Jim’s Blog

First off on this post I need to wish my sister Heather a very Happy Birthday!! You’re awesome lady and we miss you and your family!

Now I’m sure that all of you out there have had wonderful Mondays, or at least one wonderful Monday in your life.  You know, that certain Monday that you remember even now when it has been years since that wonnderful Monday?!

I’m having that Monday today.

What is occuring today will assure my place in the annals of my companies history for the ages to come.  I will be known throughout all time as the one who brought the iPhone to my company.  Now as to whether or not those pages in the annals of history extoll me or flay me as the villian that I am…remains to be seen! However it all turns out in the end, today is the day that all of our cellphones currently using the A***el Network are being replaced with iPhones on the AT&T Network.  That’s a lot of iPhones!

So, now I’m off to get these phone configured, teach people all about iTunes, have everyone sign their lives away and then find some time where I can sit down and play a little Labrynth.

cya

Jim

Ok, so last weekend was the annual boy scout/father son campout thing and Steven was not feeling well enough to go, which broke my heart (?).  Anyway, in order to cheer him up, I agreed to go camping with the boys this weekend, just the three of us.  I admit, it was done in a moment of weakness and that is why I am now getting ready to go camping…in a one person tent…with a sleeping bag…and the threat of rain in the forecast.  Can I pick them or what?!

In all seriousness, I’m looking forward to going and I think that it will be a good time.  We are going to be doing some dutch oven cooking, I’ll have my camera, it’s all good.  I’ll be sure and update you tomorrow as to the success of this little outing!

On another note, James and Steven are having their annual Kick-A-Thon through their TaeKwonDo class and they are asking for sponsors.  The deal is that you pledge however much you want per kick.  The good part is that you are only paying for 100 kicks! Which is good because both James and Steven did over 2000 kicks last year! We are actively recruiting sponsors for the boys, so if you would like to participant, send me an email at smith.jamesb@gmail.com and we’ll get you set up!

Cya,

Jim

You know how in my last post I said that I had been living under a rock? Well, that was just reiterated to me the other day.  I’m on Twitter and two of my cousins are burning the airwaves talking back and forth, wondering who is going to take Album of the year etc.  So I chime in saying that I think the digitally remasterd copy of the Rachmaninov Concertos should take the prize.  This led to a whole discussion about music and we started passing back and forth about different groups.  I’m sure that the people following me on twitter shut it down after a little bit!

Anyway, I was turned on to some new music and in the process stumbled across the AGT phenom called Nuttin But Stringz.  Can I just say WOW!! The whole nation has been in an uproar about these two brothers and I’m just now finding out about them.  Unbelievable! Then, there’s this Russian group called  Apocalyptica.  5 guys making Cellos do things that I’m sure their makers never intended them to do.  Their rendition of Metallicas “Nothing Else Matters” is incredible.

So I’m coming in to the 21st century now and I’m finding out that there is a lot of pretty good music out there that I’ve been missing (sigh). Now I have to update my iPod again…

Jim

Ok, so I just spent 45 minutes catching up on everyone elses blogs, and there were a lot of them. Somehow I must have been under a rock for the last month cuz one of my sisters had like 12 posts that I hadn’t read, the other had 6 or so, there were 12 from my mother, 16 from my father…the only one that I was caught up on was those of my wife!!

So, because of this deplorable oversight on my part and because I’m supposed to be a responsible, over 18 adult type person, I’m going to make a late year resolution, hence the post title. I just finished watching a video by John Bytheway entitled “What are you carrying in your backpack” and in the video he talks about using time wisely. I’m going to start using my time a little more wisely, at least that is the goal. So, this is post #1 of the new wisely spending time Jim!

Now, catch up time. The Old Transportation contest came to a conclusion on August 31. To be honest, there was only one other person that participated in this contest so the outcome is a forgone conclusion, but I wanted to share some of the pictures that were sent in, because they are good!

More pictures can be seen over here.  My mother, being the only participant, was selected as the winner and as soon as the picture is decided upon, I’ll post it here.  I’m going to get another contest going, I just haven’t decided what topic to go with.  So, if you have any ideas, let me know!

Have a great one!

Jim

Well, I am two weeks behind on posting these winners and I apologize! Somehow Life got ahead of me and I’ve been playing catch up for the last couple of weeks! Anyway, here are the two winners, both entered by Mom Smith:

This is probably one of my favorites of the pictures submitted. I love this picture!

Here is this weeks winner which I think is a great lawn decoration! Mother said that there were several of these cars decorating the lawn. What a great idea!

Just because I can, here is a picture that I took while on my journey through Northern Arkansas’

Have a great week and keep the pictures coming in!

James

This picture was submitted by my mother and is a wonderful capture of days gone by…

Congratulations Mother on a wonderful picture! There were some other pictures posted as well, so please go and check them out at www.aboutmoments.com/projects.

James

Wow, I wrote that title and then realized that there is no way I could catch everyone up on what has been going on since my last post in any kind of detail so here is a synopsis!:

Received iBook, loved it, couldn’t keep it so it went back. Misery as now I’m Macless! Work is hectic, busy, glad it pays the bills! Boys had scout camp, wonderful week at home with my daughter and wife, missed the boys terribly tho! Shooting Baseball, Indoor Football, headshots, T-Ball and Family pictures. New Alien Bee strobe light set came in! 1600 combined watts lights up the room really well! Shed door painted, deck spotted, oil based paint….not good! LeeAnn painted the picnic table, looks great!

And that brings us to today. LeeAnn and I went with some friends to the temple in St Louis early this morning. It was a fun trip and we really enjoyed the company. For me, it was great not to have to drive! After we made it home, we touched base with the kids then it was back out the door for a wedding reception for the daughter of the lady that VTs LeeAnn. That event was saved when I saw the amount of chocolate treats available! Most excellent

Now I’m getting this post done then I have to look at the Priesthood lesson again for tomorrow. Allergies have been acting up lately and my head feels like it’s in a fog right now. Oh, I did forget one thing in the synopsis. I went on a golf outing last Thursday with my boss and my two work colleagues. It was definitely an outing to be remembered! It was hot, muggy (read 94 degrees and 62% humidity. It felt like a 100 degree wet sauna!) and the sun was shining bright. I hadn’t touched my clubs in over 18 months so it was also an exercise in frustration as well! I went well prepared with about 40 spare golf balls, just in case. I really should have brought my tennis racket along too tho, I probably could have at least hit the ball better! I have no idea what my final score was and that’s probably just as well. I really do enjoy golfing, just not right now! At least that is over until the one next year, for which I have plenty of time to prepare for.

Ok, now for the challenge. A couple of weeks ago I was talking with my mother and commenting on how often she had been posting in her blog lately, as well as the pictures she has been posting. I especially liked the one with the rusted out trucks and the old crane sitting in the pond. While talking with her, I had an idea. I would like to challenge everyone to a picture contest. On my photo site, here I have created a photo gallery titled “Forgotten Transportation” The challenge is for the rest of this month and the month of August, ending on August 30th, and here are the rules:

• The picture must be of a form of transportation.
• That form of transportation must have been made prior to 1975 and have “Character”.
• Extra credit will be given for creativity!
• Pictures will be judged by a panel of specially handpicked judges ( my kids )
• You may enter as many pictures as you like and the best one for each week will be posted on this blog.
• All pictures need to be emailed to me at smith.jamesb@aboutmoments.com along with a brief description of the picture. I will post the pictures to my photo site so that everyone can see them.

Remember, be creative, enter as many times as you like and have fun! I haven’t decided what the prize will be yet, but be assured that it will be something you will enjoy!

Have a great one,

James

Well, it’s finally happened.  I have been assimilated! As of 0630 this morning, I am the proud(?) owner of my first Mac! I’m sure that there are angels cheering somewhere right now! A work associate of mine was selling his iBook G4 on Craigslist and was getting irritated with all of the people that said they wanted it and then not show up etc. I told him I’d love to have it, but couldn’t pay the price that he had listed it on Craigslist for, so we worked out a deal (gotta love the barter system!) and so that’s how I came to where I am now.

Surprisingly, or not depending on how you look at it, I’m really excited about this! It’s also a little intimidating to me as well in a weird sort of way.  As most of you know, or should know if you read this blog, I have a strong Love/Hate relationship with Micro$oft, particularly with their complete inability to release a product that works the first time out of the box.  I can’t tell you how many times I have rebuilt computers over the years that were running M$ Windows due to some malware, spyware or virus that happened to take out my operating system.  One thing is for sure is that if I had a dime for each time, I could probably retire by now!

With that being said though, I have long been of the opinion that M$ Windows was the better system because….well because 1. That’s all that I really knew how to work with, and 2. It’s what I had been taught! I mean I have more letters that follow my name due to this or that certification than I know what to do with, and 90% of them have to do with the operating system I most often work with.  I have worked with a couple of Linux systems and I currently have a Linux File Server running, however that’s a whole different ball park.  So now, all of that is about to undergo a little change for me…and it all starts with this innocuous little white notebook sitting on my desk right now! I will certainly have to endure some laughs and a whole lot of teasing to be sure, but none of that will be able to wipe this silly grin off of my face!

Stay tuned for more of my Mac Experience!

Jim

Just about everyone that reads my blog knows that I have been taking pictures for a lot of years.  I started shooting digital pictures with my trusty Sony Mavica FD97 back in 1999 and actually stayed with that camera for a lot of years.  I loved that camera as I didn’t ever have to buy film, all I had to have was a bunch of 3.5″ floppy disks and I was set! At a whopping 1.3 megapixel, that camera took great shots and I had a lot of fun with it.  Then, through a miracle, I was able to pick up a Canon 30D and was able to put the Sony to the side.  I have to say that I love my 30D! What a sweet camera it is.  I shot with that camera for just about a year when I all of a sudden during a gymnastics meet I was shooting, it just quit on me! I sent it off to Canon, who repaired it as it was under warranty…thank goodness! While the 30D was gone, I purchased a Canon EOS 40D and that is what I am currently shooting with.  As much as I loved the 30D, the 40D totally rocks!

Anyway, I’ve also managed to pick up some lenses along the way, I have also signed up with GoDaddy, installed Word Press, bought into some storage and that’s what this post is all about.

 I’ve started a Photography Business and I am way excited about it! It’s called “About Moments Photography” and the website is www.aboutmoments.com.  The website still has some work to be done on it, but there are pictures posted there and there will be more in the future.  

So, take a look, let me know what you think! Any comments are glady welcomed!

Today was one of those days that I have been looking foward to all of my life and also dreading as well! Back in 1996 my wife and I found out that we were going to have twin boys as our first borns, I can remember thinking, “Two baby blessings, two baptisms, two ordinations, two missions…all at the same time!” Today the third milestone happened and I’m finding myself wishing I could turn back the clock and start all over again.  My boys are growing up too fast. 

Son1 wasn’t feeling all that great today so Son2 was ordained first.  He was thrilled with that opportunity! We had asked several other MP holders to join us so there was quite the circle going! I’m a very emotional guy and I have to admit that I choked up a little as I started, but after that, it all went smoothly.  We got through it all and when it was done, our ward had two new deacons ready to go.  What a joyous occassion that was! My wife’s parents came out for the ordination so one of the boys’ grandfathers was in the circle with us.  What a great blessing that was. 

So now the third phase is in progress and I’m feeling even more lost now that I was 12 years ago! I’m so very proud of my sons; for the awesome young men that they are.  I’m so very grateful to my wife, for the time and effort she has put into raising our children and for the example that she has set.  Every single night from the day they were born, our children have knelt at their mother’s knee for their evening prayers.  I know beyond any shadow of doubt that that has made a huge difference in their lives.  What a great age we live in!  We have a living prophet here on the earth, the Church is spreading through out the world and the glad tidings of our Savior are being published near and far.  I’m grateful to be here on this earth at this time. 

Well, thanks everyone for reading.  I hope that you all have had a wonderful day today! May the Lords richest blessing be upon you all,

Love,

James