A Life Refilled...

A few weeks back I had experience that made really think about what kind of a person I am. The experience itself isn’t all that important, but the realizations that I made are. I came to see that I wasn’t nearly as good of a person as I thought I was. Well, that really isn’t fair. I had never really taken the time to see if I was the person that I wanted to be. It didn’t take me long to find that there were many things lacking in my life. So many dreams unfulfilled. So many goals, not just unachieved, but neglected and left to rot in the recesses of my being.

Except for my wife, kids and family I found that I didn’t really have much going on to be excited about. I love my family with all my heart, but because I lacked a driving force that kept me excited about life, my relationships with the ones I loved were lacking. It made me tense. Probably a lot tenser then I was letting on. There were things that I wanted to do with my life, but I wasn’t, and it was slowly eating me up. It left me feeling empty. Above all it just wasn’t fair to my wife and kids because it was keeping me from being the best husband and father I could be. It was also keeping me back from being the friend I wanted to be to the people that I care about. I realized that I could not go on like that any longer. So I decided to change.

The funny thing about changing is that isn’t hard. I feel really ridiculous for not doing it sooner. Some things are subtle, like smiling more. Some are big, like not yelling at my kids. What was even more awesome than that is how these changes just start rolling. Here is an example…

My electric cello’s bridge broke about a year ago, but for some reason I kept putting it off. As soon as I started to make a concerted effort to better myself. Getting it fixed came as naturally as breathing. It was like I had no choice.

That is what I mean by A Life Refilled. My personal gas tank was running low. I was just puttering along. I could do all the basics, but anything else just shut me down. By making the concious decision that the staus quo of my life was no longer good enough I have found that life is more like I know it should be. Things are finally moving in a direction that makes me want to jump out of bed in the morning and seize the day. I can finally rescue my goals and dreams from my old self and make them real.

This is obviously a severly truncated version of my Refillment, but I had to get it out there in writing. There are many things that I have done in just the month or so since I decided that enough is enough. Too many to list, but the amazing thing is that I know that I am just getting started. I hope to use this blog to keep you cats up to date with all the great things and changes I am making in my life. So stay tuned!!


NJP 4 LIFE!!!

3rd

The streak continues!! We now have won 12 in a row, and have rocketed ourselves into 3rd place. Don't fret now, because The NJP Bowling Knowledge consortium has first place directly in our sights. We will not stop until we have completed the hottest run in our history.

We won these last four with a solid, but not overwhelming performance. We were once again led by ShrekZilla, who posted a 633 spot. On top of our jump into 3rd place, we also gained a game on the second place team. That leaves us just 2 games out of second. It is going to be a fun couple of months...

THE MOMENT OF RECAPTION!!
4-0...Again
No High Game
No 50/50
1 Candy Bar for Charity
Now in 3rd
19-1 in the last Five Weeks

NJP 4 LIFE!!

MY FAVORITE COLOR IS PURPLE…NO, REALLY.

Coming up in a family and a circle of friends who are staunch democrats is really no big deal until you are old enough to vote. I found this out in both 2000 and 2004 when I made it known that I voted for George W. Bush to become President of the United States. I got my fair share of, "“Are you nuts?", but my personal favorite was, You just helped ruin America.” No one thought less of me, but I found the absolute hatred for man who is the leader of our country to be a funny thing. What a man that some of these people had never heard of until January of 1999 could have done that made them sure the world would end if he took office was vexing to me. I think I know now…

Taking sides in a political debate is awesome. The problem I have come to find more and more in this country is that we lose true political debate because people are more inclined to chose party instead of choosing sides on issues. Just look to Washington and you will see what I mean. Take Judge Alito’s nomination process. That thing was almost cut to precision down party lines. The same goes for everything from domestic wiretaps, to taxes and the Marriage Amendment. It is all so partisan that nothing really is getting done up there. It has took them way to long to reinstate the Patriot Act. Because of partisan garbage Americans were given an absolutely atrocious Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. And don’t forget the lame filibustering of judicial and other presidential appointments.

The reason this really gets to me is that I don’t really think that America is like that. Organizations take polls that show the country is split 50/50 Republican and Democrat. That isn’t really a fair way to go about it. With so many different issues out there it only makes sense that when presented with two parties half the people will gravitate either one way or the other. Just think if people voted on issues instead of lawmakers. I know it isn’t really practical, but I really wonder if this would help get rid of partisanship a little bit.

Take me for example. I voted for a Republican president. I did it mostly for economic reasons. I agree with probably 90% of the Presidents moves on this side of things.Does that make me a Republican? I say no, but there is a metric ton of folks who would say it does. Let’s look at some other key domestic planks in the GOP platform and how I jive with it.


1.For Gay Marriage-(Me Yes/GOP no)
2.For Stem Cell Research-(Me Yes/GOP no)
3.Lower Taxes for All-(Me Yes/GOP Yes)
4.Pro-Choice-(Me Yes/GOP no)

As you can see, I rank pretty poor as a Republican domesticly. I will admit that while I wish things were going better in Iraq I support the Presidents efforts. The problem I see is that while I agree with administration on enough things to vote for them, I still feel cheated as a citizen because there is no voice in Washington for someone like me. Am I a moderate democrat or moderate republican? According to radio hosts like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh there is no such thing. How can that be?!? It just can't.

Even though we know it can’t, there is nothing we can do because of the two party system. If you want some real republican cash you better not go around announcing your pro-choice beliefs. Same goes for the democrat asking for lower taxes(for even the rich). As long as the money flows through these two spheres the true majority of Americans will never be heard because we are just not left or right enough. What can we do? I am not sure yet, but we cant give up.

Here we come...

The NJP™ Bowling Federation of America is on the move again. This time we have jumped into 4th place. We did this on the heels of another 4-0 performance led by Shrekzilla who scored a highly impressive 696 series. He only left one pin standing all night long.

Right now we are 5 games out of first. It is definitely a roadblock that we can overcome. I won't lie. I thought a top five finish would be the goal, but now I see that we can take it all if we can just keep it up. America is watching and in true NJP fashion, we won't stop until we get enough.

The Recaptionary Segment...

No 50/50.
No High Individual Game.
Shrekzilla won the High Series.
4-0 Again.
15-1 for the last 4 weeks.
3 Post League Games.

Yikes!

This week we took on a foe of epic proportions. This week we stood toe to toe with the first place team. This week we dropped a bomb on them on a nuclear scale. In the last two weeks we have reset the whole league back to its competitive roots.

We are 11-1 the past three weeks and show no real signs of stopping. Especially now that both Peelman and Shrek-o-rama have new bowling balls. Ohhh it is so hot! Lets talk stats...

Both PeelBerry and I threw 600+ series.
Shrekzilla was only 14 short of 600 himself.
4-0 this week.
No high game.
No 50/50.
We are only 5 out of first place.

NJP 4 LIFE!!

Super Bowling?

In the spirit of the SuperBowl weekend, we did our best to bring a exciting product to the table. And we did, for the most part. We rocked a team that was 3 spots ahead of us in the standings. The only flaw in our SuperBowl XL tribute was our stunning, Peyton Manning-like, choke in the final four frames of the last game. We all choked, but that was okay because our whippin'' of the 5th place cronies put us at 7-1 for the last two weeks, and ultimately back on track for bowling glory.

No 50/50.
No High game.
No pull tabs.

Congrats Steelers on your 21-10 lashing of the woeful Seahawks.