Two Cuts, And A Pig-Man

Buffalo Sabres Old-SchoolAs I was putting Julia, our two-year-old, to bed last night, she was looking at my awesome, old-school Sabres shirt, with the vintage logo pasted on the front of it. She was touching it, exploring it, and without looking up she said to me, “Dad, you have two cuts.”

“Cuts? What do you mean?” I asked, looking down to see what she could mean.

“Like we have downstairs. Those are round. You have two cuts, right here.”

She continued.

“And you have a pig… man. Two cuts, and a pig man.”

Older sister Kirstie chimed in, “That’s a Buffalo. Right?”

No. I do believe that is two cuts and a pig-man. πŸ™‚

08.08.08

You probably do not need to be reminded of this, but today is the one fun day every year where the day, the month, and the year all match. This one happens to also be the first day of the summer olympics, happening this time in China. It’s also the tenth wedding anniversary of some good friends of ours.

And, it’s just a Friday.

The numbers on the calendar don’t really matter, but I just thought it was fun, and wanted to post it. πŸ™‚

So enjoy your 08.08.08. Maybe a game of Crazy Eights is in order? Maybe play the old Beatles’ tune “Eight Days a Week” and catch an episode of Eight is Enough on DVD afterwards? Start it at 08:08:08pm local time! Got any other ideas? Leave ’em below!

Special Guests at the Apple Store

All kinds of people come into the Apple store. I get to meet and talk with people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities. That’s a pretty fun part of the job, actually.

A couple days ago, I got to meet a few guys that were even more fun to chat with, being a long-time (big) Buffalo Bills fan.

I was working in the iPhone section, and a couple guys came up to check out the phones. One of them was studying it, so I offered to answer any questions, and began chatting with him.

The weird thing was, his friend looked a LOT like Ashton Youboty from the Buffalo Bills. I took a couple glances, but kept thinking, “Nah… he’s too young… too small. But it sure looks like him… Maybe a brother?”

As I was talking with Ashton-look-a-like’s friend, another guy from the store came up and said, “So you guys from Ohio State?” They were both wearing OSU garb, so it was a valid question. The guy is a Purdue grad, so it was a Big Ten thing… I didn’t bring up my MSU affiliation, as I was trying to be helpful with the iPhone, not play on long-standing college rivalries, which are an important part of life amongst Big Ten schools… πŸ™‚

The guy who was checking out the iPhone said they did attend OSU, and they played football there. That of course intrigued me, as I knew that Ashton Youboty played football at OSU. Now I was pretty certain this was Ashton’s brother or something. Well, as I was going to ask, he left to go check out something else, but I asked his friend… and sure enough, it WAS Youboty, and the guy checking out the iPhone was another young Bills player, Dustin Fox!

After he revealed his “secret identity” I paused for a moment, then said, “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but… I just… thought you’d be bigger.”

He laughed and said, somewhat sheepishly, “Everybody does…”

We chatted a bit. Dustin said he’s the “team techie” and I showed him around to a few other toys in the store. They left and I was glad to have gotten to meet two of the (well, really just one) Buffalo Bills!

But the night was not over.

Much later in the night, I looked up at the big board that shows the names of people with appointments at the Genius bar, where we offer tech support on our products. One of the names on the board was Ashton Y. Now… there could be another person named Ashton. And perhaps even another Ashton with a last name starting with the letter Y. But, the likelihood of Ashton Youboty and this other potential Ashton Y. being in the same Apple store on the same night… not very likely. πŸ™‚

So, apparently, Ashton was coming back.

And indeed… not long before closing time, Ashton (but not Dustin) and maybe four other friends strolled into the store. I was still manning the iPhone station, so I greeted them and helped one guy out, giving him an overview of what the iPhone does. Since they all came in together, I figured they were all Bills players, but honestly, I did not recognize any of them. Except Ashton, who was sitting at the Genius bar, getting some help from the Geniuses.

Well, as we were finishing up (it was just about closing time) the store cleared out – except for our Buffalo Bills friends – and I was no longer needing to stay at my station, so… I went over and introduced myself to Ashton. (Who, at this point, was just sitting at the Genius bar, waiting for something.)

“So, you’re Ashton Youboty,” I began. He nodded. “I just wanted to come say hello. I’m a big Bills fan, and your friend Dustin said you who you were when you guys were in here before.” I told him the story of how I thought they’d be bigger, and he said, “Man, I am bigger. I’m fat! The coaches want me to lose weight!” Then he added with emphasis, “It’s hard to lose weight!” Ha! He didn’t look like he needed to, but I’m sure his coaches know what they’re talking about. πŸ™‚

After wrapping up a few other things, I had a moment to say hello to the other guys. I made sure that there were not other customers in the store, and that they (the Bills players) were not busy being Apple customers, and I finally got to say hello.

“So are you guys all Bills players?” I asked.

“Yeah.” (Their unified, hushed reply was a little less forthcoming than I had hoped…)

“Well, I have two boys at home, and they will want to know who I got to meet tonight, so… what are your names?”

The guy immediately to my right said, “Jabari.” I actually didn’t quite hear him, so I asked him to repeat and when I understood him that time I said, “Jabari Greer! Nice to meet you.” Ashton was next to Jabari, and then we went around the circle of guys and they all introduced themselves as I shook their hands.

“Reggie.”

“Reggie….” I said in a leading tone.

“Corner.” He smiled when he said it. Some of these guys are not really that outgoing… πŸ™‚

Reggie Corner! Nice to meet you.” (It really was. This was fun!)

We got to the last guy around the half circle, who said, “Jon Corto.” I heard him just fine, but I asked him to repeat it, because I had never heard of Jon Corto, and I know my Bills! So I probed a bit further, asking what position he played, and where he was from… still no luck.

As I was probing, Jabari said, “Well, tell us who you are!” So, I laughed and introduced myself. “My name’s Greg… Campbell. Actually, I have a Bills show…”

“Really?!” said Jabari, “Here in Rochester?”

I explained the Buffalo Bills Review, and actually, I thought I remembered that Jabari had been in the running for – or possibly won – an award from our show this past season, but that turned out to not be true. I did let him know that though, and he said, “I’m gonna have to check that out!”

In explaining the show, I mentioned that I grew up in Buffalo, and that’s how I became a big Bills fan. That’s when Jon asked where I was from in Buffalo. Turns out he is from Orchard Park – where the Bills play! So I talked with him a bit about that, how cool it is that he is from there and now playing for the Bills! Kinda living vicariously through that for a moment… πŸ™‚

They didn’t stay much longer, but it was very cool to meet them all and chat a bit about Bills football, even the Buffalo Bills Review. When I started working at the Apple Store, never imagined that I’d get to meet five Buffalo Bills in one night! Was definitely a fun experience.

Wonder who will be coming in today?

NFL Football Is Back!

NFLOK, once again I’m a little slow on the draw here, but it’s been to crazy around here! AND, I actually do most of my NFL-related writing for our Buffalo Bills site (which we have beefed up a bit this year… if you haven’t been over there in a while, check it out! The articles page has a pretty decent list of contributers, and we’re going to be doing a lot of special/bonus shows this summer leading up to the regular season in just a MONTH!!)

We watched the official 2008 season opener this past Sunday… the Hall of Fame game. Sometimes this pre-season kick-off game is a joke, but honestly, this was a GREAT game! The ‘Skins and the Colts should both be pretty good this year. (I know… it’s only pre-season, but really… they both looked quite talented, and deep. Maybe especially the Redskins.) It was super fun to see football on our TV again!

The Bills play both of those teams this pre-season. First against Washington this Saturday (can’t wait!) Washington has a rookie QB from the University of Hawaii that set all kinds of records during his time there… and looks like he might do the same in the NFL! He’s got a crazy release… but it worked! He came in as the third QB of the game, and threw the tying and winning TDs! And I think he was something like 9 for 10 or so. Watch for Colt Brennan in the years to come. Should have a pretty decent NFL career! (If you can predict such things…)

So, if you’re into football… the wait is finally over. First official weekend of pre-season is this coming weekend, and we’re only a month away from the real deal! Whoohooo!

Mac Game: Burger Shop

Burger Shop

I found a cool game via a web link from Facebook, I believe. It’s a site that sells lots of games for the Mac, offering a free 1-hour demo of each. I saw this one called Burger Shop at #3 on their Most Popular list and decided to try it… it was a blast! I showed it to the boys and they loved it, too!

Basically, you fill fast food orders πŸ™‚ Jen and I think this was made by the fast food industry, because when I was playing it with the boys, we were all really starting to crave burgers, fries, milk shakes and more. πŸ™‚ It’s got a fun little story that goes along with the game, and is super fast paced but pretty simple. Click on the photo above to check it out.

If you don’t have a Mac… come visit me at the Apple Store… πŸ™‚

A Lesson From Monopoly

It’s probably not even accurate, but tonight while I was playing a game of Monopoly with my nine-year-old son, Ian, I couldn’t help but notice how the game paralleled life – and how I did not like that.

First off, it was just a really fun night. We call them OK Nights. (One Kid Nights.) It’s been Ian’s turn for a while, but as my prolonged silences here at GregsHead.net demonstrate, there is not much time for, well, anything these days. Not much time, and not much money. Which factored into the decision to do Ian’s OK Night in our basement. (That, and the huge thunderstorms that were wreaking havoc on our entire area tonight…) It all worked out, as Ian loves the game Monopoly (and so do I!) and we shared a nice pot of tea while we played together.

Ian even learned how to find 10% of something tonight. Bonus home school lesson!

But my lesson was in the crazy notion that to make money you have to have money. It’s true in life, and in Monopoly, and vice versa.

Poor Ian had me on the ropes. He had Boardwalk and Park Place with 3 houses on each. I managed to find my piece on Boardwalk shortly following his new construction project, and owed him $1400! That’s a lot for Monopoly! I had to mortgage several properties, and spend all my cash, but I managed to stay in the game. A few lucky rolls, and I had enough cash to stick around long enough for Ian to land on one of my expensive properties. But somehow, that was his undoing.

He also stuck around for a while, but no matter what we tried to do, he just couldn’t dig out of the hole that the first big hotel stay got him into. The problem started to become that in order to pay his debts, he had to get rid of all the stuff that could make him money. So in essence, he was getting rid of any chance he had to win, even though he was still in the game.

I, on the other hand, kept collecting Ian’s money… and then, since my cash stash was growing larger, I invested in more houses. I even bought a mortgaged monopoly from Ian… paid the bank, built houses, and cashed in again on Ian. It was too easy. As I cruised effortlessly around the board (because of my cushy abundance of wealth) Ian fretted every roll of the dice.

It was so crazy to see how it really does “take money to make money.” I really couldn’t believe it. But it was true. Somehow, but a bit of strategy, and admittedly, a bit of luck, I managed to make the first amount of money, and then from there wise investing made the money earn money for me.

Right now my problem seems to be what Ian’s problem was. Debt and other ongoing expenses keep me in a position of not having any vehicles to earn income. If I do, it seems to be just a little, and then it goes right back out to someone else. That’s a frustrating place to be.

So, I have not figured out in the real world how to take the next step to get just enough money to start making money from having money… but maybe some day.

Perhaps I should just play a few more games of Monopoly with Ian? πŸ™‚

A Picture of 54,000 Words

GregsHead.net Words from 2008 - Thanks to Wordle.net

I followed a link to a pretty fun site yesterday. It’s called Wordle, and lets you take any text, or URL, or feed from any site and make a random word picture from the text that you give it. Very fun, actually!

I did a couple more images. First, when I just took the text and pasted it in, the biggest word was “just”. Ha! Guess I just say that a lot… πŸ˜‰ So, here’s the JUST version. And, I took the “Life With God” posts and made this image from that.

I also discovered that I have written approximately 54,800 words in the year 2008. (That’s to my GregsHead.net blog alone, does not include all my other sites!) I have … a lot to say.

Anyone can do it… with any text. Jen made some with the names of our family. πŸ™‚ Go try it out for yourself…

Wordle.net

Energized

I got back just a while ago from my first shift at the Apple store. I was really looking forward to it, wondering just how it would actually play out. I know Macs, for sure, but I didn’t really know how thing go at the store. I knew I was going to tag along with a more experienced Apple Specialist (that’s what I am doing also) so I figured it would just be fun.

What happened was great, but very unexpected.

When I got there, it was obvious that it had been pretty busy. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, but found the manager on duty and they tried to pair me up with someone… but there was no one to be found. They finally decided on someone, but he was on break. After lots of indecision, I offered (if they were OK with it) to just jump in, with no training. πŸ™‚ The person who was assigning me my duties confirmed that with me, and then, in a bit of desperation perhaps, said, “OK! Get out there!”

I headed into the sea of people and found a mom and daughter standing by the laptops whose body language suggested they were not certain what to do next. I approached them and introduced myself, and explained that even though this was my very first shift, I would try to help them best I could. And help I did. After fifteen minutes or so, and explaining all the great stuff Apple has to offer (that applied to them) they were ready to make their purchase! I really couldn’t believe how fun (and easy?) it was!

From then on, it never stopped. Ever. It was 9:01 when I actually did not see anyone who looked like they would like assistance. 5:30-9:00 … straight. Every minute was spent talking to someone about Macs, and selling lots of stuff! It was fun and crazy! (They assured me that it’s not usually that busy!) πŸ™‚

And do you know what I did when there was no customer to assist? I found some fellow employees to talk to. I asked one of the other “new hires” how she liked her second shift. I spoke with a few of the other Specialists. I met one of the Creatives (the guys who train people in using their Macs) and talked with him at length about Macs and their software.

By the time all was done, it was just after 11pm that I was getting in the van and heading home.

I called Jen. I couldn’t wait to. I had wanted to. We have a cell phone that is pay as you go, and the minutes are super low right now, so I only told her a few quick things, and then said we’d get to chat more when I got home. And I couldn’t wait to do that. But then, as I was going home a different way, I thought of our very good friends (one of whom is in Mexico right now!) and I decided to call the one who is not in Mexico to see how all of that was going. (I had forgotten that normal people don’t feel like it’s 5pm at 11pm….) Again, with limited cell minutes, we only spoke for 2-3 minutes, but here’s my point.

I am energized by being with people. I literally can not get enough.

When I got home, I told Jen some stories from my first shift, and I listened to her stories of what she and the kids did. We chatted about various things, and she finally asked, “Aren’t you hungry?”

I thought about it and then said, “No. I’m really not.” And kinda chuckled about it. I hadn’t eaten since lunch (12:30) so… I should have been hungry…. but… I really wasn’t.

The only thing I could figure was that being with people – and helping them learn about Macs – energized me. To the point that I didn’t even notice or feel hunger? I didn’t even need food!

And even though I needed to take a shower from the day, I really didn’t want to. The only thing I could tell Jen was that it seemed, “boring” … that’s not a word I use, so that was weird. But I think I figured out that all I wanted to do was stay with Jen, and keep enjoying the interaction. I really love interaction with other people. A lot. Like, I never really want a time where there isn’t interaction. Maybe I do, but it’s very rare. (You could argue that me writing this blog is a form of “interaction” as well…)

So, it’s most definitely settled. I am a people person to my core, and that is most certainly what I need to be doing with my time. I need to be with people. We have seven living in this house, so I have that covered, but it really puzzles me why God has given me office work to do. Granted I do get to work with people on some level, but mainly I am working by myself at my desk most of my days.

After tonight, I am just reminded that it is nice that God gives me relatively short chapters. Hopefully the next one more directly involves interaction with people. πŸ™‚

Content

The past three weeks – maybe four – have been mostly a blur. I’ve been sleeping even less than normal, and been working much more than normal … and yet, there is a strange contentment like I have not recently known.

For quite sometime, financial pressures have been slowly bearing down on us, threatening to completely crush us. Well, at one point early this month, it seemed they would. We were at the end, literally, of every financial rope. We really didn’t know what to do.

So, I decided to try this online package that was only $499.95 that promised I could be making $600,000.00/week in just three short steps! The first week, my check was only $4537.84, but the second week, it tripled to $12,450.32! Now I’m getting checks for over $50,000/week!!! It worked for me, and I can share all my secrets with you in my online resource, “Everything I know about making money online, and why it will work for you!” – at a discounted rate for all GregsHead.net readers – only $399.95!!! So act now!

No. I didn’t do that. But I was tempted to… πŸ™‚

See, what really happened was I just let go. I already knew that stuff is just stuff, and if we even lost all of it, we’d still be OK. Life would go on. It would be different, but it would go on. I had been holding on so tight that when the money didn’t come in, and “God didn’t provide” I would just borrow more money (usually with credit cards) to pay for what we obviously “needed.”

What I have come to learn (really, again) is that God gives us what we need. And if we don’t have what we “need”, then we don’t need it. (Note: I want to say “probably don’t need it” there, but I am really learning that I don’t need the probably!) The key to the whole things is contentment. Content with what we have, and trusting that God will provide our “daily bread.”

And he has.

Seriously, since we decided to just live on what we have – and have not used any credit cards in any way since then, probably four weeks – we have had everything we needed. I have been working many more hours (because I have always had the work, but never had the time to do it… hoping this extra work time is just to dig out of the hole we are currently in!) and so that has helped, but beyond that, there has been the generosity of some friends, as well as funny little moments along the way.

Like this one:

Last Monday, after paying some bills, buying some food… we literally had just a few dollars left. Jen’s parents had just gotten home from a three-week vacation tour, and were coming to see the grandkids and give us a chance to go out for our summer anniversary (the day we decided to get married, July 16). I really, really wanted to take Jen to Red Robin as she has been wanting to do that for a very long time, but the cost was definitely prohibitive! So, with no money, we just weren’t going to be able to do it. Unless… God wanted to give that to us. So, Jen asked him.

Not too long after Jen asked our Dad for enough money to go to Red Robin that night, I got an IM from a friend who I do some web work for… he needed a hosting account, ASAP. πŸ™‚ So, I told him what it would cost, sent him the invoice, and he paid right away (and he paid a ridiculous bonus amount as well!) I told Jen, and she told me excitedly, “I asked God to do that!!

How awesome is that? πŸ™‚

So, the point is not “don’t use credit cards, just ask God for money for fancy date-night cuisine.” The point is that we have found such contentment living on what we have. We are still in a pretty big financial hole, but God keeps providing, and giving us ideas I think, and we are listening and happily enjoying what God gives us – rather than going ahead of him, as I think we were before, to things he had not yet given us. Even things like food, gas, etc. Now if we don’t have the cash, we don’t get it.

And we have not been wanting. (Which is partially due to God’s provision, and partially due to our contentment. Both working together.)

He really does love us, and take care of us. We know that, and we are getting to see it even closer and more clearly every day now. Honestly, though I don’t like the financial pressure of where we are, and can’t wait to pay off this debt, I hope that we will always be able to see so clearly how God provides – daily – for exactly what we need.

It’s a fantastic place to be!

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
Matt 6:34 (MSG)