The Joys of Job Hunting

So it's been a while since my last post and I apologize for that. As you guys know were still in the process of moving from Florence S.C. to Charlotte N.C. but now were down to about 4 weeks until we close and have to be in Charlotte. Now the original plan was for me to have found a job and possibly be living in Charlotte (or as I've picked up from Twitter CLT) right now. Well sadly I'm still in Florence and nothing has come to fruition... Yet.

I have to say as much as this isn't a barrel of laughs and a ton of joy, I have learned a couple of lessons. I would say the experience has definitely humbled me. I thought hey I'm an Ole Miss business school grad, I held the title for being the youngest and fasted promoted manager for Pac Sun, I ran a successful staffing company before I was even 26 I though I was the man. Now I didn't expect to just move up to Charlotte and someone hand me a 100k job but I didn't expect to have to work to find a job. Then I started to apply for jobs... Wow Lets just say this cartoon sums a lot of it up.



Things are tough out there. I have been hitting all the usual job boards (hotjobs,monster,careerbuilder,indeed, and craigslist) I have also been using social networks like twitter, facebook and linked-In to help aid in my search. (Hopefully one of you reading this might even be able to help me out) Seems to be about 3-4 week turn around from submitting an application to getting any response back, which can be disappointing but that brings me to my 2nd lesson.

Faith. When I got saved last Nov. one of my biggest downfalls was that I was very "Let me do it" person. I wanted to do things the way I wanted to do them. Now I don't want you got get it confused and think I was a selfish person that wasn't the case at all. I meant it more in I felt the only person I could truly count on was myself. As a result I carried a lot of extra burdens and felt like I had to take on every little fight so that other people wouldn't have to. I felt like it was my job to make the world a better place and I was a one man army. Well one of the 1st things I heard after I got saved was that I was no longer alone, and that I had someone I could rely on to help shoulder my burdens all I had to do was have faith and a open heart. Just as in the past I know that God is there, and he knows exactly what is in store for me. Now this isn't my 1st time to move with out a job and not knowing exactly what lies ahead but I can tell you knowing that God is with me now makes it so more comforting.

Well I just wanted to write a quick little post about how things are going. I will just like always ask for a little participation. I would ask after your reading this ask yourself what is your relationship with Jesus like? If you don't know Jesus yet but would like to. Just give me a call I am still very much learning but I fill you in on my relationship with him. I would also ask if you know anyone in Charlotte why not try and hook a brotha up? Here is my Resume, help me get it out there. Anyways thanks to all you who have been praying and offering support it really means a lot. So i guess all that's left to say is "Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered"

Sweet & Sour. Sadly im not talking about chicken.

Well.. As you know Shannon and were planning on moving to Charlotte so she can start her internship at this cool place called Melange, and I was going to go to culinary school. Well the culinary thing fell through (still a sore subject so well move on) but long story short the Orr's are Charlotte bound.



Well yesterday was the second step in making that idea a reality. Looks like Aug 20th. 2009 we will no longer be homeowners. We signed the papers and the closing date is just about 2 months from now. Now this is a huge blessing and just as sad at the same time. Its awesome we had our house on the market for 7 days that's right we put it on the market last Thursday(06/11), Friday(06/12) we had a showing and then had the offer in on Tuesday(06/16) the paper signed yesterday(06/18). Now for the sad part...



Losing our Neighbors a.k.a. Wilsons, a.k.a. Melon stealer, a.k.a. Hunter watchers, a.k.a. FAMILY! Our 1st step in moving was Shannon getting her internship but that didn't really hit me. Now when I realized the house was selling it hit me like a ton of bricks. It got me thinking about our church family (who might is say is AWESOME) but really got me thinking about my neighbors the 1st people we met, when we moved out here just shy of 2 years ago. The Dulaneys what can you say.... I mean they've been there done that for almost everything, always wise, always open. They truly are the best neighbors anyone could have. I could go on and on then my eyes would water and then my sinuses will run and ill be miserable all weekend.

For those few of you that don't understand what the big deal is. The Dulaney's were one of the few family's I have been around that truly lead a Christin Life. We laugh about it now and finally see Gods awesome plan by placing us side by side. I was always open to someones religious views but felt like it just wasn't for me. Turn's out that right about the time we were moving in Daniel had just accepted a job as minister of administration at Southside Baptist church. I remember telling Shannon "great we have a preacher at the back door, there goes my social life" I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried. I remember when Daniel 1st started to talk to me about being a Christian, and me thinking yeah yeah he talks a good game but lets see how he really acts. I had been turned way from Christianity because of the massive amount of hypocrites, this was the one of the few times in my life I couldn't find anything hypocritical, and my wall started to come down. Long story short last Nov. I accepted Jesus as my personal savior and the decision came easy when I looked at how God had blessed me with such strong christian neighbors who through their love, I was able to receive Jesus' ministry. So now you see what the big deal is. It does help me to cope with moving away to think how exciting it is going to be to see how things develop with our predecessors.

Well with that said take a guess where we will be over the next few months trying to hang out with our neighbors and church family as much as we can. It really does help to remember God is in control, he wants more for us than we could ever want for ourselves. So as much as its going to stink not having Daniel, Lori, Grace Ann, and Drew just 30ft away. We both can take comfort and get excited about what new opportunities await us, because no matter if its 30ft or 3000 miles family is family.

With that said don't forget to help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered

Check out this Green Thumb.

Well Sat. will be our 4 week mark on our garden and I thought I would share some progress. I couldn't be happier with our "Babylonian Garden" a.k.a. Upside down tomato garden. Those guys have really taken off and I can't wait to start to get some fruits soon. (Yes tomatoes are fruits. Don't believe me click here) Yeah I know today's post is kind of boring. I was actually planning a big post yesterday seeing how it was Shannon and I's 2 year anniversary but I couldn't get the pictures I wanted to make it work. We didn't anything super exciting since were on a tight budget getting ready for our move to Charlotte in Aug. We just cooked up some Rendezvous Ribs, beans, french fries, and parker house rolls then took the dog for a walk. Yup pretty boring I know. Well back to the garden post hope you enjoy the photos and just leave me comment if you want any Fruits or Veggies when they start to produce. I have a feeling once those tomato's start we wont be able to keep up.

Full Garden and Buckets


We have Corn, Green beans, cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, carrots, sweet banana peppers, spicy mix peppers, and cantaloupe.


Check out these "BIG BOY" tomatoes. Remember this is like 3 and a half weeks. AWESOME HU.

Looks like I also have a hunter bug infestation. Shes also my spokesperson for having your pet spayed or neutered. Help control the pet population

Fun Cake

So its been a while since I've had a super fun cake. Well last week I was lucky enough to get a chance to do a pretty cool Surfboard and Shark cake for a little boys birthday. When doing some research to see what other cake pros have created I didn't see a single Surfboard cake that combined a shark so now was my chance to come up with a truly ORRIGINAL CAKE. The story behind it isn't all that interesting but like I said it was a fun cake and I thought since its been a while since I've blogged Id kind of show you the behind the scenes at Orriginal Cakes. ENJOY! Don't forget to have your pet spayed or neutered

1st you have the crumb coat for both the surfboard and shark head


Now I've got the Fondant covering the surfboard and painted the center line. FYI the surfboard is 27" its 1/3rd the scale of a real surfboard.

Now I got to add some color using the airbrush gun. Looks like a real surfboard hu?

Finally The Finished cake. Sorry I didn't take and photos of the shark getting made it was actually pretty quick and simple so I didn't have time. Anyways this is the cake hope you liked it.

Jordon the Lobster

Hello All! This is Shannon, for those who don't know, I am Jordon's wife. Jordon thought it would be fun for me to tell you all about our weekend! Surprising since my version is slightly different from his ;)

We decided that Sunday would be a perfect day to go to the beach. I had had a very hectic week, finals, papers, and interviews and was in need of a break (yes, we skipped church...shame on us;)) Jordon woke me up at 7:00 am, changing me into my swimsuit. I was slightly grumpy, but mostly very happy! We made it to the beach at around 9:00am got some sunscreen and bait and headed out to the water. The plan was for Jordon to fish and for me to read. While in the car I had put some sunscreen on my face, Jordon did not like how it smelled, eventually he had all the windows open and his head tilted out the window, haha. Once on the beach I started getting sunscreen on the both of us, the usual, he got my back I got his. He then asked if I would get his chest, I told him no, I wanted to get me and he could do himself (Jordon said I was being a very caring wife, lol). Well somehow in the process, he might have forgotten to sunscreen his chest. This is where our stories vary.

My Story: About an hour into being at the beach I reminded him that he did not get his chest and told him he was beginning to look red. I asked if he wanted any sunscreen, he said no. I asked again in a few hours, again he said no.

His Story: I never reminded him.

We stayed at the beach until 2:00pm, then got some Krystals. YUMMMMMMM!!!!!! We decided we would eat at the beach and went to Garden City beach. Jordon decided to try fishing again, he hadn't caught anything earlier. This time we caught several fish! It was pretty exciting because we haven't caught much before when surf fishing. Jordon let me reel in one which was exciting and enough for me.






This is where our stories differ again ;)

My Story: Once at Garden City Beach, I again reminded Jordon of his lack of sunscreen and offered to put some on, he again said no.

His Story: I did not remind him of his lack of sunscreen.

The result...


Okay, so that is from last year, but this year looks very similar. lol

Well, that is my version on our beach trip. We had a great time, hope you enjoyed reading about it! And don't forget to spay and neuter your dogs. They will only hate you for awhile.

Gimp

So I just realized its been almost 2 weeks since my last blog entry. Now I doubt anyone really noticed but just in case sorry... but in all fairness I did mention once the weather was nice I would be outside a lot. Lets see a few things since my last post #1 I realized I'm one chunky monkey I plan on doing a big blog on that at a later date. #2 I got my bubble popped on Monday 4/27 when I found out that Johnson & Wales has filled up their 2009 class and therefore I wont be able to go to culinary school until a later date (the pain is still to fresh to blog about. So I guess I'll fill you in on what I've been distracting myself with, I want to introduce you to GIMP. Now GIMP stands for General Image Manipulation Program basically its just like photoshop, but with one major difference. GIMP is FREE!!!!! It is an open source application available on Mac, Linux and PC's.

Now I am no way an expert or even remotely good at photo editing but that's the great thing about Gimp. I actually found it easier to use than my free trial of Adobe photoshop CS4, and with some help from Youtube I found plenty of tutorials. Below you can see some of the stuff I figured out just after a few hours of playing around. I will also put the photos in the order of how I did them just to show the learning curve.

Instant Liposuction

Logo Design

Silly Photo Editing

Pop Art


Tilt Shift Lens Effect


As you can see with a little creativity, patients, and youtube video help you can take some of your old photos and kick them up a notch. If you want to download Gimp for your computer just click Here. Well hope you enjoyed what I've done remember I've only been fooling around with this for just a couple of days. Let me know what you will be using Gimp for and for those who use it already feel free to leave me some tips. Since tips rhymes with snips it reminds me ask that you please help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Target Practice

Today was a pretty good day, with temps in the mid 70s and all the house work done it is time to relax. We were originally thinking we might get to go to the beach today but Shannon had to give the WAIS exam to some student and didn't get done till about 4. I thought i would be cute and set up the beach chairs in the back yard so that when she got home she could at least pretend we were at the beach, and that was nice until...... I realized our yard would make a perfect shooting range for the BB gun.



Now as you all know I'm a highly skilled marksman. I'm so good that the Navy Seals called me last week with questions about how to adjust for windage while they were trying to rescue the U.S. Captain from the Somalian Pirates. Now Shannon on the other hand.... this was her 1st time to use any kind of a weapon, and I will have to give her credit once she learned how to look through the scope she wasn't half bad. To make this fun for her I created a few targets to help ease her into it.



As you can see we have a plain ole Bulls Eye, then on the left is Zombie Man and on the right the evil Lord Voldermort. Now all those little black marks are shots. As you can see we payed attention in our Zombie survival classes and remembered you have to shoot them in the head. I guess the same goes for ole voldie too. haha but like I said as you can see for her 1st time Shannon did pretty good. While we were shooting we even got a few spectators. The Dulaneys' were hanging out doing their normal Friday Family night and some out ended up convincing us to try a "William Tell" shot with an Apple. And as you can see.......



I told you I was good. This led to a little friendly competition between Shannon and I and quickly spread to Daniel. Only thing he didn't want to have to drive around the block. Now If you remember we had a little gap in our fence that was small enough for hunter to get from the Dulanys in order to retrieve the occasional rouge Frisbee. Well we had talked about putting in a swing gate so we didn't have to pull a Wilson every time we wanted to talk, who knew today we would actually make come through on that plan.



Next thing you know we had the whole crew over here, and since Daniel couldn't hit the broad side of a barn we quickly moved from target practice to Bocce Ball. All in all it was a pretty good time Drew helped water my yard (twice) and couldn't get over he was now playing where Hunter plays. Grace Anne had fun creating her own game using practice golf balls and the cardboard box we used as a target. The girls watched for a while as Daniel and I faced off in some intense games of Bocce Ball (BTW hes actually pretty good at it actually both him and Lori were pretty good by the end of it all). All in all it was a pretty good afternoon. Maybe one day I can get Shannon out to a real range and put her skills to a test. With that said remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Take your stinking claws off me you DAMN DIRTY ANTS!

Ok I was out in the garden tinkering with my buckets for my upside down tomatoes and after about 3 minutes I felt like someone had taken a tazer to my left leg. I looked down to see it covered in these DAMN DIRTY FIRE ANTS. Now I know for those of you here in SC you guys are used to them or at least are better at avoiding them than I am, but for you folks back in Arkansas enjoy your freedom while you have it. As you can see they are coming for you.



Now I tried to get some photos but the little $#*@'s were hard to zoom in on. so I looked online and got some good visual aids check this out. This "artist" took liquid metal and poured it down a fire ant mound and let it solidify then he dug it up. Apparently this guy goes around now doing this to different mounds and is making a killing (no pun intended, ok maybe just a little pun). Just because I hate to waste a photo, the picture that just looks like dirt is about 1500 fire ants.



I don't really have much more to say other than I believe they are writing checks their thorax cant cash. They want war, ILL GIVE THEM WAR. If any of you Fire Ant Veterans have any tips please let me know. Remember help control these red devils and figure out how to spay and neuter them. Damn fire ants my leg is still burning.

LivingSocial

So I've been playing with this LivingSocial Application on Facebook and am having a really good time. I think it's kind of a cool way for people to get to know you a little better. It's neat to see how your friend's minds work, what they are interested in, what things you might agree on or even what new thing do they know about that you haven't discovered yet. Well I've decided in case any of you want to get to know more about me and what i like here are some screen shots of my answers. If you haven't added this app on facebook yet you need to. Check it and enjoy.









Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Now im offically rocking the Farmers Tan.

Ok sorry for the delay I was looking at the blog last night and realized it has been over a week since my last post. Well I have to apologize even though I doubt any of you really noticed. Although alot has gone on since my last post i have just failed to post about them So ill give you the cliffs notes then share a little of my weekend with you. On Tuesday I did a Memphis style boston butt for Clem and Kristen Coleman. It was about time someone introduced them to BBQ that wasn't cat food and pickle juice. Lets see what else.. Shannon and I and now Lori Dulaney have been tearing up the neighborhood on our bikes. Its always better to ride with a group. Top speed so far is 21mph. WOOHOO! Im sure there are some other things but I cant think of them right now. So I guess its on to my weekend.

1st It was time to get my Gardens in shape. As you can see here I have added some soil to my garden that i built last year and Shannon and I got our seeds planted. Our $25 investment should yield about $200-300 worth of fruits and veggies. Oh I will also be creating a few upside down tomato gardens so check back in the future for that blog.


After all of our work was done We got to play our new favorite sport Bocce Ball. Now normally we try and find some place that has good grass and flat surface like at the intramural fields at FMU but occasionally we will go for a wacky game in the back yard where you have to watch how you roll because one stray weed can send your ball completely off target. Just so that in future posts I can brag about how I beat Shannon I will admit this weekend was hers in the world of Bocce Ball. She beat me 75% of the time. Must be the grass getting its revenge since i was the one who had mowed it earlier this week,but we had a good time even Hunter tried to get in on the fun.



Last but not least of course we had to have a picnic. We were doing our grocery shopping last week and got a heck of a deal on tilapia fillets so we decided to do a nice southern fish fry. We of course just used our Zatarain's Crispy Seasoned Fish-Fri and coated our fish and Shrimp and went to town. Hey also wanted to point out something instead of breaking out or Fry-Daddy (which i think sucks it never keeps a normal temp and always stinks) I decided to try frying all this in my Wok. It worked perfectly from now on that is all I will fry in.


I guess that is the long and short of my weekend. If you ever want to know more about what I'm up to follow me on twitter. I have become a twitterholic. Well that is it for now. Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered

Spring has sprung.

I know Spring officially started March 20th, but it sure didn't feel like it until last weeks rain caused a growth spurt of weeds in my front yard. I want to also thank Spring for turning my normally blue suv into a truly "green" vehicle via 1 inch of pollen. Well I was actually going to go with a serious post on how to do some simple at home maintenance on your lawn mower, but..... along came YouTube.

I know its not your fault I got distracted so I'm going to hyper link some serious stuff before I get on to the good stuff.

Lawn mower maintenance.
Riding Lawn Mowers Txt
Riding Lawn Mowers Video

Push Mowers Txt.
Push Mowers Video


Weed Eaters
Weed Eater Video


Ok on to the fun stuff. I was looking for videos on how to service mowers when these popped up on my radar.







Ok well there is just a small sampling of what I found while doing research. If you want to see more just let me know and I can get you more links. Well don't forget to help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or nurtured. Happy mowing.

WHY?

Because I can that's why. Pretty slow day, had lunch with Clem and Kristen Coleman at the new Hibachi Grill. Good food, good conversation, good times. Seems we are all fans of random videos on Youtube. So since you all know I like to shake things up a bit I thought I would share one of my favorite youtube videos. WARNING some of you prudes may be to grossed out but the rest of you I think will find it pretty darn funny. With that said here is proof why we need to help control the pet population by having your pet spayed or neutered. After all who wants to swim in that now?

Open your eyes and take a fresh look at things!

Ever feel like your stuck in a rut? I know I have this week, I blame the the weeks worth of gray rainy skies we have had lately. Well since I cant go ride my bike or play outside I was searching the internet for neat stuff and I came across videos shot through Tilt Shift lenses. I have seen stills taken with this super cool lens before but now I found movies. It really puts things in perspective of how big the earth is. Check out these videos smartly titled Bathtub. ENJOY!








Ok well hope you liked it. Remember help control the pet population have your pet spayed or neutered.

ZOMBIE OUT BREAK!

THIS JUST IN. THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA IS REPORTING A MASSIVE ZOMBIE OUTBREAK!




How awesome is this. Today there is scheduled to be a Zombie Flash mob in downtown San Francisco. I found out about it through Twittering Zombies. You can also check'em out at SFZOMBIESWARM.COM Apparently it is a pretty big event that has been going on since 2005. Below is a video from last year as the zombies hunt for brains.  Bonus the video was filmed where there is always a fresh supply of nice juicy Genus sized brains, I am speaking of the THE APPLE STORE OF COURSE.



Well since the zombie outbreak is among us i guess there is no need to worry about the pet population so um... Help control the Zombie population remember you have to destroy the brain.

UPDATES

Found out there is a Zombie walk in Charlotte sometime in Oct., and i also took a quiz to see how i would fair if there was a zombie attack. I would have scored 100% but I chose to save Shannon rather than look out for myself. Take the test let me know what you scored.
74%

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

Duty Free

While i am still getting comfortable with twitter (by the way if you twitter then add me) I have decided to share some duty free media from across the sea. I often wish I was able to just travel the world but since that isn't really an option right now I have to get my travel fix via the internet. This is just a small selection of some of the stuff I check out.

1st. Top Gear: from UK
I know this isn't to out there because you can check out episodes on cable but still pretty awesome. Top Gear is a over the top automotive show usually featuring expensive high end vehicles but they also like to have fun with the cheap cars. Check out the video below where they play a game of darts.


2nd. DONT LAUGH from Japan
I cant follow everything that is going on since its in Japanese but basically each week they pull off pranks, gags, and stunts and the object is not to laugh at the other guys. I don't need a translator tell me how funny it is. check it out.


3rd. Paulo Nutini:UK
Ok now on to some music. Now I was just introduced to Paulo Nutini a few weeks ago but this kid has talent. Raised in Scotland hes only 19 and by the look of it this kid is going to go far. Below is his song "Last Request" but also very notable song is "New Shoes" check him out wont be long till he is all over the US.


4. Lily Allen: UK
Lily Allen is London's Pop Princess, now i will warn you i have yet to find a single song that doesn't have explicit lyrics warning but aside from that I kind of like it.


5. The Veronicas: Australia
Now I may catch some flack for this one. I know the sound is a little girly but some of their stuff is catchy, plus I am more about trying to get people to open their eyes and in this case ears and reach out and explore the music coming from down-unda.


Ok that's it. Don't forget help control the pet population have your pet spayed or neutered.

Jordon is trying TWITTER!

Twitter twitter twitter. Everyone is talking about twitter. Well after reading about how the church staff are the biggest Twitterers (is that what you call them?) in Florence, I decided to give it a try. This is mostly from the influence of one Mr. Daniel Dulaney aka Mr. Mann, aka MC DOOKIE D. Well I cant figure out how to work twitter but as i was researching on youtube I came across this awesome site. Xtranorma movie maker, their slogan is " If you can type you can make a movie". Now this was more my speed. Isn't it sad that it is easier to figure out how to make a movie than how to use twitter. Well Check out my 1st video hope you like it. Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

DEATH BY CHEESBURGER!

Todays Post is brought to you from the the Heart Attack Grill After having a "healthy" breakfast of biscuits smothered in sausage gravy, bacon, grits with cheese, sausage links, eggs, hasbrowns and a couple of french toast sticks. I was talking to Daniel about how i know I'm going to pay for this later but I should enjoy it while I can. Now before I get some of you lecturing me on my eating habits I usually am not so bad and plus I was up early this morning with the prayer walk at FMU so it cancels each other out. So as I was saying I know it isn't good to eat like this all the time but then we got to talking about a place I saw on the travel channel called Heart Attack Grill just south of Phoenix Az.




Now as the name implies this isn't your normal burger joint. 1st off you have the staff, Imagine Hooters meets Hospital. All the servers wear skimpy little nurse outfits, while the owner walks around with a lab coat and stethoscope. As far as menu, well your choices are pretty simple! There is the bypass, double bypass, triple bypass and quadruple bypass burgers. Next wheeze on up to the all you can eat "Flatline Frys" with calorie busting toppings including chili, cheese whizz, onions, mustard, mayo, ketchup and even hot bacon grease. As if you would need anything to help all that greasy goodness to slide down the beverage options are beer or 100% orginal Coca-Cola in a bottle. Now on to dessert, how about a nice unfiltered lucky strike cigarette? This place is over the top. I could go on and on about how they deep fry the buns to if you are able to eat a quadruple bypass burger that they will escort you to your car in a wheelchair. I have to say It makes me very curious but i dont know if could actually eat there. Let me know what you think check out the pics and video below and remember: Help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

OH YEAH I FORGOT THE BEST PART. OVER 350lbs? YOU EAT FOR FREE!. Beverage not included of course. haha imagine your 1st job having to clean the toilets at that place.

Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates life for me!

So i have to admit i really like the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. It kind of gets me pumped up and excited and also brings back a lot of memories from our honeymoon. In fact while we were in Destin Fl for our honeymoon the whole city was celebrating the "Billy Bowleg Pirate Festival" This was a pretty cool event. Everywhere you looked there was some sort of pirate theme. "Colors"(aka Pirate flags) were on every flag pole, street sign, boat, car and jet ski. Everyone from Shop vendors, to tourists also got into the spirit by being fully decked out in pirate gear. They even had a few authentic pirate ships floating on the open seas. Needless to say it was pretty awesome, esp. since while on our honeymoon we were able to catch a early screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End! Now this wasn't your normal early screening. This was a main Pirate event. The theater had hired about 50+ extras who were dressed as characters from the movie to pass out all kind of "loot" they even had a huge inflatable pirate ship for the kids to play with. We were kicking ourselves for leaving the camera at the condo but you can see Shannon decked out with her loot below (notice her anchor shirt, she doesn't mess around when it comes to being a pirate).



Ok now to the source of this post. I was playing on Youtube and i ran across a video of this 13 year old kid rocking the Pirate theme on a guitar. Now I am pretty creative but im afraid the music genes were saved for my brother. Now instead of being jealous i figure i would give props to these kids and help get them some coverage. Bonus cool factor is THESE ARE ALL KIDS and the are all PIRATES! So just take some time watch the videos. Check out all the different instruments they use to help pump up your inner pirate.










Ok thats it for the day. Let me know what your Pirate name is. Also remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

I wonder do YOU know HIM?

Well folks its a simple question. DO YOU KNOW HIM? I do and man oh HOW I LOVE HIM! Who do you ask? Just watch the video.



As some of you know Shannon has gone to Indy for the week to enjoy some time with her father and her family in that area until she goes to the Great Banquet on Thursday. This is the same event that i attended last Nov. and for the first time met Jesus. How my life has changed. What a blessing. I know some of you guys reading this are still a little shocked how i could now be a Christian. Well the answer is simple once you know Him you cant deny him. For those of you who want to learn more about Him. Ask me. Call me. Txt me and Facebook me, heck better yet call out for him.

In my small group at church we discussed how does the world perceive Christians. Well it got me thinking how did i look at Christian before I became one. I started to stereotype Christians as people who were judgmental, who were condemning, who where hypocrites. I thought the bible was a book about how to live your life with as little fun as possible and if you didn't do this you were going to hell and if you didn't do this God would not love you. I can't help but to laugh a little at that last statement because when i actually sat down with my own bible for the 1st time. This is what i saw.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

-1 Corinthians 13:4

Now does that sound like no fun? Does that sound threating? Does that sound cold? I look at that passage as a guide book to life. God created us to love one another. I want to challenge every one of you to print off this passage or memorize it and actually live by it for one week. I want you guys to focus on just this simple passage and report back to me next week. Let me know how it worked for you. You will be shocked how easy this challenge is amazing to see how quick it spreads. You want to have a great week? Simply Love one another. With that said remember help control the pet population have your pet spayed or neutered.

Chicken Blog

So you know how I wanted some Crawfish the other day? Well after talking to some locals I found out that apparently this part of the world isn't much of a fan of those tasty little mud-bugs. So it got me thinking, what do they like? Around these parts if you ask a local what their favorite meal is you get two answers, BBQ and Chicken Bog. Everyone has heard of BBQ so that is not so surprising though for someone who grew up on Memphis style BBQ, it is incredibly hard for me to consider Carolina BBQ as anything more than cat food and pickle juice. I'll have to save that story for another day, getting back to the other SC staple CHICKEN BOG.

Chicken Bog according what I've found online and what i hear from the locals was started right here in the Pee Dee region of SC. Chicken Bog in essence is a fairly simple dish consisting of chicken, onions, rice, butter, salt, and pepper. Now the fun thing about Chicken Bog is everyone has their "own" variations that can include adding sausage, bacon, bell peppers,and carrots. There seems to be only 2 rules to making your "signature" Chicken bog those are, Don't call it Chicken and Rice and don't spice it up to much. I might have a problem with the spices, learning how to cook at Ole Miss we had our share of Cajun influences. Now i have to be honest, I have actually never tasted any local Chicken Bog but Shannon seems to get it at least every couple of weeks at work. So with her as my taste tester I decided to give it a whirl.

Jordon's Chicken Bog
* 1 whole chicken
* 1 Bag of med grain rice
* Lowerys Season salt.
* 2 small onions
* Large pot and lots of water

Basically its really simple all I did was poke a few small holes in the skin of the chicken and rub the meat with some seasoned salt. Then i placed my bird in a hot bath and brought it up to a boil which created a rich broth. I continued to let the chicken cook for about an hour until the meat was at 180*



Once the chicken was cooked I took it out of the water and set it aside to let it cool off for a bit then because i didn't measure how much water I had put in the pot the first time i actually transferred the "broth" into another pot. Then I chopped up my onions and put them in the emptied stock pot with a little butter just to get them going. After the onions cooked for just a bit i started to measure out the "broth". I added 14 cups of broth and using the 2:1 ratio I added 7 cups of rice.



While the rice was coming to a boil, Shannon started getting the chicken ready. After removing any remaining skin and fat, she simply had to lift the bones right out of the meat. After tearing it into bite size pieces we added it to the rice mixture gave it a quick stir and walked away for about 25-30 and bada bing bada boom we had Chicken Bog.



I have to say, I was very hesitant to try this SC "feel good" meal based off my past experiences with SC BBQ but I have to say. Chicken Bog you sure are mighty tasty. Shannon gave it a clean plate stamp of approval, she did say that the version she eats at work is slightly different in its texture but she actually preferred this version. I apparently also got 2 thumbs up from the Dulaney Crew (my awesome neighbors). So all in all its pretty good, I did end up cheating and adding some Zatarans Blackened Seasoning to mine, but if i were out in public and had to eat it plain that would be okay to. Well that's about it for my chicken bog experience hope you guys enjoyed and will try it if you haven't yet. Other than that remember help control the pet population and have you pet spayed or neutered.

Heroes

Hero - Bonnie Tyler

As some of you know last weekend i was feeling very puny from a little virus that was going around, well best medicine for me is to get out and do something. So Sunday Shannon and I went to the Julia and got two tickets to Watchmen for $6 (That's $6 total hence why we go to the Julia). Well though I thought the movie pretty much stunk, it did get me thinking about one thing. Heroes! We crave heroes, now heroes come in many shape, sizes, colors, genders, and powers. Some people prefer their heroes to be of a super race with unbelievable powers like Superman, while others relish the fact that their favorite hero can simply don a rubber suit and transform from rich playboy Bruce Wayne into Batman. The point is we all love Heroes.



Well this got me thinking. Why do we idolize all these heroes then when our chance to be one we simply look the other way? How many times have you looked back at a situation and said to yourself "I should have done something?" I'm not talking about storming into a burning building and trying to pull out 50 orphans with one arm and a flock of nuns with the other. I am talking about the last time you were out to dinner and you saw a man strike a woman. Or a parent blatantly abusing a child? When was the last time you drove down the road and saw a person who was in need of assistance, but thought oh someone else will stop? These acts aren't your WHOP BAM POW actions from the comic books or movies but they are still heroic. Now there are two types of heroes in my book. The Boy Scout heroes, and vigilante heroes.


Personally... I kind of like the vigilante heroes myself. The idea for this post came to me last night after i was reading the local news about how a mother and grandmother were arrested because her 4 year old child got into moms cocaine stash. It just made me sick. $1000 bond and the they were free. Are you kidding me? Where is the justice in that? The question comes to morality. Is it okay to break the law if by you breaking the law you help uphold justice? While you think about that i want you to look at this, and this, and this, and this, and go a head click here.


So I guess now the only question is. Should i pick a animal persona as my cover or just a really awesome name and costume? Please comment and give me some ideas on what you would call yourself if you were a hero also what powers would you want if any at all. That's about it for now remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.