Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Author: Justin Matthews (Page 3 of 76)

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Book Blitz! A new Short Story!

Hello!  Well folks, today I have a sort of guest post from my friend Becca J. Campbell.  She finds time to write great stories while raising 4 boys….I can’t figure out how she does it.  The post below was written by her, and I highly recommend reading it.  After you have finished that, go check out her books.  I have been lucky enough over the years to be on the advanced reader circuit for Becca’s books and this one was no exception.  I really have enjoyed everything I have read.  This series, Flawed, was a bit different, and even Becca wasn’t sure I would like it, but I did!  She has some really great characters that are strong and very believable.  I highly recommend all of Becca’s work!

A Short Story Companion to the Flawed Series

Today is the release for Constricted, a brand new short story related to Becca J. Campbell’s Flawed series. This story coincides with the events in Empath (Flawed #1), and takes place in Logan’s point of view. You’ll need to read Empath first to thoroughly enjoy this story.

If you haven’t already, download a free copy of Empath (links below). Read on to find out more about Constricted.

Constricted (A Flawed Short Story)

Constricted_CVR_SMLLogan’s secret has been exposed. When Jade—a beautiful student at the college where he teaches—discovered the truth, he spilled the whole repulsive story. Jade’s empathetic kindness flooded him with emotions he didn’t know he had and isn’t sure he wants to deal with. Continue reading

SAHD Friday: You Have Your Own Bed!

Black recliner (arm chair)

Black recliner (arm chair) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For quite a long time now, it seems my wife and I have not had our own bed.  Starting with my oldest, when she was just getting into her own “big girl” bed, she would join us in our bed at night.  Made for a long night some days, with a wiggly toddler in the bed.  We ended up putting a “princess bed” on the floor that she slept in until she got tired of that and then stayed in her own bed.  That worked for her and my older son, but hasn’t worked out as well for my younger daughter and now my youngest son.

Amelia, my youngest is the one with a kidney transplant.  She has been very clingy since the transplant, and she doesn’t do too bad staying in a “princess bed” or on the recliner.  My youngest son however…… He doesn’t want to stay anywhere, except our bed.  He says his bed is “itchy”.  at least he has a reason.  We are trying to get him into his own special bed or the recliner, but it is a fight.  He likes “mommy’s bed”.  It wouldn’t be too bad, except that he likes to kick and push and keeps us from sleeping well.

Hopefully, this is a phase that is wearing out.  Last night, he managed to stay in his own bed.  That is either a happy coincidence, or the start of something good.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Is this just my problem?  Anyone?

Comments are below…

-Justin

All this internet $#!^….

You know, I love the internet for the most part.  Information at your fingertips, satellite pics of your house in seconds, news almost as it happens, hour by hour weather, and idiots.

I have been here working on the net since 2008, and I have learned and changed a lot during that time.  Lately, I think I have grown complacent with internet as the rest of the world has.  My kids don’t remember a time without the internet.  They have somewhat of a hard time going without it on vacation.  I have posted before about what good it does the family to just unplug and get away from the screens.  My 4 1/2 year old is dying to go fishing and camping.  He loves the outdoors.

So this brings me to my point, some internet providers and domain registrars suck.  Big huge deep sucking holes of darkness.  The first of these I had issues with was justhost.  Don’t go there, do get a site from them even though they are cheap.  They will drain the soul out of you after they cancel your domain name.  I had one of their packages with justinsbrainpan.com registered with them.  All fine, until I outgrew the service tier and decided to go to a decent provider at hostgator.com.  (you can go there).  The problem was my domain was registered with justhost, and they didn’t tell me that I couldn’t use it after I didn’t have their service anymore.  so I lost justinsbrainpan.com and ended up with catharsisofthebogue.com, that I registered independently with 1and1.com. don’t go there either.

Recently, 1 and 1 internet and I have been in some fun battles for my domains.  There was apparently an issue with billing on my account, and they decided to cancel my account, making my sites go down as they expired.  First was Ameliasmakeawish.com, followed by bkmnursing, and then catharsisofthebogue.  Skip forward to a bunch of fighting, and I got most of my domains back active.  Amelias make a wish and Catharsis of the bogue are gone.  registered with some company in china and japan, that has nothing for content.  But i am pissed.  I have ported the sites to this one, catharsisofthebogue.com and Amelias is ameliasmakeawish2012.com.

But don’t for one minute think that I registered those new domains with 1 and 1.  I have registered them with haylestorm.net/clients.  Ok, I am biased as this is partly my site, one that I partner with Bob Hayles on, and we are now resellers of Enom domain registration.  Not a bad deal either, $12.95 per year for most top level domains.

I digress.  Now, I have a list of times that I am going to be transferring all of my domains away from 1 and 1 and then warning everyone to stay away from that company.  The moral of the story is, watch your domains.  If you are not the owner of your domain because it is free from your hosting company, do whatever you can to make sure you end up owning the domain.  Then keep track of the billing and renew dates.

All in all, I guess it is ok to change domains.  I did lose all of my page rank and alexa scores, and it is going to take time to build back up.  So I am glad you are here reading.  I did it once, I will do it again.

Thanks for reading, share the links like crazy!

-Justin

 

Lessons learned in the Desert. part 1

Happy Monday!  So this weekend we went down to see my elderly Great-aunt.  We finally had the time without dialysis or Dr. Appointments to contend with.  All in all it was a great trip.

During the trip we all headed out to the boonies to do some target shooting.  A bit of explanation here.  As you probably know by now, I live in Utah.  I have since I was about 3 months old and my dad got out of the Navy and came home.

He was raised ina small coal mining town in eastern Utah called Dragerton, now East Carbon.  And it is in the desert.  Interesting thing: this is not the blowing sands and pyramids type desert, there are animals everywhere.  Sagebrush, juniper, cedar and a myriad of grasses cover the land.  It gets hot and dry in the day and can be downright cold at night.  It fits all definitions of a desert.  Not much rain being the big one.

It is also a place where dinosaurs once roamed.  There are still fossils they are finding in the area.  I have found chunks of dinosaur bone while we have been down there.  It was also right around the land where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to roam with the Wild Bunch.  Legend says there is still gold down there somewhere.  I havent found it yet.

Back when I was a kid, we would go down there 3-4 times per year to visit my aunt and my Great Grandparents who lived there.  We would go out hunting for rocks, or worm’s teeth (yes teeth from prehistoric worms, I have some and it was a professor who told my aunt and Father about them, 8-10 feet long at least and as big around as a car tire.  The ants bring them up from way underground.  You search through gravel and pick them out.) or just run the desert.

We would always go out shooting for practice and it was always a good time to get out with my father, grandfather and great grandfather and blow away cans or paper targets.  We would go out to the desert and shoot for hours, totally lost in the moment.  During all of those trips I learned how to shoot, how to handle the weapon, and how to interact with the surroundings.

I always liked doing something that my forefathers valued so much.  In the past 15 years or so, I haven’t had much of a chance to get out and go shooting.  I lost my Great-Grandfather in 2002 and my Grandfather in 2006.  My father is always busy and while we talk about going, it isn’t going to happen any time soon.  This is sad for my kids, because they really need to spend that time with their grandfather.  Besides he is a kick ass shot, that was all he did growing up.  Then they made him a sniper in the Navy because he was that good.

I once saw my dad try to hit a coyote from about 50 yards and he didn’t.  A while later he hit another coyote from the top of a ridge at over 500 yards.  I only aspire to be that good.  I have only told the story to my kids, I hope they get a chance to see it.

This weekend we did get out to go shooting, Me and my family. This turn I was the one in charge.  I was the instructor.  I was the safety master.  I had assumed a new role.  We had gone out to a remote place in the desert just like we used to.  We set up targets (those happy meal toys from McD are awesome to shoot.  They get a couple of good hits and explode.  Buzz Lightyear meets Mr. .22 slug and doesn’t fare well. ).  We shot and shot.

Part 2 is waiting right Here!

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