Titles range from:
Top ten reasons to…
Pray for [insert cause] please…
Chain letters, which end something like “pass this onto 5 friends now and you’ll have good luck for the next 10 days”…
Unbelievable photos…
Poems…
Etc…

Well, last week I received three which were absolutely great.

1. The first comes from my dear friend Dawn Brinkley. The email is titled How the Phone Should be Answered.

GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA .
Press “1″ for English.
Press “2″ to disconnect until you learn to speak English

And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

If you agree…! …keep it going.

2. The second comes from my father. He sent me an email exchange we had nearly 10 years ago. (although I’m curious if my brother Matt actually did the forwarding.)

TIME
Always in a hurry, wanting to have some time.
Can’t keep up the flurry, but can’t stop to unwind.
The bill are there, and the deadlines too;
I pray to God, what can I do.
My wife, my kids, and others need me,
But most of all, my God and I,
Just need some time, for us, to be free.

3. The third one was a simple image sent to me by my buddy, Will Riney.
This made me chuckle.

Which made me think of this little image. This one actually hits too close to home when I’m visiting my folks.

Last January I wrote that I hoped to genuinly connect with more of my family and friends. I think this is something I still need to work on. But, I did make it a point to visit family and friends as much as I could. Here are the highlights.

In January I travelled to Palo Alto and San Francisco. There I met with several collegues from the domain industry, Hotkeys, Eloan, and Homegain.

The spring took me to Washington, DC to see my baby neice, Grace, be dedicated in church.

The summer kicked off with a bang, as I flew to Birmingham, AL to watch the July 4th fireworks with my brother, Matt. Then, I was off to San Diego to meet up with a few business collegues, and sneak off to visit some good friends.

The very next week, I flew back to San Francisco to attend the Inman conference. (Wow! Was the Isreali-Lebanon military campaign just this summer? Seems like years ago.)

In August, I snuck away for self-serving vacation through the Carolina country and mountains. It was awesome! I highly recommend taking the backroads throught the South Carolina upstate, and the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway. Maybe this year, I’ll take the trip during the fall foliage!

In Mid-August I attended my cousin Nikki’s wedding in Lake Tahoe, NV with my mom and dad. I also was lucky to spend time with them and Grace at the beach on Harbor Island.

Then in the fall I was off to Clemson homecoming with my brothers, Noah and Wesley. New York City for business. And this winter, we capped off the year with a trip of a lifetime to the Grand Canyon with all my brothers and my father.

It didn’t seem like a lot at the time. But looking back, I stayed pretty busy!

Here’s all the places I visited:

San Francisco, CA
Palo Alto, CA
San Diego, CA
Washington, DC
Birmingham, AL
Harbor Island, SC
Greenville, SC
Hendersonville, NC
Asheville, NC
Lake Tahoe, NV
Incline Village, NV
Clemson, SC
New York, NY
Las Vegas, NV
Grand Canyon, AZ

God bless,
Andy

You gotta weather the storms brought on by the lows, and appreciate the sunny weather of the highs when they come your way.

After a year of playing poker every week with my friend, Greg, tonight was finally the night that I busted out. I’ve become a pretty good card player at our regular game (50-70 people play a Texas Hold-em tourney in town). After going out in two hands the first time Greg and I played, I now regularly make the final table. And I often do well at the final table. I think I have finished 2nd six times. I was wondering when or if I’d ever win one of these things.

Tonight was the night! I won! Finally.

The turning moment was at the final table when I had a modest stack. Brian (the town ringer) raised my small blind of 2000 to 16000. I had A-2. I took a while to think. It was a tough decision. There were only 4 players remaining and I knew that if I called no one else would. I’d be head’s up with an ace in hand. I had enough chips to call to see the flop, but not enough left to bet significantly to bluff if I missed. An ace fell on the flop. Brian pushed all in. I called. He had pocket J’s. My aces held up, and that gave me a significant lead. I felt bad calling Brian’s raise and winning, but the odds were worth it. And if I lost, I feel I’m a good enough short stack player to still have a shot. Man, did it feel good to win!

I guess that makes up for both Clemson and the Carolina Panthers losing this weekend.

This is actually what it would be like if my buddy Yerg owned his own business. Actually, to be honest, this is how he acts now with his current employer. Ha!

Pickheads is a web site which manages collaborative sports predictions. “Intelligence of the Mobs” and “Collaboritve Inetlligence” have been a hot concept recently in the internet world. The concept behind group-smart-websites is that any one person can be wrong more often than the overall judgement of many. So, if you are having issues with making a decision, it’s best to get the opinion of many rather than relying on your own discretion.

This is how our stock markets work, this is how political polling and elections work, and with Pickheads, this is now how your sports predictions work.

From the site…

In the rapid production of internet content and expanding globalization, most of today’s public and shared documents are poorly written. RMP will proofread your websites, edit your press releases, review your business correspondence, edit your school papers, and fine tune your resume. Allow our team of experienced news editors to manually review each line of your work. RMP will review your documents for grammatical mistakes, common misspelled words, run on sentences, sentence fragments, and misused phrases. At RMP, we want you to produce writings which make sense, are easy to understand, and clearly communicates your message. You write it. We right it.

If you’re suspect of your own writing, give Greg and the professionals at ReadMyPaper.com a try.

So, as a defense mechanism I strapped on my headphones and blasted my MP3 player. A little POD, Switchfoot, Keane, and Staind was the perfect remedy. I quickly fell asleep in my attempt to tune out the world around me. I woke up to the rugrat next to me crawling between my legs. It was an hour and fifteen minutes later and we still had not left the gate. HUH?!? Needless to say, when I was supposed to be home by 8:30, I didn’t get in until 11:00.

But, when I awoke for the last 15 minutes of the flight this song was blaring in my headphones. The height of the volume allowed me to clearly hear the words for the first time. And I don’t know why, but these words made me think of my buddy, Jared. He’s been in a dating cycle for the last 5 years which he thinks he can’t get out of.

Maybe it was the unbelievable bad luck of flight delays and screaming and kicking babies… because this is EXACTLY the type of stuff that happens to Yerg. And specifically the crap he tends to write about on his blog. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that this song is for him.

So Kasey Kasem, would you please play Teddy Geiger’s “Love is a Marathon” for Jared. And let him know that bad luck doesn’t just happen to him. We’re all in the same boat, and it’s all going to be ok.

Jared, this song is for you… Love Monkey style!
[See post to listen to audio]

Here’s a photo of Dawn, her new husband Ian, and myself.

Now, it’s all of your turn to come visit me!

So, I arrived in San Diego, went to the car rental place to pick up my economy class vehicle. When I got there, they were all out of economy cars, so they had to upgrade me for free to a Dodge Magnum – nearly idenitical to the car that I own. Crazy! Sweet!

So, then I was off to meet Micheal. Michael’s a domain name guru. He and I are brainstorming on ways to monetize Realty.com and our other assets. The meeting was great. Lunch was good. But, taking in the Padres game at the end of the night was the best. Thanks for a great time Michael! Cheers!

Here’s the photos.

Lunch was fun. Will was on the phone with the wife for half of the time. Yerg filled us all in on the latest of his dating escapades. And we all just sat there trying to think of some good ways to work IT into the conversation for Seth. Then, when the bill came we spotted that Will owns a Old Navy credit card. How cute!

Thanks for the good time guys! We should do lunch more often.

Here’s the rest of the photos.

technorati tags:self destruction, krs-one, d-nice, kook mo dee, heavy-d, public enemy, doug e fresh, q-tip, mc lyte, just-ice

technorati tags:love, sucks, hurts, stings, rich

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Well, last night we attended a game which has a lot of great players. I would say there was about 50 or 60 players there. To make a long story short, I came in second place – which is awesome!! It’s so hard to make it to the last 10 players because everyone is pretty good in their own right. But, last night just was a good night for me. I played strong and smart.

I personally think I had a good chance of winning the entire thing. But, my opponent caught me on a small bluff. I pushed all in with just a pair of 6′s. He had a pair of J’s.

It was a good night. A lot of fun!