Theatre King

I'd like to take a few moments to talk about Theatre King. A man I met during Christmas Carol and really enjoy him being around the theatre. With his gruff voice he loves taking roles that will entertain the children for the big show each year. He'll sign things and take pictures until everyone is gone. He's one of a kind and I'm glad that he's found a home at our theatre!

He did something very nice for Thing 2 yesterday and while I'll protect the integrity of the act by keeping the details to myself all I can say is that he's a great director and actor but that pales in comparison to his giant heart!

I know Beersnob and I would love to have a cigotch with you and chat over many things but I also know you don't drink anymore and I doubt if you'd enjoy a premium cigar. That's ok though:) It's an honor to know him and I know our lives as a family are better for it! God Bless Theatre King and I look forward to the next time we work together!

Very Nice Mother's Day

Thing 1 and I made The Date breakfast when she got up. I called my mother and asked her to come over in the afternoon for a chicken alfredo dish we were planning. So I had two mothers in the house and both were very full by the end of the day:)

It was hot, very hot out. It feel as if summer were making an early arrival but the drought isn't helping much either. We definitely need some major storms to roll through and moisten things up! Or better yet one of those slow moving soaker storms that seems to linger for three days! It's been years since we've had one of those!

Regardless yesterday was nice, today will be nice as well as The Date begins her new job! She'll keep the library job for a while and with any luck at all she'll be able to quit it in under a month:) Now that she's graduated she will begin the enrollment process for OU to get her bachelor's degree, they have an online school for working people and it's perfect for her!

Things are looking up my friends and fellow readers.

Oh and as a side note on the water bill fiasco I'd like to tell you that we got a cut off notice again, 15 days. The funny part that makes this worthy of posting? The notice says we have a $2.98 credit!!! I can't make this up! I guess I'll have to go down there and collect 2.98 from them so they don't cut my water off!!! And this all started with their mistake on my bill! I showed it to Beersnob and we laughed quite a bit over it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Call your mothers today!
Just a friendly reminder from your friendly neighborhood blogger!

Good Shoot

We had a shoot last night and it went better than the last shoot in which sixty mile per hour winds and clashing schedules made it less than desirable. It turned into a nice rebound shoot.

We had an outline of what we were doing and made the best of it. It was a nice event and a good turnaround on editing and posting.

It was opening night of the new show at the Theatre and The Date house managed along with T, Jamal, and Aiaka. They had a great time and we hung out at the pub for a little bit after the show.

A nice Friday and a nice start to the weekend!

Respect

Ok so Thing 1 is bringing over new dating prospects lately. Here's my thing, when I was that age and I'd meet the parents of a girl I'd walk to where they were at, look them in the eye and shake their hand. I'd show them the respect they deserve for their family and home. It was also a sign that I would treat their daughter with respect as well.

Fuzzy wouldn't get out of the car if I were sitting out in the front yard, he'd text Thing 1 and ask what he should do.

The guy before last night's guy did what I was talking about. He looked me in the eye, introduced himself and shook my hand with a firm grasp.

Last night's guy took my parking place, didn't get up off of where he was sitting, put his hand in the air and waved...yup...not impressed, NEXT!

If a prospective dater will make the effort to show respect then I know that he will treat my daughters well. He won't eventually be selfish, jobless, bum. He will care about their well being and sacrifice for them if need be to put food on the table.

Now there are a lot of other factors that come into play but for the most part it comes down to one simple showing of respect to get me behind you to start with, otherwise FAIL! NEXT!

Busy Day Ahead

I know I've got a lot at work I'll have to do today. Yesterday was a busy day but it was a nice evening. I made another pretty tasty Kung Pao Chicken stir fry and Crime Reporter came over and ate with us.

We got caught up on Deadliest Catch and I watched one of the last few remaining SG:U episodes. Sad this series is ending, it's great scifi. The first season should go down as one of the great scifi seasons in TV history, it's that good to me!

One more episode and it's done. I hope they wrap it up nicely and not let the fans hang on a cliffhanger.

Well we learned last night that Thing 2 along with another girl won top honors as soloists at tri-state. That's a pretty big honor and the teacher didn't even know it until last night. She wants to go to Japan as a missionary now, actually she just wants to go to Japan and hang out but figures if she does it under the banner of mission work it'll be cheaper:) Yeah, we'll see on that:)

Spring Concert

Last night was filled with orchestral music for me. It was the middle school spring concert and the awards concert.

Thing 2 won top musician for 8th grade! She got a trophy for that and she won a medal for auditioning at national orchestra honor band and a solo at tri-state.

I'm very proud of her:) Thing 1 went to a prayer meeting and bible study. I'm glad she's getting involved in a church with teens. It's a good activity for her and needed.

The Date had to work but I got most of the concert filmed before the battery died. Beersnob has got the charger as we needed it to charge multiple batteries at one time for the cook off two weeks ago.

All in all it was a good night and one that Thing 2 had been looking forward to for a long time! You can't help but love her to pieces!

Is It Wrong?

Yep, I was in a celebratory mood yesterday and last night after hearing about the departure of OBL from this world. The man who celebrated the deaths of thousands of people from Kenya and the bombings there of American embassies, to the USS Cole, to the first world trade center bombing, to finally knocking the buildings down, and likely countless other terrorist acts.

He celebrated death and destruction on a grand scale. He was so bad of a man that we went out of our way to declare we were not at war with Islam. He was not a representative example of the entire religion, he was evil.

So after we hunt him for ten years, find him, and kill him, we bury him in accordance with Islamic tradition. Why? Because we are better than they are, that's why.

Because we celebrate life, building things, good things. We celebrate all that is good and can be good in the world. We are not them. When the Palestinians danced in the streets celebrating 9/11 we got sick about it. Now it is no surprise that Hamas has condemned us for killing OBL, again down the hatch, he's burning right now.

We treated the world's arch enemy with respect and dignity as we buried him at sea in accordance to his faith. The man who was behind the deaths of literally thousands of people is dead now, we killed him, and I was happy about it.

He's In Hell Now

Osama Bin Laden is now facing divine justice and will soon be sent to serve his eternal sentence in hell along side the other hijackers of 9/11 that have been there nearly a decade now.

Down the hatch, may he burn forever.

One of the few events that could unite the left and right has happened. A SEAL team shot this madman in the head and dumped him into the sea. God Bless the SEALS and our military!

Great Graduation Day!

My day began at a quarter till six. I got showered and got to work before seven. After nearly a five mile walk of very very turtle like conditions in high wind we mounted a static display aircraft where I work. A T-33 if you care to look it up here. It's a big jet, heavy.

After I left work The Date was getting prepared for her big day. T took her out to lunch while The Things and I got ready ourselves. The auditorium was packed. Glad we got there early and found seats.

The graduation started and it lasted around an hour followed by a nice reception from the school to the graduates. Then the surprise really started. T went to the theatre to open it up for the guests of the surprise party while I stalled at a gas station. I sent Thing 2 inside to use the bathroom, Thing 1 fixed a fountain drink. It worked well enough under the guise that we were going to the pub for celebratory lunch with reservations at 5.

It didn't dawn on T that the teens couldn't get into the pub so I sent the Things ahead of me from the parking lot as fast as they could while The Date talked to her friend from out of town.

Finally we arrived inside the theatre to a rousing SURPRISE! T had pulled off one of the great surprises after tons of hard work and secrecy! A dozen framily members were there to help us celebrate this milestone of The Date's educational career.

The framily decided since a camera was present they would recreate shots from Awkward Family Photos.com and since we were at a theatre and had access to the prop and costume rooms they proceeded for a couple of hours to stage recreations. I turned on the stage lights to add to the ambiance and hilarity ensued!

The biggest surprise was yet to come though. R, with the help of Thing 2, had been secretly painting our living room walls while we were at the ceremony. It was even a secret from me.

All I can say is thank you so much for making this a very memorable day! The Date and I were both very touched by the kindness and generosity of our framily!

Big Day

The Date graduates with her associate's degree this afternoon. She's excited, well we all are actually. She'll be pursuing her bachelor's as well but she's examining the options as she really doesn't want to drive clear out west to attend classes three times a week.

Well and we can't afford that if gas continues it's climb towards six dollars per gallon which it will reach this calendar year if things continue down this path.

Regardless today is about celebrating.

This morning I'm going to work and will get about four hours of overtime. That'll make next Friday's paycheck look dramatically better especially after the water bill fiasco of last week.

Today will be a good day:)

The Wedding

First of all who cares? In America we have a built in allergy to royals. For the most part, nanny staters need not apply, we are freedom loving and require it as we require air to breathe.

Yes an argument can be made that the royals are nothing but figureheads now. They hold little to no sway in governmental matters. They seem to ride around in carriages and wave a lot.

At least they have moved past marrying their own kin, something usually thought of as reserved for the Appalachian mountains and royalty.

So yes we have a basic allergic reaction to anything royal. The thought that a higher born individual is naturally better than a commoner is absurd to us. Here even those who are born to lower surroundings can rise and become a success with hard work, education, and dedication.

Royal wedding? I ignored it.

Thing 2

She's got all kinds of music competitions today so I've gotten her up at 6 this morning so she can get ready. She's not grumpy but she's not talking much either.

She'll do great actually. She's been practicing for weeks just for this one day. It's some piece by Wolfhart, or Wolfgang, or Wolfsomething...I think it's German. Regardless it's a difficult piece and she's doing pretty well with it.

The Date is steadily checking off her last classes one by one. Saturday and she's going to graduate with her Associate's degree. It'll be big for us! I'm looking forward to the graduation and her continuing pursuit towards her Bachelor's:)

2V2 Terrors

Abostang and I have been ripping up other 2v2 teams the past couple of nights. Over the past two evenings we are 10-4 and every other team has been slightly favored or favored meaning they are higher ranked players and you get more points for the win.

We've just been playing really solid lately and it's racking up the wins. Abostang has been playing platinum level players in 1v1 and it's just translating into being a better player. I've played with him and against him as well and he's good!

We've gone from being ranked in the eighties when we started to being ranked in the top fifteen as of last night. Every win just furthers our record and leaves a path of broken and raging opponents!

The march to first continues!

Square Foot Gardening

After recent trips to the grocery store I've decided to look more seriously at gardening at home. After much research into what I thought gardening was like and with experiences as a child I didn't really like the prospects of tilling up the ground, planting long rows of seeds, weeding them every day, watering them for hours on end, and having a huge harvest at once where half the stuff goes bad before you can use it or having to can stuff you'd never eat.

So after much more research I stumbled across a book by Mel Bartholomew called Square Foot Gardening. You basically make a raised garden that's 4x4 and six inches tall and fill it with a mixture of peat, compost, and vermiculite, since it's not very much it won't be expensive to do either. One 4x4 garden with little tending, almost no weeding, and a cup of water per plant per day should yield veggies for a family member. So for my family it would take four 4x4 squares. If you have a ravenous family you can bump it up to a 4x8, 4x12, or a 4x16 I guess. The idea that it's four foot across is to harvest your crops without stepping on the soil and packing it down. It needs to be loose and able to hold and drain water.

There is a planting guide on how many seeds to plant per square foot because you'll be breaking down your garden square with a grid laid over the top. Corn for example is four seeds per square foot and you'll have to add a stabilizer because they'll be quite tall.

You can stagger planting your crops so your harvest isn't all at the same time and your garden will produce daily if you wish. It takes some practice and note taking to figure that and it's more than an amateur such as myself would attempt to start with.

Materials for four gardens will likely run less than fifty dollars, the mixture of soil probably close to the same. Not having to pay high prices for vegetables at the store will be priceless though:)

Make no mistake, as oil prices continue to go up food prices will follow. Inflation is imminent, just like watching a bad storm on the radar as it creeps closer to your home. It's coming and it'll be bad. We owe too much money, spend too much money, and haven't the political will to change it right now as a country.

Trucking companies will go broke with these high prices, less food will make it to market, and demand will exceed supply eventually. Growing your own food is the cure for that and it makes all of those events irrelevant to your dinner table.

The Date says we can easily do this and it'd be a great family project for us. I agree and really I don't see much of an option in the coming few rough years.

Nice Eastery Weekend

It was drizzly all weekend long lending some much needed moisture to the bone dry ground. Fixed an incredible stir fry of chop suey on Saturday that fed six people, attempted to make egg rolls but no one sells egg roll wrappers in town. I was left to make my own egg roll dough and they didn't turn out so well. The dough needed to be flatter but all I had was self rising dough which was likely the problem.

They were very poofy.

The filling is very easy to make though and I've got some left over for when I'm able to get real egg roll wrappers.

Sunday was Easter ham day and made another meal that fed six people. Well The Date and The Things did most of the work on that one, I just cooked the ham. We were very sluggish after eating so much as you could imagine.

Closed the evening out with Game of Thrones and some quiet reading time:)

Happy Easter!

He Is Risen!
Glory Glory Hallelujah!

A Clash Of Kings

The HBO series Game of Thrones I've been blogging about has been picked up for production for a second season after the debut episode!

A Clash of Kings follows the houses of Westeros after the events of Game of Thrones naturally. It's a big novel as well. I've not read but maybe a chapter or two as of yet but I'm primed to get going on it. I'm planning on starting it after the HBO series ends this season.

Thing 1 is doing well. She has just started taking her new medicine yesterday. It'll take a week or two to build up to full strength but it should be more effective than the anti-depressant that she was on.

She's had two counseling sessions this past week and is doing well enough to be allowed to drive one time. She got one hour yesterday to get hair dye. She got back with time to spare and did ok. It's baby steps now.

Another Week In The Books

After today I will have logged another full forty hour week. Meaning next week I'll get another 4.62 hours of leave credited to my account. My PTO has dwindled lately and I really need to get it up again where I'm comfortable.

This June will be year nineteen, that means one more year until I log 4.92 hours of leave per week. That also means ten more years until I can collect my pension and quit. I'll be two thirds finished with a job that will have lasted a full thirty years.

I'll be young enough that The Date and I can do something else though. I'll be able to embark on a second career or possibly wake up when I want to which would be nice. It's probably too late for that though as I'll likely always be an early riser.

This week is another brick I guess. The entire wall will be a mosaic of labor running the gamut from good to bad, great to the worst. It'll have been a constant for thirty years and at that point it'll be over with and I'll step aside and let someone else take my place.

That's the plan!

One More Day Down

Baby step by baby step we're getting better now. A little at a time but it's moving in a good way now. I guess once you come close to the bottom you can only go up.

The Date is days away from graduation now, her final classes dwindling to single digits. She's planning on working instead of taking summer school right now, which is pretty good right now. We'll finally be able to develop a real savings account to guard us against the next time things go bad for a few weeks at a time.

Thankfully we've kept out of going into deep debt though. That's the one thing that's kept us from sinking at all, well and the fact that I have three girls in the house I love...but we do only have one bathroom which sucks. Anyway not going into debt means that it's all for savings now, or a house down payment, or something else and not to a credit card that charges 20% thankfully.

Who knows what opportunities will open up and what will happen to get us from living paycheck to paycheck to getting a little ahead. I know in this economy where gas could easily hit six dollars per gallon this year if there is one more Mid-East revolution in one thousand miles of an oil well, that it's tough. It's tougher than it's ever been to make ends meet but we're going to do it.

So Far So Good

With appointments today, tomorrow, and early next week I believe things are going to be ok thus far. Thing 1 will recover and is a long way down that path already. It's looking good, thank you for all of the prayers!

I'm looking forward to a good day, it's going to be a great day actually. I don't know why but it is. We haven't had this rough of a time since the literal two worst weeks of my life in 2009 when I was on strike. I pay attention to the good and not just the bad, I count my blessings. This isn't as bad as those two weeks but a lot of things have gone wrong at the same time. They are over with now and a good streak is beginning and it starts today.

Friday is payday. It's going to be a nice day out today. For now that's enough. It's a start and it's enough. I've heard good comments about the commercial on TV that's playing! I was happy to have Witchy's daughter make her TV debut with the company! That's a memory that will last a long time for her!

Plan B It Is

After talking to an independent insurance company auditor and counselor we found out that what my insurance company has done is normal procedure. Stabilize and treat with outpatient. Thing 1 is home, she came home yesterday morning around ten o'clock.

She went to school, wanted to go actually. The Date is nervous as any mother would but is doing well. I'm proud of her, after the week we've been through it's really a miracle any of us are still here.

Appointments have been made for the outpatient therapy, steps are underway to get her the help that's required. Our support system is amazing! Friends and family have shown their support in a myriad of ways and it's all appreciated and has been helpful!

Thank you to every single one of you!

Round Two

Yeah it starts again today and we'll see how the day goes. Pray for us.
I really don't have a lot to say as there's not a lot to say. We've got a plan B in place and it involves three days of outpatient therapy a week, two for her and one family. It's completely covered if we can't get a better solution hashed out.

Game of Thrones was completely awesome! Epic, intense, and so faithful to the source material that it's like reading the novel!

Darn busy weekend. I'm glad it's over but I dread today.

Game Of Thrones Tonight!

What could very well be one of the most epic shows ever on TV outside of The Walking Dead and Deadliest Catch will begin this very evening. I blogged about it already and now the countdown is dwindling to nothing.

Game of Thrones debuts tonight. The medieval fantasy of epic size and scope, encompassing one single novel of a planned seven novel series. Books one through four are out now while book five will be out this July.

It has everything a fantasy epic should have, it's gritty, it's got murder, political intrigue, warring families, thousands of years of history, and more. The characters are neither all good or all bad. The best have faults, the worst have moments of heart.

Seasons will last a generation and winter is coming. A giant wall holds back unknown threats along the north, guarded by the Night's Watch. They patrol it, swear their lives as brothers forever to defend the rest of the kingdom against these threats that are thousands of years old.

With four novels out and each up over eight hundred pages with two over a thousand you'll have plenty of reading material in this world. The thing is though, this series is special. There just isn't a series out there with this kind of storytelling, this depth, this attention to every action and plotting. Once this series is over with it's over with. We will likely never see it's equal again.

As Tolkien is special, as Asimov is special, George R. R. Martin is special. If you start this series you'll crave more and lament it's ending. Every good thing has a beginning, middle, and end as does this. It'll be around an estimated six thousand pages when completed as the new book Dance with Dragons is massive. Who knows how big the final two books will be at this point but this journey is one you'll enjoy every step of the way.

Fighting

It all began yesterday with a phone call. They are going to release Thing 1 from the hospital because insurance is done paying for it. I started making phone calls and found out that my insurance company had denied the request from Thing 1's doctor to keep her until treatment is completed.

I got a serious run around, I talked to person after person at the insurance company and left five voice mails. Three hours of talking got me no where. I decided I'd go up to the hospital and wait for the phone call and we'd have a conversation with the doctor, the insurance company, and myself. I was going to make sure there were no misunderstandings about what was going to happen.

I know insurance is a numbers game. It's very simple at its core, payments come in and payments go out. They make a profit if more payments come in than go out. I've got NOTHING against insurance companies making a profit. They are necessary and when you need them you really need them. I had three kidney stone treatments a couple of years ago called lithotripsy that were nearly 25k apiece and it cost me $150.00 total. That's value and that's what I pay them for.

What I have a problem with is that they have a doctor there who has the power to deny treatment without ever speaking to the patient. Making no evaluation other than what is written down about that patient. The doctor is in California the patient is here.

I was left with one alternative by the end of my fight and that was to file an appeal, the insurance company now has seventy two hours to get a third party doctor, again in California, to go over the medical records and agree or disagree with our doctor's assessment.

Plan B is in place though and thank everything holy that there is a plan B. They will cover outpatient treatment twice a week and medication. While that's good I don't feel it's what is necessary right now.

The fight will continue Monday when I step back into the ring.

Shooting Tonight

We've got the follow up shoot tonight to last weeks' promotional shoot. Today the big BBQ contest starts that my co-worker has entered since it's inaugural year. It's the contest that got him into smoking and the one that inspired him to go to more contests in the area. He'll be going to a huge one in Texas next month and last year he won the Arkansas state championship earning him around five thousand dollars.

He's getting better for sure!

Thing 1 is doing better, she still wants to come home now but that's not going to happen. It'll be a few weeks at minimum from what I gather.

It's going to be a chilly and blustery day here. Nothing else to report right now.

Distractions

I'll visit the entire story of what happened at a later date. I'd like to do that for my own therapeutic benefit. I'd like things to be well on their healing way first instead of ripping fresh scabs off of new wounds.

So now I'm going to talk about what I've been doing as a distraction. The greatest show on TV started back up, Deadliest Catch. With a touching tribute to Captain Phil at the start of the show where they scatter his ashes and follow that up by firing their weapons into the sky and water followed by fireworks. It was fitting and genuine.

Then it was onto getting out to sea and fishing for kind crab. The Harris brothers brought on one of Captain Phil's friends and part time captain to skipper the Cornelia Marie. It looks like it'll be a good match for them as he wants things done and will get them done to the best of his ability even while stepping on toes as Phil would.

The Northwestern sees the return of Edgar Hansen for his twenty third season of fishing. Last year he was going to hang it up for good. Tired of the grind, tired of Sig's oppression, and tired of everything. He was burned out on his job as I get or you get from time to time.

The Wizard and Time Bandit return as well and were striking out in fishing. They pulled in very little crab and are now going to struggle to make quota this season. They'll have to pack it up and reset their gear on better crabbing grounds.

All in all its the show I love, it has every element in it that makes a good show great. Drama, serious danger, conflicts, resolutions, and heart.

A Little Better

Thank you all for the support you've offered my family. Every single one of you. I realize there's been drama in the past but it's all trivial at the most now and means nothing. Nothing. If it were one of your children, God forbid it ever is, I want you all to know that we'd be right there with you as you have been for us.

We'd love you as you have loved us during this trying time. There are a lot of things more important in this life than he said she said blah blah blah. That's the happiness and well being of your loved ones. I don't think The Date or I would have been able to get through the past couple of days if it hadn't been for your support, every single one of you.

Rest assured Thing 1 is safe now and a bit angry as she works through all of the events of the past couple of days. One of the attendants spoke with The Date and said she isn't like a lot of the kids that he has come through there, they aren't happy, have seriously bad issues, they have warning signs for weeks, and she hasn't shown any of that.

She's a mouthy, moody, teen. She doesn't like authority (I've always had a deep seated problem with authority figures myself but to make a living you have to get past that) but she doesn't exhibit any of the signs you read about.

I just want you to know if there's any doubt lingering after everything I've said thus far, we love you all, thank you all, no hard feelings over anything anymore. There's more important things now to think about and work on, go right now and love your children and hug them. The past is over and dead, right now we are living for today, tomorrow, and a bright future.

Prayers Are Requested

I'll write about this more at a later date but for those of you who don't know we had an incident with Thing 1 late Sunday evening. Thankfully by the mercy of God Himself it didn't have a tragic result.

She will now be getting the treatment she needs to continue along a healthy path.

Special thanks goes to everyone who helped that evening as well as Crime Reporter, T, and Witchy. All of your help was invaluable.

A Nice Sunday

The day was actually very good. Happiness reigned in the home as I grilled corn and bratwurst.

As the NFL season appears doomed this year I'm trying to really rekindle my interest in baseball. It's tough but I'm trying hard.

We watched the new River Monsters. I like this show a lot. Jeremy Wade has got a very cool job. Fishing at exotic locales, getting paid tons of money to do so, and having a TV show on top of that?!

Quite the life!

Productive Saturday

I bought and planted grass seeds (something I NEVER thought I'd EVER do) ordered a window to replace a window upstairs, washed dishes, and folded clothes. The latter two I'm used to as I did that when I was a bachelor as well.

The Date had to work all day long and then went to the Theatre for a special poetry show featuring the work of Emily Dickinson so Thing 2 and I were on our own. Thing 1 was with one of her girlfriends all day. So we made popcorn and watched The Exorcist 3.

I played one fantasy baseball league yesterday and beat the top player going right now 47-43. Kaiseroll13 is so good he likely makes a living at daily fantasy sports. He rakes in like thousands per month. I'd love to hang out with the guy and chat about how he does it as I'm merely an amateur.

I've got the water going now on the lawn. It's supposed to be watered every day now. Sigh...I'm growing a yard.

Good Shoot

Despite the short burst of severe weather, hail, and high winds we finished the shoot! Beersnob took lead on this project and I was pleased with his creative vision. He shot with editing in mind which is a good skill to have.

You set the shots and work out how it would be edited together and look like in your head before you start. That's what many young filmmakers need to learn. The shoot took about an hour and a half and took place in two locations. Interrupted of course by a storm.

All in all it was a busy day, a productive day, and Beersnob will be editing this afternoon and get it all up and running! I'm looking forward to seeing his work!

The Home Search

The search for a new house is going slowly however it is proceeding. The longer it takes the better the prices will get, literally. There's a big glut of homes on the market now and it'll be getting much bigger after a big company moves out of town in a few months.

That'll take a sluggish market and make the prices fall even further. I've been looking at the realty sites online and most of the properties have little down arrows indicating a price reduction. Time is literally on our side now! That's a good position to be in!

I'd like a place just outside of town enough so I'm not affected by zoning laws but still has access to the cable system for internet access. It's a tough balancing act. I want to eventually put up a wind generator in the back yard and get as independent as possible in living conditions. Call me super paranoid if you'd like but I see America going through some tougher times for the next few years and it'd be nice to sustain a good standard of living.

It boils down to I'd rather be a little paranoid now than wind up a victim later, I've blogged that before but you just don't know what the future will bring anymore. I want the best for my family and I and my friends, that means learning and doing things that will keep everyone fed and happy during tough times.

On another note, we've got a shoot tonight. Immediately after work Beersnob will meet me and we'll get this knocked out!

Thank You

For all of the birthday wishes yesterday! It was overwhelming on my facebook and in real life!

The Date cooked chicken alfredo last night and me a chocolate pie, they also got me a bottle of Laphroaig and a Rockey Patel Edge! I had a couple of white Russians and played Starcraft all evening! It was a great evening! Friday I've got a shoot starting at 4:30 and lasting at least an hour, possibly more.

What's happening after that is editing and uploading. After that, who knows!

So to my family, Love You and thank you! To my fantastic friends, thank you as well! It means a lot to me!

Another Year Older

Usually I never blog about birthdays or anything like that, however today I'm going to. It's inevitable that it'll come around each and every year and that it'll make you feel times of reflection and eventually you'll look to the future.

You'll wonder how many more you'll see, how many more days of walking on this Earth you'll have. When I was twenty I thought thirty was ancient. Now that I'm officially into my forties I've got to wonder what the next decade will bring.

My thirties were a mixed bag of good and bad. Some really great moments and some really bad/sad moments. I'd venture to say that my forties will be similar to that although what the great moments and sad/bad moments will be I can't speak to as I really don't know what will present itself in the future.

If the weather is nice after work I'll likely indulge in a fine cigar at home. I'll get my bag chair, lighter, cutter, and kindle and hopefully enjoy the sunshine and calm day. Just a nice peaceful evening.

SG:U The Demise Of Syfy

Stargate: Universe returned to TV a few weeks ago and now has started it's last half of it's last season. It's a shame because it's a great show and it's really sad that they likely won't be able to send off the show with a resolution. Instead it'll likely have a cliffhanger ending and then nothing.

At least SG:U had two seasons while Firefly had a little over a half a season before getting cancelled. That was also a great show cut down before it's time. I have no idea why Scifi channel would cut that and keep Expedition Truth where they never find anything at all or the new Fact or Faked show.

Obviously I know why, those shows are cheaper to produce but SG:U is stellar in it's execution and storylines. It's SCIFI!!! What more could a channel called Syfy want?!?! Name a show that's left that is an actual scifi show set in space? There aren't any!

The closest thing we've got going on now is The Walking Dead and it'll be fall before the new season starts back up again. So until then it's old Star Trek reruns, a precious few SG:U original airings, and little else to satisfy the scifi enthusiast niche.

If only I were in charge of the Scifi channel, first the logo never would have changed to the more girly and emasculated syfy. There would be original shows on and there would be original dramas, comedies, and reality shows as well as they have a market. I would have optioned The Walking Dead before AMC knew it was even a property to option and I would give the starved masses and fans of Scifi something to watch and start talking about again!

I would explore the Honorverse from author David Weber, I would option the older Keith Laumer Bolo stories for production. I would find the best TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) stories out there and produce them instead of the lame CGI creature fests they put on every weekend. Scifi would stand for something again instead of how bad it's fallen and the punchline to a bad joke of a channel. Then on top of all of that I'd have a classic movie feature to air the movies that made scifi into scifi and defined a genre!

Nearly Finished!

Yesterday was spent doing a sync'd voice over and changing the voice over in the commercial to add an additional phrase. Now for final approval of the proof and I will FTP the spot to a couple of companies for airing.

Then I'm done with this project for a year. They did suggest that they would be doing shows while coordinating with another arena and would require spots for them as well. So we might be picking up quite a bit of business for these types of shows.

That's good as it raises our profile and expands us into areas of customers we previously had no access to. With Beersnob now going out and actually selling our products to customers for the first time we stand a good shot at growing.

Oh and with UCONN's win over Kentucky Saturday evening I took second place at work with my March Madness bracket! Take that Cinderella teams!

Minor Tweaks

Yep the client loved the commercial, I have to lower the music level a bit and change the voice over to talk about vendors. We are going to reshoot the opening bit for a bit more clarity and deliver it tonight!

I'll be finished then and this one will be put to bed and start airing soon! I'm glad they liked the vision Beersnob and I collaborated on and provided. It's a confidence booster and another addition to the demo reel.

It's a warm and sunny day so far and it's not even 8:30 yet. Yeah it's a bit windy and that will hinder shooting later on but maybe it'll calm down. We'll see though.

All in all it looks like a great day and a day to enjoy:)

Fifteen Hour Day

After regular work yesterday Beersnob and I met Witchy and her daughter (who did a very good job and liked the idea of being on TV) at the park to shoot footage for the commercial. We shot for roughly forty five minutes and then we edited two versions to present to the client today.

I'm confident that she'll want changes and that gives me time to make them and re-shoot if we absolutely have to. I don't think we will though. I think she'll just want changes in the editing or the message, more than likely somethings added to it.

We finished editing just after ten last night. That means Beersnob and I worked roughly six hours after work ended to produce two commercials, including shooting time.

Beersnob will arrange a meeting today with the client and we'll get this project put to bed!

In other news I have been approved for a mortgage loan, the idiots approved me for two hundred and forty five thousand. I told them I needed less than half of that but my credit score and low debt skyrocketed my loan amount. Now the burst housing bubble makes sense! I have no doubt that a lot of people took them up on the maximum loan amount and bought the most expensive house possible while I'm happy with a bathroom all to myself so the women can share their bathroom.

Good grief, my jaw hit the floor when they told me what I could get. I told them I couldn't afford a $1,790 a month house payment and that a thousand was really pushing the limit. They said we could look for what we wanted and that was the maximum they would give me. So The Date is now in search of a house while we work on saving up the down payment.

Game Of Thrones

I just finished this book last night from George R.R. Martin. I thought I had read it before and stopped about half way through it and lost track of it after that but there were parts of the book I remembered happening like the several of the last chapters and the finale. I knew what happened a lot so it is possible I fihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnished the book the first time around and I just don't remember now. Weird but possible.

Regardless this was a darn fine book, epic story. It is such a good story that HBO has made it into a series. One season equals one book. I've been stunned when I watch the trailers on You Tube because it is the exact same as the novel.

I've recognized the characters, heard the same lines, witnessed the same events as in the novel. It's going to be epic!

You can see it for yourself here and then see some of the trailers. It kicks off April 17th I believe and yes I'll be subscribing to HBO to watch it!

There's time for you more avid readers to read this first book, I finished it in just under two weeks and I didn't read it at all last weekend. It weighs in around eight hundred pages, eight fifty eight on my Kindle. I'd highly recommend it for those of you who like high adventure and drama but be warned there is some adult situations, graphically described violence, and Martin has no problems killing off popular main characters to further the story for future events.

The Grind

Yep another day at work, one big long grind. I think I'm going through one of my burnout phases. Everyone at my job has them and they come about every five to eight years. They last a few months and it's depressing.

I go to work and I'm paid to care. I do care about a handful of things but everyone demands so much of me at work. We are woefully understaffed and when I'm gone the work piles up as no one else will touch it. Another shop is very overstaffed and literally have people doing nothing while waiting on others to retire.

So here I am, stuck for eleven years until I can draw my pension and I'm done. I'll be young enough to do something else and have close to the income I've got now.

:(

Deadlines

I'm fast approaching a deadline for a commercial right now. I've got footage to use and plenty of stills but we need to get some other footage shot to make it right. I've got maybe a quarter of it edited right now.

This is a complex job, the customer wants a lot put into thirty seconds and right now I'm feeling behind the eight ball. I have edited a bit the past two evenings and tonight is the night I'll get most of it finished. All that will be left after tonight is adding the additional footage and sound.

This is the one job I had last year that really gave me heartburn. It's the same this year, a pressure packed job for a hard to please client. This year she's under doctor's orders to take it easier and delegate more but nonetheless the pressure is there.

I'll feel very relieved when this job is completed.

Libya

Missed Obama's speech last night about Libya, that's fine, everyone knew what he was going to say. Personally I support the action. A world without Khaddafi/Qaddafi/Gaddafi in it is a better world. I wish he would grow a bigger set though and go after him personally.

I'd like the Khaddafi to be toppled, killed off, and free elections to be part of the process as democracy takes root in Muslim countries. The only hope is that they would not elect radicals with anti-western views.

Be honest as well, there isn't anything humanitarian about this action either. If so we would have helped out in Iran a year ago during their uprising, Egypt a month ago, or Syria and Jordan tomorrow. That's not even mentioning all of the backward countries in Africa that slaughter people wholesale. You can't get much more of a humanitarian need than that and yet we have no vital interests in those countries.

Just saying don't hide behind the shield of humanity to justify your actions when so many other places are in the same dire straits. If there was ever a place for a humanitarian mission that needed help it was in Iran last year, those were peaceful protestors trying to abolish their hardline, fanatical, Muslim theocracy bent on bringing as much chaos into the world as possible to hasten the return of the 12th Imam, the Madhi. But no, we didn't lift a finger in support of them and they were slaughtered in the streets.

Headlong Into Another Week

A week full of possibility and who knows what. Perhaps this will be another run of the mill average week, perhaps it won't. It'll be what you make of it ultimately. If you plan on having a bad week, the week will be glad to oblige you.

If you plan on having a good week, then don't sweat the small stuff, therhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife's always something to worry about if you look enough. Even though most of the stuff we've had to deal with lately has been sizable, it's over now and it's time things will get better.

I had a good night's rest, I feel very refreshed this morning. Not much is going to phase me today or dampen my mood. There's plenty going on in the world today to make one pause and speculate on the end of the world. The world is pretty much on fire, radioactive fire in the Far East in fact.

People are buying more and more into this guy as events seem to escalate. Each disaster is worse than the last one, each political event is another brick in an unstable wall being built around people who are expecting it to crash in on them.

Not everyone believes as I do though, I'm a partial Preterist. Meaning most of Matthew 23-24, Daniel, and Revelation were fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's not the sexy end of the world scenario of Pretrib-Millennialism where the world gets worse and worse until we get a bailout by Heaven itself. Basically the books from the Left Behind series is Pre-Millennialism. That's from an ideology called Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism was started in the mid 19th century and said the events from the Bible had not happened yet.

This was a major departure from the traditional and classic view (and now almost unheard of view) of Preterism or fulfilled prophecy. Events clearly written by Josephus on the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, the final destruction of the Temple, and the Beast, all of that is over with.

Partial Preterism says it's all over with except three events, the rapture, second coming, and judgment day. Full Preterism says everything has been fulfilled and the apostasy of the church is the reason no one recorded the major events such as the rapture. I've got a hard time buying into the full view. Partial makes sense, Dispensationalism needs a LOT to become even remotely true.

For example for prophecy to be fulfilled the Temple would have to be reconstructed so it could be torn down again as per Matthew. In fact every sited verse there is a Temple present and it's destruction is predicted. What stands in the way now of the Temple being rebuilt?

The Dome of the Rock. One of Islam's holiest sites. Now if Israel decided they were going to demolish that and rebuild the Temple they'd be at war immediately and set of a catastrophic chain of events.

It's not going to happen, it's just not.

Busy Day

It really was. Overtime went well but it was cold, very windy, and drizzled the whole time. I got windburned and wished the whole time I had a hoodie with me. We walked four static display aircraft over three miles to where they will be mounted and resting for the next fifty years.

The pace was slow and as I said the weather was bad. It's finished though and I earned enough to pay for my slightly adjusted down water bill. That's a big relief too. After that I went to the theatre in between children's theatre shows and hung out with a few of the cast for a bit.

Thing 2 was busy making snack packs for the kiddies to hand out for the afternoon show. She loves it, I can't keep her away from the theatre. She's come a long ways since I first met her, very shy. She froze up during her first audition ever. Now she'll try out for lead roles over and over again!

Thing 1 was at a church retreat Friday and until late last night. She got home after midnight safe and sound! I'm glad she's taken an interest in a church:)

Overtime

Yep, I get the opportunity to work some overtime today. Good thing too, with the recent expenses we've had lately this money will come in handy!

Today it should only be about four hours but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a couple of extra hours tacked on, we'll just have to see. Not a lot to say this morning or time to say it in, I've got to be there in just a little bit!

Friday!

Yeppers, it's Friday:) Yesterday I did sign the papers and now we await a court date to remove the word "step" from my title as dad. It's a good thing:)

I was by myself in the shop yesterday and it was very busy. I was moving as fast as anyone could with the amount of work I had to get done. However I did and the day went fast.

After that I got supper for The Date and Thing 2, I was in a rush and wasn't able to cook anything because I had a coffee meeting with Filmmaker Friend Chris. We chatted for nearly two hours about things.

The Date got enrolled into summer college. It was originally planned out that she'd have this summer off but it didn't work that way after all. She's required to have another couple of classes now. One she'll go to at 7:30 AM so she'll be getting out of bed the same time I do. But thankfully that class lasts only four weeks.

She was a bit down about the new requirements but I reminded her that college is tough. It's a hard road to travel but at the end of that road is a better life for us. The tough is temporary right now and yeah, it'll seem like a long time. Two more years plus another one or two for a masters. It'll be a long road for sure but she'll be proud, happy, and in a much better position to do what she wants to do by the time she's graduated:)

That's why I love her, that's why I'm proud of her, and her dedication to not taking the easy road is one of the reasons I married her:)

Another Morning

Yesterday was actually pretty nice out. Windy yes but it had some very nice moments! I really don't have much to report today other than The Date and I sign papers at the lawyer's office to get the adoption happening.

I'm not sure what the next step is but last week the ex was supposed to have been served and regardless of putting up a fight he'll lose. There isn't a judge breathing that would deny justice in this case. I'm not sure the time frame either but I'd suspect it would take a month or so?

Anyway so far it's been a smooth process and likely will continue to be so. Which is nice considering the tough things that have happened lately:)

All Fixed

The glass service guy finished all three vehicles yesterday. How's that for service? We paid the man and now we're driving with glass instead of plastic!

I've felt better since it was finished too, I'm not as depressed as I've been the past couple of days. Usually I handle adversity very well but a lot of things came together at the same time and it got to me, not as bad as everything in the Summer of 2009 though when we were on strike. That was the worst I've felt in my entire life but again not one single event, several events ganged up at the same time.

However I'd like to point out that even those events pale in comparison to the events that have gone on around the world in earthquake ravaged zones like Haiti and Japan. They truly have had it very very rough in life altering situations and struggle to stay alive daily.

Being vandalized is something I'd go through every week if it meant we didn't have it as rough as Japan has it right now or as destitute as Haiti is.

Once in a while all things work out like you want them too. They all work for the best regardless it's just that we can't see how it does work in the larger scheme of things. I've got faith in that.

Successful Errand Day

I secured the equity loan on the Tahoe yesterday morning, ran errands including getting the super high water bill discounted. They will call me when finished but they agreed it wasn't correct.

So now everything is ok, The Date got our glass replacement scheduled and it should start this very afternoon between one and three. The Caliber will be first as it is the hardest to drive right now with plastic on the driver's side window. I can't see out of the back window of the Tahoe but I can drive it just fine as I'm a seasoned driver as are many of you my gentle readers.

So I had some spare time yesterday so I decided to listen to one of my radio shows and this was from March 16th. They had a man on there predicting the next big earthquake world wide that will be on par with the devastation of Japan or the Indonesia event.

You'll be surprised to find out the next big quake will be right in the heartland, well maybe a bit over to the left ventricle side of the heartland. But here's a map and he said it'll be very bad and could damage the nuclear reactor north of St. Louis.

It's the New Madrid fault that actually has been pretty active lately. The Date got interested in how earthquakes happen in her last science class and she got an iPhone app that monitors quakes worldwide. Arkansas has been very active lately.

If I lived in that area I'd be going over survival plans. Making lists of things needed when there is no food or water around to be had. Buying heirloom seeds and starting gardens to feed your families and arming yourselves to defend against looting. When no one has food to buy and you are used to buying food easily then it'll get very ugly fast.

We live in an area that won't go crazy like major urban areas will. We've (my family, friends, and I) got the ability to protect and defend if things go bad and the ability to get out of town quickly and into the country if need be and even a planned destination to meet should we get separated. Which reminds me I'll need to schedule another Zombie Apocalypse of Doom survival meeting soon! Those are fun:)

Errand Day

Today I have to run many errands including getting money against the Tahoe so I can get the glass replaced from this past weekend's events. I contacted my supervisor at work and asked him if it was alright to be off to get this matter settled and he said take off what I needed. The loan officer has a note that I'll be in this morning so everything should go well and fast.

After that I've got a couple of errands to clear up including talking to the city about my high water bill. Other than that it should be a good day to get glass estimates and find out exactly if the equity in the Tahoe will cover the cost of four pieces of glass.

I'm hopeful that it will, if not I'll have to make other arrangements to get things repaired. I hope and pray for a good and productive day!

Nice Saturday

The Date had to work all day but other than that there was a very nice rainstorm, Thing 2 house managed the children's theatre with the Gaslight Teens, I watched Thing 2 try to bowl, and we had supper with Bob and Wendy and Roller Derby Girls.

All in all we had a good day after a rough morning of being vandalized. The Date then went to spend the night with a high school friend and it turned into an impromptu reunion as others were invited and showed up! Her last text indicated she was having a great time!

Today I'm looking forward to a lazy Sunday.

In The Spirit Of Vandalism

Yep, sometimes you can't catch a break. High water bill, and now I'm going to have to use all of the equity I had in the Tahoe to replace the back glass in it, The Date's rear side window, and Thing 1's driver's glass and windshield.

I'm positive that this is going to run about twelve hundred dollars, maybe a bit more to get all three fixed.

So you wake up and take the dog out around seven am as I do. You see the Tahoe has got something weird happening to the back glass as the hinges are raised full up. I investigate and find that there is no glass to hold the hinges down so they extend themselves.

Then I check out The Date's car and find glass broken out and then Thing 1's Caliber has the same but the window tint is holding the glass together and in place.

Sometimes you just can't get ahead at all no matter how hard you try. And I try very hard to be positive and not get upset at things but even I get beaten down from time to time.

Fun Evening

Until after ten it was filled with laying on the couch and reading A Game of Thrones on my Kindle. After ten it was to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with T, Chianti, and Chianti's Beau watching March Madness at The Blue Note.

Fun and Irish whiskey was had by me, everyone else had various drinks. After arriving home at half past midnight I realize this morning I'm too old for mid-week gallivanting after it's my bedtime.

Yeah, I'll be hitting the stronger coffee this morning at the quick shop this morning. Wow, I'm sleepy. At least The Date gets to sleep in some and got to fully enjoy her evening:) I got to fully enjoy it too but I just knew that six was going to be very early and come very fast this morning.

Regardless I'm up, I'm around, and now I'm headed off for work. I'll be napping when I get home. That's a fact:)

March Madness Begins

Yeah! One of the best sporting events of the sports calendar starts today! The NCAA Basketball Tournament to crown the national champion!

All of the buzzer beaters, all of the drama, the big upsets, and possibly the Cinderella team that will battle the Goliaths of the country. All day long the first part of round 1 will begin and it'll go into the late games tonight.

Same thing with tomorrow and into the weekend! That makes this the best weekend for sporting goodness. One team will go on a six game win streak and win the entire event. Just one.

In other news Japan is really on the brink of an event that's possibly worse than Chernobyl. Chernobyl had one reactor partially melt down and it had no containment shields around it. Japan has three I believe that are in serious trouble but they have containment buildings, damaged though they may be. There's strong speculation that the pools of water that house the spent rods are also in trouble but Japan officials deny that.

If containment fails the risk to Tokyo is enormous. Some very brave people will be asked to do some very deadly things to keep that from happening and even that might not help in the end.

All in all Japan needs prayers. This situation hasn't seen bad yet I fear.

Do You Ever Get Mad?

I was furious yesterday when I opened up the water bill from the city. Over three hundred dollars!!! We average sixty eight dollars a month on water, it rarely hits over seventy. I saw that the month before there was no reading and the bill was under forty dollars, that's twenty some dollars short of what the average is. Last month the same thing.

Two months of no readings now equals over twice as much as we average!!! There's just not a possible way to get there from here.

Their gadget doesn't work and report like it should and now we get the whopping huge bill for it not working. I was sick to my stomach all last night. It's not enough that I'm working my tail off trying to get just a little bit ahead but every single time you start to get a breath something like this happens and wipes out what little gains you are able to make. The system seems to know exactly when you are able to save something and says, "There's a family trying to get a little money to put away! Time to take it all!"

I was angry, furious, wanted to tear into a punching dummy or something. Instead I got Thing 2 and we went to get ice cream sundaes. Now the good news part.

Thanks to The Date's newer and much better job that makes it much easier on us to at least try and get ahead now. Our massive saving grace is that we have practically no debt. Mortgage, Tahoe payment (which I've paid extra on) and one tiny remaining credit card with less than 900 owed. That's it.

I'm very thankful that we're not swamped with thousands in debt as I've heard on Dave Ramsey's show. I can finish paying off the Tahoe in less than ten months if I step it up just a little bit too but if not even at the current pace I'll have it paid off in thirteen months, far sooner than the note's terms.

I feel good about how our financial future is headed and that's actually pretty good in this economy. When the entire world is seemingly on fire as Nero fills out his NCAA brackets. Haiti (remember them?) is still a disaster, Japan is melting down, the Middle East is rioting itself into who knows what right now, our own economic woes are paramount as gas prices rise which will ripple into every single sector of our economy causing EVERYTHING to go up in price when we can afford it the least, and Congress can't agree on how much spending to cut.

But you know something? I know that when The Date finishes her degrees that by that time we'll have a great financial future ahead. Sometimes its a struggle now. I knew that going in that it would be tough to make ends meet sometimes but I'm good with that. It'll be that much better later on and we'll be in a much better position if we stay this course. Tough now but a better future later when we can't work or just plain ole' don't want to work anymore and the best part is that we'll both be under the general retirement age when that happens!

So water bill, bring your financial anomalies, I'm not scared!

The Big News

Yep today is a big day and the start of something big for my family. The Date will be going to the lawyer this morning to start the process of adoption for the girls. The removal of the tag "step" will soon begin. They will be mine all mine.

The lawyer we got is a bulldog too, he'll make sure it happens the easy way or the hard way but it'll happen. The ex-father has agreed to it...somewhat. I mean it's not like he's made the slightest effort in the past few years to make contact with them. No calls, no visits, really barely any child support. He had a condition over the weekend that they keep their current name, indicating he would like the hard way approach to terminating his rights.

Thing 2 hasn't used his name in nearly two years and was just dying to get rid of it the first chance she could get. Thing 1 would like a hyphenated name temporarily until people get used to her new name, after this past weekend I'd say she will likely do away with the hyphen altogether.

They'll get the father they deserved from the start and I'll get to have children. I'm not sure how long this will take, I'd guess maybe a month or two, perhaps longer.

In other news, Day 41 represented the end of the first part of the story I was experimenting with. It's a zombie-ish survival story but mainly about rebuilding a community and a new and better life.

I'll eventually get part 2 started as I indicated yesterday but I'm looking for your suggestions and story ideas. Text them to me, Facebook them to me, or call me and chat about zombies with me. More than likely I'll incorporate them somehow! It's fun to write your own story and guide the characters as you see fit, I wish I had the patience to write an entire novel. As I had it planned in my head this was going to be the Ben-Hur of zombie stories, instead it was the blog post of zombie stories.

So please by all means get me your ideas on where the characters should go next!

Thus Ends Part 1

Most of you will notice that I've been writing a serialized story the past couple of weeks. It's a zombieish story but mainly it's about surviving and rebuilding which I find the more interesting sides of the post zombie apocalypse of doom genre.

I invite you to go back and read from Day 1 and try not to overthink it, I sure didn't. Mainly every entry was written in roughly ten minutes in the mornings, fifteen on the longer posts. I tried to write a handful of times the night before and they might be the more thought out posts.

In a few months I'll carry on the story again, I'd like to plan the second part out a bit better. In my mind I had a pretty epic story in mind just for the first part, it came out less than epic as I just have the attention span of a gnat sometimes. If it were a novel it would have never gotten written as I just don't have the patience to write an entire novel out. It would have been way more in depth though.

I was going to pick up different character point of views and follow them through the attack of the infected and how they met their ends. I was going to explore Edna a bit more thoroughly and how a defenseless and alone shut-in went through her life's decisions to come to this fate.

Another thing is that I was trying to change up the purely dead zombies with a more infected style of zombies, zombies that were alive and functioning as opposed to Romero's classic zombies. So they would be a bit more like 28 Days later and don't have to die before turning. I want my killers to be able to plan and scheme and thus be infinitely more dangerous than random roaming scavengers. That's a part that Filmmaker Friend Chris and I discussed and worked out, scheming killers are more scary than pack hunting killers. And pack hunting, scheming killers that can plot out an ambush are scarier still!!!

Regardless here's what I'd like from you. Everyone who knows me is sometimes a reader, I've seen the numbers. Thus if you know me more than likely you've got my phone number. So here's what I want and how you can be part of this, text me your ideas or post them on my Facebook wall. If you just want me to know about them and not make it public then you can send me a private message or if all else fails you can actually call me and talk over your zombie survival idea with me, you know I do love talking over zombie theory!

So for now regular blog posting will continue until I get the second part worked out. I hope you like reading about what I had for lunch and supper...

No, I've been keeping up to date with everything newsworthy. Japan has me and everyone else on edge right now because the crisis is still going on. Things are very deadly right now as a second reactor blew up last night. I have faith that the brightest minds in the world are working on this problem and will keep a nuclear sized creature from being formed.

In fact I wouldn't be half surprised to see Godzilla rise up out of the ocean and start ravaging Tokyo right now as bad as it's been for the Japanese lately. We watched National Geographic channel last night and the same thing that caused the Japanese earthquake is happening off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. The potential for a 9+ quake and massive tsunami is happening there and now. A plate is getting hung up on the continental shelf of America and it's not relieving pressure like it should be. Scary.

So there's my invitation to you, get me your zombie ideas with the characters I've created and the storyline I've started right now. There's a very good chance I'll use it or we'll work out someway to use it! So get me your survival and rebuilding ideas!

Day 41

It's been three weeks now since we stopped at Priest Lake. We still haven't seen another soul, living or infected. We've decided to make a living here. Fresh water, protected areas for green houses, plenty of space for building cabins, and lots of game to hunt.

Yeah we've been wondering if the crisis is over with and came up with a solution. We give it six months from now and we'll load up a truck and head south and towards civilization and investigate. Six months should be a good indicator that we'll be on our own for years to come or if we can go and help in the rebuilding effort.

Six months. Two of the large crates held a wind generator for Billy's store. He had planned on setting it up to run his store and get it off the grid but the city's ordinances wouldn't allow it because of height restrictions. Laughable now that the people who made the rules are long dead.

We've got a ridge above us that will give us enough wind energy to power our small community for decades. Not that we have any huge electronic appliances or anything but the electric coffee pot is a necessity. Lights, heat, and security though, that's what's essential and we'll get all we'll ever need.

Nathan, John, Mark, Billy, and I have spent our days fishing for fresh meat. The rest have enjoyed building the cabins and getting up some permanent shelters for each of our families to live in.

Shauna has started setting up her green houses and getting vegetables planted. She has several portable green houses that she brought with her, each green house should be able to supply ten people with enough food for a few months, we'll have plenty to eat and enough to can for the long winters. Fortunately we've got two seasons now before winter hits, enough time to prepare.

Our days are spent preparing to live, our nights are spent around a bonfire before heading off to sleep. The children are enjoying this like it's an extended camping trip. Little do they know it'll be extended for a lot longer.

We will be starting daily hunting trips soon after we get a smoke house set up to cure and preserve the meats we can bring home. We can't afford to waste anything from here on, our lives might just depend upon it. There's no way we could eat a full deer either if we brought one in right now so we'd have plenty of meats left over for later consumption.

It's not ideal but it's close and it'll get better with time and improvements. Water, food, shelter, and some minor conveniences. We're in good shape for now and for a long time to come.

We're living, maybe for the first time.

Day 20

Spokane is completely impossible to get through on I-90. We backtrack to Coeur Da'Alene and stop.

A.J. radios me that he has an idea and asks if he can take the lead for a few hours. Sure thing, I don't know Idaho at all. I don't know if A.J. knows Idaho either but his ideas have been good so far so why not trust him when he says he has one.

We took back roads, dirt roads, and might have made our own roads a couple of times but we arrived on tree covered ridge that was about as desolate as could be, we were overlooking a lake. Priest Lake.

He pointed east, "That's Ruby Ridge."
"The Ruby Ridge?" I ask.
"Yeah. That Ruby Ridge. Down there is a freshwater lake, Priest Lake. We'll set up camp there for a while. We are safe for a while here. Summers hit the mid eighties, winters are cold but livable and not as cold as Alaska. We'll camp here for a few days and get rested up. Then we'll talk about what we are going to do."

Billy said he'd get the short wave radio set up and see what the latest news is. Just over two weeks into this crisis it'd be nice to confirm that things are as bad as I think they are. Nathan set up a fire and Mark and Mike along with their families found fire wood for the night and located a dead tree for wood for a few days.

Nathan unpacked a couple of fishing poles and some lures and headed down to the water line. A.J. was right, this place was all ours. Not an infected psycho or survivor in sight. Believe me we were all on alert driving up here and it had seemed like it was miles and miles and miles with no one else around. Yeah sure a few could be hiding here and there but overall I think we might be somewhat safe.

A.J. was talking to the recently widowed and shaken Shauna. I couldn't hear anything but she was nodding and agreeing as she pointed towards the treeline.
John was looking over the land. Dr. Khiem was just stretching his legs and kicking a few rocks along the shoreline.

What was really astounding was that I heard birds. I heard the sounds of nature. Birds can't be infected can they? Surely not. Maybe I can do something I didn't think possible a few long days ago, maybe I can relax. Maybe I can breathe.

I grab a couple of bag chairs and head towards the shoreline where Nathan is stringing up a fishing pole.

Day 19

Traveling along the interstate we encountered few problems at all. It was when we pulled off to rest is when we encountered the worst ambush of the trip thus far. We've been staying close to the interstate when we did pull off but did go deep enough to scavenge anything we can find.

We had pulled off for the night, it was late afternoon so there was still plenty of daylight left. The town seemed deserted enough. There was a large Wal-Mart store near the exit so we thought we'd go in there and find what we could find.

The parking lot was a mass of abandoned and bloodied cars and trucks. The glass doors were broken out and it was dark inside. Just the sight alone set my skin crawling. Before anyone could really say much some of the survivors from the trailer park attack piled out of the RV and started to go into the store. Just that fast Willie, one of the older men from the park was tackled just inside the doors. They swarmed onto him and started to rush out of the store towards us.

Pouring out towards our parked vehicles they came. Running, this wasn't an ambush attack they were just laying in wait for victims to wonder by like a spider in a web. Before we could get loaded back up stragglers were being picked off.

Before he could get far Brent was set upon, Shauna started back towards him when Nathan looped a large arm around her and told her to get back into the RV. A.J. and I got back into the driver's seats of our rigs, Mark manned the seat of the RV. Billy opened fire at the closest attackers. Ryan followed suit. Nathan, running back towards the rig was firing at the infected, parts of them went flying in red mist behind them.

The RV was already moving back towards the interstate. A.J. was loaded back up and headed that way too. Nathan jumped onto the side of my rig, hanging on to the handhold and as we started to pull away.

We lost two people in that attack. Two too many, it was unnecessary and reckless of us. The danger is present even this far into the interior of the country, it'll get worse as we get closer to the coast. Much worse.

Hope we have enough ammo.

Day 18

Dawn broke and we were up and around and ready to caravan onward. Billy and John rode shotgun with me, A.J. and Nathan shared the tanker rig. Everyone else rode in the bus RV with the two brothers and their families and the few people who survived the onslaught at the trailer park.

We put the sun behind us and head west. The highway is jammed until we hit I-29 and run fast north to Council Bluffs. I hammer down and we get there in record time. The places you can and the time you can make with no Smokies around.

Navigating through Council Bluffs and Omaha is tough, very tough. For a small city everything is jammed up tight. I pick up the CB and talk to A.J. and tell him my newly discovered spidey sense is tingling and he says the same it's all red flags from there on out.

There's no way to take the fast lanes through the city, we have to go around. We backtrack to 34 and head to Plattsmouth and head to I-80 as fast as we can. No faster way through Nebraska. The plan is to eventually hit I-90 and go northwest and eventually make our way to the coast and from there north to Alaska. If the interstates are as clear as these have been so far we can make it in a few days while we camp every night.

The tanker is a huge boon to us as we just pull up beside it and refuel. Brilliant idea. I still feel like a mass murderer though for frying all of those people. Yeah I know they would have killed me and all of us but it still doesn't make it feel right. What if there's a cure in a few weeks? What if the government loads it up in crop dusters and sprays the whole country curing everyone...yeah right. The only government left is probably some low level staffer from a well known Senator that got booted out of office on the last election.

If anyone with an IQ above 110 is in charge I'd be amazed. Time to face facts, it's over. I mean it's been in the back of my mind all along that there's no going back but after traveling the hundreds of miles we have and seeing the devastation that we've seen, it really sets in now.

It's over with. At least if there had been a police state style new world order we'd be forced to farm to live and live in Utopian collectives. Up at dawn and marched to the fields, a few cracks of the whip to motivate the decaffeinated masses in all of it's Big Brotherish Orwellian left wing glory. The thought police always at our heels and over our heads but there would have been order, as warped and oppressive as it may be it would have been order.

What do we have instead? Freedom I guess. Is this what the pioneers felt as they traveled across the unknown for a better life? Is this freedom in its truest sense? No money, no credit cards, no mortgages, no more Tonight Show for that matter, nothing to tie us to the system that was in place just over two weeks ago.

We're going to be raising our own food when we arrive. What will take the place of entertainment? What will be entertaining from now on in this world gone mad? Will we ever laugh again? Will we be able to truly relax and put our brains on hold while something takes over our sleepy minds and dulls our survival senses like a plastic butter knife?

No, not now. Not even in our safest moments will we be able to truly relax and delude ourselves that our lives, such as they were are back. My only regret right now is that we can't swing down California way and snipe off some fifteen minute celebrities before heading off to our new homes, defiantly hammering the final nail into the coffin of pop culture for the last time. Perhaps for the very first time we'll all have to start living.

Day 17: 4:00 PM

After feeling like I had committed mass murder at the truck stop and leaving an inferno behind we made it back to the park. We filled up the RV bus and got acquainted with each other. Doctor Khiem examined the families while Billy went to the trailer.

As we had killed off the other residents that had gotten infected and since the place was fairly secluded it just felt safe now. We gathered wood for a bonfire to keep warm and cook with. Billy broke out one of his camping pots and poured a dried mixture of soup into it. He added distilled water and set the pot just inside the fire for boiling.

An hour later we had hot potato soup! It tasted darn good as it seemed like it had been months and months since we had had a nice hot meal. We decided we'd leave in the morning at dawn. After eating I crawled into the sleeper cab since I was going to be driving the most. A.J. and Ryan would take over the tanker. Mike or Mark would handle the RV part of the caravan and make room in the easier riding RV for our survivors that had been riding in the trailer. They'll think they are traveling on a cloud by comparison.

I'm headed to sleep now, dawn awaits and the next leg of our trip. This means a brand new hope for us and possibly more people to come. If we scavenge everything we can find from here to Alaska we'll have a great little community to live in until this all blows over or if need be to live the rest of our lives in.

I've given a lot of thought to what would happen if this doesn't blow over. You do that a lot when you are driving. What if this is it? What if no one else becomes an Edison and harnesses electricity again? What if no one alive can repair the power plants? No engineers are alive anymore to design infrastructure to repair America? No printers are alive anymore to print books or writers to write books? That means no new culture will arise from the ashes of this terrible calamity.

No artists, no sculptors, no teachers, no professors, no judges, everything we had is gone now and there's a good chance it's gone for good and we are running away to start some semblance of civilization again in a hand built village. Living and dieing on the land, raising crops and harvesting our very survival. Hunting for game and roasting it on a fire for years on end.

Yeah, that's our life now, isn't it?

Pause For A Winner

I'm going to pause my zombie apocalypse/rebuilding civilization story for one post. I've just got to write about the trainwreck and likely leading death pool contender Charlie "Tiger's Blood" Sheen.

I heard the live interview with Alex Jones where this major controversy started. Sheen came off as a nutball and to top it off Alex had Lenny Dykstra on there to back Charlie up. Dykstra was a great player but honestly he sounds like he took way too many fastballs to the head. Way too many.

Alex tried to control the interview and guide Sheen and Dykstra back into the sane end of the pool but like two toddlers trying to irritate their mother they kept diving back into crazy. Eventually Alex joined them knowing that that interview was going to be big, and it was.

It's lead to so much controversy now that even Sirius is going to put their own TMZ style channel on called Tiger's Blood. Yeah.

Look even if everyone buys the idea Sheen is not on drugs as he claims, he's still crazy. He thought he held the cards since he was the star of a sitcom that made hundreds of millions of dollars, if not eventually billions with syndication rights. I've never seen the show, don't care to.

So now without further delay I give you this link to Sheen's Korner of Torpedoes of Truth.



Remember phones were built by trolls! This guy is either drunk on his own self centeredness or more likely he's just the craziest thing on two legs.

"Winner Winner Sheen Dinner!"

Montgomery Clift was once called "The longest suicide in Hollywood history." I really believe that Sheen now owns that mantle.

Day 17: 12:30 PM

We came upon the truck stop, fire was burning from one of the pumps. Blood was everywhere, still leaking from the lifeless, half eaten bodies on the ground. No infected were in sight though, red flag.

A row of tankers, flatbeds, and reefer trucks lined the parking lanes. I get strange feelings when I look over the scene, like danger is imminent, maybe I'm developing my spidey sense?

Danger is the only thing in my head right now that makes sense. A.J. agrees, "We'll pull up along side one of the fuel tankers, jump out and start it, Nathan and I will cover you. Oh and check the tank to see if it's diesel or not."

I'd rather do the covering.

Still not an infected in sight as we crawl along the row of trucks. Three fuel tankers are lined up in a row together from the same fuel company. Chances are one of them is diesel. I get out of the truck, still wishing I was doing the covering of me but I do it anyway or none of us are getting out of here. I climb up on the trailer and pop open one of the hatches. Gasoline. I close the hatch so it doesn't evaporate.

From my vantage point I can see faces now looking at me from the truck stop restaurant. Watching me. A.J. and Nathan can't see them watching me, bad vantage point.

I jump over to the next trailer, twelve feet up in the air. I pop the hatch. Diesel! that's what we need! I signal A.J. that we're taking this one. That was a bad move, the infected must have thought I was signaling them that the human smorgasbord was open. The door opens and they stream out.

Some of them have on trucker clothes, some mechanic, some waitress and cooks. This sucks. I signal A.J. and Nathan they are coming and point from the direction they will be headed. They pull the truck forward enough to see where I'm pointing and ready their shotguns. Then an idea dawns on me. I leap over to the third truck, pop the hatch on it, gasoline!

Perfect! I climb down and open the valves and watch the gas drain like a small river towards the infected. I open the valve in the back of the trailer and it adds to the flood. A.J. sees what I'm doing and pulls the truck out of the way. All of the infected are standing in pooling gas now as the liquid has reached the restaurant.

I go around to the diesel truck and hide behind it shielding everything of me I can, one bullet later and it erupts in a river of fire! It's HOT and it roars. The infected are now on liquid fire and burning alive? I don't know, maybe they are alive maybe they aren't anymore. Now they won't be eating me and that's more pressing on my mind.

I climb up into the cab of the truck we're taking, hit the glow plugs and ignition and it roars to life. The pumps in front of the restaurant explode, shattering all of the truck stop glass facing the pumps. Nope, never thought I'd do that in a million years. Blow up a truck stop and kill forty or fifty people with a gas tanker.

My high school guidance counselor would be proud.

Day 17: 11:30 AM

The big sliding glass window from the huge RV opens and erupts with fire. Four shotguns and a couple of handguns are held out of the window and pour death among the infected. One of the infected that was hit grabs for A.J.'s leg and he replaces it's head with a .45 slug.

A sprinting infected shoulders Billy to the RV before being planted to the ground by Ryan the butcher. Ryan drags a knife across it's throat ending the threat. Billy regains his feet and draws a bead on another infected ending that threat as well.

The couple of dozen cannibals that surround us must have been former residents of this trailer park. Fortunately there aren't many and we have weapons. They drop even faster after all of our group turns and opens up on them as well. We have the edge and it shows...this time.

We were caught unawares though and should have been more careful. We finished off the last of the infected and I just about fall to my knees, overwhelmed as to what just happened.

Khiem the doctor comes over to investigate and check my racing pulse. We're all shaken up but we're all alive. Nathan reaches out his massive hand to me and I grab on as he effortlessly pulls me up to my feet.

"That was too close," A.J. said.
"No doubt, we should have been watching closer as we were exploring. They are devious and we've seen them lay traps before."

A.J. turns to the big RV full of survivors and tells them we'll find a tanker truck to get them back on the road and to travel with us. We unhook the trailer with the supplies, A.J. takes the wheel and we bobtail the rig to scout for a tanker truck full of precious fuel.

"There's a truck stop a few miles west of here. If there's a truck around it'll be there," shouts Mark at us. I wave and we head out.

Day 17

Midway through Iowa and heading towards Nebraska we stop at an abandoned RV park. There's a smaller RV, burned to a crisp, more than one with blood on their doors and streaked handprints. One with blood all over it but the door is closed. Nathan, Billy, and I climb down out of the cab to investigate.

We unlock the trailer first and let everyone in the trailer get out and stretch their legs and scavenge anything we'll need. A.J. loads his .45 and comes with us to look over the big bus type RV. There is a curtain drawn over the windshield on the inside.

We knock on the locked entrance door. Nothing. Billy, turns out, is a man of many skills and gets a lock pick kit out. He starts to pick the lock when it turns and the door bursts open! We are looking at three armed people pointing their weapons at us. Taken by surprise we step back.

"Don't loot our place, move along," they tell us.
"We aren't looters," A.J. says, "We're survivors and we're heading to Alaska to start over. If you have skills, supplies, and a will to live you are welcome to come with us. We're fully stocked with everything rebuilding will need for a while but people are hard to come by."

"Alaska? What makes you think Alaska is a better place to live than here?"
"It's better, it's more isolated, the population is minimal even when it was at it's highest, food and game are abundant. The cold will keep the infected from coming for us. It's just safer right now, we might get there and think differently but on paper this looks like our best chance right now." A.J. responded.

"We've got more than three of us. When they came through here they were raging crazy. Everyone had heard the stories on what news channels we could get but I'm not sure if anyone really believed them fully. Then the attacks happened, they broke into trailers with the weaker doors, the people were..."

"We know," A.J. replied, "We've seen it too, a hundred times. How many survivors?"

"Some older and less able to arm themselves, myself and brother and our families, maybe a dozen all together. My name's Mark. My brother Mike has you in his sites from that window. If something happens he'll make this all very messy."

"No need. We're peaceful survivors moving to a new life now. Nothing is left so pack up and follow us if you want. We'll share food and supplies. We've got builders, engineers, even a butcher, there's room for everyone of you too."

"Sounds great but we're our of fuel."

"Funny you mention that," said I,"I was just going to suggest finding a tanker to haul with us."

"Then let's find a tanker," A.J. said, "We're going to be a caravan after all."

Then it erupted, sounds of many people crashing through the trees. Running, sprinting, staggering and falling. We were surrounded by infected!

Day 16

Stopping every chance we got to grab fuel from abandoned trucks was becoming our new hobby. Almost like looking for out of state license plates for a kid on a road trip, we kept a sharp eye out for diesel trucks or even tankers to grab fuel from.

Grabbing a tanker would be great to have along though. Might ask A.J. about someone else driving one, we'd move slower but we'd have fuel for a long time. As we pass back through Little Rock I try to see the spot we were surrounded at over the tops of abandoned apartment buildings. I can see the street but not the exact place.

Best not to dwell on it. It's over with and we're moving on. We'll make the former state of Nebraska by three or four o'clock if the path is as clear as it is now. Fast interstate driving, of course speeding but there's no troopers left, no cops, nothing to slow us down but infected people who see us as a meal on wheels.

Got to keep moving, we stay safe when we're moving.

Day 15

Fully stocked up on fuel as we made a stop along the interstate at the same truck stop we stopped at coming this far we listened to the new plan. We were headed north but to where? There's a lot of north to go to.

A.J. said we'd need a freshwater supply, safety from attack, ground to build upon, and ground to till and grow food. We'd need a place to fish and hunt for protein when the dehydrated supplies ran out, and as vast a quantity as we have they will eventually run out.

We were starting to head into spring in the Tri-City area, if we go further north we'll run into winter again and freezing temperatures. Perhaps that's what we need though. These cannibals are infected with something, they are still flesh and bone. Ice still freezes and cold is still cold having the same effect on survivors and infected.

Who knows maybe the infected go south for the winter which is why we saw a valley full of them? It was warm and they were active. I'm betting there are no more borders leading into Canada, it's likely big wide open country now with moose, elk, and lakes galore full of fresh clean water.

Yeah, let's head to Canada maybe or Alaska. It's too much to hope that Alaska had escaped the infection but parts of Alaska are so desolate I doubt residents even knew it happened.

"Alaska." I tell A.J. "Let's go to Alaska and start over. It's rugged country, massive fresh water lakes, abundant hunting, cold enough to possibly offer protection from the infected, and desolate enough that people just aren't much of an issue to defend from. In fact we might be the bearers of the bad news that the lower forty eight just don't exist anymore."

"Objections," A.J. asks. The small group was silent, "Alaska it is."

Day 14

We crested a winding hill overlooking a valley. I had to pull to a stop, Nathan and Billy were breathless at the site. I'm not sure what city we were looking at but it was very bad.

I radioed everyone in the back to get out and come up front. I forgot I had to go unlatch the doors to let them out. Sitting down on the highway I just stared at the ominous site. Nathan nearly fell to his knees, something a man of his size ought not to do.

Billy was the only one alert at the time and unlatched the trailer doors releasing the other survivors to come and peer at what lay before us.

Every single one of them had the same reaction, it felt as if everyone had taken a body blow from Tyson in his prime. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of infected were down in the valley. They were so thick they looked like an undulating carpet, not a square foot was spared. Miles below us was certain death. This way was closed for good.

Our plans of escape evaporated like an ice cube on a hundred degree sidewalk in August. A.J. didn't know what to do or say. None of them had planned on this, this devastating obstacle. If we were all armed with nuclear powered flame throwers it would do no good. Nothing invented let alone nothing we have could have cleared path through this densely packed super city of death.

"We'll have to start over somewhere else." A.J. declared. Everyone absently and silently nodded, not knowing or caring where.
"We can't go southeast anymore. I'd say south is out of the question as well. Any objections to north?"

Everyone agreed, still stunned at the incredible site. "Alright, load up. We're headed north. Maybe we'll be out of the thick of things the further we go."

I grabbed the driver's seat, Nathan jumped up in the cab and laid down on the sleeper bed, clearly at a loss for words as we all were. Billy helped the survivors into the back and secured the doors and climbed up into shotgun position. A.J. and his planners would need to come up with a new destination now.

What if we found the same thing up north? What if we were surrounded? Good Lord, what if what we just say was the weakest point of exit? This wasn't good at all.

Day 13

We pulled over at a truck stop to siphon fuel and rest up. We need to talk about what happened and if these things are smart or not. It's beyond dispute they laid a trap for someone, we just happened along.

More vigilance might be the answer. Be aware they can think, perhaps they can only think in rudimentary terms but think they can. They have numbers too, in ten days they have swelled their numbers from a handful in the attack to states and states full of them.

They have literally taken over, like an infestation of roaches and we are prey now. We've found nothing on the CB, no chatter, nothing to lead us to believe that there is a governmental structure in place. The elitists likely fled to some super bunker that has ten years of supplies behind Mount Rushmore or something crazy like that. I should ask A.J. he might have a conspiracy to confirm that thought.

No, we should assume we are on our own and no rescue is imminent...ever. So if our goal is to build a compound or fortress to defend against these thinking, plotting cannibals what do with do to rebuild some semblance of society again? How do we go about wiping millions of cannibals out with the relatively small amount of ammunition we have?

How in the world do we make the world safe again? We have to assume it's international now and growing. We could very well be the last people on Earth because of a paranoid man and his paranoid friends and their fear of a new world order would take over the States.

Pizza delivery guy thirteen days ago...global apocalypse survivor today...