This pictures means a lot to me. This is actually 4 generations of Thomas Wallace Burn’s. My Dad (Thomas Wallace Burn Jr.) is at the top, My Son (Thomas Wallace Burn IV) is on the right and my Grandfather (Thomas Wallace Burn), who is 93 years young, is at the left. I am really lucky to have my Grandfather around at my age. I’m especially thankful that my grandfather knows the family name and his values will be carried on for many years to come. I am also really thankful my son knows how wonderful his great grandfather really is.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I have become obsessed with Facebook.  It is just so much darn fun.  If you are a member, look me up.  Chances are, I will become your friend.

When I woke up on the morning of June 22, I had know idea what my day was going to entail a bit of sadness. It was just like any other Saturday morning.  Roll out of bed around 7am, play toys with the kids, make a pot of coffee, get some breakfast, just the usual morning routine.  Until my daughter ask me to look at “pics” (pictures) on the computer.  I said, “okay”.  I love to look at pictures on the computer with her while listening to some good tunes.  We have a seat at the computer desk, I double click the External Hard Drive icon ….  nothing happens …. 10 seconds later … “bonk” (the windows error sound effect) …. “A I/O Error has occurred” window pops up.  I immediately thought to myself that can’t be right.  Meanwhile, my daughter has lost interest in looking at “pics” and has moved onto looking through all of the DVD’s.  I turn off Drive, unplugged it and restarted the computer.  I thought to myself, “That should work, I’m sure a connection had just got messed up”.  Once the Computer is boots up and is on, I plug in the Drive and turn it on.  Windows tries to scan the drive but nothing comes up.  I click on the Hard Drive icon, “bonk”, I/O Error window pops up. Okay, now I’ve become a little nervous.  I could feel my body temp rise a few notches.  Everything that was on that Hard Drive is racing through my mind.  I was constantly mumbling, “Oh Shit”.  After troubleshooting/resuscitating for another 45 minutes, with nothing seeming to work, I except the fate of the drive.  It was gone and so was everything that was on it.

The Drive had a capicity of 300 Gigs.  I had only about 70 Gb’s of free space left.  On it, about 170 Lossless Grateful Dead Shows that I had collected for the past year and half, a little over 30 Widespread Panic SBD Re-Masters, 15 or so JGB Shows, about 10 Lossless Phish Shows, all of my backed-up old computer files, all of my backed-up Photos, and all of my backed-up videos.  All gone.  Needless to say, it was a tough one to swallow.  Luckily, I didn’t lose all of my Old Computer files because I still have my old computer in the closet. Thank God I did back up all my photos to another Hard Drive.  All I really lost was all the music.  However, over time I will be able to download it all once again.  So, the lesson learned, back-up stuff multiple times that you know you want to keep forever, if not, it will eventually be lost … guaranteed.  Oh, if you are looking into a external hard drive, stay away from Seagate drives.  That drive should have lasted  longer than that.

This picture was taken by a friend of mine who used to work with me. His name is Jeremy Carrow and now works up in in New York City at Fox Business as a Motion Graphics Artist. He told me he snapped this picture off of his balcony of his apartment when the storm was in full force. He said he set his Cannon Rebel SLR on top a tripod and set the bulb setting to 5 seconds. Once he saw the flash of lightning he pressed the shutter button and captured one of the most amazing lightning shot I have ever seen!!! Nice job, Jeremy!

Well, I finally got to hit the course these past 2 Sundays and it was a great feeling! The weather was perfect on both days! The first Sunday, I really felt good about my swing (even though it has always looked pretty ugly). I really was striking the ball well during the whole 9 holes. I ended up hitting 5 greens in regulation but carded a 43. Yes, that is a lot of putts. In fact, it was an incredible amount of 3 putts. I do, of course, have few excuses. 1) It was my first time out and I had the winter puttin’ jitters. (hit the ball too hard or not enough) 2) The pin placement I noticed wasn’t very forgiving. It was either, up front or way in the back and almost always snug again the fringe. 3) I hated the balls I was playing with. They felt like I was hitting a rock the whole round. 4) I didn’t take time to look at the line of the putt. Weak excuses I know, but what can you do but try to justify. All and all, I ended up walking off the course that day feeling pretty good about my first round of 2008.

Yesterday, I felt a little intimidated on the tee box. It was a unnecessary, weird feeling, but for some reason I was feeling it. Maybe it was because I broke out a brand new sleeve of balls that I really like and didn’t feel like losing one off the first shot. Who knows. I still ended up hitting a crappy shot off the first tee which headed directly into the driving range. ( the driving range goes right up the left hand side of the first tee at RBYCC). I took a mulligan, because I felt like I deserved it, calmed down a little, then smacked it right down the center. I did end up finding my first shot, so I was somewhat relieved I didn’t lose the ball. Next shot - chili chunked a 7 iron left of the green then a nice chip center of the green . Since my putting was so horrible last week, I thought I better take my time on each putt to see if that helps. Titleist’s have this great marking on the ball they call A.I.M. (Alignment Integrated Marking), so I figured I would use this feature to line up my shot on every putt. I really think it helped. I felt more comfortable over the ball on each putt. I didn’t hit has many greens as I did last Sunday but ended up making many more putts and carding a 42. That is with only hitting 4 greens. If you combine both rounds, I ended up with a 85 for a 18 hole round. Granted that was playing the same 9 both rounds, but that isn’t to bad in my book for the first 2 rounds of the season.

Hopefully, if “free time” permits, this is just a taste of what will be a great summer golf season!

After many years of wishing, it finally has come true. Widespread Panic is going to be releasing archival shows! To a true Spreadhead, this is a very momentous occasion. Here are the details of the first release:

Recorded live at Southern Illinois University Arena in Carbondale, IL on December 1, 2000, this very special multi-track recording features all original band members. (I can’t even begin to tell you how crucial that is)

Disc 1:
1. Let’s Get Down to Business
2. Tall Boy
3. Rock
4. Jack
5. Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
6. Party At Your Mama’s House
7. Impossible
8. Genesis
9. Give

Disc 2:
1. One Arm Steve
2. Walk On
3. Thought Sausage
4. Airplane
5. Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
6. Drums

Disc 3:
1. Drums and Bass
2. Maggot Brain
3. Chilly Water
4. Papa’s Home
5. Ain’t Life Grand
6. Let’s Get the Show on the Road
7. Climb To Safety

I heard a snippet of Rock on there website and let me just tell you … superb!!! This multi-track recording is pristine! I really can’t wait to hear all 3 discs. Pre-order, here I come!

From this:

To this:

Pretty freakin awesome!

When I was younger, Church seemed like a chore. It was a bore and I really didn’t feel like going any more. Now that I have grown older and I have my own family, I feel it is extremely important to teach my children everyday the “better way”. (Woah, weird rhyming going on.) I have always wanted to get back into going and learn more about the teachings of Christ and how to better incorporate them into the “Real World”, but knew the Church I had attended during my youth just wasn’t going to be what I was looking for. So, my wife found a Church that fits perfectly into our current lifestyle - family oriented. This past weekend we officially became members of Bethel United Methodist Church in Lewes. The service we attend is called a “contemporary” service. It’s upbeat, fun, relaxing and gives you a overall good positive feeling. Finally, for the first time in my life, I’m looking forward to going to Church next Sunday and learning something new.