I had this dream monday night and I think I have something here...I was on some sort of luxury cruise or on a resort or something like that, and there was a gambling room.  There was this large table set up, very much like a roulette table, with a numbered wheel, a tall grid of numbers beside it, and then some other marked areas surrounding it.  An employee came to the table and announced that she would be starting a game of 'Sapienza' if anyone wanted to join in.  (if you're not familiar with poker rooms, this is a common practice where a croupier announces the buy in and limit and anyone interested can go to that table)  Everyone seemed a little disappointed that it wasn't a regular game of roulette, but I actually wasn't too sure what the heck was going on.  Since no one expressed interest, I said that I'd play sapienza, but then I asked for clarification on what it was.  Then someone said that it was like "P", which was what they called normal roulette for some reason, but sapienza was a new game.

So then I woke up, with this visual of the table, but no idea how to play it.  It was a felt table, mostly tan colored with stripes of orange as a design pattern.  Then I thought, I should make this game.  The rules, strategies, and statistics have been running in my head ever since this dream.  I think I'm going to invent this game and try to market it to a casino.  I'm liking it, but I'm also designing it, so I'm a little biased.  I'm starting to organize my ideas and map out a course of development to concept to business proposal...I'm going to need some help eventually with this, but I think I have a new hobby.

BTW, I have no idea where sapienza came from.  Apparently it's italian for 'wisdom'.  I like it.

1. When did you last sleep in a bed outside your home? - hehe, umm...the night before last?  SCANDAL!
2. When did you last drive someone else’s car? - Hey, my truck is in the shop!  >:(  I have been driving Kallie or Deirdre's car a lot.  I need my truck in all this snow though!
3. When did you last cook in someone else’s kitchen? - Define cooking.  I think i helped a little here or there with dinner at Kallie's last week.
4. When did you last care for children who aren’t yours? - That aren't mine?  that scares me.
5. When did you last do someone else’s job? - If we're talking strictly work/career, than I have no idea, because no one knows who does what anymore!  As a project manager, it's just my job to make sure it gets done!

So I've written before about my deep fascination with Bedford Springs resort, and that's definitely on my list of places to stay and visit.  They have a great history that goes back into the late 1700's and presidents staying there.  you can read about the history on their site or ask me to borrow the PBS DVD I got from my mom for Christmas on it.  Great stuff.

Another similar place that I want to stay is the Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs, WV.  It has a long and luxorious history much like Bedford springs, but it has an awesome underground bunker that was to be used by the government during the Cold War.  How awesome is that?

I've always complained about how I'm not made for this world and how they stop making things that I really appreciate like the certs mints, ice cream, etc.  Last week I went shopping for a wallet because my current one is falling apart.  My wallet is just about perfect, and I would say that here are the things that make it great:

1. bifold
2. a bill compartment divider (I like to have $20 and $10s on one side and $5 and $1s on the other)
3. Driver's license is clearly visible upon opening
4. picture holder can be removed/discarded
5. over all efficient use of space resulting in a thin wallet

This is what I have now.  Something that already exists.  You'd think I'd be able to find something at least equal, right?  Wrong.  I spent a good hour total looking at wallets and couldn't find one that I liked.  I even bought one, returned it, and bought another.  Anyone who knows me knows that I believe returning items to be a cardinal sin in consumerism.  I ended up settling for one that has an additional flap for the drivers license, which takes up more space, but can still operate as a bifold.  Just because I feel like mentioning it, I used to have a wallet that had a little tab that you could feed a key into and flipping it out exposed the teeth so you could use it.  I LOVE that.  I love functionality.  Makes my wallet like a swiss army knife.

ANYWAY, the real bit of sunshine was when I was at Walmart, looking at batteries for Kallie's remote car unlocker thing-a-ma-bob.  We're in the watch section, and I just happen to glance over at a watch that meets my first few criterion on watches:

1. Rectangular face
2. No gold
3. Classy and Artsy design
4. digital display as well
5. date, with days and months
6. back lighting button

The watch I have now, and have had for about 5 years now does not have a digital display, back lighting, or months/days.  I searched high and low for a watch that met my standards, but found none, yet here one is for $18 at Walmart.  It's a little large, and I'll need to get the band adjusted before I can wear it, but we might have a winner here.  That makes me happy.

Here's a first time truth story for you.  when i was 13 or 14, i was big into BMG music service.  I would sign up at my dad's house, refer "Jay Hall" at my mom's address, and I'd get 5 free CDs on top of the introductory offer.  I think it worked out to 12 CDs for $45.  That's great.  Anyway, one day I got a trial offer flyer in the mail for Playboy magazine.  It had my BMG music info on it for my mom's house.  You had to be 18 or older to sign up for the service, so I guess they're just allowed to send you stuff like that.  I took it in to show my friends at school how cool I was.  Dallas and Travis and everyone were trying to convince me to fill it out and send it back in.  I wouldn't do it.  Then Dallas said he would do it, so he took it from me, but I didn't think he had the guts to do it.  We were at that age where we just taunted eachother to do bad things.  Dallas actually did it though.  If I remember correctly, Travis had a car at that time and he drove Dallas home from school that day and they dropped it off then.

Few weeks go by I guess, my dad and I are out running errands and he says we need to stop at my mom's for something.  I actually don't remember how it all unfolded, but it just so happened that Dallas and Travis and I were planning on going to a concert, X-fest a week or two later.  My punishment was that I would have to leave the concert early.  Total weak sauce.  I missed Green Day, and them lighting their drums on fire, the bassist from Jimmies Chicken Shack running on stage naked during someone's set, and another band or two I think.  I also just missed out on the bonding time with Travis and Dallas.  I didn't even do anything...but sometimes, it's the lack of action that we end up paying for.

In recent sports news, Grapevine Faith played Gainesville State School in football, but the fans from Faith rooted for the other team.  The formed a line for the other team to run through at the beginning of the game, the made a sign for them to bust through, and cheered for them throughout the game.  Was this some kind of reverse logic to the Yale "We Suck" prank?  Nope.  This was a good deed, since Gainesville is a correctional institution, and even those players deserve to have some cheering.

Why does something so right, seem so upside down?

Here's a great article about Pittsburgh from an unexpected source: Cleveland.  It talks about How Pittsburgh is still growing in the recession, how companies like PNC Bank are still growing, the success of Giant Eagle, and all the riverfront initiatives that have been in motion.  Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is definitely making this place look younger.

And take a look at the Otto Milk Condos.  Their site rocks, you can see layouts and prices for every unit.  They also have a twitter account and pictures on flickr.  That's what I call hip marketing.  The place looks pretty sweet once it's done.  It'd be sweet to live in the cheap places knowing that someone with a 1.3 million dollar apartment lives above you too.

"And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name."

 - Acts 22:16

My family is the most important thing in my life.  Period, end of sentence.  This weekend, I missed a weekend with all of them because I had a project at work fail last weekend, and we needed to finish it this weekend.  It was suposed to be a minor inconvenience.  We'd start at 9am, be done and on my way by 1pm.  Everyone we needed was aware and ready to go; full exposure for success.  We can't get the server to come up.  I was up until 4am last night on this call, had an 11am call with the Chief technology officer about how to proceed, and now we're working on it again until 4pm today.  This whole time my family is together, exchanging presents, and spending time since we won't be able to get together for a while.

I will never let work cross my family again.  I have a picture of my whole family on my desk here at home and the thought had crossed my mind to take it into work so i have it there to keep me happy.  I think that logic is flawed.  The hyperboly of that situation is to bring family to my work, and I don't want that to happen.  I think I'm going to keep my bare gray cube walls as a sign of my temporary state at the office. 

At this point in my life, my work doesn't do anything to help my family.  I'm not getting supported, paid, or encouraged enough at work to take time away from my family.  This is becoming an increasing concern to me, and I think it needs resolved.

Corporate whore no more.

so I set up TallHalls.com to keep updates as Kallie and I plan our wedding.  That domain name is too great to let slip away, so it will probably be around for a while.  subscribe to the feed there and check back often to see how we're doing!

I watched this video about why never to talk to the cops, ever, even if you're innocent, and I wonder how many people have been self-incriminated.  Then I look at a carton of goldfish snacks, and it says, "DO NOT PURCHASE IF CARTON IS OPEN OR TORN" and I chuckle at the thought of someone being that dumb to risk their health or life for a box of goldfish.  There are tons of stupid product labels and warnings out there, and I wonder what happened to make these necessary.  Usually there's a lawsuit involved, but sometimes, like the 82 childlock tylenol bottles, companies recognize a problem and resolve it.  It just boggles my mind not how stupid people can be, but how much help people need to save themselves from themselves!

A list of 100 things from BBC from news articles last year that exposed interesting facts.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/01/100_things_we_didnt_know_last.shtml

Some highlights:

4. Etiquette dictates that at dinner parties, a man should always talk to the woman on his left during the first course, and right during the main course.
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21. Short men are more likely to be jealous.
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28. The Olympic torch is designed to withstand winds of up to 65km an hour and stay alight in rain up to 50mm an hour.
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40. You can lessen jet lag by not eating.
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41. Women are banned by law from Mount Athos in Greece, home to 20 monasteries.
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66. Misheard song lyrics are known as mondegreens.
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Some text is clearly written. We consider this normal and expected.
If I wRiTe In AlTeRnAtInG-cApS oN a ReSuMe, It WiLl MoSt LiKeLy Be ReJeCtEd.
Some text we italicize to whisper quietly, but words never make a sound.
Underlining words makes sure what we've written is found.
When Jesus spoke, he apparently spoke in red.
All 2 cmnly, we abbrv. what u said.
I can ^say something without you knowing, by changing the <font color> to white,
Maybe a secret, an "easter egg", or just something to spite.
I'm fascinated at the replacements or tools we have in place,
To relay the intonations, hand gestures, or looks on a face.
Text to symbols of <3, :), :(,
But love, happy, and sad, aren't as simple as that.
Just different people using different ways to express differences.
Whether boldly, quietly, OSTENTATIOUSLY, or whatever the variance is.
There's no point here, or "." as some _say.
I hope I chose the right way(s) on the right day...