some interesting tidbits....

I thought I had already posted my interesting facts about the new city that I'm selling in, but somehow forgot to mention them.....

The city I'm currently selling in is Gary, Indiana:

Last year, Gary had the highest per capita murder rate in the United States.
9 out of 10 crimes in Gary are violent crimes
Gary's local murders are 8.75 times the national average

Please feel free to research this further at:
http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Gary&state=IN

Wow I love going to work each day :)

Downtown...

Hi guys, so this afternoon (after church of course...) i went into downtown chicago with some friends. It's a lot of fun, there's a lot to see and do, but today we just kinda bummed around the town. We went to the apple store, mostly because I can't resist checking out all the new gadgets, and then after we ate at a pizza place called Giordano's. It was the best pizza I've ever had!!! It started raining pretty hard, so we kinda called it a day earlier than usual. Here are some pictures of me and some of the guys in my team at Giordanos, me at Chicago River and some randome pictures of the town. much love~

interesting tidbit....

So I was reflecting on my first week of time out here in Chicago......and I realized an interesting truth.....

The hoods that we're selling in are populated by about ~90% blacks, the other 10% is a variety of ethnicities. The interesting thing is, my assumption would be that the blacks would be sort of racist towards me, since I'm the minority there. This however was not the case at all...all of the black individuals I've met (for the most part) have been super nice!!! It's the white guys doors that I've knocked on that are just EXTREMELY rude! Kinda blew my mind how rude they were actually.

Another funny thing...(cough).....was one night we were getting in a little bit later than usual, and one of the guys I sell with was at the gas station waiting to be picked up. A cop came up to him, asked him what he was doing and wanted to make sure that he had a ride out of there, before it got too dark. Safe neighborhoods i guess :-)

Well, I love you all, I'm hoping to go into chicago next weekend, and if i do will post some pics. Love you all.
~dave

The Windy City...

Hi everyone! I've spent the last 3 days driving across the country...The first day (Monday) I drove through Arizona and New Mexico (which is not that pretty of a state - it's rather like an ugly version of Arizona). On Tuesday I continued on driving through Colorado and Nebraska, both of which were green and beautiful. Monday night though I was watching the news and noticing the weather forcast for Colorado, which I was going to be driving through the following day...and as I'm listening I realize they're talking about how there is a Tornado watch out in Southern Colorado, and that the tornado sirens had been going off.....and i'm thinking.....oh great, what a wonderful start to a road trip!! Anyway, the tornado moved east into kansas, much to their dismay i'm sure, but my advantage! Day 3 I drove through Iowa and Illinois to where I am now. I'm staying in Westmont Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago! The apartments are nice, pretty big. There are 3 of us that stay in the 3-bedroom apartment....although I haven't met my roomates yet, so i'll let you all know how that goes. The one thing, is that it's pretty chilly here and very windy. I think it's about 54 degrees right now with the wind factor cooling it off even more. needless to say i went to wal-mart to buy some groceries and dishes and what not, and I picked up an extra blanket as well. Anyway, tomorrow will be my first day selling, so I'll let you all know how that goes.
much love~dave

28th Birthday celebration :-)

The second celebration was my birthday of course!!! 28 years, man how the time flies, it feels like just yesterday that......um......that I was doing something that signifies a younger time of my life :)

Anyway, last Sunday was Savannah Decker's blessing and afterward we got together and celebrated my birthday. Call me ol' fashioned, but it just doesn't get any better than a backyard bar b que! It was a wonderful birthday with family and friends and hotdogs! There were even two new additions, Savannah Decker and Soldier Hyatt (the lil puppy in the pics) --no, I'm not engaged, but the puppy is just as cute as a future wife right? Anyway, coulndn't have asked for a better birthday, unless somehow you all could have been there!

Goodbye bash & 28th b-day party Pics

Hi Guys, I celebrated two things this past week; The first was my goodbye party with some of my friends at work. I had my last day at the hospital last Tuesday, so we went to Macayos and I had a great time. It was really sad to leave, as it always is; Between my volunteer & full-time work, I've been at Banner Children's for just over 4 years!!! It's amazing how fast time flies, but I feel lucky to have been able to meet such amazing people and make many lifelong friends. Below are some pictures...

Another new update...

Wow...2 posts in a week....I'm breaking new ground here.
Anyway, I decided to take a summer sales job in Chicago in hopes of only only needing to work part-time the following school year, so on May 14th I'm heading to Chicago to try my luck. I'll be selling home security systems through Pinnacle Security (I can probably get ya a good deal if anyone wants...let me know).

I was sad to leave the hospital b/c i love it and the people there, but i am also excited to hit up Chi town.

Featured Band...

I haven't been extremely consistent with posts, and I apologize for that; however I have a new artist that I found on itunes and she has an absolutely beautiful voice. Take a listen, and let me know what you think.
I cannot take claim to this video, it's better than anything I could do, so why not use hers :)

cruisin in style...

So I recently bought a skateboard...it's pretty pimp if i might say so myself. It's a barefoot longboard, and is made of bamboo. I really love it, but i can't tell you too much more than that because I really don't know a lot about skating myself. I do know that skating is one of those things that looks A LOT easier than it actually is. Turns out there's a bit of skill that goes into it, actually quite a bit of skill. The first night I got it, I skated over to Grandmother & Grandfather's house to try it out and show them my new board. I would estimate it's about 3/4ths of a mile (roughly a 7 min ride via skate board or rollerblades)...it took me about 20 minutes to get there!! I did get there without falling off...too much at least. Needless to say, it's a skill which I have yet to aquire, but when I do, I'm going to take it to ASU with me and cruise around campus in style!

So last sunday i took julia & analise out to try out the new board. here are a few of the pictures, as you can see they're both quite natural at it. Analise jumped on without hesitation, and well, pretty much showed me up.....notice that I'm not actually rolling in the picture, just standing!

Featured Band - Scary Kids Scaring Kids

i've decided to feature a band i came across. ironic thing is my band (gitch) used to play shows locally and we played several times with this band called scary kids scaring kids. i always enjoyed their music, but my favorite part was how they used to bus all their equipment around...no literally BUS. They would load all their equipment up in a 'short bus'...the big yellow kind. i haven't seen em in years, but the other day i was surfing itunes and came across their cd and had to buy it. i really like it, it's a bit 'screamy' if you will, and i realize not everyone enjoys that, but give it a listen.

Band name: Scary Kids Scaring Kids
song title: The City Sleeps in Flames

An Important Life Lesson...

So I was reading this joke the other day, and I just thought that deep within it, it has a good message that just rings true...I wanted to share it with everyone. Read below:


A Wal-Mart store that sells husbands has just opened in Dallas, TX, where a woman may go to choose a husband from among many men. Among the instructions at the entrance, is a description of how the store operates. There are only 6 floors. It states that the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch...

As you open the door to any floor you may choose any man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building. So a woman goes to the Wal-Mart Husband Store to find a husband...

On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1 - These men have jobs.
The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids.
The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love kids, and are extremely good looking.

"Wow", she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. She goes to the fourth floor sign and the sign reads: Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead good looking and help with the housework. "Oh, mercy me!" she exclains, "I can hardly stand it!" Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads: Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a romantic streak. She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and reads the sign:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 3,456, 012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart's Husband Store.

I'll let you decide what the moral to this story is.

Pledge of Allegiance

"The Pledge of Allegiance" - by Senator John McCain. As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war d uring the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.

This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama.He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.

As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing.
Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.

That evening they returned, opened the doo r of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could.

The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room.

As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag. He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.

So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world.
You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

this is hilarious!!!

You might need to plug your ears for part of this video, but this is a classic tale of true friendship!!! Enjoy!

Happy BC Day!!!!

I thought it would be appropriate to wish everyone a happy Burning Crusades Day!!! For those of you who are not up on the World of Warcraft....please do...because today is a special day! Today is the official release of the Burning Crusades (an expansion to World of Warcraft!!! This brings much change and excitement to the world of warcraft including a new race called the blood elves. She's hot huh? Anyway, basicallly...that's me! My new character's journey begins now...well....actually tomorrow, cause i have school and work. Happy Questing to all!

You gotta watch this...this is awesome!

So I showed this video to my organic chemistry lab teacher and tried to explain the relevance of why we should do this experiment in our lab next week, but she wasn't getting it??? I mean...it shows the reactivities of different chemicals right??? she didn't but it... Anyway, I'm figured we could take a short break from mulletudes to see this....hope you enjoy! ...and don't worry for all you mullet lovers out there, they'll be back wed =)

Mulletudes Week 2!!

I know you're all excited, but i can't just stop mid-way....i've got several more great mullets to show ya, so here goes....

Mulletudes Day 3....

On this blessed mullet-day we have two excellent yet, creepy mullets...wow....could it get any better than this? I dare to say that it cannot!

Mulletudes Day 2....

Okay guys, here's mullet #2....and oh are there more to come

Part 1 of a series of "Mulletudes"

Hello everyone...today is part one in what I like to call my "Mulletudes." In the following several days I will be sharing a basic history of the mullet which should be quite informative & yet amusing at the same time. The print is small, so get a magnifying glass if you must because it is definitely worth reading....

I hope you all enjoy =)

ya or nay???

Okay...so I need everyone's help...this Halloween I began a goatee, mostly for fun. but people seem to like it...what do y'all think, keep it or cut it???