Google: Trying Not To Be Evil?

I just saw this now defunct Hungry Beast video about Google and though that I should share. It really gives you a glimpse into what all Google has going on these days and just how far they have gone to make as much money as possible from their flagship advertising products (that generate 97% of their $200 billion market cap). Take a look the video below and see just how Google might be trying harder than ever not to be evil (or are they?).

THE BEAST FILE: GOOGLE (’HUNGRY BEAST’, ABC TV) from HUNGRY BEAST on Vimeo.

April 19, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts, thoughts to chew on, video

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One thing I know for sure…

Surprise..It’s Steph.  Not often that I get around to blogging these days, and that is simply not ok with me.  I always feel so much better after getting my thoughts out like this, but I put it off for far too long.  I do that with a lot of things.. like running.. or laundry for instance.  Something I need to work on I suppose.

Enough with the rambling, though.  I’d like to get started.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately. ( scary I know)  Since moving to California, God has really, and i mean REALLY been working on my heart.  It’s kind of amazing to take a step back and look at my perception of things now and compare them to how I used to view them.  It’s almost a complete 180 in some cases.  I could probably make a list and talk about all of my new perceptions for days, but one in particular seems to stand out.

My perception of success has really been tugging at my heart strings lately.  If you were to ask what success meant to me 2 years ago, I probably would have said something along the lines of “husband, good job, 3.5 kids, comfortable living arrangements.. yada, yada”.  To think about that word “comfortable” now gives me the chills.  We’re completely surrounded by “success stories” out here in San Francisco.  I know so many people that are absolutely living the American dream, and for them I am truly happy.  But for us, I’ve simply decided that unless that is what God calls Ryan and I to do, I don’t want it.  I don’t want to live a comfortable life.  I don’t want to be swimming in money in my posh loft in the city living every day to go to work and to come home and to sleep in my warm bed just to do it all over again the next day.  Nothing great ever comes from comfortable.  Comfortable doesn’t push me to seek God’s direction or to do things that are out of the ordinary for Him.  I want to be content no matte what my circumstances(Phil. 4:11).. but I don’t want to be comfortable.  I think there is a HUGE difference between those two words, and I don’t want to lead to any confusion.

So many times in my life I have made my own plans, and then God directed my path in a completely different direction.  If you want a few examples just ask me some time, I’d be happy to share.  Every single time that I was moved in a different direction, God drew me closer to Him.  He has shown me time and time again, that His way is perfect and that is what I want my value of success to reflect; God’s glory revealed through His will in my life.  To make this relevant I’ll give my current circumstances.  I’m taking pre-requisite classes in order to enter a nursing program.  For the first time since I graduated college I feel like I’m pursuing a career that I absolutely love.  It’s exciting and it’s challenging and I couldn’t be happier.  This time, however, I’ve decided that this decision is completely in the Lord’s hands. If He wants me to complete this program and serve Him through nursing, I will go and serve with all that I am.  If, however, through God’s incredible way of leading He calls Ryan and I somewhere else and I don’t get to complete the program I will be ok with that. In fact, I will be thrilled with that because I’ve learned now that God’s plans are 100% of the time better than my plans.  Ryan and I have so much on our plates right now.  So many goals, ventures, and ultimately decisions.  I pray that our decisions reflect our value of “success” to be serving God wholeheartedly no matter where or what we are doing.  It’s hard not to slip back into the old value of gaining money, power, and comfort but through faith in our Lord’s provision, I know He will lead us in the right direction.  So, I guess what I mean by my title of this post is that I know for sure that I may not know what or where Ryan and I will be in the future.. but I know that I want to be successful.  Not the kind of success that is claimed by typical society, but the kind of success that is only gained by giving your life up to Christ.  That is success in my opinion.

In my desperate attempt to keep this blog half-way short enough to keep your attention I’ll stop here but I think this is a conversation that could go on for awhile. What are your views on success?   I’d love to hear from you and give you some more of my thoughts!

April 5, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts

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End of an era? The cancellation of Hupdaddy.com (tear)

I just got this email notification today form Godaddy that let me know that my domain HUPDADDY.COM has officially expired. This domain was one of the first URLs that I ever bought and was where I did a lot of my first web development. Also, the first email address that I ever hosted myself was hup@hupdaddy.com and it was hosted on a server that was tied to this domain, too.

Not a huge deal and I’m not going to renew, but it’s always fun to reflect back on the past for a few moments before moving on. It’s been real HUPDADDY.COM and I hope that you find yourself a nice, new home.

February 8, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts

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Figuring out that ‘finding myself’ isn’t the point

Unfortunately I never ended up writing up last week’s post, but with the message that we heard this morning at church this week should more than make up for it. This week’s message was all about how Jesus died to make us righteous, which is actually a subject that Stephanie and I just talked about last night while having dinner at one of our favorite places in San Francisco, Miss Saigon (tasty Vietnamese deliciousness).

The conversation that we had and that I actually started was all about how in just the past couple of years I have had a strong sense of finding who I really am as I have made what I would consider to be several major life changes. Just to give you an example of these life changes, here are just a few things that I have personally experienced in just the past 24 months:

  1. Met Stephanie and she became my first official girlfriend since my junior year of high school
  2. Moved to California with Stephanie, which was also the first time that I have ever lived with a significant other (yeah, that’s quite a change)
  3. Changed jobs once I moved out to California
  4. Was saved and became a true follower of Jesus Christ in December of 2008 (a whole other story altogether)
  5. Became engaged to Stephanie on Christmas of 2008 (awesome)
  6. Moved from Palo Alto to San Francisco in April of 2009
  7. Had my first major surgery in May of 2008
  8. Got my first dog in June of 2009 (Frank is the best dog, ever)
  9. Got married in August of 2009 (should we now change it to HupandHup.com?)

So, as you can see, there have been some major things going in both mine and Stephanie’s lives and I think once all of the these things happened I started to wonder what God had in store for me and what I should be doing with my life. This is naturally something that many of us think about (especially once we turn 30 years old), but today’s message reminded me that I need to not worry so much about what I’m supposed to be doing or who I’m supposed to be, but instead trust that God will continue to point me in the right direction and enjoy the ride.

I say all of this because today’s message focused around how Jesus died to make us righteous and only through this gift can I truly become what God has intended me to be. I know that this sounds a little heavy and hard to understand, but that’s where having faith comes in. The idea of receiving the gift that God gave us with the death of His son isn’t something that just clicks and makes sense in an instant. It’s something that is a life long journey of learning and actively living out what God has built us to do — serve, love and spread the word about how Jesus gave up his life so that our sins could be forgiven.

I hope that all makes sense, but for some of you it’s probably sounds like I’m speaking another language. For those of you I encourage you to reach out to Stephanie and I through the comments below or our email/Facebook links to the right. We’d both love to chat with you all about it.

February 7, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts, relationship stuff, you gotta have faith

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The Rev is Back!

If you’ve followed our blog for awhile you’ll be sure to recognize this band from previous posts. Our friends, from the Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band are out touring around the country,and this Thursday night (1/21) they’re going to be gracing us with their presence in San Francisco.  Like we’ve said before, these guys really know how to put on a good show and bring the house down with their blue grass/I don’t know what kind of genre that’s awesome enough to describe,  kind of music.

They’re playing at The Bottom of the Hill on Thursday night so MARK YOUR CALENDARS!  The show starts at 8:30pm with the Rev and his crew kicking things off at 11pm.  If you’re in the city and wanna grab some delicious grub beforehand, feel free to stop by the SOMA shack and enjoy some of the culinary wonders of our good friend, Bobbby.  He’ll be whipping up something fantastic, I’m sure. :)

We found a recent write up of the Rev, here that I think really gives  a great glimpse into what kind of emotional overload of awesomeness you’ll experience at one of their concerts.  So if you’re looking for a different kind of appeal within the music scene in this city, come on out and support the Rev Thursday night!  You can find us jumping around like maniacs in the front row :)

January 19, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts

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Help make my friend ‘The Most Interesting Patient In The World’

A friend of mine from high school recently entered a contest to become the most interesting patient in the world.  The Austin Dental Spa in Austin, Texas instituted a contest in which dental patient enthusiasts created videos to prove why they are deserving of a smile makeover.  The grand prize winner will receive a complete smile makeover up to $15,000… That is quite a prize if you ask me!

My friend Brian, in hopes of becoming the smile superstar, composed quite the lyrical ballad, and I’ve gotta say that he did an amazing job.  He did so well, in fact, that he is one of 4 finalists.  Currently he is ranked in 2nd place, so all that he needs is a few more votes to place as number one.  Check out his video as well as the other 4 finalists here on the voting page. Can you help a brother out and send a little vote or two his way?!  I think he’d be VERY appreciative.

If you missed it before, GO HERE TO VOTE FOR BRIAN!!!!

Good luck, buddy! Hope to see you smiling big, real soon! :)

You can watch the video below, but make sure you go to the voting page to vote!

January 17, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts

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Taco Bell bastardizes their time-tested Saucy Sayings thanks to Drivethrudiet.com

I’m not one to complain about stuff very often, but I feel like I need to call out Taco Bell for something that I noticed after eating there last night. As many of you Taco Bell fans out there have probably noticed before, there are always hilarious and sometimes odd sayings on all of the mild, hot and fire sauce packages. These sayings, which are officially called “Saucy Sayings”, came into existence in 2004 and have been adding a little bit of extra entertainment to the lives of Taco Bell customers ever since.You can read a list of these sayings over here.

I snapped a pic of what one of these Saucy Sayings look like and posted it below:

Now, fast forward to today. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the commercials yet, but Taco Bell is promoting a new Drive-Thru Diet that is very similar to what Subway has been doing for the past few years. There’s a chick named Christine who lost over 50 lbs after eating Fresco style tacos, so now Taco Bell’s basically turning her into their version of Subway Jared. Yep, it’s true — Taco Bell has gone healthy. Crazy, I know.

So, what do the Saucy Sayings and the new Drive-Thru Diet campaign have in common, you ask?

After looking at all of the different types of sauces last night at Taco Bell expecting to read some of the funny Saucy Sayings that I’ve become so used to seeing, I noticed that they had bastardized their once quirky idea by replacing the Saucy Saying with a simple, distasteful URL: drivethrudiet.com (see pic below).

I wonder which marketing person thought that this would be a good idea? I can hear ‘em now, “I know how we can get the word out about our new Drive-Thru Diet, we can replace the Saucy Sayings that everyone loves with the URL. That will get us all kinds of exposure!”.

It’s a sad, sad day in the world of marketing my friends. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t last very long.

January 14, 2010 | Filed Under random thoughts

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When sponsorsips get ridiculous — a list of the various businesses that are the official *BLANK* of the Indianapolis Colts

Yesterday Stephanie and I decided to go out and face the elements of a good, old-fashioned Indiana Winter storm warning so that we could cheer on the then undefeated Indianapolis Colts. It was really nasty out, but we were excited to see the Colts lay the smackdown on the New York Jets as they became one step closer to getting their own spot in NFL history as one of the few teams that have had an undefeated season.

Well, after making it into Indy’s football mecca, Lucas Oil Stadium (the house that Peyton built), we unfortunately soon found that the game was going to be a little more boring than first expected after Peyton and the rest of the starters were yanked after the first half. At that point the Jets started to put the hurtin’ on our second-stringers who were being led by Curtis Painter and the boos started to fill the stadium as we lost our lead and our chances for an undefeated 2009 season.

But, when most fans decided to focus their energy on booing the Colts, I decided to shift mine elsewhere once I knew that the actual game wasn’t going to be enough to hold my attention. As a marketing guy, it’s hard not to notice all of the advertising that is now shown inside of Lucas Oil Stadium during the 3-4 hours of any given Colts game. As the game got more and more boring I began to really take a look at all of this advertising and more specifically I began to notice all of the various businesses that have paid enough money to become “the official BLANK of the Colts”. As the game went on and I began to point out more and more of these sponsorships out to Stephanie it became a fun game that helped us pass the time as Cutis Painter continued to get sacked and/or throw interceptions.

I began to jot down our findings on my BlackBerry and by the end of the game we had accumulated quite a list which I must admit is pretty ridiculous once you see them all grouped together. I promise that all of the following Colts sponsorships are for real and they are only the ones that either Stephanie and I saw displayed somewhere inside of Lucas Oil Stadium during the Jets game yesterday.

The official hair salon of the Colts cheerleaders (Tyler Mason)
The official data backup of the Colts (Venyu)
The official bread of the Colts (Bunny)
The official milk of the Colts (Fair Oaks Farms)
The official supercenter of the Colts (Meijer)
The official burgers of the Colts (McDonalds)
The official convenience store of the Colts (Speedway)
The official lawn mower of the Colts (Dixie Chopper)
The official courier of the Colts (Now Courier)
The official bank of the colts (Hunginton Bank)
The official away game airline of the Colts (Airtran)
The official document provider of the Colts (Sharp)
The official pizza of the Colts (Papa Johns)
The official hot dog of the Colts (Tyson)
The official resoration company of the Colts (Moore Restoration)
The official event production of the colts (Markeys)
The official catering company of the Colts (Jonathan Byrds)
The official air freshener of the Colts (Febreeze)
The official camera of the Colts (Canon)
The official car of the colts (Toyota)

Wow, what a list. If I have somehow missed one, please let me know in the comments.

December 28, 2009 | Filed Under local to indy, random thoughts

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Coincidence? I think not…

The past few days have been a little crazy around here due to the fact that Stephanie’s family is in town as well as her best friend and boyfriend. We always love having people visit so that we can go do some of the more touristy stuff that we never seem to get around to doing when we’re just hanging out together (as well as stuff we’ve done before, but still love doing again).

I’ll get more into all of this later in posts that are soon-to-come, but I will say that the highlight has definitely been finally getting to go check out Napa Valley yesterday. Napa is an amazing place and the fact that it’s only about an hour or so away makes me wonder why we had never gone before, but thanks to our family and friends being in San Francisco we were able to finally cross it off our to-do list.

The one thing that I wanted to post up really quick (after that somewhat lengthy introduction), is a pic that I shot on my phone as we were cruising through China Town today (which is always a good time). As we were looking though some of the many cheap trinkets, souvenirs and other odd things we found a rack of small, California license plates that you can buy with your name on them. After a few seconds of looking through the racks for our names, we ended up finding them at the same time. See the pic below to see what they looked like.

091129chinatownlicenseplate

Coincidence? I think not. :)

November 29, 2009 | Filed Under getting mushy, random thoughts, san francisco

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The Gaupers are AWESOME!- the proof is in our wedding photos

The moment has finally arrived.  Our wedding proofs are available for viewing on the Gauper Photo website, www.gauperphoto.com  Go ahead and click here for a direct link to our wedding.

Ryan and I went through the set last night, and we even made a video capturing our reaction to some of the more ‘crazy’ photos that popped up in the mix.  Ok, so there were a lot of crazy pictures in the proofs because that is what the majority of what our wedding day consisted, and that’s just the way we wanted it to be.  Ryan and Holly did such a great job on the pictures.  They truly captured every detail of the entire day, and we couldn’t be happier with how they all turned out.  After looking through the photos i’ve decided that I definitely want to plan another wedding for us next year :)  Now if only I could convince Ryan of this idea…

We’ll post the video that we made later along with a couple of our favorite shots of the day.  Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we did!

November 23, 2009 | Filed Under random thoughts

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