Day 117

I have been enjoying todays awesomosity all day long. Today I am working for Mr. Video Productions, The Leader in Live Event Videography. I was employed full-time by MVP for over three years. Now I just do the random job.

Most of what they do is cheerleading competitions and marching band competitions. In June and December, there are a lot of dance recitals. The cheerleading competitions suck, the dance recitals are tolerable (sometimes) and marching band is decent. Today I am doing a marching band competition at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, just outside of Nashville.

So, the awesomosity that I have been enjoying all day is something that has been in my ears. No, not the bands, most of them aren't that good. I did hear a band do a few Led Zeppelin songs, but not very well. One band played the theme from Halo and "Unforgiven" by Metallica, but that was about the best of the day.

No, today's awesomosity is our intercom system. This allows our director to tell the three cameramen what shot to get, what to do, and who is live at the moment. The really awesome and useful thing about headsets is talking trash, telling jokes, and in general making things more exciting. It's pretty fun.

In case you were wondering, I am on the closest camera to the field, which means that I get a lot of the really close up shots. Probably our favorite shots have to do with the color guard, especially when there is a guy in the color guard. There is just something hilarious to all of us about a guy waving flags and tossing rifles.

Task o' The Day: Have fun with an intercom system. Or some walkie-talkies. If you can't get walkie-talkies, make some with two cans and some string. Totally awesome.

Here is my picture with my headset on, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading, see ya'll soon!

Day 116

Today's awesomosity is a combonation of things from yesterday and today. Allow me to explain.

First, from yesterday. I was sitting at my desk, when suddenly, I got hungry. What did I do, you ask? Well, I got myself some lunch. This was around 1:00 or so.

So I go to the fridge and do you know what I found? Roast beef and 3 kinds of cheese. Awesome. So I made myself a sandwich fit for a king. Here is how it went: bread (whole wheat), deli deluxe american cheese, roast beef (2-3 slices), a slice of pepper jack cheese, more roast beef, munster cheese, even more roast beef, another slice of american and some bread to top it all off. You know, that's the secret to a great sandwich, bread on both sides. Lunchmeat is too cold and slimy otherwise (thanks to the late, great Mitch Hedburg for that one).

That was one of the most delicious sandwiched I've had in quite a while. You can see my masterpiece above.

Now for todays edition, which would have been a fine compliment to yesterdays deliciouiosity, SoBe Lizard Lava. I'm on the road to Nashville (I'm actually driving through downtown as I write) today, and when we stopped earlier I picked some up, strawberry daiquiri flavored. I have tried a few different flavors of Lava and have yet to be disappointed.

So, I'm saying the awesomeness today is a cold cut sandwich with some SoBe Lizard Lava on the side. Why not add a Little Debbie for dessert?

TASK o' THE DAY: I think you can guess. Cold cuts and delicious beverage for lunch today.

Thanks for checking me out, talk at ya soon!

Day 115

While this awesomosity is certainly getting out early, I am very tired. Ok, so that was slightly non-sensical. Sue me.

The reason I am so tired is that I was asked to fill in last night and bartend. I did. It was awesome (but not the awesomosity). I got home around 2, fell asleep around 2:30, got up for my regular Thursday morning business meeting around 5:30. Sweet.

So, last night was Irish night at Llywelyns (you gotta have some reason to make Wednesday nights fun, right?). What does that mean? $3 Jameson shots, $3 Guinness Pints, and, for those that want both (and a little Bailey's) $5 Car Bombs. Needless to say, we went through a lot of Guinness last night.

Now most of you know I don't drink anymore (and now you all do), but when I did, Guinness was definitely one of my faves. Now that I get to pour a Guinness, I like to take my time and pour it right. It takes about 2 minutes to pour a Guinness properly, but the real expertise comes in the final product. Those with some expertise can put a shamrock in the head of a Guinness.


I have been working on that since I started at Llywelyns, and I have to say I am quite good at it. Though, I can always get better.When I make a shamrock, it doesn't have the heart shape in the leaves, but like I said, I'll work on it.

So, the awesomeness for today is pouring a perfect pint of Guinness. There are actually competitions for this (mostly in Ireland). Here are a few website for you to check out if you are interested, I found them all entertaining.

Pouring the perfect pint of Guinness - This is a site of a bar that goes into some detail about Guinness, how to pour it, and at the bottom they have some interesting facts, such as did you know there are approx. 13 Million pints of Guinness poured on St. Patty's Day (average of 150 pints per second!)?

Guinness - The official site. Lots of fun stuff to do here, including:

All Sports Invitational - The two cartoony like guys that say brilliant a lot in the Guinness ads say what you want about sports teams in an email. I couldn't get it to actually email them, but it showed me what it looks like, and very funny.

Finally, a YouTube video. This shows you how to put a shamrock in the head of a Guinness. I didn't actually post it here, but I recommend the video.

Task o' The Day: Have a pint of Guinness. And make sure they put a shamrock in the head, which will require them to pour it correctly. If you don't drink, then, uh, have a Fitz's Root Beer! If you go to the restaurant, its on tap, then ask them to put a shamrock in the head of the root beer. I don't think they can, but it'd be fun to watch them try.

Here is my picture, nothing special today.


The next few posts will be interesting because I will be out of town working for Mr. Video shooting a marching band competition in Nashville. I will get the posts out when I can. Thanks for reading, enjoy the rainy day!

Day 114

Today's awesomosity is something I have been working on for about 4 days now, and I expect to continue to work on it for at least another week (depending on how much free time I get and how skilled I am). Puzzled? Then you got it! It's a puzzle!

The puzzle I am working on now

See, it takes up most of my coffee table!

So, here's how it started. I was buying a present for my 1-year-old niece, and thought I should get something for my 2.5 year old niece and 3.75 year-old nephew. Ahren got a puzzle with a tractor on it. He loved it (though Lydia was maybe better at putting it together).

Anyway, as I'm picking out this puzzle, I see a nice farm scene with some John Deere tractors in it. I think that looks like fun, I'll get it. While it is fun, it can be very slow going at times. Though every once in a while, I'll hit a nice run. Then I celebrate by dancing with myself.

So, puzzles are awesome. I'll let you know when I finish this one, and maybe I'll put a picture of it up here.

Task o' The Day: Put together a puzzle, duh! Now, I know what you're saying, "Ben, I don't have time to get a large, awesome jigsaw puzzle. No worries! Go to this website! Do a puzzle online! If you really want to go over the top and get major awesome points, make a puzzle!

Here is my picture of the day, which is a puzzle (I found that fun thing on this website!).

Free Photo Puzzle Maker


Oh, and thanks for voting on the poll, but if you selected "suggest as comment" I meant for you to suggest a concert I should go to as a comment.

Thanks all, have a wonderful day!

Day 113

Man, I am getting in a horrible habit of writing this blog so late in the day. Maybe I am trying to get you all to check it more regularly, and then clicking on some of the ads on the site. Ok, maybe I'm just lazy and/or busy. Either way, I'll try to write it earlier.

So, today's awesomosity. Well, first, let me bring you up to speed on yesterdays. I have no idea how good I would be feeling if I hadn't taken any of those drugs, but I know I feel much better today than I did yesterday. Now, I am not saying I am better, just that I am feeling better. So, I think all those drugs are awesome. I do recommend talking to a doctor, or at least a pharmacist before taking combonations of those drugs, but some of the drugs work.

Anyway. I had a meeting this morning at a bank in Brentwood, that's actually where I took the picture of the day. I was going to make that awesome, but no matter how awesome a meeting is, it will never be the most awesome part of my day. In fact, the meeting took so long, that I went straight to another meeting at the Bread Co. up the street. That meeting was much mroe awesome. I met with Bruce Roquet, who used to be my youth pastor back in the day. He has a heart for Haiti (he's been there like 14 times or something). Well, I am going to Haiti on a mission trip this January. So, I met with him to get an idea of what to expect, what is going on down there in the way of missions, and get some ideas on how best to do the video I am going to do there. I'll write way more about Haiti as I get cloesr and am in Haiti.

Now, I still haven't gotten to the awesomosity. Well, to be honest, I was having some trouble coming up with one for today. So, I sat down at the ol' computer and googled "awesome". I was nto dissappointed. In fact, I found a site somewhat similar to my blog (though it seems to be more "shopping" based).

Check out www.ohmythatsawesome.com. Now, apparently, they are undergoing some sort of site reconstruction, but check out the archives, most of it is pretty awesome. I did look for my site, and it didn't get in the top 20 pages (I didn't look further), but I'm guessing awesomosity would get it right at the top (ok, so I just checked it and I don't appear until page 4. Dang).

Task o' The Day: Maybe you will all call this lazy, but I've written about 113 different awesome things. Tell me what you think is awesome. Some days awesome doesn't just jump out at me and I need some help. So, comment or email me (636benjamin@gmail.com) with something awesome.

As I said earlier, this picture was taken at my meeting in the bank. We actually met in the kitchen because someone else was using the conference room.


Thanks for reading, I'll try to post earlier tomorrow!

Day 112

Todays awesomosity is actually more of a hopeful awesomeness. Well, I suppose I'll never know how well they are or aren't working, huh?

As many of you know, and I'm sure the rest of you can guess, I'm a bit under the weather as of late. It started sometime on Saturday, and just hasn't gotten any better.

So far I have taken Zicam Allergy Relief. I totally meant to get the cold remedy but I was kind of out of it when I bought it and didn't discover my error until I had tried one. Oh well, anyone need some allergy relief? I got some extra zicam I won't be using.

I also have tried some alka-seltzer cold stuff, theraflu, walgreens versions of sudafed and the right zicam cold-zinc-in-your-nose stuff. I also am taking aspirin for headaches.

So, here is what I will never know. Are any of these working? Zicam (and its generic counterpart) promises to lessen the effects and duration of the common cold. (I would hate to have an uncommon cold, that must suck). All the other medicines promise similar things. But since I am taking them, I'll never now what would happen if I didn't take them.

So, cold medicines are awesome (hopefully) today.

TASK O' THE DAY: next time you need some medicine (and hopefully its not soon), get the generic (or at least use a coupon, maybe Jackie can help you with that).

Thanks for reading, I'll see you tomorrow (hopefully in better health).

Day 111

1s are wild here at Awesome, Inc., get 'em while they last!

Today's awesomosity has actually been brewing for a few weeks. You see, I have been making a very concerted effort to read my Bible every morning before I leave the house and every night before I go to bed. There are two things I have been reading these past few weeks. At night, I try to read wherever I'm at in reading through the Bible. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to read the Bible cover to cover. I am on 2 Thessalonians (that is pretty close to the end for those that don't know).

The other thing that I have been reading is today's awesomosity. Phillipians 2. There are a few things that have helped in reading this passage twice a day for a week or so. I am really starting to understand the passage as a whole, and I see new things every time I read it. Here are a few of the things I have found awesome so far.

v.1 - I love how it says if you have any in realting to things of the Spirit. Who doesn't have at least some of these things?

v.6 - Jesus is in His very nature, God. Jesus is God. However, when Jesus humbled Himself for our sake, he considered equality with God something that could not be grasped. Jesus, who is God, as a man, could never be equal with God. That means that we need to submit to God, since we can never be equal to God. Awesome.

v.14-15 - We should never complain or argue. Not so that our life will be easier (which it will), but so that we will be set apart in a crooked and depraved world. All for the glory of God.

So, I will keep reading this to continue to pull more from this passage.

Task o' The Day: Read the Bible. If you are not a Christian, and/or do not believe in the Bible, read it anyway, you might be surprised at what you find. If you need a Bible or want to know what to read, let me know, I'll be happy to help.

Here is today's picture:


I hope you have enjoyed the post today, I'll see you tomorrow!