Week Four

Today is actually my second week of bye weeks. Because of Hurricane Ike I had two players effected in Andre Johnson and Matt Stover. Not that big of a deal with Stover but Johnson has been targeted quite a bit in the end zone and just hasn't made it click yet.

I saw him drop two tds last week in the end zone. I know that he will make some adjustments and is an elite WR. He will get it all together soon enough.

This week Kevin Smith, John Carney, and my main D are on byes.
Haven't submitted my lineup yet, I want to drop Matt Stover and pick up Matt Prater from Denver. He has been lights out in scoring and Stover hasn't really done much. Prater has the Chiefs on his schedule this week while Stover has the Steelers, my other defense and special teams. So it adds up to Stover being cut.

Kevin Smith might very well be cut as well and I might activate another rookie. Smith is a great RB but right now he won't be getting carries. We will see though, Smith is a great RB.

The lineup I plan on submitting is: Rivers QB, Peterson/Turner RB, Fitzgerald/Jackson/Johnson WR, Prater (if I get him) K, Steelers D/ST with Garrard being my tie breaker.

If I don't get Prater then I'll get another top K that is on the Free Agent board.

I Took Off

Half a day yesterday. It had been quite a while since I took off of work early and it felt good. I am already planning on taking off October nine and ten and having a five day weekend. Picked up a bottle of Zaya, it was payday after all! I'm allowed an indulgence every once in a while.

Next week is going to be stressful at work. the new program manager is going to be walking around and likely seeing where he can cut jobs. Ugh....

It tires a guy out after a while.

Anyway tonight Alabama is playing Georgia! That should be a really good game! I really hope Georgia is upset. They are just a bit overrated compared to a couple of other SEC teams. They are better than nearly any Big 10 or PAC 10 team though. Those conferences just suck.

Beavers Stun Trojans!

These are always good days!
I went to Buffalo Wild Wings after work yesterday and picked up an order to go. Came home and had them. They were really good, Spicy Garlic and Caribbean Jerk.

Then I sat outside for a while until the game started. Well that was my plan anyway, then a friend called me and said he and his girlfriend were going to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper and I should come up there.

I told him that I just ate there but I went anyway and had a mojito. They make good mojitos! Excellent Summer drink even though it isn't Summer anymore.

Got home in time for the kickoff between USC and Oregon State. It was the only football on last night so it would do and what the heck, OSU plays SC tough at home so it might be closer than the twenty seven point spread that Vegas has on the game.

By golly it was too! The top ranked SC Trojans got beat by the unranked Beavers, the names alone incited many giggles last night with friends. It was a really good game, OSU took control right from the start and SC never recovered. Great game and a good evening!

Thursday!

This week is almost over with. I'm in need of a weekend too. This week has been long and strange. AT work and at home.

At work the big boss got fired for cost overruns. He went around and shook everyone's hand yesterday. He was replaced by the guy who from corporate who wanted all of the layoffs to start with.

He immediately put an end to the recalls that were starting to happen. Recalls are when the people who were laid off are called back to work. Well they are done. Now we are wondering if or when there will be more layoffs and if so who.

I don't exactly know how safe my job is but I do believe this time it is safe. We barely have enough people now to do our jobs. Take anyone else away and it will be impossible to do what needs to be done to meet the mission.

What Do You Do

When you have a crisis of conscience exactly what do you do? When you have an opportunity to do something with no one around and not get caught do you do the right thing or do you do it?

I think that is a good question for my project the 12 Angry Jurors. We are supposed to have a discussion with the cast and come up with some good questions to film and script answers for.

It is also a good way to tell the character of the person and their integrity. That and compassion are the subjects that I'd really like to approach for the project. We will see what the cast can come up with! I bet it will be good!

First Place And First Overall

This week was gold for me as I said yesterday!
I won my heads up match up, coming from behind to win sixty seven to sixty six. I'm one of two undefeated teams, I'm now first place overall with a combined one hundred seventy two points. Second place overall has one hundred thirty five and they happen to be the other undefeated team.

I've won first place twice and tied for second place once so far. Now the bye weeks start and teams won't be one hundred percent for a while including my own. There is no way I can come out of the bye weeks undefeated. It is just nearly impossible in fantasy football to do that.

I haven't left many points on the bench either so all of my scoring is happening from the starters. That means when they are off I won't be scoring many points at all. A couple of losses are inevitable.

First Place!!!!

I've taken over first place overall in my league and have a chance at first place this week for another win!

I had one hundred five points combined for the first two weeks which put me in second. First place had one hundred eleven points. I had another monster day yesterday with fifty five points however my opponent had sixty six points.

Even if I don't win my heads up match I'll still have second place secured as most all of the players are done for tonight. I have two, Rivers and Jackson. If they hookup up for one td that will give me ten points. If Rivers has his average day he should get two to three tds.

If he does that then I'll have a very sweet week! If not I am still in the money this week and STILL am in first place overall!!!! I put twenty eight points on the second place team, they only had twenty seven points yesterday and are done for the week.

This is one incredible team! They have been unstoppable through the first three weeks!

Week Three

Well here is what I was afraid of when I drafted Adrian Peterson. He gets nicked up during the season and gives fantasy owners decisions like this to kick around.

He has a slight hamstring pull today and it happened last game, even though he had a great rushing game. AP is a game time decision today so I haven't submitted my lineup yet. I'm waiting on news to break about whether he will play or not.

So here is my lineup if he starts and if he doesn't.
QB: Philip Rivers
RB: Michael Turner and either AP or Kevin Smith
WR: Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Vincent Jackson
K: Matt Stover
D/ST: Giants

I want to go with Vincent Jackson over Torry Holt for a couple of reasons. One the Rams are horrible. Two Jackson plays on Monday night and if I'm behind then it will be nice to have two threats going and they are a double down threat meaning that if Rivers throws to Jackson it is ten points instead of either four or six. If they are shut down though it is zero two times.

It could be a mistake since Holt is the main weapon along with Stephen Jackson on the Rams team and could see a significant amount of targets against the Seahawks.

The Mind Of R. Kelly

What an amazing idiot. Not because of his trial of an alleged video of him and an underage girl but his answers to some pretty straight forward questions are just mesmerizing.

I swear I felt the intelligence being sucked out of my head while watching this. I actually lost IQ points here! Beware it will hurt your brain if you watch this video. You WILL feel dumber.

The upside is that you witness him talking about himself in the third person which to me is always priceless!

R. Kelly was acquitted on all counts of child pornography but then again O.J. was found not guilty as well. For the record I was never fired by R. Kelly.

Name Change

Those long time readers will notice a change in the title.

I'm not in a lamenting frame of mind anymore. I'm a filmmaker at heart but projects have been few and far between right now with the latest fanfilm project being put on at least a six month hold.

I've thought about a name change for a while now and I think Story captures what I want to tell right now instead of Laments. A lament is sad, in truth I was sad when I started this blog. I had a lot going on and needed an outlet to express things even though I never came out and said them.

While I was lamenting my state of affairs at the time, they ended long ago, since then I've come to own them. I've come to a place of peace and limited understanding of where I am now but not so much of where I'm going....yet. The future is bright though and you who know me personally will know my fondness for shiny things!

I still feel that I'm at my best with a project to work on and lots of projects have come and gone since I've started the hobby. A few have actually come to fruition but most have fallen by the way side for whatever reason.

My current project is small, just putting together some clips for the next theatre project. However small it may be it is still important to me and hopefully it will help amplify the story being told on the stage which is Twelve Angry Jurors.

What I do for a living is still something I'm pretty good at but when I feel that I'm great is when I've got a story to tell visually. I'm excellent at planning a shot, shooting a shot, being efficient at it, keeping people comfortable on set, and putting my own spin on things, editing clips together, and telling a story.

By no means am I an expert but in my little world I'm pretty decent at it. I don't know how long this story will be told but I'm happy to have you along gentle reader.

A Filmmaker's Laments is dead, long live A Filmmaker's Story!

Zaya

I found the best rum a couple of weeks ago. I read about it on Clubstogie.com in their food and drinks forum. I have to say that as a scotch drinker I've had some of the best tasting scotch out there. I've had smoky, peaty, fruity, nutty, all of the scotch that my budget allows to drink.

I believe I found the rum equivalent of Lagavulin, which is my favorite brand of single malt.

Zaya is a gorgeous looking caramel colored rum. Hard to find though. If you can find a bottle you might want to grab it. It isn't cheap for rum either. It should fall into the thirty to fifty dollar range. I purchased a bottle two weeks ago and after some of my friends tasted the quality it was gone in no time!

You can mix it or you can drink it with ice. It is that smooth and has a ton of flavor! I'll have to keep an eye out for a bottle the next time I'm in a liquor store, it might just be nice to keep one on hand.

Simple Evening

But it was amazing! First I had to get Operation: Qatar underway! I packed up all of the cigars I have been saving for this trip overseas and put them into two humidors. Well they were stored in humidors anyway, I just got them packed up and ready to go with ten cutters and three jet flame lighters.

Beersnob will not want for any relaxing material as I figure about one hundred premium cigars will be on their way to Qatar today!

That will be enough to supply about ten of his cigar smoking buddies for about ten weeks for a weekly cigar night. I've read so much about these, that it is a simple way for the troops deployed to relax and get away from their daily grind and danger for about an hour and feel normal again. I hope these help!

So after I got all of that packed up and ready to go I went up to the pub to meet a friend for supper. Had a great sandwich and a water then moved onto a Laphroaig and water on the rocks. Laphroaig is a Islay Malt scotch. It has a ton of smoke in it. A very tasty scotch on a nice evening.

We moved outside to enjoy the incredible weather and I had one more before going across the street to talk about the film project I'll be doing for Twelve Angry Jurors. I gave the director my ideas on how I think it should be since that is what he asked for. He agreed with me and gave me an idea to get more material which I didn't even think of!

Briefly we'll collect questions from the cast, script answers for them, get the Assistant Directors to recruit some of their friends to answer the questions while being filmed. I'll edit a two minute clip before the show, at the second act change, and maybe a clip at the end with some credits.

It should be an interesting addition to the show and our discussion was a great addition to a wonderful evening where nothing special happened but it was amazing in its simplicity!

Second Place

I'm in second place overall with one hundred five points but I won the week and forty dollars! Romo and TO had monster games and took the team that had them from the high twenties to fifty seven points putting them at third place this week and first overall with one hundred eleven points.

It doesn't matter where you are right now but I'm in good shape. My team is putting up way too many yards and is performing very well right now not to get tons of tds in the future!

When the defenses are right this team will go off for over ninety points this season!!!! I'm sure of it!!!! This team rocks! It might very well be my best team ever and I've had some good teams before!

I've come up short from first place at the end of the season a couple of times, very close in fact. I've won money nearly every season save for a couple where injuries and bad performances killed me. Tiki Barber comes to mine on the former.

It's early in the season yet but I believe this team will compete every week for the top three places!

League Leader!!!!

No matter what happens tonight on MNF I should stay first place in the league! I have sixty points which should be good enough for first place this week but there are players going tonight who can score bunches of points.

However I believe that in combined points I should still come out in first place as everyone else is likely too far behind. We shall see though! I'm twenty six points ahead of second place right now.

My line up was: Rivers QB, AP and Michael Turner RBs, Fitz, Holt, and Jackson WRs, Jason Hansen K, and the mighty GMen of New York as my D/Spt! They all combined for sixty points but I have to tell you that I really agonized over the Garrard/Rivers decision.

After last week and this week I believe that Rivers will be the starter all year long save for the bye week. David Garrard has looked horrible in the first two games and has earned his benching.

Adrian Peterson had one hundred sixty yards but didn't score any TDs. That's ok though. The Viking's offense has looked horrible and yet he STILL can get that kind of yardage. He will get plenty of TDs this season. I just have to win on the weeks when he doesn't score.

A Death Magnetic Saturday!

It was pretty rainy all day but overall it was a wonderful Saturday. I picked up the new Metallica CD.

For fans of Kill, Lightning, Master, and Justice I believe you would be a fan of Death Magnetic. If you were a fan of Black, Load, Reload....well then not so much.

It has a great sound to it, it is reminiscent of the old sound. You can't listen to The End of the Line and not think of Blackened. Any of these songs save for The Day That Never Comes and Unforgiven III would be at home on the Justice album.

These songs are longer, less radio friendly. They rock and they also will disappoint a lot of people. James sounds like he used to. Lars beats the drums senseless. Kirk is still a master of speed. The new guy pounds the bass as good as if not better than Jason or Cliff did.

Rick Rubin replaced Bob Rock and it appears to me that he has built a bridge for the older fans and the newer fans while attempting to resurrect Metallica from the St. Anger debacle.

Day and Unforgiven III are bones thrown to the fans of Black and the Loads. They will be the video friendly songs and singles no doubt.

In my humble opinion I believe that Metallica of old is back and I'm happy about that!

Early Morning Rain

It is a nice gentle rain this morning. I wish I had some coffee but I'm out and haven't used my coffee maker in a few months now. It would be tasty!

I had a great Friday evening. I watched USF beat Kansas in the waning seconds of the game. It was a fun game to watch! Lots of offense and both teams were in the thirties.

Looked at the radar and it appears as if Hurricane Ike will be throwing some rain our way but not like what Texas is getting and Arkansas will get in the next couple of days.

Today there is one big game I'm interested in watching in USC and Ohio State. It is a prime time game and likely will be a blow out if OSU isn't careful.

Economics 101 Or Why Obama Will Destroy Our Economy

Obama Obama Obama.....oh how I loathe your economic policies.....

Spore

I've been playing Spore the past few evenings. Fun game. Very creative. You start off as a cell and design how it looks, paint it the colors you want, and then send it off into the world to grow and evolve.

Eventually you can explore your galaxy but I haven't gotten that far yet. I don't believe in Darwinism but I do believe that evolution works and is real. I don't believe that faith and evolution are mutually exclusive, that they can and do coexist.

This is an enjoyable game that just gives you a lot to do and explore. It has a slight learning curve but nothing that you can't get in about a half hour. You are able to see what kind of creatures other players have created as there is a built in browser, a really cool touch!

If you enjoy games that are fun, a challenge, and have lots of eye candy, pick it up. You won't be disappointed.

Half Way!

To the weekend and things are going smoothly right now.

I'm in the mood to cook chili this weekend. I'd like to cook it for my friends and watch football but it might not happen this weekend. I've seen a couple of shows on Food Network on championship chili and it has inspired me to give one of those recipes a shot.

It looks fairly straight forward. No complicated steps or anything. It is just about timing.

Not a problem there! We can do timing!

I am sifting through recipes though to find the right one to attempt though, it is fun but a bit time consuming.

45-10

I tied for second place overall in the league and easily won my heads up match. In fairness though that team, the River Rats, had Tom Brady as their number one pick and of course he went down for the season in the first quarter Sunday.

So that really hampered his score and likely put a big damper on their whole season. I left a few points on the bench this past week but I played all of my top tier guys. I might switch Garrard and Rivers at QB this coming week. Just depends on who they are playing.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my team's performance and even though Michael Turner had a career day and I can't expect that every week, he will be solid this season and put up some great numbers.

Week One

Yesterday was an amazing day of football with friends!!!!

We all had so much fun together! It was just incredible!

I did pretty well as Michael Turner had a big day with 220 yards and 2 TDs!!!! One TD was a bonus TD and it gave 6 extra points even!

I am easily winning my heads up match up this week 38-10 and I still have Adrian Peterson tonight on Monday Night Football going. I'm also 15 points out of first place overall as the leader has 53 and they are done. I feel pretty good about my team! Andre Johnson had a great game against a tough defense in Pittsburgh and still had over 100 yards! He should tear up weaker defenses!

I know Torry Holt will still come up with a decent amount of TDs but if not then I can replace him with Vincent Jackson who did score yesterday and is on a much better team than St. Louis. Time will tell.

I feel my team has a lot of potential and they might actually live up to the potential this year!

First Full Day!

Yeppers the first full day of the NFL is here!
Excited doesn't really cover it for me! I enjoy the NBA, will watch the world series every once in a while if it is a compelling match up, hockey...blah, NASCASR, yes if it is a great track like Bristol, Martinsville, or the big tracks....but the NFL baby stands on its own!

Today I can start to gauge how my teams will do this season. Yeppers today is the day! I'm excited about today for another reason too. Beersnob is leaving for Qatar as I've blogged about already and today is more or less doubles as a going away party.

My main starting line up today is:
QB - David Garrard
RB - Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner
WR - Larry Fitzgerals, Andre Johnson, and Torry Holt
K - Jason Hansen
Def - Giants (1 point)
Spec teams - Steelers

This should be a solid line up but may need tweaking during the season.

The Weekend!!!!

Get this, I started to stir this morning in bed and for a second I had wondered if I had actually accidentally turned off my alarm and that I had to go to work this morning.

Then in a moment of clarity I remembered that today was SATURDAY!!!! Woohoooo!!!!

Had a quiet evening at home. Didn't do much but got a sandwich on the way home and relaxed all evening. There are some good college football games on today but tomorrow is when I'll really get excited!!!!

It will be the first full day of football and then TWO games on Monday night!!!! Woohooo!!!!

I'm not even going to tell you what my fantasy scores are right now because they don't matter until the games are over with but I'll tell you I'm winning two games and losing one.

Friday!!!!

I'm excited!!!! Friday's are always good!

At work and usually on Monday's I ask people how their weekend was. They usually reply that it was good, bad, or eh. They in return ask and I say I've never had a bad weekend. They used to ask why, well it is because I was off work and after that it doesn't matter. I can deal with everything else.

They understand the logic, no matter how bad your weekend might have been that it was still pretty good. You'd be surprised on how that changes one's outlook as well. If you expect to have a bad weekend you likely will. If you know that no matter what your weekend is going to be good....well duh, it will be!

Well that's my simple philosophy anyway.

Yes I'm still excited that the NFL is back!!!! The other sports are more like diversions until the NFL gets back up and running. Well now that Oklahoma has a NBA team I'll watch that more often during the regular season but that's about it!

AAaahhhhhhhhh......

The relief felt was on par to that of a cold drink of water on a sweltering day. Kickoff tonight was just amazing. I was with three wonderful friends and about half time another showed up at Buffalo Wild Wings!

What a great evening it was!

The Giants pretty much dominated the inept Redskins however in one of my leagues I had Jason Campbell and he did throw a TD for me.

The next round of games kick off normally on Sunday now and I plan on spending the day at Beersnob's house where I hope to take a commanding lead in my heads up match this week until my showstopper Adrian Peterson takes center stage Monday night and puts an exclamation mark on the weekend!

Yeah that's how I hope it goes!

IT'S HERE!!!!

Finally tonight the kickoff of the NFL regular season!!!!

I plan on being with friends at 5:30 at Buffalo Wild Wings!!!!! I have the Giants defense in this game and a couple of other players on my two Yahoo fun leagues including Jason Campbell.

He has looked very unimpressive thus far but we'll see how he looks when it starts to count.

This is such a great time of year!!!! I'm so excited to get this rolling now and to see how my drafted team does! I believe they will do pretty well especially if AP stays 100% all season!

Best Show On TV Right Now Returned

Last night!

The Shield, the final season kicked off. Thirteen episodes per season, one down and twelve to go.

My general no spoilers review is that this was a great episode. Vic is Vic and still as bad as he was in the last season. Ronnie is still the loyal soldier who can step up when he has to and take care of business. Shane is the scheming guy who buries himself even though he tries to dig himself out.

Justice is still out there waiting like the Sword of Damocles over Vic's head. How will Vic meet his end, Tony Soprano like where life goes on? I hope not. That sucked....

The Shield is about action, in your face action in all of its gritty, ugly glory. Vic will go out either in a jail cell or in a gun fight. The jail cell is about as good of an ending as the Soprano ending. So how will Vic go out? My best guess is that he will turn into a Vader like character and die in an act of redemption.

That's my hope. He is a bad guy. Dirty on a lot of levels but I still find myself pulling for him. I want him to get away with it. I want him to escape the justice that will catch up to him. He is self serving. Murderous, thieving, and corrupt but I still want Vic Mackey to win in the end.

I just know he won't this time.

Babylon Labor Day

I had a great day yesterday thanks to an wonderful pool party at Catina's and then a movie and supper with Beersnob.

The movie wasn't that great. Babylon A.D. starring the sometimes working Vin Diesel. It was convoluted and really didn't have a context that was understandable. There was a guy who hired a guy to go pick up a girl and bring her to America. Why?!?!?! I don't know and I watched the movie.

The girl might have been a test tube baby but she might have been divine....but we don't know because IT SUCKED!!!!! This movie sucked on so many different levels I thought I was watching a Jenna Jameson flick....

Really....this movie turned into an action movie with more cliches than you could imagine. Troubled hero...well we don't know because we don't know anything about him! Nothing. Makes it hard to like a guy when there is almost nothing revealed about his past to make his journey they are filming endearing to the audience!

Action scenes too fast to keep up with! I've blogged about this before. When will filmmakers learn to slow the action down a little bit. It is still happening but no one can connect to what is going on because NO ONE CAN SEE WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! IT IS A BLUR!!!! How are you supposed to feel for the actions of your hero when you can't see what he is doing?!?!?! This kills any kind of tension you were trying to build in a most effective manner.

Hitchcock never filmed action this fast and try to tell me that his movies weren't suspenseful!!!!

I can go on and give you two more points to this movie but I believe I've made my position clear enough.

Avoid this movie as if it were work and you were on welfare!

Day Four

Of my four day weekend and today I plan on resting. I went to Chianti's last night again and helped her cook supper. It was really good! We did a great job!

Everyone who ate it also really enjoyed it so I know it wasn't just she and I who thought it was good!

Hurricane Gustav is starting to come on shore right now, targeting New Orleans even though it is a massive storm. It has apparently dropped to a category two hurricane but with the sheer size of it there will be lots of flooding. Its so big we might even get some of the remnants of this storm where I live.

Everyone followed the evacuation order this time on the coast.

College football closes its first week tonight when Tennessee plays. It was a pretty good first week and signals the start of the football season proper. This Thursday night the NFL kicks off and that is what is going to be exciting!!!!

Tropic Hurricane

I went out last night with friends to see this bit of Hollywood skewing Hollywood. It was really funny and really over the top at times. The Ben Stiller helmed flick never dragged.

From the fake trailers to the witty penned script, this movie was a blast to watch. There are so many small jokes and so many parodies that it was hard to keep track of.

After the movie we headed to Chianti's house where she was watching football with another group of friends and had lots of food prepared. We all hung out until around midnight when Sass and her hubby left, Beersnob and Mrs. Beersnob left and I followed suit.

Chianti can really put on a great time, especially when football is involved!

Hurricane Gustav is expected to briefly reach category five status before directly hitting New Orleans again this coming Tuesday. This time around though the local and state government are better prepared and are actually evacuating people NOW instead of when the storm almost hits. I can't help but think that we will have the San Antonio Saints this season as well.

Will New Orleans rebuild again if it is as destroyed as it was last time? From what I've read some of the levees aren't finished yet and the storm surge will easily breach what is there now.

It appears as if this will get really ugly fast when it makes landfall.

Yesterday Was Amazing!

I had a great day off. Around two o'clock I got a text from a friend saying they were going to get some drinks after work. I don't really like the place they were going to but I went anyway.

I got there about five and there were already a couple of people there so we had a good time. More showed up and then I started getting hungry. I had one drink as I really wasn't planning on staying long at all. The rest of the time I drank water.

I started thinking about where I was going to get some food on the way home when I got another text from another friend saying he and some friends were getting together at Past Times for supper! I texted back for the time and then we all met there and had a great supper!

We went to the pub for after dinner drinks in which I had two. This was more alcohol than I have consumed in probably three months! Three drinks in one evening!

I rolled home about eleven thirty and had a great time with some amazing friends!

FOUR Day Weekend!

I decided to help my laid off companions today by not showing up to work so the work gets a little bit further behind.

The work gets further behind the more the schedule slows the more other people are needed to get back on track. If I'm there it doesn't get behind. Today is also payday and a three day weekend. A perfect combination fell into place today and I decided to use eight hours of leave to maximize this weekend!

Last night I went to a going away get together for my friend I blogged about the other day. She is going away to California to acting college but she will be back around Christmas!

Going to miss her around here but I'm happy for her sake she is going!

Lord Obama

My goodness, Obama really has it going on doesn't he?
Tonight he will be accepting the Democratic party nomination on a stage that resembles a Greek temple.

This is a story that you would swear came from The Onion!!!! Alas no. It isn't. This my friends, I'm afraid, is true and fitting of this guy's ego and arrogance. The Chosen One has decided to call upon the Greek Gods to bless his coronation as the nominee to the Presidency.

Obama just makes me shake my head.

In better news I had a wonderful supper with my young friend. First we were going to go to Panevino however it was closed. Then Mickey's....closed for good. Then I picked a place, the ever reliable Western Sizzlin'!!!!

What a great time the two of us had! There is a small informal going away party for her tonight at eight at Chianti's house!

Come On, One More Day!

I have CPR this morning at work. That is boring and will take about an hour maybe two.

This weekend is a holiday weekend. Friday is payday as well. Those are rare when you get both combined. You get excited about it because you look forward to it so much!

I can already tell that Summer is slowing going away now. The Sun is coming up a little bit later, the days are a couple of degrees cooler, the leaves are on the vanguard of turning.

Yeah this is the end of Summer. The start of football season is just next week now! I've been listening to the NFL network on Sirius a lot lately. It doesn't take that to get me into the mood but it makes it feel as if the season were already here.

I can't wait to see how my fantasy teams do this year! I believe I have a strong chance at the top spot for sure provided everyone stays 100% this year and I 'm sure they all will!

Fast Week

And its only Tuesday. That's ok, it is a good week anyway!

Tomorrow night, maybe, I have supper plans with a friend who is going to college in LA. AMDA, an acting school. I'm going to miss her. She is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She is an extremely talented actor and will do great in school.

She is the example I tend to point to when I think that the country will be safe in the hands of the youth of tomorrow. Intelligent, bright, articulate, and is all heart. I do wish that there were more like her. Today's kids are well served by her example.

To me the measure of someone's integrity and character is if they were alone and know they wouldn't get caught would they do the right thing in a given situation? I have no doubt that doing the wrong thing would never cross her mind. She would do the right thing ten out of ten times. I have that much faith in her.

She has the ability to turn heads but if you told her that she wouldn't believe you.
She is the person that makes this whole town a little bit better and it will be poorer in her absence. I'm proud to call her my friend but I think of her more as a little sister as I'm fairly protective.

Time isn't a luxury she has right now as packing is the order of the day. However I know she will be back sporadically over the next couple of years and those times will also be valued!

Take care my friend, God Bless and study hard!

Great Weekend

And now I'm off to work again.

That's ok, this week has Payday Friday in it. Those are always good. I enjoy them and wish we had one every week!

The Olympics were a success, maybe one of the better ones in my memory. We took home the most medals but not the most gold.

The Democratic National Convention starts this week and that'll be a real hoot. Denver has been invaded by protesters and they are always fun. They are a little bit upset that Obama has abandoned his "no war" stance already. They are likely just as upset that being a professional protester doesn't really pay the bills and they will have to find employment that doesn't require a drug screening.

Great Night Or LaDainian Tomlinson Vs. Adrian Peterson

Yesterday was a really long day for me that kicked off at eleven o'clock. First of all I had to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and purchased food for the fantasy football draft.

I got eighty wings and got the hottest ten sauces. It was a great pickup and everyone at the draft loved them!

Then the draft. We drew for position and after ten other teams had drawn their positions the number one and number two pill had not been taken yet. The other team that had not drawn was sitting next to me. Neither of us really wanted the number one pick, I really wanted the twelveth pick over all. I like taking two elite players back to back instead of one elite player and then waiting twenty three picks to take the other player.

Anyway it came down to him and me. I had the pill container with two pills in it. I drew my pill and didn't look at it, he drew his and shook his head, I knew he had two. I looked at mine and sure enough it was the first pick.

Now I had an agonizing decision. Do I go with LaDanian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson? They are equally matched on paper but that wasn't good enough. I thought about a coin toss but again I should really put more thought into the number one pick.

After drawing positions we took a ten minute break. This would be the time I needed to deduce who I would take with the supposed best pick in the draft. The number two team asked me who I was going to take, I honestly replied "I don't know".

So LT has never really had a down season. His season totals average are immense and fantasy football gold. He has lead the NFL in rushing the previous few seasons, you can count on him to throw maybe two TDs as well. He is a receiving threat out of the backfield and has been the all around best fantasy football weapon the past four years.

Adrian Peterson had a phenominal break out rookie season. He was unstoppable and gashed defenses for massive amounts of yardage, including THE game! Eight games into his career he rushed for more yards in a game than any other RB. 296 yards and three TDs against one of the best defenses in the NFL last season, the San Diego Chargers. He also suffered a slight knee sprain a couple of games afterwards and basically didn't do much the rest of the season. He might be the heir apparant to LT's greatness.

LT has a downside though. Even though he is the safe pick, has a ton of history to back up his selection at number one AND has only missed one game in his career due to injury, he also has a TON of mileage and is rapidly approaching the stage in his career where even the most durable RBs break down. He gives steady numbers for your team though. You can easily predict 1,500 yards and 16 TDs.

AP has an unlimited upside but hasn't played an entire season since high school. He is a proven injury risk. If he stays healthy all season long being the full time feature back, behind the best offensive line in the NFL.....you can easily predict 2,000 yards and 18+ TDs. His upside is more but the injury risk is higher.

I mulled over every point I could think of, talked it over with one of my friends. He was happy he didn't have to make the choice and would have been happy with the number three pick.

Break was over now and the teams were starting to take their places. I knew it would be just a matter of a minute maybe two before I would have to come to a conclusion. The number two team looked at me and asked me who it was. I said tell me who you want and I'll write down who I'm drafting. He laughed trying not to give away anything.

I wrote down the name on my draft sheet and covered it up. I asked him who he wanted. He didn't tell me so I showed him who I wrote down and he erupted since that is the player he wanted. I went with the unlimited upside, AP the Phenom over LT the Lock. I didn't go with the safe pick gambling that AP will produce more than LT on the downside of his amazing career.

My entire draft went pretty well. I feel I have one of the best teams and will compete every week:
R1-P1 - Adrian Peterson
R2-P12 - Larry Fitzgerald
R3-P3 - Andre Johnson
R4-P10 - Torry Holt
R5-P1 - David Garrard
R6-P12 - Kevin Smith
R7-P3 - Michael Turner
R8-P10 - Phillip Rivers
R9-P5 - New York Giants
R10-P8 - Vincent Jackson
R11-P11 - Matt Stover
R12-P2 - Pittsburgh
R13-P5 - Jason Hansen

I have a great set of WRs and unlimited upside with my RBs. Kevin Smith might very well be THE AP this season. He has size and speed to tear up defenses. Turner gives a reliable veteran who will put up steady numbers in Atlanta as their main offensive option. Garrard should be steady and the Giants D should dominate fantasy numbers.

After the draft was over with I came home to relax a bit before attending a bday party at The Pub. The Charlie awards were going on at the theatre so I was getting text updates on how Misery was doing. It didn't win any award sadly. It was up for best play, best actor, and best actress.

Then after the Charlies were over with I left the bday party and went to another place for an after Charlie drink. I told my bday companions I would meet up with them at another place after I consoled and celebrated with my theatre friends.

I have to be honest, I really thought that Misery was easily the best play. Yes I'm biased but I also know that there was more technical stuff that went on with Misery than all of the other plays combined. The lead actress, Terri, had more lines in Misery than all of the other female leads combined. John had one of the most difficult acting jobs in recent theatre history.

We laughed and cried about how our play got ripped off. I felt pretty upset at the time but today I know that what we put together was a great play, one of the best. I know that all of the hard work was put out there onto the stage and that everyone who saw the play enjoyed it.

The party broke up and I headed over to the continuing bday party. I went up stairs of the new place and found my companions playing quarters. I hung out for about an hour and a half and had more of a great time, didn't drink and just sat and laughed. I was tired by now as it was nearly one thirty AM. I decided it was bed time and drove a handful of blocks home to bed capping a great day, a great draft, and a great evening!

Obama/Biden

The most condescending man in the world has picked the most arrogant man in the world to be his vice presidential running mate.

Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware, is a great pick for this ticket. He is so self centered and angry, he rambles on and on about himself, he is the best walking soundbite next to Chuck Schumer from New York. This really goes along with Obama's message of change since Biden has been in the Senate for over thirty years now. Who'd have thought that the agent of change would be in the US Senate? The greatest concentration of arrogance in the modern world.

They are actually thinking about changing the name from the Democratic Party to the Arrogant Party, no fooling....really. I'm sure the shee....uh...supporters will hail this as the next best thing since Aaron assisted Moses before the Exodus.

I am also wagering that the Clintonistas are in a private uproar because HRC wasn't even vetted to become the VP. That goes to show how deep the rift really is between the two camps. There are polls that suggest that only half of people who voted for HRC will support Obama. They are a little bit bitter about how HRC was dismissed by the Obama camp.

That his treatment of her (and her eighteen million votes in case you haven't heard) was disgraceful and earned her the VP slot because she is a Clinton and she doesn't lose on her own, people always cheat her out of what is rightfully hers.

Watch the Democratic National Convention, there will be a meltdown or a powerplay to sway the super delegates to support Clinton the Communist over Obama the Marxist. You can bank on it but it might not be very public.

This is why politics is so fascinating.

I'm sorry if the tone of this post is a bit sarcastic, it is intended to be.

I can't stand any of the people I have just blogged about.
I'm a freedom loving American who wants the government out of our lives.
I am anti-nanny state. Something that all of the above support.
I don't believe that the government can run our lives better than we can.
I believe in personal responsibility.
I believe the Constisution limits what congress can do not the other way around.
I believe that this is going to be an interesting election cycle.

I've Got

Just one more day to study up for the draft.

Tomorrow is the big day, the day where twelve teams will be drafted and we will live or die by those teams. The waiver wire will be bare and picked clean by week three.

Yes this is the time of year we all live for! Drafts will be going on all over the country! It is a magical time where large groups of veteran fantasy football players, league commissioners, and newbies get together and divide up the NFL league amongst themselves.

I'm on message boards all over the place looking for that one piece of information on who is going to have a breakout year and I can grab in a late round that no one else knows about. Its exciting to see where we will pick and which players will fall to us.

Yes this is the time where fantasy football players get little sleep and caffeine is the lifeblood on which you survive. A whole new season, a whole new team of your making.

This is my time of year!

The Watchmen

I have recently seen the trailer released for The Watchmen online. For those unfamiliar The Watchmen is a twelve issue comic masterpiece. It is set in the mid eighties and is mainly about the decay of society as the cold war rages on.

A man is murdered and Rorschach, a masked vigilante, sleuths the crime believing that there is a killer who is taking out masked superheroes. The is post "good ol' days" though, most of the masks have long since retired and are living meager existences while reveling in past achievements.

There are so many layers to the comic that I don't know exactly how they can do all of the facets justice in a movie. It would have to be a movie of considerable length, maybe similar to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Extended Edition and push the four hour mark to get the story told.

Even if you aren't a comic book fan this is still an amazing story that will just mesmerize you with its depth. It is very relevant in today's political climate as well, especially now that the sleeping bear is awake in Russia.

Fantasy Football Is Just

Four more days away! Well the draft anyway!

I'm pretty excited and well prepared though! We were going to have fifteen teams but we voted and kept the original amount from last year. Fifteen was just too many. I've blogged about this before but this is just recapping;)

Anyway one team dropped out and now we will have twelve which we set the team cap at twelve so it has worked out perfectly although I really didn't want to see that team leave. He was in the league before I was and this is my thirteenth year I believe.

I'm hoping that very soon there will be a fantasy football iPhone app so I can keep track of my players if I should happen to not be around that day....for some strange reason. That would be so great! I'm sure someone is working on the idea though.

Well

The guy who was off for prostate cancer and a hernia is coming back today. He was off for six weeks. I really thought he would be off for a lot longer than that.

He isn't 100% but he says he is going to take it easy and is going to go home when he starts to hurt, kind of a light duty thing I guess.

I know he will try hard but he isn't the fastest person in the world when he is healthy. They still need to call the two laid off people back. Things are starting to slip and get behind now. One place has gone to twelve hour days to keep up.

I don't know if those are in our future or not but right now I'd say not. We just aren't that far behind yet.

A Quiet Sunday

Which was quite a contrast to the exciting Saturday! I needed it, it was very relaxing and peaceful.
I wound up selling my broken iPhone on eBay for one hundred eighty dollars plus sixteen dollars shipping and handling!!!!

I am shipping it today to California. I hope they get it fixed or get a long life out of it. It was a good phone.

Going to be a long week. I know things are going to be more shorthanded since it is a busy week at the other shop. I am sure on the busiest day someone will call in and I'll have to go there and pick up the slack.

Just the way those children are, it is like a day care.

Great Party Night!

And I never drank a drop! Just wasn't in the drinking mood but I did stay up pretty late and it was a lot of fun! It was essentially a block party and two houses were opened up to a large group of people.

I met some people I haven't met before and enjoyed their company, saw a lot of old friends and enjoyed them a lot as well.

We all watched Olympic history as Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal and seventh world record in the 4x100 relay. He broke Mark Spitz's record which leads to some interesting symmetry. The Olympics started on 8/8/08 and Phelps won eight gold medals.

Weird huh?

It was a great moment in history and it was a great experience with everyone watching at the same time like we were!

Babel

I watched this movie last night. It was composed of three interwoven stories which seemingly have nothing to do with one another.

First two children in the Moroccan desert with a rifle for shooting jackals.
Second a Mexican housekeeper takes her two charges to Mexico for her son's wedding.
Third a deaf and emotionally neglected daughter of a Tokyo business man navigates through a couple of days in her life.

Brad Pitt is the star of this ensemble cast even though there are better performances than his. I'd say watch it, it is enjoyable and at times moving.

Woohoo! Payday Friday!!!!

These are always exciting days!
Now if there were only a federal holiday today or Monday it would be better! I can cope though.

I'm looking forward to an adventurous weekend, I don't know exactly what it holds yet but I'm sure it will be fun!

Been a long week at work and I wasn't even there on Monday.

I'm happy it is eight hours from being over:)

Wow!

There is quite a storm going on this morning! Around six it started to thunder and by the time I got out of the shower it was a full blown storm that was pouring down rain by the buckets!

Noisy too, lots of thunder and lightning.

This will make for a lot cooler August! A lot nicer August! A week ago it was around one hundred five to one hundred eight degrees, which is a typical August for us so this is a real treat.

There is a guy at work who has around three hundred ninety hours of PTO (personal leave or vacation) well what happens if you don't take your leave by January first everything over two hundred eighty hours rolls over into sick leave. Which means it is worthless and you won't get paid for it, while it is PTO it has monetary value.

This guy is like a sixty year old child. Selfish, always angry, gets angry at the drop of a hat for no reason. He is suprisingly single....go figure.

He gets mad if he can't come to work and when he gets there he gets mad at everyone there, I've concluded that is his version of being happy. As warped as it is. He can't do anything on his own and always wants to help, while being mad at you, and screws you up because he has no skills. He has been there longer than anyone else in my department too. You'd think he would have a better idea of what he is doing but he doesn't.

Well the reason for this post with him in it is that he has to take just over a full month off or lose his leave into sick leave. He hates taking off because he doesn't do anything. He has ran off most of his friends with his bizarreness and hair trigger temper. So what this does is leave the shop another hand short for a long time.

Hopefully they will start hiring someone back soon.

The Power And The Glory

I recently purchased this book by Graham Greene. I am familiar with it but have never actually read it yet.

The story is a complex one. In revolutionary Mexico God is outlawed. Priests are hunted down and eliminated. The last priest is a complete moral failure. He drinks, has a mistress, and a child.

He slowly realizes that sometimes you are called to things that are bigger than you are and they are not always what you want them to be.

I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who will pick it up and read this masterpiece but it is a moving story about what Christianity is compared to the dangerous type of Christianity that is pervasive in today's society that is proclaimed by Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and those of their ilk.

This stands in stark contrast to those of the "name it and claim it" gospel also knows as health and wealthers. Essentially it is up to how strong your faith is and you can reap worldy riches and outstanding health to your heart's content.

This is heretical and exactly the opposite of what Christianity is about. Typically the people who proclaim this heresy are hypocrites who generally are in it for the dollar. They blame the person who doesn't have strong faith for their failings, their poor health, their lack of a desired income, etc.

So say you are sick, deathly ill, you call one of these hucksters to heal you and then you get worse. Their response would probably be that your faith isn't strong enough or there is some sin in your past that is preventing you from being healed that you need to confess. So you are blamed for being sick and you have tied God's hands in healing you.....yeah, you, a mortal being has confounded the Supreme Being of the universe from helping you.....let that sink in for a second.

These people are criminal and deserve to be in prison.

Yeah.....criminal.

Twelve Teams

We decided to cap our league at twelve teams last night at our emergency rules meeting. We have thirteen right now and if someone ever drops out then we will keep it at that level.

Fifteen was just way too many to support by the talent pool. No one wanted to reduce the roster sizes which would have to happen in order to have fifteen teams draft.

It was a good meeting, very productive and everyone voiced their opinions. Everyone voted and the majority won eight to four with one not able to be contacted. Afterward we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some supper. I've never seen so many TVs in my life outside of a TV store....it would have been better if we would have been able to hear the game that was on and not the jukebox.

Good food. I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Off Today, Maybe Badminton Is On

Yep!
I decided to take the day off. If our shop never gets behind then we will never get anyone hired back. So I'll sacrifice some of my leave for the cause and in the process enjoy another day off.

I've got a couple of errands to run today so that'll give me time to do those as well.

It appears as if it might rain today. That's nice. I'd much rather have this cool weather than the one hundred degree days we had a week ago!

So there I was yesterday flipping through the Olympics when I saw women's Badminton being played. I had never seen it played outside of backyards before so I sat there.....transfixed, mesmerized even. It appears as if the Chinese take this sport seriously! They were really getting into it!

The Chinese also appeared to dominate women's Badminton. I believe they had the two top ranked players in the world! Yes there are also world Badminton rankings, who'd have thunk it?!?! So there I was watching it and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I had watched three matches!

I watched as they adjusted the shuttlecock (yes I snicker when I hear them say that) and then flipped it over the net, the other person returns it and play continues until one person gets the required amount of points.

I didn't even know this was a real sport let alone an Olympic sport but in some parts of the world this is taken seriously much like Curling in the Winter Olympics. So it begs the question, why get rid of baseball and softball in the next Summer Olympics and keep Badminton? If Badminton is allowed what about Mini Golf? I could be a gold medalist as long as there is a windmill and loop to loop with a clown at the end!





Anyway

Busy Evening

I helped a friend move yesterday evening. Had a lot of fun, learned quite a bit, and got a lot of stuff moved.

I think I've made plans for next Friday night too! Woohooooo! It is always fun to get a bunch of friends together with a common goal!
My friend's new house is really nice and cozy. I like it a lot!

My fantasy football league is going to discuss including two other teams which would put our total to fifteen. That is a lot of teams. Too many in my opinion and I feel we should keep it at what we had last year at the most which was thirteen.

That was a difficult year and there still wasn't a lot to pick from if you suffered an injury. As it is with thirteen it is difficult but with fifteen, just two more teams you are talking about six more RBs drafted and you likely won't get a starter from pick thirty two to forty five.

That makes it very tough.

The Olympics

I've never been a huge Olympics fan. I watch a few events here and there but overall I'm just not that interested, especially on the cusp of football season.

So now the Olympics are in China....one of the countries that has few human rights, no religious freedoms, hybrid communist views, and an exploding population to control. I can't help thinking that this is a perfect storm for a tragedy when the world comes to visit. The world who enjoys many freedoms that China denies its population like freedom of the press.

Whole herds of journalists have descended on China and they expect to report what they see with no interference like normal. Wellllll.....not so fast there Sparky. As long as China approves what you write you can.....I'd dread that assignment if I were a journalist. Likely you will be seeing lots of reporters who drew the shortest straw.

Sure the opening ceremonies were beautiful. Amazing even! Why can't this gigantic country be as amazing when it comes to trusting its population with fundamental freedoms? It isn't quite right at that point but it is a start. For example our Constitution clearly states that we are endowed by our Creator with rights, they are not parsed out to us by the government. The Constitution limits what our government can do, not empower it to give its population rights.

That is the right way, and in some ways our congress has gone all bonkers with arrogance. Anyway that is a subject for another blog.

The Olympics! Where the world meets to express goodwill and have sporting events! Lets hope that goodwill that China is displaying right now carries over through the duration of the event with no interference from its oppressive government.

iPhone: The Final Chapter

Yes, this is the first generation iPhone that has been broken and
replaced!

Jet Favre

Will make little difference to the Jets. He might be good for a two or three game improvement but that would put the Jets at almost 8-8. Hardly earth shaking.

They were talking on the radio yesterday about how he might lead them to the playoffs......yeah.....in a division that has the Patriots in it!

Delusional.

You can pretty much count on New England, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Jacksonville. Likely the Steelers too.

I'm sorry but Favre was brought in to sell seats not win games. One host had it right, he thought that it was unreasonable to expect a massive improvement from New York as well. At Favre's best he would still turn the ball over at crucial moments. Not good for a team that only won four games last year.

Do they really think that he has three years left in him? They signed him for three years and that was on a good team! Favre won't like losing in spades like he will be doing with the Jets. It has a way of demoralizing you and making you want to retire....again......

New Phone Arrival!

I was kinda happy....well I was skipping down the halls at work when I received the email saying that my iPhone had arrived!

Finally no more reading, browsing, playing the iBeer game through a cracked glass that happened to keep cracking and falling out....and yet it still worked!

I drove to the store that had my new shiny phone after work to find another guy who was purchasing his first iPhone. I showed him my damaged phone and he marveled (and so did the hottie who was waiting on him) that it still worked.

About ten minutes later my new phone was activated and my contract extended....yeah....extended.

Oh well, maybe we will get a 3G network here in town soon and it will be used up to its full potential. That would be nice. I'm not holding my breath though. My broken phone might have a home though as two coworkers have expressed an interest in buying mine.

Yeah, it is still worth quite a bit in its condition. I can send it away to Apple and they will send me a refurbished phone with warranty for two hundred dollars plus tax or I could format it and sell it as is even! Amazing! This thing actually holds value!!!! Try that with a blackberry!!!!

Shipped!!!!

My new iPhone has been shipped and according to the tracking number should be arriving today for pickup!

That is great news! The screen continues to disintegrate with small pieces of glass coming off now and again. Still working though!
I'm not sure on the transfer process how it all works but I'm sure that will all happen at the store.

I'm just happy to be able to look at a screen that isn't all cracked now....

Sleepy......

For some reason I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep.
I'm tired this morning.....I feel blah......

Not a very interesting update today, sorry kids.

Off Today

Today I go in to get a ct scan to make sure all of the kidney stones are gone. I am pretty sure they are but the doctor wants to make sure.

So I'm off today! It is at ten and I have to drink this dreadful dye in about an hour to prepare for it....I don't think it will take that long for the scan so I'll have a lot of time today.

I hired a guy to help me haul off the stuff in the hanger, I'm going to give it back. Beersnob and I talked about how it would be better to use a place with running water and climate control. So he is going to stop by at two and we are going to get it cleaned out.

Had my first fantasy football draft of the year last night. I got into a Yahoo league with some people and I had the third pick overall. I was prepared to take Joseph Addai since I was positive that LT and AP would be gone......well that didn't happen. The number two pick took Tom Brady which meant that I got Adrian Peterson!

I believe I got a pretty solid team overall. I have a team that has unlimited upside. It will be a team that will also strike out on some weeks too.
It looks like this:
QB: Jason Campbell, Jon Kitna
RB: Adrian Peterson, Jonathon Stewart, Kevin Smith, Selvin Young, Chester Taylor, Ahmad Bradshaw
WR: Braylon Edwards, Marques Colston, Lee Evans, Anthony Gonzales
TE: Kevin Boss
K: Josh Brown, Lawrence Tynes
Def: Washington, Tampa Bay

So this team will compete if my number one pick fulfills his potential. I might work a trade for another WR sometime this season if I feel I need another good one and let loose one of my plentiful RBs.

Working!

My PC is now working and Harry came through with flying colors on restoring my backup drive however I'm having a hard time with using the backup drive.

I figured out the install problem and got past that part. I put the hard drive back in and windows sees the drive but I can't access it yet for some reason. Going to have to deal with that problem after work though.

Today is layoff day. It is rumored that there will be a sort of blue flu going around part of the place I work in protest. I'd love to see that happen! It would be great to see management scramble to get the job done!

IT Miracle!

I believe my hard drive is restored or at least partially!
Harry called me last night and asked me if I had such and such named folders and I said I did! So amazingly I believe I'll be able to have my PC up and running today!

Woohooooo!

My laptop has been good but it just isn't a desktop PC. It is just a matter of putting the right programs back and it will be like a new PC!

Stargate: Hard Drive

Is now in the hands of my IT friend who believes he can recover some if not all of the data. I took it to work with me and he picked it up and said he would do what he could do!

I was invited out to supper last night by a friend and we ate at La Fiesta! Very good place to eat and some very good margaritas! Strong too!

Yesterday I picked up the two Stargate SG1 movies. I have to say that they were great movies! I like how they are continuing the series in a more adult way! They had a little language and a bit more violence. All in all it would be a PG rated movie, not even PG13.

The stories were really good and it was great to see O'Neil in Continuum! A great story that wraps up the Baal clone storyline! Ark of Truth wrapped up the Ori storyline and was the first of the two direct to DVD movies. I do believe that there are more coming as well! Bring them on!

Reformatting Blues

Last night I decided my pc needed a reformat and Vista installed again. I got it reformatted just fine but when it came time to install Vista back it wouldn't work for some reason!

It came time to select the drive I wanted to put Vista. I chose the recently formatted drive but it wouldn't allow me to select Next to continue the install!

I'm going to have to run this by my IT buddy at work and see what I can do, this might cost me a six pack if he has to come over but I'm really confused. I've installed dozens of Windows OS in my time and built two complete systems that I have used for years! I am not a newbie at this and have some PC chops.

I even used diskpart.exe to clean the drive completely to make sure a new installation would go right in the place of the old OS......gggrrrrrrr

The Anti Favre

Public sentiment has really turned against first ballot hall of famer Brett Favre the past two weeks. More and more people are siding with the Packers over Favre. I listen to a lot of sports radio at work and the Sirius NFL radio channel and callers tend to think Favre should quit jerking the Pack around and stay retired.

He retired owning every passing record on Earth (almost literally) and now he wants to come back after Green Bay drafted two count them TWO new quaterbacks and handed the team over to Aaron Rogers without a fight in training camp.

They have moved on, given Favre a parade, sealed up his locker, yadda yadda only to have Favre fax his intentions to be reinstated to NFL headquarters. At one time Favre could do no wrong, well unless he was in a playoff game in which he would always throw that interception at a crucial moment that would cost his team the game but OTHER THAN THAT he could do no wrong in Green Bay....until he decided to unretire.

Now it appears that everyone has turned against him. The fans don't want him on the bench of another team, they want Favre to always be theirs. Don't blame them. He likely will want to be traded to a contender which the Pack won't do inside their own division, sorry Minnesota.

The Packers now have a choice if Roger Goddell decides to reinstate Brett Favre, put him on the roster, trade him, or cut him.

Green Bay you should put Brett Favre on the roster, he did have you in the NFC championship game last year on your own field. I don't see how he wouldn't give you the best chance to win. If you hand the team over fully to Aaron Rogers and you start losing, you will look like the biggest idiots EVER.

I feel sorry for you because Brett Favre has put you into this horrible position, his own selfishness has put you in a very bad position. If Brett Favre cared about his team he would step aside and make it for real and not play on your emotions. He retired, he should man up and stay retired for the good of the team he loves. Let them and the game move on without him. He has put not only management, the fans, but his own team members in a bad position to have to choose whether to support Rogers or him. In the press they are united behind Rogers for sure but in the locker room you can bet that a great many of them support Favre and that leads to dissention.

Brett Favre stay gone. Green Bay deserves better from you.

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.