I'm old....

I'm feeling old today. It's a birthday... No.. it's not mine. My daughter turned 8 years old today. Where does the time go? It seems like a week ago I posted on her birthday last year.... And now it's here again. Wow. Well.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! Daddy loves you (even if you do make him feel old).

Decisions desicions......

My buddy Ender decided to be extra nice to me and make me some sweet banners! Thanks Ender!!!!! But now I am torn... Blogmad only allows you to use one banner in the rotation.... So I have to decide which one to use.... I hate that. I hate having to make decisions like that... they both rock! So I've decided it's up to you... Help me choose which banner to use... Speaking of Blogmad ... Have you joined? Have you been thinking of joining? Well... I could use the referrals, so feel free to join from here... And since you are in a voting mood already.... why not rate me on VARB?

Crapfest...errr... American Idol....

What happened to these folks this week? Did they all get together and decide to prove that they shouldn't be allowed to sing modern music or something? This had to be the worst night since auditions... and these are supposed to be the top 10???? Send em all home and let's start over! Here's the review.... Lisa Tucker Kelly Clarkson - Because of You Um.... no. Lisa... you have consistantly sucked and it's time for you to forget this little fantasy of yours and go home. But with how crappy most of the others were... who knows if you will. Kellie Pickler Suds in the Bucket - Sara Evans Boring. Come on Kellie... you are supposed to be a country girl... so what happened here? That sucked. Ace Young Train - Drops of Jupiter OMG... I'm blind! Ace decided to reveal his waxed chest to us during the horrible performance of a bad song.... Please... somebody put him out of his misery.... Talyor Hicks Trouble - Ray LaMontagne Taylor... sorry, but you kinda sucked tonight too. You have nothing to worry about, but come on dude.... Mandisa Wanna Praise You - Mary Mary Finally- something I liked tonight. The judges didn't get it, but who cares about them anyway? Pop out the Christian music in front of 30 million people Mandisa! Wtg! Great job! Chris Daughtry Creed - What If Dude... don't sing Creed. This was Chris's worst performance yet... That sucked. Katharine McPhee The Voice Within - Christina Aguilera Sounded horrible. I usually am all about the McPheever... but ewwwwwwwwww...... Bucky Covington Tim McGraw - Real Good Man In my opinion- Bucky was the best of the night. This fit him perfectly, and he did it well. Paris Bennett Work It Out - Beyonce I liked Simon's description of this one... "It was like a little girl trying to be Beyonce"- And might I add... failing miserably. Elliott Yamin Gavin DeGraw - I Don't Want to Be I can't believe I'm going to say this, But I kinda liked this version of this.... And when the camera pulled back far enough, I could almost look at the screen without hiding under the couch from his ugliness..... Do you folks who say Taylor can't dance turn the channel before Elliot comes on or something? Anyway- as you can see, I only enjoyed 3 performances tonight: Bucky, Mandisa & Elliot.... Bottom three: Lisa Ace Paris Going home: Lisa

Immigration reform???????

What is wrong with the folks in the senate??? They seem to want to look the other way when it comes to 11 million criminals- OK... I guess we'll just let you all stay since you're here already... WTF???? What's next... Bank robbers protesting in the streets because there are too many cops? Want an immigration reform bill? Here ya go: 1.) Secure the border! Walls, troops, whatever it takes- put an end to people just walking over whenever they feel like it. 2.) Any time someone is found here illegally, immediately arrest them and have them deported ASAP. 3.) Guest workers? Fine. But they must apply for guest worker status while still in their home country. Any person caught here illegally should be banned from ever getting guest worker status. 4.) Seriously punish anyone who knowingly hires illegal aliens- fines, jail time?!? Make it not worth it to hire them. 5.) Make the citizenship process easier and more widely available to people before they decide to immigrate. Our congress is seriously out of touch with the American people.....

Why do I blog????

I had a discussion with my wife earlier about if blogging is worth it. Some days, it seems like more trouble than it's worth to get people to actually come to your blog and read and comment.... But I have come to the conclusion that when it boils down to it- that's not why I blog.... When I started my blog in January of 2005, I did it just to see what all the fuss was about. I had heard increasing mention of blogs, bloggers, the blogosphere etc... and i had no clue what the Hell I was hearing. I heard there were a lot of political bloggers out there, so I decided to start a page that I assumed would talk about politics- Thus the name "Guppyman's Rant Zone". At the time, I would go to many political message boards and get into heated debate over how nuts I think the left is... Actually... It was around that time that I became so bored with politics and the circles the debates would go without actually getting anywhere... My first post was actually about us painting our dining room and a couple of projects we did... I posted a handful of times in January, including my most popular post ever (that hasn't recieved a single comment) about an aquarium stand I built (I say most popular because I get hits almost every day from people searching out aquarium stand plans).... February found me quitting smoking (yeah... I didn't stay quit)... March brought on my first experience with somebody talking crap about me on their blog.... Looking back, I still find it funny (and I still get occasional visitors from there)... I've talked about all kinds of things over the last year or so.... from stupid links to idiots hurting themselves to reality TV show reviews to prayer requests for my wife and family... I never did find that niche that my blog neatly fits into... I tried the occasional political post, but got bored by it quickly... I figure I really don't need to define where I fit as long as I enjoy posting still.... But the point of my post is this.... I love comments. They feed my ego, they make me feel like people out there actually care what I have to say, etc... But they aren't the reason I blog. I like getting lot's of traffic.... I like being ranked high on things like Battle of the Blogs... But none of those are my reason for all this either... I blog because I enjoy it. I like being able to look back on what I had to say about things. I like the community of people I have found. I like working with my template and making my page look how I want it. I've had webpages before that I went nuts on and constantly worked to keep everything up to date and how I wanted it... Blogging is a logical extension of that, with the added benefit of being able to easily add content any time I want without much effort. I love it. So comment, don't comment, read me daily or skim on by... any way you want to do it is fine by me.... My real reason for doing this at all is for me.

Final Renter...

I've tried out Blog Explosion's Rent My Blog thing for awhile now... It's a cool idea, people pay you credits to rent space on your blog for a week... Well... after 25 rentals, I've decided I don't want to deal with it anymore. I've rented to my last person... It's not that I don't like the idea, I just don't want to hassle with every week trying to put myself on auction again. So after this week, I'll be removing the rental space.... So how about everybody be nice and go click on my renter... Let's go out with a bang.

Weeds

I haven't mowed in the backyard for awhile.... When I went out there a little while ago, I noticed that all my weeds were putting on the nicest show for me... I almost hate to mow them down. Maybe I'll just declare my backyard a wildflower area......

It's Friday!!!!!

Ok... it's Friday and I don't know what to post about.... I felt the need to post just to move the picture of Chicken Little farther down the page.... Yesterday we went to the hospital for Stormii's pre-op stuff... They asked her a million questions and we sat around for hours... I watched the workers out the window tearing down the building next door.... Lately- I feel like I'm getting lessons in patience... Her doctor visits seem to take excessively long times... We wait around a lot. I am not the most patient person... I get real antsy while just sitting there... I'm the type that needs to be doing something. I just found it funny that in the box off to the right, I found this as Today's Promise: For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.-Hebrews 10:36,37 I'm getting better... Maybe I should get better at preparing myself for long waits.... Get something to do BEFORE I go to one of these things... not read all the six month old magazines after I get there... Anyway... Happy Friday everybody...