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Greetings and/or salutations! It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another exciting installment of Midweek Thoughts.

I love a good storm.  I know it’s typical for children to fear thunderstorms, but I have always found them comforting and actually sleep better when there’s a lot of thunder and lightning. There are many examples in the Bible where thunder is associated with God’s voice and His power, and I think that’s the reason why I’ve always liked it, even as a child.  Anyway, we had a pretty intense thunderstorm here last night. I was pleased.

When I was little, my dad would occasionally give me a two-dollar bill. I always found them to be pretty cool looking, and since they were sort of a special gift from my dad, I would never spend them. I still have a couple that I’ve held onto for well over a decade. I have to say, I’d really like to get more. Perhaps I’ll ask my bank if they have any the next time I’m there. Actually, I’d love to get a big stack of them and spread them all over town. I bet there are a lot of people who have never even seen them.

Servings sizes are silly. I can recall this one time I looked on the wrapper of a brownie and noticed it only had two hundred calories. “Two hundred calories?” I thought to myself. “That’s not bad for a brownie.” Upon closer inspection, I learned that a serving size was actually one half of a brownie. Now how many people are going to sit down with a brownie and only eat half of it? I felt cheated, I felt wronged, I felt deceived and I was slightly angry. But on the plus side, it was a pretty tasty brownie.

And now I kinda want a brownie…

It’s Wednesday already? Well then, I guess it’s time for some Midweek Thoughts!

This is going to sound strange, but I couldn’t tell if the teller at the bank who served me this morning was a man or woman. The person had short hair and was dressed in a male dress shirt and tie. The voice didn’t really sway things one way or the other, and the name was ambiguous too. I suppose I’ll never know though, ‘cause it’s not like I can just ask, “are you a man or a woman?” Especially if it’s the person handling my money. :O

Where did the expression “a bite to eat” come from? If I’m going to go through the trouble of eating I’d like more than a bite. Besides, I rarely ever see someone eat only one bite of food. Maybe someday I’ll get a plate of food together and then count how many bites it takes to eat the whole thing. Then I’d be able to say, “I’m hungry. I think I’ll get 22 bites to eat,” or whatever the number happens to be. *nod* I should do that. 

I’ve been reading the Psalms a lot lately. David of the Bible is sort of an interesting character. He was a wretched miserable sinner and at times a flat-out jerk.  Despite all those flaws, God loved him dearly and I find that encouraging. Anyway, I draw a lot of inspiration from the Psalms these days. I know my dad loved the Psalms a lot too. I wonder how many times he read them.

For many people Monday is a day of dread as they head back to work for another week at a job they probably don’t care for much. But I’ve found over the years that I actually sort of like Mondays. To me Monday represents a fresh start and new opportunities as well as a break from well… the break. Seriously. If I have too much time off I go a little nuts.

I feel grateful that I have a job and can bring home a paycheck. Without that paycheck, I wouldn’t have a roof over my head, food on the table, or clothes on my back. I wouldn’t be able to pay for Internet access or take road trips to visit my girlfriend either.

The United States currently has an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent with over 14 million people looking for work. So if you find yourself feeling a little down about having to go to work on Monday, just remember how rough it is out there and you may soon consider it a blessing. You might even find yourself saying, “Thank God it’s Monday!”

Today is a Wednesday. I always used to post a Midweek Thoughts entry on Wednesdays, so I think I’m going to try to start doing that again.

I used to write in this blog all the time. In fact, I made an effort to write in this blog every day. I know that stopped rather abruptly, but that’s because my life was upended, shaken up, tossed about and changed forever. Anyway, I’m trying to return to normalcy, and part of “normal” for me is writing in this blog, so here goes.

I tried Spam for the first time the other day. No, not the junk email type spam, but rather the “meat” type Spam. And it was turkey Spam since eating pork causes all sorts of upheaval inside me.

So one might wonder why I tried Spam. Well, I was grocery shopping at Walmart when I spied with my eye a type of meat I hadn’t tried. Yes, I bought it because I had never had it. I suppose that’s a bit silly as I would never apply the same principle to say… limburger cheese. But that’s irrelevant to the story, so I’ll try not to go off on a tangent here.

Spam tastes about as good as it looks. It’s not horrible, but it’s the sort of food one would stock in a nuclear fallout shelter. I probably won’t purchase it again, at least not until it’s time to stock my shelter.

I’ve been pretty sick for about the last week and a half. In fact, last week I was so sick that I could barely speak. So I did what any hungry man would do in such a situation. I ordered McDonalds food with a note!

It was a pretty simple order. All I wanted was a double quarter-pounder with cheese and only ketchup. I specifically stated in the note that I did not want the meal. So when the girl working the counter asked me, “do you want the meal?” I shook my head and felt a little disappointed that she even felt the need to ask.

Anyway, I went home and ate my sandwich. When I had finished eating, I grabbed the sandwich box to throw it away. As I tossed it in the trash, I noticed the nutrition facts. I felt disappointed again, because now that I know a double quarter-pounder with cheese has 740 calories, I probably won’t be able to order it again. *le sigh*

I’ve noticed that computers seem to have personalities. Nearly every computer I’ve used has some sort of weird quirk. For example, my primary laptop will just randomly go nuts and switch the wi-fi and Bluetooth on and off over and over again. This is pretty annoying since I can’t use the Internet with the wi-fi flickering on and off like a light switch. The good news is, I’ve decided to use that quirk as an excuse to buy a new laptop. Now if only I had any money… *drifts off into daydreams about new laptops*

When you read the Bible, you’re probably going to come across Scriptures that your flesh doesn’t like. "Love your enemies? Bless them that curse you?" Your flesh may tell you that’s crazy talk. But then, if you have the Spirit of God within you, you’ll realize it’s amazing; it’s brilliant. If everyone in the world would just do what Jesus told us to do, there would be no war, there would be no starvation, there would be no injustice or greed. This world would be like… Heaven.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this very special edition of Midweek Thoughts. This is the 20th installment, which means some celebratory behavior is warranted. Of course, I didn’t want to actually spend any time, money or effort on the celebration, so I suggest you close your eyes for a moment and imagine a grandiose fireworks display and a festive pig roast. I’ll wait here. *waits*  All done? Great, let’s get on with the thoughts then.

I nearly ran over a bunny on my way to work this morning. Someone needs to sit down with the bunnies and have a stern conversation about the dangers of darting into traffic. Luckily for today’s bunny, there was no other traffic on the road at the time. If there had been, he probably wouldn’t be doing whatever it is he’s doing right now. So please bunnies, I implore you; be more careful when crossing the road!

For reasons unbeknownst to be me, I have not felt like going grocery shopping lately. The food supply at my apartment is dwindling, but that hasn’t been enough to motivate a shopping trip. I’m usually too tired to go shopping after work. ‘Cause ya know, after working a long day all I wanna do is lay on the couch, watch TV, text my girlfriend and drink cold beverages. But I’m off work tomorrow, so maybe I’ll finally go grocery shopping. Or I might just lay on the couch all day, watch TV, text my girlfriend and drink cold beverages.  After all, I’m not out of food yet. I still have a few cans of corn.

I brought my briefcase to work today. Lately I’ve been having trouble fitting all my gadgets in my pockets. So then it occurred to me that I could just put them in my briefcase. Not only is it an easy way to transport my stuff, but people who see me will think I’m a responsible business professional! Responsible business professionals wear jeans and t-shirts to work right?

Life is full of ups and downs, hills and valleys, joy and pain, happiness and crappiness and so forth and so on. In this blog entry I’m going to list some of the things that make me happy.

• My girlfriend. She’s sweet, she’s pretty, kind and considerate. And she makes really good cupcakes.
• A DVR full of Mythbusters. Mythbusters is a great show. So when I hit the “My DVR” button on my remote and see that it’s 98% full of Mythbusters, I’m a pretty happy man.
• Seeing a jerkopie get his comeuppance. Sure it’s great to see, but I really just wanted an excuse to use the words “jerkopie” and “comeuppance.”
• Air conditioning. The days are long and hot in the summer, but the A/C keeps me nice and cool.
• Soda in glass bottles. There’s just something about soda in glass. It seems cold, sweeter and well… better.
• Signing on to Facebook and seeing that I have 20 notifications. Usually when I sign on, I have at most 5. But that’s probably because I check Facebook 50 times a day.
• Chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate? I mean besides people who are allergic to it. I feel very very sorry for those people.
• Cheese. There are so many different varieties of cheese. So many different ways to eat cheese. Cheese is awesome.
• Burger King. I love a good buck double. Yummeh!

And that, my friends is a very short list of some of the things that make me happy. It’s far from a complete list and I’ll probably do another list at some point. But in the meantime, what are some things that make YOU happy?

I remember many many years ago when I was a teenager, I once received a bill from Reader’s Digest. Of course, I had never requested a subscription to the magazine, they just subscribed me without permission.  Needless to say, I was quite upset. So my dad picked up the phone, called them and straightened out the whole mess.

When I was 17 years old he took me down to the credit union and helped me open my first bank account. He walked me through all the steps and did most of the talking with the banker.

A few years ago when I first got my driver’s license, my dad went to the car dealership, found the car he knew that I wanted, did all of the negotiation ahead of time for me, and then co-signed so I could buy the vehicle.

He then called the insurance people and set up an appointment with the agent. He went with me, talked to the guy and made sure I had all the right coverage.

A few months later when I got into my first car accident, he called the insurance guy to discuss it and counseled me on how to proceed. (I ended up paying for damages out of pocket so it wouldn’t go on my insurance record.)

I guess the whole point of this blog post is just to say my dad is awesome. He’s been very sick lately and can’t look out for me anymore. I kind of miss it. Having recently been in a car accident, and having to handle everything in regard to it on my own has made me even more aware of how much my dad did for me.

Anyway, through it all I somehow managed to become an adult. Now that I’m all grown-up, I realize how good I had it when I was a kid.

So it’s Wednesday… again. And that means it’s time for Midweek Thoughts. I didn’t do Midweek Thoughts last week because I was away from home and completely forgot about it. But I will make up for it by giving you all lots of thoughts today.

First of all, I’d just like to say that car accidents suck. I’ve had to deal with four different people from my insurance company just to get the money to cover the repairs. (Minus the $500 deductible.) On the bright side though, things moved remarkably fast considering the many processes I had to go through. I walked into the insurance company office on Monday morning and now my car is in the shop. It could possibly even be ready to go by Saturday so I’m sorta excited about that.

What I’m not excited about is the possibility that my insurance rates may go up. They had just lowered my rate by $5, but now I suppose they’ll jack it up by $15 or $20. My advice to all of you out there is never get into an accident!

Anyway, the good news is, if I live like a pauper for a month I may not even have to dip into my emergency fund to cover the $500 deductible. Hey…  I know what  I could do! I could eat McDonalds every day for a month, and then make a documentary about the experience. What a completely unique and fresh idea! *pats self on back*

So I went to the bank today to deposit my paycheck. Lo and behold, I saw this sign on the door.

This is an outrage! I can’t take my guns into the bank? Why the heck not? (Disclaimer, I don’t actually own any guns.) This seems totally and completely unfair. I can understand the ban on hoods and hats, but guns?! *shakes head in disgust*

Yesterday afternoon I was pretty hungry so I went over to KFC around 2pm and ordered the buffet. Ordering the buffet at 2pm probably wasn’t such a good idea. The mashed potatoes were a little cold and the macaroni and cheese was a little crunchy. At least they were kind enough to put out some fresh chicken. Heh.

All this talk of old buffet food is making me hungry. I hope you all enjoyed this edition of Midweek Thoughts. I’ll be back next week to do another installment… unless I forget again.

Welcome to the 18th edition of Midweek Thoughts! It’s an exciting time to be alive. For in two short weeks I will be doing the 20th edition. It’s a huge milestone, and I think we should celebrate with some sort of cake. Or maybe a muffin, which as Jim Gaffigan says, is a bald cupcake. Perhaps I will have a celebratory bald cupcake for the 20th week of Midweek Thoughts.

So I probably shouldn’t be informing the masses of this because I don’t want to create a shortage, but Amazon is having a sale on popchips! Simply add any popchips to your shopping cart and use the coupon code PCHS5385 at checkout. You’ll instantly save 20%. And if you subscribe to popchips (automatic shipments at an interval of your choosing), you’ll save an additional 15% for a total of 35% off the regular purchase price! The coupon code is valid until May 31, 2010.

The UPS guy delivered five cases of popchips to the office today. Only two of those cases were for me, however. It was exciting because I got to try a new flavour! They’re cheddar potato, and I have to say, they are yummeh in my tummeh! Mmmmm. I already subscribe to the barbecue popchips, I’m thinking about adding a cheddar subscription as well. If I do, I’ll have two cases of popchips sent to me every month. *gasp*

It’s been a little over a year since I purchased my last laptop. I hate to say it, but I’ve been getting the hankering again. I really don’t need another one, as I already have 4 laptops and a netbook. (One of the laptops doesn’t really count though, as it’s so old I can only run Linux on it.) But I would love to have a laptop with an i7 processor, hdmi out and a blu-ray drive. I guess I’ll have to see if I can work a new laptop into my budget. I do love that new computer smell.