LWerner

Stardate 120108.5

2012-01-08T11:10:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Back again, and this time it's all about Austin. :)

I've never seen so much energy in a human being... This child has a seemingly unending supply of energy. It could be that I tried not to hang around small children before I had my own. Maybe many (or all) of them are like this, and I just never knew it. He seems to have an extra dose though... :)

Austin turned 1 in 2011 on February 2nd, Groundhog Day. As far as I'm aware, his birthday only happened once... We had a Super Hero Squad themed party at his aunt Melodie's place because he loves Spider-man.

He's grown so fast. It seems too fast at times. He is speaking pretty well now and getting far better at mimicking others. He is very adept with our iPhones and tablet... He thinks everything is touchscreen now, including the TV and when it doesn't respond to his touch he looks really confused. :) Spoiled.

When Logan arrived, Austin took to him quite well. He is very nice to his younger brother. They get along very well right now, which will be nice while it lasts... :)

Austin's second birthday is rapidly approaching now. I don't know yet what theme Brittany will use for this year's birthday party, but it's not like she doesn't have a lot of choices. Austin loves Sesame Street ("Elmo-time?"), Phineas and Ferb, Dinosaur Train, and Mickey Mouse... Oh, and Spongebob ("Bob-bob").

So far, he's learned about half of the alphabet, though not the first half...just half of the letters, in order but not in a row. He knows how to count to 10 as well. It's really amazing how quickly he picks up on the iPhone though. He can unlock it, navigate to his folder, and open any of his apps. He's known how to do that for a while. Now he's poking around in my apps! Google maps is one of his favorites now. And he loves the forward-facing camera, because he loves looking at and taking photos of himself. I probably have 60-70 photos on my phone of Austin that he took himself. -_-

He's growing up really fast. And Logan's right behind him. More on the second one next.

Until then,

LWerner

Stardate 120102.9

2012-01-02T21:44:00.007-05:00

Captain's Log:

Not too much happening today. I had the day off of work, which was nice; however, Brittany was sick. :( Back to work tomorrow though.

Now about all those things that happened last year that I didn't get a chance to write about...

Let's start with Brittany and me. In 2011, we had our second wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, we took a nice cruise down to the Grand Cayman's and Mexico. The Grand Cayman's were fun. We toured the island some and visited the sea turtle farm. We were going to do the dolphin expedition; however, Brittany was pregnant (w/ Logan) and they don't allow pregnant women on that tour. Apparently, the dolphins tend to focus all of their attention on the pregnant women...something Brittany certainly would not have had a problem with...

After the island, we sailed to Mexico where we got to tour Cozumel. The ancient Mayan ruins were something that I've been wanting to see for a long time. That was quite an adventure.

All in all, a great cruise. The cruise boat was incredible. It's the biggest ship we have been on so far, and it has some amazing features. To include an ice rink!

Brittany even won the "Finish That Lyric Game Show." She was marvelous.

After the cruise, things quieted down. I finished school and we spent the summer getting ready for the newest Werner.

In late August, Logan arrived. But that's a story for a different post. :)

Those are two of the biggest events that happened to the two of us in 2011. We've been married almost 3 years now, and it hardly feels like that much time has passed. Our time together just seems like it has flown by, which is kind of sad, because I don't want it to go by so fast. I'd much rather enjoy it for as long as I can. :)

It is going to take a few weeks to catch up on all that happened last year, I think. Stay tuned... For now though, this was quite long enough.

Until next time,

LWerner

Stardate 120101.9

2012-01-01T22:26:00.003-05:00

This is the first post on this weblog since 2010... It's like the year 2011 didn't even happen... Though I'm sure in years to come, my son Logan will beg to differ.

Many, many exciting and wonderful things happened in 2011; however, since I didn't write them down here, most of them are forever lost... Bummer.

I do remember a few things though. Most importantly, my second son, Logan James Werner, was born on August 29. Very healthy, and very heavy (much to Brittany's dismay). He and his older brother Austin are doing well, and so are Brittany and I. We are approaching our third anniversary which will happen this March.

This won't be a very long post tonight, since it's late and I don't want to start back up with a crazy-long post. This is just page 1 of the chapter 2012 in my life's story. :)

Until tomorrow,

LWerner

Stardate 101231.9

2010-12-31T22:49:00.001-05:00

Last post of the year, I suppose. Very good year all around I would say. Austin is healthy and growing. I'm just two classes away from finishing my degree. Life is good.

UCF has been rocking it this week. Their basketball team is now 13-0 with two wins this week and they are ranked at #19! Their football team won the Liberty Bowl today against Georgia. That was a tough game.

I just finished my last book of the year. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson was excellent. I loved it. Unfortunately, the next book won't be out for another 2 years! :O

I started The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, but I am not into it yet. I'll give it some more time. And I will have some tomorrow since we are driving back to Florida from Tennessee. That will be a long day. :(

It has been fun visiting family and staying up here in a cabin. Loads of fun. It will be sad to see it end, but it will be nice to be home again.

I don't think I have much more to talk about this year; so, until next year...

Lorimer

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Country Oaks Dr,Pigeon Forge,United States

Stardate 101227.3

2010-12-27T09:12:00.001-05:00

Christmas was fun this year, as it always is. After the Christmas eve service at the church, we (Brittany, Austin, and I) went to my in-laws for their open-presents-the-day-before-Christmas tradition. Austin made out like a bandit this year. He cleaned up and now his room is full of toys.

After the gift exchange, we went downstairs and played video games and watched a movie (The Grinch) late into the night. Everyone but Bryce fell asleep during the movie...

My wife and I were able to sleep in Christmas morning, because Austin has no idea that the sooner he wakes up, the sooner he gets his presents. So we enjoyed some extra sleep.

Once Austin had pulled all the stuff out of his stocking and unwrapped his gifts, with help, Brittany and I exchanged stockings and opened our gifts from each other.

Another tradition we have now is going to my parents' in the morning and having a huge breakfast. It was awesome. Then we opened gifts there and Austin got all kinds of things there too. We received a baby gate, which has already been put to good use.

The rest of the day was just relaxing and eating. Great day. :)

Today, my whole family is driving to GA and TN for a vacation. We will be leaving in a couple hours. That should be fun.

It is really cold today...I can't wait until we get get to TN...

Until next time...

Lorimer

- Posted from my iPhone

Stardate 101219.7

2010-12-19T16:25:00.001-05:00

The Manchester United game was postponed. So unfortunately we won't get to see them beat the chelsea losers today. They are doing quite well after a slow start to the season. The win over arsenal last week was a huge bonus.

I'm sitting in Sunday school right now, waiting for things to get started, so I will probably be pausing mid-post to pay attention.

I finished another John Grisham book yesterday. The only one of his I hadn't read yet. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer was pretty good and a very fast read. I'm now working on The Capitol Game by Brian Haig.

Ok, pause...
And...resume...

Well, a dreary day outside, but not a lot of rain. I don't know that I have much more to say. I do think it's abysmal that the broncos are doing so poorly this year. Absolutely awful. But that's American throwball, so it's far less important than the premier league.

Alright, I guess that's all for today. Later.

Lorimer

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Melbourne,United States

Stardate 101218.0

2010-12-18T00:49:00.001-05:00

Last night's party at Pastor's was great. There was an amazing amount of food and the bonfire was fun and relaxing. Thanks for the party, Pastor and Mrs. Rhodes.

Second post in two days...and both coming in the wee hours of the morning...this must be sleep-blogging; since I haven't posted in six months, my subconscious took over...no that's ridiculous.

So, I finished Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card today. Awesome book, and there are going to be more to follow in that series. I do wish he would come out with another Ender book though. Those are always excellent.

Since I last posted (aside from yesterday), I got FIFA 11. It is incredible. Quite an improvement over FIFA 10. Gameplay is more realistic, you can play as the goalkeeper now, and the layout for career mode is far superior to last year's game. All in all, great upgrade.

Luke just got home a few hours ago, so now he's here for a few weeks on holiday. This is good news.

Seth and Melodie are in Chicago for Matt's wedding. Congratulations Matt! They are freezing up there. Bummer for them. :(

Well, that might be all for now. Until next time...

Lorimer

- Posted from my iPhone

Stardate 101217.1

2010-12-17T02:09:00.001-05:00

It has been a long time once again since I posted. Since the World Cup actually. Tragically, I never finished my posts on that tournament, but since the US lost the 2022 WC bid, I don't want to talk about it.

I found a new medium with which to post on my weblog, so maybe I will be posting more often. We'll see.

A lot has happened since I last post...naturally...

Austin is 10 and a half months old now. So much has happened and he is doing so much more. He can pull himself up on things, he has started imitating everything we do, and he is quite funny. He is over 30 inches tall now, so he's growing like a weed, to borrow the colloquialism.

There's no reason to go into all the books I have read since I last posted. Maybe I'll devote an entire post to that soon, so that those who don't care can just skip that post and save their time.

I did just finish my penultimate semester at UCF. Two more classes finished and only two more to go. Those don't start until the new year though, so I have some time off.

If I think of more I'll post it later, but it's late and I'm tired. Bed time.

For more frequent and (sometimes) funny updates, check out my twitter @LorimerWynten

Thanks for reading and have a good night.

Lorimer

Location:Live Oak Ln,Melbourne,United States

Stardate 100702.4

2010-07-02T09:05:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

Quarter finals start today. Unfortunately, the USA will not be facing Uruguay this afternoon, since they couldn't beat Ghana, but this morning's game will be a good one.

July 2

Brazil will win the first game
Ghana will win the second game

Lorimer

Stardate 100629.3

2010-06-29T07:23:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Last set of games for the round of 16!

June 29

Paraguay will win the first game
Spain will win the second game

Alright, now after today, we are down to 8 teams!

Lorimer

Stardate 100628.3

2010-06-29T07:01:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Easy picks today...

June 28

Netherlands will win the first game
Brazil will win the second game

When these two play each other...that will be a good game.

Lorimer

Stardate 100627.4

2010-06-27T08:19:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Two of my teams got pitted against each other...which team do I cheer for? I think I will have to pull for Germany. They have been more impressive in this tournament and they have potential to go further.

June 27

Germany will win the first game
Argentina will win the second game

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100626.3

2010-06-26T07:43:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Round of 16 action! Go USA!!

Uruguay will win the first game
USA will win the second game

We need this win to revenge the loss from four years ago...don't let us down, US!

Lorimer

Stardate 100625.3

2010-06-25T07:25:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Netherlands, of course, will advance first out of their group!

June 25

Ivory Coast will win the first game
Brazil will win the second game
Spain will win the third game
Switzerland will win the fourth game

Also, today is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, dad!

Lorimer

Stardate 100624.3

2010-06-24T07:52:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Awesome day yesterday!!! All three of my teams won, and the USA won group C!

Good games today as well.

June 24

Paraguay will win the first game
Italy will win the second game
Netherlands will win the third game
Japan will win the fourth game

Until tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 100623.4

2010-06-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

More World Cup action today...another potentially awesome day...let's hope my teams don't let me down like they did last Friday.

June 23

England will win the first game
USA will win the second game
Germany will win the third game
Australia will win the fourth game

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100622.3

2010-06-22T07:04:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

For the rest of the group stage it will be two games at a time and four games a day. It's too bad that USA and England will be playing at the same time. :(

Predictions for today:

June 22

South Africa will win their game
Uruguay will win their game
South Korea will win their game
Argentina will win their game

Tomorrow I will try to remember to post my record so far.

Lorimer

Stardate 100621.3

2010-06-21T07:34:00.001-04:00

Captain Log,

Predictions for today:

June 21

Portugal will win the first game
Switzerland will win the second game
Spain will win the final game

Until tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 100620.3

2010-06-20T07:23:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Alright, today's picks...

June 20

Paraguay will win the first game
Italy will win the second game
Brazil will win the final game

These games are too early...

Lorimer

Stardate 100619.7

2010-06-19T16:27:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

Well, I did better today at least. The Netherlands all but guarantying themselves a spot in the second round with a 1-0 win over Japan. I missed the call for the second game, because Ghana just couldn't find a winner. Australia played much better in this second game after their dismal performance against Germany. And finally, in the game that just ended, Denmark held on and now we are down to 31 teams in the World Cup. Today we witnessed the first elimination of the tournament. Cameroon no longer has a chance of moving on to the round of 16.

I'll be back in the morning.

Lorimer

Stardate 100619.2

2010-06-19T06:26:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

Yesterday didn't turn out at all like I was expecting. I was deeply disappointed. I had been look forward to that day above every other day in the group stage, because Germany, USA, and England were all playing on the same day.

Then what happens?

Germany gets sidled with a ref who doesn't know the difference between a foul and a yellow card offense. Klose is sent of before 40 minutes are up, and Germany, playing with 10 men, concede a goal and can't pull back into the game.

The toughest result to take was the United States game. They actually won their game, but due to some very ridiculous and poor refereeing, the last goal was disallowed. The last time I saw refereeing that came close to being that dastardly was when France qualified for the World Cup on Henry's hand-ball. What a heart-breaking result for the United States who staged an epic comeback in the second half, only to be thwarted by the most absurd of calls. Shocking.

And finally, England. This was the worst played game of the day. England didn't look ready to play at all. They looked tired and lackluster the whole time. Wayne Rooney, who spent the whole 90 minutes on the pitch, looked like he didn't care if he got the ball half the time. There was very little movement up front, and aside from a couple scant chances, England came nowhere near scoring.

It was just a horrible day all the way around. Not at all what I was expecting. Germany defeated by Serbia due to an unnecessary send off in the early stages of the game, United States robbed of a well-earned victory, and England playing disjointedly and poorly. All three of these teams play on the same day again--next Wednesday--and hopefully, the world won't be stunned again by some of the heavy favorites crashing out of the Cup.

Well, that aside, there are three more games today.

The Netherlands are first, and they are a fun side to watch. Very fast and very talented. It will be interesting to see how they do against Japan; a team who is not ranked very high where FIFA is concerned, but who put up quite a fight in their first game of the tournament. Though, beating Cameroon is one thing, and beating the Netherlands is quite another.

Ghana will face an Australian side who got shown the door in the first game by a German side who looked like they could win it all. Ghana won their first game and expect to win this one as well.

The final game of the day is Cameroon against Denmark, and the Danes might be worrisome for the Cameroonians. Denmark did well against the Netherlands for a while and looked as if they may have scored a couple of times. Should be an exciting game. Of course, the three games yesterday should have been an exciting game, and only one of them turned out to be worth watching.

So for the picks today

June 19

Netherlands will win the first game
Ghana will win the second game
Denmark will win the final game

I must say, I am doing horribly on my record for predictions this time around. So many upsets and disappointments. Oh well, that's the way it works, and to some degree, that's what makes the World Cup so exciting.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 100618.3

2010-06-18T07:27:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

It should be quite clear who I am pulling for today in all three games.

June 18

Germany will win the first game
USA will win the second game
England will win the third game

What a great day of football!

Lorimer

Stardate 100617.2

2010-06-17T06:43:00.003-04:00

Captain's Log,

Well, I am not doing as well as I did four years ago. A big shocker yesterday. Spain couldn't pull out a win over the Swiss and I picked the hosts against Uruguay against my better judgment. Oh well. On to today.

I was doing quite well at this time last world cup, but there were far fewer draws, so that is hurting my record right now. I am currently at 7-4-6...terrible. Maybe I can start turning that around today.

June 17

Argentina will win the first game
Nigeria will win the second game
France will win the last game

Let's hope those picks are better than yesterday's...

Alright, time to go to work.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100616.3

2010-06-16T07:17:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Day 6: Spain plays today. The second set of games in the group stage start. It's going to be good.

June 16

Chile will win the first game
Spain will win the second game
South Africa will win the last game

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100615.3

2010-06-15T07:18:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

Fifth day of the World Cup and the upsets have begun. Japan took a surprising 1-0 lead over Cameroon and held on to that lead for the win. Italy was almost defeated by Paraguay, but managed to pull a point back to tie the game.

Today, three more games. Here are my picks:

June 15

Slovakia will win the first game
Portugal will barely win the second game
Brazil will surely win the final game

Alright, I actually have to go to work today, so I will be signing off now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100614.3

2010-06-14T07:30:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

The first game is on! The Netherlands are a flashy team and qualified quickly for this World Cup. Let's hope they can carry that goal scoring over onto the big stage.

The second game is Japan v Cameroon. Tough call. Cameroon can surprise.

The last game of the day will be the current World Cup champions, Italy, v Paraguay. Italy has some age on them, since the team is almost exactly the same as the one that played in Germany (2006). We will see if the experience can help them through these early games.

June 14

Netherlands will win the first game
Cameroon will win the second game
Italy will win the last game

Alright, I'm watching the game now.

Lorimer

Stardate 100614.0

2010-06-13T23:59:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

It is very early in the morning...too early to still be awake. Tomorrow, well today, three more games. I will post when I wake up, but in case I don't make it for the kickoff, I am going with the Netherlands for the first game.

June 14

Netherlands will win the first game.

Good night everyone.

Lorimer

Stardate 100613.3

2010-06-13T07:16:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log,

Day 3: the second half of Group C, both games from Group D, should be exciting.

The United States put up a good game yesterday. With a little bit of luck, they drew with England and split the points in the first game of the group stage. Overall though, great result for the United States against a strong side. It will benefit both teams to have only a tie out of that game and not a loss. The other two teams in the group are much weaker, so England and the US shouldn't have a problem for the rest of the group stage.

For today, it is a tough call for the first two games. The teams are pretty evenly matched.

June 13

Slovenia will win the first game
Serbia will win the second game
Germany will win the final game

Now for the first game!

Lorimer

Stardate 100612.6

2010-06-12T09:42:00.006-04:00

Captain's Log,

Greece went down hard in that first game when South Korea came out shooting. South Korea scored early in both halves and put the game out of reach with their aggressive offense.

Argentina blew Nigeria away from the first with their quick attacks. An early goal just helped up their momentum and kept them moving through the game. Play slowed down slightly near the end and Nigeria just couldn't find an opening in the Argentine defense.

Next game: USA v England

Just 2.5 hours away now. :)

Lorimer

Stardate 100612.3

2010-06-12T07:26:00.003-04:00

Captain's Log,

Day 2 is upon us. Greece is just about the play South Korea. I think, even though Greece has a fairly recent major trophy under their belts, that South Korea will come out very strongly this game and dominate early.

The second game should be all Argentina. Nigeria is a good team in Africa, but with Argentina's fire-power and speed, I don't see them loosing today.

And the match we've all been waiting for. England v USA. I don't know who to call for this game. I would love to see USA do well and win this game, but England is a strong side.

Here are my calls for the day,

June 12

South Korea will win the first game
Argentina will win the second game
England will win the final game, though I would like to see an upset there. :)

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100611.8

2010-06-11T13:37:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log,

Well, the first day of the 2010 World Cup has come to a close, and it has ended with Group A all tied at 1 point. I was wrong on both of my predictions today...bummer.

Tomorrow, we will see Greece play S Korea at 0730 EST and then Argentina v Nigeria. Both should be good.

The big game tomorrow is England v USA. This is probably one of the most awaited match ups of the entire tournament. Don't miss it.

Here are my guesses for the first two games, in case I don't get up in time to post...

June 12

S Korea will win the first game
Argentina will win the second game

Until tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 100611.6

2010-06-11T13:35:00.001-04:00

Captain's Log,

Good first game! I was a little disappointed with the result, but South Africa put up a good fight and almost had the win. Mexico did get cheated out of a goal in the first half, so I guess it was only fair that they didn't lose 1-0. Oh well, on to the next match; France vs. Uruguay. 1430 EST.

Lorimer

Stardate 100611.5

2010-06-11T09:21:00.004-04:00

Captain's Log,

It's time for the World Cup once again! All the excitement that has been building over the past four years will culminate in less than an hour. Just as I did four years ago, I am going to make predictions for the games as we go through the tournament and see how well I can predict the results. Feel free to comment with your own predictions. :)

The first game of the tournament will see the hosts, South Africa, pitted against Mexico. Never before has the host nation lost the opening game or failed to reach the second round. This might be the toughest test of that record, since South Africa is considered to be the weakest teams to have ever hosted the tournament. I would love to see the host nation win, because it means so much to the people of that country, but it will be a tough test. I am going to go with the hosts on this one in the belief that they will rise to the occasion when they take the field to the rousing cries and cheers of their nation's devoted fans. Go South Africa!

In the second game, France will play Uruguay. This will be a tough test for the once-powerhouse team France. Their star, Henry, will most likely be on reserve for the first game, and without him they have trouble scoring goals. Uruguay may surprise some today. In addition to injuries, France did not have the easiest time qualifying and their recent friendlies have been a little shaky.

June 11

South Africa is going to win the first game
Uruguay is going to win the second game

All right, that is all for now. I am now going to focus on the game...

Lorimer

Stardate 100211.7

2010-02-11T14:10:00.002-05:00

Day nine in the life of Austin Werner, and he had quite an adventure this morning. His mother was changing his diaper, and of course, while the diaper was off, he seized the opportunity to wreak havoc. He waited until the diaper was removed...and then peed...a lot. All over my seat on the couch, as a matter of fact. I've heard this can happen, but I have never witnessed it. Fortunately, I was not occupying my seat on the couch at the time of the alleviation. Needless to say, Brittany was shocked.

Also earlier today, I took a look at Austin's skull, which was slightly elongated from birth. When he was born, his skull resembled the crystal skulls from the newest Indiana Jones movie; however, now, it has gone almost all of the way down and it looks quite normal.

Big news: I changed a diaper for the first time yesterday. I was not planning on changing a diaper yesterday, but my wife extorted my love of sweet orange rolls. It actually was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I hazmat-suited up and changed the diaper without incident. The orange rolls were worth it.

Once again, more adventures to follow,

Lance W

Stardate 100208.5

2010-02-08T11:00:00.009-05:00

First Appointments, Hiccups, and Sleep Deprivation

Today, Austin turned six days old, and it was time for his preliminary checkup. His doctor said that everything looks good so far. He is almost back to his birth weight and all his vitals look and sound good. She wants to have one more ultrasound on his kidneys, but everything should be fine.

Since the day we brought him home, my son has been getting the hiccups two or three times a day. I don't know if that's normal in newborns, since this is my first, but I feel sorry for the little guy. I know how annoying incessant hiccups are, and he has them a lot. I posted a video of him with the hiccups, but it's such a routine thing now, I could catch him at it anytime. Hopefully he will grow out of this...I wouldn't want him to end up hiccuping for life...

Austin is now sleeping three and half to four hours at a time, so while my wife is not completely rested in the morning, at least she is not suffering extreme sleep deprivation. I myself am feeling no ill effects whatsoever. I have the distinct ability to sleep through the worst of the crying, and because I have a wonderful wife, she dutifully gets up and takes care of the child. I do stay up late for the midnight feeding to help where I can, but overall, she is the tough one who takes care of Austin through the night.

I'm sure there will be more stories and more to report once Austin starts doing more than sleeping, eating, and pooing...

Until then,

Lance W

Stardate 100204.4

2010-02-04T08:46:00.003-05:00

We are still in the hospital, though they are telling us that this is our last day. Austin is doing really well, and Brittany is recovering slowly but surely. Last night was a pretty peaceful night...at least for me. I feel kind of bad, because I slept through the whole night and didn't wake up at all during the commotion going on in the room.

Yesterday afternoon, the doctor recommended that Austin be put on a Bili blanket and under a Bili Light to correct his slight case of jaundice. The Bili blanket glowed a mysterious green, like it was infused with Kryptonite...which is why my child could not escape the Bili Light. Needless to say, he did not enjoy being under that light, and as parents we didn't like the fact that the machine was torturing our child, but we knew it was for the best and it would fix the issue at hand. He has pretty good motor control already. About 10 minutes into his imprisonment, he had figured out how to grip the top rim of his blindfold and pull it down off of his eyes...which, or course, is not a good thing. So, one of us had to stand or lie nearby and hold that hand to prevent him from blinding himself.

At 0100 this morning, they took him off the machine (I was asleep at this time) and he ate and went back to sleep. I slept from midnight to almost six in the morning, so I was asleep for all of the action, but apparently, after he was taken off of the machine, he slept for a long time without waking up and crying for food. Brittany was able to get some good rest last night.

I didn't stay awake very long. I slept for another two hours before the nurse came in to take Austin away for circumcision. Unlike in Biblical times, the child does not have to wait until its eighth day of life before being circumcised. There is a reason God's instructions were so specific. On the eighth day, the body contains enough vitamin K to assist the blood in clotting. However, now that doctor's know this, they simply give the baby a shot of vitamin K12 and perform the operation, and the baby's blood clots just fine.

Now we are simply waiting to see what's next on the list of things to do before we are released. Mommy and baby are sleeping comfortably after breakfast while dad types away in the corner of the room.

Until next time,

Lance W

Stardate 100203.5

2010-02-03T11:31:00.004-05:00

Austin Lance Werner was born yesterday, Feb 2, 2010 (Groundhog Day), at 1303 ET. He weighed 7 lbs and 10 oz at birth and measured 20.5 in. Everything went very smoothly. The mother and the baby have recovered remarkably well since birth and are both resting at the moment. Austin has been eating very regularly and has been crying only minimally.

That is just the result. Here is a recounting of the events that led up to Austin's birth...

Brittany and I fell asleep on the night of Feb 1st around 1100. I was shaken awake shortly thereafter by my concerned wife. With no warning whatsoever, the light came on and nearly blinded me. Then she informs me that her water had broken. Now, I have heard multiple recountings from other fathers who say that they were panicking and scrambling around in a frenzy. Fortunately, I did not experience that. We had a bag pre-packed for just such an occasion, so it was just a matter of getting dressed, grabbing the bag, and heading out the door.

Shortly after I woke up I found that I had been alseep for barely an hour before her water broke. We left the house around 1230 and made it to the hospital fairly quickly since the roads were clear. We were settled into a room at just before 1 am and then we waited.

When we arrived, Brittany was only 2 cm dialated, so it was going to be a little while. By 0500 hr, she was 3 cm and the contractions had started. 0800 rolled around and she was still 3 cm, but the contractions were getting bad, so she had the epideral administered. By the time that was done, we found out she had gone from 3 cm to 8 in just 30 minutes! I called my mother to let her know and she exclaimed, "Oh,my!" and ran out the door in order to rush to the hospital. Another hour passed, and she was at 9 cm. Then, at 10 she made it to 10 cm and the real work began.

In an effort to stay civil, I will gloss over all of the hard work Brittany went through over the next three hours. She worked extrememly hard and I am very proud of her. She endured the pain and at 1303, Austin Werner was born.

Right after the baby arrived, everyone in the room went crazy moving from the mother to the baby and back again. I was allowed to cut the umbilical cord. :) After the baby was clean and Brittany had been rearranged comfortably, we got to hold our baby for the first time.

In my experience, it is a rather strange feeling to hold your child for the first time. In a previous post, I mentioned that Brittany had a far greater emotional attatchment to the child than I did, because he was inside of her and therefore the connection was much more intimate. But holding Austin for the first time, I found it rather amazing that I was holding a child that belonged to me; a child I had a part in making; and a child that I would have as a son forever. It is hard to explain adaquetly, but as I said before, it was an amazing feeling.

We are still in the hospital, and shall be for another day. They told us this morning that we should be released some time tomorrow afternoon. Now we have to adjust our home life to accomidate this new addition. Austin's room is ready for him. The crib and changing table are ready to go, and his clothes and toys are all organized. It will still be an adjustment with the lack of sleep and such, but something we are more than willing to weather for our son.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 100117.6

2010-01-17T13:30:00.002-05:00

Captain's Log:

Just a regular post this time. School has restarted and I am enrolled in three classes. As of right now, including these three classes, I have only five classes left to take to graduate. Right now I am enrolled in LAN Technology, Applied Systems, and Applied Database II. Should be an ok semester, but I am ready to be done.

I haven't finished any books recently. I am reading How Few Remain, which is an excellent book. It is the first in a series of 11, so I have quite a few books to keep me busy for a while.

The Olympics are coming up soon! First major sporting event of two that I am looking forward to this year. NBC does a good job of covering the Olympics, even if they do a horrible job at managing their late night shows. They are making a terrible decision keeping Jay Leno and removing Conan from their line-up. Stupid, really.

Brittany is ready to have the child, and with the way the child is growing, it might not be too much longer. I will be sure to keep everyone posted.

That's about all for today. I will be back sometime. For now, I am going to eat lunch.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 100105.5

2010-01-05T09:40:00.002-05:00

With a little over a month to go until the due date, the pace of things is going to pick up drastically. Doctor’s appointments are going to be coming sooner and sooner; probably until it feels like we live at a doctor’s office. Well, hopefully not that much. Preparations around the house are speeding up, and the necessary items for the child are stacking up in the child’s bedroom. Just recently we received a few items from a friend of mine to add to our collection. Brittany’s baby shower is still coming up, so I’m sure we will have a few more things to store before all is said and done, but rest assured, things are progressing nicely.

I know Brittany is ready to have this baby now. She is tired of the pain and aches. Just the other night I asked her how she was feeling.

Her response was, “Ok, unfortunately.”

So I had to ask, “Why is that unfortunate?”

To which she replied, “Because I don’t want to feel ok. I want to be having contractions.”

I laughed out loud and told her, “I bet you won’t be wishing that when you are actually having the contractions”

All that to emphasize the point that she wants to have the baby soon. I’m all for having the baby sooner than the due date, but this is probably too soon. We are still six weeks from the due date, and it may be good to give the child another couple of week’s development before it is introduced to the world.

We have a week off before our next doctor’s appointment. I don’t know what that appointment is for, so I guess I will have to wait and find out.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 091228.6

2009-12-28T14:05:00.004-05:00

We are finally done running around town from doctor to doctor. It is time to relax. The morning doctor's visit went fairly regularly; checked the baby's heart beat, discussed recent developments, and set up the next visit for two weeks from today.

That was Brittany's regular doctor. Our afternoon appointment was with an ultrasound specialist. During the last ultrasound visit, we discovered that the baby's kidneys were larger than they should be and they wanted to keep an eye on them as the baby developed. That was what today's checkup was for.

So, we arrived at the Rockledge Weustoff Women's Center slightly early for our appointment. The waiting room was practically empty, so we were in to see the specialist without an unbearable delay. Brittany was weighed (for the second time today) upon entering the room and then her blood pressure was taken...also for the second time. The technician started working taking measurements and screenshots of a baby that looked like it was posing for a photo shoot. Once all the measurements were in, she gave us the preliminary results. While it looked like the kidneys were doing much better, for the rest of the organs seem to be catching up in size, there were some other figures that were cause for alarm.

I believe at the last checkup the baby weighed somewhere around 3 pounds, 8 ounces. When the technician gave us the new weight, I was stunned. It seems that the baby now weighs 6 pounds, 2 ounces! To me, that seemed a little excessive, and Brittany had a look of utter dismay on her face. The specialist said that the baby is about two and a half weeks ahead of the average pace on weight, and also mentioned that he or she is three and a half weeks ahead on length. So apparently it is not an overly fat child...it is just really long. Understandably, Brittany did not like the sound of these new figures.

In my opinion, either the numbers for the weight were wildly inaccurate this time around, and were calculated incorrectly, or the original timeline for the pregnancy is wrong. Either way, the baby will most likely be born well before the projected due date of Feb. 13.

Now we will wait and see. We have another doctor's appointment in two weeks, and the ultrasound specialist wants to see us again in five weeks. That is, if the child isn't born before that...which is a possibility it seems.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 091227.4

2009-12-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

Well, my last two posts summed up the pregnancy experience so far, so now I will be writing about the new things as they happen. We still have 7 weeks left, a few more doctor's visits, and a lot more to experience.

Tomorrow, we have another ultrasound and doctor's appointment. The ultrasound is to check on the status of the baby's kidneys up to this point. That is the primary focus, because the technician at the last ultrasound said the baby's kidneys were slightly larger than they should be at that point in time...well, more developed than the other organs. I think we have had five ultrasounds so far, and each time the baby is in a different position. The baby moves around a lot apparently, and it shows on the ultrasounds.

To answer everyone at once, no we do not know what the gender of our baby is, because we want it to be a surprise. Well...here's the real story...

I have wanted it to be a surprise the whole time. From the time we found out we were having a baby, I wanted to avoid finding out the gender. Brittany, however, was all about knowing ahead of time. She was shocked and dismayed that I did not want to know. Doctor's appointment after doctor's appointment, she would ask me if we could find out, and I kept asking if we could wait. Finally, she came around to my side and decided it would be fun to wait and see. I figured that we had clothes for both and the bedding and decorations for the room were light greens and yellows, so we didn't have to worry; one way or another, we were prepared.

Now that we have only seven weeks left, she is fine with the waiting idea. It seems we are the only ones in the church that decided to go this route. There are quite a few couples that are also expecting children, and all of them have found out or want to find out what they are having. Oh well. I enjoy waiting for the surprise.

Well, we will have to see what comes of the appointments tomorrow, so until then I'm signing off.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 091225.9

2009-12-25T22:21:00.003-05:00

First of all let me say, Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone had a great holiday with family and friends. Also, I hope everyone remembered the reason we celebrate this holiday: the birth of Jesus.

Now, back to the child rearing story...

Change was the subject of my last post, so now I am going to move on to a different aspect of the pregnancy process: how prepared we are physically and mentally. We aren't there yet, but we have been steadily getting ready for this new Werner who is on the way.

Well, we have a nice crib with bedding, a few chairs and swings for rocking the baby to sleep, a pink rocking chair for Brittany, a changing table, a half-designated room...we're pretty much there...well, as far as the furniture is concerned. We still have some work to do on the room. The painting needs to be done, and a last few things need to be finished before the big day arrives. The clothes situation has just about taken care of itself. We have clothes for either gender since we don't know what the baby is yet. Of course, Brittany has yet to have had her baby shower, so we should be getting a few things to fill in the gaps.

So physically, I would say we are moving right along. Like I said, a few things left to take care of, but overall, we are getting there.

Emotionally, we get more and more ready every day. This whole process for us is brand new, so new emotions and feelings that go along with having a child are dawning on us almost daily. When I think about raising a child and having someone so small and helpless relying on me, it puts things into a new perspective.

When Brittany originally got pregnant, I was happy, of course, but as the male, I didn't necessarily have an intimate connection to the child like Brittany. However, as the pregnancy progressed, I became more connected, as it were. I guess it really hit me as reality the first time the doctor checked the baby's heart beat for us. That was actually very cool. I was fortunate enough to capture the sound on my iPhone and if I find a way to post it here, I will.

If the heart beat check was cool, it was nothing compared to the ultrasound. We got some awesome pictures of the kid, and I have them posted on facebook for your viewing pleasure.

Well, as time went on, and the baby grew, I was finally able to see and feel the child moving. It was rather strange at first. To see some one's stomach just rolling and moving of its own accord is quite a sight. It took a little getting used to, but now I can feel the kid move anytime I want, since the child moves all the time (much to Brittany's discomfort!).

So, as time progresses and we get closer to the due date, I become slightly more attached to the baby every day, though I don't think it will be emotionally real until I hold the child for the first time in the hospital. I don't mean that cold or emotionless way, and I don't know how many other first-time father's feel this way, but in my opinion, for the male member of the couple (the one not carrying the child) it is a little hard for it all to be completely real in a person's mind. I guess I will have to wait and see...and by extension...so will you. :) That story will have to wait until February.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 091218.9

2009-12-18T21:20:00.003-05:00

A lot has changed in the past year. I have gotten married, my new wife and I are soon to have a baby, and I am closer to finally graduating from college. I wrote some about getting married and that chapter of my life. While that chapter is awesome and still going strong, there is now a new addition that I must document. Since this is an entirely new thing for me, I thought it would be good (and somewhat amusing at times) to track the adventure as it unfolds.

I’m told a child changes so much in your life, but I don’t know that the thought of universal change has really sunken in yet. Before I got married, people told me the same thing about marriage; however, after I was married, while some things did change, adaptation wasn’t painful or trying at all. At least that I remember. Maybe I have a selective memory when it comes to the bad things in life, but the adjustment from bachelorhood to married life was a fairly easy switchover. I just have a feeling though that the change from two to three members in the household will be slightly more trying than the change from one to two, so I felt it would be a great idea to follow the progress of our first attempt at childrearing. Should be interesting reading.

I haven’t experienced too much change yet, though a few of the greater changes come to mind. I go to the doctor’s quite a bit more than I used to…once a month now. Half of my office has been converted into a nursery. I have to time my visits to and from the restroom well, because it is almost always occupied now…well, that’s a slight exaggeration…but only slight.

Of course, none of this is bad, it’s just different and I am doing my best to adjust. My adjustments are nothing compared to my wife’s, though. She is amazingly tough. Each day brings a new change to her body and a new pain or ache. Sleep is fleeting, and although the morning sickness stage has past, the baby kicking (and jumping, and stretching, and karate-ing, and circus performing) have increased drastically. We have 8 weeks left and she is ready to go now.

Well, that’s a good start to the story. Should be an interesting journey, and I am going to try to get a lot of it written down. Mostly for posterity’s sake, but for Brittany and me as well, so years from now when we look back at this, we can laugh at how young and inexperienced we were. So long for now.

Lorimer

Stardate 091021.6

2009-10-21T13:17:00.003-04:00

The Lockerbie Deal

There has been some confusion today over whether or not the Lockerbie bomber (terrorist) has died. The news pundits, namely Sky News and Reuters, have published reports of his death; however, the terrorist’s Scottish lawyer, Tony Kelly, denies the report stating, “He is alive and breathing”. Regardless of how this plays out today, whether the terrorist actually dies or not, it is of little consequence when one considers that this killer should never have been released from prison in the first place. In fact, if more countries had the fortitude that even our country is slowly losing, this fiend would have been put to death when he was convicted of killing 270 people. The fact that he was allowed to live was a poor decision to begin with for the country of Scotland, but to release him on grounds of compassion is just shameful.

Yes, he has prostate cancer and would experience more discomfort dying in prison than in his home in Libya. The question that should be posed to the Scottish government is, “So?” The man killed 270 people when he hijacked a plane back in 1988; 189 of which were Americans.

Reports are surfacing, and investigations are being launched to determine whether or not this decision was made in an effort to sweeten an oil deal between the UK and Libya. If that is true, and the UK government released this terrorist in the interest of business, there should be serious repercussions.

This terrorist, and others like him, have no regard for human life outside their own Islamic faith. For too long, the agencies and covert organizations that are designed to protect the American people from the damage and death these terrorists can inflict have been hampered and harnessed by rules of fair play established by global decisions, like those arrived at by the Geneva conventions. The terrorists and Islamic extremists do not play by the rules. They feel no remorse for the killing of innocents, because their religious leaders have indoctrinated them with hate for America and its allies. A contracted, trained strike force not attached to the US government would be a handy tool when a terrorist needs to be dealt with.

The third Geneva Convention, which deals with prisoners of war, is all well and good when an issue arises in a country that has actually signed the treaty and abides by it, but for those terrorist-run organizations that don’t care about this treaty or the one about harming civilians, special treatment should not be afforded. If a terrorist has information that will lead to the prevention of an attack on US soil and/or its citizens, then we should be able to employ the means necessary to gain that information. Even if those “means” entails some extreme methods that, regardless of how some may feel about them, produce results.

With the current direction of our country and its government, the possibility of these methods actually being employed seems highly unlikely.

Unfortunately, we are more concerned with peace talks than national security.

Stardate 090429.6

2009-04-29T12:29:00.002-04:00

Captain’s Log:

When last we met, I was expounding upon the injustices being performed at the highest levels of our incomparable government. This will be somewhat of a lighter post and a catching up, if you will, on the events of the past three months.

February saw the two of us pick up the pace on our wedding planning and preparation, since the big day was but a month and a half away.

March was even more hectic. The wedding took place on the 28th, and up to that point, everything was wild and hurried. My family flew and drove in just in time, and the ceremony went quite well. I will have to set up a server or an online photo album somewhere to post all of the pictures that were taken. All in all, the service went well, and everything looked great. We owe a big thanks to Mrs. Snyder for her work on the decorations, and her inestimable effort on the cake. Also, we owe Marc and Sara Rhodes who did an outstanding job singing and playing the piano (respectfully) for the service. We were honored to have the groomsmen, bridesmaids, and ushers that we had. Thank you Luke, Melodie, Brad, Anna, Seth, Shelbi, Nathan, Rachel, DJ, and Bryce. The Lord has truly blessed us with the greatest of friends and family.

April was a mixed bag, as the first half was the honeymoon in St. Augustine and the Bahamas and the second half was a return to the real world and the job. I love my job, but it is hard to come back to after spending so much time off.

I have finished 19 books since I posted last, and I will list them all quickly here for those who may have some interest in reading good books.

1. The 13 volumes of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events
2. The Associate by John Grisham
3. Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell (This book was my favorite of the year so far)
4. Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
5. The Archer’s Tale by Bernard Cornwell
6. Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
7. Luke’s Story by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins

Agincourt was an excellent book about the ancient battle that took place between the French and the British in 1415. Awesome book! I have been reading quite a bit of Bernard Cornwell, because I am trying to catch up with his writing. I have only two left and then I will be completely caught up and ready for the new King Alfred book this fall. Hooray!

Anyway, my wife’s birthday is this weekend, and we are going to see Wolverine. That is not the only gift for those of you who have a shocked look on your face that I would be so cheap. J

I have other things; however, to mention them here would ruin the surprise.

My brother’s birthday was yesterday, and he turned 20. He is away at college and he is touring this summer with the college’s singing group, so I will not get to see him until he returns here in August.

Now I am droning, so I need to wrap this up. Overall, the past three months have been hectic, but rather enjoyable.

I will be back someday…

Lorimer

Stardate 090131.9

2009-01-31T21:56:00.004-05:00

Captain's Log:

Our country is facing many challenges today; not least of all, the growth of the federal government. Unless you dwell under a large piece of granite, or have only just arrived from your home on a celestial body in the far reaches of the galaxy, you must know that we, as a nation, have a new president.

Now, over the past few months (during the election), I made some factual comments about how things are going to be run in the United States when the new administration takes over. So far, things seem right on track. I got many comments to the effect of "get over it" or "find something good in the situation; don't always focus on the negative". Fine: our new president is tech-savvy. I found something good. Now let's focus on the factual events that have taken place over the past 11 days.

1. Pro-abortion memorandum has already been signed.
2. An economic stimulus package that will essentially hurt the economy in the long run, has been pushed through the house by a vote of 244-188 and is now in the senate.
3. The bi-partisanship that this administration claims to be striving for is non-existent. The evidence is in the vote for the stimulus package. All 244 'yes' votes were democrats...not one single republican voted for it. Why is that? The stimulus is a bad idea, and they know it. All but eleven democrats voted the party line.
4. A task force was started, to be headed by vice president, Joe Biden, that will create "green jobs". In other words, money from the stimulus package (which comes from our tax dollars...all $817 Billion dollars of the stimulus) will be used to create new jobs that help the environment and the country as a whole...right...another government program that increases the power of the central government.

I am sure in the weeks to come there will be more news and activity coming from the oval office, but for now, I think that is enough for the American people to stomach for one night. Oh, but I did find his comment the other day rather interesting; he said, when addressing Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) about the republican opposition to the stimulus, "I won. I will trump you on that." Hmmm...I don't know. To me, that doesn't sound like his campaign promise of "I will hear both sides equally, and then decide on the best course of action."

For now, I think that will be all. Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 090122.8

2009-01-22T19:56:00.002-05:00

Captain's Log:

I had to return to work this morning after an awesome five-day weekend. Brittany and I went to South Carolina to visit my grandparents. As we were both off of work for a few days, we decided to take a break and tour Charleston.

We left Melbourne after church on Sunday morning and drove the six hours to Charleston. We made the obligatory stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch. After arriving at my grandparents around 2100HR, I made all of the introductions since this was the first time my grandparents had met Brittany, and then we ate dinner and went to bed.

Monday - 19 January

Brittany and I both woke much later than normal, and after eating a hearty breakfast, we left the house. As she had never visited a plantation before, we decided to go to Middleton Place Plantation and spend the afternoon. We spent hours wandering the grounds after riding a horse-drawn carriage around the old rice fields. As afternoon moved steadly onward into evening, the cold became to pervasive and we were forced to retreat to the house where dinner awaited us. My grandfather had made his famous macaroni and cheese which, I must say, I ate quite a lot of. After dinner, the four of us played a game of Hand and Foot before we all hit the sack.

Tuesday - 20 January

We awoke late, again, and ate our breakfast/lunch and set off once again to explore Charleston. This time the two of us went downtown to the historic district for a walk along the battery. We walked past block after block of ancient houses, many of which dated back two hundred years or more. Once we had seen our fill of multi-million dollar homes, and we were too cold to continue, we drove over to Waterfront Park. We spent very little time there, for the cold wind was growing stronger. We went home for dinner after only a brief tour of the park. My aunt and uncle came to dinner and met Brittany. After dinner, we played another game of cards and went to bed.

We drove home the next day, and took our time on the drive as it was a very nice day. And that was our Charleston trip; our first vacation together. All in all, it was a perfect weekend.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 090111.6

2009-01-11T13:49:00.003-05:00

Captain’s Log:

Once again, I take my time posting and life just flies by. So much has changed in the past few months, and it needs a proper telling. To start things off right though, Happy New Year to the readers of this marvelous weblog.

2008 ended with some excitement as I got engaged on New Year’s Eve. Brittany Clemensen and I are engaged and will be married on the 20^th of June. Now, as most of you know, I am not normally one to give loads of details, but for Brittany’s sake I will try to properly retell the story.

Brittany and I met in church on August 20^th when Seth and I were discussing his latest cell phone. I sat down in their pew for a few minutes before the service and as there was no room next to Seth, we had to talk across the girls (Melodie and Brittany). Well, almost a month passed and we started casually seeing each other; however, we consider September 20^th, the day Brayden was born, as the day we officially started dating.

By November the 10^th I knew she was the one God wanted me to marry. I was out late walking—as I’m often prone to do—in my neighborhood, and the creative portion of my brain kicked into high gear. The words of a poem issued from my brain with a rapidity belying the mental and physical exhaustion my body was feeling at such an hour. Within just a short time I had the perfect poem written and edited. When I got back to the house I typed up the poem and erased the original copy from my phone so that it would not fall into the wrong hands. The version I had just typed up was placed in a virtual vault and locked with two separate passwords so as to keep the nature and content of the poem a secret until the day when it would be needed. I wanted Brittany to be the first to hear or read the poem, so I showed it to no one.

Another month went by and we continued to grow closer and more in love, but she started getting antsy. She couldn’t understand why I hadn’t asked her yet. Well, for the entire month of December I had been working toward that end, but there were a lot of things that needed to be done without her knowledge. I had to get her father’s permission, get the go ahead from the other parents, find out how all the siblings felt about it, buy the ring, decide when to do it, and then actually propose. So, all of those things were being planned and completed behind the scenes and she was wondering when I was going to get my act together and just ask her.

I got all the opinions I needed over the month of December, and while the two of us were up in Chicago for her brother Stephen’s wedding on the 20^th, I asked Mr. Clemensen for his permission to marry Brittany. He said he’d love to have me as a son-in-law on three conditions: that we don’t have the wedding anytime soon, that we have the wedding in Florida (it was excruciatingly cold in Chicago…), and that we have cake at the wedding. I’m only joking, of course…well, I’m partly joking…those weren’t the only requirements.

Now, through all of this I had been researching rings and the “four C’s” of diamonds, so that I could make an informed decision. We returned home from our trip on the 21^st, and three days later I bought the ring.

When I ordered it I was told that it would ship on the 29^th of December and be over-nighted to my house, so I wasn’t worried because I didn’t need it until the 31^st. Well, Monday came and went sooner than I thought it would and the ring was not shipped. That was when I started worrying, but I need not have done so for God had things under control. All day Tuesday I was on the phone with the company walking them through the process of checking the diamond, setting the stone, and finally shipping it to me. I made sure they knew that I needed the ring within 24 hours. I must have called them six or seven times that afternoon to check on the status, and finally, right before close of business, they shipped it via Fed Ex for next day delivery. I tracked the package all morning on Wednesday, and as soon as it was placed on the truck here in Melbourne, I went home to wait for it so I could sign the receipt.

Well, Brittany was home when I got there, because she was doing some laundry to get ready for work. This presented a slight problem. I was going to have to explain what kind of package would require me to come all the way home and provide prove of receipt. Fortunately, a co-worker of mine was also having something shipped to my house that was supposed to be delivered that day. Well, I signed for the package when the Fed Ex driver showed up and told her that I was going to stash the box in my truck to make sure I didn’t forget to take it to work.

After lunch she went to work and I went to church. We were to meet at my house afterwards, because we were going over to Seth and Melodie’s for a New Year’s party. I removed the ring from the shipping box and placed it in my pocket before I got home. She hopped in the car and we drove away from the house, headed south on US-1. She looked at me and asked where we were going. I said that I wanted to do something special for her tonight, so I was taking her to see the fireworks over the river. She was very excited. I drove down to the Eau Gallie library, for behind the building there is a lighted pier that extends out over the river. We walked down the pier and looked to the north where fireworks were already going off. After a few minutes of casual conversation, I turned to her.

“I wrote you a poem a couple months ago,” I said as I turned my head to the north again to resume my fireworks viewing. She stared at me for minute.

“Do I get to hear it?” she asked.

“Oh, you want to hear it?” I pretended surprise as she rolled her eyes in feigned exasperation.

I turned to face her and launched into my poem. The poem is written to be nice and sweet and all that throughout; however, it builds on itself piece by piece and it was not until towards the end when she started to realize where the poem was going. After I said, “To you, my love, I’ll always be,” I reached into my pocket as I got down on one knee in front of her. As I was simultaneously reaching for the ring and dropping to my knee, her hands flew up to her mouth and tears sprang into her eyes. I finished the last refrain with, “Yours Alone,” (dramatic pause) “will you marry me?” and though she couldn’t speak immediately, the nodding of her head revealed the answer right away. She was eventually able to get the word out through what I hope were joyful tears and I slid the ring onto her finger.

After a few more minutes of fireworks, we left the pier for the party, happier than ever. Little did she know, but the New Year’s Eve party she thought she was attending was actually our engagement party that just happened to fall on New Year’s Eve. There were quite a few people there that we had invited from church.

I guess it’s a good thing she said yes…that probably would have killed the party otherwise. Of course, calls and texts flew from our phones all night to various family members and friends informing them of this drastic but wonderful change in our lives.

Now we are left with only 160 days until the big day, so the planning has kicked into high gear. Please pray for us as we move into this new chapter in our lives, and for those who have been praying throughout, thank you very much for your help and concern.

And so begins the story of Lance and Brittany. More to follow.

Lorimer

Stardate 080907.7

2008-09-07T16:21:00.006-04:00

Captain's Log:

This past weekend, some of my family and I went up to Charleston, South Carolina for an ersatz reunion. My brother Luke and my sister Rachel were unable to attend, for they are just starting their college semesters at PCC and Crown respectively.

I am going to use this post to write about my weekend vacation, and hopefully give a preview of an upcoming post.

Saturday, August 30

I try to avoid waking up before the rising of the sun; however, this morning I was forced into wakefulness by my rather loud alarm clock at 0530. My family and I had planned the night before to leave for SC at about 0610 in the morning…which is way too early. Fortunately, I had packed my bag the night before. I was scrambling around the house enough this morning without the added trouble of packing my bag.

Well, around 0620, my parents roll up to the house in the Cavalier and the Suburban, ready to drive. It was still dark outside…so dark, in fact, that I am surprised I did not run into the car parked in front of my house…ok, so it was not that dark, but it was that early. Anyway, the reason we took two vehicles was because my brother’s semester at PCC starts on Tuesday, and he took the Suburban to college with him.

So, after practically falling into the Cavalier, I just manage to buckle my seat belt before sleep reclaimed me and I passed into unconsciousness again. I did not sleep very long, so when I came to, I talked to my mother to keep her from falling asleep while she was driving the car. I figured it is best for the both of us if she kept her eyes open for the drive.

We arrived in Jacksonville at around 0900 and we met my aunt and cousins at a small, dingy gas station. My cousin Ben is also going to PCC, so he rode with Luke. After shuffling luggage for 20 minutes we all said goodbye and headed out to our respective destinations. I drove the next leg of the trip, so I could not sleep as much anymore.

After lunch at Cracker Barrel, I drove a couple of hours and then switched places with my father when we stopped for gas. Now that I was not sleeping, driving, or sleeping and driving, I had the opportunity to read my book—the newest edition the Shannara saga.

My father pulled the Cavalier into my grandparent’s driveway at a little after 1400, and we were finally able to get out and stretch our legs. My legs are quite long, so to ride in the backseat of the Cavalier, I have to fold them into thirds…which leaves me practically chewing on my knees…as you can imagine that is not only painful, but also quite unpalatable.

Anyway, a big reason for our visit this weekend was family pictures. The lot of us—minus my mother and Brad—loaded up a couple of hours after we got unpacked and drove down to Waterfront Park. After a couple of hours posing in front of a camera, we all went down to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I will not bore you with a description of my meal as space in this post is precious, and to waste it with needless words is almost a crime in and of itself.

It was quite late when we got home, so we all decided we had had enough. Off to bed…

Sunday, August 31

Fortunately, my aunt and uncle’s church service starts later in the morning. The church they attend is huge. Last week they had a total of 2,017 in the services on Sunday morning.

After church, we went home and changed into a comfortable set of clothing and drove over to the Navy base to see if there was still space available in a tour for the H.L. Hunley. As luck would have it, we were able to get in shortly after we arrived and I was able to see the Hunley up close. For more information on the Hunley and its history, visit Hunley.org. Needless to say, it was something to behold.

That night we ate dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house, and afterwards I played two full games of hand and foot with my cousins and my mother.

Monday, September 1

We spent Labor Day driving back and arrived home around 1700.

--------

Now, about the lunch at Cracker Barrel. I came up with a great new advertising campaign idea for the restaurant. I fixed a biscuit with scrambled egg and bacon, and it looked very similar to a McMuffin; however, since this was surely not McDonald's I could not use that lame name. So, I decided that I would use a shortened version of the restaurant's name and call them CrackMuffins...I am going to send the idea in and see if they jump on this killer idea...

In an upcoming post, I plan to document my Independence Day trip. We will see how long it takes me to get that posted…

Also, please note that my reading list for the year has been updated with the great new books I threw down (as it were...) this year.

Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 080610.5

2008-06-10T09:22:00.006-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well everyone, this is post #100! I am weblogging from work, on my iPhone. I am setting up one of the new computers, and it takes about two hours per machine. Well over an hour of that is waiting while the backup or restore programs run. Needless to say, I have plenty of time on my hands for the next hour.

As I'm sure many of you already know, the European Championship 2008 is already under way. Unfortunately, England did not qualify for this tournament. That travesty is due mainly to the fact that their manager (coach) at that time was a dismal leader. The day after England failed to qualify--which happened to be Thanksgiving Day--the manager was sacked. I had a very thank-full day.

Since I cannot throw my support behind England, I am supporting Germany. The Germans proved their dominance in a resounding win over Poland on Sunday. Lukas Podolski scored twice to vault the German crew to the number one slot in the group.

Today is the fourth day of the tournament, and Group D is set to play their two games today. I think Spain and Sweden will be the two victors today.

On a very different topic, I will be fixing my book column on this page very soon. I forgot about it after August of last year. I will replace last year's reads with this year's within the next few days.

I am a third of the way through my summer classes (I am only taking two). I plan on completing my degree next May.

I realize that my 100th post was not as exciting as it should have been; however, look forward to some exciting posts coming soon. Euro 2008, the election, and the olymics should provide me with plenty of material.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 080519.9

2008-05-19T21:59:00.002-04:00

Captain's Log:

I have returned after a quick, turn-around trip to Maryland. Matthew Lyon got married this past Friday, and I was asked to be an usher in the wedding. This is actually his third wedding, but I will get into the story behind that statement later. As it turns out, Robert was graduating on Saturday; so, the timing was perfect.

Well, I flew out of Orlando Friday morning. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:28 AM, so I planned on leaving my house at 3:30 to get to satellite parking by 4:30. Thursday night I went to Walmart and got my last minute shopping done. By the time I had finished packing, it was nearing midnight, so I laid down to get a few hours of sleep after setting my alarm for 3:00.

I woke up feeling suprisingly well-rested, and opened my eyes. As I glanced across the room--my mind still booting up and running its routine POST checks--I noticed that a large amount of light was pouring through the window. The first thought that raced through my head (while I was still prostrate on my back) was, "Hmm...I didn't know it was that light outside at 3:30..." The next thought that crossed my mind (4 seconds later, as I started the shower and the coffee maker simultaneously) was, *edited*. Needless to say, at 6:31...11 minutes after I woke up...I was pulling out of my driveway on my way to the airport.

I arrived at the airport around 7:40 and I, having missed my United flight, jumped into the Airtran line to see about buying a last minute ticket. Now, I did realize that buying a last minute ticket was an aweful thing to do, and that it would cost me an arm and a leg, but I had no other choice. So, after waiting paitently in line, it was finally my turn at the ticket counter. I discovered that the cheapest flight on Airtran that would get me to BWI before 5:00 PM was going to cost me $360 dollars... Left with no other option, I verified with the ticket agent that if I found a cheaper fare elsewhere I could refund my ticket, and I booked the flight.

Complaining bitterly to myself, I made my way to the alternate terminal to check on some other airlines. I was pointed in the direction of Southwest, so I decided to give them a try first; however, the line was eternally long. As a quick solution, I pulled out my iPhone and navigated to Southwest.com in search of a decent fare. As luck would have it, there was a flight available for $214 that would get me to BWI by 4:00 PM. As I filled out my information for the online purchase, I hustled back toward the Airtran ticket counter. One click away, I approached the agent at the desk to request a refund for my ticket. I was then informed, for the first time, that if I were to refund my ticket, I would be charged a $75 dollar penalty, and the money I payed for my ticket would be applied as credit to my account to be used for future flights...

After explaining the entire situation to the agent, and then his supervisor, I finally got the money placed back in my account. Immediately after receiving my refund, I pressed the confirm button on the Southwest confirmation page. Pocketing the reciept from Airtran, I quickly rushed back to the Southwest desk to wait in a long line for my boarding pass. By this time, it is around 9:15, and my flight does not leave until 1:25 PM, so I had plenty of time to sit around and read.

After a crazy start to the trip, the remainder of the small vacation went quite well. Randy Sanger was nice enough to let me stay the night at his house Friday night, and I was able to help Mark in the soundroom a little.

The story of Matthew's three marriages:

Matthew and Kathleen were married on May 15th, 2007 in Virginia, then they were married at Chesapeake Baptist church on May 16th after the Wednesday night service. They had a quick marriage because Matthew was being deployed overseas three weeks later. So, this was their third marriage. They actually had a real ceremony and all of the normal traditional wedding activities.

Alright, it is time for me to get some sleep. I may be back to post again sometime this year...we will see...

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 080229.7

2008-02-29T18:00:00.004-05:00

Captain's Log:

Happy Leap Day! This is the last time I will be able to write on February 29th until 2012, so I thought I would take this monumental opportunity. This is the only leap day until 2012 and the Google Doodle was lame. You can take a look at all of the past Google Doodles if you would like, for there are quite a few good ones.

The other day--at work--I came up with an idea that would benefit all of the computer users in the 920th Rescue Wing. I have begun writing a manual that will explain some of the more basic solutions to common problems that occur with everyday computer use on the bases's network. The User's Manual (as it has come to be called) includes topics such as finding the name of a computer, setting another printer as the default printer, and setting up Outlook on a machine to view one's mail. All relatively simple things that can increase the user's amount of computer knowledge a little. This project should make everyone's job easier, but only time will tell how much of this manual is actually read, and how much is used.

That is basically what the introduction to the manual states; however, there is a sentence at the end of the intro that say, "This manual even goes so far as to teach the user bear-evasion tactics!"... I actually wrote an article expounding on the tactics for evading a bear assault and I included them in the manual, in the 9th chapter called Tips and Tricks. I thought it was informative enough to bring to light here, so that three people who read this weblog can learn this valuable lesson. Here is the article...

Surviving a Bear Assault

Most, if not all, of us have experienced those moments of irritation spent setting up a tent for a night under the stars in some far off woodland with the family. Every time something has to go wrong, and of course it has to happen when the sky is just beginning to darken and carry us into a night filled with sounds that are strange and foreign to the ears of city dwellers. (If you have never been camping, then you are clearly missing out on a stellar experience, and as soon as you finish this article, you should proceed to EBay and purchase a tent. Plan a camping trip, drag the entire family in the heart of the woods, and experience the great outdoors for a couple of nights.) After the troublesome tent is erected, and dinner has been consumed, it is advisable to seal and store your leftover food in such a way that the smells of the delicious victuals do not carry on the wind into the nostrils of a hungry bear. If for some inane reason you forget to do this, or you just choose not too (an example of extreme inanity), the bear may come to pay you a visit and your life may be threatened. Here are some easy steps you should take to avoid being consumed by a bear.

1. Don’t go camping… (despite the advise proffered in the parenthetical statement above)

2. If you must go camping, seal and hang your food high in a tree, like any semi-intelligent, half-sober monkey could and would do…

3. Were you to come face-to-face with the beast, please refrain from delivering a round-house kick to the face…you are not Chuck Norris (for more explicit instructions proceed to the bear-specific portion of this article)

Bear-Specific Evasion Instructions

Grizzly Bear – Quickly climb the nearest, tall tree…calling for one’s mother during the climb may seem appropriate, but is not advisable. Climb at least 15 feet, for these bears can get as high as 12 feet up the tree.

Black Bear – Punch it in the face…seriously… Your only chance of escape (for these bears are quite fast) is to fight it or scare it away. Hit the black bear with rocks, pots, pans, sticks, fists, or sinks from one’s kitchen (provided that the sink is readily available).

Polar Bear – Hand the bear sunglasses and a Coke®… You have to be especially lucky to have the glasses and the cola at your disposal in such a trying and deadly time. Let me know how that goes...if you are able...

***

That will probably be the only article in the manual that does not relate to computers, but I thought that it was an important one. Now you know how to survive when you are challenged by a bear.

Have a good night,

Lorimer

Stardate 080124.9

2008-01-24T22:27:00.001-05:00

Captain's Log, Supplemental:

This is unprecedented, unheard of, and frankly quite outrageous...I have never written two articles in one day, and although this one will not be long, it contains valid and astounding photographs which may or may not interest half of my two readers.

Behold! The most amazing England head wear to date...

I know what you are thinking; "How can there be a hat to match that marvelous creativity and craftsmanship? The beauty of that England hat will make me weep tears of joy for a long time to come!"

Prepare to be amazed as a second hat is presented and gaze upon its fitted, six-panal design...

Now that you have seen these hats, and marveled at their ClimaLite® awesomeness, how will you be able to sleep tonight? I know I won't...so raptured my attention shall be, that sleep will be but a dream itself, running from me as it would a man diagnosed with insomnia...

This will be the last post tonight, you can be assured. I would not presume to interrupt your sleep patterns any more with this nonsense of caps...but a poem might be appropriate...perhaps...

'Twas the night (and eleven months) before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even (because Smoke ate him) a mouse;
I was nestled tight, all snug in my bed,
While visions of awesome hats danced in my head;
When out of my bed I fell with a clatter,
I sprang from the floor to fix this drastic matter.
Away to the computer I flew in a flash,
Opened Soccer.com and drew out some cash.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But miniature pictures of two awesome reindeer*,
There was one black and one white, just a pair--only two!
I laughed when I saw them, and I knew what to do;
With a gleam in my eye and a twist of my wrist,
Soon I was off to the checkout with just a small list;
I spoke not a word, quickly completing my work,
After I had ordered I knew not to lurk;
But I fled to my bed, over floorboards that creak,
Contented that my hats would be here Monday of next week.

Happy January 25th to all, and to all a goodnight!

*rhyming code word for hats in this line

Goodnight for real this time...

Lorimer (Der Hut Bewunderer)

Stardate 080124.8

2008-01-24T19:48:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Well, Happy New Year! And yes, I know that I am slightly late. Things have been moving at a rather rapid pace, so I will briefly try to break down the events of the past two months.

November:

My family and I traveled to Pensacola to see Luke for Thanksgiving. His school has a horrible rule which prohibits students from leaving the school during the Thanksgiving holidays until two or three in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day! So we spent the weekend in the cold northwestern region of Florida.

December:

This month went by much to quickly. My school semester ended the second week of the month, so I was able to relax for a few weeks after finals. The Christmas holidays were quite enjoyable. My sister and brother came back for a few weeks and my grandparents came down to visit for a weekend.

January:

It has been a fairly good start to the new year. My brother Luke and I drove up to Maryland for the weekend of the 12-13. One of my best friends, Robert West, committed a grievously, fatal error by getting married... So, we went up there for the weekend to celebrate the forfeiture of his liberty and freedom. On the way home, we stayed at my grandparent's house in Georgia. My Grandpa just underwent open-heart surgery this past Monday, and he has stabilized and is doing quite well now--albeit a little sore.

That brings us up to the present. The Wade basketball team (Varsity) is 6-1, and the JV team also has a winning record...which I will post once I learn what it is.

I am currently reading the third book in the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden, and I must say that this series is probably my favorite to date. The author is excellent and he is writing about one of my favorite times in history about one of my favorite characters in history.

Christy was here last week, and we went to the Brevard Zoo on Saturday. I had never been to our local zoo, and I was actually very impressed. It is a fairly decent zoo with a wide variety of wildlife from across the globe. In fact, a bird (the very bird in the picture below) nearly dropped an indecent amount of poo on my arm in the free-flight aviary. Fortunately he got rid of that mess before he climbed upon my shoulder.

I am out of thoughts for now. I will be back someday...

Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 071011.9

2007-11-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Once again...an age has passed since a post stopped by this site. I have not finished my Holland trip yet...and if I remember correctly, I predicted that this would happen--just like it did when I got back from Germany and started writing about that trip.

I actually decided to post today, on Veteran's Day, to thank all of the men and women in our armed services for their contribution to the furtherance of our freedom and liberty. Against all odds (terrorists, communists, democrats, etc.), the United States military continues to be the best in the world and does a fine job of maintaining the safety of the American public. Thanks to all of those who have served or are currently serving our nation, and God Bless America!

Much has happened in two months. In my last post I talked about Bernard Cornwell's new book, Sword Song. It is very good. I finished the Shannara book I was reading as well as the Children of Hurin. Not much reading going on these days though, for I must finish my semester of school work before I can enjoy myself.

The Lady Crusader's did well this season. They won four or five games and came close on four others. The FCC Cup defending champs did not do as well as one might hope. They were unceremoniously booted from the playoffs by a stronger Land O' Lakes school. With 3-0 being the final score, it would appear that we did not even show up to the game...or we played with the same style that carried us to two wins, four ties, and two losses during the regular season. That stellar style that allowed the midfield to disappear in the middle of a game and the opponent's score to be rather high. Oh well, we do not lose anybody from this year to the next, so I am sure we will be much better.

The World of Soccer:

Today in Italy, a fan was shot and killed by a police officer in a riot. The policeman claimed the slaying was an accident which occurred while he was firing warning shots into an angry riot... Two games were postponed (Roma/Cagliari and Lazio/Inter Milan) because of the incident which took place outside the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. AC Milan's game was cut short by the officials because the fans became belligerent and threatened to overcome the crowd barriers and charge the field. That game only made it 7 minutes before it was called. The victim of the shooting was a 26-year-old disc jockey from Rome.

Back to Holland:

Day Eight - 26 July 07

We had breakfast at the hotel again, which was equally as good as the days before, because the selection was exactly the same. The bus drove us to Haarlem again today, and we toured around the city for a few hours. After lunch in the city, we went to the fields for our two matches of the day. Both matches were against US teams and we tied both...I was very upset, because we could have beaten both easily.

The friendship village that night was a nightmare...again. We went their for dinner, because it was opening ceremony night. All of the athletes from all of the countries gathered on a practice field, and one by one all of the teams marched into the stadium for the big ceremony. We were standing in a massive crowd with the rest of the United States players. This was not just soccer night either. Every sport was represented by every athlete competing. Since we were supposed to keep our teams together, the whole time I was trying to keep my players from running off to talk to girls on the other teams and other countries. One of my players speaks flawless Spanish, so he had a huge edge over the rest of the guys when they met the girl's soccer teams from Spain. After an hour of constant vigilance on the practice field, we ran in and stood inside for an hour listening to people and music through a sound system that nearly deafened me permanently. I was only too happy for the event to end, so that we could pack up and go back to the hotel.

After room checks, I was up until 0130 doing player evaluations. The evaluations consisted of comments and measurements of the players skills and attitude during the entire trip (on and off field). Once I finally got to sleep, it was so nice.

***

That is all the time I have for tonight, though hopefully I will be back soon to finish the last three days of the journey to Holland.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070908.7

2007-09-08T16:45:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I started reading my new Shannara book this week. This is an awesome book, as Terry Brooks' always are. I also received the new book from Bernard Cornwell in the mail. That is next on my list...well next after The Elves of Cintra, The Children of Hurin, and Hood.

Our Lady Crusaders won their first game of the season (aside from the Heritage Prep forfeit) last night! The girls won a close second game after a disappointing first. The third game went to 26-24 and put our girls one game back; however, they came out soaring in the fourth and nearly prevented the other team from reaching double digits before the game was over. Down to the final game, Sarah Bizub served for 12 straight points, which so utterly destroyed whatever moral the other team still had. A few trades of serve and our girls had won.

The girls will have two games in a row next week and the guys have a soccer game on Tuesday.

Another round of European 2008 Qualifiers was played today and England decided to assert themselves. They beat Israel 3-0. Germany shut Wales down and out with a 2-0 victory; both goals coming from Klose.

I have more school work to do before the day is done. I will return...

Lorimer

Stardate 070904.8

2007-09-04T18:00:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Sorry, but no day eight today. Maybe tomorrow. I do have other news though...

Latest weird news: A Rhode Island man was charged with kidnapping and demanding $20,000 ransom from his mother for her cat. Wow…what an idiot.

Yesterday was Labor Day, and as usual the government took the day off. This was nice. I slept in and then rode my bike to my parent’s house so that I could spend the day there with Luke before he left for college. Mostly I just sat in a chair and read, because he was packing for the next three months. For dinner we all went to Longhorn Steakhouse, which was quite good. Luke and my dad left this morning to travel up to Pensacola.

I did not ride my bike home in the night, but drove the Cavalier. I avoided a ticket, but risked my life nearly as much driving that car. It is making some funny noises, which sound dangerous.

I have been using my Zune for nearly a week now, and I have come up with many new ideas that Microsoft can implement to improve the software of their product. I am going to email them near the end of this week once I get all of my ideas down in writing. Maybe they can write the code for these changes fast enough so that they come out with the 1.5 version of the firmware. One can only hope…

I picked up the new Shannara book from the library today, and I am going to be reading that heavily over the next few days. I have not finished The Children of Hurin yet, but it is very good. The next book in the Saxon series is being published in January in the US; however, it came out this week in the UK, so I ordered it from amazon.uk and I will be getting it by the end of the week. Yet another book to read. John Grisham's new book is the last one in September that I want, and then there is only one more this year, I think, that I am going to get. Orson Scott Card is publishing his new book at the end of October.

Done for tonight…Boom!

Lorimer

Stardate 070902.8

2007-09-02T17:00:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Many things have happened over the past two weeks to keep me way too busy to post, but I have finally found time. This will probably be a long post because of the many things about which I must write.

To begin with, classes started last week, and I am signed up for five. Three at UCF and two at BCC, which will transfer to UCF immediately after the semester. My three UCF classes with be very interesting as well as slightly challenging; however, my BCC classes are almost a joke. I am taking Microcomputer Application II (Office 2003) and Windows XP... My UCF classes are Electrical Circuitry, Applied Operating Systems I, and Computers/Network Security. Should be an interesting semester.

Our Wade volleyball team is doing quite a bit better than last year; much improved. They are 1-3. They nearly beat Liberty, but lost in the fifth game by 8 points. So close. Our soccer games do not start until this Friday.

My sister left for college at Crown last week, and my brother leaves for Pensacola on Tuesday. I wish both of them good luck. They will be fine, for they are both very intelligent.

I finished 9 books in the month of August. This includes the entire Charlie Bone series. These books were actually not that bad. The first one was kind of lame, but they got better as the series progressed. I have moved back to reading books on an adult level. The Children of Hurin is quite good, though I am only 52 pages in at the moment. The new Shannara Book came out, and I will be starting that soon. Also, Scarlet came out, which means that I have to finish Hood so that I can read Stephen Lawhead's newest book. So many things too read, and not enough time.

Now I shall post the next day of my trip that I took over a month ago and have not finished relaying to the public...

Day Seven - 25 July 07

On this morning over breakfast, the members of my team gave each other nicknames, and then called me over to the table at the end of breakfast (I was not able to eat with them this morning, because we had a small coach's meeting at another table) to tell me the names. I had already memorized all of their names the second day of the trip, and I was not about to learn new names for them all, so I told them I would be using their real names, but they were welcome to use whatever names they wanted for each other. It did help the team to bond, so I thought it was a great idea.

After breakfast, we left the hotel on our bus and went to Amsterdam for our canal tour. While on the boat, we got to see things like the oldest houses in Amsterdam, the skinniest house in Amsterdam, the mayor's bicycle, a floating Chinese restaurant, hundreds of house boats, and a replica of a 17th century ship named the Amsterdam...oddly enough.

Once the tour was concluded, we drove to the fields and played our one game of the day. We lost to the Swedish team in our bracket; however, we held them scoreless in the second half after some big changes at half-time. After the players had cleaned up, we watched a couple of the other games going on around our field. We left for dinner shortly thereafter, and went to a place called the Pancake House (well, that is the English translation...). The "pancakes" turned out to be crepes, and they were quite good.

After dinner, we watched a local city team play another club team (I have no idea where they were from) and that proved to be a one-sided affair. The visitors came in and won 6-1. Throughout the entire game, Jeroen (a Dutch guy who was in charge of the Delegation Managers at our hotel) and I talked about Holland and America, and I asked him quite a few questions about his country. I found out many things, among which was the amount of trouble one has to go through to get a driver's license over in Holland. First of all, you have to be 18, and then you have to take about 30-40 one hour lessons along with multiple tests. He said the whole process costs about 1500 Euro, which is about 2100 dollars. It is very difficult to get a license there.

The day ended at the hotel when I fell asleep, quite happily, in my room.

***

In conclusion, I bought a Zune the other day on Woot.com; half-price. Picture...

I got the white one. As soon as it was charged, I loaded it up with an episode of the Office, Season three. It looks great on the screen, for it plays video in wide screen format. I am very happy with it.

That is going to be all for this dreadfully long post. Until next time...you stay classy, Melbourne!

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070821.8

2007-08-21T18:19:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I have been away longer than I intended. It is time to get back to the Holland story.

Day Six - 24 July 07

Well, this was our first game day. Practice was over, and now my team got to play...finally. However, our games were in the afternoon, so we had the whole morning to tour the Ajax stadium. Ajax is the professional team of Amsterdam. Here is a shot of the stadium...

The fan shop at the stadium had the most outrageous prices, so I told my players to wait for a couple of days. We were going back to tour the inner city of Amsterdam, and they could buy the same thing for 20 Euro less at one of the small shops in the city. After we were done with the tour and we had eaten lunch, we traveled to the fields. We were to play on the same fields where we practiced. We had two games on this day. The first game was against a Dutch team called the Deadly Eleven. They killed us in the first half; 4-0. After a few changes, and some shifting of players, we held them to 1-0 in the second. My players were getting so frustrated, because we could not get a shot off. You must understand though that four of the players on the other team also played for the U-15 Netherlands national team. The rest of the players were nearly as good. I do not fault my players for losing, because the odds were very against them. On the contrary, I was quite happy with the way they never gave up. That was awesome. The second game of the day was against a USA team and we beat the 3-0. Three different players on my team scored. We went home moderately happy that night. We had dinner at the hotel that night, which was quite good.

***

I have ridden my bike some in this past week, and I think that since I have some daylight left tonight, I might ride down to Nate's and see him. I will be back some time. Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 070812.9

2007-08-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, while I was away (5 days) I purchased a bicycle. It is a Schwinn 26" Cruiser. Here is a photo...

I love it. It is an awesome bike. I rode it to my parents house this afternoon, which was only six or seven miles.

I know that everyone is waiting for day five and has been waiting for five days now. I guess it is time to return to the Chronicles of Holland.

Day Five - 23 July 07

On the morning of the 23rd, we visited Gastheer van Volendam for touring and lunch. Afterwards, we jumped back on the bus and traveled to Jacobshoeve to visit a wooden shoe factory and a cheese factory. The wooden shoe tour was neat. The wooden shoes are all made by machine now, but there was a man there who was making one by hand when we came through the shop. He said it takes a whole day just to make one wooden shoe. That is without a special design and without paint. The gift shop at the factory was filled with wooden shoes of all different designs. Here is a picture of one wall...

After that tour we walked about thirty meters to the cheese factory, and learned how to make cheese. In the cheese shop, there were all kinds of samples...all of which I tried...multiple times. The cheese was very good.

From the cheese factory, we left on bikes and took a 10 mile bike tour to and around another small city--the name of which escapes me. That was a lot of fun. Everyone in Holland owns at least one bicycle and uses it daily to travel around the city. The main reason for this is the cost of gas. In Holland it is 1.45 Euro a Liter. This equates to about $7 per gallon. So you can see why they would prefer to travel by bike.

After our tour it was time for practice. We practiced for a good three hours and then the coaches had to go to the Friendship Village for a meeting. Once the meeting had ended, we (the coaches, all eight of us) stood in the rain for half an hour waiting for our bus to come and retrieve us. That was loads of fun.

Finally, after a thorough soaking, we arrived safely to our respective rooms and I finally got some sleep.

***

Maybe there will be less of a break between this post and the next than there was last time...we will have to wait and see. It is growing late and I must go to work in the morning. I also have to drive all of the way to Haines City tomorrow for the AD meeting. That should be great...

Anyway, I will be back soon.

Lorimer

Stardate 070807.7

2007-08-06T23:04:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I am going to skip straight to the good stuff today.

Day Four - 22 July 07

After another awesome breakfast, our bus (Bus 15) pulled up, sucked us all inside, and then drove us to the beach in the small town on the west side of Holland. It was cold these first three mornings in Holland, so a trip to the beach was not the most ideal thing that we could have done with our time. In fact, a few of my players came to me later and informed me of just how cold the water was. I am glad I decided to avoid stepping foot on the beach at all, much less dragging myself into the abysmally cold pit known as the North Sea. I toured the small town for about 3 hours instead. After lunch in the town, we loaded up and went to the pitches where we were to have our second practice. I led this practice, and because I had so many good players, it worked out very well. We got a lot accomplished. For dinner, we went to the Friendship Village. Now, as this is the second time that I have mentioned the Friendship Village (FV) it is going to need further explaining.

The FV was a nightmare...plain and simple. It was the most unorganized place that I visited on the trip. It was a place for all of the athletes to come and eat dinner, hang out with each other, play soccer together, and just relax. For the coaches it was a horrid place that hid your players from sight, and did not allow you to find them until well past the time when they were supposed to have met up with the group to go home. In the center of the main square there was a giant stage with giant speakers that blared music the entire time we were there. These speakers nearly deafened me and left me bereft of hearing. This first night was not bad. There was only soccer athletes there, and the line to get into dinner was short. After we finally rounded everyone up, we went back to the hotel for some sleep.

***

Not much to say today. I want to make sure I keep posting almost daily, so that I do not stop in the middle of my Holland story and never finish. This is only day 4 of 11. I will be back soon.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070806.8

2007-08-06T17:13:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

It was actually a semi-busy day at work today. I had a few trouble tickets come through, and I organized some more of the intranet. Tomorrow looks promising as well.

Not much has happened since my return from Holland. I finally got completely unpacked, but have yet to finish all of the laundry. I did come home to a marvelous surprise. Before my trip, I finished the second bedroom (as far as insulation, drywall, and fan/light) and I moved my desk, computer, and bed in to live there until I could finish my room. Well, when I got back, I checked my room and found that all of the wallpaper and chair rail had been removed and the walls had been painted my desired color of white. I just stared at the walls for a while (it was past midnight, and I had been flying all day and I was not quite as comprehending as usual). Eventually, when I discovered who had done it and taken in the full effect of what had happened, I was rather pleased. It seems that Christy found out that she had some extra time on her hands, I suppose. For my birthday gift, she flew down here while I was out of the country, and painted the whole room. It looks awesome; however, it has not had a chance to air out, so it still smells strongly of Behr Interior. All the same, fantastic gift.

Back to my description of the journey over the Atlantic:

Day Three - 21 July 07

I got to breakfast at the hotel this morning, and the breakfasts there were awesome. Bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, toast, loads of bread, chocolate milk, English breakfast tea, and coffee. This is only what I ate and drank; the selection was much larger. I ate the same thing every morning, so this will be the last time I mention what it is that I ate at breakfast. Once we were through, we rode our bus (which would be our own for the entire trip) to the fields for our first practice session. Today we would be training with Dutch coaches. I learned a lot from these first three hours, for these coaches were quite knowledgeable. After practice, we ate in Haarlem and toured a small part of the city for a couple of hours. That afternoon we learned to play Korfball, which is a rather interesting game. The court is about the size of our basketball courts, but the baskets have no backboards. Here is a picture of a basket and a korfball...

Here is a link to a site that will describe (with pictures too!) the rules and intricacies of Korfball. That was loads of fun, and the coaches team won the one game that we played. Very exciting stuff. That night we had dinner at the hotel, which was great, and then bed.

***

Tonight, I am going to see the Bourne Ultimatum, so I will have to critic that movie when I post again. For now, that is all.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070805.6

2007-08-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I have returned. I got back from Holland one week ago today, and now that I have some time, I will write about my exploits in that foreign land. This may take several posts, and for those of you who were reading last year's posts about the Germany trip, I will attempt to make it all of the way through this trip when describing my time overseas. This time I actually kept a log book of what happened when it was happening, so I will not forget much when relating it to you.

I left on a Thursday morning, so all night Wednesday, I was up packing. I did not sleep at all that night, because I wanted to conquer the jet lag before I got over there. My father drove me to the airport Thursday morning, threw me from his truck, and left me standing in front of the JetBlue Counter for check-ins--and that is where my story begins.

Day One - 19 July 07

Shortly after I arrived at the airport, I met the eleven athletes and two coaches who would be traveling overseas with me. We would travel JetBlue from Orlando to NY (JFK) and then Delta from NY to Amsterdam. The flight to NY left at 1020 and it was only a 2.5 hour flight, so that was easy enough, but when we got to JFK things got crazy. First of all, that airport is way too big. It took thirty minute, after we picked up our luggage, to make our way from one terminal to the security access point in another terminal. After another half hour waiting for the check-ins and security checks, we made our way to our next gate. There we would wait for another couple of hours for our flight due to leave at 1725. I got quite a bit of reading done this trip. The flight to Holland was seven hours, and when we got to Amsterdam it was 0720 local time (0120 EST). I got about six hours of sleep on the flight, and that would be sufficient enough to last me for almost the whole of the next day.

Day Two - 20 July 07

At the Amsterdam airport, we separated into different groups with athletes and coaches that had arrived from other parts of the US. Once our group was complete, we were bused to the Friendship Village. Now, the Friendship Village (FV) is the central hub for the entire tournament. The Opening Ceremonies are held there, as well as the big dinner ending the tournament, and it is where all of the athletes can gather at night for dinner throughout the week. It was a dreadful place to be when full. I was so sick of the FV by the time the end of the week rolled around, that that alone would have chased me out of Holland. Once at the FV, I ate breakfast and lunch, and then met up with the people traveling to my hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, I checked into my room, which I had to myself all week. Orientation was at 1800 in the conference room of the hotel. I made my way down at 1755 to meet everyone for dinner, and I came in contact with the Athletic Director for our hotel first. He told me to wait another 20 minutes in my room, because they were sorting out something or other and I needn't be down yet. So I went back upstairs and laid down for a moment. Two hours later I wake up and look at my clock. I quickly make my way downstairs for the meeting, which by now is well over--as is dinner. I find out where my team is so that I can introduce myself and get to know everyone. The AD was not too pleased with me that night. Once I found my team, I got the introductions over with and I proceeded to cover the rules of the hotel and the tournament with my players. After our short meeting, I went upstairs, ran bed checks (to make sure all of the players were in their correct rooms), and then went to bed. Not a great start for me on this trip, but after meeting my team and learning that I had responsible young people, I knew that the week would turn out all right in the end.

***

That is all for today. That second day took quite a bit of telling. The next time I post, it will be days three and four.

In other news, I finished Harry Potter 7 shortly after its release (that is the official story; for more information about the date of completion, email me).

Also, my birthday occurred since the last time I wrote, and it was awesome. 22 years old.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070705.7

2007-07-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

912 years ago today the Crusaders of Europe captured Jerusalem from the Muslim powers that had held the city for two decades. This is the day, July the 5th that the Crusaders actually reclaimed the city and began the process of establishing the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. This would be the only crusade that would see such a great victory. The following four or five great crusades did not fair so well.

Since it has been quite some time since my last post, many things have happened in and around my life worthy of note.

Firstly, I finally started working on my office a week and a half ago. I tore the ceiling down and the insulation only to replace it with nice new insulation. The insulation that I took out was only R13 which is 3" thick...pitiful. I installed 6 1/4" insulation when I redid the job, which should help to regulate the temperature in the room. Yesterday, my father and I hung drywall, so now the ceiling looks much better. Today, I am going to start mudding and taping the ceiling, and I hope to finish that tomorrow. I will paint this weekend, pick up my new fan/light fixture and install that, and install crown trim and baseboard. Should be a good time...

Secondly, I have finally finished a book which has been slaying me for years. It is called Apocalypse Dawn and it is the military version of the Left Behind series. Do not be fooled by the "Left Behind" tag; this is one of the worst books, if not the worst book, that I have ever read. It was so horribly written, I almost cried. I barely made it through the first one, and let me tell you, I will not be reading the next two. The quality of writing in Eragon was almost as bad, but at least that storyline held my interest. If at all possible, avoid reading Apocalypse Dawn by Mel Odom.

Thirdly, I have started using the Rosetta Stone Language Learning program to start learning German. It is a very good program, and it is very easy to use. We will see how long I actually use it, but I am learning a lot from it.

Fourthly, the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team is horrible. Maybe they should just let the U-20 team play all of the games from now on, because they actually know how to win.

I believe that is all for now. I am currently reading Hood by Stephen Lawhead which I would recommend to any and everyone. He is an excellent writer and this book is awesome.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070616.5

2007-06-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

Captain's Log:

This is my first attempt to post on my blog with my Blackjack. I hope it comes out all right.

First, to all of the critics that said FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer was boring and poorly done...You are all idiots. I thought the movie was excellent. It was much better than the first one, and the storyline of the Silver Surfer was extremely well done. They stuck to the original story of the Surfer almost entirely. The movie was very, very good. Do not listen to the critics, for they are all morons.

Today is Cliff's wedding, so I am getting ready to head over to the church. I just finished my People to People meeting, and that went well.

I finally finished the sixth HP book, and I am waiting for the last one. That is only the first book of the month for me. I need to hurry and finish a couple more before the end of the month.

I was reading the winning stories in the Proteus Review, which is a competition at BCC for the students and staff. They are some of the most poorly written stories that I have ever read. Anyway, while reading the awful, winning story I came up with a new idea for a short, which I hope to start writing soon. It will be title (tentitively) The Teenage Experience, and will follow one high school year in the lives of at least six students of varying ages. Discussing, with the help of a fictional setting, the problems, difficulties, changes, and experiences of a teenager.

I will not enter it into the competition, because it will be too long. I did submit a story last May, but it did not do that well. If you type my first and last name into the Google search engine it should bring up my story as one of the first few results. I am still trying to decide whether or not I want to enter another story, because it seems the judges only appreciate gay storylines and hand out first place to papers with many, many errors and poor content.

I do believe that that is all that I will have time for today. So, until next time, goodbye.

Lorimer

Stardate 070525.8

2007-05-25T17:06:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Another slow day at work. Hardly anyone came in today, because they wanted the four day weekend. Who can blame them?

I am very tired for I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 last night at the 12:03 showing and the movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes in length. The movie was very good, except that the storyline jumped around a lot and was slow at first. Personally, I liked Spider-man 3 more than POC 3, but they were both good. The theater that we were in last night was especially warm and I started to fall asleep during the film. Of course, the end leaves the storyline slightly open so that if they decide to make a fourth movie, they have a story already in place.

Last night I finally finished Harry Potter 5, so that is my third book of the month and twenty-fourth of the year. I dropped it off today and picked up the sixth book. I have already passed my page total for 2004 in the first five months of 2007; I have read over 10,500 pages this year.

I was not busy at work today, so I read up on the subject of Scientology, because there was an article about Tom Cruise and his cult in the news the other day. That is a very messed up belief system. Apparently, a creature known as Lord Xenu threw these alien creatures into volcanoes and then when they died and their souls left their bodies he sucked them up into a giant floating vacuum. He then preceded to brainwash them with a movie for 36 days that fed them misinformation and confused them. After the 36 days, he released the thetans (alien souls) and they latched onto human beings, creating human confusion and becoming the cause of all disharmony in the world...

So, all humans have to do now is pay money to be audited with an e-meter to detect one's thetan level and try and reduce the disharmony and confusion in each individual. With each thetan that a person conquers they "grow" more in the "religion" and progress through the OT (Operating Thetan) levels (1-8; 9 is unachievable right now apparently). I guess only L. Ron Hubbard was a OT 9 and no one else has been one since. Scientologists also buy into reincarnation of a sort and believe that they have lived countless previous lives. During their audits, all these details of previous lives and occurrences are recorded with the Church of Scientology.

Other religions are anathema to these followers. Christianity, for instance, is viewed as evil and avoided at all costs. Unbelievable.

The believers of this cult also hunt down those who have slanders or disrespected their beliefs. Here are a few documented cases: Operation Freakout, Fair Game. Also, they have no problem blackmailing those who have left the church so that they do not tell the true story of the extortionists who seek to steal your soul and lead you astray into this outright lie.

Now that this is published online, I will invariably be hunted down and silenced by a zealous member of this erroneous cult full of lying fags. For full details on the horror that is Scientology see this article.

I believe that I will be done for today. Angering one crowd of maddingly, misguided morons (note the alliteration) is quite enough for now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070523.6

2007-05-23T12:51:00.000-04:00

Captain’s Log:

Yes, I am still horribly upset that the Chelsea fags won last week. I have calmed enough, though; that I feel it is alright to post another message.

I saw Shrek the Third last weekend with my father and brothers, and it was hilarious. Some new locations Shrek, donkey, and puss in boots travel too offer a great many new opportunities to play off of the medieval theme used throughout the series. I will not write a full review here, for it would spoil the movie for those who have not yet seen it; however, it was worth seeing.

Tomorrow, the biggest movie of the year opens at 8:00 EST. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End promises to top its predecessor in the box office and may even break the record set by Spider-man 3 a few weeks ago.

I read another 150 pages in HP5 last night to reach page 675. Only 195 to go. This book is taking forever.

I have visited the beach two days in a row now, and the water is actually getting quite warm. The wind has been strong this week though, so it is not the best beach weather, because sand blows into your face the whole time.

My Xbox has not yet been banned from Live, but I expect it will happen anytime. I am prepared to cope with the lose of Live should Microsoft come after me. I do not know how soon I will get another console though. Marc had a good idea. He went out and bought a used core system and then transferred his hard drive. That is probably what I will do eventually, when I get The Ban.

I went to Sam’s Club the other day and bought enough napkins to last me the rest of the year and well into 2010…it is a package of 1320 napkins, and then when I got back to my house I found another package with 250 in my cabinet. I am ready for anything now…

It is not generally known here in the States, but The Office with Steve Carell actually got its start from a BBC version which started back in 2001 and carried all the way through 2002… The BBC version last only 12 episodes, but someone here in the US took the idea and actually made a good show which has aired 50 episodes and will be started its fourth season next year. The BBC version is not very funny at all, and I am very glad that the show was well made here in America.

Time to go…later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070518.6

2007-05-18T13:31:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

May is passing quickly and the Wade graduation is almost here. I only have six classes left and then I am done teaching—at least for a few years. I will continue to be the AD, but I am going to stop teaching so that I can concentrate on my own degree and get it done.

Manchester United plays the Chelsea fags tomorrow in the FA Cup final, so if I do not post anytime soon it is because MU lost and I am so angry that I do not want to write something I will regret.

Apparently, Microsoft has started banning people from Xbox live because of the firmware update. I just have to remember not to play any burned games for the next few months and I should be ok. This also means that I cannot play my new Spiderman 3 game, but so be it. Unfortunately, Marc was the first one I know to fall. Chris should be next. I am determined to resist and remain safe for as long as I can. Only time will tell if the MS Nazis learn of my altered state and seek to annihilate my live privileges.

Since my last post, a month ago, Spider-man 3 was released in theaters and broke every opening weekend box office record. I saw the movie at midnight, Friday morning, and I thought it was great. Venom was awesome and the CGI was excellent. The Sandman was alright, but I think that they could have found a better villain. I cannot wait to see what villains they decide to use in SP4, which comes out in 2010.

Shrek the Third was released today; however, I have not decided whether or not I am going to see that movie in theaters. Next week, I will be going to see the newest and last installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean. I cannot wait to see how they end that trilogy.

None of my favorite authors have released books recently, so I have been trying to catch up on a few books I have lying around the house. I have only two books left in the Ender series, which are excellent. The 24 Declassified book that I read was alright. It was fast reading, but the timeline the author used in the book was bogus. It could have been better. I will be reading the second one, because it is written by a different person. Hopefully, he is a better writer. I also finished reading the first book in the Emperor series, which is awesome. Those books are great, and I will definitely be getting the next three to finish the series. The author, Conn Iggulden, came out with a new book last month called Genghis, so I will be reading that as well when I am done with Emperor.

I believe that will be all for today. Later.

Lorimer

Stardate 070424.8

2007-04-24T19:52:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Another couple of weeks have flown by. I have accomplished so much in so little time. That is not true, do not believe a word of it.

I finished Harry Potter 4, finally. I dropped it off at the library last week and picked up the 5th book, so that I can get started on the 870 page beast. I also finished Shadow of the Hegemon, though that was today. That was a great book; the sixth in a series of great novels. Orson Scott Card is an excellent author. I have now started a 24: Declassified book. I am testing this series out to see if it is any good. Stay tuned for some hard-hitting book critiquing.

Last week I purchased two new CDs; The Wedding's newest, Polarity, and Everlife's self-titled album. Both very good, but not quite as good as Anberlin's new album, Cities, which I got last month and forgot to mention.

I watched Manchester United come from behind and score the winning goal in the 91 minute to beat AC Milan in the first of two games for the Champion's League Semi-finals. Now, Liverpool just has to beat the Chelsea fags tomorrow, and it will have been a great round of Champion's League soccer.

I purchased a new book on Sunday...what a shock, right? It is called The Children of Hurin, and is written posthumously (quite mysterious and amazing) by J.R.R. Tolkein. In all actuality, his son put the book together from some of his father's writings, but what I said before sounded better. It looks very good, and I will be reading it soon...soon, my precious...

Anyway, enough weirdness for today; I have to eat. I will be back...someday.

Lorimer

Stardate 070414.7

2007-04-14T18:26:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Wow, another month and no posts. What a loser and wastrel I have been...lax in my duty to this time consuming practice. Well, since I have been gone, I have been busy to some extent. The main reason I have not posted is because I have been lazy, no motivation to type in this small white box.

Last night I finished the second season of The Office, which is a hilarious show and I cannot wait to start the third season. I also finished the newest Left Behind book last night, Kingdom Come, which was very good. That is the last one in the Left Behind series, bringing the total count of books to 16. The next book I need to finish is the fourt Harry Potter book, so that I can stay on schedule.

For the weekend, I have rented the NBA Live 07 game. It is one of the worst games I have ever played; however, I earned 650 gamerscore points in about an hour, so it was not all that bad. I also downloaded UNO, and earned most of the points from that game.

I finally did my taxes...today. I will have to drop them into the mailbox on Monday, so that they can get postmarked that night. In fact, I looked at my form from last year and saw that I had waited until just two days beforehand then as well. Maybe next year I will get them done in January or February...hmmmm, probably not.

I got a new phone while I was not posting. A Samsung Blackjack. I have just about finished moding my phone, and I have even written a new .xml for the homescreen. My new ringtone, an .mp3, is the theme song from the Office. I like the ringtone, but it is a mixed bag, for I now like it when people call, but I do not want to pick up the phone because I would rather listen to the ringtone than the person on the other end. This is not always true, but many times. ;)

I also purchased a great number of books over the past month. I was ordering Rachel's birthday gifts and I had to make sure the order went over $25 so that I could get free shipping. I bought Hood by Stephen Lawhead, The Dragon Hall Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead, and The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead.

For anyone who enjoys reading the Shannara series I have few recommendations from Stephen Lawhead. The Song of Albion Trilogy is one of the best trilogies I have every read. Also, his Dragon Hall trilogy is awesome. The Left Behind Series, which I just finished, is good, but it is 16 books. I started reading the series when there were only five books, so it was not hard for me to catch up.

Well, this wholly uninteresting post has consumed too much of my time, and certainly loads of time that I am sure you wish you could have back.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 070325.8

2007-03-25T21:06:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, I am back from my Tennessee excursion. It was a fun trip, but I had to drive the whole time.

The trip went as follows:

Friday the 16th - Left Melbourne and drove for about 6 hours. Spent the night at my Grandparents in Georgia.

Saturday the 17th - Drove from GA to TN and spent the remainder of the day getting settled. Slept on a tile floor this night, which was the most uncomfortable thing in the world.

Sunday the 18th - Went to Crown College for church in the morning and met up with Charity. That night we had our own devotions in the cabin. Michael led that. Slept on the couch this night, which was a welcome change from the floor in the basement.

Monday the 19th - Spent the day working on the cabin a little and relaxing. That night we went to Dixie Stampede, which was fun. Still slept on the couch.

Tuesday the 20th - We made our way out to the Forbidden Caverns today, but it was closed. It took about 30 minutes to get there and then we found out that it was closed. Then it occurred to me to check the brochure...lo and behold, the brochure said that the FC was closed from December through March...so we drove the 30 minutes back to the cabin in silence. We spent the rest of the day playing cards (Hand and Foot).

Wednesday the 21st - Finished HP 3 early in the morning. We went hiking in the Smoky Mountains for about two hours. This was tiring, but fun. That night we went to Victory BC where Aaron Swain pastors.

Thursday the 22nd - We left the cabin early in the morning (11:00), and went to play mini golf. Jon and I won. Just thought I would throw that out there...if you like it take it, if you don't send it right back... After the golf we went out to eat and then went out on the town for the rest of the afternoon. That night I slept while the three seniors helped the Seymours move a lot of furniture from one cabin the other.

Friday the 23rd - I drove for 9 hours, almost straight, to Florida and got back at 9:00 that night. I am still tired.

I realize that this is probably one of the worst posts I have ever done, and that the description of the trip is not good at all, but I am very tired and I am going to bed. This is as good as it gets tonight.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070312.9

2007-03-13T00:59:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Not much of a post tonight. Just a couple of things before the night is over though.

I was talked into accompanying the seniors on their trip into the cold mountains of Tennessee, so I will be leaving this Friday for the frigid north.

I finished Belgarath the Sorcerer (644 pages) finally. I will taking that back tomorrow and picking up something else worthwhile.

All right, that is about it.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070310.9

2007-03-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Once again Man U advances to the next round of the Champions League! Bayern-Munich as well. Manchester United defeated Lille 1-0 on Wednesday and Bayern beat Real Madrid 2-1 to advance. Makaay, a striker for Bayern, scored in the 10th second--setting a Champions League record for the fastest goal scored. Great games. Man U tied Middlesbrough 2-2 in their FA cup game today. The replay will be March 19th.

I traveled to Jacksonville yesterday to see the Wade teenagers participate in the FACCS compition. Justin did an oral interpretation of poetry (the walrus and the carpenter), the teen ensemble (Johnny, Luke, Victoria, and Lacy) sang, Johnny sang two songs in the male solo event, and Michael preached an expositoy sermon. We did not win anything, but I thought they did rather well.

I only have about 160 pages of 644 left in Belgarath the Sorcerer. Hopefully, I can finish that in just a couple of days. I got stuck playing Oblivion for a few hours today, so I could not read as much.

Today is my parents anniversary, but I really do not have too much to say about that except to congratulate them on 23 years of marriage. Congratulations! (Like they actually read this thing...)

My book of the week was 24 Declassified: Veto Power.

I have been obtaining a book every week this year, usually on the Friday of each week. Some examples of the books I have purchased are...

Pawn of Prophecy
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow of a Giant
The President's Assassin
Children of the Mind
Splinter Cell
Dune
Ender's Shadow
Emperor: The Gates of Rome

...to name a few.

Well, I do not have much more to say and I must get to the bed, because we lose an hour of sleep tonight. Spring forward has been moved up three weeks so it will take place tonight.

Goodnight,

Lorimer

Stardate 070307.4

2007-03-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

I think I will use this entry to talk about soccer, and what has been happening to my teams over the past three months. Just for clarification, my teams are as listed:

English Premier League: Manchester United
National Teams: Germany and England
Major League Soccer: Colorado Rapids
Bundesliga Football League: Bayern-Munich

Manchester United:

Although they were knocked out of the Carling Cup early, Man U still has a shot at both the FA cup and the Champions League. This afternoon they will play Lille in an attempt to advance to the next round in the Champions League. Then on Saturday they will face Middleborough in the sixth round of the FA cup. In the league tables for the EPL, Man U is ahead of the queers from Chelsea by nine points. If they win two or three more games they can clench the league title.

German National Team:

Even with a new coach, the Germans cannot lose. They have been running over teams, both in International Friendlies and the European 2008 qualifiers. They should have no trouble whatsoever making it past the group qualifying stage. On a side note about the German Team, I recently purchased an authentic German jersey personalized with my name and number. Germany will be playing the Czech Republic on the 24th of March in a Euro 08 qualifier.

England National Team:

Steve McClaren is the worst coach I have ever seen, and I hope that they fire him soon. He is hurting the English National Team by his poor choices and his stupid formations. He has removed David Beckham from the team after Beckham won two of the World Cup games for England, and he has changed their formation from the 4-4-2, which has worked for them, and they have lost or tied the last four games. His record is dismal with a team that did quite well in the World Cup and has been very competitive in the past couple of years. The next game is on the 24th of this month and they will be playing Israel. The team is going downhill because of this idiot’s managerial decisions, and I do hope that the England National Team board members see this and fire him before he can drag England out of the running for qualification to the European Cup 2008. A swift kick to the face of this guy would not be too harsh.

Colorado Rapids:

Well, the Rapids made the playoffs last year, but lost in the first round. The MLS season is about to begin a month from today and I am looking forward to watching them play this year. Their first game will be against DC United.

Bayern-Munich:

I have very few opportunities to watch the Bundesliga; however, I do follow the scores through the Fox Soccer website. Bayern is fourth in their table and they have been stationary for a few weeks now. Podolski is still their best player, and has scored in most of the games in which he has played. Bayern faces off against Werder Bremen this weekend in a tough match.

All right, that should do it.

Until next time,

Lorimer

Stardate 070305.4

2007-03-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Well, it has been quite a while since I have been here. I almost forgot my password. The main reason I am writing a much overdue update to this rather neglected journal is the numerous disgruntled fans that have grown quite angry with my complacency and have expressed the desire to stone me for my apparent indifference. As one would expect, a great many things have happened since the last entry, and it shall take quite some time to express all of these events in writing. I am going to have to group all of the events into months and relate them to you that way.

December:

I have forgotten much of this month by now; however there were a few major things worth mentioning that have come to the forefront of my mind.

1. Work at the base was quite busy during this month, for my coworkers and I had a great project which consumed our entire workday—everyday for three weeks. Per Air Force directive, we had to install a Standard Desktop Configuration on every desktop (550) in the Wing manually. No shortcuts here. It took about two hours per computer and much of that time was just sitting around waiting for the revised operating system to finish installing. Needless to say I finished nine books in the month of December. Many of those nine were written by David Eddings. I have now finished ten of his books and I am currently reading book eleven. That rather interesting and astonishing fact has nothing to do with the project at work.

2. My family took Christmas vacation in the hills of Tennessee. We had quite a good time in our cabin and enjoyed the break from work and school immensely. Two sets of grandparents traveled to spend Christmas with us.

January:

Steve was in town for New Year’s Eve, so he and DJ came over for the turning of the New Year. DJ brought quite a few fireworks with him and he set them off in the street in front of my house. I was forced to clean up the rather affluent mess of trash and waste left behind by the fireworks, because DJ conveniently forgot to come by in the morning to clean it himself…hmmm. Anyway, his fireworks were followed by those my redneck neighbors had stockpiled and during that show it seemed as if all of the houses on the street were surely to catch fire and burn to the ground. No, it was not quite that dramatic or harrowing, but it was exciting.

The Wade basketball teams finished their unbroken streak of losses this month and brought their stellar records to 0-16…could have been better.

I finished six books this month and started the reading year off well. My goals for the year are 40 books and 15,000 pages, which are both low compared to last year.

I started two more classes, C++ programming and technical writing. My technical writing teacher is cool, but the material covered in the class should be covered in Comm 1 and 2. I feel like I could have done every one of these writing assignments in my Comm classes and gotten them over with a long time ago. C++ is getting a little harder, but it still interesting.

February:

In conclusion to the Wade saga I started in the description of last month, both teams finished with a 0-18 record, effectively closing out the year with a perfect season.

Of course, Groundhog Day is in February (the 2nd) and I spent the night—after a Wade game—watching the Groundhog Day movie. I believe this is the seventh year in a row that I have watched that movie on that day, and because I only watch it once a year, I have not tired of it yet.

I beat last month’s total by one, for as it turns out I finished seven books this month. I am almost a third of the way to my page total goal and my book total goal, which is a nice head start on the year.

March has only just started, so there are very few things that have happened. Christy has been flying all over the world in the past two weeks, which is not very fair at all. Just in the past two weeks, she has been to England, Holland, and Germany. Not only that, but she gets to go to Rome next month.

I purchased the Xbox 360 game Oblivion last Friday, which I am finding out, may seriously limit my book reading for the next month or two. Oblivion is an awesome game. I have already finished the main quest, but with the hundreds of small quests built into the game, it could take quite a long time to finish everything.

I went over to Marc and Sarah’s house the other night for an enjoyable evening. To be honest, this is when I found out about the stoning mobs calling for more posts to this journal. I do hope to write in this more than just this once, but I always forget and time flies by.

I have not written any more in my book or any of my short stories. There is a competition coming up at BCC for short stories and I will enter one, but the judges have different tastes than I do I suppose. I have gotten one of my stories in the top ten though.

I will have to come up with a better idea for the next one, but because there is a 1000 word limit, I am restricted. If anyone has a good idea for a short, short story please feel free to submit them through the comments for this weblog. Thanks.

I believe I have written more than enough. I will end this post now and write again soon…probably.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 061115.9

2006-11-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

It has been a couple of days, do not panic, I am back. We had our first basketball game last night and it did not go as well as expected. JV lost by about 49, which was not a good start. Varsity held on for three quarters and then all but Justin decided not to play anymore I guess, because they let the game get away from them. Also, an interesting thing happened right before the varsity game. The coach from the other team approached me and said, "Your guy (Bro. Jeff) is not going to do his play-by-play, is he?" My response was, "...Yes, he is..." Well, he came back and said that we could not do that because it is against the rules in the league bi-laws. Well, I perused the bi-laws three times tonight and could not find what he was talking about. Pastor was very angry and no he will be even more so, because the rule does not exist. Hmmm...

James 1:6-7

1:6 - But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

a. The key to this verse is that he or she that is praying must ask in faith, otherwise it means little.
b. If a person praying were to waver in his or her faith or is too fickle and does not believe God can do what he says, they will fail in their prayer.
c. He or she would be like a wave tossed in the sea, lost and confused.

1:7 - For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

a. This is referring to that man or women who has no faith when he or she prays.
b. This also refers to someone who is wavering in life.
c. If a person is not doing right, he or she will not get their prayers answered.
d. Also, God will not grant the wishes or prayers of someone who does not believe he can do them.

----------

That will be all for tonight.

Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 061110.9

2006-11-10T22:24:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Success! I finally found a store with the new XBox HD DVD player. I purchased it at Gamestop. King Kong in HD looks very good, but is still a boring movie.

I lit up the forums and email address for the backward compatibility division for the 360 telling them to make the ESPN NFL 2K5 game compatible on the new console. Hopefully the patch is in the next set of updates.

I watched the Satellite High girls soccer team beat Port St. Lucie 8-0 and end the game early. Last night they beat Cocoa High 12-0. They are tearing up every team they play.

Not much to say tonight. I am not going to post verses tonight, but hopefully I can do another three verses tomorrow night.

Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 061109.8

2006-11-09T21:38:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Today was quite eventful, though not in the way that I would have liked. I set out this afternoon in search of the brand new High Definition DVD Player and the wireless router for the XBox 360.

I started at Walmart, and the employees had no idea what it was that I was talking about. They were too confused, so I moved on to GameStop. The guy at this store knew what I wanted and was quick with his answer that the product would be in the following morning.

After that disappointment, but not to be dissuaded, I made my way down to Best Buy. One would think that Best Buy would have the cutting edge products on their release dates ready and willing to serve their customers with some of the highest prices in town, right? Well, not really. The guy thought that the HD DVD player was coming out next month, and when I insisted that it had been out since Tuesday, he was quite confused (not quite as badly as those at Walmart, because he actually knew what I was talking about).

In exasperation, I fled to circuit city where they are usually quite good about these things (that is: knowing what they are talking about). The employee helping me had to check his computer to even find out what it was, and then instead of looking toward the bottom of the web page where it clearly stated that all three stores within a ten mile radius did not have the product in stock went and checked for it. He went and searched the entire XBox section of the store only to come back a minute later and finally read the web page. "Oh," he said, with a hint of providential revelation in his voice, "we do not have it in stock!" In desperation and anger, I left the store.

CompUSA was no help whatsoever, so I went to Target next. Here I found employees who knew what I wanted, actually had the product on the shelf on Tuesday, but alas were sold out. In the end, I was forced to return home lacking the new DVD player. So angry was I that I was forced to stop at the local Krispy Kreme and buy some donuts...

Fortunately, I had Smallville to look forward to tonight, so that and the dozen donuts helped.

Now that I have vented about that little debacle, on to the more important things. My experience today ties in well with the lessons from James that I am covering...patience...

James 1:4-5

1:4 - But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

a. We as Christians are to let God work on our patience with trials (like not being able to find an XBox 360 HD DVD player in Brevard County) until we are "perfect and entire"
b. When we have endured temptation and allowed God to improve us we will want nothing, because we will be content in God.
c. "Perfect" is a word which here means, "complete or content in God."

1:5 - If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

a. God is the ultimate wisdom giver; if we want to be as wise as Solomon, all we have to do is ask in faith and he shall give "to all me liberally."
b. God will give us all the wisdom we ask as long as our faith in asking is strong and as long as we are in his will. We should pray for wisdom in times of tribulation so that we may overcome with his wisdom when our own ideas and thoughts fail us.
c. "Upbraideth not" is a phrase which here means, "does not censure, or prejudice against."

----------

That will be all for tonight. I will have more verses soon, but I need to go to bed. Big day off tomorrow, and it is going to be a terrifically bothersome time sleeping in...

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 061108.9

2006-11-08T23:12:00.000-05:00

Captain's Log:

Today was another long Wednesday. I had to drive to Orlando again for class, but thankfully I do not have to go next week. That will be nice.

Cars came out yesterday, and it is a great movie. I laughed quite a lot. Good movie.

Not much has been happening since I last wrote. Lost will not be having any new episodes until February 7, 2007. That is unfortunate.

Christy and I began a study of the book of James. We started with the first eight verses of chapter one. I am going to record many of my thoughts here, but I am thinking about starting yet another blog to record a study of James. We will see. For now, I will just write them in here. Today I am only going to record the first three verses and my notes.

James 1:1-3

1:1 - James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

I do not have many notes on this verse, because it is the introduction verse and has only a few things to glean.

a. James, being a stellar Christian, considered himself a servant to the man who was not only his Savior, but also his older half-brother. James knew where his loyalties belonged and begins his book by reverencing Jesus first of all.

b. His book was written to the Jews which had been scattered around Israel. These Jews had become Christians, and because of this, they were persecuted by not only Romans, but also other Jews for preaching that Jesus was the Son of God. These Jewish Christians were scattered all over and had to meet discretely in many places so as not to attract the attention of the religious leaders of the day.

1:2 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

a. "Divers" is a word which here means, "something quite different from undersea explorers."

b. A Christian must remember that falling into temptation and falling into sin are two different things. One can fall into temptation, and be delivered by God for His glory. Falling into sin is a choice we make when we think it is either to hard or when we just do not want to be rescued from the sin in question. As to the former, God tells us that through Christ all things are possible (Philippians 4:13), and as to the latter, God also says, "Should we sin more that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1).

c. Falling into temptation is something that God can use for His glory if we let him. Satan and his hellish imps from the fiery abyss hurl temptation at us everyday, but with God's help and wisdom, we can overcome anything.

d. Therefore, we are to rejoice when we are caught up in temptation, because we know that God can help us and can use it to further his cause here on earth.

1:3 - Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

a. The trying of our faith is the temptations that we face. God works through those to increase our patience and our dependence on him. Without Him we will fall into sin every time. He is there to try us and refine us to make us better witnesses for him.

b. Our patience is enhanced when we persevere though the storms of life. This verse is used to expound upon why one should rejoice in temptation.

c. "Trying of your faith" is a phrase which here means, "the multiple, and possibly deadly, encounters with a tuning fork, a wooden chopstick, and an uncommon plague..."

----------

That is all for today. I should have some more very soon. I have finished commenting on the first eight verses, so hopefully I can get those posted soon.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 061028.1

2006-10-28T00:24:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Wade Christian Academy won the State title in soccer about four hours ago. The game went into overtime 0-0 and Daniel Ibarra put in a nice one touch shot to win in the first period of overtime. In our first visit to the championship game we walked away with second place after losing to Grace, but tonight the Crusaders reigned supreme with their extrodinary effort on the pitch. DJ Smith was awarded MVP of the game and will most likely win MVP of the league. Here is a photo of our state champs!

In other news, tomorrow is Saturday, so I will be sleeping in. In fact, I believe I am going to get started on that right now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 061023.9

2006-10-23T22:57:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Since I have not logged any thoughts in a while, I figured I had better write some thoughts down. I started an EPL fantasy league three weeks ago and we now have eleven people in the league. I am losing though, even though I started this stupid league. Uncool.

As far as the qualifications for the Europe 2008 cup, Germany won again and plays again on the 15th of November. England, however, thanks to their new coach, lost 2-0 to Croatia. The new coach comes in and changes the teams formation and they tie and then lose the following two games. I do not like their new coach.

I rented the Star Wars II Lego XBox 360 game the other month. Awesome game. It is such a fun game, and the animation is awesome.

I am currently reading John Grisham's latest book, The Innocent Man, and it is pretty good. I am only about 100 pages into it and I am going to try and finish it in a couple of days.

My parents own most of the Adventures in Odyssey, so I started borrowing them and copying the episodes onto my computer. It is so awesome. Now I will have all of the Odyssey episodes forever...not that I listen to them very often, but if I ever want to, I can.

I am creating Shannara fans like crazy now. I started Christy on the Wishsong, Brittani on the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara, Chris is on the Scions of Shannara, and Marc is reading the first book. The movement is growing. Half of the male Wade students are reading the books, and more specifically Brad is now on the last book and will be caught up with me after the second half of his book.

I developed a list of my top ten favorite books, which I will list sometime, but this post will be long enough without that.

Denver is on a winning streak, however, they play the Colts this weekend, so it will be a real test for our #1 defense.

I just saw the Prestige on Saturday night. That movie is so good. I would love to go see it again. The ending made the movie so much better than I thought it was going to be.

That is long enough for tonight.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 061020.9

2006-10-20T23:47:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, it has been months since I wrote and it is with great pleasure that I post again. For I bear great news of our Wade Christian Crusaders. Tonight the guys won against Altamonte, which earns them a spot in the Championship game to be played next week. I do not know who the opponent is as of yet, but I should find out by tomorrow.

The game was great. The full time expired with the score 1-1, and overtime was scoreless, so the game came down to penalty kicks. Since we have the best goalkeeper in the league, they did not make one of their penalty kicks. DJ blocked all three of their kicks and the three kickers from our team--Mike, Daniel, and Luke--all made their shots. This is the second time in two years that Wade has reached the final game. However, this year's outcome may be quite different.

Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 060907.9

2006-09-07T23:08:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

England and Germany are both 2-0 now after their first two games of the European Championship 2008 Cup qualifiers. England beat Andorra 5-0 and then Macedonia 1-0, while Germany beat Republic of Ireland 1-0 and then San Marino 13-0. That was awesome. I wish I could have watched that game.

I finished another book yesterday. The Tom Clancy Power Plays book that I was reading. I started Xenocide by Orson Scott Card today, which is the third book in the Ender series. I loved the first book and after about 50 pages in the second book I was into the story, so I am hoping that this one will be as good.

I drove to Orlando yesterday for class, and it was a total waste of time. I hate it that I have to drive an hour there and then an hour back just to sit in a lab for 40-50 minutes. Oh well, when the semester is over, I will not have to worry about it any more.

Good news! Sony has once again delayed the release of the Gaystation 3 in Europe. It also cut its supply in the US in half. I hope sony GS3 bombs. That would be great.

That is about all for now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060902.9

2006-09-02T22:48:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, Saturday is over. I did not travel to the UCF game in Orlando tonight. I was going to be going by myself, and the idea of having to pay 20-30 dollars in gas did not appeal to me.

I did, however, finish my book The Edge of Darkness. Awesome book, but then, I only read awesome books. I will be in charge of the sound room tomorrow, so I need to get to bed now, but I did feel the need to post about my latest book. The Edge of Darkness is the fourth book in a series about a Biblical Archeologist. Throughout the series, he has uncovered such artifacts as the bronze serpent of Moses, the ark of Noah, the writing on the wall in Babylon, and in this latest book he went in search of the manna and Aaron's rod in the ancient temple of Dagon. Unfortunately, I will have to wait for another year for both the new Shannara book as well as the fifth in this series.

I am now finishing Tom Clancy's Power Plays book ruthless.com. This is the second book in a series of eight. I am trying to quickly race through this series and catch up with the author. The next book I am going to check out, I believe, is Eldest by Christopher Paolini. I would like to get completely caught up with that series as well.

I went to the beach today for the second time this week. For the past month, I have been taking advantage of our proximity to the beach. Today, Luke and Brad came along.

That is all for now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060901.9

2006-09-01T23:01:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, it has been quite some time. I have not had the desire to log into this website and log any of my thoughts away. I am way overdue. A lot has happened in the last month, but I will not be able to go over all of it today.

DJ has been living in my house for about a month now, since he was ejected from his own home. That has been cool. Otherwise, things around here have been going pretty much the same as usual.

I finished the new Shannara book last night. It was the first in the series of what could be a six to nine part series. They will tell the story of the Great Wars and how the earth and mankind survived to be reborn. Sweet books. That was his 18th book in the Shannara series.

Now I am half-way through the new book from Tim Lahaye called Edge of Darkness. It is about a Biblical Archeologist in search of Aaron's budding rod and the jar of manna from the Ark of the Covenant.

We had our first soccer game tonight against Calvary Baptist. They are terrible this year, and we should have whipped them, but we ended the game in a tie. We were winning 2-1 and then they tied the game with only five minutes left.

Our volleyball team has had four of their games, and they have vastly improved since last year. They have won a few sets, and while they are still looking for thier first win, they are playing well.

I finished the Lords of the North book by Bernard Cornwell and it was so good. I also learned that there will be at least two more books in that series. That is awesome.

Well, that will be all for tonight I believe. I just wanted to post about the new Shannara book mostly. I will not go into too much detail, so that I do not ruin the story for those who have not read it...Marc, Mark, Robert, Matthew, Chris and others.

All right,

Lorimer

Stardate 060729.9

2006-07-29T23:10:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

A lot has happened in the past few days. I went to Ohio for my father's retirement ceremony and spent a few days up there. I was fortunate enough to be in the ceremony. I got to hand the General doing the ceremony the Legion of Merit medal. It was a good ceremony, but I wish he had not had to retire. Oh well, now he gets to live here and work. That will be nice.

I finished a few books in the past few days, which is nice. I have read over 1700 pages this month! That is rare this year. Last year that would have been my average per month, but this year I have been lax in my reading. I finished the Gregor book, Flight of the Nighthawk, and Tom Clancy's Politika. All great books. I am now reading The Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell which is not supposed to be out in the USA until next January. However, I have a copy of it and it is good. I also have Flight of the Intruder, Tom Clancy's ruthless.com, and Harry Potter 6 checked out. So I have quite a few books to read. I checked out the Half-blood Prince again because I have only read it once and I need to refresh my memory on a few things.

I have almost finished the fifth season of Smallville. I have three episodes left and then I will be ready for the premiere on Sept. 28. It is great. I will not reveal what is going on in case someone is reading this and is not that far along in the show. That would be terrible.

I do not have a whole lot to say tonight, so I think that will be all for now.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060720.9

2006-07-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I rewrote the prologue that I posted yesterday, and it is much improved. It is still in first person, which I like; however, I am wondering whether I should write the whole book in first person, or just the inserts from the main character throughout the book. Time will tell. For now, here is the updated prologue.

Daylight is fading as we make our way west, sailing across the blue expanse of the Altheon, and I begin to wonder if I made the right decision in undertaking this journey. The three of us who remain are worn to the bone of the evil that hunts us at every turn. I think often of that fateful day; the day I made the choice to search out the stone of Agathon and return it to the city of Dunrel—our city. A decision born of necessity that changed the course of our lives forever.
Grief and sorrow pierce my heart with every memory of this cursed venture. I regret bringing my friends along, for their lives have been in danger from the onset; however, I do not see that I had any other choice. The journey has been one I could not have survived alone. I have lost two of my closest friends to the unbelievable misfortune we have faced through this last month. I fear that to lose another now would break my will to continue, and all hope would be lost.
The stone is vital to the salvation of our city, and so it is necessary for us to continue and press forward to gain the stone. A great army from the northern country of Sorit invades our lands and threatens to overrun us. They carry with them great evil in the form of a device called an Ortan. I am told that this device is capable of opening a rift or hole in the fabric of our world and allows vile creatures from the netherworld to enter our land. Unchecked, they would ravage the land, kill all who stand in their way, and enslave all those to unlucky to die. Those captured will be taken back to the demon’s home world to serve as slaves, condemned forever to serve the demented needs of the enemy. We are the only hope of preventing the obliteration of our race; of the genocide that surely awaits all if we fail.
Only one other time in history has this happened, and the demon armies came much to close to destroying the world in which we live. The end was near, and the hope of men lay in one man. The demons were stopped, as the legend states, by the Stone of Agathon wielded by Titus Leontius—the king. Long ago, three ages in fact, the stone was seated in its proper place, inlaid atop the staff of Agathon. When joined, the staff and the stone combine to make a powerful talisman; the holes rent by the Ortan can only be closed with the magic channeled from the staff through the stone. The magic can only be channeled by a direct descendant of Titus Leontius, for such a spell was placed on the staff when it was bestowed upon the king by the magician Eurypon so that no other could access the great power residing in the talisman. Shortly after the battle, the staff was placed in the burial vault of the ancient kings for safekeeping while peace reigned throughout the country. No one knows exactly when, but the stone was stolen from the vault by grave robbers many years later. Not knowing of the value of what they held, they tore the stone from the staff and disappeared, leaving the wooden shaft behind. Over the years, rumors have spread of the stone and its residence within the haunted walls of Grandlow, which sits on an island in the south. Until now, no one has had need of the stone, but desperate times are upon us.
How the Sorites came in to possession of an Ortan, I know not, but if we do not return with the stone, the armies of the netherworld with conquer our lands and kill us all. The Sorites must be blind to the fact that when the demons are finished with us and they no longer need the help of Sorit, they will turn and kill or enslave them all. The reason why I was chosen, along with those who accompany me, is quite a story in itself. My name is Lorimer Wynten, and this is the story of our peril.

Not a very eventful day. I will be staying overnight at my parent's house for the next couple of weeks, because they are out of town and they need someone to take care of the cat and the stupid birds. Oh well.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060719.9

2006-07-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Not much along the lines of comments today; however, I am going to post a section of my book that I wrote today. This is only the rough draft, so it has quite a ways to go. This will be the opening of the book, in first person, and it is from the view of the main character.

Daylight was fading as we made our way west, sailing across the blue expanse of the Altheon, and I began to wonder if I had made the right decision in undertaking this journey. The four of us who remain are worn to the bone of the evil that hunts us at every turn. When I think back on that fateful day; back when I made the choice to search out the stone of Agathon and return it to the city of Dunrel—our city.
Grief and sorrow pierce my heart with every memory of this cursed venture. I regret bringing anyone along; however I do not see that I had any other choice. The journey has been one I could not have survived alone. I have lost three of my closest friends to the various perils we have faced through this last month. To lose another now, I fear, would break my will to continue, and all hope would be lost.
The stone is vital to the salvation of our city, for a great army from the northern country of Sorit has invaded our lands and threatened to overrun us. They carry with them great evil in the form of an Ortan. Ortans, so they tell me, is capable of opening a rift or hole in the fabric of our world and allows vile creatures from the netherworld to enter our land.
Only one other time in history has this happened, and the demon armies came much to close to destroying the world in which we live. They were stopped, as the legend states, by the Stone of Agathon. Back then, three full ages ago, the stone was inlaid in its proper place atop the staff of Agathon. When joined, the staff and the stone combine to make a powerful talisman; the holes rent by the Ortan can only be closed with the magic channeled from the staff through the stone.
How the Sorites came in to possession of an Ortan, I know not, but if we do not return with the stone, the armies of the netherworld with conquer our lands and kill us all. The Sorites must not realize that when the demons are finished with us, they will turn and kill or enslave those who released them. The reason why I was chosen, along with those who accompany me, is quite a story in itself. My name is Lorimer Wynten, and this is the story of our peril.

I realize that I repeat a few words quite a few times, but I will rectify that by the second time around. It will also be longer, but I need to think of what else needs to be added to help with setting up the story. I will be back tomorrow, maybe with more story.

Lorimer

Stardate 060718.9

2006-07-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, it has been a while since I last posted anything. A lot has happened since. I made a weekend visit to Virginia and Maryland to visit Christy, Robert, Matthew, Mark, Randy, as well as a lot of other people. The church has changed slightly since I was there last July. Matthew had also been gone a year, so it was interesting walking around the church with him and seeing all of the new things going on. It was a great trip.

I finished the fourth Gregor book by Suzanne Collins...yes they are not adult reading level books, I know. I enjoy the stories. I am eagerly awaiting the release of the new Terry Brooks book, set for the 29th of August; Armaggedon's Children.

I started the fourth season of 24, and it is better than the third one! Which in itself is amazing. Great show.

I purchased the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II game for my 360. That game is awesome. It is almost like Age of Empires, and it is easy to control on the xbox. I finished the Good Campaign and now I will have to use the armies of Sauron to defeat the free peoples of Middle Earth and once and for all spread darkness over the land in an endless, enveloping shadow of death.

I am ignoring all negative feedback of my sports column, Chris...wait...maybe he can help me write it...

And maybe Israel, Palistine and Lebenon are discussing a lasting peace treaty right now...

I like the column (which is good, since I write it) so it is going to remain unchanged. I know all 3SportsDown fans (all one of you) out there will be happy.

I will be back later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060714.9

2006-07-14T22:36:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Not a long post tonight. I just wanted to mention the sports column that I started called 3SportsDown. This weblog/sports column is located at http://3sportsdown.blogspot.com. Please visit when you have a chance for sarcastic sporting news.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060713.9

2006-07-13T22:52:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I am going out of town for a couple of days, so I do not know if I will have the chance to post. This is too bad, because I am on a very long streak, and it is unfortunate to have to break it. Well, it would have had to happen sooner or later.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean II again tonight with Christy, Nathan, and Allie. Great movie. When I get back next week I will have to write in length about it, and give a good review.

Until next time then,

Lorimer

Stardate 060712.9

2006-07-12T22:35:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Well, today is my birthday, and it was pretty good. My family and I celebrated it last weekend when my brothers were still in town.

I downloaded the trailor for the new Lord of the Rings game, and it looks so good. It is comparable to Age of Empires III for the PC, but you can play online with others. There are about 40 multiplayer maps that you can use to play online. The game looks so good. I will probably be getting that next week.

Microsoft has pretty much announced that the Zune will be coming out this Christmas. I will be selling my iPod and buying a new Zune. The portable media player is going to play color video--full and widescreen--and can update wirelessly with a PC. It is going to be so good.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060711.9

2006-07-11T21:54:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

It looks as if I will not get to post a long entry for quite some time. I am very busy this week through the weekend. Hopefully, I can get back into it next week.

For now, My Name is Earl is still a great show; I am currently reading Raymond Feist's newest book--Flight of the Nighthawks; Pirates of the Caribbean 2 is the movie of the year; and Switchfoot is putting a new album out by December.

That is all for now.

Night,

Lorimer

Stardate 060710.9

2006-07-10T22:56:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Very short post tonight...seems to be a trend of late...oh well.

I had a few things to talk about tonight, but I am dreadfully tired and need sleep. I will be back tomorrow with more on the World Cup (wrapping it up that is), and so on.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060709.9

2006-07-09T23:49:00.001-04:00

Captain's Log:

Italy won the World Cup today! My final record ended up as 40-12-12. I got the last few games right and made it to 40...which is an ok record. It will do.

I finished the third season of 24 tonight. That show is so good. Cannot wait to start the fourth season. I will have to wait until next week though.

I also finished Angel Fire East, which was a great book. His release in August should be just as good.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060708.9

2006-07-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I had a very busy Saturday, which is quite out of the normal routine. I actually had to wake up early--not a good start. The reason I had to get up so early was a good one. I went to Cliff's graduation this morning at 10:00 in the Satellite High Theater and walked in only to find the most unlikely situation ever. I walked in and the first person I see is Tyler Smith...many thoughts were running through my head at that point, and I just had to laugh out loud. Anyway, after the shock of seeing Tyler first, the graduation went well...except for the commencement speaker, who was absolutely terrible. He was one of the worst public speakers that I have ever heard. One of his jokes, "This just occured to me about 7 minutes ago, we are about to make most of you unmarried men!" (chuckles to himself) after no laughter, "because we are giving you your bachelor's degree!" Needless to say, he was very lame.

The third place in the World Cup was decided today. Germany won just like I said, and the gay-man C. Ronaldo lost...what an idiot. They caught a great shot of him diving to get a foul called. It was great. I hate him so much, so I am glad that Manchester United is not going to allow him to come back to the EPL.

Tomorrow is the France/Italy game to decide who wins the 2006 FIFA World Cup. My money is on Italy, but France is going to be a tough team to beat. The announcers are getting so annoying. They keep mentioning two things about every ten minutes. 1) Zidane (from France) is playing in his last game tomorrow, 2) Ghana was the suprise of the tournament. They said these things so many times, I wanted to fly to Germany just to shot them in the face.

Today, my lawn mower exploded in a mushroom cloud in my front lawn, while I was mowing. No, it was not quite that bad. It did explode, but it only flung shard of hot metal out at an odd angle--barely missing my leg in the blast. That being said, my lawn mower is broken. Fortunately, my yard is now mowed, thanks to Justin Snyder and his trusty lawn mower.

I will be back tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 060707.9

2006-07-07T23:57:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was so awesome! Loved the movie. I do not have time tonight, but I will go over a great long review soon.

July 8

Germany is going to win the game

July 9

Italy is going to win the game

That is about it for tonight...once again a short, mostly-rubbish, post.

Tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 060706.9

2006-07-06T23:53:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Not much to say tonight. I just finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean I, so that I can be ready for the movie tomorrow night. Should be really great.

I will have the predictions tomorrow for the two games this weekend.

It was not the most exciting day. It rained quite a bit, which was good. This post is total rubbish, sorry for the dull addition.

Tomorrow,

Lorimer

Stardate 060705.9

2006-07-05T23:25:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

I forgot to mention the shuttle launch yesterday. That was a great day to launch the space shuttle Discovery; our Independence Day. I watched the take-off on NASA HD, then stepped outside to watch it rise, and then went back to watch it drop the fuel tanks and enter space. It was great.

France won today which means that I am 38-12-12 overall. Not bad. I can potentially hit 40 wins, but I will need to get both games right this weekend. I will put the predictions up sometime soon, but not tonight.

I am down to my last three Top of the Pods episodes. I finished another five today. I should be done by Friday and then I will be caught up and ready when they put a new one out. I am sending in another list, probably tonight.

I have neglected mentioning to much about the new Superman Returns movie in this weblog to avoid the taint of gayness, but it is time to expose the movie for the atrocity it really is. A couple of years ago, when I heard that they were doing a new Superman movie, I was very excited, because I do not like Christopher Reeves as Superman. I know a lot of people do and right now they are saying evil things about me while reading this, but I do not really care. I do not like him. When they announced the cast for the new movie, I immediately realized it was going to be so sub-par that seeing it in theaters would not only be a waste of money, but also a severe waste of my time. If I ever watch it I will rent it from Blockbuster with one of my free coupons, so that I am not actually paying to view the trash. The three main parts--Clark, Lex, and Lois--were the most horribly cast parts I have ever seen. They could only have done worse if they had cast Mr. Bean as Superman, Larry the Cable Guy as Lex, and Gretchen Wilson as Lois. It was terrible. They should have used the Clark, Lex, and Lois from Smallville for three very good reasons. 1) These three people have been playing the parts for five years on the Smallville show, and so they are good at it; 2) They look and act so much more like the characters they would be playing than the people that actually starred in the movie; 3) They are so popular in the eyes of young men and women around the nation (the young men and women they were targeting for this film). The storyline could have been written for a time ten years after the fifth season of Smallville. This would enable Smallville to continue for quite some time without conflicting with the movie. Another thing is the writer. I read many critics say that the storyline was not great, and then I read another article about Kevin Smith, and how he was in the running for writing the movie. That would have been good. If it were up to me to remake this movie so that it would actually make money on opening weekend, I would have those three stars specifically and I would have Kevin Smith write the story and script. This movie made less than half what Spiderman 2 made on its opening weekend...that is ridiculous. Some Superhero movie. I am so angry that this movie was actually made the way it was. Maybe they will wise up next time. One can only hope.

On a much better note, Pirates of the Caribbean comes out Friday. I will be seeing that movie, because it promises to be 1,000 times better than the lame-o Superman movie. Cannot wait for Johnny Depp's performance.

Yesterday was the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest. The winner was a small Japanese man who ate 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes! That is outrageous. For "training", the contestants eat about 40 hot dogs a sitting, twice a week...how sick is that? I was nasty to watch those people stuff their faces with hot dog...(sounds of regurgitation).

That was a really long blog...and yesterday's was my 50th blog. I forgot to mention it...mainly because it is not a big deal...well ok then.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 060704.9

2006-07-04T23:22:00.000-04:00

Captain's Log:

Today was Independence Day and I celebrated this great holiday with my family at my mother's house. Afterwards, Luke, Chris and I went to the base and watched the fireworks there. They were pretty good. My neighbors are shooting off fireworks in their front yards, and they are not doing so very safely either. As my brother was driving away from my house, they hit his car with a firework. I do not think it damaged the car though.

I have to go back to work tomorrow for the first time in five days. That is a bummer.

Germany lost today, which was the worst thing that has happened in my life since England lost. This is a bad world cup. Germany still has a chance at third place, but that is lame. They could have won it all, but they just about gave up at the end of the game today and Italy scored two goals to win. I was not happy at all.

I watched another episode of My Name is Earl. That show is getting better as it goes. Very funny show.

I emailed a few people a link to this video I saw, but then I thought that I should just put it on my weblog, that way anyone can view it. I cannot embed this video, but here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZw9m57Bcjg

Check it out; these guys are incredible.

Predictions:

July 5

France is going to win the game

I read another fifty pages in my book last night, so I am gradually working my way through it. Angel Fire East is a great book, and it is the third book in a trilogy written by Terry Brooks. This trilogy is based before his fourteen volume Shannara series. They are all very good books, and worth reading.

I think I am out of things to say. Thanks to Mark for mentioning me twice in his blog. To respond to your comments Mark, I do think that the new Superman movie is gay, but Superman in general is not.

All right, later.

Lorimer