Memorial Day

For all of those out there who plan on enjoying your freedoms today and exercising your liberty give a prayer for those who made it possible with their sacrifices.

Today we are planning on exercising our freedoms by cooking out and having friends over! Traditional food is on the menu, burgers, bratwurst, sides. Nothing fancy.

Please just remember those who came before and are fighting now, remember those they left behind, and remember those who loved this country enough to die for it.

Sunday Morning

It's Sunday. It's nice out.

Didn't get a nap in yesterday after the Guy's Night. I did smoke a pork roast and made pulled pork. Put it on around three thirty and it was finished around ten thirty. It was falling apart tender after seven hours. I was anticipating a longer smoke but it was ready in less than half the estimated time.

It produced enough meat for about fifteen sandwiches. That'll be good for lunch, supper, and a snack later for the whole family.

Now for a lazy Sunday! Hope you enjoy your day too!

Guy's Night Success

So last night around six thirty Jamal invited Mozart, J, Teehee, Beersnob, and I over to his house for a evening of guy fun. Jamal grilled a splendid rib eye steak dinner, served homemade mojitos, and we just had an all around fun time!

Skate was also invited but he had a camping trip to drive to last night and was unable to attend. It was a grand evening of fun and frivolity.

I drove Beersnob home and got to bed around two. As you can tell I'm up and typing before nine. I laid in bed a little bit before getting up so I was probably awake around seven thirty.

Thank you Jamal for a great evening! Thank you my friends for a great time!

Brilliant Or Racist?

I'm a huge fan of Adult Swim, well the cartoon shows anyway not so much the live action shows. Live action shows should not be on a channel devoted to cartoons. That's beside the point though.

This blog is focused on a show that should be on one of the major networks, The Boondocks.

This is not a show for the racially squeamish. It focuses on a black family. There is Grandad, Huey, and Riley. Huey is the level headed scholar. Riley is the thug wannabe. Grandad is the reactionary who feels left out of the civil rights movement even though (in his mind) he was greater than Rosa Parks.

Then there is the surrounding cast, Uncle Ruckus. Grandad's best friend and a black man who believes he's white. Then there is the Dubois family. Tom is a black district attorney while his wife is white and a housewife. Their daughter Jasmine is a friend of Huey.

Their neighbor across the street is the rapper Thugnificent and his Lethal Interjection Crew.

The Boondocks is based on the comic strip by Aaron McGruder. Even though he is a raving liberal I respect his voice and his ideas. It is unapologetic satire and pokes fun at nearly everything from politicians to the hip hop culture. Many episodes have been banned from airing because of the controversial matter.

This is a satire that should provoke intelligent discussion on race relations as it is intended but instead tends to be taken at face value and easily offends those who are looking to be offended.

It should challenge viewers to become more aware of racial boundaries while hopefully producing a true color blind society where the people who make their living off from peddling racism disappear. Forever.

It will take a show like this in the mainstream (the reason I feel it should be a show is because our society has become more entertainment driven) to rip off the scabs of politically correct race relations and get to the issues that lie beneath. When the sun shines on those sores they will heal and go away once and for all.

Watch it, it'll challenge you too.

The Upgrade

Yesterday my Windows 7 Ultimate package arrived. I found it on my Cigar Asylum forum from a business owner who had bought too many licenses and wanted to sell this one at a 60% discount. I jumped on it as I knew that my new Adobe Suite upgrade needed W7 to perform at it's best.

Editing, rendering, and exporting should now take roughly half the time it used to under CS2 with CS5 with the W7 platform running it. That means good things if you are an editor:)

I started around six thirty with the W7 install. It took time, around nine it finished. Then I rebooted the PC again and put in the first Adobe DVD. It was much faster and I finished up around a quarter til eleven. Way past my bedtime for sure!

I've noticed a performance boost, something along the lines of a tuned OS running on a dual core system. It hums right along and I've noticed the cpu meter stays around the bottom of the scale, keeping the load on the processors fairly low. That's good too.

I was afraid I'd lose all of my files to start with until I read the upgrade instructions and since I was using Vista Ultimate 64 to begin with this was a simple upgrade instead of a reformat.

I was thrilled about that as I hate reformatting often. Yeah I know it runs like a brand new PC but so does an OS upgrade. It's rocking along right now just fine thank you:)

It's Opilio Season!

On my favorite show, Deadliest Catch it is now Snow Crab or Opilio Crab season. This is the hardest season on the men and gear because it's winter time on the Bearing Sea.

Temperatures stay under freezing for the duration of the trip. Ice forms on every single inch of the ship, pots, and even men. Until they unload their gear they are at serious risk of capsizing as they generally have over one hundred thousand pounds of pots on board, stacked up to thirty feet above the deck.

Its dangerous, freezing, and miserable work. Long long hours, little rest, and harsh conditions are constants over the three to four week season. That's the backdrop of my favorite show.

Opilio season follows King Crab season. King Crabs are giants, massive crab and it takes less of them to fulfill the quota per ship. Opilios are smaller but you usually find more of them per pot than the Kings. It takes more Opilios to fulfill the quota per ship meaning they stay out there longer in the freezing cold.

Memorial Day they are going to have a Deadliest Catch marathon on Discovery. If you have ever thought about watching this show that would be the time. It's amazing at the limits these men can push themselves to in order to obtain their goals and get America the crab it wants to buy.

If you haven't seen it, watch it.

That Was Fun!

Ok so yesterday didn't start off so well. Turns out with the new alarm clock there are three settings, Off, On, and Auto. To turn on the alarm it has to be set to Auto. I had it on Off while thinking it was on On. Make sense? Yeah, me neither.

Anyway this morning the alarm went off like it was supposed to and my day started like it was supposed to:)

Last night The Date, Thing 2, and I went fishing at the park prior to rehearsal which was held at the park. We fished for about an hour before rehearsal started. Then I fished until around eight thirty until rehearsal broke up.

Skate, The Invader, and Witchy came over to the fishing spot and wanted to fish for a bit too. So Skate took Thing 1's pole, baited it, and we fished for a while longer. Nothing was biting but I'd had some nibbles earlier.

Last cast for me, nothing. Last cast for Skate and he was about to reel it in when the bobber moved. It went under a bit and came back up. Then again. Finally the fish took the bait! Skate reeled in his first fish!

A one, one and a half pound catfish! We took pictures and then headed to Braum's to celebrate with ice cream:)

It was a good evening!

Almost Late!

June 15th will be my eighteenth anniversary at my job. I've never been late, not once.

This morning I came close as the alarm on the new alarm clock failed to go off.

I jumped into the shower at three minutes after seven and was out the door at seven fifteen. Lunch in hand and running fast.

I didn't have time to stop for coffee like normal so I got a Mtn. Dew at work.



-- Post From My iPhone

Busy But Productive

Yesterday started off with set call at ten.

That lead into a teen meeting for a fund raiser and a rehearsal schedule for the fund raiser at noon.

Then I came home and mowed the majority of the lawn.

After that Thing 2 was trying to learn how to sew so she texted Grandma (my mom) to show her and twenty minutes later she was here and working away with Thing 2. Which is great as The Things have never really had an active grandparent in their lives until now.

Beersnob texted me to see if I could help him move a table and chairs to his mother in law's place so that was next on the agenda. Followed by getting The Date supper and delivering it to her work.

After that it was time for a premium cigar with Beersnob and some serious talk about the bands of the eighties.

Then it was home where Thing 2 and I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame with the great Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, and Sir Cedric Hardwick. Such a great movie! It turned into a small marathon for Sir Hardwick as Nicholas Nickleby was up next on TCM. A movie I'd never seen but enjoyable!

Fishing was on the agenda yesterday but alas the wind was blowing too hard and it looks as if the wind will keep us from wet lines today as well. It is blowing very hard out this sunny Sunday morning.

Super Friday

Work was super busy though but it lead to a fast day. I did have a co-worker find me some of the best potato chips made. I was so impressed by them I bought four bags and took them home.

Ok Herr's brand potato chips are incredible. I had him buy me BBQ Baby Back Ribs flavor which taste like ribs! He also got me Kansas City Prime Rib and they are amazing! And then two more mundane flavors in Ragin' Ranch and Pizza. Both are good but the rib flavor and steak flavor are a level above the best potato chip I've had.

Now if they would have Worcestershire flavor! Oh man!

Ok so after work finished up Thing 2 and I headed to the park for some quality fishing time. The little Mexican boy was back and having a great time. He sat by me and fished for quite a while. Thing 2 and I both had our bait stolen a few times so I decided to go to the bait shop and get some smaller hooks. The ones we were using were entirely too big.

We loaded up and headed out, got the new hooks and some glow worms then headed back to fish for awhile. It was a beautiful day out and it was just fun to sit there and watch your bobber dance in the windy waves.

This time though it wasn't long before Thing 2 started yelling, "I got one! I got one!" She reeled in a tiny bluegill for her first fish! We carefully took it off of the hook and turned it loose. She was smiling from ear to ear!

All in all it was a good day:)

It's That Time Of Year

The hunter/gatherer of the cave must be out before dawn while the women folk of the cave are allowed to sleep in as they have no public school cave to attend. This will mean the women folk of the cave will be staying up later and sleeping in later.

Thing 1 will likely not stir until the hunter/gatherer gets back to the cave from a long day hunting and gathering. Such is the cycle of life.

Good news is that rehearsals for Julius Caesar will be headed to the public pond Thing 2 and I have been fishing at lately next week. That means around five thirty we can head to where we've been headed to and fish until rehearsal starts while I can fish until rehearsal is over. How cool is that?

Today is payday Friday. Love those days! Makes the hunting and gathering worth while so the women folk of the cave can not have to worry about the cave payment and only about putting more hieroglyphics on the cave walls:)

Ok, Adobe CS5 arrived yesterday! I looked it over briefly before heading out again. I think I'm going to do a reformat before installing the suite. That might be a project for next weekend, we'll see.

Tornadoes In The Area

Just as I was about to clock out yesterday and go home the sirens start sounding. Everyone in the building headed for the shelter areas until we got the all clear which came about twenty minutes afterward.

There was a large tornado about ten miles south of us. It was headed away from us but still it evoked a mild sense of excitement. I don't believe you can live where we live and not know what a hook echo is or a wall cloud.

We have been taught through hours and hours of TV coverage during tornado season all of the terms associated with a tornado. We can spot a wall cloud, dry line, rain wrapped mesocyclone, and some Doppler radar signatures fairly well not to mention the cloud formations that accompany this kind of weather.

All in all after some rain the weather was fairly calm here last night. I grilled burgers and hot dogs. It was raining at the time but the patio covers the Big Green Egg.

Watched River Monsters last night after the tornado coverage. It's a good show. Fits right in with the recent fishing kick. He was at Lake Illiama in Alaska. It is a lake that is larger than Rhode Island and up to a thousand feet deep. They have their own Loch Ness Monster but it turns out to be a White Sturgeon. These fish get up to eighteen feet long and weigh up to a thousand pounds.

They are also prone to jumping out of the water and scaring people. They have no teeth but their sheer size is damaging to people and boats if they want to investigate something.

We'll see what today holds in store for the weather:)

Stormy Morning:)

There is just something cool about the morning of a storm. It is rumbling up some big noises outside but we are all safe inside our homes. It's nice. So here is an arrangement of odd observations for the morning.

Watched the penultimate episode of Lost last night with The Date so we are caught up with America and anxiously looking forward to the finale on Sunday.

While I enjoy Lost I still find that the best scifi on TV is Stargate: Universe. Yes the Destiny is still my favorite ship, replacing the USS Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I'm looking into making pastrami. It's time consuming, more so than bacon as it has to brine for thirty days before being smoked. It'll be a challenge if I pursue it.

Anti-incumbent sentiment has struck again, forcing Arkansas Senator Blanch Lincoln into a primary runoff and forcing Arlen Specter out of office late this year as the eighty year old lost his bid as the Democrat candidate. It was an upset for sure however Rand Paul won the Kentucky primary. He is nearly a Libertarian even though he has an R by his name. He was the underdog in that race and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had endorsed and supported his opponent.

As for President Obama's coattails? They have gone 0-4 thus far in elections as he campaigned for Specter this cycle and previously took losses in Massachusetts, Virginia, and most notably New Jersey. People are afraid of big government and how it will infringe upon their liberties.

D.C. needs a reboot and to be reigned in. We can never begin to start paying off the nation's debt that has been borrowed in our lifetimes leaving the next generations to deal with crippling debt and no matter how much you tax the rich, they don't have enough either. Not to mention if you get above the 50% mark the rich will start to figure out ways to protect their wealth if not just move to countries with lower taxes then who are you going to tax?

We, you, me, everyone, has an ugly amount of debt right now as a nation. We are going to wind up like Greece with our overspending and massive entitlements if we don't cut back the spending.

I would sign a document right now that the government can keep every single penny of what I've paid into social security since I've been in the work force if I'm allowed to keep everything I make from here on out without the government taking it from me. I would put it all into my own retirement package and be far better off than what they claim I would be. I'd rather be in charge of my retirement than let politicians deciding what is best for me.

Ok, off the soap box, I'm getting ready for a rainy day of work:) I hope everyone enjoys today and we are now on the downhill slide towards the weekend!

Universal Happiness

Ok so there Thing 2 and I were, setting up by the small public pond to do a couple of hours of fishing. Thing 2 has been fishing three times and has caught no fish but she has had several nibbles. Her worm was stolen twice last night.

So there we were, getting all baited and ready to fish. Then two Mexican children came up beside us. A young boy and his slightly older sister. The sister walked over to the dock and started fishing with a hand line, a small hook, a bobber, and a third of a worm.

The boy, maybe eight or nine, kept watching me as I carefully handled Thing 2's hook and then my own. I said, "Hello" and he said "No English." He sat beside me, not too close but close enough to watch me fish. I cast it out a couple of times and he watched. Thing 2 was about ten feet away from me and fishing near the dock where his sister was fishing.

I stood up and waved for him to come over. I showed him how to cast with my rod and reel, how to use his thumb to stop the reel from a nasty backlash, and how to reel it back in again.

Then I motioned for him to cast it and walked back to my chair and had a seat in the warm sun. The ducks flew by so close I could reach out and touch them it seemed at times. They'd land in the water and take off again. The little Mexican boy was having a blast, Thing 2 was having a blast, the sister sat earnestly on the dock with her handline, watching her bobber.

Then she pulled up a tiny perch. About the size of her hand and half the size of mine. She ran over to her brother. He took the tiny thing off of the hook and she let it go back into the pond. I just sat there and enjoyed the afternoon. Thing 2 took a nightcrawler over to her and gave it to her for the hook to replace her now eaten worm.

Finally it came around to time to leave and we loaded up and headed to rehearsal, I felt sorry about saying goodbye to such a great afternoon but it was time. It was a good afternoon and even though I couldn't talk to the children we understood each other.

Software Ordered

The next major step in the commercial business was to upgrade my software suite. I use the Adobe Production Premium suite of software and that was accomplished yesterday afternoon.

Thanks to Beersnob we ordered CS5. It should be here within a week or so. The step after that will be upgrading the computer, the final step will be a huge camera upgrade and replace my XL1s as it is the one that will wear out first. It is a workhorse though and has many hours left in it.

Sometime this week I should have to travel to a local town and finish shooting the commercial for the storm shelter company. I talked to them Friday and they were going to try and schedule their crews in for a few hours so we could shoot it. We'll see how it goes, I'd rather do it sooner than later but this is on their time schedule.

The software upgrade was a major step forward for the business. It will streamline my production capabilities. I started watching the Lynda tutorials last night and got maybe a third of the way through the Premiere set.

Next up will be After Effects which is nearly twelve hours in duration so I've got a long way to go.

Somewhat Successful Fishing Trip!

The company, weather, and trip were great. The fishing? Eh, we caught four fish among nine people.

Mr. Germany caught a perch, followed by Beersnob catching a perch, hours later The Date caught a catfish (about six inches) and then later still I caught a one pound bass.

It was fun all around though and accomplished the desired result of getting out for a while. It really helped The Date to get some fresh air and get lakeside even though it was a long walk to where we were fishing. Her ankle is getting better, Thing 2 and I might take her to the local park pond and fish again Monday evening:)

I'm really enjoying fishing after work and before rehearsals. It's a good relaxing way to unwind. The next fishing trip hasn't been planned as of yet but it will be planned very soon and more than likely a few more people will want to join the fun!

I'm looking forward to it!

Fishing!!!!

Yes the girls and I along with a small band of friends are headed to the lake this morning to fish! The storm that was headed our way broke up before reaching us and went right over the top of us!

It should be a clear day and good fishing weather! Yay!!!!

We are headed out shortly!

Better

Yesterday was better on The Date and her very swollen ankle. Still very sore though but better.

After work and after we ate yesterday I took Thing 2 down to a public pond by one of the hospitals and let her fish for real for the first time. She got her first bite and it scared her! She didn't know what to do but it was fun! She got very excited and was smiling super big.

There were lots of people fishing and no one was catching anything so I didn't feel badly at all that we weren't either. She did ask, "How long does it take to catch a fish?" I didn't know what to respond with...

We walked around to the other side of the pond and then saw something swimming in the water. I thought it was a ground squirrel or something like that. Finally we realized it was a baby beaver. Yeah a real life baby beaver swimming amongst the ducks.

Thing 2 ran around to the other side of the pond again to get a closer look to it and it swam over to the side I was on. It was a lot of fun for both of us and we plan on doing it again this afternoon before rehearsal. We got some nightcrawlers last night and I showed Beersnob what kind of gear he should get. So we are all good now and just hoping the weather is nice tomorrow!

It Started After I Got To Work

I was sitting there drinking my coffee when I got a call from The Date. She had fallen off of the front porch and thought she had broken her ankle. I came home as fast as I could go and found her and Thing 2 in the yard.

She couldn't move it hurt so badly. So Thing 2 and I loaded her up in the car and took her to the ER for x-rays. Thankfully they came back negative but the ligaments were torn which caused the intense pain.

She is camped out on the couch and doing better this morning though, even through last night's very loud storm.

No tornadoes but plenty of high winds and rain. I got lots of work done yesterday on the installation video. I just have to edit it together now as I have all the building blocks in place. I'm going to give them two or three versions, each similar but varying lengths so they can decide which they want to show at fairs and trade shows.

Hopefully Saturday will be a nice day, I'm going to need a relaxing day of fishing after this week:)

My Flirtation With Baseball Part Two

So last night before rehearsal I had an idea. I was going to load up Dallas Braden's perfect game from Mother's Day and watch it at rehearsal. There have only been nineteen perfect games in the history of MLB so it's fairly rare to see.

I found it on iTunes and loaded it onto my iPhone. A full game is about one rehearsal so the timing was perfect.

For those who are unaware of what a perfect game is, a pitcher retires twenty seven batters in a row and no one is allowed on base. I believe Mark Buehrle holds the record of most batters retired in a row after throwing a perfect game with forty five.

After the perfect game was watched there were still a few minutes of rehearsal left so I checked the MLB app and found the Dodger's game to see if Vin Scully was calling the game. He was so I was happy.

This experiment will likely not rekindle my former love of baseball as it once was. It might offer a modicum of interest though and the ability to watch a rare game during the season until the playoffs are on. If there is a compelling story during the season though I reserve the right to watch at my leisure.

Saturday is fast approaching! I'm so excited about this fishing trip! Thing 1's reel is loaded correctly now and the line will not spool off when cranked correctly. This is going to be so much fun!

Busy Evening!

It was busy not to mention there was tornadoes in the area. We are completely safe but the OKC area got hammered pretty hard. There was some activity East of us but we missed the whole show except for the super high winds.

I took Thing 2 to the Theatre board meeting, took Thing 1's broken fishing reel back and got a refund, bought her a spinner reel that I'm having problems keeping the line on, and picked up some groceries last night.

Busy.

Saturday had better have nice weather! I'm so excited about taking the girls out fishing! This is going to be so much fun!

All Caught Up

Yesterday The Date and The Things headed over to a college town to watch Jekyll and Hyde. I stayed home and got caught up on Lost, did the dishes, mowed the yard and other Mother's Day things.

Thing 1's new fishing reel doesn't work so I'm taking it to work as I have access to an entire machine shop and guys who fish weekly. Between all of us I think we can get it working so I don't have to take it back to Wal-Mart and exchange it. Saturday is going to be so much fun!

We are all looking forward to this trip and hopefully a sunny, warm day!

Ok my impressions on Lost, I like where the alternate time line is going, it's seemingly bringing in people to say goodbye again from the show. Sort of like when a coach will take the seniors out of a big game one at a time with a couple of minutes left so the audience can applaud them.

The characters get a moment of dialogue and take a bow after a few scenes. I believe the series finale is on May twenty third as a double episode. It'll be huge ratings. It was smart to put it on Sunday night so people will talk about it on Monday instead of on Wednesday. It'll be the only topic of conversation as Lost will pretty much of Sunday night all to itself.

June fourth the new season of Whale Wars starts! This season is going to be great! The hippies lose an attack boat and fail more than they have ever failed before! I can't wait for this to start! I don't exactly understand why the Japanese don't use the same tactics on the hippies. They can use the acid, the fouling nets, and harassment if they choose to but don't. Instead they use defensive tactics such as fire hoses, audio, and running away from the hippies in their faster ships.

Ok let me say once again I love whales. I believe that whaling should be banned world wide except for the indigenous tribes in the Arctic who survive for months on one whale at a time. However with that being said it is hilarious to see these hippies accomplish nothing time after time after time. They make the same mistakes over and over again. They just don't learn and I believe the Japanese have filled their "research" quota every time.

What the Japanese are doing should be a crime but it is up to the lawmakers and not a band of pot smoking true believers to take the law into their own hands. The (impotent) UN should step in if they were capable of it and address whaling.

Good Morning

After serving The Date with breakfast in bed I noticed how achy my muscles are today. We worked hard yesterday repainting the Theatre's lobby. That was a job and a half and a mere eight of us were there to make it happen.

It would have been less but we made Thing 1 get dressed and come along to help. She had fun as did we all. It was a good tired after we were done but man were we tired!

Kudos to everyone who showed up and worked the day, everyone else will be in for a real treat when they see the lobby now. It is very different and as I listened to the plans of where it is going to be, I think everyone will like the direction.

Well not everyone as someone will dislike the new direction however I like it and I think it needs to be updated for the next generation of patrons. Yeah, it looks nice and I hope everyone gets behind it:)

Great Shoot!

Yesterday I was up before six am to prepare for the shoot starting at seven. I arrived on the job site about ten till to find my client already there and the work truck with the shelter, and back hoe on its way.

I get out and we chat a minute while the truck is coming down the street. I bring my camera bag and tripod to the garage where the storm shelter will go and assemble everything.

Next up they unload the concrete saw and make lots of noise at seven. Thankfully they had spare ear plugs and gave me a pair. I'm sure the neighbors were less than thrilled but this is the job.

By seven thirty the concrete is cut up and the Ditch Witch back hoe is moved off of the trailer and just outside the garage. It takes out the pieced slabs and easily removes them to the trailer. Then digging commences. This is the longest part of the process, taking around an hour to finish. The bottom of the pit is leveled out and then the shelter is put into place, did I mention it is just now around nine? Less than two hours after the process started the shelter is in the ground.

They are taking their time too as the concrete truck wasn't scheduled to arrive until ten. They tried to get it to come sooner but the driver was booked. So we wait for the truck to arrive.

Once it arrives and starts to pour the process took around an hour before things were packed up and I left just after eleven. It was a super fast process and the shoot was very smooth.

Turns out that this shelter was a door prize from the home show. They had won it! It was every bit the same shelter they had installed day in and day out all over Tornado Alley!

After the shoot I was then free to head home and nap, which I did:) Then I went and picked up Thing 2 from school and we headed to Wal-Mart to stock up on fishing gear for an excursion next weekend! That'll be lots of fun! Skate, Beersnob, Court, The Invader, maybe a handful of others expressed interest in going! Skate has never been fishing before so that'll be great fun! Thing 2 was learning how to cast in the yard last night. That was interesting.

I'm looking forward to it!

Job Day

So I was thinking about how my new clients hadn't called me or anything since the home show, which is why I hadn't blogged about them since.

Then yesterday they call me around noon and tell me they have a job with a home owner who is willing to let us film the job and it starts at seven this morning. So I asked permission for today off and I'll be at the place before seven so I can get set up and have everything shot for them.

This is for the demo DVD they wanted. They haven't given me much information on the commercial yet but it seems when they are ready for us then they'll call even though I requested a week's notice to schedule it. That's alright though, this is a good paying job and it will only take most of the morning. I might be able to get the majority of the video edited early this coming week if not finished.

I'm all ready to hit the road now and get this started but I'm about a half hour away from leaving the house. I'm anxiously looking forward to this job! It's a big one!

Lost's Final Season

With less than a handful of episodes left I have decided to start watching Lost. I purchased the show on iTunes so I could load it up on my phone and take it to work with me and to rehearsal in the evenings.

I watched the first three episodes last night, at this pace I'll be caught up in no time. What they are doing right now is very cool with the split time lines. Granted comic books have done this for a couple of decades now but it is still a unique storytelling device.

It'll be great to see the show wrapped up in a satisfying way. I hope they pull that off instead of the Soprano's nonending ending. Which in hindsight could have been predictable as that show had gone so far downhill it wasn't even funny at that point.

Now I'll be able to watch the ending with The Date and Thing 2, well and the rest of America. She has been begging me to hurry up and watch as she wanted someone to discuss the show with.

If I can see another three episodes tonight and then tomorrow night at rehearsal then I'll be just about there or at least in an easily manageable bite of entertainment.

Well it's Thursday and I'm off to work, today and tomorrow is payday Friday. Always welcome around here. Well I'm off to start that first of a two day sprint into the weekend. You have to get it started if you are ever going to get it done!

Wonderful Tonight

Last night was a great night.

First I got home and rested for a bit, my Mom came over and Thing 2 got dressed for her spring concert at the symphony hall. The Date came home from her penultimate class around six and we then loaded up in the Tahoe and headed for the concert.

It was pretty good. I sat through the winter concert and honestly it was tough to listen to. This one was much improved and pleasant to listen to.

After the concert we headed off to Costello's for fine continental dining! I had the French Peppered Steak, The Date and Mom had the Alfredo, Thing 2 had the Hand Battered Shrimp. Then then loaded up on the desserts and by then it was around nine thirty. Nearing my bedtime for sure!

All in all it was a fabulous evening and one I enjoyed immensely! Far better than just another TV night. Well my TV nights are at an end for a while anyway now as rehearsals for Julius Caesar start tonight with the cast read through. So I'll be taking Thing 2 to rehearsals and assisting when I can as Witchy sees fit.

It'll be a good summer! I hope your summer is just as good as mine is shaping up to be!

May Is Zombie Awareness Month!

Thanks to Skate posting this link on my FB wall I have a great subject for today's blog!

People are urged to wear a gray ribbon to raise awareness of the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse of Doom. It is a solid reminder to everyone to have a plan ready for when either a comet gets too close to the Earth, that government society experiment goes awry, or a zombie plague spreads to everyone by an accidental bite of patient zero.

Your plan should consist of friends who you have to take with you. Each should have a skill of some sort to help aid your odds of survival. Don't discount the value of the goat, sometimes someone just has to be brought along only to be later left behind so you can make your get away.

Stock up on weapons, food, and medicine. Raid any grocery stores you can find. Raid any pharmacies you can find. Pawn shops are great for weapons but if you can find a zombie free Wal-Mart you are golden. You will be able to hold up there for at least two weeks with no problems once it is properly secured. They are also big enough you can send the goat out on gopher errands to lessen the group annoyance with them.

Watch zombie movies. This can't be emphasized enough, you never know when one survivor will do something that will stick in your head and come in handy later on.

Have meetings. Once your group is organized and roles are established keep in regular contact. All groups should have a medical professional of some sort, two or three heavy weapons experts, some light and fast moving people to infuriate the (hopefully Romero version of the zombies instead of the 28 days Later fast and super human running zombies) zombies, people of various fields who can aid in your survival.

Large groups are better as more people mean more people can hunt and forage for food supplies. Protection is easier when larger herds of zombies organize and attack. More weapons being fired mean that more zombies are going down for the last time. It is permissible to patrol old high school grounds in hopes of finding people who annoyed you and "putting them out of their misery" while also working out those inner issues you may have had with that person turned zombie, with a bullet is fine but if you prefer a flame thrower, knock yourself out.

Surviving will depend on your preparation abilities. If you can scrounge food, recognize safe plants to eat, hunt and prepare food, build zombie safe shelters, or drive the group for long periods of time then you have a welcome skill. Handymen, mechanics, electricians, plumbers, all the way up to doctors and nurses are welcome into my group of survivors. If you can make yourself useful and knock off a few zombies while you are at it then come along, you'll live.

And please remember to bring along your goats even if the group disapproves, they'll save your bacon more than once!

Sunday Was Nice!

The weather was amazing, we didn't do much but lounge.

I had a cigar around noon outside in the yard, in the glorious warmth of the sun. Got my laundry done for the week. Made homemade pancake mix for breakfast, a pasta salad for lunch, I have a couple of days worth of leftovers for lunch this week as well!

Spent Saturday evening playing a drinking game at Skate's place with The Invader and Teehee. I drank water so it wasn't quite the same experience for me but we all had fun.
All in all it was a very good weekend:)

I put the Suburban up on Craigslist yesterday. I need to get rid of it now as I need the space to park the Tahoe. I've had several people bite already, we'll see how it goes!

I listed it plenty cheap enough at a mere two hundred fifty dollars. A fair price as they will have to put some work into it. The batteries alone are nearly that price and it has a new starter on it as well. Still they will have to get it started or trailer it out of here. Which I stated in the ad so there won't be any surprises.

That's my weekend wrap up. I hope yours was every bit as good or better!

Jazz Fatality?

So there I was watching the Documentary Channel last night. All of a sudden a documentary comes on about modern day jazz and how the new artists struggle for notoriety and separate themselves from the jazz legends that came before them.

It was a fascinating character study and even more than that a reflection on modern society in our information age.

Now I'm the first person to raise my hand and tell anyone, I don't know jazz, I have no appreciation for jazz, I don't get jazz. Not the masters and not the new guys. What I did understand though is that jazz has changed over the years and that is what the director of the doc was trying to get across.

In today's age jazz is not as relevant as it once was. There really are no legends that have taken the jazz form of music and advanced it to a different plane as the older generation has.

Jazz meant something different for the generation that came before these musicians did, and something different for the musicians before them. It was a reflection of the times and now the times seemed lost to these musicians. They feel that this is their day to shine.

One musician simply said that the past is dead and gone as are the musicians, yeah they were great but we can't play what they did. He also felt that the past generations would be ashamed if the new generations would be playing the same styles as they did then and didn't advance it.

That's an excellent point. I'm positive that Hitchcock would say the same thing about today's filmmakers, a point I regularly make when it comes to sequels and remakes which I loathe. We've see that story before, tell a new one.

What I really see happening though is perhaps jazz falling into a small niche style of music now. Today there are a thousand and one different types of music to choose from, not to mention different types of entertainment competing for your attention.

While jazz was once king of the music world today it might barely register as a blip on the entertainment radar. Within another two or three generations jazz might not even exist.

Perhaps jazz has become a victim of today's celebrity driven pop culture. There really isn't a celebrity spokesman or an American Idol for the jazz genre. While I'm not a fan and really no appreciation for the genre I'd still be sad to see it fade away.

Rib Day

Yes, I'll be smoking three racks of ribs today on the Big Green Egg! It's a good thing I purchased the rib rack as it'll really do it's job today!

Thing 2 will easily eat maybe a full rack herself. She loves ribs! She devours them to the bone and really quickly too. It's insane to watch her eat a rack of ribs.

I might have to thaw out a fourth rack just in case. Nah, I purchased five a while back and I'll just smoke all five today. That'll give everyone plenty to eat:)

Not sure if I'll throw a rub on them or maybe even a simple salt and pepper mix. I'll have to get back to you on how I cook them today.