Minimum Of Five Shoots

In the next two months I'll be working at least five shoots and that could possibly go up. That's pretty good!

With any luck we'll be going on a short road trip this weekend for Labor Day. I've got a place picked out I know The Date will love. Things have to fall right though but it'll be a fun time and the last road trip before winter sets in I'm sure.

It'd be nice to get away for the weekend, we'd leave early Saturday morning and head back Monday. I've got Tuesday off and The Date has classes. I hope she feels up to it though because her neck has been killing her the past two days. A long ride in the Tahoe might not be good for that.

Did some theatre work last night, changed out some of the gels in the lights for Blithe Spirit, aimed them, locked them down. A few more left to change but Tech Guy is handling that today. That man is a machine when it comes to the theatre. He really is amazing!

I've yet to have seen a rehearsal for Spirit. Honestly I'm really enjoying doing little on a show. After the summer of Lil' Caesar I'm really digging little to no responsibilities on this show. It's really nice to have evenings free.

Ho Hum

Yeah I know the dwarves in Snow White whistled on their way to work each morning. Sometimes I feel like it too. I'm just sluggish this morning. I feel like I'm on the leading edge of a job burnout phase.

I go through it about every six years or so. This could be the third one on this job. It lasts a few months, we'll see.

The Date has a hurting neck, she went to the doctor last week and they gave her a steroid shot and some meds. I made her stay on the couch all day yesterday and not do much at all if I could do it for her. She has an appointment tomorrow for a followup and possibly get scheduled for a MRI. We'll see what the doctor says first.

She seemed to be able to sleep last night, something that hasn't the previous past two nights and most of last week.

Tonight I've got a meeting with one of my clients about the marketing company doubling my shooting schedule. So happens it's at the theatre and I'll be there anyway tonight starting to work on lights and stuff.

Fantasy Draft Roster

Here is my roster after today's draft:
Drew Brees and Kyle Orton helm the team.
Shonn Green, Knowshon Moreno, and Jonathan Stewart are my RBs.
Austin Miles, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith (Carolina), and Vernon Davis are my WRs.
Jay Feely and John Kasay will have kicking duties.
The Eagles and Broncos will defend.

I feel good about this draft, the RBs are a bit more solid than the keeper league's draft. We'll see how this team pans out!

Football Draft Today

At high noon I'm participating in my other league's football draft. I say other league but I've been in this league for fifteen years or so. I have the ninth pick overall so the top top blue chippers will be out of my hands but I'll have elite players and they will be very close to each other.

It'll be our first online draft in this league. I'm against drafting online but will try this season and see how it works. I might like it better but who knows.

I know football season can't get here soon enough, I'm anxious for it to start! I'll post my drafting results later today once they are all made. If I can't get an elite RB I'll have to go WR and hope people haven't done their homework this year.

We'll see how the picks go but I tend to do better when I draft later in the first than early.

Fail Wars Finale

Last night the only Fail Warrior I like, Pete Bethune, made a predawn attempt to board the Shona Maru II. The ship that hit and sank his ship the Ady Gil. His plan was to arrest the captain and take him to New Zealand for trial. Of course that didn't happen and they took Bethune to Japan for trial.

He was found guilty on a few counts, given a two year suspended prison sentence, and released. He did spend a few months in jail though and his presence in Japan caused a media controversy.

Pete at least has the gumption to attempt something risky unlike the ever alert looking Paul Watson. Pete has the conviction of his actions again unlike Watson who won't do anything risky. Pete would risk sinking the Steve Irwin by ramming the Nisshan Maru, the factory ship, while Watson is more interested in something happening to him so he can call the media about it and extend his fifteen minutes.

Bethune is interested in going to prison for his cause, Watson is interested in getting red paint splattered over the word "Research" on the side of a ship. There's your difference.

Regardless the season has ended now and we'll wait until next season to see how many times the Fail Warriors can shoot themselves in the foot again.

Still Excited!!!!!!

The absolute greatest TV show ever to hit the small screen is about to be unleashed upon America! Yes I briefly blogged about it last night, The Walking Dead, looks like a panel for panel, faithful reproduction of Robert Kirkmen's epic zombie series.

The story follows Rick Grimes, a small town police officer who is shot in the line of duty. He wakes in a hospital and there is no one around. Stunned he doesn't know what's happening as he stumbles around the halls only to come across the cafeteria doors which say Dead Inside Do Not Open.

That's how it starts. Over the course of 70+ issues the story unfolds. It's epic in scope and nature. Violence becomes a way of living, men are able to flip a switch and do some horrible things for the protection of their loved ones and flip it off again. Obviously the comic has many things in it that the TV series will not be able to have.

There are more graphic images coming off each page than you could believe. It'd done for a reason though. Kirkman wants you to feel the desperation, the sense that there is no hope anymore. No Calvary will be coming over the hill to rescue anyone and there is deadly danger all around.

That's why this series is in stark black and white. If it were in color it wouldn't have the effect on the reader that it does. In a world full of death, how do you stay human? That's the question that comes off of each page. No super heroes here, no super scientist working on a solution, nothing but survival.

The search for food, water, and shelter. Real people, real characters who look like me and you. Some of them are having a hard time coping with the world around them, some struggle with the idea they have to kill zombies in order to survive another day. Some struggle with the idea they have to kill normal people in order to survive.

So, in a world full of death that is hunting you, how do you maintain your humanity? Read this masterpiece of comic fiction, Hastings has them in the graphic novel section. Amazon has them all including the Compendium which I have. It comprises the first forty eight issues of the series.

Watch This Zombie Fans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here ya go!
I tell you Halloween can't get here fast enough this year!!!!!

I've read nearly the whole series now, I'm heading to the book store now to get what I don't have!!!!!!!!

This will likely be my new favorite show, with only watching the trailer!

I strongly recommend every zombie fan out there to pick up the comics, the giant compendium, or the graphic novels to get caught up on this upcoming show!!!!!

Zombies, and awesome comic, and Frank Darabont, the director The Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile!!!!!!!

Everything's Good

Yep, the CT scan yesterday went well, everything is AOK! They took some blood for a PSA which they want me to get every year or two years and will call me with the results or have me come in, depending on the doctor's schedule if he can call or not.

I had a conversation with one of my Northern Brothers, he reads this all the time and called to make sure it's all clear. I got to after two thirty finally. Instead of KFC or the Mexican restaurant I drove to Uptown Subs and had a footlong California sub!

Devoured it right on the spot! Chips, drink, everything! That tasted soooo good!!!

The weather has been amazing the past couple of days! I believe today the high will be in the eighties again! It hit eighty nine yesterday and that felt great! Dare I say it? We are on the slide into fall now! Yeah! I love me some fall! Along with spring they make up my two favorite seasons.

All in all we are headed into the leading edge of the best time of the year for me and I'm excited about it:)

Starcraft last night wasn't as good as the previous night where we won twice as many or three times as many as we lost. Last night we went five and three I believe. We just got outplayed by two teams. We didn't get any real early pressure on them and they beat us. In one game we did wipe out most of the Zerg player though but they still beat us.

It was a good night of playing though!

Already Hungry

But NO! No food at all until I get out of the doctor's office around two o'clock!
Yeah, two o'clock or later actually. My appointment for the CT scan is at one, allow for waiting time in the office, allow for the time it takes for the doctor to actually see me and interpret the results, and it might be closer to three by the time I get to eat something.

Luckily there is a KFC and a Mexican restaurant within a couple of blocks of the doctor's office so I'll be paying a visit to one or both of them on my way home...and possibly the grocery store as well.

I do get to drink this thick barium substance that is supposed to taste like bananas around eleven. Joy.

The upside is that this will be the last scan for at least two years, maybe longer. Everything has looked good so far and I expect it to stay that way. I don't feel any kidney stones and believe me you can feel them.

The upside is that I get to have a really good and big meal, which will be very important to me come twoish or later.

Nice Rain!

Waking up to the sound of thunder is always welcome in the hot summertime. It signals a day at work that is generally cooler than the one previous. In winter it would be unexpected but it's possible to thunder during a snowstorm, however I don't believe the temperature would be that much of a factor at work so it's not as soothing as a summer storm.

The Date had a massive day, she went to class, came home for a brief few minutes so she could have a chicken fajita, then it was off to rehearsal. I was sound asleep by the time she arrived back home. My day was full as well but not as hectic. I did get a surprise call from the doctor to remind me to have blood work done for my CT scan tomorrow.

Eh, doesn't hurt anyway but it was just an inconvenience. I was hungry and still had to go grocery shopping as The Date was super busy as I mentioned. I got everyone fed, got to rest a bit and visit with The Date, then after she left it was Starcraft time.

We played 2V2 as our 3V3 partner started class today as well and was tired so he didn't join us.

We won our first match of the evening, a rarity and then proceeded to lose one, and win one, going two for four though overall. Not bad but we've done better. I argued it was a different game than 3V3 which we've played for the past couple of weeks exclusively.

I don't feel bad but we are better than 2-4 in a session. The Terrans can just do nearly everything they want, they build fast, they have cheap T1 units, those units are super powerful in large numbers and the counter is my T3 unit, the Colossus. An expensive unit but it mows down large sections of Terrans instantly.

It's alright though, as long as we survive the early rushes we have a great chance of winning at the end. Terrans wall of really fast, the counter to that is Abostang's Banalings but they take time to get going. I'll throw some Zealots behind the Banaling rush and we have a good shot at breaking them open and taking out their supply line.

We do that and that gives us a massive advantage. Tonight will be better though!

Two Days

Yeah, I'm working today, tomorrow, and then I'm off Wednesday for a CT scan to check to see if I've got anymore kidney stones. It's been a yearly thing at this point but I know after this one the doctor said it'll be more like every two or three years. I don't have any, I drink about a gallon of water per day to guarantee I don't have anymore:)

I don't particularly care for them, I don't mind the needle so much, its the stuff I have to drink before hand, and then the stuff they inject you with that makes you feel weird and hot.

Anyway then I'm back to work on Thursday and Friday. I could likely work after the test but I have plenty of leave, they are very good about letting you take off when you want to so I'm using it:)

The Date starts school today, way to go baby! She'll finish up with NOC early in the spring and then it's off to bigger and better! The Things start school on Wednesday. Thing 2 is excited about it, I think Thing 1 enjoys school too but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Starcraft last night, we had a good night. We won four out of six in 3V3. Terrans just seem to be overpowered and have a definite speed advantage over the Protoss and Zerg. They seem to be able to build up to their super units faster than any other race and they seem to be able to build more of them too.

Regardless we are doing well and will likely advance soon to the silver league.

What A Night

All in all it was fun, after the draft I really wanted to grab a couple of hours of nap time before going to the Charlies Award Show at the theatre. However it is nigh impossible with females living in the same house who are all preparing for the same event.

Regardless I got dressed up, a rare occasion I assure you, and escorted my three lovely ladies to the event. Thing 1 graced us with her presence as she actually left Fuzzy alone for more than five minutes.

The event was actually pretty nice, one of my favorite Gaslight Ladies, Weezy's Mom did a superb job of assembling the show with little help. The decorations were very nice, the food, meh...didn't have any. There were chicken on bamboo sticks that were heated, left to cool, and then left in the lobby in a metal pan. No thanks.

After the show we went home while most of the friend base had gone to the pub. We were tired but put on easier to wear clothes and went back out until one thirty. What a night:)

Draft Day Part Two

The draft is now over for the keeper league.
I kept:
Tom Brady
Calvin Johnson
In the third round I auction drafted Knowshon Moreno
In the fourth round I auction drafted Chris Wells
Then it went to the regular serpentine draft with:
C.J. Spiller
Robert Meachem
Vikings D
Stephen Gostkowski
Wel Welker (to team with Brady)
Malcolm Floyd
Lawrence Tynes
Tennessee D
David Garrad
Eddie Royal

Overall a decent team, it'll be dependent upon how the RBs perform this year as they are all fairly fresh and a gamble on playing time.

I drafted four and a half teams today in one draft, one for Beersnob, one for his friend in the UK, one for The Date and T, and of course mine. It was a taxing day keeping everything straight but Bobo kept the rounds on track and let me know the drafting orders when it was one of my turns.

Draft Day Part One

I'll have this pre-draft post and a post draft...um...post. The draft starts at nine this morning to accommodate our overseas owners, and so we all have time to get ready for the Charlie Awards tonight.

The annual award show that the theatre holds to honor its own and the best shows and performances this year.

The pulled pork turned out ok, not great. I got a little bit too much salt in the rub mixture so I cut off most of the bark. The meat is good but I like the bark and that's where a lot of the flavor and texture difference comes in.

It's good, not great and I've done a lot better. Tomorrow I'm making ribs for T and J. That's only a four hour process and I enjoy doing it:) I just love cooking for people, it's a good time, it's work, but it's fun.

I've got to stop by the store this morning and get some buns, bbq sauce, and maybe pickles cause I like pickled on my pulled pork sandwiches. Then it's all about the draft!!!!!

I'm keeping Tom Brady and Calvin Johnson this year from last year's team. I'm going to get an auction pick and then will come the fourth round! The auction round! Everyone had a lot of fun last year with the auction so we decided to keep it this year and figure out how to make it work.

Part two will be posted in a few hours.

The Boycott Is Over

Today has been one year since my boycott of scotch due to the release of Abdel Basset al Megrahi from a Scottish prison.

He was released due to political deals and not on the compassionate grounds of having terminal cancer. He was the lone terrorist convicted for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, killing two hundred forty three passengers, sixteen crew members, and eleven people in Lockerbie, Scotland.

I've not had a drop of scotch in a year's time in silent protest, and much to the displeasure of Beersnob who respected my decision and never tempted me. In fact he actually purchased Irish whisky for me on our cigar smoking afternoons.

Al Megrahi likely has many years left in him and it's possible that his cancer was likely a political evaluation rather than a medical one.

This evening my boycott ends, not because they win because they'll have to answer to a Divine Judge eventually, my boycott ends because life is too short and terrorism never triumphs.





-- Post From My iPhone

Power Outage

So there I was, rubbing down a pork shoulder at a quarter past seven this morning, getting it ready for a twelve hour smoke! All of a sudden the lights flickered and we heard a pop outside somewhere!

The lights went out! To me it's no big thing, the coals were burning and warming up the Egg. The rub had been applied, The Date had her coffee made. Time to chill outside and watch the smoke curl up from the Egg!

Yes tonight I'll be pulling apart this choice piece of meat and preparing it for tomorrow's draft!



-- Post From My iPhone

Today Is Friday

I took off tomorrow to prepare pulled pork for the draft on Saturday morning. I'll also get a chance to prepare for the draft, I've been less than enthusiastic this season for some reason. I know part of it is that Beersnob is in Iraq and for the past few years he's been at every draft.

Skate will likely be shipping out soon and this might be one of his last drafts in person, Bobo has already moved away and is drafting via Skype Saturday. All in all drafts aren't as much fun without your friends in person with you.

I got a message from the marketing company, they are actually going to add shooting dates to my paying gig. We'll be showing up at events like the first football game, museum re-opening soon, we'll be there. We'll be at all of the local events that are covered by the paper in fact. The clips will be posted on the front page of the newspaper's website now as well.

It's a good opportunity for the business to grow even further. It's a toddler right now, taking its first few steps...without any kind of advertising by the way. That means word of mouth has pushed us this far and we'll see how much farther it'll take us.

Beersnob will have to be on his A game when he gets back from Iraq, he'll have a client list and will have to hit the ground running!

Wednesday

Not really a lot to report today. Things are quiet, The Date has been busy with rehearsals and work in the evenings. I've been working on new angles for the commercial business. Well and playing a few games of Starcraft. Battle.net was down the other night so it cut game playing very short, last night we got in two games and did ok.

I'm about to head to work. It's been slow, waiting on other shops to get their stuff accomplished and that makes it where I sit around. I'll be busy today though. Really pretty busy actually.

Becoming An Expat

I've read articles, seen websites, and last Friday at supper a friend said he read an article and they were seriously thinking about it too.

That idea is retiring into another country in Central or South America. My friend was talking about Belize, I've read articles on many other countries at escapeartist.com

It seems alluring, stretch your limited retirement income further, explore a new country, take up new hobbies, and live a life of relative luxury. Of course there are always drawbacks, same as here. They might have great weather and the occasional hurricane. We have yearly tornadoes.

Crime is more rampant in Central and South America but we have Detroit.

They have the occasional banana republic dictator pop up, we have Obama and the Democrats.

Belize for example (I read this but have never been there so I can't vouch for it's accuracy) has the second largest barrier reef outside of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It is a tropical climate and on the southern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. English is the official language (something we in the States actually need) and it is a prime destination for many expatriates.

Living isn't dirt cheap but you can easily live well on dual retirement incomes. Personally I think I'd be more inclined to find an ocean going boat and live it up on that. Yeah it would be more expensive but you would have the entire world before you and the vessel to get there!

You could go to the Antarctic and heckle the Sea Shepherds who are harassing the Japanese fleet! How much fun would that be?!?!

You could summer in the north or south, winter around the equator. Shove off to Asia and in a couple of weeks be in the Bahamas. That kind of freedom would be incredible!

Of course you can get world wide internet, it's a bit expensive but an absolute must have for me. You'd need a vessel that is definitely livable for years at a time so that would be a bit of a start up cost. You can sail a lot and wouldn't need much diesel power but that is a skill you'd have to learn, as well as navigation.

I'm sure I can learn all of that and more:)

Cutting Food Stamps Again?

As a conservative/libertarian hybrid I've got to say there are some social programs I'd never touch as President, one of them being food stamps. I'd issue means testing for them though but cutting them wouldn't be an option. Then again as President I'd have massive tax cuts for everyone and put congress on a spending diet. There wouldn't be high unemployment.

The compassionate, all caring, can live your life better than you liberals have no such problems cutting such a needed program with double digit unemployment.

Michelle Obama's pet child nutrition program, an eight billion dollar program, needs funding and the liberals (who cut food stamps last week) may be forced to cut it again to fund her program.

Dems are gambling that the cuts (which are actually budget increase cuts), which don't take effect until 2014 won't be noticed this November, however it's too late:)
That makes it more of a gamble that their economy will be better when food stamps may be needed the most. Their spending binge will soon becoming to an end and they will join the ranks of the unemployed in an economy their laws produced.

My suggestion would be to cancel the bi-weekly Obama family vacation schedule to fund the nutrition program. That's a good start, I'd focus on congressional pensions next followed by congressional health care plans. There are lots of things to cut in D.C.! Federal worker pay would be frozen, kicking unions out of the public sector, cutting Amtrak, reworking the post office so it becomes profitable, taking the government out of the mortgage industry. That's just for starters, I'd break out the chainsaw for more cutting power for the really good spending cuts:)

So liberals out there who may read this, keep in mind you voted for the man. He'll sign this bill too and cut food stamps further, I for one can't wait to see how it flies in November:)

Relief

Yesterday was pretty nice. The shoot in the morning was a bust but The Divas and I have more planned for September and it'll be better yet. Then it was off to my nephew's birthday party as he turned six. That was a good time and it took forever to break the pinata open.

I ran a show last night for the theatre. It was really pretty funny. There was a magician, ventriloquist, and a hypnotist. They were really nice and helped me set up their equipment. We ran through a cue list and got everything ironed out. Then it was show time!

The show went really well and the audience was really good. The acts used a lot of audience participation and everyone enjoyed themselves. I'm hoping that people will book the theatre more for shows like that. I saw a lot of new people who might have never known about the theatre and they were reading programs for the upcoming season.

Might be a very very good thing to bring in different acts and attract a new clientele.

Then it was off to the Dogtown party. An annual event/block party on the east side of town. I got there around eleven and we headed home around midnight. T was in prime form, which is one of the reason's I love her to pieces! I'm sure this morning she'll be wondering what she did:) Let the text apologies come forth!

This morning we awoke to a very nice thunderstorm! The streak of one hundred plus temperature days has come to an end. Hopefully it'll stay cooler all week!

Sleep? Who Needs it?

Up twice with the dog this past night. I'm up now because, well this is the time I get up anyway and it's too close to shooting time. Coffee made on the new Bunn coffee maker, my wife's favorite and I'm ready to wake up and get to shooting this morning at 8:30.

The past two nights have been horrible Starcraft nights. Abostang was tired the night before and we went one and two, last night we were both ready and promptly lost our first game, second game, won our third game handily and then lost our fourth and fifth. We quit after that so our ranking didn't slide more. I didn't count one other game because one of the opponents lagged out and his partner quit giving us the automatic win. The one big win we had though was against a favored opponent. We beat them badly and gained a substantial amount of points from the win moving us up in ranking to fifteen! The losses weren't ranking killers though thankfully!

Technically we went two and four but as I said one win was an automatic win. Something in our strategy the past two nights is off but we are going down the check list and getting things built when we always built them. I know a lot of pros attack around the five minute mark. Maybe that's what we are going to try next. Our early pressure has been weak at best and needs to step up.

I'm going to research some faster build orders. Watch more pro matches on You Tube, take more notes. I've got to improve. Abostang is already a fast builder and generally has the highest ranking economy and score at the end of the match and when we lose he is usually second.

The balancing act is I go out and build up our early defenses, hurting my economy to start to give Abostang the chance to build his fast expansion and get his economy rolling faster. Zerg build fast and it's far easier to get him going and concentrate on our base defense. I've got to find a better balance between defense and getting my offense rolling early.

Yes I have work to do.

Yahooo!!!

It's Friday! Well not that that means a lot this weekend, it means I'm just working in a couple of other places. I'll have a shoot in the morning at eight thirty, then in the evening I've got a show at the Theatre. A one off where one of the radio stations rented the place and they need a tech guy in the booth to turn things on when it starts and turn things off when it ends.

After that I'm probably finished for the evening. We'll see as there is a party to go to if I wanted to, I'm on the fence as I enjoy that annual party a ton but on the flip side after a show I really don't feel much like doing anything but going home and sleeping.

Last night was fairly uneventful. My Starcraft partner has been working overtime at work and hasn't been able to get on until nearly nine each evening and the night before he didn't get on at all. Last night though we were 1-2 after going 7-3 over the past ten games before that. We were really on a roll but after one night of not playing we didn't do as well as we previously were.

We are getting better though and I'm thrilled about that!

Finally got some sleep last night! The past few nights the new puppy that showed up a few weeks ago has been yapping nonstop in his crate. I bought a spray collar for him and it works well when he barks but his yapping is high pitched and doesn't set the collar off like his bark does.

That made things worse as he figured out if he yaps more he can make noise and not get sprayed...not conducive for sleeping. So I called the pet store and asked if they had a remote control collar I could get that I could activate when he yaps. They did for one hundred and thirty dollars. A small price to pay for sleeping well at night. However they had a ten dollar device that sends out a high pitched sound when the dog makes noise, I asked The Date to go get one of those instead.

It seemed to work, he would whine a little bit and start his yapping and the device would seemingly go off and he would shut up. After a few days I think he'll stop yapping so much:) I put the device in his crate with him so it would be close enough to irritate him, much like he has irritated me over the past week of no sleeping.

If it should fair to break him of this bad habit I'm getting the remote control collar and I might even get the shock collar version, we'll see.

Chasing Mummies

I've blogged about this show, a few weeks ago as Deadliest Catch was winding down. This show is great! It's real life archeology adventure and it's just really compelling to watch it.

It's not so much the dirt and dust that make it compelling, or the sparse Egyptian landscape but rather the interns, the film crew, the executive producer, and of course Dr. Zahi Hawas that make this show work.

Last night a pylon possibly having something to do with Cleopatra's barge was found and raised from the sea floor. That was quite a project in and of itself as a crane was needed to load another crane on the ship that was going to recover the artifact. Then divers were employed to put straps around the nine ton pylon.

Problems arose when the Egyptian Coast Guard, port officials, and others got involved over permits and such. At the end of the day Dr. Hawas triumphs, lost his temper, and the executive producer got all of the shots he needed.

I highly recommend watching just one episode of this show and then challenging you to just watch one!

Stimulus Works!

Congress has returned early from their summer vacations to spend more money, twenty six billion dollars to be exact.

It is claimed that for every dollar spent on a stimulus style program for instance extending unemployment benefits returns $1.64 per dollar spent. Tax cuts delivered a mere $1.02 per dollar making them the least effective return on government spending.

If this were the case on unemployment benefits why can't every employer fire everyone so we can spend our way out of this recession/depression? Why stop at twenty six billion dollars when we can spend ten trillion dollars and earn .62 cents on every dollar?

Here is why, the government as an entity doesn't bring in any income that doesn't come from someone who has earned their pay. The government isn't a business that earns revenue. They are a leach that sucks the lifeblood from people who work for a living in the form of taxes.

Obama's America is one where anyone who has worked hard for a living has done it in an unfair way and must have their money taken from them by threat of the IRS and given in the form of handouts to those who didn't earn that money.

My America is where if you earn your money, you keep your money and it's your choice to help someone less fortunate. You can hire them, give them a helping hand up, or even if the situation is dire enough you can give them a handout. Your choice.

Congress is back to spend twenty six billion dollars that we don't have. This is on top of the massive 700 billion dollar stimulus package that was passed that we had to so unemployment wouldn't rise above 8.8%. We are now sitting at 10% and no signs of improvement.

The only way out now is to raise taxes to such a degree that everyone will hurt more. Let's see if Obama sticks to his pledge that if you are a family making 250,000.00 per year your taxes will not be raised by one dime. Remember that pledge? Yeah in January it's history when the Bush tax cuts expire.

What are corporations? Corporations are made up of people, people who take their kids to school and corporations who make things people buy. Chances are you work for a corporation, your coworkers are those people.

The capital gains tax will go up if the tax cuts expire, meaning more of a tax liability on corporations, meaning they will cut people to meet that liability, your coworkers or you could be cut.

But you should be happy about that because then you'll be able to contribute more to the economy and give .62 cents on every dollar that the government gives you to spend and get us out of this recession/depression faster:)

2001: A Blog Odessey

I had to do it, the title was too much to pass up. It came to me whilst sleeping last night.

I always had a theory that Stanley Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey as a joke on critics. He made something that no one would understand on purpose just to see what critics thought. For those who claimed they understood it, well that is who the joke was intended to be on, for those who claimed it was brilliant, well in my world Kubrick laughed at them all the way to the bank.

I have no proof of this but again I laugh at people who claim it was brilliant on so many metaphorical levels. Yeah I know that movie is old, laughable by today's standards, but I'm sure a ton of hippies got high and watched it learning that CAT was really spelled DOG and such.

Speaking of bong hitting hippies, the Sea Shepherds have been doing a top notch job at failing on the last three episodes. A helicopter repair didn't go well, another hippie didn't know how much oil the Bob Barker was burning per day (100 liters if you are interested, they thought it was burning half that), ironic they are environmentalists...

So they almost ran out of oil and had to meet the Steve Irwin at a port, which during the transfer of oil and water during the night the two deck boats they offloaded into the water for extra room nearly sank, the newest and most expensive one at one hundred thousand dollars broke the mooring line and floated away. They found it the next day on a rocky shore and instead of hooking a line to it and towing it one of the high hippies put the motor down and fired it up (I'm sure he had fired it up earlier in the day too) and tore up the prop and motor.

Later on when they finally get loose from all of that failure they run into a storm, accidentally find the Japanese whaling fleet, and find themselves surrounded by the harpoon vessels, the faster, more powerful, and more maneuverable harpoon vessels while the factory ship steams away.

But before that happened the factory vessel slowed down to six knots, the Bob Barker was still at full speed. They could have ended the Japanese whaling season right then if they had rammed the tail end of the ship where they upload the dead whales.

But no, they are not men of their convictions at all. They talk, feel bad for the whales, and when they have the opportunity to disable the main vessel they slow down and take no action. Then as I stated above they got surrounded by the four harpoon ships. One of them then side swiped the ship and knocked a hole into its side.

I laughed.

Two Thousand

Today I've reached a massive milestone, two thousand posts!

To put that into perspective it'll take over five more years of daily posts to reach four thousand posts, that'll give you an idea on how long I've been blogging daily.

Sometimes it's hard to think of something to blog about, sometimes it's easy, but it's always an exercise in creativity. Some posts are good, some suck. Some people do a Times crossword puzzle, some blog:)

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking of something really profound to try and blog about but you know something? It's not a profound thing. I've got an increasing readership but not Drudge like by any means.

There is just nothing profound to say right now. It's a labor of love I suppose, some people agree with me and my well stated points of view, some people like me and hate my point of view, some people hate me and my point of view...but still read it:)

This is my morning routine, wake up, take care of pets, shower, blog, go to work.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all, although today I'd like to point out it is 8/9/10 and that date falls on my blog post milestone:) That'll never happen again.

Two thousand posts? Well five years is a long ways away, we'll have a different country by then. For the best or worst is clear in my opinion but again it might be too early to tell. We'll have five more Super Bowl champs, I'll be five years closer to my pension, leaving a mere seven years of working left in this job. The commercial business will be just over five years old by then and hopefully will have replaced my current income to the level where my initial plan to retire with pension will be shunned by the wayside.

Obama will either by into his second term or will join Jimmy Carter and the USSR on the ash heap of history along with his destructive agenda. America's best days are ahead, I firmly believe that.

Hopefully more friends will come into my life than leave it. I'm positive my family will be tighter than ever:) I'm positive my Gaslight family will change and alter over the next two thousand posts, and I'm positive I'll blog about it:)

So for you, gentle reader, I want to say thank you. Thank you for reading my ramblings, thank you for being my friends, thank you for being you:)

Football Season

Yes, fantasy football season is now upon us. We held a meeting yesterday to determine the rules for this coming season in the keeper league. We nominated Bobo as commissioner and somehow I got elected as treasurer again which I absolutely hate. It's a hard job and it takes the enjoyment out of the season for me. So be it though, I'll suck it up and move along.

I got The Date a "because I love you" present:) A Bunn coffee maker. She has wanted one forever and I know she hated my little Mr. Coffee so it left and made way for the new, faster, super duper Bunn. She loves it:) I did good:)

TCM is having their annual Summer Under The Stars and yesterday was Errol Flynn. Interesting man, many demons bothering him, had lots of ups and downs. There was a documentary and the pictures they had before he died made him look as if he were in his early seventies. His handsome good looks were worn away from drink and morphine. He looked bloated and unhappy, his best days long behind him.

The IRS was after him after his manager died and embezzled a million dollars from him. He had few jobs after forty and was broke many times after forty five. He died at age fifty, his liver was shot and he had many other physical ailments that caused his heart attack.

His legacy on the screen though is one of youthful costume pieces, dashing swordplay, and fair maidens in distress. Clips from his last couple of movies were shown, he played a couple of drunks. The Sun Also Rises, and Too Much Too Soon (in which he played John Barrymore) he earned his age and identified with those characters. He was those men, empty on many levels, drunk more often than sober, and in desperate straights. He was an eroded man, a shadow his who he was. His good looks replaced with a craggy man with the body of a seventy five year old.

Then they played The Adventures of Robin Hood! Young, youthful, dashing, and fresh. He danced across the screen, thrilling the audience with his persona. Crossing swords with Basil Rathbone and romancing Olivia de Havilland. Quite a contrast indeed.

Flynn was a solid actor, far better than many of today's leading actors. There aren't many of his ilk, not even when his ilk ruled the screen.

After A Long, Hot, Sweaty Day

I came home and got ready for a meeting about the next Gaslight show. It'll be elaborate, it'll be more of an event than many other shows, and it'll be fun.

At work it wasn't as hot as it has previously been but it seems they shut off the air conditioning about noon so it was oppressively hot in the building and especially my shop where there is no air conditioning. I was pretty tired and beaten up by the time to clock out rolled around.

I was so looking forward to doing a lot of nothing Friday evening and as The Date had to work, it seemed to fall in line perfectly:) Except Abostang didn't get on Starcraft until a bit after nine:( So my five hours of marathon playing didn't evolve but I did get a bit over two hours in.

We did ok, not great but not bad either. Abostang is consistently the top player when it comes to building and units. He expands very fast and is capable of pumping out tons of units. I put up defenses for him to expand fast and keep his drones and my probes safe. This hinders my growth rate but keeps us safe in the early game.

I'm pretty happy with our playing right now and know that we are learning and have a lot more to do to be efficient at the game. We'll get there!

I got The Date something special from Pan's, the antipasti dish. Thing 2 and I dropped as much as she wanted of it off to her at work so she could have some supper and not be hungry at work:) I guess love is going out of your way to do something special or nice for those you love, or at least that's one of a million other definitions:)

Got something special for her planned today:)

Three For Six

Last night Abostang and I won three out of six. We won three convincingly and quickly (except one battle that took a lot of time) and lost three narrowly after battles that lasted at least a half hour each. We are getting better, we took our ranking of thirty four and improved it to twenty one!

One was particularly awesome! The opponents broke through our defenses and actually took out my Nexus. Fortunately I had my fast expand up and running on a high yield field! They left Abostang alone and he continued to make Hydralisks! He pressured them while I rebuilt and then got my army ready for battle!

We took bases out one at a time and there wasn't anything they could do about it! We brought the pain to them after they thought they had it won! That was the best victory of the night!

I see a marathon tonight to get ranked in the top fifteen! Abostang as the Zerg down on build order, I'm handy with the 'Toss but we don't build as fast as the Zerg do. Abo get the offense up and running while I lay down some D at the gates to keep us safer from early pressure.

All in all it's a great game!

Prop Eight

Yesterday California's Proposition Eight was ruled unconstitutional by Judge Vaughn Walker.

As a conservative/libertarian hybrid I applaud this. Simply put gay rights are a state issue. It was done in a legitimate way, through the system instead of having it imposed on the populace as it has been in a couple of other states.

It was voted on, sued, and the majority of voters were overruled on their decision at the ballot box. It will be appealed (whomever lost stated it would be appealed regardless) all the way up to the Supreme Court. Likely two to three years from now it will be heard by the Supremes.

The federal government should have no say so on how a state votes on it's own laws. I oppose any federal effort to either ban or allow gay marriage. If California wants gay marriage, that's perfectly ok provided it is legally done. Likewise if Arizona wants to pass a mirror law to the federal law and enforce immigration itself (as the feds refuse to do) it should be free to do so without a federal lawsuit from the Obama regime.

The regime isn't prosecuting sanctuary cities, which also violates federal law, but it is prosecuting a state which legally passed a mirror law to the federal law? If someone is stopped for a reason they have to produce ID and citizenship papers? Big deal I had to produce my own birth certificate at work to get clearance to get a CAC card. Barack forbid that an illegal alien is kept from being deported because all they have is a forged birth certificate and stolen social security number.

Ultimately time and the courts will decide the fate of Prop 8, the ultimate side on the short end of the stick will either pass another law for the populace to vote on and likely the same will result in lawsuits.

Either way I don't care provided it is done in a legitimate fashion. Currently five states allow gay marriage while forty two define marriage as between one man and one woman. Again that's fine, the people who live in those states have a right to govern themselves as they see fit. Those in the five states, three of them I believe (could be wrong) voted to ban it overwhelmingly and it was overturned by the court while I think two voted to allow it. Again I could be wrong but that is my memory at my age.

Those opposed to gay marriage you are also free to move to a state that prohibits it while those for gay marriage are likewise free to move to a state that allows it. We (for the time being) are still (somewhat) a free country despite Obama's best efforts. That's the brilliance of this country, we are free to pass our own laws to live by.

If it's a moral issue, I understand that, the same way as some people are atheists and feel they have no moral authority to guide them outside of their own conscious. I also live in a state that is deep red and where people can legally carry a concealed weapon after a few hours of training. A few states don't allow that which again is fine for them. A handful can carry openly without a permit or training! A liberal's nightmare to be sure but then again I would imagine liberals are a scarce breed in those states.

There are many issues that fall under state's rights for instance opting out of Obamacare, medical marijuana, or outright legalization for that matter (I don't do it but I don't care if you do or not, just don't bring it around me) seat belt laws, helmet laws, school vouchers, gambling, alcohol consumption laws, fast food laws, and any number of laws that effect the people of whatever region they reside in. If you want to be free from the nanny state you are free to pass or not pass any laws that ban such a place from existing.

There are fifty states to live in here, surely everyone can find the states with the laws you would like to live by. We all have that choice so no complaining!

Bad Starcraft Night

Yeah, we won two games actually but lost four. I didn't lag or disconnect though. We just weren't on at all.

Abostang did his best to early Ling rush while I developed my Void Rays. The other teams just built good counters and expanded. I walled us in to protect in the early game. That part worked well but it stalled my economy and kept me from expanding.

We'll do better tonight!

In other news I've put together a team to compete in the local bacon festival! Team Bacon has assembled! I'm going to make another big slab of homemade bacon and I believe that alone will give us the edge to win this competition, but the main reason we'll win is that I've read the recipes my teammates are thinking about!

The beverage is tricky but I think we've got something unique to bring to the table!

A Quiet Evening At Home

Yep, Thing 1 is staying with her aunt for the week, The Date and Thing 2 went to auditions for Blithe Spirit at the Theatre leaving me alone with Starcraft 2 for the evening!

Well I did edit and post a lot of the videos from Saturday's shooting schedule first as work before pleasure!

We lost four out of six games last night. Here's why my internet signal from the cable system is bad. Not average, not excellent just plain bad. I was on the phone with them for thirty minutes as they troubleshot why I was being dropped from four out of six games.

We were winning in each game I was dropped out of. We had broken their worker ranks, crippled their economies, and were making preparations for a final push. All of the ingredients for victory were in place except me as I was lagging out of the game.

They are sending a tech over Thursday evening to find the problem and fix it. I'm thrilled about that! We weren't competitive last night at all because of my connection. It was especially frustrating since we were ahead in the games and within a few minutes of victory!

Alas we are now ranked twenty sixth instead of top twenty.

Thursday can't get here fast enough!

A Fine Starcraft Sunday!

I did almost nothing Sunday but play Starcraft with my 2V2 partner Abostang. At first upon getting the game neither of us won much. In fact after we got seeded in the league we are in we had a stretch of eight straight losses.

Yesterday at one point we won eight out of eleven in a seven hour stretch of games! I know this because I had Skype open in my second monitor and could see the exact duration of play time. The last four games were plagued with disconnects so we wound up one out of four but the last game was a win.

I wanted to go to bed with a win. That's what we did. We've got a pretty good Protoss/Zerg strategy going. Early Ling pressure followed by hopefully an unexpected Void Ray attack on the back side of their bases. Our goal is to take out the workers which cripple their economy.

We accomplish that and we usually win, we fail and we lose. There were a couple of times that we did do that and still lost. Haven't quite figured out why but they seemed to have expansion bases up or had built way faster than expected. We had great early pressure going but they had a strong economy going I guess and wound up with a ton of Siege Tanks, Marines, and they even had a Mothership. We weren't able to handle that amount of forces.

Abostang has got the fast expand down really well though and if the early Ling pressure doesn't cripple them then he expands and builds for the midgame. We've definitely had a lot of improvement in our game so far, and by the end of the week we'll be way better!

Out of our league of one hundred we are ranked either twenty third or twenty first. We got as high as seventeen yesterday. That's pretty good out of one hundred teams but we are looking to advance to a better league. I'm content with our league now as we do need to improve and we are.

Oh I forgot, I did do the dishes around eight thirty last night. I know its not The Date's favorite thing to do but since she purchased Starcraft for me and I had that much fun yesterday with it, it was the least I could do to show her I love her:)

We'll see what the games bring tonight!

The End Of The Show

I will no longer be traipsing around Goose Grease Gulch (a stone's throw from Unnecessary Mountain) or Contagious Lane (where there's a nice view of the Skunk Works) or for that matter any other place in Dogpatch USA.

The seven show run ended last night. I had had my fill of Dogpatch a few shows ago, likely during tech rehearsal if I think back that far. It had the unfortunate time slot of following Julius Caesar this summer, for those who were in both shows it was the Summer of Lil' Caesar.

Now tis ended and I'm a drained person for it. The brutal heat and packing schedule of Caesar followed by the outdated material of a nearly three hour musical had me begging for a break after a while, a short while.

I wonder how many people have did a search on Alf Landon, Clarance Darrow, Drew Pearson, and many of the other references from the forties and fifties that lace this show's material? To paraphrase President Obama, "Let me be clear" (which he follows up with incomprehensible and rambling answers) so let me be clear, the actors did a stellar job with subpar material. (note a clear and concise answer)

The director, Ship, did an amazing job as she had to overcome several cast changes, even up to last night's show! That takes some serious skill and patience for a director to accomplish. A lot of directors would have melted down with the first cast change late in the rehearsal run. Not Ship, a round of applause for her and the job she did on this show! I believe this was the third show I've done with her and a few more if you count her being an actor on stage.

So you had all of that adversity and the fact that one of the air conditioners wasn't running last night. Well it would run and then blow the breaker and stop, and then run for a few more minutes and that all equaled a very hot tech booth and a hotter audience.

Last night was also the striking of the set. Normally I stick around until the very last speck of dust is swept off of the stage, not last night. I had had my fill of Lil' Caesar. I took out the trash from the booth, my sound station partner wanted to sweep the booth but I headed home. There was a cast of thirty to dismantle a largely moving and simple set. I was unneeded and as I wasn't feeling 100% anyway (a fact later confirmed by my throwing up supper upon my arrival home) I decided to skip out on set strike. A rare event for me as I'm usually at every set call when many aren't.

Now I'm finished for a while. I need a break from the Theatre. I don't know for how long but I'll likely be involved with the next show as my friend is directing for the first time, Filmmaker partner Chris.

Thus ends the Summer of Lil' Caesar and all of it's drama:)