BillyStyle

So I was just thinking about something that completely blew my mind. You know those tests most people take at some point in their schooling that supposedly reveal your ideal jobs or career based on your interests and such? Well, I had one of those when I was either a freshman or sophomore in high school. I remember thinking it was one of the most ridiculous things I had been required to do, since I already knew that my ideal job was doing nothing, but getting money anyway.

Anyway, I filled it out honestly, and the software returned one option: coach. I just laughed it off at the time, thinking of a team coach, like basketball. I hate coaching team sports, so I dismissed it and went on with my life. Now, double the years in my life from that point and what do you know…I’m a wakeboard coach and it’s my dream job! Go figure.

Being in the Bible Belt, I’ve noticed some minor changes in what occurs at church, so I took my video camera along with me.

Whenever I hear someone say “Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start” I feel sorry for them. Mostly though, I laugh because I know they had no friends when they were trying to beat Contra or Life Force or any other Konami game back in the day.

The way I’ve got it in my head is:

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start

Don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s a shame.

So today something happened that hasn’t happened to me before. I saw some friends (well, due to circumstances, more acquaintances, but I could see us as good friends if the chance was there) at the local grocery store who are readers of this here blog. It was funny.

I don’t know if they (the Niederhausers) felt the same awkwardness that I felt at first, but it was pretty good stuff. The blog took care of the initial small talk that usually occurs when people see each other for the first time in a good while. It didn’t help that my mind locks up whenever I see them because both of their names are androgynous (Kelly and Casey), and that’s too much for my brain to handle. It always takes me a minute to remember which K-sounding name belongs to whom. So sorry, if you guys are reading this, but that’s why I was so stupid there at first!

So after a bit of good awkwardness and an awesome why-did-I-ask-that question, normality ensued. My question was “Is that your girl?” I was referring to their daughter, who was in Casey’s arms at the time. Yeah, I’m sure they go around kidnapping at the local grocery store.

It was cool though, the rest of the conversation picked up like we’d been hanging out, keeping current on things. They asked about Florida and stuff like that. I mentioned Casey’s pictures, since he’s a man of images, not words, at least online.

Anyway, I found that it was kind of a weird thing that wouldn’t have happened if I had no blog. With all that said, I think you guys, Kelly and Casey, need to get a blog going so I can ask more up-to-date questions during our next random encounter!

I’m a reader of Darren Rowse’s blog about blogging: ProBlogger.net. This week is the three year birthday of the blog. Due to that, he’s putting up a big old prize giveaway thing to make sponsors happy and readers happy and so on and so forth.

There are some pretty sweet prizes up for grabs, each with their own way to enter as a possible winner. The one I’m most interested in is these two 20″ LCD USB monitors. Sounds pretty neato, and I could use a lot of monitor here. The requirement to enter in this one is to post about the Birthday Bash Giveaway and link to it, so that’s why I’m throwing this post up.

I’ve been lucky before in these types of contests, so hey, why not go for it? I think the last super good thing I won from a contest (that I didn’t even know I entered, it was at a wakeboard comp where I was a rider) was a 350 lb fat sack for the boat. That was awesome. I still use it today and I think I won the thing around seven years ago.

If you’ve got a blog, you can enter to win those monitors too by doing what I’m doing here, neat huh?

On September 13 this year, my friend Tomp posted on his blog about a little challenge. It started out as being able to do 200 push ups in an hour. Tomp tried it out and stopped after he hit 101 in 25 minutes. He challenged anyone to beat that with the reward of a free dinner.

So I decided I wanted a free dinner! I was sick at the time, so I started doing push ups 2 days later on the 15th. Well, about an hour ago I finished 265 push ups in one hour. That seals the deal. We’ve already agreed to a free lunch at Don José. So, I’m off to get some good free grub on with the biggest man boobs I’ve ever had!

I had to mail something to a friend today, and for some reason I got the wise idea of throwing the whole ZIP+4® code on there. It’s easy these days with the INTERNET to find the full ZIP+4® (yes, apparently it is a registered trademark, which is awesome) as they call it, so I did. Curious as to what the USPS has to say about it, I looked it up and found that:

Using the correct ZIP+4® code reduces the number of handlings and significantly decreases the potential for error and possibility of misdelivery.

I also found what each part of the ZIP+4® code means:

The nine digits of a ZIP+4® code (e.g., 12345-6789) may be grouped as follows: [123] [45] – [67] [89 ]

• [123] : Sectional Center or Large City
• [45] : Post Office facility or Delivery Area
• – : The required “dash” or “hyphen” separates the first five digits from the last four digits; the +4
• [67] : Sector or Several Blocks
• [89] : Segment or One Side of a Street

So there you have that. Here is the full article on the meaning of a Zip Code, including what the acronym, ZIP, stands for!