FJ Summit 9 - Ouray, Colorado

The FJ Summit is an annual gathering of enthusiastic off-road Toyota 4x4 owners and primarily fans of the FJ Cruiser. The event provides the opportunity to meet with other wheelers, have a great time together, and meet with many of the vendors that help support our passion for off-roading.

Held each year for past 9 years in Ouray, Colorado, this years event brought in a total of 341 Vehicles, with the overall majority of them being FJ Cruisers and 923 visitors in attendance for this years events.

Signing up for this event includes three dinners that are provided to attendees by sponsors and three days of trail runs for groups of 10 vehicles at a time through some really amazing mountain passes. The nice thing about this event is a totally stock FJ Cruiser can make it through almost every one of these trails. You don't have to come out with lots of modifications to enjoy this Summit.

The final night brings everyone together for some good food and a chance to visit with the various vendors one more time and ask any last questions about their products and services that they offer. Then we all gather under the main tent for one of the largest off-road raffles ever put together. Prizes run from the smaller items like a CB radio setup for your ride and then all the way up to the massive off-roading bumpers and all things between.

Then everyone retires for the night and wakes up bright an early the next morning for the final group photo, to mark the conclusion of the FJ Summit. FJ Cruisers line up and take over Main Street for a huge group shot and say so long until the next years event. If you go just once to experience the FJ Summit, you'll want to come back again. I guarantee you will.

See you all in 2016 for FJ Summit #10 and thanks for the great memories.

For more adventures to come, please visit my new blog 4xVenture.

The Gift of Music

Epiphone Les Paul 100 Ebony

An early Christmas present addressed to me, arrived yesterday from Saint Nick. This one is part of his blasts from the past campaign. As a youngster and someone who liked Rock-n-Roll, I wanted a guitar and had an ok starter thanks to him. You know, one of those classic Sunburst models with a basic Amp for sounds to be heard.

I did my best to learn how to play some songs... ok parts of songs more or less. I had a few cords down and I'd say I more and likely sounded like a bad record skipping over and over. But I had a blast and a Guitar to show for it in the end. Time flies by and you grow up and I later moved on to spinning records, "Everybody wants to be a DJ" or so the song goes.

Now its Christmas present, well it soon will be and my dreams of being that next great guitarist are only 60 days away, or so they claim it is. A new product that works with gaming consoles called Rocksmith 2014 has the claim of being the fastest way to learn how to play a real guitar.

Saint Nick dropped off a little bundle that included a very nice guitar case and inside one Epiphone Les Paul 100 Ebony guitar, and a copy of Rocksmith 2014 for the Xbox 360. I have to admit, the kid inside of me had me smiling like crazy at the sight of this. This is a real guitar that will hook up to any Amp Stack and allow the sounds to come forth (music for some who can really play).

The cool thing is my gaming console will be my instructor and it has extensive lessons and mini game modes inside that will allow me to perhaps really learn how to play a full song now. I just might get passed the "smoke on the banks" parts and learn to play all of Smoke on The Water when I'm done.

I think I'm going to give it a real go and see if what they claim really will work. I'll need to make sure to play at least 1 hour a day for 60 days straight. I can see it now, I'll pick up some extra money as a Sessions player soon. Ok, I'll just shoot for learning how to play Jingle Bell Rock next year for now.

Wish me luck and as for my family, I'm getting them all ear plugs for their stockings this year.

Heading back to work at last

It has been a very long and hard 11 months out of work. Pretty much one of the hardest years of my life in many ways. At the start of last years school year my wife landed her first teaching job and things were really starting to look up for us. The only real downside was she had to commute during the week about 2 hours away. Leaving on Sunday nights and returning on Friday evenings made for its challenges.

Loosing my job after a month into this, really set us back and changed things up. For starters, it just wasn't suppose to happen this way to us. Our hopes of finally making some headway and paying for things and trying to make a better life for the family, simply needed two good income sources.

Working for thirteen years at the same place is no accident for me. I truly loved my job and what I did over those years. I actually believed in the brand and that made things easier to get up and do the work. Having my position eliminated simply stops the process and the paychecks. Don't get me wrong, I still like the brand, just not how things ended is all.

That's all in the past now and after searching long and hard for opportunities, dealing with e-mails that read, "Sorry we have decided to move on with someone else." or going through a pretty good phone interview, only then falling short of that next stage in the process. It's finally come to an end or actually a new beginning really.

A great phone interview finally lead to a great face to face interview and that lead to great follow up interviews the next day and those also went really well. When the phone rang and I finally heard the words, "We would like to offer you the position here." its the best thing you can imagine.

After searching for 11 months, you start to reach the point of taking what ever comes up is my only hope. You start to think its time to change gears and perhaps do something else. You still think about the things that could be the perfect job of all times, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards and landing a stable job is all that matters now.

Lucky for me, I'm still working pretty much in the same field of Web Design/Development and its in an industry that I can really get behind and support. I didn't want to take just any web design job and be bored with the brand at the end of the day.

What makes it a dream job for me is its a product that I believe in and in a lot of ways a favorite hobby or form of entertainment for me. Its no secret for most people that know me, to understand that I have a passion for playing video games. So when I found a position at GameStop that fit my skill set, I was happy to give it shot and apply. When I got the call and offer, I said, "YES!"

I'm so looking forward to heading back to work once again and I really think its a Dream Job for me and my love for playing video games will continue as well.

Four more years

We've got four more years with President Obama and then all of the registered voters can get back out and vote once again for who they want as the 58th President of the United States. Until then, you'll hear loudly from all thoese who feel that the wrong man is in office now over these next four years.

What is really sad is the build up to all of this and the plain lack of true support to begin with. True support from those who have the legal right to vote to begin with is sad. Looking over the history of past elections as far back as the 60s at least, we've only really managed around a 50% voter turn out each election.

We have a two party system here in the United States and for the most part and the norm is either a Republican or Democrat will take the White House for those four years. Other parties have tried to gather support and in most cases those votes have done nothing morn than steal away from one of these two major parties.

What about that 50% who didn't turn out to vote though? What if those who didn't come out to vote during the election, because they didn't care about one or the other and who like to say instead that "I'm exercising my right to not vote, because I don't support either one of these nominated candidates", came out and voted for a change anyway?

What if a true third party could actually come about in the United States? The Change party perhaps and where people decided to vote for something different and not the lesser of the two supposed evils. The clip above comes from one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, and was aired on October 4th, 2000 and is titled In the Shadow of Two Gunnmen: Part I. It sums up what voters should really think and feel when they go out and cast their vote.

I'm not writing this in a protest or saying that I'm against President Obama being our next President, in fact I voted for him in the past two elections. Is he perfect for the job? Nobody is really perfect for the job or has no flaws, but it was my right to vote and it was my selection at those times. In the past elections I've even voted against the two party system and for Change and it more and likely just upset one party over the other in the end.

We now have four more years until we get to do this all again. Four years for someone in the Republican and someone in the Democratic party to gather enough support to become the next candidates. We also have four more years to find that good man or in fact a good woman for this job and they don't really have to be from one or the other parties for a change and just maybe in four more years we'll have more than just a 50-60% voter turnout as well for a change too.

Change 10-11-12

Well it more or less took me by surprise today and I'm still trying to grasp the reality of the situation. I've kept quiet since the start of this school year about a few things and I don't have to anymore really. I'm so looking forward to my wife coming home tonight, she plans to take care of a few things for the most part, it means an extra day the family gets to spend with her tomorrow and over the weekend too.

See, she's been teaching in Athens, Texas for the past few months now and in doing so, she commutes during the week and returns home on the weekends. Its been tough in a lot of ways, but I'm very proud of her and this is allowing her to focus on school and teaching. The first year for teachers is always the hardest they say.

So I've only told a few of the people that I work with about my situation. Pretty much my boss and I let him know from the start about all of this, "I don't plan on going anywhere and like working for APHA." It really doesn't concern them (Management) as to what my family does in the end I feel. I didn't want them to think, well he must be planning on quiting soon in the end.

What I didn't expect, was APHA being finished with me so soon. I was surprised after taking a couple of approved days off this week, to take care of my kids and I even did some work from home during this time; only to be lais off upon returning to work this morning. That was how things went for the past few years. No real vacations and still being called upon and asked to work on stuff from home when I'd take my days off.

So over the past few years I've seen a lot of my co-workers leave for various reasons, some on their own terms and some not ready to go, but being asked to leave like this? Looks, like today I join the ranks of those being asked to leave now. It's still a shock, having worked for APHA since January 2000 and I'll miss a lot of things over time I think in the end.

Well this marks only the 2nd time if my life that I've been let go from a job, actually being laid off is different than the first time. Perhaps I should have took a page from my past co-workers and left along time ago and on my own terms. I think I really enjoyed working for the Association in the end and for the members and that is why I held on as long as I did.

Change came early at the start of this year and now I'll be looking hopefully towards better things to come. I think in time I'll see some relief, I mean I'll get my summer months free again as well as the fall and not be tied down to those long hours of working at a horse show anymore. Then again, that was the part of my job I had really liked the most, seeing the members and being around the horses.

The Walking Dead from page to screen

I started a little early this year with my Halloween entertainment options; knowing full well that AMC The Walking Dead would soon be returning and that hopefully season 2 would soon show up on Netflix too.

My first introduction to the whole series was with season 1 on AMC and I soon learned that it all had started out as a comic book. I figured I'd give the comics a read while I waited on season 2, and picked up a copy of the Compendium One from my local library and I was hooked from the start.

Now I've read way ahead of the current show in many aspects and at the same time I've found that the show and comics are on very different paths all together. I can only think that writers for the show have decided to change up a few things and introduce some newer characters for TV show.

Some characters didn't make the cut in the comics and some have lasted longer in the show. The comics are very adult in nature and full of pages that have tons of shock value. Some of the stuff I've read, I don't even know how AMC will even pull it off on the screen. Then again they might not even bring some things from the comic to the screen.

I'm glad that I've read the comics and have become a huge fan of the work. I also like the show and it makes me wonder what they have in store for future episodes and which path these characters will take in the end.

My next couple posts I'll go into more detail on the comics and then later a review of the show. I'll more and likely have a few spoilers, in case you haven't seen the show or read the comic books.

Happy Monstober

It's that time of year for the family and I once again. We love the Fall months and kicking things off with Halloween coming is the best. October normally brings colder weather as well, something people in Texas look forward to as well. But it's also the start of all things spooky and fun as well.

 

The kids of course love Trick or Treat time and we enjoy helping them celebrate as well. Its something I've always loved I'd say and something I've shared with my kids over the years. As an adult we've enjoyed Halloween parties and its the one time of the year I watch scary shows for a change.

 

Now I'm adding some video games like Left 4 Dead 2 and reading some Horror books and even a few graphic novels of The Walking Dead to the mix even. From now until Halloween arrives, its all kinds of things that go bump in the night for my entertainment pleasure.