Alignment OK!

Turns out that the place I had taken it to that Saturday was trying to rip me off. The idler arm and pitman arm were both checked and were in good shape. They wanted over five hundred dollars to align my truck and I got it done by someone I trust and used to work with for sixty five!

It is now day three since my new iPhone was ordered. The sales rep said they have been getting them in faster than the seven to twenty one days but had to say that. I wonder which one he meant, faster than seven days or faster than twenty one days?

I also wonder if this town is on the AT&T schedule to get 3G anytime in the next decade.

Well back to work today. Yesterday was a total meltdown at work. A guy was texting me about it. Turns out the lead (Picky Eater) took off an extra day he wasn't scheduled for! I had yesterday scheduled off for a week. This threw everything into panic and confusion mode! LOL! This is also what happens when they lay off too many people and don't have coverage.

Alignment Day

I'm off today so I can get my truck aligned. I made this appointment about two weeks ago.
I'm taking it to a friend who has an alignment shop and I know won't rip me off.

Next week on Tuesday I have an appointment at the urologist to have a ct scan so they can confirm that everything is gone and my half gallon of water per day diet has been working. I have to go get some bloodwork done today.

It is also raining now. It feels nice outside! I ordered my new iPhone yesterday at lunch. Scheffe went and got a loan to pay me. I have also found that on Ebay you can sell broken iPhones for over one hundred dollars! Wow! I might do that!

At least that would make up for the fifteen dollars extra they are charging me per month on my contract for a service I can't use since we don't have a 3G network here.....

Spaced

A brilliant and funny (borderline genius) show about two twentysomethings who pose as a couple to rent a flat in London.

Chock full of pop culture references and great dialogue, this show is only fourteen episodes long which probably makes it one of the longest running shows in England television history. For some reason they don't stick around long.

Simon Pegg and Mike Frost got their start with this show. If you have seen the spectacular Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz then you are aware of who they are. Anyway hilarious and sometimes touching show about friends and modern living.

Tim is an aspiring comic book artist, Daisy wants to do anything but work, Brian is an artist whose mediums are pain, despair, fear....you'll understand. Mike is Tim's best friend and super military guy, Twist is Daisy's best friend and involved with Brian, and all are under the watchful and drunk eye of Marsha the landlord.

If you watch it you can't help but like it!

Friday Night Part 2

Yesterday morning around ten A.M. Scheffe called me and apologized profusely for being a moron all night.

He offered to pay for a replacement iPhone even though he doesn't have much money. I went to the store where I purchased it to find out the options of replacing it.

It is more expensive to fix than to replace with a new phone. They don't have any first generation iPhones left. So a new 3G, 16 gig iPhone will cost 299.00 if I extend my contract. I don't have a 16 gig iPhone now it is only an 8 gig but I believe it is fair since I paid 432.00 for my phone and it is around 6 months old.

The compromise I worked out for Scheff is to have him pay me 200.00 cash and clean out the rented hanger which should take about two hours, three at most. This is reasonable and fair while not breaking his bank it puts pressure on it to not act like an idiot!

So The Night

Started around ten o'clock at The Speakeasy. Beersnob wanted to try that place out since he and his wife hadn't been there. I have two drinks and two waters in the hour and a half we were there with another friend.

About three hours before Scheff had called me up and asked where I was going to be tonight. I told him and he said he would be there. Well about twenty minutes after being at The Speakeasy we decided to leave. I was pretty sober since the drinks were fairly weak so I figure we'll go to The Blue Note and have another drink there so I call Scheff back up and tell him so he will know I'm not there anymore.

This was a mistake.

We get to the Note and he comes in, falling down drunk. I have one drink only in the nearly three hours of time there because I know this isn't going to be fun at all. I have two ice waters and I'm pampering Scheff along who is becoming a real pain.

Scheff makes a scene staggering around the place and the owner comes to me and tells me he is cut off and asks if I'm driving him home. I tell him yeah, I'm sober and will handle him. I felt responsible since I told him where I was going and he was my friend from work. The other friends there were friends from the theatre and off time.

Scheff argues at everything and becomes an annoying drunk guy. I tell him let's go, I've seen enough and don't want to deal with him anymore. So I make him get up and walk him to my truck. He refuses to get in, I pull out my iPhone to check the time, it is nearly 1:30 and he slaps it out of my hand.....yeah.....it falls to the ground and the face shatters.

I'm very angry now.

I tell him we are taking his truck to his house and I'm driving. He saw what he did and didn't argue this time, we got into his truck and he starts to apologize and I tell him to shut up, I didn't want to hear a word out of him and proceed to chew him out for the ten blocks I drove him home.

We get there and he says he'll make it up to me, I tell him I'm still mad and to go inside because I didn't want to talk to him anymore. He does and I call a friend to pick me up and take me back to pick up my truck.

The silver lining is that my iPhone still works despite the shattered face....amazing device! I don't want to run my finger over the face though since it is broken glass afterall.

He will be buying me a new phone Monday.

Soccer Vs. Football

Yesterday I got into a discussion about which sport is better. One idiot actually claimed that American football was as boring as soccer! Could you believe that?!?!?!

Here is my whole problem with soccer fans. They believe that you aren't capable of enjoying a game where a score can end in a 0-0 tie! Say what you want about baseball, and I have, at least the game goes on until there is a winner!

I argued that soccer will never rise to more than a niche sport in the US, much like the WNBA. There just isn't a market for soccer here unlike the rest of the world. The MLS has been around for years now and does anyone know when it starts or ends?!

Contrast that with football or baseball, Football equals Fall while Baseball equals Spring! Duh....

A soccer guy will want to think he is dumbing down his language to speak to a football guy and explain the aspects and benefits of a soccer match. I'd argue that the least complex defense in the NFL is more complex than the most complex play in soccer on any day!

There are probably high school football teams who have more complex plays than a professional soccer club!

Soccer will NEVER be considered a mainstream sport and take the place of the top three (NFL, MLB, NBA) or even the smaller two (NHL, NASCAR). NEVER.

I was listening to ESPN radio not long ago when a host was talking about soccer ratings on their channel, they were horrid. ESPN probably regrets ever signing a deal with the MLS!

Soccer in America will always be a sport where the future is always brighter than reality, its big breakthrough will always be just over the horizon and out of reach. To prove my point, what is your best recollection of an American soccer highlight? Got one? How about when that chick pulled off her shirt after winning a game! Can you name another?

I can't.

Chianti And Company!

Last night Chianti texted me to celebrate some good news she received! We all went to The Blue Note instead of the pub this time. The Blue Note is probably my second favorite establishment in town.

It is nice, quiet, you can have a conversation and not get hassled or anything. Very good place for catching a drink after work.

So we stayed there for nearly two hours just talking and having a fun time.

Half Way

Wednesday, the half way point of the week. Both Monday and Tuesday it reached triple digit temperatures. There is a hurricane in the Gulf, I wonder if the remnants will make it here. That would cool things down considerably!

Today is supposed to be hotter still at about one hundred three degrees.

I got out my lawn chair and just sat in the front yard last night. What a marvelous experience! It had started cooling off and the front of my house was in shade. I watched a woodpecker up in the tree for close to five minutes! There had to have been around twenty birds pass through my yard, from a scissor tail fly catcher to a small flock of sparrows and numerous robins. The woodpecker was unique though!

Starting To Get Angry

Well not angry actually but a bit miffed.

I purchased something on Ebay over a week ago and it has yet to arrive. I've emailed the seller twice and they haven't responded either. Next step is of course to contact Ebay and tell them what is up and leave negative feedback.

I've already paid for it and everything! I'm getting kind of frustrated about this.

Tonight is Deadliest Catch night! I believe the season finale! Will Captain Phil live? Obviously so since he has been on After The Catch but he is sick or was when this was filmed.

At work things are tense. Everyone is frustrated about the layoffs, especially when the paper says my place is adding over one hundred people that we would have to support! I think the company is lying, they are cutting costs in order to sell out to another company.

Just my opinion, nothing but anecdotal evidence to back it up.

Biggest Weekend Ever

Well if you were the Batman movie that is. The Dark Knight topped all other opening weekends with over one hundred fifty five million five hundred thousand dollars. Incredible.

As for me personally it wasn't the biggest weekend ever but it was nice!

I got calls from two of my reunion classmates last night. One I talk to all the time and the other a state away. It was great to hear from the one a state away! It was really out of the blue and it was his birthday. I wished him a happy birthday in the midst of his celebrating and we chatted a few minutes. It was really nice!

I also bowled three games while waiting to see The Dark Knight. My wrist hurts a little bit still. The last time I bowled you had to keep score with a pencil and paper! So it was over 20 years ago! How crazy is that? I bowled a 65-113-45......not that great I know but considering my absence from the lanes I didn't think it was that bad either.

The Dark Knight

This was a very good movie! It did live up to the hype!

This is a movie that was better than the trailers showed. The chemistry between Bale and Ledger was just combustible to watch and you kept waiting for it to explode!

Gary Oldman was astounding once again as Jim Gordon and you just want this man to be your relative. He is rock solid and someone you can just trust. A far cry from his portrayal of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy.

Aaron Eckhart was outstanding as Harvey Dent/Two Face. In fact there really wasn't a weak link in the acting department, directing department, or any department! It was simply a great movie however it wasn't without faults.

I believe that Iron Man was a better movie. It just had a fun factor that was more enjoyable to me while The Dark Knight was more serious and realistic. Iron Man was just a fun movie and had a sense of humor while The Dark Knight just had Michael Caine as the comic relief and even that wasn't very often.

This was more of an adult movie than a shiny movie like Iron Man was. I do believe that The Dark Knight will break a lot of records though! It was really good as I said I just enjoyed Iron Man a little bit more because of the fun factor.

Friday Evening

Was incredible! I spent it with two friends and didn't do much but run some errands and stuff with them!

Then we went to get ice cream and just hung out in the parking lot and talked for another half hour. All in all it was just a really cool evening!

Tonight is The Dark Knight and before that I am having supper with Wendy and Bob! They aren't going to the movies with me but supper is nice! Wendy recently moved so it will be rare to see her now.

Big Weekend Planned!

Not quite as big as last weekend but lots of stuff on the agenda. Tonight I'm going out with some friends for coffee and whatever mischief we can find.

Tomorrow is The Dark Knight! Have a good sized group ready to go to that! Sunday is laundry day. Nothing big planned then.....but Saturday night and Friday night will make up for Sunday!

I haven't spent a lot of time with my friends lately, our schedules have conflicted with this group for the past couple of weeks so I'm really looking forward to catching up with all of them. We always have a great time when we all get together for movies and this movie will be incredible!

Yeah I'm in the danger zone here with my expectations, only sitting myself up for a disappointment.

The Dark Knight

While I was laying in bed last night.....just after midnight because for some reason I woke up about then, I was pondering the idea of getting up and going to the movies.

The Dark Knight had started at midnight and I am intrigued by this movie! Naturally everyone is somewhat because of the death of Heath Ledger and all but I'm a fan of comic books and this one looks amazing.

The Caesar Romero Joker is long gone as well as the Jack Nicholson Joker thankfully. This Joker though will only last one movie. What you see is what you get then its over with.

I didn't go last night though, I have made plans to go on Saturday night with friends and even though I won't be laid off this time I don't want to spend any leave just yet. I'm very close to one hundred hours again. It has been a while since I've had this amount and I've been rebuilding ever since the kidney stone days.....so no Dark Knight for me until Saturday!

Then I'll put up a full report about it and give my very bland and spoiler free review.

For Sure

We are losing one guy out of our shop. He is a friend of mine too, this really sucks.

Our lead talked to the manager about at least delaying his layoff until one other guy gets off of medical leave since they won't be able to do the job where they are with only three people.

It appears that the company I work for is trying everything in their power to lose this contract and get kicked out. Fine by me if the next company will hire everyone back off of layoff status.

An Unlikely Achievement

I was in a very reflective mood this weekend and it just so happens that I am reading My Dearest Friend as I blogged about a short time ago.

For those of you who don't want to read back to see what the book is about I'll recap for you. My Dearest Friend is a collection of letters between John and Abigail Adams. John Adams was the second President of the United States and a Founding Father.

However this post isn't about John Adams, it is about something that kind of dawned on me while I was reading My Dearest Friend.

John and Abigail Adams' story is one of endurance as they were separated for long amounts of time, it is one of patience, friendship, intimacy, and ultimately one of the Great American Love Stories as they were married for fifty four years.

That is what this post is about, I'll likely not reach a fifty year wedding anniversary. In fact at my age now if I were to get married then thirty would be a landmark and a great achievement. Forty would Everest and fifty....well that is just unlikely. I would have to live to at least eighty and close to ninety as well as my mate.

It isn't that I don't have the capability of something of that magnitude it is just that sometimes I am a bit impulsive. I can be a bit short sighted. I can be a bit quirky. A bit self centered. Sometimes I do things I think are funny but in reality aren't. Sometimes I can be hard to get along with but all of those things are a work in progress.

It would take a woman of patience for sure and a good sense of humor. Someone who would overlook my considerable faults. At my age it would be hard to find someone like that.

So when I show up to my thirtieth high school reunion I might very well be alone again and hopefully I'll have undergone just as many changes as the past ten years, good and bad. If I should be blessed with a partner then I'll be well on my way to my own Great American Love Story although it might not be as epic as John and Abigail.

Reunion Success!!!!

It was far better than I had hoped for. The lunch went off without a hitch and everyone enjoyed each other's company. I was overwhelmed by the spirit of the reunion and how reflective everyone really was.

Numbers were exchanged, addresses were given, and pictures were taken, hundreds of pictures if not thousands!
The food was amazing and well prepared! All in all it was a perfect weekend!

It will be a complete contrast to today which will be a very bad day at work. A six letter word that I had been planning for in October has crept up and will rear its ugly head today....Layoff.

I won't be laid off, I saw an unofficial list and they won't cut enough out of my shop to get to me however they will be cutting my shop. We just don't know exactly how they will cut my shop until they call the guy over to HR to tell him his options.

It is odd to contrast the celebration of this past weekend to the dreary reality of imminent unemployment. Today is going to be bad, there is no way around it.

One Down One To Go

Last night was a wonderful success!
Everyone reminisced and talked over forgotten times and future endeavors. Pictures were taken, drinks were drank, food was eaten, and new memories were made.

Personally I enjoyed the entire evening. I enjoyed seeing everyone all at once again and enjoyed hearing all of the memories that were shared.

The odd thing is that once it was over with I really didn't feel as old as I did yesterday morning. I had a spring in my step when it was over with and despite the weather it was sunny for me.

Twenty Years

Tonight is my twenty year high school reunion. Tomorrow we have a cookout but tonight is an adults only get together at the pub.

Twenty years. That's a long time.
Ironically I believe we only had twenty graduating people in our class. We had a small class and we all knew each other. I liked high school quite a bit actually. It was a great experience for me.

I'm looking forward to tonight, this has been in the planning stages for a while now and the day is finally here. It was actually easier to get everyone together this time than it was at the ten year reunion. The internet is in more homes now and everyone has a email address. It was just a matter of asking people who they knew and in a short time everyone was contacted!

The thirty year will be just as easy to plan at this point!

iPhone 2.0 Firmware

Is now live!
I haven't downloaded it yet as it takes a good half hour to update and I just don't have the time this morning before work.
I did download the new iTunes store last night though and looked around the Apps to see what was there.

A lot of games, utilities, helpful things, social networks. Nothing screamed must have to me though, well not yet. It is just the launch. I really wanted a theme utility. No such luck in being able to customize the look of my iPhone.

Maybe soon there will be one.

Two Incredible Evenings In A Row!!!!

Last night I cooked supper for Chianti and we sat out in the front yard and ate and talked for a couple of hours.

It was very nice! The company as well as the weather. It had rained most of the day and was over with by then so it was very cool, humid, and felt wonderful! I know there won't be many nice and cool days like yesterday this Summer but if that was the only one it was perfectly timed!

I got a few pages further into My Dearest Friend, I frequently go back and reread some of the letters so I can glean some of the context in which they are speaking. It helps quite a bit in the understanding. It almost needs a scholarly commentary to go along with it and since I lack that I must make do on my own.

Wonderful Tuesday!

Last night I took a friend out to supper and then we went grocery shopping! I'm cooking tonight and I can't wait! I love to cook!

It also rained all night, it was amazing sleeping weather! I feel so good this morning! I'm rested. I've been reading My Dearest Friend, The letters of John and Abigail Adams. It is a collection of their letters from before, during, and after the country was founded.

This is very fascinating but I confess that I am missing the context of some of them, the grammar and spelling are a bit tough to decipher at times and I don't get a lot of their references from their time. However what I do get is that it is a fascinating look behind the curtain of the founding of our country and a love story that lasted over fifty years.

They were separated for very long amounts of time and letter writing was the only way to talk. Letter writing was a skill almost an art. Something that is nearly lost in today's times. We strive for instant communication while writing a letter and sending it could take days if it was in the same state and months if it was over seas like when John Adams was in France.

This is interesting though from the first letter and the work that it takes to read it, and it is work, is worth it and very rewarding.

Blasphemy

I just couldn't write about this yesterday. It really is blasphemy, there is no other word for it.

Saturday night during the previews while we were at Hancock there was a scifi movie trailer. It looked almost interesting, I even mentioned it to one of my companions. Then I saw something that looked a little familiar and I started to get a sinking feeling.

The feeling that just made me physically ill almost. I saw Keanu Reeves answering questions hooked to a machine. That part looked good. Then I saw a metal headed robot and a visor lift up and that was the part that made me ill.

Then the payoff, the title that made my jaw drop as my fears were confirmed. One of the great scifi movies of all time has been remade. Hollywood strikes yet again with its repackaging of movies that have no business being remade. Take something classic and repackage it, add tons of CGI, and throw in a story that will appeal to the lowest common denominator and you have The Day The Earth Stood Still....the remake......sigh.......

I love this movie. I have a shirt and the movie poster on my iPhone! This is a wonderful movie and stands the test of time in every way! Its story is timeless which makes it a classic! It applies to every age!

I hate remakes. I love originality and I guess that makes me out of touch. I want to see new and fresh. I don't want to see a movie that was perfect the first time around to be remade for no reason other than to dumb it down.
I think I'm sick now.....

Off Today

I wasn't planning on taking off today but it is a family day at work, almost everyone is off anyway and I have some errands to run today that I couldn't run over the holiday weekend.

The weekend was really good. I had a lot of fun with a lot of friends. This week will be a short week like last week was. That makes it really nice.

Had a hard time sleeping last night. I was up around five and couldn't get back to sleep.

Hancock

Since Monte and Weezy were both in this movie we went to see it last night! I have to say that I enjoyed this movie, Will Smith was really pretty good.

He has improved so much over the years and gotten so much better as an actor.

The movie itself was really fun and had a surprise I didn't see coming and I saw the twists in Saw coming from a mile away. Everyone in the audience was enjoying it, they laughed at the same times and were engaged at the right times. It was actually a pretty short movie and I felt could have been another twenty minutes long.

After the movie we went to a local club to send Weezy back to LA. She leaves today so it was her final night in town. After a while a couple of other people we know joined us and it turned into a wonderful evening and a fitting send off since it will be Christmas when I see Weezy again.

A Fine Celebration!

Yes it was. Went out to eat with friends. Then went to the park and watched the firework show. It would have been nice if it would have been a show that lasted longer but it seemed to be lacking this year.

Tax revenues must be down.

It's alright though, it was a good time. Have lunch planned today and that's about it until tonight.

Going to see Hancock, yeah I know not a normal show I'd go see but since Monte and Weezy were in it I'm going to go with them and see if we can see them! How fun is that?!

Other than that there isn't a lot going on today, as it should be on a holiday weekend!

Happy Fourth Of July!!!!

So go and celebrate by cooking, drinking, and.....no that isn't what I'm going to say. Celebrate today by remembering what today is really about.

Breaking away from Britain. Founding our country, the shining city on the hill. The only country in the world where people still risk their lives to get to! The beacon of freedom in the world!

Celebrate the brilliance of our founding fathers who gave us the chance to keep their dream alive and carry on as best as we can. I wrote Monday that it is a shame that history doesn't really have the emphasis that it used to and outside of Washington, Lincoln, and probably FDR the Presidents probably aren't taught anymore.

You have to have an appreciation of history to carry on into the future. You have to have that basis on which to know where you come so you can figure out where you are going.

We are not Zimbabwe where Presidential candidates are beaten and killed who run for office against the opposition.
We are not Cuba where one dictator rules with an iron fist.
We are not Venezuela where all media is state controlled and opposing voices are silenced.
We ARE the country where you can criticize the President unmercifully and not be visited for it.
We ARE the country where if you aren't happy you can change your circumstances with total freedom.
We ARE the country where our military will fight and die for other the freedoms of other countries so they can enjoy what we do and in doing so preserving our freedoms.

So today on our two hundred thirty second birthday celebrate my friends but remember why you can celebrate freely.

Wooohoooo!

Today is payday Friday except it isn't Friday!
How cool is that?!?!?

Well big news around here is that we are officially getting our very own NBA team! That is such cool news! We supported the Hornets while they had no place to live and made them our own. I believe that the (to be named later team) will indeed be adopted with much love and happiness!

It will be great to be able to go and see them as I did the Hornets. I predict many sell out games and one of the highest ranking attendance records in the league next season!

Tonight Weezy is in town, you'll recall her from Drinkbusters. She is on vacation from acting in LA for a week or so. Tomorrow we have a group going to see Wall-E!

Almost Over!

This week is counting down! Tomorrow is payday and Monday is an optional day meaning you don't have to be there if you don't want to be.

I plan on being there and building up more leave.

Yesterday I met with a small business counselor. I told him a couple of small business ideas I had and how unique they would be. We looked at some statistics and ran some numbers and they said I don't have a big enough customer base and would barely be above the break even line. Not exactly what I thought it would be like but we even inflated the numbers of customers and market share to account for new customers. I wasn't happy but better to learn now than to invest a lot of money and time only to have it fail later.

Sigh.....back to the drawing board.

It's Wednesday!

Well for me it is since Friday is a holiday and I'm off! I do so love the Fourth of July! It means so much and is now just the day for massive firework displays, grilling outside, and getting together.

Well all of those things are fine but it is also the day we stood up to the British Empire, the super power in the world then and told them we were willing to fight for our sovereignty. We declared independence in 1776 and broke away from the Brits.

The rest is literally history now. We sit as the lone super power in the world today. We command the most powerful military ever assembled in the history of the world. We command the biggest economy in the history of the world. We have the most generous people who always jump to help others afflicted by natural disasters or illness.

Our Founding Fathers really had nerve. They had so much courage and intelligence. Now even though they are not forgotten by most people they are largely ignored. Our population rarely has an original thought left despite all of our good intentions.

Unfortunate. Its unfortunate our educational system has failed us in so many ways.

Delight In The Mundane

This is also stop and smell the roses. We get so wrapped up in day to day living of accomplishing that which we set before us that we are usually on the move from the time we get up until we go to bed only to repeat the same situation the next day.

I've been guilty of this, mostly when working on a project and to me it is a wonderful way to live as you feel useful and purpose driven. The problem is that it is an attractive way to live and as such we can get caught up in it too much.

Sometimes you have to force yourself to marvel at the simple pleasures and enjoy them, once you can see the beauty in the sunrise or sunset, the celestial map of stars overhead, or the smell of a freshly cut lawn then you are likely capable of enjoying a small pleasure. It is a matter of setting aside time to enjoy a small pleasure.

Ice cream on a hot afternoon.
Sitting outside in the cool evening.
A phone call to a friend.
Whatever it may be that can bring a brief respite to the daily grind of living is a simple pleasure, it doesn't have to be actual rose smelling. It should be relaxing and spontaneous!

It should be fun, something we are missing out on if we get caught up in what we need to be doing and instead of what we can be doing.

John Adams

Yesterday I did some editing and DVD making. Then it was on to watch John Adams, the HBO miniseries.

John Adams is a warts and all biography based on David McCullough's book of the same name. It shows Adams as a complicated man. A man of integrity, honesty, vast intelligence, impatience, vanity, and pride. He loved Abigail Adams more than anything else and yet they were separated for very long periods of time.

This is a fascinating and compelling story of how our country was founded trough the eyes of one of our founding fathers. It would be wonderful to see it from other points of view as well!

Adams goes round and round sparring with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, even George Washington whom he championed while Washington was a Colonel.

John Adams is brilliantly played by Paul Giamatti, an outstanding performance to be sure! The series if filled with incredible performers such as Laura Linney, David Morse, Sarah Polley, and Rufus Sewell among others.

Watch it!

Shakespeare Wrap Up

The show was pretty good. The audio had some problems but overall it was a watchable show.
The threat of a storm was fun! We watched it roll closer and closer!

Just before intermission the director, Dave, found me in the audience and asked if I'd look up the radar on my iPhone to see what it was going to do. It showed that it was headed right for us but missed us and went West.

I got back home about ten thirty and hit the sack. I was tired.

Shakespeare In The Park

Yes Richard III is now under way!

Finally Friday

This was a long week....for several reasons.

I'm glad it is over with though. It is raining out right now and very cool. It feels good. The blisters on my hands are nearly healed now. Well not healed exactly but they don't hurt as much.

I have two things to edit this weekend. The scenes for the fanfilm project and the scenes I shot last night at Shakespeare in the park. I've never been a big fan of Shakespeare. I go anyway and support the local community though.

I know I know, if you say Shakespeare was overrated you get stares from people who believe they know better than you do, especially for thinking such an outrageous thing. I've read lots of Shakespeare, seen a lot of Shakespeare, I gotta tell you I'm just not a fan. It doesn't do anything for me.

Just me though as his body of work has been done millions of times over around the world. Millions of Shakespeare fans out there, I'm just not one of them is all.

A Nice Evening

I just returned from Shakespeare in the Park's production of Richard III. I was filming a couple of scenes for someone so they could show family on a trip this week since they were unable to attend.

It was a good evening anyway but then I found this and it really topped my evening off.
I've watched it like twenty times now and every time there is something in my eye.

Cinderella Lives

The lowly Fresno State, winners of five elimination games, beat Georgia last night six to one. Georgia in itself was an underdog as an eight seed. Fresno didn't even have a seed number next to their name though!

The announcers put them as a fifteen seed, the lowest ranked seed to ever win a NCAA championship of any kind.

This is on par with Appalachian State beating Michigan last season at The Big House, except this was a two out of three series and Georgia was winning and could have put them away in the second game.

It was fun to watch and it seemed that everyone in the stadium were pulling for Fresno to win! I was too as I enjoy watching underdog victories! It makes you feel good.

Getting Better

Yes I am getting better.

It is half way through the week now. I watched Fresno State face elimination last night at the hands of Georgia in the college world series. They were down 5-0 in the third inning and came back to put six runs on the board in the bottom half.

They went on to win 19-10 to even the best of three series. It was one fun game to watch and I'm not that much into baseball anymore as I've blogged about many many times. They play tonight for the championship with Fresno State the team with momentum.

I've also found a couple of good deals for Operation; Qatar. I have several cigar packages on their way now. They will be some nice care packages when they are ready to be sent off!

I Wanted

To go out and feed and water Ace last night and had to catch myself from doing it. I still have three cans of dog food left. I called my brother to see if he wanted them since he has two dogs.

I got asked if I was going to get another dog twice at work. Not for a while. Maybe a few months, maybe never, I don't know. I just don't know yet.

Still Sad

I am still sad.

Rest In Peace Ace

This morning he passed away. I saw him before I went to go get breakfast. He was alert, looked at me and wagged his tail. I petted him and talked to him for a couple of minutes. I got back and he had moved into the back yard. I went in to eat and went back out to feed him and was gone.

He was a good dog. Thirteen years old.

I'm sad.

Crazy Day

Started off yesterday at normal waking hours. Before seven.

Got ready to film on the fanfilm project. So I went to Sonic around eleven thirty to get a hamburger. Then it was to Beersnob's house to get the equipment prepared and packed.

Once that was done we hit the site and set up the equipment and waited for the actors. Five hours later we wrapped up and tore down the set. Then I had two hours to get rest and get ready for a party in which the director of Twelve Angry Men had an idea about something he would like to experiment with to enhance the show.

The the other purpose of the party was to play poker and Mahjong. I started the evening with the thirty five I brought. Finished up the night almost double up. It was a wonderful poker evening! I took most of that from the guy who hadn't been taken down at a poker party before. That was only because I hadn't been on the same table with him before.

I had seen him play before at a couple of other parties and knew that over time I could take him down. He plays reckless, overly aggressive and that style just doesn't work in a game with amateurs. I started by showing him I fold strong hands while it would cost me to start it opened up my ability to bluff him. Thinking he had the upper hand and that I would only stay on a winning hand I could then play any hand and force him out after he helped build up the pot.

I was head to head with him in four hands and I won three of them on the showdowns. Anyway I had a great time and have a small project to think over on how to approach.

A wonderful day!

Fun Evening!

I was out with friends from the time I got off work until just after eleven o'clock last night! It wasn't meant to be like that but it is how it happened.

First of all it was just a drink after work with three of us showing up. I decided to go to the pub since I knew more people would be there and it was a better place. So Bub went home and I went to the pub to wait for the other friend. While I was there I started texting people to see who would like to show up.

About five thirty two more friends had showed up. About seven a couple more and I had supper. By nine Shakespeare rehearsal had let out and that group showed up! So all in all it was a great time and during that entire time I had exactly two drinks when I first got there and five big glasses of ice water!

It didn't start off being anything other than a thirty minute drink after work and turned into something a lot more fun and enjoyable!

Tonight I've got a poker game at a friends house! He has an idea he would like to talk to me about and see if it is possible. I'm excited about that!

Friday Kicks Off

A busy weekend! Tomorrow we are shooting on the fanfilm a little bit. Then having lunch or supper, whatever, and discussing Operation: Qatar.

I've been looking at Cigarbid.com for good deals to package up into the care packages. I have bid on a couple of bundles that will make some premium additions to anyone's humidor! I mean some very nice premium cigars, not the machine made junk you can find in a quick shop.

Not only that but I located portable humidor pouches that will keep a cigar at the proper humidity for ninety days! Each pouch will accommodate up to twenty five cigars for $4.95 apiece!!!! That will really make this easy to accomplish!!! Get the pouches, fill them up, send them off!!!

I'm excited about this! It is just so simple to pull off and personally has been fun too!

Its A Go!!!!

Beersnob was excited to learn about Operation: Qatar and is thrilled to help out! We are going to kick around how to make it work this Saturday after shooting is over with. He thought it would be a great opportunity to raise morale and have fun while far from home!

Oh yeah, we are shooting this Saturday too.

It will be nice to get a couple more scenes going!

It's Boston

In a blowout. I knew they didn't want a game seven but I didn't think they would dominate like they did.

From the second quarter on it wasn't even close. The Celtics just coasted putting an exclamation mark at the end of this series and playoffs. They won't be the force next year that they were this year because of age so I don't see a repeat performance but they probably can go deep into the playoffs barring injury.

The Lakers on the other hand will likely be the favorites to win next year in a very deep Western Conference. Look for them to bulldoze the playoffs next season and dominate. They will have lots of experience and will be quite a bit tougher. Utah will likely be their main competition as Phoenix and Dallas have rebuilding years. Houston isn't deep enough and the Northwestern teams aren't that good yet.

Lots Of Sleep

It poured rain all night. I slept very well. Yeah a couple of giant thunderclaps woke me up but I quickly fell back to sleep.

Operation: Qatar starts today with the delivery of the humidor and cigar sampler I ordered for Beersnob to take with him. I'll get the specifics on what he can take on his trip and get all of that arranged as well as purchasing cigars, cutters, containers, all of that.

I'm excited about this! From what I've read they are greatly enjoyed and real cigars are sought after since there are apparently a lot of bad fakes over in the sandbox.

Boston should close out LA tonight at Boston. If not they risk becoming victim to a huge comeback in game seven. Boston just plays defense too well not to win tonight at home. LA just doesn't have the experience outside of Kobe. It is practically over with.

Want To Know Why Baseball Sucks?

This is why. Baseball used to be about the common man taking his family or kids to watch a game. The lack of a salary cap has escalated seat prices so out of control that baseball will eventually drive the people it wants to attract out of affording the games.

Yes new stadiums are expensive to build. Salaries are expensive to pay. I'm sure that a couple of teams around the MLB will sell seats at these price ranges. I've no doubt about it. I also have no doubt that there will be a lot of empty seats in a lot of stadiums. Yankee Stadium might be one of the ones that struggle to sell tickets unless they get a reality check.

No one wants to pay twelve bucks for a hot dog let alone for two or three of them. That's less than ten gallons of gas!

Baseball will have to realize someday that they aren't the NFL. The NFL can get away with charging outrageous prices if they want to, people watch those games! People care about the NFL! You only get eight home games. That is a lot more affordable than eighty one home games. The sport is better, people love football! College or the NFL it doesn't matter, this is the king of American sports!

Baseball is just one sport that historically doesn't get it. They are just now looking at instant replay....years after being instituted by other sports. They fail to grasp how a salary cap reduces the price burden on the common man who would like to go see a game. How many times are you going to pay 2,500 per seat to see A-Rod choke in the bottom of the ninth making 30 million per year? You can see that free on TV on your home theater which might have cost less than one seat behind home plate at the new Yankee Stadium!

I don't see the math adding up but I could be very wrong here. I'm just saying even if I were a lottery winner I wouldn't pay those prices for those seats.....

Sleepless Again

This is really bothering me so yesterday I brainstormed some ideas and plan on bringing those up if I enroll into the business program.

Some of them are goofy, some might be realistic, I just can't separate them at the moment! There is one I reeeeally like! Hopefully it will be the realistic one! I had a great theater idea but unfortunately that was an unrealistic one due to tremendous costs and almost no profit margin.

Well on tap for today, made the Father's Day call this morning. Plan on going to get lunch and seeing a movie today. I have laundry going and Oh Yeah......sixteen years on the job. Maybe I'll be there another sixteen. Maybe I have a great idea that will pay better than my job.

Couldn't Sleep

Yes my friends after a four or five hours of sleep last night I was wide awake. Pretty unusual for me to not get a full night.

I've got seeming a hundred things going on in my head. Tomorrow is my sixteenth anniversary at work and it is bothering me. At this point I'm going to have to learn to be content or find something else. The problem with my job as I've talked about a lot of times is there is no challenge and I deal with lots of killing time and looking busy.

The upside is they pay me a ton, I've got two retirement packages, earn lots of vacation leave, and I have a moderate amount of job security. There is a slim chance I could be laid off this Fall so I am making preparations now in case that happens with a three month emergency fund ala Dave Ramsey. I've got a nice sized start so far and will have no problems making the goal.

I've also been kicking around what would I do IF I didn't do what I do. Nothing is really coming to mind as a definite Plan B but I am open to many ideas.

My Thursday night after work with a friend session really got to me. They have a new job and are enjoying it a lot. Mainly because they are challenged. Yeah she said that there are downsides to the job but the good outweighs the bad.

It all comes down to needing a challenge. I can challenge myself to be content as I am or I can challenge myself to figure out something better to do.

Great Evening!!!!

We thought back to find out the last time we had hung out together and it had been the Super Bowl! Sheesh. That was just entirely too long! I really missed her company.

It was a wonderful evening and we even made plans to go out again in the next couple of weeks.

Well it looks as if the Boston/LA series might just be over with now! Boston beat LA in LA last night. Paul Pierce stepped up to the challenge after LA dominated the first half. The Lakers would really have to have a miracle comeback now that they are down 3-1.

Kobe just doesn't have the team around him to make that happen. Gasol is doing pretty good overall but the rest of his team is average at best. Boston has a stifling defense and is by far the best team between the two.

It would appear that it has been a close series but it would be over with right now if Boston had six more points the other night. So it really isn't as close as all that. Boston has pretty much dominated.

Operation: Qatar!

My good friend Beersnob is shipping out in September to Qatar and I have got an idea on sending a piece of home with him and hoping that some of the people there can enjoy some relaxation as well.

I came across a cigar catalog in which a bunch of troops were enjoying cigars. Then I found a message board where they donate large quantities of their cigars to the troops and send care packages over to them. I have read a lot of posts from deployed personnel and for a half hour at a time while they are all back after their mission/patrol they can relax and feel normal again. Those feelings are priceless in bad environments.

Operation: Qatar will consist of me gathering up the supplies, cigars, cutters, and humidification beads to assemble at least ten care packages to ship off with Beersnob along with a special package and humidor for him. He will essentially be a supply depot! I have ordered a humidor and now have to go about getting the containers for the care packages. I plan on using ziploc plastic containers! They are sturdy and the cigars won't get hurt while in transit! I want to put ten to fifteen cigars of different varieties in each container so I'll have to come up with one hundred to two hundred cigars for this operation!

I don't want cheap drug store cigars either. I have posted on the message board I came across to ask the deployed men and women what they would like since they have received a variety in Iraq and Afghanistan. They should have some insight into what a care package should have in it.

Beersnob will also be consulted since he will hopefully be taking the packages along with him but not right now. I'd like the idea to be more of a surprise to him since he enjoys those kind of things!

Great Evening!

The class reunion is coming together very nicely! Over half the class has RSVP already and only a couple of said they cannot make it! This is going to be a rousing success!

After work I sat outside and grilled supper. It was nice out. The dog was at my feet. I ate grilled chicken and potatoes. After supper I read The Scarlet Citadel by Robert E. Howard, a short story, and just had a fun evening!

I've got plans after work on Thursday with a friend. We haven't gotten together in what seems like months and if I thought about it it might have been that long. So their schedule finally is free and mine is really free right now.

I'm looking forward to it again since I have spent no time with her in a long time and we used to hang out a lot!

The Magic NOAA Voice

Yes my weather radio makes annoying noises when I'm trying to sleep but the flip side of that is that for some odd reason I find listening to the tinny mechanical voice soothing and somewhat interesting.

I can't explain it but I do. I don't know what hold this computerized voice has over my auditory senses but it is something I can listen to before going to bed. If I'm walking by the radio I'll push the button to hear the voice ramble on about daily temperatures or the humidity.

I feel a sense of relief knowing that the voice is on whenever I want it to be. Likely I'm the only one who finds the voice soothing, comforting, and reliable though but it just is to me.

I do believe I can trace interest into the voice back to when my dad had a regular radio that had a weather band on it and while in bed I would listen to the voice then. It would sort of ease me to dreamland. Maybe I associate the voice with my youth then? Perhaps. I don't know why it is fascinating to me but it is.

Water Mark

Here is how high up the water was!!

Flood!!

It way rained all night and my yard is flooded! My intersection is
flooded as well! The drains can't keep up and I had to push a stalled
car out if the way and onto higher ground.

Tomorrow Is The Big Day

If you have an iPhone or have been waiting to get one until the next version comes out! Steve Jobs will likely be announcing 2.0 tomorrow while the next software update will also be released this week!

Now it is widely speculated that the next iPhone version will feature 3G over the current Edge network. That doesn't mean a lot since 3G isn't widely available yet and isn't available here. It is also likely to have GPS and hopefully a longer battery life.

I doubt that I will upgrade right now unless they have a 32 gig version. I'd love to have more storage but the other things just don't interest me that much and are useless right now where I live. I am looking forward to the new App store though.

My personal wish list would be a file system that allows me to download and start programs.
A theme application that allows me to customize how my iPhone looks. Yes I know you can unlock it and there are plenty of them but I don't want to unlock it right now unless that doesn't happen. I'd just like things like that. More options for what I already have.

Pithecanthropus Erectus Vs. Piano Concerto 2 In F Minor

Being bored at work yesterday I had my ipod and was going through everything to see what I haven't paid attention to before. So I happen upon the Charles Mingus breakthrough work Pithecanthropus Erectus which is a free form jazz piece.

Free form jazz is just hard to describe, it is about playing what you feel at the time. It is something you honestly just have to like and be into. It has no structure, no two pieces are ever the exact same, it is completely improvisational. Charles Mingus was an interesting figure. You should research him as he put out a voluminous amount of work over his jazz career. In one stretch he released thirty albums in ten years!

Now I enjoy improvisation but when it comes to comedy, dialogue and acting, not so much in music.

I found out yesterday that I enjoy more of a structured musical environment after I listened to Frederic Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 composed in 1830 when Chopin was around 20. This is one beautiful piece of music. It is disciplined, structured, and while you listen to it it just sweeps you up in its journey!

Now I'm not saying that the Mingus piece isn't beautiful. It is if you are a jazz fan if you aren't you would probably just find it annoying. The difference I see is that even if you aren't a classical music fan you would still find Piano Concerto 2 to be a beautiful work of art. Free form jazz is just more niche while classical is more universal I guess.

Rainy Night

Actually a stormy monsoon of a night! A friend came over after she got off work and we grilled out before a massive thunderstorm hit! The intersection had probably six inches of water flooding it since the drains couldn't keep up!

It was a nice evening though!

It was cool, the fierce wind had died down and even during the storm the wind wasn't as strong as it had been during the day! All in all a good evening!

Will She Or Won't She

Now that Obama has captured the nomination and Clinton has put herself, rather humbly, out there as a VP candidate there is one decision left that will determine the legacy of a would be political dynasty. Will she remain the junior senator from New York or not?

She wants power, she wants to be on the ticket, she wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency. She has already mentioned assassination and Obama in the same Q & A session. You know what she is thinking. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure it out. Her sole purpose in life is the acquisition of power, same as a Marxist. Consolidate power in a central location and drive everyone to mediocrity as fast as possible by punishing success through taxes and regulations.

The only thing is that the Obamas hate her. They don't want Bill Clinton anywhere near their administration looking over Barack's shoulder. Telling him what he did when he was President. Having Hillary right there, watching him like a vulture for every misstep and capitalizing on every political gaffe.

My bet is that Obama will not take Hillary on his ticket unless the DNC forces him to. Yes they can do that. They will set him down in a smoke filled room and 'splain things to him at the convention. That is the ONLY way he will take a Clinton and all the baggage that comes with being a Clinton on the ticket in the Fall.

The Clinton almost dynasty is likely over with and done, relegated to the ash heap of history much like the Soviet Union.

Crimes Against Humanity Part 3

This is the exact type of problem I'm talking about in yesterday's post and again the May fourteenth post. A corrupt incompetent government who's policies kill their own citizens because they are desperate to hang on to power.

Robert Mugabe confiscated land from farmers and gave it to natives who had no idea how to farm. The result has been widespread famine. Is it his fault? NO! He blames everyone else....at the expense of lives.

What can be done about people like this who hold onto power which costs the lives of its own citizens? Again the power that is supposed to stand up to these barbarians has neither the power nor the iron will required to do so.

It isn't a pleasant business, dealing with dictators, but sometimes it is necessary. I feel it is more and more necessary today. Because these idiots weren't dealt with years ago it has given other dictators a cloak of invincibility. They wrap themselves in a sense of security that America won't do anything to them since they didn't do anything to that other guy.

It also encourages the next despot barbarian to rise to power knowing that the UN nor America, the beacon of hope and freedom for the world, won't touch them. My friends I pray our next president will have the courage to preserve the lives of the downtrodden around the globe. The victims of cruel policies shouldn't have to live under iron fisted rule.

I know I know, life isn't fair. As I type this I have a full belly, air conditioning and power and access to post this on a forum around the world. What I also have is the freedom to do so. Something many people don't have.

Crimes Against Humanity Part 2

This is a follow up to my May fourteenth post about the Myanmar crisis. It appears that aid is still facing challenges from the military government.

Again I call this a crime against humanity and that country should have the full projected force of power of the UN come down on it to.....oh wait.....the UN doesn't really have any power does it OR THIS WOULDN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!

Well maybe the Junta government just didn't get the UN memo about the resolution they passed that told them.....oh WAIT!!!! There hasn't been a resolution passed but France MIGHT sponsor one!

No this is a job for Superman since apparently no one else can do anything about these starving people that have been devastated by the cyclones. This is a great comment of the state of humanity and unfortunately it isn't so much a comment as it is a thumbs down review from Roger Ebert.

"Our crisis today had a weak leading cast paired with an overblown budget that seemed to do nothing to put the movie on the screen. All in all this was a average movie as this seems to be happening more and more frequently. I fear if this type of movie continues to be made it will become great someday when people don't care what they watch. THUMBS DOWN....for now"

My Name Is Earl Season Three

Yesterday I watched the entire third season of My Name Is Earl. I've posted reviews for the previous two seasons and as such I'd like to blog my third season review.

This one had some ups and downs. Not quite as fresh as the first two seasons but it still had the trademark witty writing and storylines. I'm not saying that this wasn't a good season, it was just a little uneven. The coma part was too similar to the Sopranos coma storyline. I really found myself more bored and annoyed by that part rather than entertained.

The other two major story arcs were very good though and worth watching the season for! All in all entertaining IF you remove that one arc from the season. I can imagine that the uneven parts of the series were due to the writer's strike. It just seemed less cohesive than the previous two seasons.

Watch it and laugh! It is hard not to!

Nice Evening

It was a great evening last night! Had supper with friends and just hung out with them afterwards.

Those are cool times. You can just sit with them and don't even have to talk or anything. It is nice to be able to have that level of comfort with people you enjoy!

The radar also looks like it is going to storm in about an hour. Looks like a big storm too. Today is going to be spent doing laundry, cleaning, and not much else. It is nice to just enjoy a day without many plans!

Settling In

For watching a long day of the DNC fighting amongst themselves on what to do with the disenfranchised states of Florida and Michigan. Yeah to most people it will be boring stuff but if you understand what is going on this is high drama!

You would have to be living in a cave not to know what has been going on between Clinton and Obama for the Dem nomination. Well Clinton would win it IF Florida and Michigan are seated in full which of course she is pushing for. Obama will win if anything less than that happens.

What is being debated is the question, How many votes will NOT count because they jumped the gun and held their primary earlier than the DNC said they could. Essentially they (Florida and Michigan) broke the rules and the DNC said they wouldn't count ANY of their delegates and not seat them at the convention. Well the problem is that no one knew that the race would be this close and would have been long over with by now.

What has happened is a DNC system meltdown on par with the China Syndrome! Clinton and Obama HATE each other. Neither one will give up. Clinton has "more experience" while Obama is collecting more support. Clinton has more popular votes (especially if Florida and Michigan are counted) and Obama now has more super delegates.

The super delegate was created as a check to the popular vote. Essentially it means that these super delegates can over rule the will of the voting public and nominate who THEY want as they are not bound by the popular vote. If the super delegates over rule the people they would essentially disenfranchise the entire democratic voting public!

So today it all boils down to this meeting held today in Washington D.C. What will the dems do? Who will gain the DNC support? More importantly HOW MANY votes (of common hard working people) will they throw out to come to the conclusion they want?

High Drama!

Friday!

Yes my friends it is the magical day of the week! I need it after yesterday.
Word has come down from on high that there will be a big layoff at my place of work.
I'm safe but we did lose a person. I am going to lose some good friends out there. It really sucks because a lot of these people are younger and have families to support.

What really sucks is there are several people who are past the age of seventy and are drawing several paychecks from retirements, social security, AND this place and won't step down to save a job. One person in particular draws no less than five paychecks! He clears around eighty grand without this job and he is seventy three.

He could save one man's job who is supporting a family but won't do it, want to hear the kicker? There are TWO people in that same area who are in similar positions and neither one will retire to save this guy's job.

That isn't the only story like that either. That is the downside of working within a union. The young people get the screws while the people with seniority can't be touched and can practically be as lazy as they want to be.

Unintended Consequences

I listen to satellite radio a lot at work. A lot of times it is all I have to do. So one time this radio host was telling his audience about a traveling salesman friend who was on the road. Turns out he had finished up his meeting a day early but the hotel room was still paid for another night.

So he found a homeless guy and gave him the room to spend the night in and get cleaned up. I don't think anyone would disagree that his heart was in the right place. The host went on to explain that the salesman had received a bill from the hotel for around four hundred dollars after the homeless guy had cleaned out the honor bar.

The salesman had learned a lesson about kindness coming back to bite you.

Being idealistic myself (and contemplating a new project) I am running into this very problem. I don't want to reveal what it is since it might not happen right now. It is an idea that is getting thought over though quite a bit.

I have to wonder, What If that salesman's generosity to the homeless man took a temporary detour but later took hold allowing the homeless man the hand up he needed? Perhaps he has a job and a roof over his head now because of his random encounter with the salesman? Are you saying it isn't possible?

Perhaps it isn't likely but it IS possible.

OK so what if it didn't work the way I would like it to work and the homeless man just went and got drunk and passed out in an alley. The likely outcome. What if you had shown kindness to a lot of people in trouble, would the outcome still be the same for everyone of them?

I think the likelihood that everyone would continue status quo is diminished now. Someone WOULD be effected in the intended way.

Now consider that is only the people in the deepest trouble, the homeless or drug addicted. What if someone just needed a little help to out of a jam? Perhaps they could then turn around and help someone else out of a jam!

Now the well intentioned person could have things going in their favor exponentially.

Off Today

And there is a storm brewing! It doesn't look like it will be a big one or last long but it is sure thundering and I think it is going to come down hard in a bit! It can't be too bad, my weather radio hasn't gone off yet and told me it is going to be bad.

Yes and I'm off today to have my shocks changed at nine this morning. I know this guy and he used to work where I worked before he got laid off and then he opened up his own shop and has been super busy since.

I made this appointment two weeks ago!

Anyway things are good and I have a day off to get some errands ran after my shocks are done! With my big overtime check I paid up my monthly bills a month in advance, feels good! I've got a ton left over too!

Rainy Night

To top off a rainy and severe weather filled weekend Memorial Day evening was also filled with a severe storm and hail. Not much in the thunder department but a deluge of rain and high winds!

It was a good weekend though! I enjoyed it quite a bit! Still have leftovers in the fridge from yesterday's meal with family and that will probably be supper tonight!

Everything is really going pretty well right now. I'm off tomorrow to have my shocks changed on my vehicle. It is that time! I also have to errands to run that I couldn't do yesterday since a lot of businesses were closed.

Memorial Day

Keep in mind what today is about when you are eating with friends and family.

Keep in mind that the reason you are able to do so in peace today is because our military confronted tyranny around the world preserving your God given freedoms.

Keep in mind that we are still confronting tyranny today, defending your freedoms against people who want you to live in a theocratic tyranny or want you dead.

Many countless people have given everything to guarantee your freedoms, remember them today.

Go out and do something for a veteran today.

Indiana Jones And The Oklahoma Tornadoes

This new Indiana Jones movie was a mixed bag. It had some very fun moments but the ultimate payoff at the end was a bit hokey. I mean it was spectacular visually, don't confuse that for hokey, I'm only referring to the premise they were offering.

I do believe there were more fun high points than there were low points as the movie was a very fun romp! There were the traditional close calls, split second timing, cunning villains, and big surprises!

The pacing had some issues but ultimately you just overlook it and get caught up in the adventure. Harrison Ford simply was Indiana Jones, this movie would have benefited from being made years ago instead of today but for this story the technology wasn't there. Shia LeBouf can now be considered the most over exposed actor out there now.

This movie will do huge box office and it should. This is what a Summer movie should be about. Putting your life on pause for a couple of hours and escaping everything that troubles you for a short time.

Yesterday I was also captivated by the real life and really intense footage of a super cell outbreak of tornadoes in my very own county! I was surprised to turn on Fox news to see live footage being broadcast of my home area! It was just to the South of me and we caught the Northern edge of the storm but missed out on all of the most severe weather! The storm chasers were everywhere! I believe the storm produced double digit tornadoes yesterday as the storm was that massive but thankfully no one was seriously injured.

Exhale

Yesterday was a marathon of boredom at work, but you know something? It is over with and today is the start of a great weekend!

There were more storms last night and yes my weather radio went off again. I didn't get up this time and after a couple of minutes it quit. It rained quite a bit last night and today feels really nice out!

Tonight is Indiana Jones, tomorrow is the Coca Cola 600, a marathon race I try to watch every year, the NBA playoffs are going on, my weekend is packed! I haven't been taking off of work to build my leave back up after my medical time off. I would like to get it up to over 100 hours again, that is a comfortable amount for me. I'm only about twenty hours away so I've done pretty good since it was in the fifties after all that time off!

Wooohoooo! Payday!!!!

Plus a three day weekend on top of that! What a marvelous idea!
We now have a sizable group that will be going to see Indiana Jones tomorrow night!
It will be so much fun!

A while back I purchased a weather radio that goes off when there is severe weather in the area. In theory this was a good idea since the weather around here changes quite a bit. In reality this is how it worked.
I go to bed, at 12:45 the weather alarm goes off and won't shut up until I get up and turn it off in the living room.
I go back to bed.
At 2:00 it goes off again with further warnings that won't shut up until I get up and turn it off again.
I go back to bed.
At 4:00 it goes off again with even yet further warnings of doom and gloom and won't shut up until I get up and turn it off.
I go back to bed again.
AT 5:30 it goes off for the last time with more imminent threats of tornadoes and heavy rain.
I go back to be for the remaining half hour of fit filled sleep praying that it doesn't go off a fifth time.

I'm going to have to rethink this weather radio.....

Flavor Of Love Finale

The trainwreck of a show that I have tried to watch ended Monday night. I finally got to see it on my DVR last night while waiting on a game to install.

Flav declared this would be the last season of the show and he was going to find a woman for him that wasn't crazy, which 99% of the ones on the show were in fact crazy. He chose Thing 2, one of the twins.

They rode around in the streets of Paris standing up through the sunroof of a limo, this clown was wearing a crown while his hair was all Kid style, standing straight up. I'm hoping that this is the last season, I really shouldn't watch this show anymore. It is horrible and I'm sure it has detrimental effects upon the viewer. I feel dumber after watching it, that's for sure.

Supper At La Salsa

My friend Wendy had problems yesterday at work and had a meltdown. So I offered to go to La Salsa for supper to make her feel better, which of course it did!

La Salsa is a magical Mexican restaurant! Their food is divine! Anyway yes it helped her to get out and chat some about the stuff that was bothering her and of course the food was amazing!

This weekend there is a group of us that are going to go see the new Indiana Jones, yes there are mixed reviews but come on! This IS Indiana Jones! How could you not like that???? Even if this is a bad movie, which I'm sure it isn't, it is still better than 90% of the dreck that is put out today and passed off as entertainment.

I'm positive it will be fun and entertaining and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it over this holiday weekend!

Irish Inspiration

I have to make an Irish stew soon. I know I know, especially after my Sunday night post/video about Summer, it really isn't the time of year for stew.

I've been craving stew for a while now and after watching No Reservations last night I've decided to make one! Anthony Bourdain prowled the streets of Belfast and Dublin he explored the post peace process Ireland. Peace and prosperity now reign where bullets and bombs once dominated.

I've got pretty simple food tastes anyway, meat and potatoes and I'm pretty content. That is the staple of most of my fast food diet (which I've dramatically cut back on) but most meals consisted of meat, bread, and potatoes.

So I do believe I'll be searching for a Irish stew to make now! I just love it when you can put everything into the crock pot and forget it until you are ready to eat! That will probably be what I will make for this holiday weekend!

I love it when food inspiration strikes like this! It takes the wondering out of what to cook for later on as I usually do!

Brand New Week!

Full of possibilities, hopes, dreams......oh yea! And my big overtime check! I've already got it budgeted and I'm pretty sure I can keep to it.

It is getting warmer, as I said in my last post we are just right there on the brink of Summer but my Summer hang out crew is breaking up. One of them is moving two and a half hours away in July. That is going to suck as the past two Summers have been really good for me. We would just hang out, no one would even have to talk to enjoy what was going on and each other.

It was comfortable and nice. I know there will be times when we will be able to get together even after the move but they won't be nearly as plentiful as it has been. So I'm going to savor the handful of times we have left right now and be grateful for the ones that come later.

On The Edge Of Summer

Just in time for Summer I heard All Summer Long the other day, a song by Kid Rock and it really made me think about when I was that age how I wished for days like he sings about.



Even though my Summers were never quite as idealistic as his I did have some that were care free and fun while I was in elementary school. Then the Summer really seemed like it lasted forever. A week lasted a month! I'd be up before seven and outside terrorizing the neighborhood. There were trees to climb, bikes to ride, games to make up....until three o'clock when Underdog came on. Then we, my next door neighbor friend Audra, and I were out again until dark!

Days were long and filled! It was a small town but you had to have a friend in the country with a pond or river to go fishing. I had those but there was plenty to do in town! We'd walk to the park (where there was a pond but not a fishing pond) then we would walk to Northside Market, walk back home with our penny candies. We'd walk downtown and then walk to the community pool!

Middle school and high school Summers were filled with working so they were not nearly as enjoyable as far as being care free and fun filled.

There were moments though;)

Now I would love to have a lake around here, friends, campfires, boats, and a camper would really be a lot of fun! I really don't enjoy eating fish but it is a blast to catch them! I am confident there will be a thousand fun Summer days coming up!!!!

A Fine Day

Yesterday was darn fine. It was just one of those rare days when things went well and everything was enjoyable.

First I went to the tech shoot to iron out any difficulties that we might encounter. We shot footage for about two hours. The actors got a lot of benefit from rehearsing so much. They have their lines down now and know pretty much what is expected from them when we shoot for real. Beersnob will be transferring the footage to Canada to the effects guy.

After we wrapped up the shoot, John and I went up to Hastings, got some coffee and just chatted. It really felt good to just talk for a while about nothing and everything. We talked for quite a while and it was just a lot of fun!

Then I came home and fixed some supper. I was really pretty tired. More than I had realized I guess. It was a busy day and it took some time to set up all of the equipment, shoot, and tear it down again. So I was flipping channels and came across the NASCAR All Star race, that is a fun event to watch so I watched it and that was kind of the topper of a great day.

It was really enjoyable all the way around!

Set Up

This is our set up for today!!!

Shooting Today

Yes, we are going to shoot more test footage and edit it this week. We are only shooting about three hours so it will be a very fast day.

It will be fun to actually shoot something again. It has been a long while now since I've been able to do that. I had to work last Saturday so I missed the first day of shooting in almost a year. That was a disappointment but I did rough cut the footage so I saw the results.

I'm looking forward to today, it will be fun! I'll report back later today or tomorrow on how it went!

Thursday Night Editing

Beersnob and I sat down last night to edit a test scene for the Battlestar Fanfilm project.
Meanwhile Chris sat down in Minnesota and wrote a mission statement for the other non film related project which I will dub The Secret Project for now.

The editing went fairly smoothly. I cut the best lines from each take and spliced them all together to form a nice scene that maintained the energy level John wanted or was close to what he wanted. It was a fun evening and since it was only one scene it took about three hours to get it all cut but that was including putting all of the footage onto the hard drive to start with.

Once the splicing began it didn't take long.

Chris's statement was pretty solid for The Secret Project. I don't know if there is really anything I can add to it right now but I am sure once it is started and things that are unforeseen happen then it will have to be revised. It is good to put the purpose of what you want to accomplish in black and white so everyone knows what page you are on.

Crime Against Humanity

What is happening in Myanmar right now is literally a crime against humanity. Not only because the Myanmar government is limiting the amount of aid that can be brought in but the government is reported to be stealing aid AND because the Western countries aren't doing enough to force them to open up to help the desperate citizens that have been effected by the cyclones TWO weeks ago.

The UN is having meetings on what to do. That is always helpful, meetings solve everything....

What would President Me do? I'd treat the barbaric government that has ruled Myanmar with an iron hand as the barbarians they are. I'd order aid airdropped into the most devastated areas escorted by fighters. I'd airdrop everything needed to prevent the famine that is sure to happen shortly from now. Then it would be time to deal with the government.

I'd have the leader's head on a stake. I'd shock and awe every low rent military installation they have ever had and project a level of force they have never dreamed of.

That government must be toppled or potentially hundreds of thousands could die. To put that into perspective the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami death toll topped 240,000. High yet early estimates so far indicate that if a full famine were to break out in Myanmar the cost of doing nothing could reach into the millions since rice stocks have been destroyed.

There are so many places that deserve attention around the world, Darfur for instance, completely deserves international intervention to stop the rampant genocide happening today. It just seems that even though many people have good intentions few have the will to carry out a radical solution of toppling a government bent on making sure its population is dead. They don't want aid, it would help bolster their control if the people in the outlying areas died off during this catastrophe. Totalitarian regimes do that. Life is meaningless to them while power is everything.

What is wrong with the world today when you can't just go get the guys in the black hats and string them up?

Inspired Brainstorming

Yesterday Chris and I were able to place a name with the project and are fleshing out the purpose and mission. This has been a happy diversion lately and I'm enjoying it quite a bit however I also have supper plans tonight!

This is exciting! I'm really looking forward to this evening but even though I am the project is the thing I'm thinking about more and more. There are some flaws I can't solve yet but I am sure that the solution will present itself very soon! We have not set a launch date as of yet as it is too early but I do believe that within just a few short weeks it will be ready. It is coming together very fast.

I wrote a portion of the rules yesterday in order to start to frame them and sent it to Chris to revise and add his own touches to. The very cool thing about this project is that it is nearly turnkey and very reasonable dollar wise to finish and have running.

Brainstorming An Idea

Yesterday my friend Chris told me he really didn't think he wanted to do anything related to film, acting, or writing anymore. I asked him what he thought he wanted to do. He said he really didn't know but he enjoys helping people.

So we kicked around a couple of ideas and after some in depth research last night I found that there wasn't nothing really like what we had discussed. I sent him the links documenting my research in detail and that it would be fairly easily to build what we had talked about.

He has some site building experience while I do not but what I found seemed to be pretty turnkey and at a reasonable price. There is even a place that specializes in hosting this particular type of site and this software. So now it is just a matter of fleshing out our ideas a little bit more and implementing them.

I really don't plan on taking a very active role in this but I do plan on helping Chris achieve this as I do believe it is a noble thing and might be a lot of fun to tinker with on my end as well.

All in all it is win win as it might be a nice diversion.

Short Weekend

After working nine and a half hours Saturday yesterday was very short. I called my mother early in the morning to wish her a happy mother's day then went and got some breakfast.

I had a lot to do yesterday that I usually do in two days on the weekend so I put off the grocery shopping. Laundry was the important part, I can get food anytime. That is easy.

Wow, I can't believe it is Monday already again. Its alright though, the paycheck in two weeks will be pretty healthy with the overtime amount I have let alone if I get anymore this week. I don't know how long the overtime will last but I'm sure that I won't have to work next weekend!

In film news Beersnob picked up my green screen and rack to shoot some of the first footage in the fanfilm on Saturday. It is actually starting to move now and get done. This is good! I'll have another project to throw myself into shortly!

I Need A Reset Button

And a big helping of grace and forgiveness. I said some things while in an emotional state and was hurt and now I might have lost a friend.

I wish this past week hadn't happened and I could go back a week before this happened and tell myself to not do what I did.

Dear Me,
Next week you are going to say some things you won't mean and it will make things bad all the way around. So keep your cool. You'll know what I mean when it happens.
signed,
Me

It is weird, everything I've done to try to make things better isn't helping and only making things worse. I'm at a loss now. I feel doubly hurt than I was before and all I can do when my friend decides to talk to me again is to apologize, ask them to show some mercy and if we can move past a bad week and forget the bad parts while we continue as we were.

There is a lot I will miss about them if they don't want to talk again. The humor, the long conversations, the challenges as they pushed me to think more out of my comfort zone. Even the crossword puzzles the past couple of weeks. Ironically, well maybe not so ironically, we were going to read David at the same time by Charles Swindoll. David made a mess of things several times over so I haven't come close to his benchmark yet so I believe there is hope in this situation.

Wow Its Early!!!!

But I'm off to work this morning. Nine and a half hours of OT coming up.

It'll look really nice on the next paycheck in two weeks.
I got to run right now or I'd blog more but got to get to work before five!

Supper With Sass Plus

Last night Sass texted me to have supper and a drink with her so I gladly complied. It has been a long time since we had got to hang out together, especially since she has moved back from Mexico and is working full time now preparing to go to school to finish her nursing degree.

Her boyfriend showed up and he is a great guy. Had a lot of fun visiting with both of them. I had the jerk chicken salad. Very good but overly spicy.

I got my tax rebate and got paid today so I'm rolling in cash this morning. Woohoooo! I have to work tomorrow though so no going out late tonight:( No big deal, I'll have Sunday off.

Doctor's Appointment

My original post for Wednesday was to be about how I have no more kidney stones and am ordered to drink two liters of water per day to prevent them from coming back.

However it got changed. I'm feeling good this morning. It rained last night and things are spiffy. I always sleep well when it rains.

I do have another appointment in three months to follow up this last appointment. They want to do a CT scan to see that everything else is alright. Other than that I have a good outlook that if I drink as much as I'm supposed to then there is a good chance they won't be back!

Hurting

For those of you who know me I've got a question for you.

Am I a bad guy? You might mention I'm a little quirky or crazy, I'll give you that. Everyone is a little bit of their own crazy I guess. I would like to think I'm a stable crazy at least.

Well I'm hurting this morning. Worse than I originally thought I would, pretty badly in fact. I let myself feel something I was afraid to feel in almost two years and that was hope. I had been talking to someone that I really grew to like and enjoy. We passed the days at work with email conversations that really helped me get through the day and I started to do something foolish and that was hope that I had a brighter future than I actually do. I was really really liking what we had going. It has been a long time since someone took an interest in me and this felt good.

Did anyway.

Hope hurts dear gentle readers, it sneaks up on you and says, "This is good, relax!" then when you think things are going one way it smacks you around and tells you to wake up, you're stupid.

Yeah, not feeling good today at all. Well at least I have the next twelve hours to think about why I'm not good enough, that should help. I'll be exhausted by the end of the day and it'll be easy to get to sleep, I didn't get much last night.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm whining. I'm really not, I'm not a self pitying kinda guy. I'm just really hurt and confused now and it feels like I'm going no where really really fast.

This sucks.

Off Today

But we are working twelve hour shifts at work now until we get caught up. That will likely last until this weekend. So a day off right now will help me get to that point without being overly exhausted. The extra pay will be nice in a couple of weeks, especially if we wind up working this weekend as they are predicting.

Anyway I have my follow up doctor's appointment today to get an xray to confirm that the stones are gone for good, which I believe they are, and hopefully to get the analysis back on what changes in my diet I need to make to prevent them from forming again.

Other big news is that the North Carolina and Indiana primaries are today and with any good luck at all there won't be a winner yet and they, Obama and Clinton, will continue to fight each other until the convention. Just remember you two the immortal words of Winston Churchill, "We shall never surrender!"

So keep that fight going! My humble advise to Obama: You have the upper hand you keep pressing even though you are extremely unqualified and a socialist! Clinton: You are a Clinton! You have a thousand dirty tricks, keep using them!!!!

The Man Who Knew Once A Lifetime

Yesterday was only a two movie day. One, my weekly movie with my friend, was the Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much. The James Stewart/ Doris Day international intrigue plotted movie. They are unwittingly the pawns of an assassination plot and kidnapping. They rush from Africa to London to save their kidnapped son as time runs out for an ambassador.

This is Hitch when he was in his wheelhouse. He knew this ground well and did it well. The symphony sequence in which no words are spoken is simply outstanding! A must see!

Second up was a documentary about the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos. The 1970's soccer team which signed a LOT of international talent to win including the legendary Pele. At the time it was the largest sports contract in the world and no one is for sure how much it was actually. There were varying numbers in the doc but it was anywhere from 2.5 million to 7 million.

The NASL was a success for a brief few years....until it was put on TV. Soccer is just a sport America will never embrace. It has been tried and currently the MSL is barely a blip on the ratings meter post Becks even! ESPN is probably regretting spending the 64 million for 8 years on that sport now...

Once In A Lifetime was a snapshot of the 70's lifestyle, that era when everyone had a party to go to and the games were secondary. Well that is for the Cosmos, the other teams struggled to bring people in and find an audience.

It was very interesting to watch lightning being caught in a jar and then break the jar. As fast as it was huge it was gone again. Watch it if you can find it. Even if you don't get or don't like soccer, this really isn't about the game so much as it is the era and the people who tried to introduce Soccer to America.

The Iron History Of Juno

Well it was a big movie watching day. I had two Netflix movies at home and late in the week I had made plans with friends to see Iron Man. So first up was:

Juno. A movie about unplanned teenage pregnancy. I was pretty happy that it put a humorous and as positive a spin on it that you can and didn't go down the alternate route, which it came close to as Juno walked into a clinic.

It showed the importance of adoption and how some couples, for whatever reason, can't have children and how much a baby means to them. The writing was crisp and had a very Joss Whedonesque feel to it even though it wasn't written by him. It had to have had some Whedon influence or inspiration.

It was a good story and a fun movie, check it out.

Second up was A History Of Violence. Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello star in the adaptation from the graphic novel of the same name. A diner owner prevents a robbery and finds himself at odds with the mob. He is soon forced to defend his family, revealing things about him he thought he had control over. I really can't say more about the plot without spoilers and you know how I feel about those!

Viggo was outstanding as usual. Maria was hot as usual. The rest of the cast including Ed Harris and William Hurt were their stellar selves. It was a violent movie and one that shows that sometimes no matter how much you have put something in your past away for good, it might not be that far away after all. This was good but to me it didn't reach the level of Eastern Promises, THAT was GREAT!

Third up was the first Summer blockbuster, Iron Man. I have to say that while I have read the comic from time to time and titles where Iron Man made appearances that I was familiar with Tony Stark and his story. Robert Downey Jr. WAS Tony Stark. Every character flaw was there, the nuances, he was just Stark. I don't want to give away anything at all about this movie, it was just a good movie and so much fun to watch!

That is what you want to see in your Summer blockbusters, just a fun escape and this delivered in spades. This movie is going to do major box office and make sure that you stay until after the credits are done rolling, there is a special cameo at the end!

It was a good day! Now today I have to get the laundry done, head out to the hanger and get it ready for filming, feed the dog, and Beersnob is picking me up for a charity breakfast in about an hour!

Saturday!

I was able to sleep in until nearly seven this morning! Felt pretty good!

Well my favorite has been, Gary Coleman is in the news because....wait for it......his seven month marriage has failed. He and his wife of seven months, Shannon Price, have appeared on Divorce Court May 1, and 2. You can see many clips on You Tube about the proceedings.

Gary Coleman is a trainwreck, well a toy trainwreck anyway. Yes he was taken advantage of by people when he was the youngest, highest paid actor of his time, yes yes yes, we all know that. But come on, there comes a time when you adjust and move past it!

He needs counseling more than anything else. Screech on the other hand.....now THERE is a big trainwreck!!!! Yeah the D-man is the celebrity trainwreck of the future! Coleman is the past!

Who isn't looking forward to the next Screech meltdown!!!! I know I am. I really think he will be the VH1 villain for several seasons to come until his untimely demise at his own hand or at the hands of his costars.....who ever gets fed up with him first.

Could you imagine a Coleman/Screech show?!?!?! OH the angst!!!!

Time Wasters

One of things I love to do is fine new and innovative ways to waste time. Among the best ways was the Desktop Tower Defense game I blogged about before, it'll keep you busy and thinking for a long time as you try to come up with a better and better maze to beat the goons.

Fun game! It'll keep you going for a long time!

Physics games are a lot of fun now. The Magic Pen game is a blast and is a bit different since you don't have a timer or anything. It gives you simple puzzles and you draw shapes and try to move a ball into a flag to advance to the next level. You can pin the ball to a shape, you can create a hinge and draw a shape to swing from it, you can draw shapes to ramp the ball to the flag. It is really limited by your problem solving capacity.

It is a lot of fun! Give it a try!

No Country For Old Men

This is the kind of movie that while I was watching I was hoping it would have gone on for another couple of hours like Eastern Promises. I could just watch and soak it in and enjoy everything that was happening.

It is amazing that some of the best movies have the simplest of plots. Man who is hunting finds two million dollars and becomes the target of a psychotic killing machine.

I'm not usually a fan of the Coen Brothers or their movies. I thought Fargo was overrated. Didn't care for Raising Arizona much. But this movie is spectacular! I enjoyed the casting, the dialog, the shots, everything about this movie made it good. John Brolin was outstanding, Javier Bardem was pitch perfect, Tommy Lee Jones was well Tommy Lee Jones, the same character he always plays.

Even the violence was there but wasn't over the top like some movies that are just violent for the sake of violence. In the weak field of the Oscars this year this was heads and shoulders the winner of best picture. It deserved it as much as Daniel Day Lewis deserved the Oscar for There Will Be Blood, the Coens deserved it for No Country For Old Men.

Watch it if you haven't already.