GNR | Chinese Democracy

iTunes Download…Sync to iPhone…push play…a rush of memories…

The new Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, rocks!

While listening to the new album today I felt like running along a sandy beach where waves would crash in on my feet as I ran along.  Eventually I’d collapse to the sand with exhaustion.  Landing on my knees and placing my hands palm down on the wet sand while I tried to catch my breath.

Emotions, flooded through my brain and I didn’t know if I wanted to throw my hands into the air in triumph or cry in defeat.  There were feelings welling up within that rocked me to my gut, from past memories that flashed through my head like scratches on a movie reel.

Is this album as good as the theme of my Sr. Prom ”Paradise City” probably not.  But, there’s enough of the old Axl in this music to give you flashbacks to the glory days.  It’s not perfect.  It shows age.  It’s different.  And it’s really good.

Music is as powerful to me as the memories from my past and I don’t really give a rip if you like the new album or not.  I know I got my money’s worth and I’m going to wear this one out.

Peace!

FUZZYSHOT

If you’re wondering, what in the world is a fuzzy shot, I can promise you I’m not talking about a mixed drink.  FUZZYSHOT is…”really easy mobile photo blogging” and the newest way for me to express myself.

It’s a blog that people can visit, just like they do this blog, but it’s also a way for me to have fun using another medium other than words.  This blog will be all about pictures and I hope they will bring a smile to people’s faces.

If you’d like to visit my new photo blog then follow this FUZZY link and you’ll be able to see all the photos I’ve posted to date.  If you have your own iPhone, then maybe you’ll be inspired to download the FUZZYSHOT application and sign up for your very own FUZZYSHOT blog.  If you do, send me a link so I can check out your photos.

Confessional

Maybe before you read too far in this post, you should check out the one I wrote back in July, called “Addicted to Empire.”

My confession today is:  I fell last night to my addiction to empire and purchased the iPhone.

Rationalization:  I had a $150 gift card I won, so it only cost me about $100 for the phone and a protective case for it.  I didn’t buy any other extras.

Realization:  Now I have a BIG ole phone payment every month, just so I can have the latest technology and lots of distracting fun.

Does having the iPhone make me cool?  No!  Does it make me want to brag?  Yes!  Do I have to work extremely hard to remain humble, keep my priorities in check, and stay focused on kingdom issues?  Absolutely!

Welcome to My U-verse

On January 2, we had the new AT&T U-verse installed in our home.  I can remember the day, because my wife was still on break from her job and my son was not back to school yet, so I stayed at home that morning to hang with them and answer any questions the installer might have.  It was an enjoyable moment for me because I remember sitting with my wife on the sofa as we waited for the installer to show up and how great our conversation was that morning.

The upgrade from our one little dish and standard receiver, to a DVR which records four channels at one time and two more receivers in other rooms, along with a faster Internet connection, was our Christmas gift to each other.  We had finally succumbed to the peer pressure from our friends and were upgrading to the DVR, a decision they assured us would change our lives.

I’m not sure our lives have changed much, but we do enjoy the DVR.  It’s very nice to fast forwarded through the commercials and to watch shows faster then we would normally watch them.

All of this would be so great if the system we were given would just work properly.  Enter frustration!  We started noticing problems a few weeks after the installation.  At first the picture on the TV would just freeze up for a minute or two and would only happen a couple of times a week.  We could live with that.  In fact we barely even noticed it.  But over the past six weeks the barely noticeable problem has turned into a nightmare of a mess.  We can’t even enjoy TV anymore, because the picture freezes every few minutes.  You end up missing more of the show than you get to watch.

It’s not like we haven’t reported the problem.  We’re now on our fourth installer coming out to take a look tonight.  We’ve changed routers, and had every connection checked throughout our house more than once.  When are they going to get a clue that it’s a problem on the outside of the house and not on the inside?

I feel like we’ve been very patient through this whole process, giving them multiple chances to get this fixed.  We don’t want to switch back to Dish, because we feel this is the best deal going right now and we’re confident that eventually they’ll get this fixed and we’ll be happy.  All the AT&T representatives have been extremely nice all the way down to the sales person who came to my door a few days before Christmas and signed me up.  I’m just trying to understand at what point does being nice become bad customer service.  I’m pretty sure we could continue this little dance for the rest of this year.  We can continue to be patient, they can continue to be nice, but we can still end up with our problem not fixed.  At some point AT&T has to get this right and show that their customer service can actually follow through and in the end the problem can be fixed and the customer “me“ can be happy.  Right now I’m not happy, I’m frustrated, and when I angrily payed my bill yesterday I wasn’t feeling very satisfied that the price I was paying for my service was equal to what I had received.  At some point in this process I’m expecting AT&T to make good on their services and show me that they really do care about their customers satisfaction.  Until then, welcome to my U-verse!