Good Quotes

So ... here you go. Some quotes that I've run across. I'll probably keep updating this one.

"You don't change, you just become more like yourself"

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody is not thinking."

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

"The Greeks did not write obituaries. They simply asked, 'Did he have passion?'"

"I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust."

"If you are never scared, embarrassed, or hurt, it means you never take chances."

"If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal... then you become something else entirely. A legend."

"If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."

"It is amazing how much harder people work if they feel they are treated right by their bosses. But the reverse is even more true, if people feel mistreated and disrespected they will perform poorly regardless of their pay."

Loyalty and Trust

I'm a huge believer in loyalty and trust, in all walks of my life ... the place I work, people I referee with, my friends, and even the people that I have showing me houses and working up my loan information.  Loyalty and trust are two character traits that I have, and I don't believe it's too much to ask for others to perform the same way.

That's why I've lost faith in some of the influences in my life recently.  After being at my company for 11 years now, I've had my job taken right out from under me and have been put back into a job that I did 4+ years ago.  I understand that I shouldn't be complaining too loudly ... I mean, I still have a job, however in no way, shape, or form is it what I want to be doing with my life and in all honesty it's really a step backward in my career progression.  So, after 11 years, at the same place, I'm looking to move on.  Somewhere new, where I can create and be helpful.  Since it seems like people here believe that someone with no experience is better than me.

If you read this blog at all, I'm sure you fit somewhere into my life.  I don't mean this as some sort of warning shot or anything like that.  If you read this, then I'm certain that you can work with me and I thank you for being loyal and trustworthy.  Which is why I'm telling you first that I'm moving on with my life.  A new house is on the way, and hopefully a new job is not very far away from that.  A new chapter will be written soon enough, and knowing myself ... it'll all be bullet point thoughts.

"Years of loyalty and trust can't be gained in one week, but it can certainly be lost."

Greatest Trip Ever (Remix)

Well ... I've made it through the greatest trip ever, and I've lived to tell about it.  All in all, it was a good trip.  I think we used enough Bullfrog to make the French mad, and the black speedo was a fantastic success.  I think the remix should just be a list of thoughts ... since that's far easier for me.

1. Topless women on the beach:  Some of these topless women are hot ... and I mean really really hot women ... and some are not, however it's not really that big of a deal.  I've seen it before and I'll see it again.  Thank you for pointing out every girl sunbathing without a top on.
2. Resort Club Music:  I understand that I'm in another country, and I understand said country might have their own type of music that they listen to.  However, when the only person that likes all of the music being played is the DJ ... someone needs to be fired.  I could have run a better club using a tape player.
3. Champions League Final:  I did have a lot of fun watching the ManU v Barca Final, in another country.  It also helped that we could have cared less who won the game, so no yelling at the TV was involved.
4. Asshole Americans:  At a resort like this, it's very easy to see why people throughout the world think that Americans are assholes ... we are.  I mean, not all of us are, but the vocal assholes are louder and believe they expect things for being American.  I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes.
5. This is more of a story and less of a thought.  So, on the night of the wedding (the reason I'm on this excellent adventure) ... I decide that I'm drinking enough to see if I can get hungover.  I rarely get hungover, and nobody really knows how this happens.  So we start as soon as the wedding is over, champagne, red wine, more red wine, rum and coke, and a select group of people are left over late into the night.  At about 2 or 2:30am, the four of us decide to head to the "open all night" cafe ... where we find we're the only ones in the place.  A botched answer to the question "Do you want champagne?" turned into bottles of champagne being opened and the idea of staying up all night.  Since this is a far better option that actually waking up to take pictures of the sun rising, I say I'm in and turn back into the room to get my camera before sunrise.  At 5am we leave the cafe, take to the pier to get pictures and celebrate the rising of the sun.  By 6am, we're back to the cafe and drinking mimosas ... I mean why not, we've been drinking for 12 hours.  It was this moment that I remember I committed to playing soccer at 10:30am.  I head back to the room, drop off the camera, grab soccer playing clothes, and change out of the wedding clothes and into soccer clothes on the field.  I'm ready to go.  Somehow I didn't throw up and I wasn't hung over.  A fun night ended without a hangover, and there certainly won't be a hangover part 2.
6. French Lesbians:  I can't wait to see how many people find the blog because of those 2 keywords now.  Well, the story goes like this -> I asked my friends to scope out the landscape and see if there was anyone to talk to at the resort.  Since I can't get a girl in Maryland to return a phone call or a text, even after asking if she wanted to go to a concert with me because of an extra ticket ... I thought another country might be my way to go.  My friends did a great job too and found a couple girls that didn't have any guys with them ... great success.  The first night I'm on the island leads us to drunken ping pong, and it just so happens these girls are there also.  I figure that I can't lose anything by trying, and ask them if they need anything to drink since I'm heading to the bar.  The girls aren't very responsive and tell me they don't need anything ... this is right before they start speaking to each other in French.  My high school teacher would be proud that I even understand that it was French.  Well, a little bit of time goes along and the girls end up leaving ... arm in arm, and one with a full on ass grab on the other.  Should I be happy that my friends tried to hook me up with French lesbians?

All in all, the trip was fun and there were a lot of places I could take pictures.  I put together about 525 pictures over the week, but this is before paring them down and figuring out that a lot of them look exactly the same.  Good thing I have a ton of pictures to remember the greatest trip ever.  I now look forward to heading to the NHL draft at the end of the month ... which is in Minnesota, so obviously can't be anywhere near as fun as this trip just was.