Yeah, that time has finally come! Two years later I'm finally leaving! I'll cut right to it, I leave for the MTC on Nov 18th, 2009. I'll be in there for three weeks, then I'll head into the Salt Lake City South mission for the remaining 23 months and 1 week. I might be able to post more to my blog while I'm in the field via e-mail, but if not, there probably won't be any updates for the next two years.

I'm super excited! See you guys in two years!

Hello, dear faithful blog readers!


Yep, I'm in San Diego right now. Neal and I (one of my coworkers) are in San Diego for a training conference on internet marketing and real estate investing.


The seminars have been good but super intensive! That could just be mingled with my own tiredness from being on the go for the last few days.


So we flew out of Raleigh at 6am on Saturday morning. Which means I was up by 4:30am that same morning. that totals my sleep for Friday night/Saturday morning at around 3-4 hours. We arrived in San Diego exhausted but alert and jumped straight into seminars.


Anyway, we're staying in the hard rock hotel here in San Diego which is right on the edge of the Gaslamp district. The Gaslamp is the historic-scenic strip of sorts which is pretty fun to just browse. Last night while walking around, Neal and I saw this procession of about 20 early 90s cars with midget tires and 3 ft hydraulic jacks on the front and rear axles. They were 'pimped' out with neon lights and they bounced on their hydraulic jacks. It was one of those I'm not in NC moments. 


My second funny story just happened. They were serving refreshments, and I grabbed three bottles of this VOSS water, which looked really expensive. I was just trying to save on my own bottled water costs. I cracked the lid, took a sip, and almost gagged. It was sparkling water. Yes, that is correct. Somebody decided to take water, put carbon dioxide in it, and sell it for more than regular water. This stuff retails for between $2-$4 a bottle. I mean seriously, who the heck are these people? Who found out they could carbonate plain water and make that a product. I didn't have to pay for the water bottles I took—thank goodness. Now I've cracked the lids on all three, hoping my water will go flat so I can drink it. Well, seminars are resuming once more, so I better get back to it. Pictures to come soon from San Diego!

If you've read my blog, you know I love technology. I keep pretty up to date on the latest software, betas, and experimental stuff out there today. I used to be a regular computer prankster here in the office where I work.

Recently, Cory, my brother-in-law and one of my co-workers, jokingly accused me of changing his XP profile picture to a duck. This happened several times and Cory suspected both me and my brother Ethan. One night, when the whole family was together after supper we started talking about this mysteriously changing profile picture. Cory was convinced that me or Ethan was responsible for the change.

Soon, we started asking Kristen's kids. Elise, the oldest said she hadn't and Ian said the same. Then we got to Merry Grace, who is 3 years old said that she has changed her daddy's picture to a duck. We were all incredulous, I mean, she is THREE YEARS OLD. So to test this out I asked her sweetly:


Me: "Merry Grace, could you help me change my computer picture?"


MG: "Sure, Uncle Adam"

Still incredulous, I took her over to my computer while we all crowded around the screen. Merry Grace clicked the start button, clicks on my profile picture, scrolls down to her favorite (the duck), picks it, hits apply, exits the screen, clicks start again to show my new picture (now a duck) and says:


MG: "That's how you change it Uncle Adam. I like the duck, its my favorite."

We stared in disbelief. I know that kids are getting more and more technologically comfortable from a young age, but never in a million years would I have suspected that the culprit to Cory's changing profile picture prank was the work of a three year old little girl.

One other quick little computer story. The other day Elise, (8 years old), was in the kitchen.

"Mommy," she asked "can we use Google Chrome on Netflix?" At the time, Netflix didn't support Chrome, but it now does. Kristen told Elise no, and Elise said:

"That's lame. Google Chrome is my favorite browser. I hate using Internet Explorer because it is so slow, and Firefox takes forever to load up."

It was a moment of pride for me. My 8 year old niece is already using and prefers Google Chrome to the other browsers. Logan's computer app teacher didn't even know what he was talking about when he told her that he used Google Chrome. Kids these days...

Here I am again, two years later, preparing to serve a mission. In case you haven't heard the news already, I got word this past Sunday all my mission-related paperwork is in Salt Lake, so a decision should be on its way.

Although my story may not be unique, it certainly isn't typical either. A little under two years ago, I got my mission call to serve in the Salt Lake City South mission. I entered the MTC but returned home shortly thereafter. I'll admit that this experience brings with it some embarrassment and shame. I remember thinking at the time that two years was this incredible, impossible sacrifice. I was determined, or at least not very willing, to serve.

Then about a year ago, I remember driving home from work and feeling this intense, burning prompting that I needed to serve a mission. The feeling was very unexpected. But from then on out things began to change. With the help of family, priesthood leaders, and a supportive best friend, I progressed and prepared to serve. This time, real desire filled me. I wanted to serve a mission. 


I believe that ultimately, the direction we are moving in life is far more important than where we started or where we may end up. Moving forward is progress and anything else is distraction.

I'm grateful for the experiences that have helped to shape me into who I am today. I grateful too, for those that have supported and helped me get to this point—on the cusp of serving the Lord for two years. As my best friend and I frequently say, things will work out. If we are doing what's right, then things will work out.

I'm preparing now to make the same two year sacrifice I almost made two years ago. Although the sacrifice is the same, it doesn't seem impossible. In fact, the future has never looked so bright and felt so full of promise for the next two years and beyond.

Well, there is a new blog template. I figure it was about time for something new.

Over the weekend there was one little humorous incident. We have a small poodle mix, technically called a peekapoo. Probably the manliest breed name ever, right behind labradoodle and yorkiepoo. Yikes.

Anyway, his name is Chip and at nights he will tireless chase this little stuffed monkey toy he has. Dad came back from Georgia and we all wanted to watch a show together. Every 30 seconds, Chip would whine, wanting somebody to throw his chew toy so he could chase it and bring it back. Dad, who usually sits in the chair closest to Chip's loot stash area thing. Dad, growing tired of the game, would reach down and grab the monkey without looking, and toss it casually behind him.

Well, inevitably, Dad reached down for the toy, only to grab Chip by the throat and attempt to throw him down the hall! He didn't hurt him, but it was kinda funny because we all happened to be watching at the exact moment Dad reached down and grabbed Chip. After a few seconds Dad said "Whoops, I thought I had his monkey chew toy!"

All is well though. Plus, quick status update on my mission. Last I heard, my information should be in Salt Lake, so now its a waiting game to find out what Salt Lake reports back. Of course I'll post an update when I hear something more definitive. Good night!

Google Chrome is pretty awesome. Their theme support is already pretty ground breaking.

So go to the Google Chrome themes page and check out their themes. After you've tried a few, you will wonder why you would ever want to download themes with Firefox ever again.

As a sidenote, make sure you are running a dev or beta version of chrome. I use the dev version and its safe to use. I promise. But if all the warnings about stability scare you, no one will call you coward for sticking with the beta (or stable) versions.

Check out the themes and install a few. No browser restarts are required and all the themes have a professional quality to them. Enjoy!

Short post today, but Google is officially entering the arena as a major contender to Microsoft on all fronts.

Microsoft has been trying to steal Google's search dominance with bing, the latest iteration of search from Microsoft. Now Google has announced that they will be designing and releasing their own Operating System (OS). What is an OS? Well, Windows XP and Windows Vista are both OSes from Microsoft. Microsoft currently dominates about 85% of the OS market. The remaining 15% is divided between Apple and Linux.

So, just like Microsoft is in Google's arena with Bing and internet search, Google is now in Microsoft's Arena with its new OS.

You can read the full article on the Google Blog here.

I'm paraphrasing, but the goal of the new Google OS is to make the fastest OS possible, that starts instantly, and is designed to be used on the web/around the web. The post also mentions redesigning security so that with the Google OS, antivirus software will no longer be needed. This announcement might even ruffle Symantec's (Father of Norton Antivirus products) feathers!