dO iT

so we've been visiting my brother in atlanta this week. having spent i dunno, 3 years here growing up, its kind of like "home." but kinda not too. anyways, one thing that we've never done here is go to the aquarium. they only built it a few years ago and we've not been able to make it the last couple of times we've been down. so we went yesterday. its fantastic. the only negative aspect about it is the price which is actually a bit ridiculous. it cost $47.50 for me and joey to get in the doors and then parking was another $10 but if you can get past this, it was amazing. they've got these crazy exhibits where you are actually walking under the "ocean" and there are huge hammerhead sharks and all the what not swimming above you. my personal fav was the otters, they are just so freaking fun and cute, but there was nothing especially special about the ones at the atlanta aquarium verses the ones ive seen at others. lets see, they have whales. they had 3 of them, but 2 have died. so they've got this huge tank with one beluga whale chillin in it. he's was pretty cute himself. oh, they've also got these japanese crabs. i have never heard of these things before, i almost feel like they genetically engineered them just for this exhibit. they are HUGE! like, they can grow to be the size of cars. no joke. but they are crabs, and it was all just very crazy to watch them and take them for real. so yea, we had fun. if you ever get down to the a.t.l, you should look into the aquarium. it for sure beats the coca-cola museum..

vErizOn rOckS

i am not one to jump on the bandwagon with regards to brand loyalties and what not. i just dont. quite honestly everyone has their own opinions surrounding these types of things and nobody probably cares about my two cents (or is it sense..??). but, i feel the need to minimize my personal convictions regarding this matter for a minute or two and express my feelings regarding, yes, my cell phone company of choice. they are fantastic and i think everyone should indulge in the goodness that is verizon. ive felt this way for awhile now however my suspicions were more then confirmed to me last night. there are numerous reasons why i choose verizon but ultimately it boils down to their customer service. ive been a verizon customer for i dunno, 6 years, and ive never, ever encountered anyone in their customer service department who hasnt been friendly and helpful, in the go out of my way to be helpful type of way. props to them. so last night, i called to switch something and the guy asks me if i was interested in upping my minutes per month because id gone so far over. i was like what? as i never go over my minutes and thus dont keep any sorts of tabs on such things. so i told him id check out my bill and call him back. my bill was almost 300$ (as opposed to the usual 70$) for stupid reasons such as lengthy phone calls for insurance, school registration, blah blah blah. i panicked a little and called my boy back at verizon to discuss the situation at hand. i explained to him how i had no idea id gone so far over as id never done so in the past and basically asked him for some type of grace though i deserved it not a bit (hmm, sounds like real life). anywhoo, the guy comes immediatly back with, "let me take a look. yea, i can go ahead and take off half of the extra usage charges which would be $88 dollars, does that sound okay?" he simply busted out with that statement with no further questioning or disciplining or anything. i think i was a little bit in shock as id thought it was long shot to ask for any type of compensation whatsoever. absolutely it was ok, and thus my bill was reduced. i ramble, and perhaps all cell phone companies are as generous as this, i dont know ive not dealt with the others. but this last experience has only been the most recent of all the many extremely helpful and generous ones that ive had with verizon and i just wanted to give them a little shout out. not that they need it, but still. there thats all. ive said my peace (piece??) and will leave it at that. (please note: thats not really me in the picture...)

suLLeN & dOwnTrodDen

i would first like to thank dane for this post's title...moving on: i am most definitely growing up as that which i am about to write would not have taken place at anytime previosly in my life. hmm, maturity? nah..anyways, as is common knowledge, i am nearly 2 semesters away from obtaining my bachelors degree. yay! and that makes me happy. however, as i near completion, i find the urge to just get it done with already. its taken forever and im just ready to be done. and so i readily confess as having adopted this mindset at various times throughout my career as a student. to further explain, my mentality, at times, has been more a focus on getting it done or getting "the" grade as opposed to actually doing the best that i can do. most recently, this was my outlook as i wrote the first of two, 10 page research papers which were due this semester. i turned this first paper in over the past weekend and although i spent tons of time on it, i knew it wasnt my best effort, in fact it sucked. it may have been in the half-ass category as i hated the majority of this class and just wanted to get a decent grade on the paper to pass. so, as i checked the gradebook today, i at first smiled. well, smirked would be more appropriate as id obtained a relatively decent grade with a relativey half-ass effort. a "B," which when adopting the mentality that id adopted in this course, is by all means decent. ok, so then i went to the actual paper which had been revised by the professor. this is where the sullen-ness/downtrodden-ness began to set in. after a well-deserved critique highlighting the areas where this paper fell short, this comment was made: "I fear that you fell short of the mark expected at this level of academics." ouch. that one hurt. ive never received anything like this before. my initial reaction was to try and slough(?) it off because what the heck, i still got a b. but this is where the whole maturity factor comes into play. as this comment really started to settle, i realized how deserving of it i was. the paper sucked. i rushed to complete it, not to make it good. and although i accomplished my original goal of attaining a decent grade, the aftermath of half-assing is no longer worth it. my conscience has been penetrated, and through a stupid research paper mind you. this is trivial, no doubt, however not so trivial with regards to our ultimate purpose in life. bringing glory to our Creator through all things, even a seemingly meaningless, long, confusing assignment. this is why i think im sullen and downtrodden. i did not my best, nor did i even try. and i am sad about that. im kind of even a little sadder because i have but another 10 page paper which is due in 10 days. and as much as id planned on just getting this one over and done with so that i can enjoy the holidays, i no longer will have this mindset(thats why im kind sad:) ).... enter pep talk: i will finish this one with integrity. as i work, ill seek to finish to be able to say, and i close with yet another[clean version] dane quote " i did my best...i did my freaking best"