one day, the wind pompously bragged to the sun how powerful he was. he could blow away buildings, uproot trees, and cause havoc. the sun, listening to the wind brag, decided to step into the conversation and asked the sun what is so powerful about brute force?

the wind continued to brag about how powerful he was and challenged anyone to prove that someone else could be more powerful than he. the sun came over to the wind and challenged him.

“see that man down there, wind?” asked the sun.

“yes, indeed, i do,” replied the wind.

“let’s see which of us can get his jacket off,” challenged the sun.

“it’s a deal.”

the wind came up and drew his most powerful breath of air and blew and blew at the man, trying to shrug the jacket off of him. with every breath, the man held tighter and tighter to his jacket. eventually, the wind gave up and declared that it was impossible to get that man’s jacket off.

the sun nodded and then said he would try.

the sun then beamed with all the glory of his warmth down upon the earth to the man. the rays of sunshine warmed the man and he was compelled to take his jacket off because it was so hot.

=================================
moral of the lesson:

sometimes the answer isn’t about brute force. sometimes there is a more elegant solution that’s easier to come by and much less painful.

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oh yeah, did i mention that i took [url=http://www.ocliw.com/things/weekends/disneyland2004/]pictures in LA?[/url] surely, i must have.

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man, i don’t know what was up with the last two days, but i felt pretty crappy. i feel much better today so i’ve been able to get some serious work done. it’s a good feeling.

last night was poker night and it has become painfully obvious that i really, really need to get another stack of white chips. i think that i may go and pick that up tonight on the way home. we’ll see. i also really want some better storage for my chips. i’m not sure where i will get that from, but i really need it bad.

we had a full house last night at poker night, barely had enough chairs to seat everyone. i guess i should start thinking about moving my table so that there’s more room around the table.

i went to sleep at a reasonable hour last night and i feel reasonably good about it. i think that i’ll be staying at work a little bit later today because i have to leave work early tomorrow.

at least the weekend is near. i’m ready for a nice good break and some rest and relaxation. maybe there will be a photo shoot in the near future.

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i’ve been pretty busy lately, i haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything down.

yesterday, i had a red bull early in the day because i was very tired and i needed a little pick me up. i got shaky and jittery in the morning and then the ensuing crash started to set in during the afternoon. i’m very sensitive to caffeine and i think that this drink put my whole body out of whack. after volleyball i went immediately to sleep and ended up sleeping for 10 hours yesterday because i wasn’t feeling well.

i don’t think that my body has fully gotten back to normal yet, either. i am never drinking red bull again.

i had a moment to go to my optometrist today and get my glasses adjusted. they were a little crooked so i wanted them to fix it. they weren’t crooked in the way that glasses are usually crooked, though, no, instead one side of my glasses was closer to my face than the other. so whenever i shut my eyes tight, my cheek would bump into one side and leave an oily mark.

so i go into the optometrist office and my optometrist says, “oh, i remember you. you play volleyball, right?”

“uhhh…yeah,” i respond, surprised that she remembered.

“so what can i do for you?”

“well, my glasses are crooked and i was wondering if i could get it adjusted.”

and then she asks, “do you get hit by volleyballs a lot?”

“…”

“…”

“uhhh, what?” i ask.

“oh, i just wanted to know if that’s why your glasses are crooked,” she responds.

sheesh.

so anyway i got my glasses adjusted and they are peachy fine now.

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i just read [url=http://www.track15.com/blog/]dardy’s[/url] post about reading your SO’s email. man, email is really private to me. i don’t like it when people try to read my email. it is completely my business and only my business to see offers about penis enlargement or saving the world by making donations or hearing from some distant country and how i inherited the fortunes of the kingdom if only i pay for a small fee or if i want to make millions by working at home or finding out that candi wants to play with me on her adult web cam.

this is all my spam and you can’t read any of it.

but seriously, i am intensely private about email. it’s not that there are top secret scandalous things happening in my email, it’s just that i think that email is one of those things that is really yours…and not to be shared. i would NEVER share my email password with anyone and i find that it is a huge violation of trust if someone else were to go through my email.

i’m back from LA! man, the weather there is crazy warm. i think it was in the 70s this weekend. i was wondering if i might bump into some other LA bloggers on the street, but try as i may, i didn’t see anyone familiar. no celebrities even.

it was a pretty fun weekend and i’m glad that i was able to get out for a little break.

when i got back from the trip, i found my car had a flat tire! the jack that came with the car was VERY unstable. it sucked. luckily, i was able to borrow another jack and john helped me replace the flat tire. thanks, bud!

it turns out that there’s ANOTHER nail in too close to the sidewall of the tire to patch it up so it looks like i’m going to have to buy two new tires.

i had all the intention of going into work today. really, i did. now, i admit that i was hoping i wouldn’t have to because i had so many things to do today, but when i went to sleep last night i was dreading the day because of how rushed it would be.

this morning, i woke up to the biggest headache i’ve had in a long, long time. i usually am not one to take medication for headaches, but i immediately reached for the bottle of advil and took a couple of pills and immediately went back to bed. trying to go back to bed was a labored effort as my head throbbed, but finally i was able to find sleep.

i just woke up and i feel much, much better. it’s a shame that it’s nearly 3pm, though. i guess all of those rushed things don’t seem as important now when your health reminds you that you are not superhuman and every so often you need a break to rest the body.

—–

before going to work today, i noticed that my rear right tire seemed a little low on air. a closer inspection yielded a screw that was wedged into the tire. lovely.

so i went around the corner to the local gas station for them to fix it and the guy there tells me that because it is my rear right tire, he’s going to have to take the tire off so that he can get to the screw.

ok…

and then he tells me that it’s going to cost me $30 more for him to remove my tire, patch the tire, and put the tire back on.

uhhh…$30 to take the tire off and put it back on?? yup. and then i ask, well, what if i came here with just the tire? he then informs me that it would then just got the $10 to patch the tire. so i’m thinking, ok…well, i can jack up the car and remove the tire. no big deal.

and then i thought…well, wait, why would i want to do that? so i told the guy that i might be back later and i went across the street to the other gas station and explained the situation to them.

oh sure, they can fix the leak without removing the tire, no problem, they tell me. and so they get the little kit and patch the tire and i’m on my way to work.

man…the things people will charge you for in ridiculous.

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