The Work Place

I figured most of you do not know what I do for work or who I work for. If I am your friend on Facebook you know that I am an accountant at a place called Passport Health Communications. And some of you know that it is in the health care industry, which next to entertainment, is the biggest industry in Nashville.

Well consider this an informative post about Passport Health. Here is the text from an "Elevator Speak" poster around work that explains what we do overall.

Passport sells products and services to help hospitals and other health
care providers get paid for their services more quickly and easily. We provide
important information about patients, such as insurance coverage and current
address and even collect payments from patients.

Specific points:
• Passport uses the Internet to transfer information between providers and insurance companies.
• For example, when you go to the hospital or a doctor, they might be
using Passport’s software to verify your current insurance coverage, determine
how much you owe and even to run your credit card for that amount.
• By increasing the speed and ease at which hospitals and other health care providers get information about their patients, we help them run their businesses more
efficiently.
• We work with more than 5,300 health care providers across the
U.S. – in all 50 states, in fact. Passport is one of the largest, most
successful companies in our field.

And within the health care aspect our company is more on the technological side of the health care industry. I am one of a many that is on our administration side of operations and help with accounting duties. And my actual job responsibilities are pretty broad from helping on month end close procedures to gathering information for sales people and clients.

I don't want to bore you with the mundane details of my pencil pushing job, but I did want to inform you all of who I work for. With the economy the way it is, Passport is set to have some success because of our market and our products that aim at making health provider's jobs easier in their overall process.

Well I love my job and the people I work with...so I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position I am in.

Whenever I type out a blog I tend to do it at a fast pace. I am sure you regular readers catch my typos all of the time. Trust me, I go back and read through them too and catch my mistakes and slap myself.

I tell myself every time I start an entry...'OK go back and read over the post before you hit Publish Post.' But yet every time I am done typing away at a furious rate I hit Publish Post and it's gone. It goes to the feeds right away. Sometimes I go right back in and edit a mistake or two I catch right off the bat. I need to utilize this dang spell checker more frequently...but alas it is also some to try and remember to go.

Just trying to make a point to inform people that I am educated and can type proper tenses and spell/type correctly. Even with some posts that could argue against that last statement of mine.

Beyond The Pale

"I do love the vegetarians, I always get a kick out of it when they try and
impress ya...'I haven't had meat in 5 years.'

I haven't had a banana in a month, you see me braggin' about it."

-Jim Gaffigan

I thought think that bit funny and relevent to the fact that I will now brag...
about me not having a coke/dr.pepper/coke zero/diet coke/diet dr. pepper in a week as of today! w00t!

However, I believe the lack of caffeine has been a result of my headaches most of last week. I did have a cranberry sweet tea from Sonic on Thursday and I am sipping on one right now. And I did have a sprite on Friday and Saturday. That was my confessional.


My good friend Michael called me yesterday to wish me an early birthday since he will be on vacation and out of touch for the next fews days and asked about running. Running? Yes...he remembered my goal from April of last year about me pledging to run at least the half-marathon on Nashville for the Country Music Marathon. During the months of Nov. and Dec. I ran about zero miles and now it is really cold outside to consider running. And I don't want to spend money on a gym/club membership. But I get out and ran this past Saturday, I think I did about 3.5 miles, and I also ran 2 weekends before this past Saturday. So I am still going to do that Half Marathon in April even if it kills me.

So Michael didn't open a can or worms for me...since I had already run some...but it was a good reminder too.

I think Amy is going to do it too...so we'll have to bite the bullet and get out in the near freezing weather to get out miles in.

I gonna go eat a banana now.

A Thousand Words

Saw this on Will Leitch's blog today...so I thought I would share too.

New Slang

So I am turning a page and making this blog more 'mine' than 'ours.'  And what I mean is that Amy has posted on the blog...about...once...ever.  ha!  I have tried to get her to post about her thoughts, musings, and things that I do which drive her crazy.  And no luck.  I taught her how to write up a post on her iPhone and email it to the blog and it would post.  No such luck.  (it's also why she does not have a facebook account or twitter...or any kind of web-based tool that a lot of people use today)  She's just not that into it. 

And in a sense I wish I could be more like ther.  I think the interwebs are a crutch for me...

oh well!

It is not like I won't ever mention Amy.  If I ever do stop mentioning Amy...make sure to check up on me b/c something will not be right with my world.  Yes, Amy and I do everything together and even if I forget to mention her from an event...she was more than likely there with me anyway.

So...I have a new design.  I wanted to go simple, plain, and to the point.  As of right now it is stripped to the bone but I have a few ideas of what I might want to include soon. 

We'll see how long that takes me. Does anybody else have trouble with paragraph breaks in Blogger in Draft? It is driving me crazy! Where is regular blogger? can I go back?

FNL S3

This Friday will be the network premiere of Friday Night Lights Season 3 on NBC.   Amy and I are DirecTv customers so we have actually seen all of Season 3 with the exception of the Season Finale which comes on tonight.

I'm pretty sure we have told of our love for this show but it is by far one of the best shows on TV...next to LOST.

Like I mentioned last week, I am a terrible writer and especially when it comes to reviews. I just tell you all whether we like something or not. There are 2 fellow bloggers who are better at explaining why the show is great and I completely agree with both of them. This is my favorite quote from David Kern's blog post...

Indeed, more than football, Friday Night Lights is a show about relationships, about being let down, letting others down, and surviving the accompanying disappointments; it’s about learning what it means to be a friend, a team mate, a spouse, a parent or a child. Its about dreaming and surviving and loving. Its about being passionate - its about being alive.

Just by reading that...who doesn't want to watch this show!!??!

Here are the links to these blogs that tell more in details why FNL is one of the best shows out there.
David Kern's post about FNL.
      --David's older post on a review of FNL after Season 1
Brett McCracken's thoughts on FNL.
     --Brett's older post also a review after Season 1 with reviews and acclaims

And like thoses guys, even though we have seen Season 3 of FNL on DirecTv already...we will still tune in to watch it from the beginning starting this Friday. Trust me, this season is just as good or even better than Season 1 (if you watch the show).


"Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose!"

Out of the Hood

Sunday afternoon Amy and I were able to go see Gran Torino with some friends of ours. After the movie, which was a great movie and I highly recommend it, we stood out in the parking lot and talked with them for a few minutes. After our conversation ended, Amy and I started walking to our parked car...and I don't remember what we were talking about exactly but it had something to do with me maybe doing something I shouldn't have. Next thing I know Amy blurts out "I will CUT you!"

It came out of nowhere and we both started laughing out loud right in the parking lot. The laughter escalated to a pain in my side and eyes full of tears that when I made it into the driver's seat of the car I could not drive. I'm pretty sure the other people in the parking lot though we were either going crazy or got plastered during the movie. Our laughter finally subsided but it took awhile...I think the randomness of Amy's quote is what made it soo funny.

I know everyone thinks that phrase isn't funny at all...and for those of you who know who she is quoting probably do think it funny that Amy, of all people, would quote Bon Qui Qui.

And now for those of you unfamiliar...here is Bon Qui Qui...


My mom, of all people, showed us this video on youtube while we were in Texas for the holidays. And maybe it hits more home to my family because we grew up in the hood that is Rosenberg/Richmond, TX. Heck our entire family is the hood.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed that crazy clip and if you didn't laugh...watch out Amy might cut you.

Goobledigook

So there are a lot of lists being made in the blogosphere about the year's best movies, book, and music.  I have no such list really compiled...and I didn't try to make one up this year because I don't think I am a good person to put reviews into words. 

I did read a few books this year and enjoyed all of them.  We watched a lot of movies and there are a lot that I enjoyed, the last blog entry had the 2 most recent movies we have seen. 

Music, is another story, I have tried to stop buying as much music.  I knew I had gone too far with my music buying when earlier this year when the new Coldplay album dropped, I had the calendar day marked.  I woke up that morning and said..."I'm getting the Coldplay album today!"  And the whole morning I looked forward to purcahsing it until my lunch break when I made a break for a local retailer with it in stock.  I didn't even double think about buying it...it was a given, without a doubt, that I was getting it.  Few days after that I thought to myself...that came too naturally.  Then I thought about why I don't have that ease to get things accomplished that are productive for my life.  So began the drought of buying music. 

I took this time to get some music recommendations from friends and listen to their likings and also spend a lot of time listening to all the music that is already in my collection.  So for the last few months I have had no real exposure to what is new out in the music world.  And now that people's Lists of 2008 are emerging...I have had a lot of time to listen to what people thought was the best throughout the year.  And I like a lot of it.

So much, that I bought 2 albums on Wednesday night at our local Target...and I was surprised to see that these were there because they usually only carry main stream/top 40 albums. 

I purchased this album listening to one track only off of NPR's list of the best of 2008.  I had also heard of a few people that really liked Sigur Ros and I took all of that info with bold and blind confidence.  (especially since the fellas on the album cover are in their birthday suits)

The biggest reason I took a risk is that Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland.  Meaning, the songs are not in English...and especially not Spanish...they are in Icelandic(?).  I believe this is their 4th full length album and now I own it. And I really like it!  The music is great yet it is a little weird not knowing what they are saying in their lyrics and me probably not ever being able to sing along.  I looked up the translated lyrics just to make sure I wasn't listening to something completely inappropriate..but the songs are more poetic than anything else.   The band does use a lot of strings, percussion, and guitars making it a good easy mellow listen. 
So if listening to music in another language is your thing, do check these fellas out. 

And the album that is showing up everywhere in the blogosphere that everyone their mothers loves is Fleet Foxes self-titled album.  I also purchased this album this week, after streaming it online for weeks now, and I am really diggin' it and can see why it is in the Top 10 of music for 2008. 

Fleet Foxes has a get mix of music that is very unique and well blended.  Give them a listen on Last.fm or MySpace or just listen to some samplings on the iTunes or Amazon online stores.

The other music that I look forward to still getting into more are:

Bon Iver

Blitzen Trapper

She&Him

Vampire Weekend

I know not everyone has the same taste in music that I do...so for sure take time to dive into these artists before going out and buying an album you won't like once you listen to it at home.  I don't want to be solely responsible for you being out some money on music that you do not like. 

If I ever do recommend Nickleback...please please please find me as soon as possible and commit me into the looney bin.  I am sure I would have gone crazy to ever recommend them.

January 6th, 2009 Update

Well I never blogged on our whole trip in Texas and our camera battery was never charged...so no new pics to be posted. 
All in all we had a splendid trip!  We did not stretch ourselves thin and tire ourselves out, so that was a huge plus.  The dogs did great in the car and were always anxious to get in and see where we would end up next. 

+ Amy was training in making tamales again at my parents house.  We all chipped in and did our part in one way or another since it is a long process that has an end result really deeeeelish.  We actually just finished off the remaining 2 dozen last night for dinner.  We had made a total of 10 dozen and gave most of them away to Amy's family.

+ January 3rd was our 5th year wedding anniversary!  We had planned on just relaxing and spending time alone and not rush anything.  I ended up going running with some friends and then our date day begun.  We went to see a movie then had a feast of a dinner at J Alexander's.  I can honeslty say it was the first time that I had eaten so much I was sickly miserable.  I even asked Amy if I looked huge because I felt like my stomach was about to punch its way out of my torso.  We realize now that an anniversary so close after the holidays is kind of anti-climatic, especially since we live out of state from our family, because we always just return from the holidays and our anniversary gets left overs.  However, we are going skiing this year and we are spending a few extra days there by ourselves.  Lake Tahoe is our destination! 

+ Holiday Movies.  We got to go see 3 different movies over the break and we recommend them all.  Slumdog Millionaire was by far our favorite.  I had read about it and knew it had gotten great reviews so we really wanted to see it and when the theater in Sugarland picked it up the weekend before we got to the Houston area, we made it a huge point to go see it since it is in limited theaters.  It did not disapoint and I choose it to be my favorite movie for 2008, hands down.  It is also based off of the book named Q&A if you want to check that out. 
Marley and Me was a great holiday/family movie.  If you are a dog owner you can relate to most of the movie conerning the dog issues and it's funny to watch most dog behavior problems happen to others in the movie.  It also promotes great family values and unity.  2 thumbs up from us.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the movie we saw this weekend on our anniversary day.  This was more of a curious pick for us to watch and we really enjoyed it a lot.  It's a great movie with great shots, fantastic make-up, and an interesting story line.  If you're also curious, it will be a great flick to go check out. 

+ Well we have no big news or anything huge coming up.  We are pretty darn boring.  Are you still reading?  You might be our only reader.  Thanks for sticking around.  We appreciate it.