Memorial Day

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

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

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

Sunday Morning

It's Sunday. It's nice out.

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

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

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

Guy's Night Success

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

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

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

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

Brilliant Or Racist?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch it, it'll challenge you too.

The Upgrade

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's Opilio Season!

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

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

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

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

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

If you haven't seen it, watch it.

That Was Fun!

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a good evening!

Almost Late!

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

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

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

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



-- Post From My iPhone

Busy But Productive

Yesterday started off with set call at ten.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Super Friday

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

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

Now if they would have Worcestershire flavor! Oh man!

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

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

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

All in all it was a good day:)

It's That Time Of Year

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

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

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

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

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

Tornadoes In The Area

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stormy Morning:)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Universal Happiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Software Ordered

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

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

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

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

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

Somewhat Successful Fishing Trip!

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

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

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

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

I'm looking forward to it!

Fishing!!!!

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

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

We are headed out shortly!

Better

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

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

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

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

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

It Started After I Got To Work

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

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

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

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

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

My Flirtation With Baseball Part Two

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

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

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

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

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

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