Hello everyone, and welcome to one of my favorite times of the year (as far as sports are concerned)! That’s right, I’m talking about the NFL Playoffs! I mean, let’s be honest – who doesn’t love one of the biggest sporting events of the year – the Super Bowl?! And it doesn’t hurt that my Green Bay Packers are favorites to win it all…AGAIN!

Once again this year I have the privilege to host one of the most prestigious fantasy football playoff leagues in the entire state of Wisconsin. That’s right, I’m referring to the PhilCast Fantasy Football league! If you’ve made your way here via the PhilCast on WHBY, just click the “PhilCast Fantasy Football” tab up top and read the instructions if you want to enter!

Can’t wait for the playoffs to start on January 7th! Hope to see you there!

One of my current reading projects doubles as both a devotional and a book. It’s called “One Month to Live” and challenges you to live life as if you were dying in 30 days. It gives you ways in which you can make your last days meaningful not only to yourself, but also to the world around you. Each chapter gives uplifting quotes, stories and questions for reflection (which you can answer in a journal section).

A chapter I recently read talks about “making the most of your dash.” The author, Pastor Chris Shook, writes about how cemeteries intrigue him because the dashes between people’s birth and death years (e.g. 1932-1994) make him wonder what that person experienced during their “dash” – what hardships they encountered, what stories they had, and what made them happy.

The dates used for the title of this post are obviously not someone’s lifespan – they represent my 27th year of life. On Saturday I turned 27 and have decided that I’m going to make the most of my next 365 days. There are many things I want to accomplish and many areas that I need to improve in.

For starters, I’m getting married in less than a month! That’s obviously a small change from my first 26 years, I’d say! As for other goals I’ve set for myself, I’ll get around to more details when I actually start making some headway on them. Too many times have I declared my great intentions and then fail to live up to them. So if I don’t tell you what I’m aiming to accomplish, you won’t know if I achieve them or not!

I’m thinking that 27 is going to be a really good year. What are some of your goals for this year?

As you can see from the date on my last post, it’s been six months since I last did anything on this site. Life has been hectic, my time is in high demand and my existence on the internet has been limited to Facebook, GMail and my fantasy baseball team (it’s necessary – I’m in first place). But I think it’s time to dust off my trusty site and get her up and running again. What do you say?

But as I sit here and think about what I can/should do with this site, I kind of hit a fork in the road. On one hand I’m excited to post pictures, blog and talk about sports with friends, family and anyone who will read. I want to make this a fun place where people can get updates on my life, interact with me and want to come back regularly. On the other hand, I contemplate turning JGHue.com into a place where I can send potential clients – brides looking for a videographer or proud parents looking for someone to record their son’s tournament soccer game. It’s between these two options that I find myself torn and without a definite answer.

Now I suppose I COULD combine both ideas and have this be both a personal and professional site, thus allowing future clients into my life as more than just their videographer. In the same vein, it would also put friends and family into my working life as I post things about weddings, rates and dates. This option just doesn’t seem to jive well with me. Now, of course, I already have a Facebook page set up for my freelance video work, but I’m struggling with how to get the word out that way. At this time last year, I already had seven weddings in the can and had racked up some decent dough as a result. So far this year I have exactly zero, a time where I could definitely use the money…

Also, I feel the need to have a place online where I can consolidate all of my internet presence, if that makes sense. I have a few blogs, a couple YouTube channels, Twitter, Facebook, numerous health/wellness sites and countless other things I’m interested in. If I could turn this site into a place where all can be brought together, it might make things a little bit more manageable.

So hopefully this means that I’ll be making a more pointed effort to utilize this site. With all the things I do online, it’s a mystery as to why I haven’t paid more attention to this. But as I mentioned, life is pretty busy these days.

It is upon us – a widely talked about and much feared natural event that has sent Chicago residents scrambling to the nearest store to stock up on milk, bread, water and many other things they apparently cannot go without for three days or don’t already have in their house.

“You may be buried in your house for a total of three days! Buy extra toilet paper, pretzel rods and Snuggies because this is going to be the worst storm the Midwest has seen in decades! Buy candles because the snow will be so high it’ll cover your windows! You’ll be lucky if you come alive – write your wills now!”

Puh-lease, people. Really? REALLY?!? Think we’re blowing this thing just a TAD out of proportion? And naturally, it’s all thanks to the media. Sometimes I just have to sit back and laugh. I mean, do they actually think things are going to be this bad, or are they just working in tandem with Wal-Mart in a conspiracy theory to boost sales? Ever thought of that one?

Either way you look at it, it’s winter. Snow is inevitable. As long as you have four walls and a bed you’re most likely going to make it out just fine. If it was really as bad as they claim it’s going to be, we wouldn’t all be cheering our throats numb because we don’t have to go into work or school tomorrow. Instead, we’d all be boarding up our houses like hurricane Jack Frost was coming. So just pop in a DVD or grab a book, because tomorrow’s going to be a nice day of relaxation!

Unless you work for Public Works and have to hop in your plow truck…no one’s jealous of you.

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I had a much-feared dentist appointment on Friday morning. Now I know that some of you are probably saying to yourself, “He was afraid of a measly, little visit to the nice dentist man?” Well here’s the thing. My latest dentist visit before that was FEBRUARY OF 2007! And since I have a decent idea of how well I take care of my teeth, I was slightly worried about the results of this next visit.

But I write today to tell you that I had nothing to worry about. The dentist was a great guy (mostly because he was a Packers fan and we talked football the whole time) and he reported that he saw no cavities or anything else wrong with my chompers. He even went as far as saying, “You’re 26? Man, I wish I had your teeth when I was 21, even!”

So this fine, oral report put a spring in my step and a smile on my face for the remainder of the day. Not only because I had a clean bill of health, but also because that it meant I wouldn’t have to shell out any more money (out of my own pocket since I don’t have insurance) for any follow up work. Phew!

It also makes me wonder how badly I’d have to neglect caring for my teeth for them to need another check up. I actually thought I had been doing a pretty bad job of keeping them nice. Hopefully my cutting back of soda in my diet will help keep them healthy for much longer!