HispageTONOway

Here we come! … Sharpie 500 and Bristol Motorspeedway! … I hope

I am glad that my Sunshine and I will be making a trip to Bristol Motorspeedway to attend the Sharpie 500 in Bristol, Tennessee.  I requested the time off the beginning of July and I waited till we could get the time off.  The schedule just came out for my workplace, and I have the time off.  We will just have to work at getting good tickets at the racetrack.  I’ll keep you posted on if I get the tickets or not.

HTC EVO 4G review … TONO style

There has been a buzz around the nation about the release of the iPhone 4.  I haven’t even thought about getting the iPhone, and jumping onto the AT&T network.  At the end of June, I purchased the new Sprint HTC EVO 4G phone.  I thought that I would give you my personal opinion of how the phone works after one month of "playing" with the phone.

Let me list the great things about the phone, which is one of the reasons why I purchased the phone:

• It’s great with all the addition of the Android application.  It’s made my browsing the Web and getting information easier.
• I like the large screen, and watching video on it.
  

• I have my own Kindle without paying the additional price.  I have now loaded the Kindle on the HTC EVO 4G, and have applied it to my laptop at home for book reading.  During my one-week vacation, I have read one book already.

• The Internet browser that is installed is just like the Firefox that I use on my laptop.  Unfortunately, I can’t view some video files, but some I can.

 Let me list the things that I wish that it gave more options to do:

• The biggest drawback is the length of the battery power.  I know that I have to constantly charge the phone.
• It doesn't have a copy and paste function on many of the applications. 

• The side holster right now for my new wireless phone doesn’t fit all that well.

• In the cities I lived in the past, except Memphis, Tennessee, by the end of the year, Sprint would have rolled out 4G in the cities of Honolulu, Los Angeles (though I don’t see Riverside and San Bernardino area).

• I am waiting for Sprint TV to include the option to get Fox News LIVE as a television show that I can access on the phone, exactly how it was about three years ago when it was offered.  Even if it’s a charge of a couple of dollars a month additional charge would be worth it.  I can access highlights of certain stories from the Fox News Android application, but it doesn’t pull up as soon as I access it.

Overall, I enjoy the phone and I think that I’ll keep it for all the positives, and the additional access to the world with modern technology.

How do you all think ... upper management?

It's been seven days of working after a relaxing one-week vacation.  I have one more day to go!  And even after working as many days, it amazes me how it seems like I haven't made any dent in the things I need to do.  I have to admit that the days are getting more interesting in the work force.  It amazes me how we have to accommodate the front line employees now.  So many companies really start programs that they think will grow sales and make operations "better" without really seeing it through.   This is many times I realize what causes this feeling.  Many projects last only about a year and then they stop it.  Meanwhile, the hands-on "leaders"--if you can really call them that, are the ones who has to deal with the many changes that the upper leadership starts but doesn't finish.  Will anyone please let me try to get one of those positions to let me know how you all think?  It'll help me to empathize with your thought-processes.

I just await tomorrow.  I will be off from work.  And it will be a trip to northern Atlanta to eat at El Pollo Loco with my wife's Dad and Mom.

“Staying close” to home for one-week vacation …

During this one-week vacation, my Sunshine and I didn’t go outside of our home town.  We stayed around town and visited with my mother-in-law, who visited from Florida, over at my brother-in-law’s house, which lives here.  It was good to spend time with them, mostly, watching Harry Potter movies over and over again!  I didn’t know there are so many details translating a book to a movie!  I even had a home-cooked meal last night!

In another thirty hours, I will be back to work, eleven-to-fourteen hours a day, five-days-a work week.  It surely brings me sadness, because it’ll be back to the life I’ve known so well for many months of constant challenges and test of ability of flexibility.  It’s been surely a good testing of my stretching of my individual abilities.  God has a reason for these flexible decisions multiple times during a day for me.  At least, I finished one book, “Staying Close,” by Dennis Rainey and, at this point almost halfway into another one, “Everyone Communicates, Few Connects,” by John Maxwell.  It’s been a good week of learning about ME! 

Mirror of God’s image and a living picture of Jesus and His followers relationship

There wasn’t really any out of town trip scheduled on this vacation.  I just needed some rest and there was a lot to do around the apartment. 

I thought I would do some review on the marriage conference my Sunshine and I attended.

I attended the Weekend to Remember conference in November.  I re-read these two quotes from the Weekend to Remember workbook:

• God joined a man and a woman together so that together they would mirror His image.  … Their oneness reflects the character and unity of God (Matthew 19:4-6; John 17:22-23). … Their oneness is a living picture of this intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and His followers (Ephesians 5:22-23).

• When couples fail to grasp God’s perspective on difficulties and problems, the result is isolation.  In one bullet point about this subject, the conference pointed out that “Your response to difficulties will either drive you apart or bind you together.  This is what all married couple faces at one point of their marriage.

Then, during the first few days of my vacation, I completed reading the book, Staying Close, by Dennis Rainey.  The book reinforced the points of the Weekend to Remember conference.  I know that there are many areas that I need to respond and lead much more effectively as a husband.  What I read is a high standard to live and strive to fulfill.  But I realize that it’ll only be when I am walking in His Holy Spirit.

From reading the book, the challenge is to put what I learned into practical actions that demonstrate to my wife who she means in my life, the most important person in the world to me, and the true meaning of what marriage means to me is what I’m meditating on an hourly basis.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

A long time since I read 25% of a book in one day!

While my wife and mother-in-law was shopping around locally, I used the time wisely by reading the book, Staying Close, by Dennis Rainey.  It’s about keep working toward oneness in marriage, not isolation.  With my HTC EVO 4G Sprint phone, I can download books from the Amazon store with its Android Kindle reader.

Expression while reading ... picture taken with my Sprint HTC EVO 4G phone.

Worth the delay of watching NASCAR Sprint Cup racing for the summer race at Daytona?

It’s been an interesting experience watching the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona in three different parts.  I started watching it on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Wednesday morning before going to work and I just finished watching the end after working till a little before 11 on Wednesday evening.  Thank goodness for our DVR.  I’m glad that I was watching it from home because of the 90-minute delay to start the race.  I’m glad that I wasn’t waiting there in person, like when my Sunshine and I was at the Daytona Superspeedway on July 7, 2007.   This year’s race ended close to 1am early Sunday morning.  It would have been a very long evening, just like that entire experience in that year.

During the race this past Saturday, there were a couple of long delays: in the beginning to start the race because of rain and another one because of a wreck during the race with 12 laps to go.

While watching the race, I was glad that 6^th-placed Kyle Busch and 21^st-place Juan Montoya got into a wreck.  It was good to see that 3^rd-place Jimmie Johnson didn’t win either.  I wouldn’t have thought that I would have rooted for 2^nd-place Jeff Gordon, but I was really hoping that he would have won with the year that he has because all the races that he commanded the lead this year, and for whatever reason during the last few laps didn’t win.

The only disappointing results from the race are that 13^th-place Mark Martin was bummed out of the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.  For many NASCAR race fans, 11^th-place Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is in the Chase if it were to end today.  (You have to place in the top 12 positions to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.)

This is the type of beginning drama that makes the sport interesting.

One more work day for another week …

I am looking forward to late this evening … about 11pm.  I will be off from work for a week.  I won’t have to go back to work till next Thursday.  I will be on vacation.  It’s rest, reflection and learning more about marriage with my wife.  I’ll let you know what I learn for ME.

Visiting the eastern “Happiest Place on Earth” is closer than planned: Late September

It looks like my Sunshine and I will be traveling to Florida, Universal Studios, and DisneyWorld late in the month of September, not in early December, as originally mentioned.  Apparently, my workplace decided to postpone the rollout of new procedures of the delivery of the guests’ orders to their tables from September to November, as I discovered yesterday.  Looks like the Harry Potter theme park and Mickey Mouse will be seeing me sooner than planned recently.