last segment of the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo, the man who works with the monkeys and dogs for the performance gave a little speech.  He said that we as a country had lost our way.  We had failed to adhere to our founding principals and that we had pushed God further away from our lives.

So, when I say that I believe we do need to fundamentally transform this country, it is in the form of a Spiritual transformation.  I am not saying that we need to become a theocracy.  Nor am I saying that everyone in the country needs to become a born again Christian.  What I am saying is that we need to return to the principals that this country was founded upon and that made the United States what it was.  With God's help, we can.

My Working Life

For the vast majority of my working life, I have spent my days in the retail industry, primarily the retail food industry.  My very first job was in a convenience store when I was 15 years old.  I started a couple months before my 16th birthday in order to earn money towards a car.  Through high school and college, I worked in the retail stores at night and attending school during the day.

After I graduated from college, I worked in the stores for another year or so.  At one point, I considered a retail management career, but I really wanted to have a regular Monday-Friday, 9-5 job with weekends and holidays off.  Eventually, I was able to land a job backstage in the buying department of the grocer chain that I was working for at the time.

I spent the next 18 years with that company working my way up to a management position within the buying and merchandising department.  My last position with them was to be in charge of the promotion and sales of our store branded product.  Things were going great for me up until the time that our corporate office decided to centralize the bulk of our merchandising functions to the corporate office in another state.

After losing a job that I had for 21 years, I had a difficult time finding work.  It took me over a year to find a full time job again, and that was in the days when you only got 26 weeks of unemployment, not 99.  After spending my career on the buyer side of the desk, I decided to try my hand on the sales side of the desk.

My first sales job was selling insurance/benefit packages to small businesses.  I spent a great deal of time making telephone calls trying to reach business owners or benefit managers to make my pitch.  I also spent a lot of time on business databases on the internet trying to find names and phone numbers.  It was not something I was very good at.  I might have been able to do a better job had I had access to an email list of decision makers in the businesses I was targeting.

My next sales job was back in the field where I had spent the majority of my career. This time, I was calling on buyers of grocery store chains selling them a retail dry ice program. At least it was something that I knew something about.  I knew what buyers were looking for, and I knew how to tailor my sales pitch to be able to benefit retailers.  Still, it was not something that I was happy doing on a daily basis.

Eventually, I got back into the buying side of the retail world.  I had one position where I managed a program for a distributor selling to retail customers.  After that business failed, I landed where I am today as a buyer for a chain of convenience type stores.  My current company is on good solid ground and I hope to be there for quite a while into the future.

Music Monday-Phil Keaggy "Maker of the Universe"

Several years ago, when I was in college, I belonged to a young adult group at the church I was attending. A handful of us decided to attend a music festival in Pennsylvania called "Creation" which I dubbed Woodstock for Christians. At that event, I saw Phil Keaggy performing. At one point, he played Amazing Grace on his electric guitar and made it sound like bag pipes. I was hooked on Keaggy from that moment on. This is one of my favorite acoustic songs by him.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the ACTUAL LINK POST here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.   PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Maryland Live Casino and Bobby's Burger Palace

Today, my wife and I decided to do something a little different from our normal routine.  We decided that we wanted to head out to the new Maryland Live Casino and to have lunch at Bobby's Burger Palace.  Bobby's Burger Palace is a gourmet burger restaurant founded by celebrity chef Bobby Flay.  My wife and I are fans of Flay's work on the Food Network.

I have wanted to check out a BBP ever since the Bowie Living blog posted that one had opened in College Park, MD.  The College Park location isn't that far from our house, but it really isn't a part of Maryland that is convenient for us.  The BBP at the Casino is located at the Arundel Mills Mall which we frequent on a regular basis.

When we got to the Casino and entered from the parking garage, we went to the entrance and saw BBP to our left and The Cheesecake Factory to our right with the casino straight ahead.  We decided to go ahead and eat lunch first.  We got in line and looked over the menu for BBP while trying to find nutritional info on our MyFitnessPal apps on our phone.

There was not a lot of info available on MyFitnessPal for the food available at BBP.  The one burger I saw was listed at over 900 calories.  There was also a turkey burger for 460 calories.  I opted for a Dallas Burger with turkey rather than beef.  It had cole slaw, pickles, Monterrey jack cheese and BBQ sauce. It was fantastic.  My wife had a topless burger salad using a chicken breast instead of beef, basically grilled chicken on a salad.

Video Poker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The ordering and seating of BBP is a little bit different than what I expected.  You go through the line and place your order with the cashier who gives you your cups for fountain drinks and a number for your order.  You then can go sit at a counter or at large tables.  Most likely, you will end up sharing a table with others.  No table for two here.

My wife is not really into gambling.  I like to play a variety of casino games, but at the same time I am terribly cheap.  I do not want to bet $5 or $10 a hand at blackjack or other games.  Currently, Maryland only has slots and electronic table games.  There were plenty of penny slot machines to choose from and we found video poker for $0.25.  My wife loves video poker at the arcades in Ocean City, so she had a good time.  We will probably be heading back again in the near future.

Related articles

• Maryland Live! Casino draws large crowd, positive reviews (wjla.com)
• Arundel Mills Casino Brings In Over $1M A Day (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
• 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay (examiner.com)
• Burgers, French Fries & Chubby Chickpea's T-Shirt Choice: The Best of Boston's Food Links This Week (bostinno.com)
• Bobby Flay's burger joint on front burner (bostonherald.com)

Off the Grid

Electricity pylon - power outage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anybody that lives in the DC area knows all too well about the storm that blew through here last Friday night around 11pm.  They said the storm was something called a derecho, which is Spanish for straight line.  The storm went through quickly but it packed a big punch bringing winds of around 70 mph.  Consequently, there were several power outages in the area, my home being among them.

Our power went out as the storm rushed through.  Saturday morning, I awoke around 6am and decided to take a drive to see how things were looking and to see if any BGE trucks were at the substation around the corner working to restore our power.  My first stop was to see if the nearby Wawa was open so that I could get a cup of coffee.  It was open, but packed, so coffee was off of the table.

After driving around my neighborhood, assessing the damage, and not seeing any utility trucks in the error, I ascertained that this could be a prolonged outage.  I began calling and texting family to see if they had made it through the fire.  My parents had power.  My sister, who usually loses power still had her power.  With temperatures expected to be near 100 in the immediate future, I was looking for a place where we could crash until power was restored.

My parents live in a rather small condominium with one bedroom.  I pretty much knew that their place was out of the question.  My sister immediately offered to allow us to head down to her place.  They didn't have a lot of space, but there was at least a place to crash and do some laundry.  My in-laws had lost their power, but they also had a generator to provide air conditioning and the basics, and more importantly, they had a couple spare guest rooms.

My in-laws did not have their washer and dryer hooked up to the generator.  Not knowing how long power would be out, we decided to head to my sister's house to do a couple loads of laundry and have a bit of lunch.  Her in-laws had also lost power and it was looking like they were going to crash there, so after doing the laundry and having a sandwich, we packed up the car and headed to my in-laws.  We were there until this morning.

Our power came on sometime yesterday afternoon, so we spent nearly 5 days without power.  Since the power came back so late yesterday, we spent one more night at the in-laws because the house needed to cool down plus we had no food in the house.  My power company, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), has 1.2 million customers.  Out of those, over 700,000 suffered some sort of outage.  As of now, they still show over 40,000 people still without power. 

 In addition to my family crashing at my in-laws, my wife's brother, sister, and nephew all crashed there part of the time. Now, I knew from the beginning that it was going to be a massive undertaking for BGE to restore power to all of their customers.  For that reason, and in part because we at least had a cool place to crash, I tried to be patient in waiting for our power to be restored.  I think we all did a half way decent job of coexisting with one another, but around Tuesday we all started to lose a bit of patience.

For me, it started when I called the outage line on Monday morning.  I was told at that time that our power was expected to be back by 8:30 pm that night.  Later in the day, I checked again, and I was told it would be as late as Thursday around noon.  My frustration grew as it became increasingly difficult to get any information from BGE.  If you called them on the phone, you could only reach the automated line to report or check on an outage.

Thankfully, I am well versed in social media and I had my smart phone and my 3G tablet with me.  I was able to keep those charged thanks to my in-laws generator.  So I started tweeting my questions to @MyBGE on twitter.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get any information from them.  I turned to BGE's Facebook page and posted questions there.  Still no responses from them.

Again, I realize that they had a lot in front of them in trying to restore power to everyone.  It was a massive undertaking.  I also realize that they had a lot of other people trying to get answers through social media.  My beef is that getting info from them was like the proverbial pulling teeth.  I had a fairly generic question that I was eventually able to get an answer to by tweeting it at 6am rather than around noon.  I would have liked the opportunity to speak to a person, even if it had meant holding for a while.

Related articles

• When the Lights Go Down in the City: DC's Massive Power Outage From Space (theatlantic.com)
• Why Can't We Just Bury All The Power Lines? (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Derecho: Where Did The Word Come From? And What Does It Mean? (wjla.com)
• Derecho of June 29, 2012 (vielmetti.typepad.com)
• How smart meters help fight power outages [Earth2Tech] (gigaom.com)
• This is what Washington's massive power outages look like from space [This Is Awesome] (io9.com)

Losing Weight

I have shared here my numerous attempts at weight loss.  Currently, I am using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone to keep track of my calories.  So far, it has been working well for me as I have lost a little more than 20 pounds.  In the past, I have tried a wide variety of diets with varying degrees of success.  Unfortunately, as soon as I stopped following the protocols of those diets, I would slip further back into my old eating habits and gain back all of my weight and then some.

I tried the Fit for Life plan which is supposed to utilize your body's natural cycles to lose weight.  The theory is to eat nothing but fruit until noon and then the remaining meals need to use the concept of food combining.  By food combining, you would not pair a protein with a starch, so no meat and potatoes.  I did great on that until I met my wife.  While we were dating we would go to all you can eat breakfast buffets.  It is hard to stick with just fruit when you have pancakes, sausage, and bacon staring you in the face.

I also had a good bit of success with The Atkins Diet and Sugarbusters.  Both of which were centered around higher protein consumption and reduced carbohydrate consumption.  Sugarbusters is a bit less extreme than Atkins in that it does allow for the consumption of good carbs, ie complex carbohydrates.  I blew those diets in my position as a frozen food buyer when the new samples of Ben & Jerry's came in.  My problem was that if I strayed from these regimens and then went back to it, I would feel deprived and give up.

A lot of people like me that struggle with their weight sometimes need a little help when it comes to losing weight.  Sheer will power and discipline just aren't enough.  In my current job position, I subscribe to a number of different trade publications, one of which is Natural Foods Merchandiser.  In a recent article, they talked about the Dr. Oz effect.  Essentially, whenever Dr. Oz would mention a supplement or product on his television program there would be a run on it at the natural foods stores and they would run out of product.  One product that he recommended for weight loss was a raspberry ketone supplement.

Raspberry ketone supplements contain an enzyme derived from raspberries that is believed to help boost metabolism.  When combined with a healthy diet and exercise, it acts as a powerful fat burner.  I have always believed in using supplements and vitamins on a daily basis.  This is one that I may have to look into for my own personal weight loss goals.