We won! We win on all counts!

We won! We won on all counts and won our counterclaim, in which they awarded us 2.5 million dollars in damages. Woo hoo!

You know what I'm the happiest about though. I'm happy that we were able to restore the reputations of the good people we were defending. Having worked with these guys on this case for the past year, it has become more about helping them get their lives back than anything else. I'm just so happy that we could do that. It was pretty emotional in the courthouse after the verdict was read.

I'm still buzzing about it and I'm super happy with the outcome. We couldn't have hoped for a better result. It's just so nice to see the results of all of the hard work and long hours put into this case turn out in your favor.

You know what's really crazy though. I made the news. I'm just the Litigation Support guy, but I was featured on Channel 4, not once, but twice. I'm not so sure what was so interesting about me leaving the courtroom that they had to show me twice, but they did.

So, here is the link to the video of the story. I'm the guy the first focus on when they show people leaving. You know, the good looking guy trailing behind the other large group of people.

http://www.kmov.com/video/topvideo-index.html?nvid=197440&shu=1

Woo hoo!

Light up your life this Christmas

I was just over at OpticsPlanet.com checking out some flashlights and I thought I'd share.

If you haven't been over to OpticsPlanet.com before, you need to head on over there and take a look around. They've got TONS of neat stuff over there.

They've got binoculars, telescopes, sunglasses, goggles, prescription goggles, rifle scopes, range finders, spotting scopes, microscopes, and flashlights, of course.

I was personally looking at the Streamlight Strion Flashlight, myself. That thing is super bright and really small. Where I need the most light, I don't have room for a big flashlight, so I need a superbright light in a very small package.

Check out OpticsPlanet.com if you haven't been there before. They even have a Gift Guide for you.

Wonder Woman!

I just read over on Ain't It Cool News that an Austrailian supermodel named Megan Gale will be playing Wonder Woman in the new Justice League movie. I've posted her picture and wow. They got it right. She certainly looks like an Amazonian Godess to me.

One thing I want for Christmas...

What I really need for Christmas is a Human Touch HT-7450 Zero Gravity Massage Chair. Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

Not only is this chair the ONLY brand recommended by the American College of Chiropractic Orthopedists, but it claims to reverse the adverse effects of gravity on the body.

This sucker uses the Quad Roller system, which imitates massage techniques like Percussion, Rolling, Compression, and Kneading. It will literally work out your knots and ease your sore muscles. I could use a little of that.

Not only will this chair simulate a massage by a masseuse. It is engineered to calibrate to the body frame of the individual sitting in it so it focuses on the right areas of your body. You can even get optional features like heat or a foot massage.

So, go ahead and add that chair to my Christmas wish list. You can go ahead and pick yourself up one while your buying one for me. Hop on over and get our Massage Chairs whenever you get a few minutes free.

Another day...

Here we are, another day without a verdict. I spent all day yesterday doing a big fat nothing while sitting in the courtroom waiting for a decision. I hope we get a verdict today. That would be nice.

Considering the Lap-band?

I've talked about this before, but my mother underwent the lap-band surgery not too long ago. She's down around 35 lbs or so and we're all really proud of her.

For those of you just catching up, the lap-band surgery is an adjustable gastric band that helps you lose weight.

I could explain it in greater detail, but I think that would best be left up to the professionals over at lap-band Houston . Check out the link and see if it's right for you.

lap-band Houston

The Joker is wild!

The Joker from the new Batman movie is on the cover of Empire magazine. I think he looks pretty darn good. Sure, it's a little bit of a twist on the Joker, but I think in a good way. He still looks like the same sociopathic killer we all know and love. Dare I say it, he even looks a bit scary. Anyway, there it is.

Confess your sins to Sweeny Todd

Come one, come all. Vent your aggressions and confess your sins of revenge.

Seriously though, this is pretty neat. In a promotion for the new Tim Burton movie, Sweeny Todd, which looks fantastic, there is a confessional open online to share stories of revenge. First thing, visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site, and then go the Confessional to share your story. If you'd like, you can even visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace.

I have a confession of revenge that I'll make right here and now. It may not be a bloody path of bodies in the vein of Sweeny Todd, but to me, it felt so good at the time.

I went on a trip with a friend of mine a long time ago and we ended up running into Doug Bradley, the actor who played Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies, so we wanted to get his autograph. The only thing we had at the time was a clothespin (don't ask). So, we pulled the clothespin apart and had him sign each half. It was funny to us since we had pinhead signing a clothespin. Anyway... Since we didn't want to lose the clothespin halves, we reassembled the clothespin and put it away. Well, after we got back home from our trip, I went to his house to visit and I asked for my half of the clothespin. He didn't have it. He had given my half away to another mutual friend. It wasn't the mutual friend's fault, he didn't know that the pin was mine. I wasn't happy about it and I thought it was pretty low to do something like that.
I could have socked him in the eye or something similar, but I didn't. I waited.

I waited months, until we both were attending a party where there was a lot of drinking going on. When my friend was good and drunk, I swiped the clothespin from him, as he had it on him (again, don't ask). I kept the clothespin for a few weeks, then I burned it. It felt good to do it. I thought, if I don't deserve it, then he definitely doesn't. The only person who will keep a half of the clothespin will be the innocent party who received it unknowingly.

I know, I know. It's not exactly "MuaHaHaHa" material, but I never promised greatness. I only promised revenge, and to me, it was ever so sweet.

Will they or won't they...

So, the jury did some confusing stuff today. First, the bailiff came out with a message that they are skipping their afternoon break in order to push through on an issue. This was at around 2:30 pm, by the way. He didn't say if it was the last issue or what.

So, then at about 3:20 pm today, the jury announced that they are calling it a night and going home. This is a little odd because they normally work until 5, at least. There is an odd contributing factor though. The alternate jurors were released at around 3 pm today.

So, the theory is that the jury has come to a decision, but doesn't want to actually give the verdict until the alternates are there as well. The whole jury has grown close in the 3 and 1/2 months that this trial has taken, so we think they might want everyone there when they read it.

We're somewhat expecting a verdict first thing tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! I'll post the results.

It's Christmas time! Why not buy a house.

A lot of the problems people are having with the housing market right now are, in my opinion, due to a lack of knowledge about the home loan industry and how to get the best loan for their actual needs. They let someone talk them into something they know nothing about. Well, it's about time you learned something about that mortgage. Click the links to find a good mortgage rate and a decent mortgage broker.

Waiting on a verdict...

For those who are just joining us, or for those who don't pay attention, I work as a Litigation Support Analyst for a law firm. I am currently working a trial which is coming to an end.

Well, we gave the case to the jury at 4:50pm on Monday and we're waiting for the verdict. Generally, when the case is over, you have a "gut" feeling as to how it went and how you expect the verdict to come out. Time and time again though, that gut feeling is wrong. You just never know what a jury is thinking and anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional or selling something.

Of course, the most nervewrecking part of a trial is waiting for the verdict to come back. Although, I'm only emotionally invested in the outcome, I'm not professionally invested like the attorneys. If we don't win the case, it doesn't go on any record kept on me, it's just another notch of experience on my belt. To an attorney, it's another factor in how well their career will go. Lose too many cases and nobody is going to want to have you try their case. If you win, well, then bigger and better cases start coming your way. For me, a big trial is the same, win or lose, on my resume. So, while I want to win because of all of the hard work I put into the trial, my career isn't riding on it. Sometimes it's good to be on the sidelines like this.

Business cards for bloggers.

So, this is neat. This website is giving away 100 FREE business cards to help promote your blog. That's pretty cool, eh? They are an easy way to let people know about your blog out in your everyday life. You can leave some on a message board at the local college if your blog would be of interest to them, or you can hand them out to people in any niche where you think people might be interested in reading your thoughts.

The only thing is that you do have to pay for shipping. Which is not bad if you consider that the paper and effort going into the cards is being covered by the company. So, sign up to get some free cards.

Secrets of putting a two year old to bed?

I was just curious if anyone out there has a secret to getting a two year old to stay in their bed at bedtime?

It is a constant struggle to keep her from climbing out of bed and trying to play when she should be going to sleep. We have a set routine with her bath just before bedtime. Her twin sister doesn't have any problems going to bed. It's just the one.

It's driving my wife and I crazy. If anyone has any ideas. Please post them in the comments.

Traveling? Win free tickets!

I saw this and thought you all might be interested. If you sign up for the e-newsletter at Trusted Tours and Attractions, you are automatically signed up to win four free tickets to attractions and tours in 21 different cities. If you're going to be traveling sometime, and who isn't, you might as well sign up, right?

Even if you're not a big winner, I never am, you can still get cheap tickets to attractions in San Diego, Savannah, and Key West.

Ah...Key West. I would LOVE to go to Key West. A perfect day in Key West would be a full day of deep sea fishing off the coast and then a walk down Duval Street in the evening. I also like a good ghost tour, and I hear they have some good ones there.

I'm a little bit of a history nerd sometimes, much to my wife's dismay. So, I'd be all over the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, the Key West Pirate Soul Museum, the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, and the Schooner Liberty Day Sail where you get to actually help crew in sailing an authentic 1800s Schooner. How much would that rock?

I love sailing, so I'd be all over the sailing tours. A day cruise here, a sunset cruise there. If I had it my way, I'd spend most of my time on a sailboat. Ah, that'd be the life.

Wow. I gotta get down there soon.

The stuffed dog...

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but somehow, my daughter convinced her great-grandmother to buy her a life size stuffed dog. Her great-grandmother hates dogs and would never normally buy one, stuffed or otherwise. The only thing she said was that "she wanted it", but there must be more. I'll have to investigate.

It's very odd to have a life size stuffed dog around the house. Now, I've had dogs all of my life up until about two years ago when we discovered that one of my daughters is allergic. So, I had to give my dog to my mother and that's where she's been ever since. Well, now, it's like having a dog in the house again...for about 3 seconds at a time, until I realize it's not real.

Seriously, I'm astonished at how often I walk into the room and think it's real. I have also gotten up from the couch or off of my chair and bumped into it and said "move dog", which is what I normally said to my dog when it was in my way. I know, I know, it sounds much harsher than it was. We had an understanding.

Of course, this dog doesn't shed and is a whole lot cheaper to feed.

Bringing someone new into Digital Photography

As of this minute, I have 5943 digital pictures stored on my hard drive. Roughly three quarters of them were taken with my Nikon D50 and the rest were mostly taken with my previous camera, a Sony Cybershot.

I have to tell you, I LOVE my D50. There is a world of difference going from a point and shoot to a DSLR. Of course, there is a world of difference going from a film camera to a digital camera, which is exactly what my wife's young cousin is doing.

My wife's cousin is almost 15 and we're going to be going in with his aunt and getting him a digital camera for Christmas. So, I've been scouring the web for the right camera at the right price. While I love my Nikon DSLR, it looks like we're going to go with Canon cameras for the cousin. I like the Powershot for him. It's the right price for what we want to spend and it seems to have all of the features that he'd like. It's also compact enough for him to bring with him on all of his 15 year old adventures, so to speak.

Personally, I'm saving up for a new lens for my Nikon D50. I really want the Nikkor 18-200 VR lens, but it's rather expensive, so I stash a little bit away here and there. I should be able to pick it up in a few months if I'm diligent about saving. Hopefully, that is.

Regardless, digital photography is the future. Heck, it's not even the future, it's the present. Everything is digital today, so I'm glad to be helping to usher my wife's cousin into the digital photography age. I hope he loves digital photography as much as I do.

Rescue Dawn

I watched the movie Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale, Jeremy Davies, and Steve Zahn. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's based on the true story of how Lt. Dieter Dengler escaped a POW camp in Vietnam.



Now, those people expecting a Rambo-esque story with lots of shooting and killing are going to be disappointed. This is a story of survival. This about how a normal person under extraordinary circumstances can do extraordinary things.



One of the things about this movie that really stands out with me is the relationship between all of the prisoners in the POW camp. There was some serious tension there. Nobody really trusted anyone else, and each person was doing the same thing as the next guy, trying to survive. It wasn't like a normal POW type of movie where nobody likes the new guy, then something happens, and they all rally behind him. This was realistic in that these other POWs who had been there for about two years, did what they needed to to survive. They were all a bit crazy, some more than others, which would be expected in that kind of situation. Nothing goes exactly right and nothing happens as expected.

I highly recomend the movie to anyone who likes these types of movies. Anyone who likes realistic survival movies are going to love this one. They don't get too much better than this.

It's Payday loan season

With the holidays approaching so quickly, I wanted to mention a thing about Faxless Payday Loans. Payday Loan Quotes is providing a Payday loan calculator to see how much a Payday loan really costs you. While I don't agree with Payday loans most of the time, there are some times when it can help someone out in a really tight spot. So, check out the calculator, but be cautious with it.

I survived Thanksgiving

Well, I survived Thanksgiving. It was touch and go there for a bit, but I made it through.

Each year, we trade off holidays with my family and my wife's family. Well, this is the year that we spend Thanksgiving with my wife's family and Christmas with my family. Well, we decided to do Thanksgiving at our house this year. Mostly because I am working the trial and can't really leave town because of it.

What was supposed to be a quiet Thanksgiving with my wife's parents turned into a big family reunion, of sorts. My wife's sister got invited, then the brother, then the aunt, then the grandparents. Several of these invitations were basically just courtesy invitations and we did not expect them to actually show up. We were surprised as can be when they said they would be here. Of course, at that point, you can just recall the invitation and say you were just kidding. So, we had to accommodate them all.

As an odd twist of events, what I expected to be a quiet weekend for work turned into a fairly busy weekend as my help was needed to prepare the presentation for closing statements in the trial I am working. This is pretty bittersweet in that I was somewhat happy to get away from the fiasco of my wife's family, but I was not very happy to have to work over a holiday weekend. To add to the problem, my wife was excessively annoyed that I had to work. Pissed might even be a better word for it. It was quite the cause of tension between us as well.

It all worked out though. I did have to work and the wife wasn't happy about it, but we got through it. I was able to wrap things up yesterday and didn't have to work today, so she is happy about that. Especially since everyone from her family left either last night or early today. She would have been alone if I had to work. I'm sure she'd be stressed and upset about it. I want to keep her happy as much as possible. You know what they say, "Happy wife, happy life".

The Artwalk in St. Augustine, Florida.

Now, this is cool. In St. Augustine, Florida, on the first Friday of every month, they have Artwalk. The St. Augustine Artwalk is a free, self guided art tour of the local galleries in the art district. They even have shuttles running every 30 minutes.

I particularly like Peter O'Neill, one of the featured artists. His skyscapes are really great, especially the dark and stormy ones. There is one piece that I find really interesting. It is called Second Look and it's a close view of a woman glancing at your from over her glasses. What I find interesting about it, is the perspective changes each time I look at it. I'll look at it and she'll look very seductive, then I'll look again and I see a little bit of disdain in her glance, like she's been interrupted and she's annoyed.

I'm also amazed by the paintings of Sydney McKenna, whose paintings can be so realistic they look like photographs. I'm completely amazed by that kind of talent.

Regardless of your artist tastes, I'm sure you'll find something you would like. So, if you're in the St. Augustine area, you should definitely head down and check it out. Remember, it's the first friday of every month.

Inept attorneys

Never in all of my years in the legal industry have I come across such inept attorneys as our opposing council in the trial I am working on now. Let me tell you what happened.

Certain things are agreed upon in a trial. You can mention certain things, you can do certain things. Objections are made and decided on by a judge. Well, in this particular trial, certain information about insurance are not to be mentioned or shown on any document. Well, not only did they mention it in their opening statement, but numerous exhibits contained the information which should have been redacted from the document.

So, weeks go by with objections made and warnings given by the judge. Well, after insurance information shows up in two documents shown on the same day, the judge warns the plaintiff that if it happens again, there will be serious repercussions. She gave them strict instructions that two attorneys are to review the document and speak the words on the document aloud to each other so that it is impossible to miss the forbidden information.

Well, guess what happens the VERY NEXT DAY. Yep, they showed a document containing insurance information. Well, the judge gets super pissed. Of course, the attorneys attempt to throw their litigation support person under the bus and blame her, but the judge is no fool and doesn't fall for it. She said that she gave strict instructions that the documents were to be read aloud to each other and that obviously didn't happen or they would have caught the infraction. So, she sanctioned them. She forbid them to show any exhibits for the rest of the trial. They can read them into evidence, but they cannot show the jury any documents. Is that crazy or what?

So, for weeks and weeks, they go on reading from documents and occasionally quoting things that the jury can't see. This seems to confuse the jury more than anything. Of course, as not to taint the jury, they are not informed of the punishment and I'm sure they are confused as to why the plaintiff has just stopped showing any exhibits.

Well, they finally turned over to defense and we put on our case. A week or so later, we rested our case and the plaintiff now wants a rebuttal. In the argument for rebuttal, one of the plaintiff attorneys begs the judge to lift the sanction and allow them to show exhibits. They promise that all of their documents have been reviewed and redacted. They have learned their lesson. Apparently not.

The judge gave in and lifted the sanction. Anyone want to take a guess as to what was NOT redacted on the very first document they displayed? That's right, insurance information. The judge was hot, to say the least. She immediately reinstated the sanction and I'm really surprised they didn't get hammered with anything else. I'm not sure what she could have done outside of calling a mistrial though. She gave them lots of speeches about how disappointed she is with them. It was like a mother speaking to a child.

Here is where I would normally give the warning as to never hire this law firm, nor apply for a position at this law firm, but I don't want to mention their name. I wouldn't want to get sued...they are a law firm, after all.

Easing the pain.

Let me tell you a story about my dear mother. You can see the picture of her with her grandchildren to the right. Well, it's those grandchildren that have inspired her to better herself. You see, my mother is very overweight, but she has recently decided to change that. She wants to live as healthy as possible so she can stick around to see her grandchildren grow up. Having not succeeded in numerous previous attempts at losing weight herself, she went to the doctor for help. She found that she was an ideal candidate for the lap band. So, earlier this year, she underwent the lap band surgery.

Since undergoing the surgery, she has started losing a lot of weight. She's dropped around 35 pounds so far and still going. Now that she's lost some weight, she wants to step it up and start excersising as well. Of course, we're very happy about this, but there is a hicup in this plan. My mother has some pretty bad athritis. Most of her joints hurt, but her hands, wrists, knees and ankles are the worst. The pain makes it difficult to get any exercise, but she usually doesn't let it stop her. She takes some medicine and puts an ointment on her joints, such as Freeze It Gel. The ointment helps a ton. She massages it into the joints and the pain almost completely goes away. Not only does it help during the exercise, but it helps afterwards as well. She uses the ointment to rub into sore muscles to help recovery as well. It helps all around.

She uses this ointment almost every day. Right now, she exercises three days a week and is doing great. She is thinking about adding another day to her regimin as well. She really is trying hard and we are so proud of her. We keep up the positive motivation so she doesn't give up. I know her grandkids want her around for a long time, and so do we.

Cloverfield trailer

The trailer for the new J.J. Abrams movie called Cloverfield is out. There was a cryptic teaser that showed up before the Transformers movie, but it didn't have a title then and nobody knew anything about it. Now the trailer is available. Everyone should Check it out, it looks wicked!

You can buy tactical Police gear online

So, I'm searching around for some tactical gear for paintball and I run across 511 tactical. This place is freakin' cool. They have everything except the badge on this site. You could completely S.W.A.T. yourself out on this site. I'm going to buy a few things here instead of the army surplus store. This place rocks.

Sickening

I live just a few minutes away from where THIS happened. I'm completely sickened by this. I have two little girls and feel like I have little hope for their future when I see this kind of thing. Sure, this is an extreme example, but this sort of thing happens all the time.

For those of you just checking in, the article I linked to is about a young girl who lives in O'Fallon, MO who was the victim of a year long hoax by someone she used to be friends with. The worst part is that the whole thing started with the mother of the girl's ex-friend. She created a fictional kid on MySpace to try and find out if the other girl was saying anything negative about her own daughter. The whole thing snowballed until that family decided to end it and did it in a very cruel way. It ended in such a way that the victim of the hoax took her own life.

Now, normally, I'm somewhat less sympathetic of any kind of suicide for selfish reasons. I tend to be somewhat more sympathetic to young teenagers though. I think every teenager jumps right to the suicide conclusion to some sort of heartache they feel, but most come to their senses. I remember my early teens and at that stage of development, sometimes you don't really see the big picture and on top of that, hormones can make you do crazy things. I'm not surprised that every once in a while someone goes through with it. It's just sad when it happens.

I can't imagine something like this happening to one of my girls. They say that the neighbors had to hold the father back from going over and hurting the family who played the hoax. He said he wanted to kill them. I'm not sure I could be talked down.

Ok, so it wasn't The Mist...

Years ago, I read a short story called The Mist by Stephen King. That particular story had an effect on me. The isolation. The impending doom. The fear of hysteria taking over and your own friends and family turning on you. It was scary stuff. Oh yeah, and there were monsters too.

Skip ahead a few years. It's deep into winter and there is a snowstorm blowing things around. I ended up at a department store shopping for clothes. It really wasn't snowing that badly when I left the house and arrived at the store. It was coming down, but it wasn't anything unmanageable.

An hour or so later, by the time I was ready to leave, this steady snowstorm had turned into a blizzard. I couldn't see the cars in the parking lot from the door. It was really bad out there. It didn't seem safe enough to go wandering out into the parking lot, much less take the car (assuming that you can find it) out on the road. I was stuck.

Looking around, I started noticing everyone else who was waiting with me. My thoughts started drifting to who these people were who were stuck with me. I started thinking about The Mist. Sure, it wasn't a mist out there, but it was white and just as blinding. Of course, there weren't any monsters in the blizzard. At least, I hope there weren't any monsters in the blizzard.

As my thoughts made a turn for the worst, I started looking around and thinking about who was going to make it and who would surely die. Just as soon as I started assigning deaths to the people trapped in that store with me, the blizzard let up and people started venturing out into the parking lot. I waited for a few people to make it to their cars before heading out myself. I wanted to make sure that something didn't swoop down and snatch the up. Nothing did, of course.

So, maybe my story isn't exactly like the story version of The Mist. It was snow and not a mist, and I wasn't trapped there nearly as long. Oh yeah, and there weren't any monsters eating people. That too.

Dane Cook

So, I recently picked up Dane Cook's new comedy album Rough Around the Edges. As a fan of his first two albums, I was looking forward to this one. His HBO special, Vicious Circle, was decent, but not quite up to par with the first two CDs. This new album falls in with Vicious Circle. That's not to say it's bad, it's just not as good as the earlier stuff. His delivery is spot on, but the material isn't quite as funny.

Basically, if you like Dane Cook, I'm sure you'll enjoy the album, as it's Dane Cook doing his thing. If you never liked Dane Cook or you are sick of him due to an oversaturation of him recently, this album isn't going to change your mind.

I love the smell of flying paint in the morning!

It wasn't so long ago that I was crawling through the woods, nervously looking around for any sign of the enemy, then all of a sudden I would see movement. I would cautiously move in that direction and take aim. A few minutes later, someone would get a surprise shower of paint.
Of course, that same scenario sometime ended with a flurry of flying paint spraying in my direction from some unseen assassin.

Of course, those days for me were way too long ago. I have since sold my gun and mask and haven't played paintball in a couple of years. A few days ago though, one of my old paintball buddies gives me a call and wants to put the team back together. Of course, I was all over it.

So, the first thing I need to do is get some good equipment again, right? I'm somewhat partial to the Spyder brand, so I was specifically looking for a spyder paintball gun to re-equip myself with. I ran across this site called, of course, Ultimate Paintball, and they have a TON of paintball guns there. They have everything you could possibly need for your paintballing needs. They've got Tippmann A-5, Tippmann 98 Custom, Smart Parts Ion, and the ever sweet Spyder Pilot ACS.

So, I ordered my mask and gun and I'm off to the army surplus store to pick up some new camo. With a bit of luck, I'll be spraying paint across the field of battle again very soon. Perhaps I'll see you there, or more likely, you won't see me there, but you'll feel the sting of my paint.

Shaving for money...sometimes it's not worth it.

So, there is a research company near me that do razor studies every once in a while. They pay $20 a day to shave with them. Sometimes, these studies run several weeks, which results in a payout of several hundred dollars. Nice eh?

Well, the problem is this. The razors they are doing the studies on have to be the worst pieces of junk you have ever scraped across your face. I frequently cut myself and I'm always red and irritated afterwards. For $20 a day though...it's worth it, right?

Sometimes...OK, most times, I'm not so sure. When I have to explain why my face is so red or cut up, I'm not so sure.

I shaved today with them and my face is irritating me right now...so now would be a time when I'm not so sure it is worth it.

I keep saying to myself that it isn't worth it and I'm not going to do another one. Of course, every time they call and ask if I want to participate, I always say yes. I guess I'm just a sucker for free money, even at the risk of my comfort.

A Cool Garage!

So, I was stuck watching Oprah with my wife the other night, and they had some woman on who was hoarding things. She was buying all sorts of stuff and stashing it everywhere. The show was semi-interesting, but then during the big reveal of her house after these people came in and organized her house, they showed her new garage. Of course, the only thing I got out of the show was how cool the garage looked. The walls had panels on them that allowed you to hang all of your tools on them, anywhere you want, and the garage floor had the coolest non-slick checkerboard pattern. I thought that the floor was really cool and I started looking online to see what something like that would set me back. I have to tell you, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The best place I found for garage flooring and everything else from that garage on TV was at CarGuyGarage.com. That place is awesome! It is definitely where you want to go if you want to build the ultimate "guy's" garage. You need to check that out.

The trial is almost over!

For those who don't know, I am a Litigation Support Analyst for a lawfirm in Saint Louis, MO. A Litigation Support Analyst basically prepares and maintains evidenciary databases. There is a lot that goes into that, from electronic discovery, scanning, database maintenance, and takes it all the way to trial. Trial doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it completely changes your job description for a short time. You work crazy hours because there is a ton of unpredictable work to do in a very short amount of time. What you'll be doing is creating exhibits, cutting video clips, running the presentation in trial, and everything and anything in between. Well, the end of the trial this week, with closing statements to be given the Monday following Thanksgiving.

Well, the end of the trial I am working is very bittersweet.

On one hand, it is a lot of time away from my wife and kids. I frequently have to work late nights and weekends to make sure we are ready to go for the next day's trial presentation. It is sometimes very stressfull with extremely tight deadlines and impossible tasks to be done.

On the other hand, all of that time is paid overtime. My checks are huge, which make the long hours a little easier to get through. Also, there is a comradery there that normally isn't felt at the office. The results of your work are almost immediately seen, which is very satisfying. If you really put some long hours in to get something done or make something happen, it is almost always because it will be used or done the very next day in court. What you do the night before could be the difference between a good day and a bad day in court.

Overall, I really enjoy trial. I love the bonding that takes place between my coworkers and myself. Although, I couldn't do it all of the time. It's very taxing on the body and mind. Almost everyone goes on vacation once a trial is over. You need the vacation. Also, you can afford to go on vacation with all of the OT money you made. I am looking forward to taking some time off and spending it with my family.

Fun toys!

I recently received package of stuff to try out and review. The stuff all came from a company called Vat19 who sell all sorts of really entertaining novelty stuff like a USB Missile Launcher and various other things. What I received were three things. I received Color Flames Colored Candles, 1 Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencil, and Insta Snow Fake Snow Powder. I'm going to tell you about all three, briefly.

First, the Color Flames Colored Candles. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to tell you about this one. Since it wasn't someone's birthday and I didn't have any other occasion to use colored candles, such as a power outage at a rave, I didn't get to really use them. I lit them, and they looked really neat with their colored flames, I can't really attest to their use. I imagine that would be fun at a kid's party. They would DEFINITELY be a lot less annoying than those candles that relight themselves that your favorite uncle seems to think are hilarious...year after year.

Second, the 1 Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencil. This one was kind of neat. As far as functionality goes, I mean, it's a pencil. It doesn't do anything other than what you would expect of a pencil. It writes and then if you flip it over, it erases. One thing that is kind of neat though is that it's made from recycled newspapers. That's pretty cool. The main selling feature of pencil is that it smells. The pencil I received was scented cherry. I tell you what, it smelled good. It was strong too. I've seen scented pencils before and they always have a very light smell that you can really only smell when you've got the dang thing right up to your nose and you're sucking in air like a hoover. At the end you're light headed and you "think" you might have smelled Cinnamon, or whatever scent that the pencil is supposed to be. Well, this pencil is definitely not like that. It was pretty strong and it apparently lasts pretty long too. Now, I haven't done a two month blindfolded study or anything, but I left the pencil out of it's little smell containing holder and it didn't seem to lose an ounce of its scent. Oh, and it writes and erases as you would expect a pencil to.

The last thing I looked at was the Insta Snow Fake Snow Powder. Now, I don't know exactly what they make this stuff out of, but it's awesome. I mean, truly awesome. It's just this white powder that you add water to and it becomes an instant pile of snow. Well, warm snow that doesn't melt, that is. This stuff would be great to play practical jokes with. I imagine this stuff would be very popular in college dorms.
I have two little girls who loved the stuff too. What they loved most was watching the snow grow and form. They kept having me do it over and over again. I ran out of the small package I was sent pretty quickly. I now know what I'm getting them for Christmas this year as one of their stocking stuffers.

As a parting thought, I wanted to say that the Vat19 website has a ton of neat stuff on there. I spent a ton of time browsing all of the fun toys while I was checking to make sure that the Insta Snow was non-toxic for my girls to play with (it is non-toxic, by the way). So, check it out. I think you'll like it.

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Moving the shop...but not really for you.

So, previously, I had two seperate accounts for my two online t-shirt shops. I had one for Saint Gray and one for Just Teesin. That has started to become a headache to keep track of, so I've decided to combine them into one account. So, I've started the move. For you at home, there should be no changes with the exception of a few minor cosmetic changes to the Saint Gray shop.

It's just a little bit of a pain transferring all of the images over. Basically, I have to recreate the shop item by item. It's a pain and it takes a long time. I wish there was some way of just automatically transferring everything over...but it appears there isn't. Oh well. Back to work I go.

Sorry...

So, it's been some time since I've posted on this blog. I have several excuses, the first of which is that I somewhat burnt out on it. The second is that I started working on a really big trial at work and I've been working some long hours and long weeks, but the overtime checks are great though.

Anyway, so I've decided to start writing on this thing again. I'll try and post again tonight. I feel like I'm just talking to myself most of the time when I write on this thing, but that isn't so bad is it?

Talk to you soon.