An email from Uncle Len

If you're reading this blog, then chances are you've probably seen this email from Len.  I rarely foward on all the junk I get from people - but this just couldn't be passed up:

HOW DO THEY SURVIVE?

ONE Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right" So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets

TWO I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider", looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I don't thin k I'll buy that today" She said "OK," and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened.

THREE A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

FOUR I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."

FIVE Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of t yping paper. What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.

SIX I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and the who le thing generally looked like an extra in "Twister." I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went in the back to make a sandwich.

SEVEN My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?"

EIGHT Police in Radnor , Pa. interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.

NINE A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and it should be fine . The mother says, I just gave him some ant killer..... Dispatcher: Rush him in to emergency room!


Life is tough;
It's tougher if you're stupid
Or only have a 21st Century public school education

As I was booting my machine this morning, I decided to get my daily dosage of humour from a few different online comic strips I read. The little gem above (click on it for a larger view), made me really laugh.

So apparently I'm under a bit of stress lately. I mean, I knew I was stressed - about a myriad of different things, but I guess you never really pay attention to it until it kicks you in the ass and tells you to pay attention. Usually when it gets to that point - it can be embarassing. The starter on my truck has been trying to die on me recently - and so last night I decided to replace it. I was on the phone and the person I was speaking with asked if I thought I had enough time to do it (it was 7pm). So I walked out, popped the hood, gave it a once over and decided I could get it done before it got dark. To make a long story short, I pulled it out, went to Autozone & got a replacement, ran back home - and put the new one in. This must've been record time! I double checked everything to make sure it was connected up correctly, and then tried to fire it up. *click click vrooom*! Gah! What the hell? I replaced it with a new starter only to have the same problem! In my frustration I drove the Durango up to Autozone to get some "professional" help. As the guy comes out and looks at my truck, I'm explaining my problem, and pointing to the newly replaced part. He interrupts me, and says "So you replaced the alternator?" No, I say - that's the starter. He looked at me a bit odd for a second, obviously realizing I wasn't paying attention. Gently he says, No - you replaced the alternator.

I could only stand there stupidly (there was probably drool racing down my chin), while I stared at my brand new alternator, and the Autozone guy was pointing out to and obviously escaped mental patient where the starter was actually located.

I had so much on my mind, about so many different things, I couldn't recognize the obvious. And of course, since I was replacing the wrong part - everything went smoothly. Tonight, when I go to replace the actual starter, everything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. I remember thinking last night it was odd that Mr. Murphy was absent - and that things were going way too easy.

The more I consider posting to this blog, the more I'm beginning to realize this is nothing more than an online diary open to all to read. So why am I doing this?

Great news = Birthday Present for me!

Yesterday there was a concert announcement made, that quite frankly I never thought I'd ever get a chance to see.  The teaser on the radio stations a few days prior was "Several bands from the 80's have gotten back together, and are coming concert!"  That was enough to get me salivating.  So anyway, Tuesday morning they announced that the Stray Cats, ZZ Top, and The Replacements are coming in concert together on Aug 15th!
I've been listening to the Stray Cats since I was 8years old - rockin out to their Rock-a-billy sound for as long as I can remember.  And ZZ Top - who can't love them?  The beards, the spinning guitars, the bevy of beautiful women their constantly surrounded with - and let's not forget their collection of 'rods!  Perhaps I'll have to pull out the Halloween costume for the concert, and see if I can't rent a Rat Rod somewhere to complete the ensemble.

Something funky in SLC

'UFO' recorded over Salt Lake City
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 06/13/2007 12:21:01 PM MDT

Posted: 12:16 PM- It didn't exactly cause a "War of the Worlds"-type panic, but an unidentified object in the sky above Salt Lake City this morning had people wondering. Still picture here.
Television station KUTV - which has a nine-minute video of the object on its Web site - reports that what appears to be a 100-foot-long air balloon was seen floating above the valley Wednesday morning.
The silver, rocket-shaped object was sighted about 8 a.m., according to KUTV.
Salt Lake Air Traffic Control officials told the station they didn't pick up the object on radar and didn't know anything about it. They told KUTV they would investigate to see if any air traffic rules were broken.
See the KUTV video at http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_164122850.html.


But the best part about the whole story - is a few comments people left about the story:

RECENT COMMENTS:
6/13/2007 2:24:00 PM -- It was the phallic ghost of Joseph Smith, telling the Utah citizens that they were screwed. Another day, another Mormon... [MORE]
6/13/2007 1:53:00 PM -- It's the ghost of the Hindenburg. Oh the humanity! [MORE]6/13/2007 1:47:00 PM -- Wow, a UFO over the city and Rocky Anderson in a near fist fight. I wonder if the two are somehow related? [MORE]

Roosevelts Thoughts on Immigration

This one kind of struck a chord with me about a year back, when all of the issues with immigrations started coming up - and I came across this interesting little speech given by Theodore Roosevelt.  Let me know what you think?

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

So the question is - what went wrong, when did it go wrong, and why did we let it happen?

My first blog..

So I've pretty much avoided Blogs and various other related items, typically because I didn't have anything to say to the public at large, and being raised a Lundgren - feelings and such typically don't get expressed.  But now that I've seen a few blogs, family, and friends I've realized it's not so much anyone trying to get their 15min of fame, but reminds me more of a personal diary.  Yes, I realize this is a contradiction from what I stated above, as far as Lundgren's not really being in touch with their feelings and whatnot - so we'll see where this goes.  
My life right now is one of semi-controlled chaos.  Since family and friends are realistically going to be only ones reading this, I won't feel so bad about boring you all with the details.  

First things first - my kids. My daughter Keira, I simply don't know what to say - she's everything I've ever hoped for, and as she gets older - everything I've ever dreaded.  She is an absolute Daddy's girl - which makes me the happiest man on earth.  There is nothing better than to see her and have her come running at me to jump into my arms and tell me she loves me.  I didn't think life really got any better until my son Kole was born.  We got the boy we were hoping for, and I firmly believe that the "Grandparent's Curse" will come true with this one - the curse being "may you have a child exactly like you!".  Kole is an absolute stud even at a year old.  He's got more personality than anyone I've seen in a long time, with the exception of my beloved cousin Ginger ;).

To catch anyone up-to-date that may not be, I currently work for a company called iBAHN. It's a great company to work for, and I feel, lucky? blessed? whichever to be working here.  I'm presently a supervisor over our Level 2 & 3 support groups.  My agents handle a wide variety of things, but the main focus is keeping our Global Network up and running.  It's an intense, non-stop job - but any other way, and I suppose I would get bored.

Aside from work and family - try to keep busy with various different things, but of course being a Lundgren, my next major project will be getting my hands on another Hotrod.

Ok - that's enough for the first post - well see where this goes from here.

To all the family and friends reading this - I love you all, and hope everyone is doing well.

-Justin