Hey

So today marks the 4th anniversary since I was hit by an uninsured, drunk, illegal alien, driving a stolen car with stolen plates.  I’ll probably always correlate that with Cinco de Mayo for the rest of my life.  Who knew… that was a pretty crazy event, and to this day I’m still short my deductible.  Oh how a few seconds can change someone’s life.  Who knows what else that little event altered.  Today also marks my 800th post.

2Nine Studios is going through some major financial cutbacks, and unless our team is able to come up with a new web address that is user friendly we will be just running of personal links for the business until the issue is finally resolved.  It will still be around, we will just have less of an opportunity to highlight our history and future.  For the first time in a while 2Nine studios is running out of two states.  Oregon and Arizona.

I found out today that an old co-worker of mine has cancer, terminal cancer.  Cancer to begin with is bad news, but terminal… this sweet lady that I’ve known since the days that I was working at Target in Beaverton… sigh.  I’ll be praying for her.

I got to do something I wish I never had to do again….. but did yet again.  As crazy as it is, we are back in Arizona.  I have to say, I wasn’t looking forward to it.  If you have been following my twitter then you know what I’m talking about.  If not, feel free to follow @jshox  It has been quite an adjustment.  Maryia is taking the move harder than I thought she would.  It isn’t so much about the big things that have her … down.  It’s more of all the little things that don’t seem to be working out.  I think that will improve with time.  Everyone has kind of seemed a bit off since we’ve been back.

Jake (our cat) has even seemed a little off since moving.  He use to eat twice a day and eat it all within 15 minutes.  Now we feed him once and sometimes he doesn’t eat all of the food throughout the day.  Kind of a crazy change in such a short time.  On the trip down we introduced him to Mayer and Max.  They both went spastic for him but with training from a squirt bottle (and hours of it) they ended up being much better.  It has also proven that Max is totally trainable, just takes consistency on the discipline end.

I’ve been applying at several jobs, but have not gotten much for feedback.  I have one interview on Monday.  We’ll see how that goes.

Recently my teeth have been hurting me when I eat.  Not all of them, only those on the upper left side of my mouth.  The same place where a few years back I had a dentist mess some stuff up and it’s really never been the same since.  Anyway, it’s been kinda quiet for a couple years but it is starting to flare up as of late.  If I only had the money to get it taken care of… or at least get it checked out.  It’ll just cost more in the long run, but without stable income and the savings drying up… what can you do?

On the sports front the Blazers took the Mavs to six games and lost.  Simply put, we were out played.  We were down in the series 0-2 and came back to even the series thanks to Brandon Roy.  On one of the games we came from 23 behind in the 2nd half and won.  Having tied the series 2-2 you would assume we would keep winning.  However we tanked and lost in Dallas and the final game in Portland.  Such a waste of a good season and another 1st round exit.

The only other bit of information to give is that the US Navy SEALS caught Osama bin Laden a few days ago and killed him.  The reaction from Americans was somewhat disgusting.  We celebrated his death, sang our national anthem.. etc.  Even if he is guilty – as he was… I find it wrong to celebrate his death.  Our celebration really showed me that we are no better than anyone else.  Remember after 9/11?  Overseas the radicals celebrated the joyous victory they had.  We now do the same in retaliation.  Does it make it right?  No.  I thought it was a sad day.  Still today people say they would never celebrate a death but for him “they will make an excuse” because there is “no hint of innocence” – I think we just might be missing the point.

I leave you with a couple quotes.  The first is not an MLK quote, but a good quote none-the-less, the second is from MLK:

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Unknown

“I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice; I’m concerned about brotherhood; I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.” – MLK Jr

Until next time.