Things are finally getting caught up at the nursing home and soon I will have them at a plan that probably only provides me around 2000-3000 a month and so I need to start looking for other clients in the DFW area.

So far I have emailed about 10 churches about IT support and I haven’t gotten a response back yet. I also need to send out an email to churches in Frisco, Richardson and McKinney and hope that I get some bites. Eventually I would like to only have to go to Waco once a month.

In the meantime I am staying busy with DJ jobs and other types of work, but I’d like some longterm stable clients similar to the nursing home. And I’m open to suggestions… any ideas on who would need an IT guy only some of the time?

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My job at the nursing home is going great, however, recently the owner suggested, “Hey Eddie, you can stay in one of the rooms here and save the hotel cost.” – The problem was that he was serious. Could you imagine staying the night in a nursing home? I have trouble sleeping in my own house! Every bump, every noise, every cricket chirp wakes me up – I could only imagine the fear that would settle in my bones at the sound of someone moaning or a confused resident climbing into my bed accidentally.

On top of the weirdness of staying in a nursing home there is the size of the beds, the lack of adequate air conditioning and random nurses, some of which are strange men, come in and out of the rooms at all hours. I could just imagine one of them popping into my room and attaching an IV of some sedative or barbiturate and then me being stuck there for the rest of my life. My friends and family would probably think, “Well, this is convenient, now we don’t have to worry about what to do with him when he gets old.”

So when the owner made this suggestion I just replied, “Well that would be convenient” – but I had no plan to stay there. If they don’t want to pay for my hotel, then I can increase my rate and pay for it myself or I can find other work.

I don’t want to wake up one day and realize that I have been in the same room for the past 60 years.  And if I do come up missing, YOU BETTER COME AND GET ME!!!

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What’s it like not being a Christian? What is it like not having any faith? What could possibly motivate you to continue on this planet if you think there is absolutely no purpose for our existence?

Lately I’m all “So What” all the time. I sit on my couch and as much as I know my life is pretty awesome as far as single guys lives I have to wonder – what next? So I get married, have some kids, grandkids, etc and then I die?

I remember when I was younger and at church they would talk about the rapture happening. The Lord’s imminent return was constantly a topic of discussion pretty much my entire childhood. I was fixated on it so much so that there were times I would hope that it wouldn’t happen because next week I was going to get to go to Six Flags or get my driver’s license or perhaps a girl I liked might like me back.

That seems like a lifetime ago and now I sit around praying for God to come already. I feel like sometimes I am going through the perfunctory motions of life – making money, paying bills, eating, sleeping – only to kill time, to have something to do before the end, which is really the beginning.

Last week as I was driving to Waco to do some IT work at the nursing home I couldn’t help but feel like my life is wasted. I’ve felt this for quite some time now and I don’t know how to change it. Perhaps this is where people get when they go into missions or they quit their jobs to do something amazing with their lives – like work at an AIDS hospice.

But even those things would only bring a marginal amount of joy compared to knowing what is in store for me when I leave this planet. I think sometimes it would be better not to know. Like maybe if growing up all I was ever told was that by believing in Christ kept me from going to hell and then right at the last minute – SURPRISE! – you’re going to the most awesome place, a place beyond all human comprehension. But instead I am like that kid who is told 6 months beforehand that he is going to get to go to Disney World and that 6 months seems like an eternity.

Maybe the entire purpose of this life is only to make us really appreciate heaven, these trials, these struggles, this inanity of life, perhaps without it we would just take heaven for granted.

And all of this just takes me back to my original point – if you don’t believe in God then what in the world get’s you out of bed in the morning? What motivates you? What keeps you from saying – So What?

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• I feel like reenacting that scene from Tommy Boy where Chris Farley sings and dances…”I’m a Maniac, Maniac!” #
• I was just in a booth at Casa Ole and I kept smelling urine. #
• @nubied um… Talk about getting the cart before the horse! #
• @beckpage you need to give us a tease with that link! #
• I got a Honda Pilot and two of my DBC Hangar dudes got Pilots… We are waiting on Nathan Allison to upgrade to the Pilot from the CRV. #
• I am trying to find an agent to help me publish my fiction novel and my Memoirs. Does anyone have some connections in this department? #
• I only planned to be in Waco for 1 night, not 3 and so I just dropped $248 at academy for workout clothes and new Under Armour underwear! #
• those plugins. #
• CrowdSPRING just posted an $80,000 project for LG. Don’t know what CrowdSpring is? Then you need to check it out: http://tinyurl.com/d8lzzl #

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I’ve been wondering how long I can sustain this frantic pace. Working in Waco, DJing, doing http://www.songofsolomon.com/ website updates and selling Mary Kay.

Be “awesome” at one thing is pretty difficult, being “the best” in 4-5 things is nearly impossible. There is too much to know, too much to learn, too much that keeps changing. In order to succeed you have to stay one step ahead of your competition and the competition is fierce.

But I’m hanging in there and doing a pretty sweet job I might add of all of my current projects. The problem is that in order to stay solvent I need to increase my customer base and figure out a way to make more money, save money, pay off bills – pretty much I need to have longterm customers that provide with a good income so I can stay self-employed.

Who knows how long this nursing home gig will last or how long I will want to continue it. Right now it is my bread and butter, but I’m looking for other opportunities in the Plano area so I can stay close to home and not give up 5 hours a week in drive time.

Everything that I said I’d do
Like make the world brand new
And take the time for you
I just got lost and slept right through the dawn
And the world spins madly on

-The Weepies, The World Spins Madly On

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Tonight I went into On The Border for dinner. When you are out of town on business it is always hard to figure out what you will do for dinner. I walked in to the rather uncrowded restaurant with it’s big chain feel and explosion of spanish color and felt alone and awkward. This doesn’t normally happen to me and so  turned around and walked out.

I ventured further down the road and found a Casa Ole. This looked a little more independently owned and so I walked in with my head held high, book in hand, ready for some Mexican food.

“Just one?” The hostess said as she handed the menu to my waiter.

My waiter laughed and it prompted me to say, “Is something funny?” I felt a little perturbed because it was obvious that he was laughing about the fact that I was alone.

“Well, you are just the second guy in a row to come in and eat alone.”

“I don’t live here in Waco.” I replied, my voice stern. I don’t know why it annoyed me that he laughed. It was probably nothing, but for a moment I felt defensive, not for myself, but for all of the single people out there who get up and go it alone. We don’t have the commitment and responsibiities of married people, but often times we don’t have as much of a reason for living either.

I don’t have kids to feed or a wife to please, it’s just me and while this simplicity is bliss at times it is hell at others.

But I’m determined not to sulk or to get down on myself. Life is too short to whine about your circumstances, instead you have to do what you can to change them. I made this bed and I’m quite comfortable lying in it… even if for now it is all by myself.

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• I am at a brand new La Quinta and it is so swank here, like as swank as the Four Seasons or the Bellagio and it is in Waco! #
• I am knee deep in Nursing Home Medical Waste… Thankfully I am being figurative here and not literal… Or am I? #
• Dear PowerPoint, you are a cumbersome broad, but that is why I love you. #

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• I tried the reduced fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich from Starbucks – it was piping hot and surprisingly large, but bland. 3.5/5 stars #
• At the Nursing home and it is hotter than blue blazes in here. Sweet Shradrach, Meshach and Abednigo, get me out of this fiery furnace! #

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• Just had dinner with friends… you so should have been here. Fajitas rocked my face off. #
• @rondostar Kona sounds good right about now… #

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• I am using Entourage on my Mac, I am sorry people but Microsoft still wins when it comes to the Mail client. #
• You can take any image and stick it in a kaleidescope and it will look cool. #
• Just realized that Kenneth from 30 Rock is Clay Aiken’s character when Aiken appeared on Scrubs. #
• Web design is one of the most difficult things I do – it brings in the least amount of money and the largest amount of clueless clients #
• Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #Dallas #blogs #music #
• If I had my own made for TV movie I would want them to cast Dewayne Johnson as me, Heidi Klum as my wife and the Jobros as my sons. #
• FYI… I got that Boom Boom Pow, my style’s 3008 yours is so 2000 and late. #
• @nubied Yikes. That is so hilarious and creepy!! #

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• Munching on some Pirate’s Booty… Have you tried this stuff? #
• Yeah I am watching Kill Bill vol. 2 and drinking Dublin Dr. Pepper and I am loving it. LOVING IT! #
• @nubied Good morning to you too! #
• Do you have negative people in your life or negative friends? Cut them out of yor life and surround yourself with positive people. #
• Just updated the home page for one of my clients: http://www.songofsolomon.com/ We got lots of cool things coming soon. #
• #FollowFriday @texasholly and @dorseybell @nubied and @beckpage – some of my favorite Texas Twitter gals #
• “White women call this the silent treatment that we let them think we don’t like” name the movie #

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I came across an article recently in Wired Magazine called Manufacturing Confusion. It is in the February issue on page 38, written by Clive Thompson.

In the article Clive talks about how there is often a purposeful manufacturing of misinformation. “Is Global Warming caused by Humans? Is Barack Obama a Christian, is evolution a well-supported theory?” He opens the article with these questions and then continues to expound on the fact that we as Americans have heard so many differing opinions on the same subject that we no longer choose a side but instead we just block out what we hear and become indifferent and even ignorant to the truth.

Cigarette cause cancer, Beef – it’s whats for dinner, Atkins Low-Carb diet, Fat Free Diets, Milk Does a Body Good – as consumers we have so many advertisements thrown at us that we don’t know what is fact or ficiton anymore.

One of the most recent attempts at misinformation is those new commercials about High Fructose Corn Syrup. Obviously it is in almost everything we eat and it isn’t harmful to you… or is it? The problem with genetically modified foods is in how your body processes them and while nutritionally HFCS is the same as sugar, your body doesn’t recognize it the same as sugar.

HFCS, in my opinion, is most harmful in snack cakes, candy bars and any food where the first ingredient listed is High Fructose Corn Syrup. In these products we often will over consume because our bodies don’t realize how much sugar we are putting into our bodies.

Ever had a piece of really rich cake with homemade icing? It is so sweet that after one piece you satisfied and sometimes it is so sweet that you don’t even want to finish the whole piece. However, you can drink a 32 oz Dr. Pepper filled with High Fructose Corn Syrup that has 3 times the amount of sugar as that piece of cake and you will still want more.

My favorite quote from the aforementioned Wired article is this: “People always assume that if someone doesn’t know something that they haven’t paid attention or haven’t yet figured it out. But ignorance also comes from people literally surpressing truth – or drowing it out – or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what is true and what is not.”

In the end it is up to us as consumers to do our homework and find out what is true and what is not. We cannot throw up our hands and plop down on the couch and do nothing, instead we have to start using common sense in some areas and a little trial and error in others.

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