I really love this video as a reminder of how many great men and women before us have served our country. During the discourse of the political process, it’s always important to keep in context to the greater cause of people before us that have served. I love the United States and I’m proud to be an American.

This weekend was a whirlwind. Early saturday morning we drove to American Adventures park for my oldest son’s seventh birthday party with some of his friends — lot’s of rides, pizza, a magic show and foam balls getting thrown all over the place. We packed up by 1:30 p.m. to rush back home to pick up our rental car (yea, another story, my car was still in the shop and wasn’t finished from maintenance in time) to head to Nolan’s wedding. Yea, that’s right – Nolan Wright got married on Saturday. One of our friends asked him a week ago: “Do you know who she is?” Nolan promptly stated that “in my tradition, you don’t meet the bride until the day of the wedding.” Good comeback. And apropos for his humor.

We jumped in the car around 2:30 p.m. to try and make it to Easley, S.C. (just outside of Greenville) for a 6:30 p.m. wedding. No problem – 2 hour drive to Greenville with a quick stop at the hotel for a change of clothes and “we should be fine”. Of course, then again, not so according to Memorial Day traffic. As soon as we got on the other side of HWY 20 headed on I-85N – we got into a long, very long, line of traffic heading north. After about an hour and 3 miles later – we finally passed the problem — a jackknifed tractor trailer. After that, smooth sailing … and the best part, my wife really enjoyed the Hertz NeverLost GPS system the whole way there. Amazing what amuses you when you’re stuck in traffic on an interstate.

So, we checked into the hotel and proceeded to get ready – only 45 minutes until the wedding. My wife put on her new dress – which she had specially alerted to fix a zipper problem just before the trip — and I put on my suit (oh, backstory, I had intended to wear my *new suit* but my wife “misplaced the pants”). So, we’re standing there getting ready — my pants for my older suit I haven’t worn in a few years and I could tell. They barely would zip up — I guess they shrank. And my wife — well, her dress zipper wasn’t fixed like they had claimed. Luckily, she had a backup dress (smart girl) and I had to suck in my gut big time. So, now, we’re less than 30 minutes before t-time. We’re speeding through S.C. to a backwoods farm in Easley to make the wedding … you can’t really be late to a wedding.

We made it just in the nick of time – five minutes to spare. When we arrived, there were a ton of men and women in black tuxes — in the parking lot — directing people and traffic. My initial thought was secret service. I was now wondering “who in the heck is attending this party? Nolan’s a nobody like me!” Then, I noticed the local sherrif’s cars assisting with traffic. OK, now picture this: Easley isn’t midtown Atlanta, it’s the country, ya’ll. I kept wondering if this is where Grayson grew up. This was way back down winding roads and cow pastures to get to this farm. And, it’s a real farm (well, more or less a wonderful garden). What I quickly realized that this was just a big deal wedding back “in these parts”. And the parents of the bride (it was their farm) are well-known local doctors – both pediatricians to be exact. And, this was their one and only daughter – a wedding in the making for over 30 years. And, that’s cause for this type of celebration – especially in these parts of of the deep south.

We parked our car (at the direction of a tall man in a black tux) and jumped out of the car and into a nice golf cart – nicely driven by a man and a women both in formal wear with walkie talkies. They shuttled us up to the front of the house and we arrived at the ceremonial grounds. And it was ceremonial — it was probably the nicest outdoor weddings (expect my own, which was on the beach in Ponte Vedra, FL but that’s another story) I’ve ever been to. It was like a magazine wedding. They had a 5-piece orchestra playing under a hand made wooden structure that was beautifully decorated with flowers. And, the wedding arch was also a hand made wooden trellis that was decorated with beautiful flowers and a hand-made old wooden cross. All the guests – probably 150 at least – were all seated in nice white chairs and the guests were served with lemonade or water just before the ceremony started – Southern style.

The ceremony was long – and very traditional. The ceremony lasted a staggering hour — but it was fine – and the weather was perfect. We only had a couple of roosters crow and a peacock or two join in the chorus. But funny enough, each was at a time that almost seemed rehearsed.

After the ceremony, we were escorted to an incredible garden with big white tents and an incredible dinner buffet – and again, a full band and 2 separate full bars. My wife and I estimated that at least 50 people were working the wedding. The food was amazing — not your typical wedding foo-foo food. This was real food this Georgia boy likes – BBQ, ham biscuits, watermelon and chicken. Although, it was interesting eating ham biscuits in such an incredibly decorated and upscale place. My wife kept repeating to me all night: “I could live here”, “I could go for this place”, “I could see myself living here”, “I really love this place”, “I wonder if we could find a place like this?”. Hint hint I guess.

The funniest part of the wedding was the band playing (and singing) “play that funky music white boy“. It was so appropriate in a weird way. The older white guys were playing it as if they had gotten lost in their surroundings – and they did a bang up job, given…

So now, Nolan and Susanna are off to Italy for a couple of weeks — happily married. And, we wish them the best of luck.

technorati tags: wedding, southcarolina, sc, easely

The Eleven50 club re-opening in May after a multi-million dollar renovation. The new club name is very reminiscent of what it what it was: Opera. I’m very impressed with what they’re doing with the club as I’ve been talking with them about hosting HackAtlanta there. It’s going to be amazing when they re-open.

Looks like they’re hiring… Maybe marcf should apply?

technorati tags: atlanta, georgia, eleven50, club

After several hours and tweaking — and many many months overdue — I have finally upgraded to the latest Wordpress 2.1 and the Cutline theme. I really like the clean look of the new theme and it’s simplicity.

I’m also featuring 3 photos that my wife, Ginny, has taken over the past several months of our 3 kids – Jared, Jack and Jenna (they randomly rotate in the header above). Ginny got into professional photography after a few years of being an avid hobbyist and her business, PB&J Photography, is doing very well. If you’d like to see some of her public work, you can also visit some of her work at our Flickr site. This photo is a recent one that she took at Wills Park in Alpharetta, GA:

Jenna is looking for “her horseys”.

I’m following the latest voice industry trend and leaving the company I recently co-founded to join Google. I’ll be working on a super-secret product that was just announced called Google TiSP. In traditional Google style, I can’t really say what I’ll be doing except that I will be moving to China and working out of the Google office there.

From what I know now, it will be related to GFlush™. I’m very excited, except that I’m a little worried about moving to China and not sure if the success of the product will be long-term. In any regards, I can’t wait to get my hands dirty in this product.

By the way, if you believe any of this crap (literally) well – maybe you should go work for Google, too. Cheers!

My wife got interviewed recently about her blog, Living Cheap in Alpharetta. It’s got a nice following around our little suburban garden of eden.

True to form, she’s a savvy shopper and the article has some nice quotes that fit well with her personality:

Paris may look down on these cyber-misers, but they think pinching pennies is hot.

Yes, she’s almost obsessed – more about getting a “deal” than about saving money. Although, it has a nice side benefit.

Of course, I’m convinced most men just aren’t wired that way. I’m not really into buying that Christmas tree two days after Christmas for next year because it’s half price. I just can’t think that far in advance – and, I just don’t have that kind of patience.

How about you?

technorati tags: alpharetta, georgia, cheap, bargain, deals

Thanks, Lance, here’s my 5 things about me you might not know:

1. My step-father is a motivational speaker, author and marketing consultant.
2. I met my wife online (it’s been 8 years now) while I lived in Jacksonville, Florida.
3. I’m a born again Christian and attend Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.
4. I was in the U.S. Navy and worked on an aircraft carrier during the first Iraq war.
5. I started a college weekly newspaper, College Weekly (previously, Greek Weekly), while at Southern Illinois University.

And now, I’m passing this along to a few of my fellow ex-Vocalocity teammates:

• Coty Rosenblath
• Hamed Hashemi
• Tejus Parikh
• Amro Mousa

Cheers!

OK, I’ve had enough. I can’t stand the Christmas paraphernalia this far after the new year. C’mon, it’s been a darn week and half since the jolly ‘ole elf visited us. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for Christmas. I love the season. I love the decorations, the garland, the lights. I love the wrapped presents under the tree and the star on top. I can’t stand it one day after the new year.

See, I grew up in the South. I’m not really sure how it works in other places. Heck, maybe even in some parts of the South they’re fine with leaving their gear up into the new year. In my circle of trust, you took it down. You better get that stuff down this week and get the house cleaned. We had it down the day after Christmas. We made the first trip to the dumpster that night. We took down the tree, packed it back up in the boxes – tried to figure out how to get all the ornaments back in their little boxes and under the house until the following year. We spent the week before the new year playing with our new toys, riding our bikes – dreading the day we had to go back to school and envying our friends’ toys. We were told it was bad luck to have your stuff up on the 1st. Period. You better have it all down, the house cleaned up and ready to eat your black-eyed peas and your collard greens so you could have good luck for the upcoming year. But you better not have your Christmas stuff still up. That was worse than white after Labor Day (of course, unless you lived in Florida).

I’m driving into the neighborhood tonight – yes, there are trees up, lights, the stupid inflatable Santa in the yard, and people still have their Christmas trees up in their houses — and worse, the lights are on. Yes, I said they’re on. You would think they just left their houses after Christmas – and just haven’t gotten home yet. But, no, they’re still there. They’re in their little houses – maybe still drinking their age old egg nog and singing carols – I’m not so sure – but they’ve got their Christmas stuff up still. The guy across the street – he still has his red, green and blue (yes, blue) lights twisted around the trees in his front-yard. Several of them. Not just one or two. But, like, five.

OK, I’m fine with starting Christmas a little earlier. I can understand why the malls and stores all start it earlier – given that I’m a capitalist. I understand Christmas is the big end of the year money maker. And, the earlier you get people in to the mindset and ready to buy, the better. I finally got over the drive home from Thanksgiving to see all the Christmas stuff up — and finally even gotten over all the people Christmas shopping during Thanksgiving. I can understand that – it’s about money. But the Christmas stuff at your house after new years? What’s up with that? There is no incentive for it. There is no explanation for it. The new year has started – we’re pretty much all back to work (except Mike Dickerson, who is always skiing in Big Sky this week – you suck) and over the season. We’re all trying to start to live up to our new year’s resolutions – and mostly already failing – but we’re all trying to get over it. I was ready to get back to work the day after Christmas on my long drive back from West Virginia. I was ready to just skip the New Years event altogether. Oh, this year, we even forgot to watch the ball drop while we were watching Superman Returns on Pay Per View — but that’s OK – we just rewound the TiVo and watched it again. Heck, it really didn’t seem much different. But I digress.

OK, if you must leave up your holiday gear through the new year – at least turn the lights off. At least acknowledge that you’re too lazy to pull it all down – and just let the rest of us get on with life. Please don’t leave the lights on – please take down the stupid looking fake snow globe that sits proudly in your yard that we all laugh at when we drive by. I’m just sick of it already. I want to get on with my new year and I’d like to enjoy trying to do things I committed to doing that I’m already behind on.

And, oh yeah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Boy, it’s almost Christmas and it’s come fast again this year. With the season and end of the year comes many external stresses and pressure, especially when you have kids and a large extended family. For all those who suffer through the end of the year, yearning for a real vacation, I received this very funny email today. No doubt, it’s a typical Internet email that’s probably old and passed around a lot by now. But, hey, it’s pretty humorous and I thought I’d share it. It sure made my day a little bit less stressful. Here it is:

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, “The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.”

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey’s Irish cream, a bottle of Kahula, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos and a box of chocolates.

You have no idea how freaking good I feel. Please pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace

Tonight I upgraded my blog to the latest Wordpress – something I’ve been intending to do for over 4 months now. I love the new admin interface and all the latest plugins.