So alot has changed for me since my last post in March. I'm unemployed going on 2 full months now. The quote above from a Pharrell song describes how I feel. For years I wished I had a 2 month vacation. I feel like I'm a junior in high school again, since that was the last summer where I didn't have anything to do. I'm not sure what I did back then without the internet and a PS3. So I've moved to a town called Omaha. I kinda followed my girlfriend. I always thought that nobody should ever do that in college, but I guess things change when your 27 & 11/12ths and unemployed. I should be glad I have somebody to follow, and I am. I couldn't have found somebody more supportive.

I'm not sure how my parents are handeling all this. I talked to my mom for the first time since Monday, yeah this Monday, 2 days ago, and she acts like she hadn't talked to me for months. She was telling me stories, that I just heard last week. Oh and my dad, not only is he taking this the hardest, he ruptured his patellar tendon moving me and has had to miss the most work he's missed in 10 years. Now he's scared to death that he'll have to go into surgery which would force him to miss the biggest golf tournament of his career. We are planning on golfing in a 4 person, best-ball, bucket tournament at Westwood on 10/7. Which is also his birthday. So it's been rough couple weeks for him. We got to the point where we were playing golf atleast once a week and now I haven't played for 3 or 4 weeks.

So back to how this all started. I moved to Omaha, I'm staying with Amy's mom, jobless, and frustrated out of my mind. I had to/chose to leave my coaching jobs, which was hardest of all, especially soccer. All of my college football buddies would and do make fun of me about it, but I loved getting to know all the girls and then to coach them and give them memories that hopefully will last the rest of their lives. I know I have high school soccer memories. But I have so many more from coaching. It's hard to believe that I "influenced" about 250 soccer players, I guess that's not counting retention of players from year to year, but still five years is a big chunk of our lives. And toughest thing is, no matter when you leave a program like that, there are atleast 3 years of players that were planning on playing for you as long as they played. And probably a few more that are glad I'm gone, but I don't like to think about that. So I'm dying to get back into coaching and being around sports and young people. Hopefully I can get back into it here, but it's not going to be the same, so it'll take some getting used to. I left a great group of girls, sorry if any of you ever read this.

This network of people that I have built of from growing up in Newton and have built in the DesMoines area has been massly depleted now that I'm in Omaha. (I'm not even sure if that's proper english.) The hundreds of people I have coached, worked with and associated with for years is down to about 10 people in the Omaha area and I couldn't agree more that getting a job is based on networking. Since I had about 4 on the table before I left not counting the additional 2 I left.

The positives are I can't wait to meet new people and I'm dying to show them how great of a person I am (or atleast I think I am). I can't wait to get a job and show everybody else why they should have hired me. Then to eventually start a family and finally grow up. Now I'm rambling, but my parents were married when they were 7 years younger than me and my dad was exactly my age when I was born.

So I've gone in so many different directions I don't know how to close, but I'll try. Stay close with your family, be adaptive to change, enjoy everything you have, but never be content. I love you Mom, Dad, Jessica and Amy. You mean the world to me. Though it's hard and I know it's true, I have to keep tellin myself I'm livin the goodlife.

Today just wasn't my day. I play pitch everyday at lunch with a bunch of buddies I work with. I just started playing maybe a month or two ago, but have had some of my best memories I'll take with me from Maytag. This place is full of good people, but nothing brings out the personalities of your friends then competing against them in something like cards everyday. I enjoy playing cards anyways. I have some great memories from when I started playing pitch with the boys on the way to HS baseball games. We played everything from 4 to 7 to 10 point. I had some long expensive nights playing poker in the dorms with the older guys my freshman year of college. One of my best friends came from that group of guys. When we first started working at Maytag we had a weekly poker night where we played Texas Hold'em and traded money with each other. Most recently I taught my girlfriend and a couple we hang out with the game of Eucre. Another classic that I picked up from college baseball. My main point of this is, how fun it can be playing cards with your friends. It gives me the chance to be competitive and have fun doing it. It is also one of those things that comes easy to me. I enjoy numbers and odds, and trying to use them to my advantage. I think I got that from my dad. He was the one that always helped me with my math homework when I was growing up. He also plays cards every Wednesday with his friends. I tried to play with them one night and realized pretty quickly that I wasn't up to par on their games, but also that my dad was pretty good.

I also enjoy gambling on cards at the casino. I'm a huge fan of blackjack. I've figured out a way to make the odds a little closer to even. This doesn't mean that I always win, but I enjoy having a big day every now and then, when my girlfriend allows me to go. I'm a $150 win streak for the last 2 times I've gone. I can't remember 3 times ago, but I probably lost. I've competed in one Texas Hold'em tournament that had a $50 buy in. I ended up getting 6th and winning ~$300. I think it was begginners luck, because I don't usually have that much luck playing hold'em at the casino.

I also enjoy card tricks. I've picked up a few tricks from my dad that always awe a crowd. I'm always trying to pick up more though.

So I'm about the most pumped I've been for a volleyball game. The Simpson Volleyball team is playing Maryville (TN) @ Wash U in the STL (wow, a lot of abbrv.). They won both the regular season conference and the conference tournament. Which I have to make sure I note they FTD twice. Swept them both times. I was there for both of them it was awesome!! I'm trying to figure out if there is going to be a webcast for the game. I wish I could've gone, but it didn't work out with my jobs. So hopefully they win the region, then maybe they'll get to host something down the road. I also wanted to mention that I was reading the press release on their website and their coach said a couple things that I wouldn't necessarily want posted on the web. Tell me if you would want your name next this statement... "I joked about playing big corn-fed girls from the Midwest and — and they really are good-sized girls out there — but the other coaches laughed...". I'll be honest with you, I've seen these girls and they may be tall but I wouldn't go as far to say they are "big corn-fed girls".

While we're on the subject of volleyball, my sister finished her first season as a head coach for the Eagle Grove (IA) Eagles Volleyball team. They didn't quite qualify for the National Tournament, but they had a good season. I'm really proud of my sister and what she's done as a coach and person. It can be hard to walk into that situation, but she tackled it the best way possible. So best of luck to her, maybe some of the Eagles will be playing for the Storm in the future.

Back to Simpson women's athletics. The women's soccer team won conference this year and had a player named MVP of the IIAC. The coach also got coach of the year.

So I'm looking forward to a good year in women's athletics at Simpson.

I've already explained some of the personal meaning this number has to me, but I also wanted to throw out some facts about the number. Including all the great athletes that have worn it.

There are a ton of interesting facts here, but I just wanted to pick out a few. Diecinueve is the 8th smallest prime number. XIX is also the atomic number of potassium. I just read that the New General Catalogue object NGC19 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. Interesting enough, my initials are NGC. I'm going to have to look into this a little more sometime.

Among the great athletes to wear this number are Tony Gwynn, Robin Yount, Bob Feller, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Lance Alworth, Bernie Kosar, Willis Reed (NBA), Lenny Wilkens(NBA), Don Nelson (NBA). And more recently Keyshawn Johnson, Michael Bush (Louisville Runningback), Lionel Messi (international soccer player-Barcelona & Argentina). Some of my personal favorites are Juan Gonzalez and Robin Ventura.

Just incase you didn't figure it out the number was 19.

I'm sure everyone has atleast heard of these to web giants right now. The debate comes to whether or not these sites give information out too freely or if they are a gateway for "bad things" to happen with younger users. I have accounts with both and would be confident in saying that you are in control of how much info is out there. Both sites do a good job of regulating thinks to a certain point so that you don't accidently put information that you don't want seen. Many people complain about the new features that FaceBook added which provide updates to friends on what is going on with your profile. Each of these features can be limited or disabled, so it's kind of silly for someone to complain. This is one of the features that I think makes FaceBook better than MySpace. I'm also partial to the way that it networks your friends and makes searching a little easier, among other things.

I really have enjoyed both sites for the fact that I have been able to keep in touch with high school friends that I haven't talked to in 10 years. This is by far the biggest reason that everyone should join. I would have to say that the quizes get a little old, but the customizations of the site can show your creative side. Feel free to add me and mention that you read about it from my blog. The links are off to the right.

So what other sites like this are out there? I've recently joined TagWorld, it is very similar, but near as popular yet. If you're interested in soccer at all, Nike & Google have put together a pretty nice soccer version called Joga. The one that I have most recently looked into is WAYN. This site uses your geographical location and the trips you are making to associate people together. Kind of an interesting idea, when people travel and move so much. Lastly is LinkedIn. This is a site for networking from the business side. Where employees can find other employees they work with to use for references and information on other jobs or companies. Again I haven't dug to deep yet, but I'm sure I will be here in a month or two when I get into the job hunt a little more.

So why didn't somebody think of this years ago. I mean chat rooms have been popular forever. I wish I was Mr. MySpace right now. Someday I'm going stumble across, the thing that makes my millions.