Franzone Family Blog

The Pity Party

Every once in a while, and probably more often than I’d like, I go down the road of the pity party. Usually around paycheck time, having given all of my hard earned cash away to pay for rent, utilities and numerous debts which I am ashamed to have. It feels like a mountain of payments that I have to make and I feel like I will never get ahead. Woe is me.

After that comes the grand visions and schemes of getting a second job to pad the income or perhaps building some mega-awesome new website or product that will make me tons of money. After all more money will solve the problem, right? I mean it even says so in the bible! Ecclesiastes 10:19 says, “A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.” Isn’t that what it says? lol Well, before you make a theology out of that please go read the full text.

Global Perspectives

Of course it usually isn’t too far behind that my patient Father in heaven gives me a little nudge. Be thankful! For what? Just look around!

I’m a senior software engineer and in that field I do pretty well monetarily speaking, especially considering the area I live in which has a pretty low cost of living. If you broaden the scope to everyone in this area that bumps me up even higher. I’m sure compared nationally with the entire population I would rank pretty far at the top. That would really drive the point home… I make a lot of money.

After some searching on the internet I found this site called the Global Rich List, that made feel completely awful. It’s a calculator that shows you how you fair on a global scale. Now obviously this is purely an estimation with some assumptions made about yearly salaries, etc, etc. But even so… I put in what I made yearly and the site said that I was in the top 1% of the world. Wow! Was I just complaining? That is really embarrassing when I stack my slight discomforts against the reality of what families all over this world have to make it on every day. People are starving even in my own country. Getting medical help can be problematic in many places. I could on and on, but you see my point. We live in a rich nation and we are spoiled.

Scripture – What Does God Say?

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

How long, Oh God, will you put up with my crap?” That is the sentiment I’ve been feeling lately.

Paul in Romans – I don’t do the things I want to do and do the things I don’t want to do.

Collossians – Restrictions have the appearance of wisdom but lack any value in restraining the flesh

Galatians – Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh

God will continue the good work He began

EDIT: Well, apparently not even sketches are sacred! I guess something in WordPress went ary and published this post before it was ready. As you can see above it was just really a rough draft with some ideas… but hey, now that it’s in the wild I suppose it’ll have to remain.

The Pensacola Civic Center is going to holding ice skating sessions starting May 17, 2009 at 4:00 PM through May 24, 2009. Tickets are $8.00 with a skate rental or $5.00 with your own skates. Yeah, I know a lot of Floridians with ice skates! lol Anyway, just thought I’d make a public service announcement as many of you may be looking for stuff to do to cool down this summer! Click the image below to search for tickets.

No, it’s not actually my birthday.  My birthday has come and gone.  I did, however, finally pick up my birthday gift.  A lot of my friends and family pitched in money for me to be able to get a new office chair as my other one broke several months ago and I’ve been using a whicker kitchen chair as a replacement… not too comfortable. Anyway, I wanted to say THANKS! to everyone who donated to the “Save Jonathan’s back while working” fund. Oh, here is a picture of it as well.

Rev up for non-stop fun with four of your favorite Disney stories at Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy. Thrill to high-speed stunts as Lightning McQueen, Mater and the crew of Disney/Pixar’s CARS race across the ice. Dive into The Little Mermaid’s enchanting undersea kingdom and experience the ‘Circle of Life’ with The Lion King. Then enter into the magical world of Pixie Hollow with Tinker Bell and all her fairy friends as they make their world premiere on ice! From wheels to waves, Pride Lands to pixie dust, your family’s favorite Disney moments come to life at Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy with dazzling skating, special effects and beloved characters certain to create a lifetime of memories.

Showtimes are starting Friday, May 8 @ 7:00 PM and tickets go on sale Friday, March 6. Ticket prices start at $12.00. Check Ticketmaster for more details.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, two of the most well-known stars in the music industry, are making a stop at the Pensacola Civic Center for an intimate theatre performance on Sunday, April 5th. Hall and Oates started working together in the early 1970’s and went on to become the most successful duo in rock history.  With over 60 million albums sold, Daryl Hall & John Oates’ rich repertoire has garnered a total of 8 #1 hit singles along with dozens of hits throughout the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, including 2002’s Do it for Love. Other top singles include: Rich Girl, Kiss On My List, Maneater, Private Eyes, I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do), Sara Smile, She’s Gone, and One On One.

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 20th @ 10:00 AM and start at $29.50. You can search Ticketmaster for more details.

Well, I’m feeling great! And a little sore… and tired. I just completed one of the goals that I made for myself for this year in running, by completing the 2009 Pensacola Double Bridge Run (15k). It was a very early, dark and cold morning (not too cold). The kids and Aubrey got up with me and drove me down to the starting area where they left me. I did short little jog to warm up and then stretched. After that I had about 15 minutes to wait till the start, which was a little nerve wracking with all of the people there.

When the horn sounded and I started the long trek with all of the other athletes I reached over to my shoulder and pressed the start button on my iPod (connected with Nike+) to start recording the run. I had set it up to just shuffle my songs and the first one that came up was Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac. I thought to myself, “this is going to be a good run.” My wife and kids, my parents and my wife’s parents all came out to cheer me on and thank God for such a wonderful and supportive family.

Results

So how’d I do? Great! Below is a graph from my recorded Nike+ run, which doesn’t even do the run justice. Apparently it’s a little out of sync with my stride or something because the mileage was a bit off. The Nike+ recorded that I ran 8.93 miles when I actually ran 9.3 miles.

The part that really excited me though is the official results shown here (more results).

As you can see I finished the race in 1:23:27 keeping an overall pace of 8:58. That is a lot better than I’d hoped for and is the fastest pace I’ve run in over year for a longer distance. I came in 718th place… not too bad.

This is a hilarious music video featuring a smash up of Pistol Youth and The Golden Girls. Absolutely hilarious! Thanks to Scott Johnson for the post/link. I actually dual posted this over to my other blog as well (it’s just THAT funny).

Pistol Youth – In My Eyes from Pistol Youth on Vimeo.

Well, this year I have “resolved” to increase my training in the area of running/jogging. In my original post I specified 3 goals that I wanted to reach. I’d like to take a little time to talk about these goals in detail, how I will obtain the goals and how I’ve been doing so far.

1) Pensacola Double Bridge Run (15k)

It’s been my goal to run in the Pensacola Double Bridge Run for several years now and something always seems to come up. One year I was injured so I couldn’t run. Last year, I was in Alaska… Brrrr. This year is my year! I know it. So how am I reaching the goal?

For one, I just registered for the event (February 7, 2009). Spending money usually motivates me to complete something as I can’t stand to waste money.

Second, and probably most importantly, I have been training. I had some issues with my feet back in November and December; however, after buying some new shoes I am back on track. I try to run at least three times a week now, four if I can manage. Those usually include shorter runs during the week which I work on speed/pace. Then I’ll run a longer distance on the weekend; this past weekend I ran 8.5 miles! Here are some graphs of my progress from Nike+.

This just shows the days on which I ran and how far I ran.

This was my last run, during which I set a new personal best for the average minutes per mile (9′ 13″). Go me!

2) Half Marathon

On the road to running a full-on marathon (26.2 miles) I would like to run in a half marathon this year (13.1 miles). I’ve seen some training programs online that include a marathon training program that is around 4 – 6 months. I may just jump into one of these training programs knowing that I’ll reach a half marathon along the way, or I may pick one specifically for the half marathon. I haven’t decided yet. My focus right now is the 15k run so I’ll re-focus after that and get on track! I also need to find an event to run in.

3) Train for a Marathon in 2010

I want to take my first marathon seriously and carefully. Seriously meaning that I really want to do it. I want to train with that goal in the forefront of my mind and have obtainable milestones along the way. Carefully meaning, I don’t want to be injured! So I’ll be taking my body’s feedback in constant consideration and only pushing myself up to a safe point. Of course as I discussed in the last goal I’ll be choosing a training program. These are generally created by people far more experienced than I am, so I want to glean whatever wisdom from others that I can.

Summary

Well, that’s it for now I suppose. I am running a bit behind on one of my goals to track my resolutions. I’d planned on blogging about each one during the first 2 weeks of January. Oh well, now that I’ve started hopefully it’ll be easier. Thanks to all who continue to support and encourage me! God bless.

I usually do not make any New Year’s Resolutions at all. At most I’ll say something general like, “I want to get in shape” or “I want to journal more this year”. But I don’t ever make an intentional list and try to actually do what is on the list. This year is different. I’m not entirely sure why, but I just feel particularly motivated to obtain some goals during this new year and so I wanted to start out by publishing them. This should give me something to look at and keep me somewhat accountable to try and meet my expectations. So without further ado… the list.

1. Running / Training

This goal is somewhat general in that I want to continue/increase my running training throughout this year. But there is more to it than that. I have a few sub-points or milestones that I want to achieve this year, which will require some consistency in my training.

1. Run the 15k portion of the Pensacola Double Bridge Run
2. Run in a half-marathon
   (perhaps just personally record it on my Nike+ if I cannot find an actual half-marathon race)
3. Train to run in a marathon in 2010
   I want to run in the Pensacola Marathon in 2010 so I’ll need to be training towards this throughout 2009.

2. Scripture Memorization

I want to memorize the first 14 chapters of the Gospel of John. I’ve got most of the 14th chapter memorized, so this will leave about 13 chapters throughout the year. I figure I can do a chapter per month and perhaps pick up the pace a little as I go along to squeeze in that extra chapter. We’ll see.

3. Obtain my 2nd degree black belt in TaeKwonDo

I’m currently a (rusty) 1st degree black belt in TaeKwonDo and I’d like to get back into it and test for my 2nd degree.

4. Try to write a book

Yeah, this one is kind of off-the-wall. I’ve always wanted to write a book; not real sure why. Perhaps this will be the year that I give a try.

5. Pay Off Debts

This is a big one and one that I’m serious about. I’m sick and tired of being a slave to creditors and ready to get out from under them. To be a bit more specific I am targeting to pay off any of our high-interest credit card and loan debts. This would not include our automobile loan or student loans (we don’t own a house).

6. Improve Church Website

I currently maintain my church’s website (Grace Community Church). I have several enhancements that I’ve been wanting to get to. They include:

1. Praise and Worship Management Feature
2. Improved Look and Feel
3. Custom User Features (for posting News, Events, etc)

7. Learn entire 48 Tai Chi form

Don’t ask me which Tai Chi it is, I’m not sure right off hand. I bought a DVD called Simplified Tai chi Chuan with Applications (YMAA). I want to go through the whole video and learn the entire 48 Forms so that I can start encorporating them into my health routine (or maybe I’ll decide I don’t like it).

8. Increase Quality/Quantify of Blogging

I don’t have any real goals and/or metrics for this one yet, but it is something that I want to work on. I’ll be ironing out the details (goals) in an upcoming post.

9. Journal

I have a nice online WordPress installation specifically for private journaling. I just have to use it. Of course I say this every year, so we’ll see how it goes.

10. Build Something!

I have about a dozen different software projects that I’ve written down that I’d like to do. This year I hope to pick one and actually see it through to completion. Look out Google! I’m coming for you. lol

11. * Resolutions/Goal Tracking

One resolution to rule them all, one resolution to find them, one resolution to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. This is my extra-credit/bonus resolution that’s sole purpose is to ensure that I stay on track and meet (at least some of) my resolutions and goals for this year.

So there you have it. Quite a list considering I never do this. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting more detail on each (or some) of the above resolutions. In these posts I’ll be refining the definition of what I am trying to accomplish, the milestones that I’ll be looking to meet and the steps that I’ll need to take to make the mark.

So have any of you made your New Year’s Resolutions for 2009? How do you plan on meeting your expectations for them?