casthompson

Last week I had the opportunity of attending my first UFC fight.   I’ve been following UFC for close to a year and I jumped on the tickets as soon as I heard that UFC 88 Breakthrough would be in Atlanta.

For those that don’t know, the UFC is a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) association based out of Vegas and they are regarded as the largest in the world.  

I personally jumped on the bandwagon to fill a void after boxing just started becoming boring to me.   I would highly recommend catching a live fight if you have been following on PPV or SpikeTV.  

That’s me and UFC CEO Dana White above and a few more pics from that night below…

Me and Miguel Torres – current WEC Champion

Chuck Liddell – before getting laid out

Rashad Evans after laying out the Iceman

Certainly a night that I won’t forget!

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Five years ago today, I was modding Nextel phones for a living.  Knocking out i95’s in 15 minutes and lining them up with l.e.d.s – until…  I got burnt out!!

Today, I just did my first blackberry mod and I remembered why I decided to get out of the game.  I just don’t have time.   Even though the berry turned out sweet, I can’t see myself turning this into a business model.  Instead, I’ll point you to the video so you can learn how to break the warranty on your device yourself.  Check out Blackberry Housings and get your precision screwdriver set ready.

Click here to see more Nextel throwbacks from five years ago!!

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I have less than 1 week to appreciate my Dad!

Any “original” ideas on the table?   These don’t count!

What do you get the guy that already has it all?

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Today marks the eighth part in my Becoming A US Citizen Series.  The whole process took 90 minutes.  15 minutes through security, 60 minutes of nothing but waiting and 15 minutes of interview time.

The questions mirrored everything on the N400 application.   If you have an interview coming up, the best thing to do is try and not be nervous.  The second thing to do is study your Citizenship Questions.   As promised earlier on the twitter account, here is a list of the questions that were asked of me.

1.  What is the supreme law of the land?

2.  What is the legislative branch of government?

3.  Name two senators from your state.

4.  Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court?

5.  What is the main belief of the Declaration of Indepencence?

6.  Who wrote the Star Spangled Banner?

7.  What did the Emancipation  Declaration do?

8.  What year was the constitution written?

9.  Where is the White House (it’s funny how she hit me with the hard questions up front)

10.  In what month is the President inaugurated?
Not as easy as it looks huh?   Here are the Citizenship Quiz Answers.

Want to be a citizen?  Click here for your Immigration Forms

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Moving right along…    I finally got a letter with an appointment for my interview.   I started on Jan 14th and I’m very surprised at the speed of the whole process.   Keep your fingers crossed.  The sooner I get my passport situated, the sooner I can post more travel pics!

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On my list of things to do before I leave the planet is see the Great Wall of China. Since my passport game is temporarily shut down, I decided to complete a task that was a little bit more local. So I took another trip to Vegas to see it from another view, three miles in the air.

Skydiving is just one of those things that you know you want to do or you know you will never do. If you need a 30 minute rush of adrenaline that will last for hours, jump out of an airplane.

Everything was cool, until I lost my first parachute… Thank God for a sturdy reserve. The best way to see the Hoover Dam and the Vegas Strip at the same time, is up in the air.

Catch it on video

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There are only a few things that I can say that I truly hate in this world. One of them is paper. I’m all for a paperless home and office but honestly, it’s hard. You still have to file paper somewhere. The French have introduced Xambox.

The Xambox is part scanner, part filing cabinet. It will scan your paper, turn it into a pdf text file and then file it by date. What’s really hot is, you can search for text and the Xambox will tell you exactly were the original document is.

Check it out!

Thanks Jim.

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Fingerprints are now done.  The next step is my interview.

Catch up on the timeline here.

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Letter number two.  Someone wants to take my fingerprints.   Maybe that someone read my Obama post.

February 29th is the date, write it down.

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If you have been following my Becoming A US Citizen posts, you are all aware of my naturalization quest. There is a back story to all of this of course. My entire family became citizens years ago and back then, I really didn’t see a pressing need. Most of the US citizens that I knew didn’t exercise their right to vote or utilize their other perks. I’ve never wanted to take a side of being a democrat or republican. Most of my views are pretty mixed. For the first time, I’ve been following a candidate that I believe can make a change. I’m officially and publicly supporting Barack.

I’m supporting him not because he is black or white, male or female, democrat or republican, but because I think that he is the best candidate to take on the current state of this country.

If you want to do more research on his stance on the economy, education, the environment, Iraq and civil rights, check out his homepage. He is very charismatic and sincerely motivational.

Now, all I have to do is get processed before election day!

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I’m still impressed with the initial speed of this process but now comes the stretch.

... and the letter states

“You will be notified of the date and place of your interview when you have been scheduled by the local USCIS office. You should expect to be notified with 450 days of this notice”

That’s right folks; 450 days.

What are the chances of naturalizing before election day?

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The government has cashed their check.

This is moving faster than expected.

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Cas Thompson has requested that you receive a Track & Confirm update, as shown
below.

Track & Confirm e-mail update information provided by the U.S. Postal Service.

Label Number: 7007 2560 0000 4696 5090

Service Type: Certified

Shipment Activity        Location                               Date & Time————————————————————————————————————————Delivered                MESQUITE TX 75185                      01/18/08  5:45am

Notice Left              MESQUITE TX 75185                      01/17/08  1:19pm

Arrival at Unit          MESQUITE TX 75149                      01/17/08 11:32am

Becoming A US Citizen Part I

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That’s the mugshot of the passport photo that I’m sending off today. Along with the photo, I’m sending off my N400 and $675 bucks.

I’m the only one in my family that hasn’t naturalized and rumor has it that the citizenship process moves a lot faster during an election year.

It looks like I’ll have to renew my Jamaican passport as well. It expires this month which puts all international travel at a stand still.

I’m heading to the post office to start Project “Citizenship” – long overdue…. Project “Passport” is next week

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I’m sure that you have a little turkey left over from Thanksgiving.  If you’re already tired of turkey sandwiches and turkey salad,  try turkey and couscous.

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1.  Cut a circle on the top of your pumpkin large enough for your hand to fit in.

2.  Clean out all pulp and seeds.  Use a large metal or plastic spoon.  You can also fill the pumpkin with warm water to help with the pulp.

3.  Outline your image on the pumpkin with pencil or marker

4.  Cut you outline with a small but long knife.  Sawing back and forth is the easiest way not to overcut.

5.  Pop out your out-lined pieces

6.  Add a candle to the inside of your pumpkin and you’re done.

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I know you think it’s a little early to be focusing on summer of 2008. The older I get the more I become aware of what I’m putting in my body.

You’ve watched me do everything from venom pills to cabbage soup diets and it’s that time again. But this time I’m going at it in a whole different way. First off, I’m not overweight or out of shape… I’m just not the same ole casthompson I was 10 years ago. It’s time to get back to that place. Remember when I was able to… well ya know…

I’m aiming for a complete lifestyle change. And all I am doing are these four things

• I have eliminated red meat completely from my diet


• Water is the new beverage of choice when I’m in the position to make a choice


• I am committed to running at least twice per week


• I’m eating lighter… replacing pasta and rice with couscous

That’s it, that’s all. Nothing fantastic. It’s just taken me several years to realize that diets won’t work. I want my abs back.

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After not posting for a fews days because of other things on my palette, I figured that a fitting comeback post would relate to online time management. Between the nine to five, online businesses, family life and finding time for entertainment sometimes there is little time for personal development. Here is a short list of things that I have done to cut my online time in half but remain productive.

• Use an RSS reader – This is the single most important time management tool. Since using Google Reader over Sage I have been flying through niche news in no time. Thanks Cheynne for putting me on to the blackberry technique. Now I can keep up with news even when I’m not online.

• Don’t check earnings as often – I know that it’s hard but there is little that you can do at 1:00 p.m. to change your affiliate earnings. Unless you are experimenting, checking once per day is just as effective. I check adsense daily and my other programs weekly.

• Automation – Whatever you can create an automated system for, don’t wait… Just Do It. Aweber is currently my favorite tool for newsletters and automated messaging. It’s pretty cut and dry.

• Planning – Schedule your days. I try not to random surf as much as I use to. If something intriguing crosses my screen I hit CRTL D and save it for later. I tend to work best between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. so I save projects for nights when I don’t have to get up early the next day.

What techniques have you guys been using not to get burned out?

Technorati Tags: time management

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Hanging with Jadon, Ziana, Tiara and Dheaven was just the start of a good weekend in NY. In 96 hours I was able to

• Eat a decent slice of Pizza


• Hit the Westchester Mall to take care of overdue Mother’s & Father’s Day gifts


• Catch friends, cousins, nieces and nephews that I haven’t seen in an eternity


• Eat a beef patty from Royal Caribbean Bakery


• Sleep in, twice


• Catch Evan Almighty (not bad) with my sister


• Eat real Chinese food (Chinese food in Atlanta sucks)


• Get schooled on MatMice by Tiara

I think I gained five pounds!!

Technorati Tags: new york

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My front yard has been in need of a make over for three seasons now. With 4 hours and 50 bags of pine bark I was able to transform the front area of the house from ashy to classy.

Before

Nasty huh? Check out after…

Ahhhh… a lot better.

Technorati Tags: landscaping

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