The world through my eyes...

And now back to our show...

2010-01-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Hello all my Blogger friends, and a Happy 2010!

It's been an exciting and fun Christmas/New Year's Week for me. I am honestly an extremely lucky person around Christmas time, because I get almost everything on my list every year. So while I won't bore all of you with everything i got, I will mention my favorites.

My wife got me:

This awesome Darth Vader USB hub, which was much needed as I had run out of ports.

Which allowed me to hook up my new gaming Keyboard and Mouse from my Parents.

The three gifts combined to allow me to get another lvl 80 in World of Warcraft over the vacation which I was very happy about.

The best present from my in-laws was definitely Optimus Prime:

I haven't opened him yet, but I am going to tonight. Yes I'm aware that he is ages 3 and up, but I am "up", and I like transformer toys, :).

The best present of all though was a complete surprise!

My best friend Darque combined my birthday, the Mrs. Graduation, which was the week before Christmas, and both our Christmas presents to give us:

A 5-disc DVD changer Surround sound system. This literally gave new life to over 500 DVDs that I have, and showed me for the first time what all the "fuss" was about. I had heard surround sound before, but never with weather effects or maybe on underpowered systems. This baby however CRANKS! When Iron Man blasts off, the room shakes slightly. The explosions in The Bourne Identity scared me, along with the lightning in the 13th warrior and Twister. It sounds like a mini-thunderstorm is right there in my room. I had wanted a SS system for years too, so this was such a welcome and unexpected surprise. It took me a few days of research and a trip to the store, but I got my DVDs and Blu-Rays to play through Surround Sound without issue. I can't help but think that everything from the TV to the PS3 being Sony had something to do with the relative ease of set-up.

As for New Year's, my wife and I watched movies, played WoW, watched Dick Clark, repeated the earlier activities, and just had a nice day.

New Years Resolution: none

Goals for 2010: Move to Colorado, get Jobs, Lose some amount of weight, and live happily ever after.

Maybe not that last one just yet, but definitely a place of our own. Here's to the start of a new decade, new year, and new futures!

I hope all of my readers had a Very Happy Holidays, and a wonderful new year.

2009-12-25T22:38:00.000-08:00

A very MERRY Christmas to all of my Blogger friends! I hope al of you had as wonderful of a Christmas as I did. I'll tell you all about it next week, as I'm slightly too busy playing with my new toys now. :)

Avatar movie review

2009-12-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

Head to the "Daily Dose of Geek" for my review of Avatar!

WoW Update

2009-12-21T13:58:00.001-08:00

If you are at all curious of how I'm doing in the World of Warcraft, head on over to the Daily Dose of Geek to see

The Daily Dose of Geek: The Hat!

2009-12-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

See how I added a little geek to my wardrobe recently over at the "Daily Dose of Geek"

Blizzard of 09, take 2

2009-12-21T08:09:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend Long Island, like most of the Northeast part of the country, was "treated" to a massive winter storm that dumped over a foot of snow on us. It literally was the biggest snowfall I've ever seen, and here are some pictures to show you just how much snow fell on our fair town.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

For a size reference, we've provided a little white fluffy dog.

This is our new dog, an Australian cattle pup my MIL adopted. I'd love to tell you her name, but my MIL hasn't picked one yet. But in classic MIL daily dose of crazy style, she's tried out the very bad Dog names of Sheelah, Tala, and Zonta. The last two are native american names. While I approve of my MIL wanting to include some form of her native american heritage, there is no way that I am calling a dog in that's named Zonta (pronounced "Zone-tah").

If you dig for 15 minutes and find a car....you might be a Long Islander!

Remember when a "Snow day" meant sledding until you were frozen solid, and coming in to Mom's warm Hot Chocolate made with real milk. Now it's shovel until your back breaks, and come in and empty the dishwasher. Hang on to your youth kids...you can never get it back.

If it wasn't for our Neighbor Jim and his snowblower who managed to outline the cars and cleared a parking space for them, I think we'd still be shoveling.

I guess we got our White Christmas!

A Retired Geek

2009-12-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

Head over to "The Daily Dose of Geek" to see an image of me in 40 years!

Good Idea, Bad Idea DDOC

2009-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Good Idea: Adopting a dog

Bad Idea: Adopting a dog from a stupid online dog foster care system that has to come inspect your house. This wouldn't be so bad if you actually had time to do it. However my mother-in-law who chose this path is having a invasive medical procedure this week, which means the dog clean-up responsibility falls to my wife and I. My wife still has finals and I could care less about my MIL's current DDOC (Daily dose of crazy).

The best part is that my MIL doesn't see any of the situation outside her own circumstance. As she left for work today, she asked my wife what she'll be doing today.

My wife replied:"I'm finishing up christmas shopping, studying for my math final, and finishing up my thesis.

Translation :I have a very full day mom.

MIL response: That's great, could you clean up around the house and mow the lawn too for the dog inspection people, k thanks.

COME ON MOVING DAY, Y'ALL CAN'T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH!

The Daily Dose of Geek launched!

2009-12-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hi all, I'd like to make an announcement.

I have launched the blog "The Daily Dose of Geek", as I felt my current blog lacked focus and I've been feeling melancholy towards writing for it. So I've decided that I'll make this my personal blog, and post all my geekie everyday stuff that seems a little out of place here on "The Daily Dose of Geek". That's not to say that I won't have posts that cross over, but just that they're will be exclusive content to both. I hope you'll subscribe to my new blog!

Music for my monday

2009-12-07T21:13:00.001-08:00

This is my favorite instrumental version of Carol of the bells which is one of my all time favorite Christmas carols. It's syched to LED lights, so this whole display is using very little energy. I so want to do this to my house one day.

Year in review: my favorite thoughts

2009-12-03T11:03:00.001-08:00

Ok, I know I'm a little late on this one, but here goes. I didn't write this, but an old friend of mine from college did. It was on her away message for a while, and it helped me through a difficult time in my love life. Since someone I know looks like they might be heading for a rough patch themselves soon, I thought it would be appropriate.

To every beginning there is an end. And to every end
there is a beginning. But this concept is easily
forgotten. You know the feeling when you feel like
things can’t get any worse, and then they do? When
people are afraid of heights, they avoid going to high
places. And no one is going to go on a plane that they
know crashes 9 out of 10 times, unless you’re trying
to die that is. And everyone says that there is
nothing that hurts more than a broken heart. So then
you have to wonder. Why do people set themselves up in
relationships, when 9 out of 10 times they fail? Why
are people willing to take that risk, which 9 out of
10 times hurts them more than anything else? The
answer is, that being in love, and feeling the sense
of satisfaction that you get when you’re with the
person you love is surpassed by none. People are
willing to do things they never thought possible.

Is love a primal instinct? At the core of every
person, there is a need to love and to be loved. And
that is the one thing people say that they need to
complete themselves as a person. When they’re not in a
relationship, they feel an “emptiness.” And when they
are in a relationship, they feel “fulfilled.” People
were ready to fight to death over love. And today,
some people still are. Love, at the most pure state,
is simple. Just to love and be loved is totally
primal. It’s all the romance of a relationship that
makes it seem more “evolved.” It’s what society has
told us what love should be, and what you should do
for love. We still have the same instincts, protect
the one you love and be with the one you love. But
somehow, love got a lot more complicated.

What is romance? I suppose that’s up to the person.
Everyone has his or her own definition of romance. I
tend to think I’m an old-fashioned romantic. I go for
the flower thing and the romantic dinner and just
everything being “perfect.” And no matter what you’re
idea of romance is, you always want it to be perfect.
And sometimes, you’ll actually have times where things
seem perfect. People put such a heavy meaning into
perfection, and for some people, it can be the
simplest things. A sincere moment when someone says,
“I love you,” when the world seems to stand still, and
everything seems to be right, that can be perfection.
Just looking out at the stars with someone you love
can be considered perfection. Even a simple kiss can
be considered perfection. People tend to think that
perfection is a very elaborate process, when
sometimes, it can be the simplest things.

What is love? I believe that there are many different
types of love, one that you feel for your significant
other, another that you feel for your family, and
another that you feel for your friends. Each one of
these are different in many ways, but the one thing
that never changes is the amount of love you feel for
them. You love them all with all your heart, and
although it may be a bit different in each situation,
love really can’t be measured. To love someone is
going beyond the realms of like, and goes beyond
caring for someone. You can’t love one person more
than another; you can just love them differently.
Because when it comes to love, there is no “more.”
Just like you can’t place a value on love, you can’t
place an amount on it either. Love is when you feel
blissfully happy with this person. When there is no
other that makes you as happy. And when there is no
one that you would rather be with.

How does love happen? There is no set time and place
that love will “happen.” Sometimes it happens at the
most unexpected times. A look, a smile, even a
friendly nod can make you fall in love. And for those
of you more skeptical, a meaningful conversation, a
wonderful kiss, or a simple goodbye can make you
realize your feelings. But when one of those things
happen, and you look back at it, didn’t your
friendship with this person start with a look, a
smile, or a friendly nod? They say good-byes make
people realize feelings they had for someone. And a
lot of times, you don’t even realize you’re in love
until something or someone makes you realize it. If
love was predictable, don’t you think a lot more
people would be with “that one” by now? But it’s the
unexpected that makes love even more exciting. And
when you realize you’re in love with someone, things
seem so much different. The way you talked to that
person or carry yourself. Even if you were best
friends with this person since kindergarten, feel
absolutely comfortable with this person, as soon as
you realize you love that person, and I mean real
romantic love, all of the sudden, things seem so
different. And sometimes it’s the person you least
expect that turns out to be the love of your life. Or
perhaps, the person that you are best friends with
turns out to be the one.

What have I learned? I learned to never take love for
granted. Because love is what makes life worthwhile.
You know you have a good friend when you can say, “I
love you” to a girl or guy, and they can say it back
to you, no hesitation. Those are the people that will
be with you for life, whether or not they’re
physically with you. Love is something that can’t be
described with words, but you can’t deny it when it
happens. You know you love someone when the mere
thought of the person can make you smile. Not even an
event or memory, just the thought of that person. Love
isn’t always a romantic emotion, and sometimes it’s
the ones that don’t start out that way that are the
ones that last. And usually you have a lot more fun
with that person when it turns out like that. I
learned to be careful, because love is like fire, it
can do wonderful things, but it can also burn you.
Keep love close to your heart, because there are many
things that influence what you think at the time, but
if you believe in the love, don’t lose faith in it.
Don’t give up. Because you may realize you made a
mistake once it’s gone, but then it may be too late.

So, to clear up my first two sentences of this paper,
with every beginning of a relationship, there will be
an end. It is inevitable. Even if the end comes with
death. Although, looking at things the way I am now,
I’m not sure if I agree with it. Because can death
really stop love? Maybe not. Maybe it isn’t a
forgotten concept. Maybe it’s a disproved concept. But
as for the second half, with every end there is a
beginning. That I believe. Because really, there is no
end. There is no end to love, to true love. It’s the
end of things in your life that become new beginnings,
and start new things. True love is a rare thing, but
it’s there if you believe in it. And if there is
anything to believe in, it would be love.

Year in Review: My favorite what about me post

2009-12-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

This is a post that I loved writing. I got to remember my grandfather, and the joy we shared together. For that experience, I chose it as my what about me post of the year.

Year: 1988
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

Prologue: In my extended family there was one person with whom I shared a kindred spirit with. It was my Grandpa on my Mother's side. He loved gadgets, gizmos, and toys of all kinds. The more I become an adult, the more I see the similarities in us. After working for 30 years as a computer salesman for IBM during a time when Computers were the size of refrigerators, he opened 5 video stores in Raleigh, and ran them with my Grandma until Blockbuster bought them out. I recently heard the Taylor Swift song "Best Day", about how her mother could make any day a best day. That reminded me of one of the best days of my childhood.

In the early morning of a warm spring day, I was getting dressed for my day with Grandpa. My parents and new baby sister had come down for an easter visit in late april. So there I was, almost 8 years old, and looking no bigger then 6. I was about 40-45 pounds, and always moving. It was no fun if you stood still all the time. That's what grown-ups did, and it was BORING! So I pulled on my jeans, they were my new jeans that mom had brought down to look nice for Grandma and Grandpa. They were the only jeans I had with me though, so on they went. I put on my G.I. Joe T-shirt with a picture of Sgt. Slaughter in his Slaughter mobile with explosions going on all around it. The rest of the shirt was a camo design with bright orange stripes around the collar and the end of the sleeves. I wore a baseball cap that was far too big for me even on the smallest setting. That didn't matter though, cause today It was going to be just me and Grandpa. No mom fussing over me, no Dad telling me to behave, and especially no whiny little baby sister to take the attention away or start crying cause someone sneezed or something. No, today was just us, and we were going FISHING!

Grandpa had taken me fishing the year before, and we had caught snapper fish. So after I got myself dressed I ran through the halls of my Grandparents one story ranch home as fast as I could. I didn't need to run that fast, it was just more fun that way. I arrived in the kitchen and declared that I was ready to go. Grandma and Mom were packing our lunch. I think Dad was trying to get Sis to eat some baby mush. She was having none of it though, always the pickiest eater. Grandpa came walking out in his short sleeved button up shirt, glasses case and cigarettes in the shirt pocket, light blue shorts that came up way past his knees, and a fishing baseball cap wore the same way my dad wears them. The brim just touching the top of his head so it looks like his head extends upwards 3-4 inches. I had learned not to question the fashion choices of Grown-ups through my Mom's constant lectures, still...Grandpa dressed so weird.

After the goodbyes, it was out to the garage to pick out the poles. My Grandpa's garage was a pretty cool place. He had a stuffed Sailfish mounted on the wall that i would always ask how he'd caught it. A story which he was always happy to share. He had posters that had all the freshwater and saltwater fish in and around North Carolina. His tool bench in the back had any spare part you could imagine, along with his 3-4 RC cars that he maintained. And towards the end of the garage were 20-30 fishing poles. I chose the blue and black pole with the felt handle that had a thin red line going around it. My grandpa picked a thicker pole with cork handle. We left the oil smell of the garage for the sweet air of North Carolina. That always was fasinating to me about NC. The air just smelled better then NY, and the roads were a LOT cleaner too. It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen up until that point of my life.

Before leaving, we posed for my mom to take a picture, a picture that would end up in my wedding montage 20 years later cause of how much it meant to me. Then we were off with my Mom's final warning of "Try not to get too dirty". Totally ignoring her, I ran to the door of my Grandpa's silver Chrysler Fifth Avenue. This car was really cool. It had deep blue felt seats like a couch, but the coolest thing about it was that it TALKED to you. It would tell you in a polite woman's voice who sounded alot like my first Grade teacher whether the door was open, or the seat belt needed to be fastened, and even tell you when to get Maintenence...whatever that was. For this reason alone, this was viewed by me as a Magic car, like KITT on Knight Rider.

"Riley! Not that one, we're going in the Station Wagon today." Needless to say that the wood paneled station wagon that my grandpa had as his second car was not magical at all, more like an oven on wheels in which the A/C barely worked. But it was still a day with Grandpa, so after a fraction of a second of dissapointment, I run over to that car. We put the poles in the back, and head off. A quick stop at the live bait shop where my Grandpa proudly introduced me to everyone, he bragged about how i was in all advance classes at school, and I saw all kinds of squishy slimy animals used as bait...mostly worms. back in the car, and we were off to the same place we had gone the last time. It was a small pond off a larger lake. You could park your cars at the bottom of a very small yet steep hill, and after a 20 foot climb, there was a little grass covered bank where you could fish off of. It was a great spot, extremely quiet, the fish were always there, and the sun wasn't in your eyes until the beautiful sunset at the end of the day. I couldn't wait to see it again.

Well it turns out that I would have to wait another 2 years to see it again, cause it was closed by the parks authority that day for some unknown reason. But to my Grandpa, this was just a minor inconvinience. Cause he had another spot, a better spot! How could there be a better spot...I mean it was just impossible, but a half hour drive later I was proven wrong. This spot was very different then the other one. We parked the car at the end of a road, and started walking into the woods. Through a bunch of tall long grass that went over my 3 foot head at the time, and then we were there. It was a little hidden away beach. Totally devoid of anything, just a bare strip of sand on the side of the lake, and it was all ours! WOW! My Grandpa is so cool. How did he find this place, he must be really smart.

But there was no time to ask how my grandpa knew about this alcove of tranquility, cause it was time to get fishing. We were fishing for bottom feeders, so right above the bait, we attached sinkers. They were little weights shaped like fish. My Grandpa showed me how to cast again in case I'd forgotten....like I'd ever forget one the of the funnest things ever! I was a great caster, I got it really far in the lake, and Grandpa said that was good. I would sometimes let it go too early and it would go off to one side, but usually Grandpa would catch it with his back before it went in the water. He'd make funny noises and sometimes say bad words when he "caught" it, but it would only happen a few times before Grandpa would want to try a different location. The different location always seemed to be further away from me for some odd reason, but I was always to stay where I was lest the fish come back over to that side once Grandpa started fishing a little further down. I didn't want to let him down, so I listened.

The day past, and we had our lunch, Grandpa asked me about school, and friends that I had. How I felt about being a Big brother now, and what that meant. Apparently I had to look out for my sister, and protect her. As far as I was concerned, the only thing I had to look out for regarding my sister was projectile vomit, course I had learned that you didn't say such things out loud to grown-ups. That was always one of my Mom's louder lectures, and one which she would repeat every year or so, when I'd forget the lesson momentarily in some public venue. My grandpa caught 4-5 fish that day, and I had caught only 1. Not only that, but it was the smallest of the lot, which was just insult to injury as far as I was concerned. However the catch of the day came just before it was time to leave. My Grandpa had got one, but suddenly he called out "Riley, Riley! This one is too much for me, I'm going to need your help!"

GRANDPA WAS IN TROUBLE! I reeled in my line and ran to my grandfather's aid as fast as my little legs could carry me. He told me to help him by grabbing the pole, and holding it. This was a BIG fish, I could feel it pulling, and could see how Grandpa had been having trouble with it. Good thing I was there!

"Riley, think you can hold it while I get the net?"

"Sure...No problem" I replied, and summoning all my 7 years of strength I steeled myself. I would not let go of that pole, I would not let this fish get away. My Grandfather let go of the pole, and I felt the full force of the beast. I put up a valiant struggle for about...2 seconds before falling face first into the Carolina mud, and being dragged five feet before I managed to stop myself. But...I still was holding onto the pole. I would NOT let it go, the fish would NOT win! Realizing that the beast was too strong for me, I locked the fishing pole, the mechanism that stopped the reel from spinning snapped into place and the sturdy cork pole started to pull and bend. But I was bigger, and I was stronger, and I pulled and yanked on that pole, I pulled it and myself out of the mud, past my very relieved Grandfather who offered help, but I just muttered "I got it I got it." and 20 feet back onto the beach till I dragged the fish itself out of the water. There it was the gargatuan beast that had tried to drown me...a 9 pound catfish.

My grandfather congratulated me on a well fought catch, and only then did I realize that my once white sneakers,my new jeans, and brightly colored G.I Joe Shirt were now caked with about a half inch thick coating of light orange North Carolina clay. My first thought...."My mom's gonna kill me!"

Epilogue: Well my mother didn't kill me, but did have quite the kiniption fit upon the sight of me. I was immediately quarantined, showered and changed. I remember as my Mom scrubbed me, i was so afraid that I would never be allowed fishing again, that I made up some cockamamie story about my Grandpa taking me hang gliding and landing in the mud. My mom was probably just tired from the day she had, cause somehow she seemed to buy it, even though looking back, she knew exactly where we were going. Maybe she just let that one slide...
The best thing about the shower was that I missed having to clean the fish, and just got to eat them at the end of the day. Looking back now 20 years later, I have many memories of my Grandfather. His collection of Go-bots that was bigger then mine. His cool antique Generation 1 transformer toys that he left me when he past away in 1998. His closet full of betamax tapes from his video stores. Watching the Johnny Carson tonight show videos with him after Johnny Carson retired. But none stick out more then that fishing day. It was just...the best day.

I love you Grandpa, you are missed.

Year in review: my favorite toons post

2009-12-01T11:43:00.001-08:00

My ultimate favorite tv show opening of all time Seriously, at 28 years old I can recite this on request, but I can't remember any of my calculus from college, lol. BONUS: He-man's twin sister She-Ra!

Year in review: my favorite musical post

2009-11-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

Interestingly enough, this post is also the top comment getter of the year. Enjoy!

Describing to people how I feel about my wife is hard sometimes. Not because I can't find the words, but because I am so fortunate to have found the one person who fits me so completely that even I can't believe it sometimes, well...let's just say I tend to ramble on a bit. I mean this is the woman who let me love again. The woman I can sing and dance in front of. The person I can't wait to come home to at night, and who I can't sleep without. We help each other through the hard times, and laugh together through the good ones. I literally never thought I'd be so lucky. So I thought I'd share some videos with you that kinda expressed that kind of feeling that I have for the wonderful woman in my life. Here is our song "Bless the broken road" by Rascal Flatts: The road was immensely long and bumpy, but looking back, man was it all worth it. Keep in mind before I post this next one that I loathe basically all reality tv including american idol. But I saw Carrie Underwood sing this in her penultimate episode on the show, and only a few weeks later, I knew exactly what she was singing about when I met my wife. This song we selected for the montage of our wedding video: Yeah Yeah, another idol song I know......I have no excuse, just a fabulous song And finally the song that I can't get out of my head this week "Can I have this dance" from High School Musical 3 (Yeah, we saw this one too, and the bigger budget did help the production, and it was still all wholesome and good.) And this is just the beginning...:)

Happy Blogiversary to me

2009-11-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

1 year ago this week I started three blogs. While 2 of them have been merged into this blog, the fact remains that their spirit is all alive and well.

I am so very thankful for the wonderful friends I have made through my blog, and the help it has provided over this past year to share with people the wackiness, tribulations, and triumphs in my life. Thank you all for making this blog the moderate success that it is.

I will be celebrating my one year blogiversary by reposting my favorite posts from the past year under the title "Year in Review". These will start being posted next week, as I am on vacation this week from pretty much everything, and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.

I would like to wish all of you a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving, and I'll see you next week.

Music for my monday

2009-11-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

Since this week off is the closest I'll come to a christmas vacation, I decided to put this up for today's Music for monday

Favorites for my friday

2009-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

My favorite moment today will be at 4 pm today when I zip out of the parking lot at my job and even though I'm going to my friend's mother's wake...after that I'm heading off to a week...a SOLID WEEK OFF.

That's one week where I can:

Play WoW

Play WoW with my wife

Celebrate this Blog's one year Blogiversary on tuesday.

Have a great thanksgiving

Have my family swoon over my wife's chocolate cream pie recipe that she came up with last week

Start listening to Christmas music, which I love, and decorating my house for Christmas

It will be a glorious week

thoughts for thursday

2009-11-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale... if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world... somebody lied.

Peter Parker, Spider-man

That about sums up my feelings over the last two days. For while I have a wonderful wife, and a relatively happy and peaceful home life (when the MIL is not around anyway). My work life, and just life in general seems to be perpetually stuck in adolescence. Bullies waiting to pounce. Jerks running the show. And then there's me, the nice guy just trying to make his way, but apparently this cannot stand. Not without the two previous parties trying their best to drag and pound me down until I end up in tears on the way home.

Yes, I'm a 6'3", almost 300 pounds man reduced to tears, because my coworkers treat me like dogshit and there is nothing I can do about it. My only solace...I only have 5 more months here. Only 5 more months...*sigh*

Good Idea, Bad Idea

2009-11-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

Good Idea: Getting a dog

Bad Idea: Getting a purebred pitbull on a whim, bringing it home where it almost eats all your cats.

You see, my MIL got it into her head last thursday that in addition to getting engaged in possibly a Guiness world record amount of time, she would get a dog. Despite being the champion of the "I will never get a big dog again" argument for the last two years, she inexplicably came home with a flyer, and said she was going to bring the dog home this past weekend for a trial period. Last Thursday and Friday my wife and I were just floored. I mean what was next, a clown car driving up the driveway, was Ashton Kutcher going to hop out and say "You've been punkd!". It was literally our daily dose of crazy.

So the dog comes home, and then leaves within an hour. Apparently, pit bulls like small prey animals...like cats. While Chance (the pit bull's ironic name) could have cared less about our dog Bon Bon, she was so fixated on trying to eat the cats, that she broke her cage trying to get out. Needless to say that Chance went back almost immediately to the man who'd owned her previously. I was so relieved when that dog left, you have no idea. Interesting Saturday though.

In this case interesting is defined as

4 freak outs

3 panic attacks

2 tired loveys

and 1 crazy cat eating dog !

On of the cutest things ever...

2009-11-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

I asked my wife what she wanted for 4 hard years of work that are rapidly coming to a close. Her response was simple. For graduation she wanted her own World of Warcraft account. My wife loved playing Dungeons and Dragons with me, and she's missed it ever since we stopped playing. Since WoW is about as close as you can get without actually playing, she couldn't wait. So during our trip to Target which turned from a "quick trip" to a 200 dollar stock up for the holidays trip (sigh), I picked up the World of Warcraft disk, since her big assignments are over as of this coming Wednesday. So I bought it, and put it in a bag on the side of my desk. Then of course fate intervenes. I learn after logging in that my Guild is capping membership soon. Now I've been assured before that my wife was an exception, and would get in no matter what, but people were talking in vent about how exceptions shouldn't be given, etc etc. So in an effort to not have my wife be "an exception" we signed her up last night.

After she finished her lesson plan for today, we made her characters. She named them Ruubey, Saapphire, and Diiamond. This was in reference to my main character's name being Rhokk. Her logic?..."These are pretty Rocks"

She started on Ruubey who is a warrior, and me playing my Shaman. I showed her how to quest, and she learned very quickly. Soon I was asked to join a RAID with the guild on a dungeon, so I went to that and she made ravioli for dinner. After dinner I was still in the Raid, and she went back on Ruubey. During a break, I went over and asked her what she was up to. She responded with what I think is possibly the cutest thing ever.

"I'm fishing and picking vines"

"Why's that's?" i said

And with absolute sincerity she turned to me and said "Because their ship crashed, and they are hungry darling. They need fish, and I'm helping them."

I didn't know whether to crack up or be thankful that this is my wife for the umpteenth thousand time. I think I ended up hugging her while laughing.

Anyway, so that was my Sunday

Blogger having issues

2009-11-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else had this problem?

I usually log into blogger through my gmail, but the last three days it's been saying "Page not found" and not been loading. I got through today by going in the back way (aka typing my blog address directly, and getting to the dashboard through my profile).

Is anyone having this issue cause it's happening on my home and work computer.

Also, welcome to my new followers.

Thoughts for thursday 2

2009-11-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

My wife just told me that "Finding you was better then winning the lottery!"

This is in response to her mother's horrible luck and experiences with men in which I glow in comparison.

I love you too sweetie

They don't make TV like this anymore

2009-11-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

My wife and I are not a fan of "Reality TV", with the exception of The Amazing Race, and so find our viewing choices limited to...

How I met your mother

Two and a half men

Big Bang Theory

House

The Office

I watch in addition to this

Fringe

Heros (so far behind)

The Vampire Diaries

Smallville

So most nights, and especially during the summer months we find ourselves wanting for more Quality entertainment. While we were dating, we started watching the old "Friends" seasons. Unlike me, my wife has not memorized the script to most of these shows, and watching them with her is so refreshing. I love hearing her laugh at the punchline. It's so genuine, and the shows are all so superbly written that they are enjoyable over and over again.

Like I said, the first series we watched together was Friends. Friends is by far my favorite sitcom of all time. I related to those characters better then any other, and even though I've seen them over and over in sindication I still laugh more at this show then any other.

While we were engaged I started collecting the old Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) DVDs. Well, my wife wanted to try it out, so I put in the first episode "Encounter at Farpoint". By the end of the episode, my wife was hooked, and we proceeded to watch the rest of the series. TNG is still mine and my wife's favorite incarnation of Star Trek, and I'm sure we'll come back to it again one day.

We started Deep Space 9 (DS9) right after TNG. It's very different from it's predecessor, and while enjoyable, it didn't capture my wife and I like TNG did. We're currently in Season 5 of this. While I'm sure that we will finish the series and maybe even start Star Trek Voyager one day, these are long term plans.

After about a year of Star Trek, we were Sci-fied out, and turned towards the more mystical "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" for our nightly entertainment. For such a dorky initial concept, the show is terrifically written, and the characters truly endearing. We stalled out around season 5, just too much Buffy too fast I think, plus that's when the shows were more "meh" the pure gold every time.

After spaceships and vampires, where do you go? Why where everybody knows your name of course...or the sequel (and better written) series to cheers anyway, Frasier. Like Friends, the characters in Frasier captured something inside all of us that while not exactly like the opera going sherry swiling radio psychiatrist, spoke to us on a more relatable level. Niles is by far my wife's as well as my favorite character on the show, and the Daphne/Niles relationship that evolves over the course of the series is the best part over the course of the series. We just finished Fraiser last night, and we've decided to head back out to the east coast for the show that some say will forever define the 90's

I'm sure that it'll be a hoot!

So, while my wife and I head into the realm of Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George, maybe you'd want to visit with one of your old tv favs.

Thoughts for thursday

2009-11-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

"Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him"

Obi-wan kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

Exoskeleton gives Super strength

2009-11-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

Check out this cool video over at gizmodo.com about an exoskeleton that can give humans super carrying ability!

Happy Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish a Happy Veteran's Day to all the men and women who serve and protect our country.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Toons for tuesday

2009-11-10T09:57:00.002-08:00

A funny Dilbert Video for today...

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=fc83e8ee-d393-497e-a823-6bb0521cf817

Music for my Monday

2009-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I was 9 years old when I first joined chorus in my elementary school. I had always loved singing, and it was a natural fit. I had a good voice, and could project it very well. I stayed with chorus all the way through college, and was even picked to sing in the "Select chorus" which had all the best kids in the state sing one year.

Through my chorus years, many songs that i sang found there way into my heart.

The Halleluia Chorus from Handel's messiah, one of my favorite Christmas songs, I learned in Chorus.

Carol of the bells, which is my favorite christmas song of all time.

I learned the song that I used to help my nieces go to bed "The yellow rose of texas"

But the first song I learned that truly affected my life was "Point of life" by Randy Travis. It was the first song i learned in 4th grade, and to this day it's still one of my favorites.

There is a point when you can not walk away.
When you have to stand up straight and tall and mean the words you say.
There is a point you must decide just to do it because it's right.
That's when you become a point of light.

There is a darkness which everyone must face.
It wants to take what's good and fair and turn it all to waste,
And this darkness covers everything in sight - until it meets a
single point of light.

Refrain:

All it takes is a point of light.
A ray of hope in the darkest night.
If you see what's wrong, and you try
and make it right, you will be a point of light.

There are heroes whose names we'll never hear.
A dedicated army of quiet Volunteers.

Reaching out to help the homeless.
Reaching out to save the land.
Reaching out to help their fellow man.

There are dreamers who are making
dreams come true.
Taking time to to teach the children
that there's nothing they can't do.
Reach out to help the hungry.
Reaching out to those without.
Isn't that what this land's all about?

Repeat refrain above and then sing:

If you see what's wrong and you try
and make it right, you will be a point
of light.

I was bullied as a kid, and this song helped me stand up and be a good person when it felt like the entire 4th grade was against me. I knew I wanted to be a point of light, and i guess it helped me to know that I wasn't alone in the fight.

Go west young couple

2009-11-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

A while ago I saw the movie "Away we go". It's a very charming story about a young married couple who (ironically) through a selfish act by parents are forced to relocate to a new place. So they scour the country looking near all their friends and relatives for the best place to settle down. It was a fun little trip to the movies...little did I know I'd be living that same situation not 3 months later.

Last week, my mother-in-law's (MIL) boyfriend came for a visit, and as you know from my Friday post that she got engaged. She's also decided to sell her house, which means that early next year, we're have to move.

Surprisingly it took me about a week to realize that through a selfish (and insane) act by a parent, my wife and I were now in the same boat. So...we did the same thing. We looked at all the possible places where we had connections aka friends or family that we could move to. That broke down into the following list.

1)Long Island

2)Upstate NY

3)Florida

4)Colorado

Choice Number 1: Stay and get an apartment on Long Island

Since I have my job here this was a serious consideration. The problem is that the Teaching market for my almost graduated wife is slim pickings, especially since we heard retired teachers are now subbing instead of letting new graduates get their foot in the doors. While my Salary is the best I've had I don't see a future in this company where my pay will allow me to buy a home or have children in NY without serious financial hardship and struggle. LI has the second highest utilities in the entire country, the median home price is 6 times what I make annually right now. I can't see making a life here where we won't be struggling constantly with both of us working just to keep our heads above water. My job and to a slighter extent my parents are the only reasons to stay here...and I don't think that staying somewhere for a job that can't support you long term is just a bad idea.

Choice Number 2: Upstate NY

This had it's appeal. It was close enough to my parents and my wife's father to be accessible for holidays. Much cheaper then Long Island. Hawk and Dove are up there already doing very well in both the elementary and high school. This creates an immediate "in" for my wife as they love Long Island teachers there. However, there are no tech opportunities in the area. This leaves me with no job opportunities other then going back to waiting tables, which I'd prefer not to do.

Choice 3: Florida

If you remember back to about 10 months back, we said that we were going to be Floridians and live with my best friend and his family. We had wanted to do this very much, but my friends luck took a turn for the worst. He just found a job after a year out of work, but he moved out of his house and into his in-laws house. He's also joining the national guard in February and will be gone for 6 months. The entire economic outlook to Florida can be summed up as "Abandon State, Abandon State!" House prices may in a pitfall, but so is the employment rate. We were leaning towards Florida when we had a home base to go to until we could set up camp till we found jobs. Now that our only friends in the state are in financial troubles themselves, we can't see moving down there blind.

Choice 4: Colorado

Now, this wasn't even a choice up until August. Maybe it was the warm weather or the warm welcoming extended family that accepted me as their own. Maybe it was the affordable home and apartment prices. Maybe it was the 4-5 relatives employed and networked through half the tech companies in Denver, but whatever it was the august trip put Colorado on the map as a place where we could settle. Judging by the other choices, this one seemed really good. My wife has scads of family on both sides out there. I've become great friends with her cousin through playing WoW, and her extended family seems to think that I am the greatest thing since sliced bread ever since they saw the Montage I made for them. The clincher though was the offer of family to "put us up" while we got settled, and the fact that a 2 bedroom apt out there is 650 dollars a month, utilities included. That's almost a third of what it is on Long island.

So we ran the numbers and made a decision. Come early next year, we'll switch being forty minutes away from this:

To being 40 minutes away from this:

For better or worse.

Weekend of WoW

2009-11-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

So, this weekend I finally achieve lvl 80 after 7 weeks of playing WoW. The above pic is the screenshot that I took at the exact moment I hit 80. It's been a long journey, and the last 20 levels were very long. I learned a lot about the game though, and I'm ready to enjoy my new post-80 endgame content for a while.

Before I do that though, I'd like to introduce all my blog readers to my WoW characters. Each one is based off of a Dungeons and Dragons character that i made at some point, and I'd like to share them with you. The first is the char that I just got to 80...Rhokk.

This was Rhokk at about lvl 10, notice his mostly pajama clad self. As you see, he didn't start life named Rhokk. At this point he was named Tankkor. I figured it would be a fun name for a Tanking (Boss distracting player position in Raids) druid. However when I joined my guild, the word Tank kept being use in chat. Stuff like "Who's Tanking, you're tanking, I'm tanking, That tank was horrible" etc etc. This became very confusing for me as you can imagine, so I renamed the char to Rhokk, cause as a tank he'd be "Like a Rock"...yeah it's corny, but I like corn. So why did I choose a druid as my main character? Well, I've always been drawn towards the shapeshifting aspect of the supernatural. Werewolves and such have always been my favorite over vampires and demons. Plus, having not known the game, a Druid is a hybrid class that is viable in all three roles that you can be in the game.

Tank: You draw the enemy to you, and can take alot of dmg

DPS or Damage per second: Whether Melee or Ranged, these types of chars assault the enemies that the tank attracts. They actually do the killing, but if the tank wasn't there they wouldn't survive.

Heals: These characters (mostly priests and restoration druids) heal the rest of the raid party, generally focusing on the tank. Also they bring people back to life should someone die.

Since I didn't know what I wanted to be, I figured picking a class that could do anything was a good idea. Eventually I decided to be a duel spec Tank/Heals. This means that with a quick change of gear, and a switching of my abilities I can go from a tanking bear form:

To a tree of life healer (looks like a weird little ent), and heal a raid. These are the two most requested specs cause there are literally dozens of different DPS combinations across all the classes. So DPS are easy to find, but every group needs a good Tank or a good healer.

This is Rhokk at lvl 80

Slightly more impressive...wouldn't you say.

My other characters are still in the works, but they will all be 80 before I'm finished with this game.

Soveiliss is my priest. While I was waiting to play Rhokk with my cousin, I started a second character. Now I didn't know it at the time, but the priest is the hardest class in the game to level solo. Mainly because the only protection they have from monsters is the shield that he's casting in the picture. It absorbs a certain amount of damage. When it falls, your enemy better be dead or the shield recast within 2 seconds or your cloth (lowest grade of armor) only wearing priest is toast (died so many times with him). Sov is a shadow priest just like he was in DnD. Somehow it tickles me to see a character that is suppose to be all holy and good using "evil" shadow spells. While Sov may be a Holy (heal specced) priest one day, shadow is really the only way to lvl a priest solo, since the Discipline and Holy trees don't provide enough damage to lvl effectively. Sov is currently lvl 44, and will be lvl 60 by the end of this month.

This is AgnosticPally or AP for short casting Consecrate on the ground around him(looks neat huh). It's a name I used in Diablo2 a while back, and it always got a reaction from people. I just love the contradiction of a paladin getting his power from an entity he's not sure of. Just funny to me I guess, :). AP is a Retribution paladin, currently the strongest DPS spec in the game. Paladin's in general are the strongest class in the game right now. They are great tanks, strongest DPS, and can heal too. Everybody is waiting for Blizzard to nerf (weaken) them a bit to bring the other classes back into balance with the pallys, but in the meantime pallys rule! i only level AP with my best friend Darque. So he's leveling slower then my other Chars. He's currently 35, and I predict 60 by feb, and 80 sometime next summer perhaps.

This is Glarion my Hunter. A hunter is a Ranged DPS class, and the only class in the game that uses a Bow or Gun. Another cool aspect of the class is that you can tame pets. In the pic is my pet bear "Smoky" (Honestly, what else would you name a bear). Since I'm a ranged class, I don't want the enemies to come close to me, and Smoky fulfills the "Tank" role to distract the enemies while I mow them down with my bow. I plan on getting a Cat or a Wolf to switch out to while I'm questing with my Pally friend from work to up my damage while the paladin tanks. I plan to level him to 60 by December, and probably 80 in Jan or Feb. He is a very fun class to play, and will be my ranged DPS lvl 80 for sure.

This is my lvl 1 Warlock SkeletorOmega. The name stems from the He-man villian skeletor which is the first thing that comes to mind when I think evil spellcaster. He will be leveling with my wife's priest when she makes her in December.

This is my Shaman AlphaPrimus. He's a lvl 1 right now, and will be healing my wife's warrior in december. I chose a Shaman, because it is the secondary hybrid class in the game and could adapt to compliment whatever class my wife picked. He'll be leveling quickly through December, and be 80 probably by the end of Feb.

Shh...be very very quiet. if you look closely you can see Scosh, my gnome Rogue. He's currently lvl 9, and is teamed up with my friend from work's Warlock. Rogue's are good dmg dealers cause they can Stealth (the transparent ability you see in the photo) behind the enemies and backstab them. Scosh got his name because when I created him in Dungeons and Dragons he grew up in the circus. he always wanted to be the strongman, but his mom always said that he was just a scosh too small. The nickname stuck. So when I made a gnome Rogue in WoW, I couldn't think of a better name then to let Scosh live again, :)

Finally we come to my next Solo project. When I'm not running with my friends, my wife, or gearing up my 80, I'll be leveling my Death Knight RhokkFallen. He's basically a what if scenario of what if Rhokk wasn't a noble druid and instead turned evil and served the Lich King. Death Knights were really overpowered when they first arrived on the scene with the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion, but have been nerfed back into balance in recent patches to the game. Their rune enchants (the glowing aura around my sword) look awesome onscreen, and so do the acrobatic moves they pull off. I thing the class if just fun to play, and he'll be my next lvl 80 project. He's lvl 57 now, and I hope to have him to 60 by the end of the week.

I'm sure the appeal of the class has nothing to do with the fact that mounted he looks like a Dark Rider from Lord of the rings, lol

So while I reached my goal of getting to lvl 80 you'd think I's want to pull one of these:

But I have a lot more work(fun) to do in WoW, and I'm sure it'll be a blast.

Till next time!

A tribute to the nice guys

2009-10-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me by an old college friend years ago. It very much represents my life before my wife. I know there are other "nice guys" out there who might need a pick me up, so I am reposting it here.

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what ................ guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

I found my girl. But to all of the Nice Guys who haven't, I present this letter to let you know that it doesn't last forever...and you can have your happy ending just like me.

Thought 4 my Thursday

2009-10-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my mother-in-law, who's long distance boyfriend she's been talking to over the phone and has spent the past weekend with has decided that she has found the man of her dreams, and is now engaged to him.

Upon the announcement, my first thoughts were of a quote from the movie "Fight Club" where the twist in the plot is revealed.

"We have just lost cabin pressure"

Honestly I don't know what to think. I mean, the internal dating psychiatrist inside of me says that this is a rebound thing from her last a-hole of a fiancé which let's all remember was less then 6 months ago, but then again I got engaged at 5 months cause I just knew it was the right person...who am I to judge how or if she is truly in love. The part of the plan that actually effects my wife and I is that now we HAVE to move. This goes hand in hand with us WANTING to move out, but now there is a definite timeline (one year) which before was much more open ended. I hope it all works out for the best, and maybe it's just my realistic (not to be confused with pessimistic) nature...but why can I not see this as anything but something that is going to be either a big ordeal, a pain in the ass, or total fucking disaster. Ok, fine...maybe that last one is a little on the pessimistic side.

What about me wednesday

2009-10-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Well here goes:

The wife is writing her thesis and student teaching at the same time. She is very stressed, which leaves me the role of supportive husband, but it's not all that bad. Plus, I'm rather good at cheering her up.

WoW is going well, and I am on track to meet my goal of obtaining Level 80 by Halloween. There is an issue though. My best friend with whom we use to play Halo, and then I'd play Magic with almost nightly. Though he now plays WoW as well, due to his living arrangement he cannot play at night when I play because of WoW's vocal component. Well, since I now play WoW, and my wife is doing homework where we would normally play Halo...he's not too thrilled with the resulting lack of face time with us. This is understandable, but it's starting to become annoying. I have informed his that this situation is really only till Dec. 11th, when my wife finishes her semester. After that, we will be returning to our regularly scheduled activities (Cept Magic...I'm dropping that for a while). I just wish he'd show a little more understanding. This pestering along with a new friend from work who started WoW and needs help leveling, makes me sometimes want to say "Hey, could everyone just leave me alone till I reach 80, thanks!". I know I can't say that, and I know that it's unreasonable to want my life to stop for WoW, but when you are into a new game...well, sometimes you feel that way.

On the Weight front, well I haven't exercised since August...so how do you think it's going. But I'm going to start up again (my wife made me promise that after I hit lvl 80 I start exercising again).

Now, I would like to address you, my virtual reader base. What can I do to make this blog better. I know I've been a little lackadaisical with the posts lately, but other then WoW and my wife's college stuff, nothing much is going on. Should I redesign the interface? Write my opinion on some news stories? Should I stop writing about my life, and concentrate on something specific? Do you like when I talk about my gaming life? Should I chronicle my journey to get 10 lvl 80's of each class? I've tried writing about instances from my past, but those were the lowest comment responses in the blog's history so I stopped writing them. Should I bring back the movie reviews? I stopped them because they were a pain to write and usually a week or two behind the movie's release. Give me suggestions, ideas, or even criticism. I want this blog to be successful, but it seems to have hit a funk. I've also been pondering a name change to "The life of Riley", what do you guys think of that?

Music 4 my Monday

2009-10-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today's Music for Monday comes from the Disney film Hercules.

It's "I can go the distance". I chose it because it's a message that needs to be remembered in my house these days. My wife is halfway done with her last semester in college, and anyone who's taken college courses can tell you, this is the point where the work just starts to pile. I know she can finish strong, and will be there to help her however she needs every step of the way.

For myself...Well, I'm not doing anything as grand. I'm still trying to get to level 80 in World of Warcraft. It's frustrating though when the leveling slows down, and you don't know why, or you can't find anyone on your server thats not running lvl 80 content. It's a price you pay for coming into the game as late as I have. Most people have lvl 80's and are doing "heroic" and "endgame" content, which while being lvl 77 now I still cannot access. I should be on track now that I'm 77 to level a bit quicker as i start getting a taste of lvl 80 life now. I'm still hoping of completing my goal of level 80 by halloween. However, I don't think this is going to happen if I keep getting frustrated. So I listened to this song today to try and inspire me.

Favorites for Friday

2009-10-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

I love when this happens,

9:15-wake up late

9:25-leave house, dressed and clean shaven.

9:26-Curse incessantly as you realize you need gas

9:30-Drive by two gas stations fully loaded with patrons

9:40-Drive by last gas sttion on your way to work, and fill up with 4 gallons. This takes 2 precious minutes, and then you're off again.

9:42-10:05: Weave in and out of traffic at 65+ MPH, fly by a state trooper who apparently wasn't giving a shit this morning, arrive at work

10:10- Realize that no one knew you were late...and the volunteer job that you thought you were late for...didn't need you anyway. So here I am at work, with 7 hours to kill. Looks like I'll finally be able to finish my post for StarwarsEpics.com.

The morning was rough...but it worked out, here's hoping your Friday is as good as mine is turning out to be.

Thoughts for thursday

2009-10-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

My Mother in law is in a new relationship again. Now while she's gone on some dates, this one looks like it'll be for a while. The twist is that it's a long distance relationship, so his visit starting tomorrow will actually be the first time they are meeting face to face. While I wish the best for my MIL, I am not exactly jumping for joy over this.

The reason is that my MIL acts differently towards my wife and I when she's in a relationship. Any promises she makes to us, we cannot count on (like putting away the xmas decorations last year). Slowly but surely, we, her family and support system is faded out, and demoted in status to the new Boyfriend's wise sage advice. Also, if we start seeing bad signs that she doesn't, there is nothing that we can say or do to show it to her, as she will willingly put on blinders to stay in a relationship longer.

This reminds me of a quote from "Fools Rush In"

Jeff let me ask you a question:What the hell is dating anyway except some long drawn out process of elimination where you both try to present your best side while hiding the real you and that can only last about 3 months anyway because eventually it leaks out and then you have to spend the next 3 months getting to know your real selves and then one of you wants a commitmentthe other one wants to bail and then you have to start all over again. I mean dating...dating...dating is stupid. -Alex Whitman

This is how I view the great majority of dating. Mostly it's 90% bullshit at first. Now as many of you know I have a low bullshit tolerance level, which explains my utter distaste for dating, and utterly thankful that I found a wife who is bullshit free.

Example of bullshit: Cleaning the house before this guy comes over.

Now, we aren't talking just dusting and vacuuming. No, my MIL has literally redone almost every room in the house. Toilet's that had a slight running problem is now a semi-daily project. It is pandemonium, and WHY?! To create a standard of cleanliness and organization to create a first impression that can NEVER EVER be reproduced again. It's moronic, you are creating your own impossible standard. This level of cleanliness cannot and will not be maintained, clutter will accumulate, papers will stack on the counters, life will leave it's mark! I understand doing a little cleaning when a guest is coming. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. However, turning not only yours, but your daughter's and her husband's life upside down for a week for the sole sake of your first impression...that I don't understand, nor do I like it. Being the type of guy I am though, I could even forgive that, and i would help out if it wasn't for these few items.

A) When my friends came to visit from out of town, my MIL didn't help us clean the house (which was alot less cleaning then what she is doing), and she basically treated them with indifference, and on more then one occasion forbade them from the home so she could have a "night". This could be understood, if my wife and I weren't paying rent, but we do. As far as I'm concerned, that means that I can invite whoever I want over at anytime.

B) The "Cleaning of the rooms" generally involves removing any evidence that we live there.

Things like:

1) Removing any and all possessions from kitchen, living room, and dining room and tossing it into our too small space.

2)Piling up our still unopened wedding presents to precarious heights in the guest room, and then covering them with a sheet.

3)Not asking, but expecting us to help her clean. As if we had nothing better to do, and her BF's visit is anything more then a nuisance to us.

4) Making my wife feel stressed cause she's "not helping enough", when she has other much more important things, like I don't know FINISHING COLLEGE! to worry about. My wife does not need the extra stressor right now, but her mother doesn't seem to notice or care.

The entire "B' section just makes me feel so unwelcome in what is especially my own home. No, I don't own it, but without our rent, she couldn't afford to own it either.

So that's what I'm thinking about today.

Toons for tuesday

2009-10-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Guess that Toon (For the record, I did not write this, merely recycled it cause I thought it was hysterical):

I hate my job.

First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.

The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career oppertunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm not sure she even showers, much less shaves her "womanly" parts. I think she might be a lesbian, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.

But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the frakking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I'm sure after work. He probably hasn't been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he's only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960's, and to make things worse, he brings his big frakking dog to work. Every frakking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it's trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single frakking day.

Anyway, I drive these idiots around in my van and we solve mysteries and stuff.

Thoughts for thursday

2009-10-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

Now...as a geek who is very addicted to a new game, I'd like to know what the proper reaction is to this statement by my wife.

"Sweetie, I know this weekend is your birthday and all, but I have that big test I have to take on Saturday, and I have to do homework this weekend cause I didn't get alot done last weekend."

My wife, bless her heart was letting me know that she can't spend my birthday weekend spending that much time with me. It was very sweet of her. I tried to look disappointed, but honestly, all I really wanted to do for my birthday was to play WoW uninterrupted for like two days. So i guess I should thank my wife for not only giving me a great desk, but some quality WoW time too, lol.

I don't know if this qualifies as a thought for thursday, but I sure found it funny.

My weekend

2009-10-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was eventful.

My wife and I went into it with a specific plan...

That plan got shattered to pieces, but it all worked out.

Friday night, I played World of Warcraft till 5am. Now, I know I have some Mom's in my audience that may be concerned about that figure, but keep in mind that I've played/watched/written something till 4 or 5 am almost every weekend since I've been 20. When I started Friday I was level 65, by 5am I was 67. I was quite pleased that I managed to get 2 whole levels in only one day, and I was on track to get level 80 by the 18th.

On Saturday, my wife and I had a busy day planned. It looked like this.

-10am: Wake up

-1030am: prepare and eat breakfast

-11am: take out the air conditioners in "the space" and my room

-Noon: leave to go to Michaels and pick up our framed Wedding photo

-1pm-3pm: Go to Office Max, Target, and Wal-mart to find a new computer Desk for me. This early birthday present came out of a joke idea that I put on my birthday list which was to get rid of the old desk. Turns out, it wasn't such a bad or far-fetched idea after all, and my Wife pounced on it as her present to me. See folks, it always pays to put even the most outrageous presents on your list...cause like the lottery..."Hey, you never know".

-4pm: Return home

-5pm: Wifey goes to work, and Riley plays WOW

Plans for Sunday?

-Clean Space, and assemble desk

How did this plan go you ask, well follow along and I'll show you. We awoke at 10:30, so we're off to a bang. My wife makes delicious french toast, we eat it while watching an episode of Frasier, and then we reluctantly start the air conditioners. We take them out without any incidents, save for a few allergies acting up, and then head out to Michaels for the picture.

As we arrive in the shopping center, we notice that Michaels is located next to a Staples.

How fortuitous! Staples is just like Office Max, so we can go there instead, and cut out stop 2 of our outing. Within 10 minutes of going into staples we have found a desk that fits all my requirements, and it has a little cart and matching bookcase that we can use for storage. It was almost too perfect. They even had my exact model of office chair so I could height test the desk. After a half an hour of them searching in the back room, and us looking for a new shredder, we walked out of the store extremely happy. Combine that with the absolute gorgeous job Michaels did on our Wedding portrait, and I dare say it was an extremely successful shopping trip.

The rest of the plan was scrapped, cause we now could clean off the old desk, and move it before my wife went to work.

Little did I know that transforming this overcrowded and much too small for me desk:

into this much better, appropriately size, huge amount of space gained super desk:

would take 10 hours, and cause much pain in my lower back.

I have to comment though, that for the price, these Zline pieces of furniture are Sturdy as all hell. The Desk is alan screwed together in every way possible, the bookcase has about 100 screws in it holding it together, and cart (which you wouldn't think was the most compicated but it was) is glued, doweled, cam locked, screw, and alan bolted together that I think it'll outlast like 3 moves. In the end I really love my new desk, and it made the space so much more usable. Thank you so much sweetheart, I love it!

As a result of the desk though, I didn't get to play WoW again till sunday night and only got to lvl 68 (totally worth it though). On Monday I leveled in Northrend (final continent of the game) to 70. The gear i am getting is so much better then the first 70 levels it's almost unreal. However, once I hit 70, I encountered a problem...the next level is 1.5 million experience points away! Getting from 69 to 70 was only 780,000 points. It was an insane jump, and as a result I have to alter my timeline. I wanted to be 80 by the 18th, which is my birthday (last year of my 20's!), but now I've revised this goal to 80 by the end of October. Judging by the 66% i got after playing for 6 hours last night, I should be able to complete that goal on time.

What about me wednesday (WoW edition)

2009-10-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

The above picture is basically how World of Warcraft is going for me at the moment. See, being referred by my cousin into the game, I had the benefit of getting 300% experience up until level 60. Being power leveled like that kinda spoiled me, but it was really fun. Levels 60-80 cover the expansion material in the game, and thats where I am now, smack in the middle of outlands using my flying form (I'm a druid so I shapeshift into different animals) to zoom around and do many quests in a short amount of time. When I was level 30-40-50, things weren't too bad. I mean sure I'd want to level, but it wasn't at dangerous level proportions yet. We have now crossed that barrier I'm sorry to say. You see, this is why I didn't let myself play these games, cause it fills my addictive and competitive personality to a tee. A little too well if you ask me. The main reason for the uptick in the sesire to level is this. I'm SO close to 80 I can taste it. Once you hit 80, you can start getting the best gear, and I can start going on 5-10-25 man raids with my guild mates. I've done a few 60 man raids as both a DPS (damage per second) dealer and a healer, which is surprisingly more fun then you would think. This just wet my whistle for the great amount of fun working as a team with these characters are. Luckily, I have a wife who has so much homework that my little WoW addiction is not doing anything detrimental to my marriage (cause then it have to go). The best part is that instead of being jealous of the game for stealing me away from her, she jealous at me for being able to play the game while she has all this school work. I told her I'd get her the game for graduation, and then we can play together. That should be awesome! I so married the girl of my dreams, :).

Right now, I'm level 64, and I'm aiming for 80 by the 18th

Wish me luck!!

Toons for tuesday

2009-10-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

I can't resize it this time, click on it to see the full cartoon

Music 4 my Monday

2009-10-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

And I'm back. Happy, healthy, and ready to reclaim my place in the blogisphere. It is truly amazing what one can find on You Tube. I had the song I wanted, but I also wanted to share the experience of playing WOW that I had this past weekend. Well Viola, Blink 182's "All the small things", one of the truly great monday morning songs set to the backdrop of scenes from World of Warcraft (WoW).

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezu9TgAqyWk&feature=youtube_gdata

Thanks everyone

2009-10-02T07:19:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the warm wishes about my recovery. Turns out I have a sinus infection that is still with me despite numerous antibiotics and OTC remedies. Hopefully I'll be better next week, and be back to blogging full time.

have a good weekend

What about me wednesday

2009-09-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

I'm SICK!

I have the chills, a wet sticky cough complete with flem, and a general desire to go back to bed. But am I in bed....NO! I'm at work. This day is starting out just great.

Music 4 my Monday

2009-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Considering I am utterly exhausted due to a lack of milk for my coffee this morning, my Music pick for the day will be "Wake me up inside" by Evanescence.

I remember that I first heard this song way back in 2004 when the mediocre Daredevil movie came out, and then for the next 4 months on the radio.

Random Picture of the Day

2009-09-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

So outside my house, just to the right of the door, are some of the thickest spider webs that I've ever seen. It's a feast for the spiders who live there. They catch all the bugs that hang out near the light at night. I've been told repeatedly to not harm the webs or kill the spiders because they don't hurt us, and they eat all the other bugs (as a side benefit, we look like we're decorated for Halloween every day of the year).

The strangest thing about these webs is that I've never seen the spider that made it, not once in over 3 years at this location. Until this morning, when I walked out to go to work, and there it was, just sitting on it's friend, and it had a visitor. Of course I had to take a picture.

This is either

A) An 9 eyed staring contest

B) They just made little spiders and are saying goodbye

C) Or a territory dispute

Always fun to see nature at work despite our meddling.

Thoughts for thursday

2009-09-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Music 4 my Monday

2009-09-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

My wife and I have been watching the "Big Bang Theory", which is a really funny show if you are, or if you know a geeky guy. The honest portrayal of how these geeks live their lives is really funny, and the contrast with the "normal" people who drift in and out of the show are priceless, and accurate. Below is the extended theme song for the show which I keep hearing in my head.

Thoughts for thursday

2009-09-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who commented on my bad mood. I took your advice, and it helped. My quote for thoughts for thursday comes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy this week. I've chosen it because it shows something that I truly believe in and also why I love the stories that I do. During a week when I have watched my government compromised through buracracy, fear, and bribery. My creative juices have been sapped dry, my work unsatisfying, and rough couple of months ahead. This quote brings me a little comfort. Enjoy.

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

Warning: Bad Mood

2009-09-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

I got more sleep then I'm used to, and that makes me exhausted all day.

I also have alot of negative thoughts in my head right now, which is generally bad to begin with, but when I'm in this state of mind, it just makes them ten times worst.

So just thought you'd all like to know that I'm in a bad mood, and looking for something or someone to take it out on. I apologize in advance if it's any of you

New Game

2009-09-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, my wife and I sat down and had a talk about her last semester of college. There was some good news, and then bad news. The good news was that she would graduate on time, and managed to squeeze into all her classes. The bad news was that due to classes, thesis, and student teaching...she would only be able to work 1 night a week.

That amount of work really only corallated into gas money for her, which left me with a personal difficult choice. I know that marriage is a joint effort, and i wanted to do my part to help my wife complete her dream of graduating. However, her paycheck, however much it had been was a help. Since everything would be on me now, I searched through my finances for somewhere to trim the fat. I found where I could immediately, my Magic: The Gathering budget. It's anywhere from 100-200 dollars a month, and every 3 months I make the big set purchase which is considerably more.

So I had found where I could save money, but a problem remained. Magic is really the only thing I do for fun. I don't drink, I don't go out partying, I just stay home and play Magic. So if I just quit cold turkey, I would become irritable, and might have even become resentful towards my wife, which wouldn't be fair, least of all justified to her or our relationship. It's sad that I have those sides of me, but I know I do. So I started to try and find replacements. My first stop was the game that I'd been obsessed with prior to Magic....Diablo II.

I still had my account from last summer, when my wife and i went through a similar time around our wedding. Diablo is still as much fun as it was in 2001, but there was something missing this time around. See, in 2001, if you wanted the best gear, you had to do "Baal runs", in other words kill the big boss guys over and over again in the hopes that they drop good gear, and more precisely the gear you needed. It was a ....long process. In 2008, their are tons of legitimit websites where you can pay a very trivial amount of money, and get this godly gear almost instantly. I know I could just quest for the gear, but honestly, with the money I make now, and the amount of time I have to game...the investment doesn't seem worth it. Therefore, playing the game, while still fun, just didn't have the same "oomfph" to make me want to play it instead of Magic entirely.

I was thinking about this when I went to Colorado. There, my wife's second cousin reminded me of a game that could have the potential to supplement my Magic cravings. That game is World of Warcraft.

Now, I don't care who or where you are from in the world, chances are you've heard of this game, and it's massively addicted following. Well, meet it's newest convert. Over labor day weekend, I loaded up a trial account, and started playing. After some false starts, and a little help from my wife's cousin, I loved it, and barely thought about Magic at all the entire weekend. Since WoW is only 15 dollars a month, it will cut my costs, allowing more leeway in the tight budget over the next 4 months. After that time, who knows, though my wife has expressed interest in joining, so maybe we'll both play this game.

So, if you needme, you can find me in Azeroth, :). But don't worry, I am a different person then I was in 2001, and I will not let WoW become my life. I'm just playing from 10-3 every night, just like I did with Magic.

I'm back, and I brought TUNES!

2009-09-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

And I just want to say "thank you" to all those who said that they missed me. It is always nice to hear that your work is appreciated as a writer, so thank you very much for that sign of friendship. And now onto the post.

As many of you know I am a bit of a gadget buff. So I thought for my "Music 4 my Monday" post I'd go through the years of my audio gadgets to see how they've changed. As a bonus, I'm also going through my cell phones as well, there's a reason for this, trust me.

Now, our journey begins in 1986, where a precocious 6 year old is taken to the stores to relieve his pregnant mother from his, let's call it "overabundance of spirit". His aunt takes him to the electronics department and tell him that he can have something for being a big brother soon. Inside the case, the little 6 year old saw a shiny new red AM/FM walkman, and thus it became my first audio device.

(1986-1999)THE WALKMAN:

Cost: $40-$60

Yes, over the years I had a plethora of Walkman's. I had the shiny red one, a purple one with a red transformer glued onto it, also AM/FM only. Then, in Junior High school, I got my first casette walkman, WITH INCLUDED BELT CLIP! I was stylin now. I had pretty much every model of SONY walkman except for the yellow waterproof variety. Why did I have so many, well, first off they weren't made very well, and survived 1, maybe 3 drops at most on the school floor. I learned some of my first lessons about fixing electronics by trying to resuscitate one of my walkman's which broke every 6 months or so throughout highschool. Either the doors wouldn't shut, it would start eating tapes (remember these were cassette players), an earphone would cut out. The picture above is of the last walkman I had in 1999 (yes I was a late digital convert), it's key selling features include the switchable MEGA BASS option, and a digital AM/FM tuner.

Most popular tunes played: "Ghostbusters" by Ray park, "Back to the future soundtrack", "Beach boys", assorted oldies.

Fate: Given to Dad who kept it in a cushioned cookie bin and made it last 5 + years. Truly impressive.

(1999-2002)First Cell Phone: Nokia PITA

Cost: Free with contract

Ok fine, so it wasn't actually called PITA (Pain in the ass), but it might have well been. This phone had 60 minutes of talk time (on a good day), a monochrome LCD screen, and had to charge for 5 hours! Keep in mind, this was an average phone for the time period. I had this PITA phone all through college, and it is responsible for some of the most memorable conversations of my life. It was my phone through 9/11, it helped me wake up during senior year for my rides to school. It was a good phone for the time, of course it wasn't without it's problems. This phone is also responsible for having to make phone calls with my head hanging out the open upstairs window in winter due to low reception periods (aka AT&T screwed up and was working on the network), failed me during a VERY important call to my best friend. At the moment where the conversation had reached a critical point, IT DIED on the charger. By the time I had taken the 13 stairs downstairs 2 by 2, and redialed on the land line, the moment had passed, and I was PISSED!

Key features: The ability to call mom without having to bum a quarter (yes this use to happen kids), Alarm clock, Crapping battery life.

Ringtones: The Nokia ringtone and the "ring ring" nokia tone.

Fate: Garbage

(2000)Discman:

Cost: $60

After 1999, I started paying for my own gadgets, and thus my personal technological evolution began. Before this year, i was at the whims of my parental technology choices. I quickly found that I had different/better tastes. Honestly the Discman was a dissapointment in every way. I got it at the turn of the millenia, and I never could get behind the format. Keep in mind that in the year 2000, to upgraded your computer to be able to burn CDs (DVD's weren't common yet) cost multiple hundreds of dollars in upgrades, so being able to make your own CDs was a computer elitistest privelege only. The reason I never liked it is because I generally don't like full CDs, and so the format held little interest for me, due to only being able to play 2-3 songs per CD. Then why did I get it you ask? Well, it was suppose to be an upgrade to the cassette, and the internet wasn't really to the point yet where you could look at 50 different reviews of every tech product that came out, at least it wasn't for me.

Key features: Anti-skip protection, progressive scanning, digital CD format (no more rewinding!)

Most popular tunes played: Every Blink 182 CD, Green day, Star Wars soundtracks.

Fate: Gave to Mom when I upgraded 6 months later.

(2001-2002)MINIDISC :

Sony's Mini-Disc format was suppose to replace CDs in the early 2000's, yet almost nobody has heard of these fabulous devices. It held 90 minutes of music per mini-disc, sounded as good as CDs, and could record like a cassette from a headphone jack. It's form factor was also really thin, and I use to carry a hip pouch that had the player and like 10 minidiscs that was half the size of a regular cassette walkman case. Why did this format fail? Cause a little company called Apple invented the Ipod. That release which was the same year, coupled with Napster's launch and subsequent explosion of popularity killed the minidisc before it ever had a chance. So much so, that when mine broke due to droppage a year later, there were no models left to buy.

Key Features: Recordable like a cassette, but played like a CD. Thin form factor. MINI-Disc format. Sounded as good as CD players at the time.

Most played tunes: Blink 182, "Latin invasion", Nsync (don't judge, they were everywhere)

Fate: Door broke beyond repair, and couldn't buy a new one. I believe it's in my father's garage with some of my old toys.

Nokia 1200 (PITA jr.) (June 2002-March 2003)

Cost: Free with contract (last phone that would be)

If you're thinking, "Hey Riley, that looks alot like your old phone", then you are right. I got this phone as an upgrade when my original phone stopped holding a charge. I could have bought a new battery, but the contract was up, and we were due a new phone anyway.

Key Features from previous model: Smaller form factor, internal antenna, "sharper" mono-chrome LCD screen. Also, battery life was greatly improved, and call quality was better.

Ringtones: same as previous

Fate: Fell out of pocket while walking home from Florida Gym job.

(2002-2005)MP3 CD player

Cost: $100

I bought this to replace my beloved MINI-Disc player. This CD player was a success however due to it being able to play MP3 CDs, which were now commonly available on every computer. This allowed me to carry 100-200 songs on a single CD, which was alot at the time.

Key features: Digital RED LCD screen to display song info, Ability to play and read MP3s, anti-skip, progressive scan.

Most played tunes:I had basially my entire music library (as sad as that is) on like 4 cds.

Fate: Given to mother when upgraded

Nokia American Idol Phone (2003-2004)

Cost: $40 with contract (extended)

No, I'm not a huge american idol fan, basically it was this and extend my contract or 200 dollars. This phone was an interesting one, but nothing special. The main addition was the use of a vibrating feature (standard from then on), and custom midi tone ringtones of songs (for free). It also was the smallest candy bar style phone I ever owned.

Key features: Backlit mono-chrome LCD, New "texting" feature, odd button layout (which made texting next to impossible), and interchangable faceplate. Also, got many calls looking for "Kim and John", apparently these siblings used the same number when going out to clubs and brushing people off. Very fun, NOT. Also, for some reason included a flashlight, which while handy during the 2004 hurricane season, was superfluous.

Ringtones: Custom midi tunes (like the old cell phone rings, but in the tones of songs)

Fate: One day, the internal non-replacable battery just stopped taking a charge.

(2004-2006) Motorola Flip Phone
Cost: $300

This phone served me very well. It cost alot, but not as much as the $500 RAZR that had just come out at the time. I'll let you stop laughing at that before I continue. Despite my reservation of flip phones at the time, call quality was good, battery was great, and texting was much easier. This was one cell phone purchase I never regretted.

Key features: First phone I had that could play snippets of songs for ringtones, external LCD to see who was calling without flipping and answering. First Camera phone.

Fate: Stopped responding to network just on my block, AT&T's customer service drove me to verizon. Phone unfortunate casualty.

(2005-2007)IPOD Nano:

Cost: $200 dollar, given as gift

For the first birthday that we were together, my girlfriend(now wife) bought me the black IPOD Nano that I wanted. A year later I'd get the second gen Nano, and give the first gen one to her, so that we could both exercise to music together.

Key features: 1000(then 2000) songs held in something the size of aproximately 2 sticks of chewing gum. Color LCD screen, some minor games. It's an IPOD. I believe you all know the features of these.

Fav tunes played: "Lose yourself" eminem is one I listened to alot, but again i had my whole library on these things

Fate: 1st gen, Sold to Father-in-law when wife acquired Iphone, 2nd Gen sold to Steve at work to fund first Iphone purchase.

(2006-2007) Verizon Wireless XV 6700 aka "The Brick":

Cost: $300

I bought this phone out of anger. AT&T had given me the shaft, so I switched carriers. I also had wanted a smart phone so I could have internet as my then exetremely dull car rental job, which had me sitting for hours staring at a computer screen, without the ability to do anything with it but rent cars. So i got this phone, and it served the purpose I bought it for, but it fought me tooth and nail every step of the way. Ringtones had to be "hacked" onto the phone, mail didn't sync properly, apps were expensive and sucked. It was just a badly designed phone. Shortly after this, I got my current job, where everyone had these as the current "next-gen" business phone, so I didn't feel so bad. I began researching gadgets online now, something learned on the job, and soon saw the answer to the problem I had, but didn't know I had.

Key features: Full sucky Windows mobile operating system, mobile web browser, slide out full querty keyboard, ability to hold music, but headphone jack sucked. Battery life SUCKED! I'm talking 3 hours, and this thing was toast. I charged it constantly at work or whenever I wasn't using it. It showed me the advantages of a smart phone.

Ringtones: Full songs (no edits)

Fate: tried to sell it on craigs list, but nobody bought it, currently sits on a shelf at home.

Oh, and when I said brick....I meant it.

So what happened after this, well in January of 2007, Steve Jobs delivered his keynote at the Macworld expo. At the end of the keynote he added "One more thing...", and revealed the Iphone to the world. It would come out 6 months later to much fanfare, and I would be the 23rd person in line at my local AT&T store. A year later I would be in line again to score a Iphone 3G, and give the original IPhone to my then new wife. And just this weekend, the original Iphone, which lasted faithfully for 2 years stopped functioning within normal tolerance levels (it started dropping calls, and apps wouldn't open anymore. Even with a software restore it still didn't work right.) So on Saturday, we went to the AT&T store again and got the Iphone 3GS for me, and my wife now has the Iphone 3G. I really can't say enough good things about the Iphone. As a Phone and multimedia player it surpasses all competitors and imitators. Apple basically just has to add a few minor features every year, because they have redefined how smart phones, and cell phones in general are designed. And when you redefine a genre of products...you basically can call the shots.

(2007-2009) Apple IPhone

Cost: $600

Key features: OSX powered Touch UI, incredibly thin form factor, ability to sync songs and pictures to phone, Multi-touch gesture control, Full powered web browser, Google maps, mobile youtube.

Features added later: GPS-like functionality, mobile itunes store

(2008-present)Apple IPhone 3G

Cost $300

Key features: True GPS functionality, new design, 3G data speeds, Apple App store (huge increase in functionality), couple of other tweaks.

(2009-present) IPhone 3GS

Cost $200

Key features: More efficient use of 3G network resulting in faster speed, new processor and graphics chip to handle larger more complex UI, "cut,copy, paste,and MMS functionality" released in Iphone 3.0 software update.

Fav tunes to play: Entire music library again, so I can't pick favorites, but I do love that I can have my iTunes playlists on my phone.

Fate: Original iPhone is retired, don't know what I'm going to do with it, and the other two are still being used.

I hoped you enjoyed the last ten years of my audio and cell phone history. Something I discovered while looking at this list. In 1999, I had an (at the time) average computer. The device I now carry in my pocket, has more memory and processing power then my first computer. I watched and lived through the evolution of it, and sometimes I'm still awed by it.

Remembering 9/11

2009-09-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

I was sleeping when the first plane hit, and my friend called me at 9 am and all i heard was her tears and sobs on the other end.

"Turn on the TV" she said

"ok, ok, calm down, what channel"

"It doesn't matter"

I turned the TV on, and was watching live as the second plane hit. an hour later my mother and me watched in horror as the tower fell. I think the thing I remember most are the fact that living on Long Island all this was happening 40 minutes away. We heard the Jets streaking across our skys, and the helicopter patrols. i remember no one was at the movie theatre where i worked that day. I remember having a conversation with my ex that night about WWIII, and the draft possibility, and how if their were a draft, she would want me to get her pregnant so she wouldn't have to go. I mean the day before it was bologna or salami for lunch, and I just couldn't believe I was discussing things like this at 20 years old. It was so unreal, and yet everywhere, on the faces of Everyone, no one knew what to do or what to say.

I think the below post says it all really.

This was posted on MSN this morning in a where were you when 9/11 happened forum.

I am a high school teacher and that morning, our classes were attending a program in the auditorium. I shall never forget the janitor coming in, getting me and telling me to come to her office, where she had a small television. The first plane had hit, so no one really knew what had happened. Soon, the second one hit; then the third at the Pentagon and a fourth in Pennsylvania. The REALITY of that moment was something I will never forget. Never before had America been attacked. Who could be so bold or so foolish to do this? Suddenly, I became nauseous; light-headed and I knew that I had 30 students to face. When I went into my first class, I turned on the TV and watched silently and tearfully. Teachers were turning from CNN to NBC to ABC to CBS, trying to get more coverage.

My class was a sophomore Humanities class. They were fifteen or so and seemed stunned more than anything else. One young woman turned to me and asked, "What does this mean"? All I could say was, "From this moment forward, your life will never be the same, ever. WE ARE AT WAR". I frightened myself when I said it and I'm still frightened. God Bless America and her people.

You know what...she was right

Be away for a few days

2009-09-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I'm very behind on my fanfic writing, so I'll be going afk for a few days until I can catch up. Hope everyone is well, and I'll ttyl

-Riley

Toons 4 my tuesday

2009-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

This was the second show on the first "Disney Afternoon" block.

They don't make them like this anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-dLOYPFGiM

SAY IT AIN'T SO!

2009-08-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've just learned that Disney has purchased Marvel Entertainment!

That means that Spider-man, Hulk, Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D, Fantastic Four, and the X-men are now owned by the Walt Disney Company!

So now the same people who make High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly place, and Disney princess movies are in charge of the representation of my favorite comic book character into movies, television and yes, even their own comics!

Yes, Yes, I know that Disney isn't all the family friendly fluff (Pirates was good, sequels were eh, but pirates was good). And I'll even admit, some of it is even entertaining and good family friendly fluff. However, Comic book movies have been slowly moving towards more adult themed adventures. I could be wrong, and this deal could be great, but my gut tells me that this is a bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad IDEA fueled by...what else...GREED!

See, the marvel execs just got 4 billion dollars for control of their 5000+ characters which they'd had sole ownership of since the 1920's! How frigging STUPID do you have to be to make this deal! I mean, your characters have never been hotter, you're poised to make billions off the merchandising alone in the next 10 years, WHY oh WHY did you have to turn Spider-man into this.

Today is a sad day indeed

Third time's a charm...(Music for my Monday)

2009-08-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

So, for those who have followed me for a while, you might remember back in March when I had to get a warranty replacement for my BRAND NEW MATTRESS. Sleepys did a great job at just handling with the minimal amount of fuss.

Well, it's been 5 months, and we're back for round 3.

In case you forgot why we exchanged our mattress the first time, it was because after 3 weeks of ownership, we were sinking into the mattress. Now this was a pillowtop mattress, so a little bit of cushion was expected. However, we were dealing with 5 - 6 inches with the first bed. Which was definitely not normal. So we got a replacement, a brand new mattress of the exact make and model, because we thought we had just received a dud from the factory. It happens, and we were just the unlikely ones this time.

The second mattress arrived, and the difference was wonderful. The bed supported us, and was firm. There was a little bit more sag then I had bargained for, but nothing major. Fast forward 3 months, and my wife and I are rotating the bed every two weeks to keep our bed from sinking on us. Since this was a latex bed, we figured maybe the contents of the bed were shifting due to our weight, even though latex bed was supposedly the best for heavy set individuals. Well after 2 months of this, I had reached my limit. The same defect was happening to my mattress again, and now we were past the 21 day free replacement option. However, we had reached the end of our tether, that happens when you have to pull your way of out bed. This was not due to illness or being too comfortable, but because you sink into the bed so much, that rolling over is an insufficient amount of force to free you. Its a good thing my wife and I like to cuddle, because we were forced to cuddle directly in the middle whether we felt like it or not. On more then one occasion, I almost rolled ON my wife, cause she had slipped into the hole before me. For proof that I am not exaggerating, see exhibit A.

Now keep in mind, it's sinking this much (2-4 inches), with just me in it. Add the extra hundred or so pounds from my wife, and it goes down at least another 1-2. Something HAD to be done.

So it was was conviction that I went to the closest Sleepys from me (not the one I bought the mattress from). The sales lady there (Geanine) really took an interest, and called the customer service on my behalf. She then handed me the phone where the disinterested service guy tried to tell me that this was normal behavior for the Mattress due to it being "plush". I tried to explain calmly, then assertively, then angrily, till I was yelling into the phone "PLUSH! YOU'RE TRYING TO SAY THAT SINKING 6 INCHES INTO THE MATTRESS IS NORMAL BECAUSE THE MATTRESS IS "PLUSH"!"

At this point Geanine who was shaking her head at her service department took the phone back, and told the man that this was abnormal for the mattress, and he should send an inspector to my house to see if I had a legitimit problem. Then service guy actually tried to argue against it trying to claim that "It will cost sleepy's money". Geanine really came through, and basically told the guy he was being unreasonable, and that customer satisfaction was Sleepy's number 1 priority. In the end, I set up an appointment, and thank Geanin for her help.

5 days later, the inspector comes. He takes one look at the top of my mattress, and says "Wow, I don't think that's supposed to do that.

Then we laid on the mattress, and showed him the sink. I had a good feeling when his eyes bugged out.

If we skip ahead to 9 days later, I stop by Sleepy's again to see what the verdict was on our mattress. The bed was getting worse, and my wife and I were really hoping we'd gotten approved.

We Had! 100% reimbursement for the mattress. WHOO!

The following afternoon, we were at Geanine's store laying on different mattresses. We had given up on latex by this point, and were looking at firm spring coils again. After an intensive search, we picked a Stern's and Foster model. To our surprise it, the new mattress set (mattress and boxspring) was 500 dollars less then our old mattress (sans boxspring). So to make up the cost and fulfill the "equal or lesser value" clause in our warranty replacement, we ended up getting a headboard, 2 expensive comfy pillows, and new sateen sheets to make up the difference.

The best part was....It could be delivered the following day!

So yesterday, our new bed arrived, check it out!

As nice as it looks, it feels even better. We slept on it last night, and we noticed a few differences.

1) One can get in and out of the bed with a minimum of effort
2) It actually supports us. Both my wife and i felt odd sensations in our backs this morning. Not painful, but "different". We think it was because we were sleeping in the bed equivalent of a hammock, and now our spines got a straight night's sleep.
3) My wife was out DEEP! With the old bed, I disturbed my wife when I got into bed. That tends to happen when you roll into someone with all your weight. This time, she couldn't care if I was there, she was SO deep asleep.
4)With the old bed, when I watched a video on the laptop, I had to prop up my head to see over the lip of the bed which was HIGHER then my head. The new bed...I have to look down at the laptop. :)
5) OUR SHEETS FIT! Before, with the pillowtop and the sinking, our sheets would pop off the end with every night's sleep. Last night, I can't tell if they moved at all.

And thus we come to the end of our tale...

P.S.: For anyone looking to buy a mattress, I would advise against two things.

1) Latex mattresses. They are comfy in the showroom, but after having had 2 of them, I can say they are not sturdy enough for everyday use yet.
2) Pillowtop mattresses. We've had three pillowtop mattresses since I've been with my wife. The first one was a Sealy posterpedic, and the pillowtop was deflated and sinking within a year. The next two (the latex ones), also sank, and even faster then the Sealy. So i looked up pillowtops, and this is what I found. They were created 20 years ago as a 1 inch top for people with bad back who needed firm beds. This ruined the seam of the bed though, and people were rolling out. So the design was altered to make a separate section with just the pillow top. Now pillowtop are 3-4 inches above the mattress. This creates a few problems. Normal size sheets no longer fit your bed. The other is pure common sense, but somehow has escaped the mattress maker's design teams. It's NOTHING! It's a cusion. If you lay a cusion on something supportive. The supportive aspects of said something are diminished. You may get a really firm mattress, but i doubt you'll ever feel it due to the cushion. I know some people swear by these things, but I've had three now, and read several HUNDRED stories online about pillowtops failing. So next time you're in the market for a mattress, go with a fitted top, you won't be sorry.

For Music 4 my Monday I choose "Don't stop believing" by Journey

Cause...well that's what I'm feeling right now.

Obsolete or dying tech

2009-08-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

I just read this great article at msn.com on technology that is obsolete and dying.

http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=21159559

So many of things I grew up with.

So weird how things have changed so much more rapidly in the last 30 years then at almost any other time in history.

Thoughts for my Thursday

2009-08-27T12:05:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I've done this one before, but I had one of these moments yesterday.

Whenever it wants, the past can come
kicking the door down.
And you never know
where it's gonna take you.
All you can do is hope
it's a place you wanna go.

Hearts in Atlantis

Some days

2009-08-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

You'd just rather stay in bed

Music 4 my Monday

2009-08-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

As much as I'm loathed to do this. My music for Monday is "Th Climb" by Miley Cyrus.

The reason for this are these lyrics that were playing in my car this morning:

The struggles I'm facing,
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes they knock me down but
No I'm not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going

And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on, cause

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

You see, this weekend I accomplished something that I've been working towards for the better part of 7 years. I started Playing Magic: The Gathering online in 2002. I was in the middle of my Yu-Gi-Oh phase at the time, but hate the once a week tournaments. I just didn't think I'd get better unless I played against different people. So my friend got me Magic: The Gathering Online, which allowed tournaments any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. I didn't want to play 2 different card games seriously at once, so Magic started off a casual thing that I played when I wanted to play Yu-gi-oh but couldn't. This continued till 2005.

In that year alot happened. I moved back from Florida to New York, leaving my best friend, for the hope of a better future. I met my wife. I changed careers. I quit Yu-Gi-Oh due to the format turning towards a more luck based combo architecture, and the lack of a tournament I could attend regularly. I tried to play serious Versus system card game, and actually won quite a few tournaments, but then they stopped having them. Apparently, if the same 10 guys show up every week, and the same guy trouces them everyweek no matter what deck he plays...people stop coming. Weird right?

So, with two games now defunct, I turned to my casual game to keep my skills semi-sharp, and reconnected with my best friend who'd been frosty to me for the past couple of months. He apologized for this, and admitted that I'd been a really good friend to him. This is atypical for my friend, or most guys for that matter. He also wanted me to try drafting Magic.

For those of you unfamiliar with drafts, the format is simple. Each person has three packs of 15 cards. You open the pack, take what you think is the best card in the pack, and then pass it down the line. Then you get passed another pack, and you choose the best card for your draft deck, and the process continues. In the end you have 45 cards, which you then trim to the best 23, add 17 lands, and play against the other people in the draft. This is alot more skill intensive then it seems, and it took me years to be able to win a draft. I accomplished that within my first year. I now win at least the first round of draft more often then not.

My accomplishment this weekend revolved around constructed Magic though. Now I had been a top Yu-gi-oh and Versus player, however, in Magic I've yet to achieve that skill level. The main reson that I think are for two main reasons:

A) The shuffler algorithm in the online game has something wrong with it. You get land screwed(too little land) and land flooded (too much land, and not enough spells) far more then in paper (real life) Magic playing. I can admit when I've made mistakes in gameplay, but not being able to play your spells, or not drwing any spells is just a shitty way to lose.

B) I don't see my opponent. This is very crucial to my style of playing cards, and it's taken me a long time to adjust. I can usually read people very well, and I use this in my card playing. I can usually tell whether my opponent has the card he needs in hand, and much like playing poker this skill can make or break the game. Being deprived of that, one must always play with the assumption that the opponent has basically the worst possible card for you in his hand. This leads to very cautious gameplay, a style I've had to work on as it doesn't come naturally.

So over the last two years when I started to get really serious about constructed, I joined strategy websites, played all different kinds of decks, and I saw incremental improvement, but nothing really solid. Recently, I'd been thinking about giving up the game due to it's cost. It's the thing I spend money on the most. Though it's not alot in the long run, I had come to the conclusion that if I wasn't going to improve then I probably shouldn't waste money on this. Maybe I just wasn't cut out for playing Magic. I've been thinking about this for many months now. Then, this weekend happened.

Over the past week, I've participated in many tournaments. I had found a deck that I really knew how to play well, and decided to play that this particular weekend. For the first time, I won both an 8-man constructed standard. I'd won block (less cards and skill) before as well as extended (more cards, but more defined metagame then standard oddly), but never a Standard whose metagame is extremely hard to crack. Well this weekend I did it not once, but twice. I won an 8 man, and then the next morning I won a 60 man daily. I came in first place in each and won over 76 dollars in prizes. I was on cloud 9, and felt that I had completed some quest or journey.

Now my name will be among those of the decks of the week this Thursday on Magicthegathering.com along with my decklist. This only happens to the winners of Daily's, which is something I've never done before in any format.

This achievement was a really spectacular day for me, and thanks for letting me share it with you.

What is the world coming too...

2009-08-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I posted something sweet about my wife, I also mirrored this sentiment on facebook.

The responses I got from this blog were positive sentiments, and people expressing being touched by my post.

On facebook, I got the following three response:

My friends wife: Are you in trouble?

My wife: Thank you sweetie, I feel the same about you

My recently (may 1st) married cousin: I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

The pure negative response from my friends and family on facebook made me really sad. I mean what is the world coming to, when a man expressing his love to his wife means that I did something wrong, or elicits disgust. I think it's just really sad.

My mother-in-law did perk me up a bit though, when she messaged me, "They just don't get it"

I guess they just don't.

Thoughts 4 my thursday

2009-08-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

I may have done this before, but here goes.

"I think that a great many of the problems between men and women stem from one simple misunderstanding."

"Women think that Men are as complicated as they are."

Riley Scott, 2004

What about me Wednesday

2009-08-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's astounding where you find certain things.

I once found a 20 dollar bill in my jeans pocket that I hadn't worn in 6 months.

I found a phone number to a pretty girl inside the return case of a DVD at blockbuster.

Once upon a time I found a job by yelling at the manager

But this morning I found something most extraordinary. I was home from work to be there when the bed inspector came (yes, our mattress is having problems again), and afterward we finished watching the last half of the movie StarDust (which wasn't half bad). After the movie ended, there I was cuddling on the couch with my wife, and she half rolled over. I looked into her brilliant blue eyes, which reside on her kind sweet face, frame by her natural auburn hair. Suddenly, all the what-ifs, the worries of the future, and even the present just went away. I found contentment, and the assurance that my life is on the right path, something some people never find. And I had to look only as far as my wife's eyes.

I dare say that's the best thing I've ever found.

Music for my monday

2009-08-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

this seemed appropriate

What I've been doing all week

2009-08-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

So I've been a little light on the bog content this week. Mainly due to getting back to work, and writing the Colorado report (see Monday's entry). I also was busy trying to write my Father's speech for his retirement party. I finally finished it yesterday afternoon, and knocked it out of the park last night. So I'll change a few names, and share it with you guys here. I hope you enjoy it.

When it comes to civil service jobs, Postal workers kinda got rough.

I mean, firefighters get a house and a really cool truck
Police get squad cars to patrol in
The LIRR conductors get to work on the train
The DMV people get bad moods and the ability to slow down the space/time continuum
Postal workers get this little dorky truck, a really heavy bag, and get to walk through everything nature can throw at them for miles.

Honestly Dad, what the heck were you thinking.

On 33rd Street and 8th Avenue in New York City one would find the General Post Office facility. And inscribed on the front of it are the words that any member of the Postal Service knows by heart. "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

As you all know, for the past 37 years, My father Riley Scott Sr. put on that blue uniform, and became one of these fabled couriers. Except, that famous creed is kinda incomplete for my Dad. We need to add a few things here, let's see. Snow, rain, heat, gloom, ummm...., dogs, ice, hail, hernia surgery, uncountable hours of lost sleep, malfunctioning cars, compression boots, hour long commutes, and the loss of both hips did not stay this courier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds!

His appointed rounds however, did prevent him from ever being on time to the Country Club. Yes my father not only was a Postal worker, but worked a second job. When asked why, his response was always: “Well, my wife said two words to me, and I knew I had to get another job”

“What was it ‘I Do’?”

“Nope, I’m pregnant.”

So, for the last 28 years, my dad worked 6-somtimes 7 days a week to support his family. As his family grew, Dad’s life became just that much harder. To give his children a better home and supposedly better schools, he in turn gave up his cozy 10 minute commute to work for the hour long trek he drove for the last 20 years. This resulted in my dad leaving usually before the sun came up at 5am, and coming home between 6-8 o clock at night. On the weekends, he would leave his second job, and instead of coming home to the family who he worked so hard for, would go to his friend Dave’s Auto Glass business and sleep in a chair. Just so he could get 1 or 2 hours more sleep. And when I say more sleep, I’m not talking the difference between 6 and 8, it was usually the difference of 1 and a half versus 3 and a half hours of sleep. It wasn’t all bad however. My Dad developed the skill to be able to memorize addresses in a flash, along with the ability to tell you who lived in each house on his Route, and who was there before them, etc… during his entire tenure. He could tell you this along with every Yankees statistic since before he was born, but he probably can’t tell you what he had for breakfast yesterday. During the holidays, Route 11 provided it’s courier with the gift of Christmas tips. The people on my Dad’s Route would give a little thank you for all the hard work he did all year long. My Father and Mother are unique people, I say this because instead of taking that money and spending it on a new car, a vacation, or new appliance, even when we needed one; instead my parents provided the most magnificent Christmases any kid could imagine.

One could think that with his long absences, and grueling work schedule that my Dad might have been an absent father figure for my sister and I. Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. In addition to Mom keeping Dad’s presence in the forefront of our minds by saying nearly daily “You just wait till your father comes home”, my Dad was a true partner in raising his children. He was front and center for every concert, dance recital (my sister's not mine), birthday, graduation, anything special that happened in my sister's or my life where you wanted a parent there, both of mine were there. Mom came all the other times when you didn't want a parent there, but that’s another speech…..kidding Mom. My Father taught my sister and I how to ride our bikes, and later how to drive. He valiantly tried sports with me, but it didn’t take. Seriously, with how many times I beaned this guy in certain areas, sometimes I’m surprised that my sister's here at all. He introduced me to video games first with his old Colecovision. Which coincidentally was the last system he ever had a chance of beating me on.

By now you’re probably thinking that, wow, Riley’s life was pretty full, he must have had no fun at all. Oh, how wrong you are. My Dad knows how to have fun. He had a whole menagerie of hobbies to keep him occupied during his huge amount of down time. These included amateur landscaping, plumbing, carpentry, air conditioning installation, and his yearly battle with the radiators when winter came. He expanded to exterior and interior decorating under Mom’s careful direction during the holiday times. Once in a blue moon however he got to do one of his 3 favorite things.

1. Sleep

2. Watching a Yankee game on Tv/listening to one in the car/asking the waiters at the Country club for the score in between making drinks.

3. Going to the movie theatre with one of his children (That was always my favorite)

I’m slightly ashamed to say that I honestly did not understand or appreciate the gravity of all my father did for us while I was growing up. For that Dad I apologize. It took moving away when I was 23, and getting two jobs of my own to fully grasp what my father had done for us. After a year, I found out why my Dad’s pinkie toes looked like that, cause mine started to look the same way. I found out why my Dad was always grumpy when we used his days off to go on vacation or something, because on my day off, I didn’t want to do anything. I discovered new places on my body that could hurt, and in talking to my Dad, instead of his sympathy, I got “Use this cream…that worked for me”. He’d been through it all. He knew exactly what I was going through, cause he’d already done it, twenty times longer, and with a body twice as old.

In preparing my words tonight, I tried to think back at some of lessons that my Dad taught me over the years. These include such gems as:

“Remember Riley, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”: My dad and I disagreed over this accolade while I was growing up. However he was proven right, when I got my current job not only through my academic credentials, but because my future Mother-in-law knew my then future boss.

His famous birds and the bees speech: “So I hear you have a girlfriend now”

“Yep”

“Well, keep your pants on”

end said speech

But the one that sticks out the most is a time when I actually asked my Dad what made him work so hard for so long. I asked him this, because I couldn’t think of anything that would make someone work till literally parts of their anatomy started falling off.

And I’ll never forget what he said back to me… “So hopefully, one day, You and Your Sister won’t have to”.

My Dad’s wish came true, as his son and daughter are both now College Graduates with promising careers and bright futures.

At this time, I would like to propose a toast to my father, but before I do, I feel that I’m neglecting someone. My mother.

My Mom and Dad recently celebrated 30 years of marriage together, and in this day and age, that is quite an accomplishment. I’d like to acknowledge my mother tonight because this is as close to a retirement party as she’ll most likely ever get. You see, her three full time jobs, perhaps you know them,

JOB1 *point to me*

JOB2 *point to Sister*

And JOB 3 *points to Dad*

We don’t have a great pension plans, or a retirement date at all actually. Mom is always ON. The best my sister and I can hope to give her is grandchildren…*waits for Mom's reaction that we're going to announce that my wife is pregnant, like she's been doing since we've been married*...somewhere down the line.

While my Dad was working parts of his butt off, my Mom was working just as hard to make sure that my sister and I turned into the responsible, productive, caring adults you see before you. I might have taken just a smidge *start out with small fingers, then widen dramatically* more effort then my sister, but that’s not the point. The point is that Dad, and this family couldn’t have made it without Mom working mostly thanklessly in the background.

And now, if you'll all raise your glasses.

Dad, you worked so hard for so long. You gave me the perfect example of how to be a provider and a father. I hope your retirement brings you the time to watch all the movies you missed, play all the games you wanted to, watch all the Yankees you can, and reclaim some of the sleep you lost.

At some point every parent says to their kids, “You’ll thank me one day”.

Well, Dad…and Mom…Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for everything!

Happy Retirement Dad!

Toons 4 my Tuesday

2009-08-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

In honor of the G.I.JOE movie opening this past weekend, I present the original animated Movie intro, the music of which I still have on my iphone to this very day.

I heard the new movie blows, but I'm going to see it anyway. But the above is per 80's classic.

The G.I.JOE cartoons always have public service announcements, and they always ended with "Now we know"
"And knowing is half the battle"

My friends and I quote this to this day, even my boss has slipped and done it once or twice.

But "What's the other half?" you might ask.
Oh, and I want this T-shirt SO bad

Music for my Monday

2009-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Wasted Lives by Shaking the Tree

I implore you to search this little known song. It is by a bar band in Arizona that my friend Darque picked up a CD of theirs years ago. We've both recently rediscovered it, and it is really great.

Once you go mile high, you don't want to come back

2009-08-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

So after a fun filled Magic Card acquiring night (I got all the cards i needed in like an hour, lol), we woke up the next morning and were driven to Laguardia airport by my parents. I should have known that the day was going to be trying when we got stuck in freak hour long traffic jam due to one of the bridges being closed. We finally pass the the traffic, when my mother decides that the best way to relieve my stress that we're running late is to almost crash into a truck while merging.

This led to a fun filled first ten minutes in the airport where we not only check-in our luggage, but started arguing with each other cause we were under stress. My wife is very direct and efficient during these times, and I'm a nervous nilly who likes to make sure that all things are accounted for. We caught ourselves before things got too bad, and reconciled before the security gates. We got through security without an issue, and only then did we find out why my Mom's plane (she was leaving for North Carolina) was delayed. Some idiot had walked into the airport with a bag full of batteries and wires. The cops thought it was a bomb, and evacuated the entire wing (Delta's). Luckily this did not affect us United customers, still, I think the airport could have played the news footage a little less in the terminal as it made everyone anxious.

The first flight to our layover in Chicago was great. We were in economy plus seating, and had nice leg room. I read my book, and we watched a little of WALL-E on the iPhone. Then we got to Chicago, and the question marks started. The first was my wife suddenly getting cranky do to an empty stomach and bad allergies on the plane. This was quickly fixed with Quiznos and Advil cold and sinus. Then we get to the too small to hold all the passengers gate. We find some seats, and talk with some swedish guys who are going to Denver for a convention. They said we were ready to board, but a half an hour later, all 250 of us were still standing there. To ease our fears, the staff come on the PA with these comforting words.

"All passengers of flight 259 to Denver, we appreciate your patience, we're still trying to figure out what's wrong with the aircraft, and as soon as we know, we'll let you know, thank you."

I don't know if you've seen 250 people really pissed off and nervous at the same time, but I have, and it is not a scene which I would like not to re-live in my life. We actually briefly considered renting a car and driving the 14 hours to denver. After about an hour, we were herded to another gate, and finally made it to our economy (no plus) seats. I apologized to the passengers in front of me, cause they would not be able to recline, due to my knees giving them no opportunity whatsoever. We later would upgrade our seats to economy plus for the flight home. Apparently, nothing was wrong with the plane except that United had assigned the wrong plane for an international flight to Frankfurt, Germany. So we had to wait to switch planes with a plane that was originally assigned to that flight. The resulting flight to Denver was fine, (interesting note, the vestibles outside the Denver airport bathrooms can be used as tornado shelters...ok, we're definately not in NY anymore, and good to know),we were kinda tired after all the waiting and flying, but perked up once we found our family in the terminal. We'd been texting, calling, and facebooking with them all day (what did we do before these things again?). This resulted in a particularly funny facebook post from my wife's sister which said

"Oh good, the family was worried that the montage....I mean the grandkids wouldn't make it out."

This is in regards to the slideshow montage that I worked on with my wife for the entire week before. I hadn't uploaded it to facebook or emailed it to anyone mainly because after all that work, I wanted to see their reaction when they viewed it. This however, led to my Grandfather-in-law (GFIL) to become quite worried, which is very unlike him. Upon arriving in Colorado, I asked my FIL who picked us up if we could stop at a fast food place for some drinks and food by asking the question "So, is there any place to get some food or drink around here?"

His simple reply "Nope". What he meant by this is that the Denver international airport was located in the middle of the prarie, and was 40 minutes away from ANYWHERE! I managed to survive till we got to a taco bell, and it was pretty funny hearing how most of the family was going crazy over how the montage turned out. At this point I was slightly patting myself on the back for putting in all the extra effort. By extra effort I mean the following:

-Learning the Keynote program
-Enhancing 120 photographs in iPhoto
-Buying and Learning the Morpheus morphing program
-Creating Morphing effects to age the 11 grandchildren from babies/toddlers to current ages
-Exporting the Keynote presentation into Imovie
-Splicing together a few photos in Picasa
-Insisting on showing my relatives in a good light (aka, non-livestockpictures, and/or college party pictures)
-Researching, Buying, and Editing songs to go into the Montage that "fit"
-Coming up with the idea for putting a map effect (using imovie) to show all the moves that my Grandparents-in-law's had in there life. Funny enough, this, and the transition to the next picture that my wife came up with went over the best, and it was really one of the easiest things to pull off.

So after all that work, you can see how I'd want to be there when they saw it.

So we arrive at our quarters for the week, at my wife's Aunt P and Uncle J's house. They had just bought the house, and boy was it a great house. It had a two car garage, three floors (1st, 2nd, and basement). As you come down the stairs, you can either turn halfway down and go directly to the front door. They had a beautiful living room with comfy leather furniture. A totally carpeted but basically empty basement. I swear, I had so many ideas for that space. Bathrooms were everywhere. There's one next to the computer room, in the guest room where my wife and I stayed, in the master bedroom, IN THE BASEMENT! So it's a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom house, and even I know that's rare. The back door opened to a patio that had stairs down to a smallish backyard. Of course, it would have been slightly bigger if there wasn't a HUGE trampoline wedged in the corner of it. However, this did allow us to see their child perform some interesting acrobatic abilities, which was undoubtedly cool. Add to this Uncle J's awesome car collection.

-Subaru sport (didn't get the model, but it's the good one)
-Dodge truck (HUGE)
-Pontiac GTO
-Cadillac CTSV

So, out of these cars, which one did we get to borrow.....NONE!

We got to ride around in the grandparents mini-van.....whoopee.

The only bummer of staying there was that these two people who work with technology all day somehow had not gotten around to setting up a wi-fi network in their house. Now, I had actually thought about this before going, and asked my wife whether I should bring my little apple router extender, both she was "sure" they had wi-fi. I got in a good couple of smug gloats about that.

So the morning of the party arrives, and my wife, myself, and my SIL head out to the anniversary party, computer in tow. After my SIL almost merges into a moving truck(I swear, Dodge minivans must have a blind spot or something), we get there, and start walking in from the prking lot, when we are just floored. The view is just GORGEOUS, and before going in to see our family, we quickly pose to get a picture.
Now honestly, is that not one amazing sight or what?

So, after some greetings, food, small talk, and the general family merriment, the moment for the montage finally comes. The projector works great, and I connect without an issue (thank you OSX). I start the montage, and with the oohs, aahs, and laughter in the first few slides, my worries rapidly started to melt away. By the end of the 12 minutes, everyone clapped, and I kinda blushed. Then came the outpouring of "It was amazing", "How'd you do that?", "It was really good!", "I've never seen anything like it in my life". Considering the last one was from my Grandmother-in-law (GMIL), I think I score major major brownie points. So after I rocked the party with the henceforth be known as the "Most awesomest montage ever!", we headed back to the family gathering to have homemade pizzas. Mmmm, yummy BBQ chicken. Add in some cousin bashing fun in Mario Kart Wii, Uncle K1 letting us borrow his controllers for a week (cause my wife was sure everyone had four, and no one did), and it was a fun fun night.

The next morning my wife and I decided that we'd relax at GMIL and GFIL's house. Well, she relaxed with a comfy nap, and I redid my GFIL's computer network. He had let the broadband guy hook it up, and didn't even have his wireless password. I fixed that in about an hour. Also, I got rid of an error that his machine had for over a year, and fixed his skype issue. Ah, a computer geek's job is never done. My wife woke up, and by that time it was almost time to go to dinner. Now dinner plans were made by the SIL, and involved my wife's mother's sister, and her husband (Aunt A, and Uncle S). At one point, we were headed to an Indian restaurant. Now I have nothing against Indian food. I've never had it, so I don't know if I like it or not, but I wasn't in the mood to be experimental that night. Luckily, the mini-van broke down in Boulder, so Aunt A, and Uncle S had to come to pick us up, which meant that indian was out, and mexican was in. Except, that we couldn't find any sit down mexican places nearby, so after some interesting u-turns in there very smallish car, we sat down to eat at CR Potts Bar & Grill. It was wing night, so Uncle S and I split like 16 of them. Really great wings. I had a terrific burger, and washed it down with Raspberry iced tea (the one from the spout). So after some fun conversation, and family bonding I found out a fun fact.

Buffalo Sauce + Raspberry Ice tea =

So after cleaning myself out, we headed back home.

Tuesday was pool day, where we all went to the local community pool, and let me tell you, it was the most fun I'd had at a pool in years. There were water slides, a hot tub area, pool basketball, it had an outdoor, and an indoor pool area. I mean this place was GREAT! I had some tasty Chik-Fil-A for lunch (WHY DON'T WE HAVE THIS HERE!?!), where i found that they have apparently they take the sauces from other restaurants and renamed them.

example- Chik-Fil-A sauce is actually Wendy's Honey mustard sauce

So, we leave the fun filled day at the pool, and recieve a surprise...the family is treating my wife and I to dinner at OUTBACK. They drove us there and picked us up, which felt very much like a first date. I went in, and was going to order my usual Outback special, but seeing as how we had abundant funds, I went with the Victoria's filet. It is advertised as the most tender steaks of all steaks. Well it delivered, it was truly the BEST steak I've ever had. I always order my steaks medium rare, but at steak houses, they take this to heart, and towards the center it gets really red. So i asked our waitress if it was ok to eat. She said that yes it was rarer then the rest of the steak, but that it was perfectly safe to eat. I agreed, and she left. BTW, the waitress was absolute fabulous with the service. She was attentive, yet unobtrusive, refilled the drinks before I asked. She got a nice tip when we left. But before that happened, the manager came out, and made sure i was happy cause I'd asked about the steak. I said everything was fine, and that the waitress was great. In response he said that even though I was happy, for just having to ask, he was comping our dessert!

So we got the Chocolate Thunder from Down under, which has a very small picture in the dessert menu, and is actually THIS BIG!

I swear, that was the best meal ever at a restaurant. Other people can have there wines and fancy little portions of things I can't pronounce. Give me a great steak, and a choco-orgasm, and I am a VERY happy man.

So after that wonderful meal, we went back home. On wednesday we headed to the Denver Zoo, but when we got there decided to go to the museum of Science and Nature due to the heat of the day. It was a pretty fun place, where we got to take all kinds of tests of our body. My wife and I had a mental competition to see who could move a ball. Basically this machine scanned your brainwaves, and whoever became more relaxed moved the ball towards the other person. The couple before us had an exciting back and forth battle. My wife, however, thought of going to bed, and zipped that ball to my side. Looking at the graph, my wife doesn't suffer whatsoever from not being able to shut her mind off, in fact she can do it at will within seconds. So that was pretty cool. We saw an IMAX movie called "The Wild Ocean". If you are tempted to see this movie, I implore you not to. It is badly made, and really only serves to inform you about the migrating patterns of Sardines, and how bad man is for overfishing the ocean. It was truly not worth it.

That night we went to a mexican place for dinner, where I discovered that my Step-mother-in-law is still quite sensitive about the fact that her 3-year old is adopted from China. I have no idea why, it's been two years, and oh wait, she's chinese and YOUR NOT! I know that it sounds like I'm being insensitive, I'm truly not. I just think that it is moronic to be offended by a blatantly obvious fact. An example, I know I'm overweight, and if someone tells me so, I'll agree with them. So if someone calls me "Fatso", then I'll get offended, but that's not what happened at dinner. I don't want to go into it, but it annoyed me, and kinda ruined that evening. Later on that night we played Halo against the 15 and 12 year old cousins. I beat them handily on the normal Halo maps, and even tied them on there custom weirdo map. it kinda felt good to prove I was an elite Halo player. Course my friend did point out that this came at the expense of to young boys' egos.

I decided that I'm ok with that, :)

The next day we went on the Cog Rail Railway up to the summit of Pike's Peak. Now, many of you haven't heard of Pike's Peak, and up until a few days ago I would have been among you, but if you go to Colorado, you should try and do this, cause it is a very fun experience.

Some of the highlights were seeing the view that inspired the song "America the Beautiful'
Isn't that something. Wow

And then reaching the summit was cool to. The summit is 14,115 feet, and above some of the cloud line, with is REALLY cool to see.

Oh, and that horizon behind us......that goes all the way to Kansas!

The only down part was that on the ride up it's kind of like a guided tour, with the conductor, who was REALLY funny, giving really neat info on the views, and stuff you pass. On the way down, there is none of this, and it was quite a bit duller as all the beautiful vistas vanished, and you were in trees again. Honestly though, the ride up is worth minor let down.

However, if you go, do not go in a car with a whiny 3 year old, and an inept mother. I know it's not nice to call her that, but what else would you call a mother who:

-doesn't bring snacks on a long car ride (or puts them in the trunk)
-Plays no music for the child
-Expects the child to understand the concept of "waiting"
-Due to "personal" beliefs, they refuse to use a portable DVD player to entertain their child with educational programming.
-only brings sticker books and a notepad that the child gets bored with after 15 minutes.

I mean COME ON! I couldn't wait to get home. Once there, we spent the rest of the night playing mario kart with the other cousin, and my SIL surprisingly. We had some weird Thai/chinese food for dinner. I was hesitant, but the noodles were very good, though I needed two glasses of milk cause they were so spicy, :).

On Friday, I had the highlight of my trip. I got a chance to go white water river rafting. I was a little scared, but it was something I had always wanted to do. So I zipped up the wetsuit, put on my lifevest and helmet, and headed onto a Colorado river. Most of the time, it was just floating, and rowing occasionally. That was the beginning part, then we came to the real RAPIDS. As you can see, we had a slight balance issue on one of them.

Yes, that's my boat.....going over. And that's Neil, our guide, trying valiantly to stop it from going over. He was unsuccessful.

So I ended up swimming in a Colorado river, but it was SO awesome! I really want to go again when the river is faster in the early summer.

So that was my trip to Colorado. I had a GREAT GREAT TIME, and I'll be looking forward to the next trip out there.

Oh, and BTW, on Friday night I hooked up Aunt P's, and Uncle's J's brand new Apple Router. *Shrugs* At least I had Wi-Fi for one night, right.

Favorites 4 my Friday

2009-07-31T07:42:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the handful of favorite days of the year.

I got the normal ones like Christmas, birthday, anniversaries. Fridays before vacations, and Magic New Set day.

So this is actually two of the favorite days in one. As tomorrow I'm jetting off to Colorado with my wife to celebrate her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, and then spend a week in the beautiful Mountain countryside. Also today, the new Magic set is being released, so I will be able to played in a sealed tournament with all the new card goodness. There is an ebb and flow to playing Magic: The gathering. A new set is released, and everyone scrambles to build the best deck, or the best deck to beat "the best deck". It's a time for experimentation, and to try out new strategies and new deck ideas. I love this part of the game, probably more then I should. So today will hopefully be a fun day for me, and i can't wait.

I wish all of my readers well during the blog light week when I'll be in Colorado.

Thoughts 4 my thursday

2009-07-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

"Know your limits Sir"

Alfred, The Dark Knight

Alfred's sage advice is something that I began reflecting on last night as I stayed up till 3am working on the Montage. Now some of it is my fault. I wanted to wait till all the pieces had arrived before starting. Well, since the last piece arrived on Monday, that was a bad idea, even though I had conceded and started on Sunday. I should have learned the programs that I would be using (Keynote and Morpheus especially) ahead of time. I should have learned about the importance of framerate and Picture formats in regards to morphing effects. I should have been listening to music so I wouldn't be stuck finding some at the last minute.

Overall though, I shouldn't have underestimated the complexity of this thing. The only montage I had done before this was my Sister's Graduation and Graduation party. It took me only 5 hours to do, not the 30+hours this is taking. Now granted these aren't uninterrupted hours, but still it's a significant amount of time. Surprisingly, Video is easier then just pictures, although the complexity was increased with certain specifications provided by the montage requesters. Most of these additions were optional, but if I agree to do something, I like to do it well.

That is the other thing, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to these types of things, and I don't like shit looking half-assed if I worked on it. So I will morph that picture multiple times to get the best result. I will listen to 40 or so songs on a website to try and find JUST the right song for the emotional ending sequence (so far nadda). I will pay 60 dollars of my own money between songs and software to make this thing look that much more professional, even though I'm not a profesional. I will stay up into the wee hours of the morning to make sure that it gets done on time. Thats just me.

I don't know where this post was going, but I've been more then a little scatterbrained lately. Ah yes limits, well I am rapidly approaching mine. I haven't played Magic in almost a week, and Halo 3 gaming has been dissapointing. The stress of working on the Montage, and the upcoming week with my wife's family (even though I know it will be fine), is starting to wear of me. I guess I just can't wait until tonight after my Dad's retirement party, when my wife and I finally put the finishing touches on the Montage and I can look forward to tomorrow. Which is a combined last day of work, and the new Magic set coming out.

Oh right, somewhere in between all of that I have to help my wife pack...

Toons 4 my tuesday

2009-07-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

The image above is what i currently feel like. This week I have good size work load.

A 50th wedding anniversary montage to finish (which keeps getting harder, and more details thrown in at the last minute, and people sending pictures of themselves either blurred, with livestock, or drunk)

I'm a tad stressed, and can't wait until friday night when the new Magic set is released online, and I get 8 hours to myself of just me time before a week of being under the microscope of the in-laws in Colorado. Surprisingly, I like my Father-in-law's family more then the man himself, but I still feel like I have to be on my best behavior for a week. We'll see how long that lasts.

A thank you...

2009-07-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to thank Tom, Dena, and my wife for telling me to go to the "reunion" with my movie theater coworkers. I got to see one of the people who I really wanted to, the other was a no show, but I got to see where 7-10 years had taken some of these people. So let's see how the night went, shall we?

100 points for games at Dave and Busters: 20 dollars
boneless buffalo wings, a diet coke, 2 sprites, and a beer: 25 dollars
The following three moments: Priceless

Moment of Vindication: Seeing the man who broke my arm looking utterly alone among a group of his supposedly closest friends, that he works as a teller in a bank, and that he still seems to have not had a single real relationship with anyone. I know it's small and petty, but having my beautiful wife there, and saying that I have a good career just like I always said I would have was just pure vindication on the most primal level. I'm not proud of it, but boy did it feel good.

Moment of Surprise: Seeing the ugly duckling goth teenager with an attitude problem had blossomed into a very pretty, congenial, intelligent woman who's going to be a music teacher. Totally reformatted the image I had of her in my mind.

Moment of Realization: Realizing that some people who you make a connection with in life will always be easy to talk to. Always be genuinely happy to see you, and remind you that real friendship can be rekindled with just the tiniest spark.

So thanks Tom, Dena, and my wife who gave me the final push when I was having an issue earlier in the day. I had a great time.

Music 4 my Monday

2009-07-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

I can't post a video, but today's song is "Fools rush in" by Elvis.

I'm currently working on my Grandparents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary montage, and this song featured prominently in it.

Also, it was the song I dance my first dance too at my wedding

For those of you who haven't already seen it

2009-07-24T14:43:00.001-07:00

Here's am interesting and frigging awesome way to walk down the aisle.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=1d47166f-7021-4958-9a05-b94b392e677e

100 things your kids may never know about

2009-07-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

This is from an article at wired.com

I thought that it was great, and just had to repost it.

100 things your kids may never know about!

Audio-Visual Entertainment

Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.
Super-8 movies and cine film of all kinds.
Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo. See what happens when you give a Walkman to today’s teenager.
The number of TV channels being a single digit. I remember it being a massive event when Britain got its fourth channel.
Standard-definition, CRT TVs filling up half your living room.
Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
High-speed dubbing.
8-track cartridges.
Vinyl records. Even today’s DJs are going laptop or CD.
Betamax tapes.
MiniDisc.
Laserdisc: the LP of DVD.
Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations. (Digital tuners + HD radio b0rk this concept.)
Shortwave radio.
3-D movies meaning red-and-green glasses.
Watching TV when the networks say you should. Tivo and Sky+ are slowing killing this one.
That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’

Computers and Videogaming

Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long
The scream of a modem connecting.
The buzz of a dot-matrix printer
5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
Using jumpers to set IRQs.
DOS.
Terminals accessing the mainframe.
Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
Counting in kilobytes.
Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
Joysticks.
Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
Recording a song in a studio.

The Internet

NCSA Mosaic.
Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
Doing bank business only when the bank is open.
Shopping only during the day, Monday to Saturday.
Phone books and Yellow Pages.
Newspapers and magazines made from dead trees.
Actually being able to get a domain name consisting of real words.
Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.
Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
Carrying on a correspondence with real letters, especially the handwritten kind.
Archie searches.
Gopher searches.
Concatenating and UUDecoding binaries from Usenet.
Privacy.
The fact that words generally don’t have num8er5 in them.
Correct spelling of phrases, rather than TLAs.
Waiting several minutes (or even hours!) to download something.
The time before botnets/security vulnerabilities due to always-on and always-connected PCs
The time before PC networks.
When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.

Gadgets

Typewriters.
Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?
Sending that film away to be processed.
Having physical prints of photographs come back to you.
CB radios.
Getting lost. With GPS coming to more and more phones, your location is only a click away.
Rotary-dial telephones.
Answering machines.
Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart
Pay phones.
Phones with actual bells in them.
Fax machines.
Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.

Everything Else

Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.
Remembering someone’s phone number.
Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
Actually going down to a Blockbuster store to rent a movie.
Toys actually being suitable for the under-3s.
LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door.
Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.
Relying on the 5-minute sport segment on the nightly news for baseball highlights.
Neat handwriting.
The days before the nanny state.
Starbuck being a man.
Han shoots first.
“Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” But they’ve already seen episode III, so it’s no big surprise.
Kentucky Fried Chicken, as opposed to KFC.
Trig tables and log tables.
“Don’t know what a slide rule is for …”
Finding books in a card catalog at the library.
Swimming pools with diving boards.
Hershey bars in silver wrappers.
Sliding the paper outer wrapper off a Kit-Kat, placing it on the palm of your hand and clapping to make it bang loudly. Then sliding your finger down the silver foil to break off the first finger
A Marathon bar (what a Snickers used to be called in Britain).
Having to manually unlock a car door.
Writing a check.
Looking out the window during a long drive.
Roller skates, as opposed to blades.
Cash.
Libraries as a place to get books rather than a place to use the internet.
Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.
Omni Magazine
A physical dictionary — either for spelling or definitions.
When a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’ were one and the same.

My thanks go out to all of my fellow GeekDads for their contributions to this list.

Thoughts 4 my thursday

2009-07-23T07:17:00.001-07:00

These are two quotes from Maya Angelou that Sally put up on her blog yesterday. I liked them so much that I had to recycle them.

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life.'

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

What about me Wednesday (decisions)

2009-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

I have a decision to make.

Ten years ago I worked at a movie theater in ronkonkoma, ny. First it was Hoyts, then it became Regal. I spent my college years scooping popcorn, hawking candies to people in the theaters, cleaning up messes left by masses of children, and selling overpriced tickets to the people I use to go to high school and junior high with.

The original starting crew of the theater when it opened was about 60 people. Among those 60 starters, after about 3 months, 15 remained. I was one of these 15. Now others came and went over the years, but us starters always had a kind of pride about launching the place and it was sad when one of us left.

Now I wouldn't say that these were the best years of my life, and it certainly wasn't one of the best jobs. Which is kind of why all the starters bonded, because we were all stuck in this pit together. Now, like most of my jobs, I started out being ostrasized, made fun of, and pretty much written off for any kind of social hangings out. After a year or two, the people realized that I was really just a kind sweet guy, and accepted me for the most part. I still didn't do the after work parties, but it wasn't because I wasn't invited.

The decision I have to make is this. A group of starters and pseudo-starters(people who befriended the starters, hung out at the theater and eventually worked there too) have been reaching out to each other over facebook. Most of us have moved on, gotten married, one of us even has a kid, and there's another on the way (no, not me). So, since it's a little over 10 years since we started at Hoygal all those years ago, one of the people got the idea for a reunion. Within a day, it went from an idea to definately being on to this saturday at the local Dave and Buster's (kind of an adult chuck e cheese if you will). The decision is whether to go to this or not. The factors are thus.

-I don't drink normally, but don't want to be a party pooper

-While I'm in all of the conversations about the reunion, no one actually asked me to come, I assume I'm invited, but I'm not sure

-While there are people going that I'd like to see, there are an equal number of people who I don't want to see, and whose relationship with me all those years ago was tenuous at best. This mainly stems over the guy who broke my arm (he pushed me, my ankle twisted, and fell on my arm, not like he swung a bat or something). He'll be there, and while we've seen each other since then, we just kinda of grimace and nod.

-I'll get to see Kathleen, Jen, and even Jodi who seems to have matured over time (not sure), but she's been friendly over facebook.

-I'd like to bring my wife, but I don't want to bring her into a tense situation (if it is tense), but I still kinda want her there if it is.

I didn't go to my High School reunion, because I didn't want to walk into a room full of enemies. I'm wondering if this is any different? What do you guys think I should do?

Random pic of the day

2009-07-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

My dog is FAR too trusting. See it lays like this in between my wife and I, and just begs me to tickle her tummy. Damn you cutsey dog! STOP being irresitably adorable! *sigh*

Toons 4 my tuesday

2009-07-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

For those of you that haven't heard, Microsoft will attempt to compete with Apple now on the store level. According to a recent announcement, Microsoft will open retail computer stores "right next too" apple stores starting this fall. This was a funny cartoon I saw about that.

What the FRAK!?!

2009-07-21T07:15:00.001-07:00

According to this article on gizmodo, some parents in shaghai actually allowed and assisted their child in drinking gasoline AS A FREAKING BEVERAGE!

They are now shocked that he can't do simple arithmetic when he use to be able to fix the television.

Gee if only there were warnings that could have prevented this, OH WAIT!:

I hope these parents are locked up for the rest of their natural life for letting this happen to their child. It's disgraceful, though I suppose I can't be too hard on them...apparently they drink kerosene all the time.

People like this make my brain hurt.

UPDATE: What's with the gas stories today. According to this story, a couple of geniuses were huffing gas to get high. A cop caught them, and he tried to arrest them. The huffing idiots resisted arrest, and so the cop tased the man...only to have him burst into flames from all the gas fumes in his body.

*shakes head*

Honest scrap

2009-07-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sally at SallysWorld (http://sallyannestephenson.blogspot.com/) for this award

The Rules

-Each blogger to whom the award is given must post these requests.

-Each blogger to whom the award is given must list 10 random things about themselves and pass the award on to other recipients.

-The award recipients then need to do the same.

-Don't forget to leave a comment telling the recipient about the award.

So ten random things: Ok here goes

1. I once ate a blue Paas pill when I was 2, and had blue pee and poop for a week
2. My mom made me wear bowties in class pictures till I was 7
3. I broke my arm defending a woman
4. The one thing I don't like about the iphone is the inability to customize tones and ringtones on it.
5. I want to lower my carbon footprint, but know my next car will be a small SUV just cause of a height issue (my legs are too big for sedans)
6. I would like to get my pilot's license at sometime in my life
7. I would like to Jet ski at least once
8. I use to drive my grandparents nuts by mixing three different memory board games into each other for a "real challenge". I still won every game.
9. I still have not forgotten or forgiven those who tortured, teased, and betrayed me in life
10. i looked like this on Sunday just after waking up:

I'd like to pass this on to

Dena (thoughtsbyDena)

Heather (and now I'm a grown up...)

Music 4 my Monday

2009-07-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling springy today after a fun Anniversary weekend, and a good first half of the workday.

So here's a favorite of my wife and myself that we haven't heard in a while

"Party for two"-Shania Twain

P.S.-interesting tidbit about this song. I threw the garter to it at my wedding.

Favorites 4 my Friday

2009-07-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

My Favorite First Date:

Four years ago tomorrow I had the best and last first date of my life. I had just come off a few rocky relationettes. What I mean by that is a bunch of first dates or like a week of talking that led to no where. It was disheartening to say the least.

So disheartening that on July 14th 2005 I wrote the following on my then My space blog "...it had been building all night, the question "What's wrong with me?". I mean all night, I don't know if it was date night or what, but alot of couples came into the store and were being all couply. You know, hugging and kissing, and just showing each other affection. I remember what that felt like, being that close to your significant other, it's the best feeling in the world. Not suprisingly it's the thing I miss most about being in a relationship. Yet I felt myself giving them a dirty look, and something deep down began to hurt. I tried to cheer myself up by putting on romantic comedies in the store's televisions, you know to give me hope, but it had the adverse effect, and I sank lower into my slump. I just don't get it, I really don't. All I want is someone to love who will love me back who is reasonably attractive and NOT FUCKING INSANE! Why is this so fucking hard to find.

Two days later, I literally through up my hands and said "That's it, I'm done, no more women, they are all fucking nuts!" This is where fate stepped in, because not 20 minutes had passed when I heard a little chime. I had gotten an alert in my email, "Someone has winked at you on Match.com". Decidedly strong willed I stuck to my declaration and did not click on it immediately...I went to the bathroom first and then caved. Clicking on the link I saw a pretty young woman with golden hair, and cutestest little cherub face. I looked at her pictures. There was one of her cats laying on her, one in front of her college, and the one that I really liked was the one in a tree with her eyes half closed. There was just something about that picture that just made you want to meet this person. I clicked on reply and gave her my information. The next two days flew by like a blur. We Imed for hours, and then talked on the phone till 5 in the morning. Knowing what I know now about her, staying up past midnight was a BIG thing. She must have really liked me, :).

We made a date for my next day off, and so at 3 o'clock on July 18th 2005, I walked into the Stony Brook borders to meet my future wife.

She was just as striking as her online pictures, and her smile was just as sweet as I knew it would be. For the first time since I'd started dating the opposite sex, I forgot how to speak. This was odd, cause I usually talk when I'm nervous. After a few awkward conversational moments of me remembering my name, clumsily giving her a flower, and forgetting that we were there to get to know each other over coffee and suggesting looking at the books. (shakes heads, that she's still with me is a miracle.). She apparently found all of this cute. We talked for two hours about everything and nothing. Then sadly, the time for our "meet and greet" to end had come. Her mom was late however, so I offered to drive her to drop her rental car off, and then home.

She agreed, and I walked her to her car, asking to hold her hand on the way. Haha, my mom's dating lessons paid off, as she really seemed to like this. After we dropped off her rental car off, I took the initiative and offered to expand the meet and greet to include dinner.

She called her mom and agreed. We went to Red Lobster, and ordered the SAME EXACT THING! Without any discussion we randomly picked the same exact meal and sides, :). So we continued talking, and even though she's a little shy, I'm just smitten. Looking out the window as we were nearing the end of our meal, I see the movie theatre sign, and decide to press my luck. I ask if she'd want to see a movie. She agrees, and then when given the choice to choose the movie she says "Fantastic Four looks good". I swear, I had to restrain myself right then and there from not embarrasing myself by blurting out some overly romantic gesture.

So we head to the movie, and she calls her mom again letting her know that I'm not a serial killer or anything. She does this while leaning up against a column in the lobby. As she hangs up with her mom, our eyes meet and we kiss our first kiss. It was my future wife's first kiss, and I tease her occasionally about how her technique was a little less then polished. However, not a day goes by now that I don't want to kiss her. We watched the movie, which she didn't remember any of months later, apparently she was distracted by "the boy" that she was canoodling with in the theatre.

After the movie, we got back in my car and we kissed a little bit more before I drove her home. I remember that I rubbed her tummy a little (I didn't know what else to do with my hand), but she liked it, cause she declared after the kissing that i was now her boyfriend. Now normally this would set off alarm bells of "too clingy" or "whoa put on the brakes" to most guys, but not this guy. I was perfectly happy to be her boyfriend, and just beamed all the way to her house. On the way there the blink 182 song "First Date" came on.

The refrain of that song is :
Let's go, don't wait, this night's almost over
Honest, let's make this night last forever
Forever and ever, let's make this last forever
Forever and ever, let's make this last forever

I walked her to the door, and got lost going home, but when a 2 hour meet and greet turns into a 9 hour date, you know you've found something special.

5 months later I knelt down at Rockefeller Center in front of the Christmas tree, and asked my wife to spend forever with me.

On 3 0' clock on July 18th 2008, we would be married in what is still the happinest day of my life.

And tomorrow, we'll celebrate 1 year of being married.

Happy Anniversary Lovey.
Everyday with you only makes me love you more and more. We've been through so much, and I know that's just the beginning, and I can't wait for the rest. Cause at the end of the day, no matter what happens, or what bill is due, what family member is stressing, what boss was insensitive, or what the future kids do, I know that we have on another. We may not be perfect, but we're perfect for each other. I love you, Forever and Always.

Musical Memories

2009-07-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Recently in my search for musical entertainment, I have experienced a drought of sorts in the "new music" area. I've only downloaded maybe 2 or 3 songs over the last month, and after an initial interest in them discovered that they weren't the kind you can listen to over and over again without getting tired of them. iTunes latest offerings in the top 100, which is really all I look at have not generally inspired much clicking on my part. I loathe rap (I like eminem and will smith, that's basically it. Too much cursing and slang in the others that I don't get), heavy metal, and I have a strong bias against most country (life's depressing enough, I don't want to hear your problems too). Although, artists like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift which keep enough of a "pop" sensibility to their music that I don't start to gag. Since the Black eyed peas aren't my cup of tea either, i haven't found much to download. Yes yes, I know I should delve deeper, and discover artists that I haven't heard of that are really good. I do this occasionally (generally at 4am when I can't sleep), but by the by I just don't feel like fishing for tunes that often.

This led me to look at my itunes library which has alot of songs and say "Y'know, I bet there are alot of these songs that I haven't listened to in a long time.", I went about combining all my playlists, excluding audiobooks, comedy albums and xmas music. I hit shuffle and just picked one. It was a trippy ride to work, let me tell you. I went from Hanna Montana (yes I have 3 of her songs, thier catchy so sue me) to Rob Zombie, then shifted into Billy Joel.

What I really love about music, is the ability for some simple notes and sometimes lyrics to ellict powerful emotional responses from us. I've seen mass crowds of people moved by music. I've been brought to tears by it myself. But I think the thing I enjoy most, are the memories that music evokes in me. Every song on my playlist of over 1400 has a moment or memory associated with it, so I thought that it would be a fun idea to go through a list of 10 or so, and share my memories of random songs that come up. So here goes...1...2..1.2.3.4!

Hinder-"Born to be wild"
This remake of the classic song was produced for the TNT commercials advertising that NASCAR was coming to their station. I'd seen the commerical a few times, and thought the song would make a great driving song, and it is! This song led me to download "Bad to the bone", which along with "Born to be Wild" was featured in "rock n roll racing" for the SNES and Gameboy advanced game systems which was a favorite of mine back in the day.

Ben Folds-"Still Fighting It"
I discovered this song when searching for an "alternative" father-daughter dance song for my wife, since it was a tough spot during the picking and choosing of the wedding stuff. I would find all these websites and these brides would swear by these songs, but my workplace having then recently banned youtube, I couldn't listen to them. I got previews on itunes, but they only go so far. So since the preview was good, I downloaded it to my Iphone. Once I heard the whole song, I knew it wouldn't be right for the dance, but it was mine now, so I kept it in my playlist. A few months after I was already married, this popped up, and listening to the song just for the sake of listening it spoke to me. I could really relate to the message, and I listened to it all the way home. I let my wife listen to it again, and she liked it too. This led to me purchasing the entire album it was part of, and has given me hours of listening enjoyment, and a new artist to call myself a fan of.

The Legend Soundtrack-"Cottage"

Whoa...memory overload! This has been used in any and all of my Dungeons and Dragons campaigns that I've ran or played in. It's what was called "Happy Town music", basically this was the music that told you that you and your party were safe for now. I've also used it for character creation music to get people into the medieval settings for the stories as it does it without much effort.It was the first background music I heard for playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it will always have a multitude of memories attached to it.

High School Musical 3 Soundtrack- High School Musical

Honestly, I didn't enjoy this song much at the end of the film, and thought it was just annoying. it's on the playlist because well i didn't edit anything from my purchased songs out (cept the comedy albums), and I purchased the entire albums as I along with my wife liked most of the soundtrack.

Fall Out Boy (featuring John Mayer)- "Beat It"

This Micheal Jackson remake got added because "Beat It" was one of the first songs that I liked as a kid. When I was 6, this music video was everywhere, and I remember my cousin Tam made me a tape of it, and I loved listening to it. So when Fall Out Boy made a remake, I had to see if it was good. I actually do enjoy the remake, and think it's a fine tribute to the original.

Rick Springfield-"Jessie's Girl"
I use to listen to this in the late 80's when my Mom use to listen to the radio in the car. It came back to me when I saw the movie 13 going on 30. I remembered how much I had liked the song, and downloaded it immediately. I don't listen to it often anymore (I have my own girl. :)), but when the mood for some classic 80's tunes pops up, I scroll around my iPhone for this song right here.

Powerman 5000-"When worlds collide"

I heard this in a comic shop where I bought Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and I downloaded it cause at the time I was writing a Dungeons and Dragons game and thought it would have been a good fight music song. I eventually did run that game, and the song served it's original purpose, but since then it is a fun "I hate the world" song to listen to now and again when your having a bad day.

blink 182- "Untitled"

A great band that I wish was still around, "Untitled" is a great break up song to help you try and get over someone. I love the lyrics to this song, and sung them repeatedly to myself trying to get over a particularly bad break-up.
"But what do I get 'cause I just seem to lose
You make me regret those times I spent with you
And playing those games as I wait for your call
And now I give up, so goodbye and so long"

Of course this is in between some great guitar and drum riffs. A great song for any recently dumped on person.

Disney's Hercules soundtrack-"I Won't say I'm in Love"

Wow, lotsa memories here. When I first met my wife, I was reeling from several dissapointing first dates, a coniving ex gf who had tried to baby trap me, rethinking my decision to move to New York, and then I met the love of my life. I was smitten from day one, but I had been down that "fall in love way to fast" roller coaster before, and I didn't want this relationship to end up like the others. The more time I spent with her though, I kept wanting to say it more and more. I listened to this song as kind of therapy to stem my growing need to express what every ounce of me was bursting to say. "I can say it in my head all I want". Yeah, that held for about 3 weeks, lol. After I had revealed all this to my wife, the song became kind of an inside joke with us, and we use to sing it in the car. We haven't heard it in a while, but hearing it again makes me remember what a great first month we had together.

Eminem- "Lose Yourself"

I had been a fan of this song for a while, but never downloaded it. When an iTunes featured it on a commercial, I remembered how much I liked it and downloaded it. At the time I was in a job I loathed, and this song helped in a kind of motivational way to help me cope and get through it, to do what I had to do to get where I am today.

Thoughts 4 my thursday

2009-07-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

This bit of dialogue is from Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix. I think it perfectly illustrates the differences between how guys view things, and how girls.

Ron Weasley: [about Harry's first kiss] Well? How was it?
Harry Potter: Wet. I mean, she was sort of crying.
Ron Weasley: [laughs] That bad at it, are you?
Hermione Granger: I'm sure Harry's kissing was more that satisfactory. Cho spends half her time crying these days.
Ron Weasley: You'd think a bit of snogging would cheer her up.
Hermione Granger: Don't you understand how she must be feeling? Well, obviously she's feeling sad about Cedric, and therefore confused about liking Harry, and guilty about kissing him. Conflicted because Umbridge is threatening to sack her mum from her job at the Ministry, and frightened about failing her O.W.L.s because she's so busy worrying about everything else.
Ron Weasley: One person couldn't feel all that, they'd explode!

Random Pic of the day (So close....)

2009-07-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

You know, I had a What about me Wednesday post all thought up, but I just don't have the energy right now to write it. I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night at the midnight premiere. It was a good movie, the best in the non christopher columbus directed ones by far. I'll be doing a full summer movie workup this weekend. I haven't been doing the individual reviews, because they take a long time to write, and I just haven't had it. I'm looking into other shorter more concise formats to try.

The movie was great, but the experience was lacking. I attended the film with my wife, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law. Having experienced a similar fan mob with transformers, it was so bad that we didn't get to sit together, I made sure to get to the theatre at 10:20 to secure 4 seats together. My MIL and SIL came a little later at 11:30. It was really cutting it close seat wise (we had to turn away a few people, and I just hate doing that), but they made it there. They had just come from the police station where my MIL was reporting on her EX again after some more text messages from him.

So the movie starts and I'm having a great time. The humor is there, the quidditch was awesome, the romance, and all the major plotpoints were hit upon. I was having a great time, then I looked over at my group. My wife was getting really tired, I think her sister was too, but then I saw my Mother-in-law. She was sitting in the crowded theatre, and instead of watching the really great film in front of her, she was looking at her hands, and moving her fingers back at forth looking like the most depressed person I'd ever seen. After that, I couldn't enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to. I kept looking over at my MIL, and just seeing this lone person in a sea of people laughing, gasping, enjoying the film look like she was so utterly in her own sad little world. I had invited her to the film to try and give her an enjoyable night...I guess it didn't work.

After the movie, we drove home in separate cars. My poor wife who had worked till 10, and it was now 3am by the time we were leaving was just dead. I was jazzed and ready for my post-movie analysis and comparing to the book. I like to go over what lines I like the best, and the strong points and weak points in the film. My wife however was ready for a pillow and not much else. I can't fault her for this. She is usually in bed by 11, and she'd had a long and difficult day, so she was very quiet, and eventually I caught on, and became quiet too. I suddenly had a great longing to have Darque or Hawk there to talk about the film, it felt like the movie outing just didn't have it's proper conclusion, y'know. Like I said I can't fault my wife for this, it's just the way it is.

This morning the alarm went off at 7:30 like always, and I hit the snooze more times then i should have, like always. Once I got up, I tried to wake my wife, but it just wasn't happening. She would move maybe 4 inches further onto my pillow and collaspe again, snoring before 30 seconds had past. So after 3 failed attempts, I got up myself and went downstairs. I have come to rely on my wife for my mornings to go smoothly. I am the farthest thing from a morning person as you can get. I like to wake up at 11 ideally, but there are few jobs that start at the crack of noon. Therefore i have relied on my mother, then my female roomate, and then my wonderful uber kind wife to provide me with sustanace and then get me out the door. Since my wife was unable to awaken, heck I had to settle for a kiss on the cheek, cause she wouldn't move her head to kiss me she was so out of it. I was then left to fend for myself which is a horrifying thought in the morning. I got downstairs and just froze in the kitchen. I knew I had 6 or 7 things to do, but I just couldn't multi-task then, and just froze trying to think of what to do first. after about 10 minutes fumbling around and knocking things over I manage to pack my drinks, and had decided to buy breakfast and lunch as the ability to make a nutritious satisfying lunch in 10 -15 minutes resides solely within my wife. I would take 30 minutes which I didn't have, leave a huge mess, and still only have like a sandwich. Yes I'm aware, I'm pathetic. I've accepted this, and live with the shame daily. I also remembered after I got some horrible Mcdonald's sandwich that we had a spinach quiche in the fridge, and all I had to do was cut a slice. DOH!

So I get to work, and just starting to wake up when the power flashes on and off. This means I have to now go out and make sure all the computer in production came back up ok. After a half hour of this, and just solving the LAST problem, the entire building goes out!. *&^%*&$%&%$!

Apparently this happened.

in case you can't see my bad picture, that's a Ryder truck under a busted telephone pole. It knocked out our entire block. I figured that an accident like this would take at least the rest of the day to fix, maybe even tomorrow too. WRONG! It was fixed in an hour (SON OF A B---H!). Then I spent 45 agonizing minutes thinking I had lost my 150 dollar sunglasses that I use to drive so I don't get migraines, thankfully a good natured employee had found them and told my friend. Losing things is a major "thing" with me. I hate losing my stuff, and I go nuts (I've rearranged rooms, no joke) trying to find stuff. So, after all that, I realized that the immense pain now coming from my foot from what I though was walking the company parking lot looking for my glasses, isn't due to my feet being hot, but the ingrown toenail that I've let go too long has become swollen, red, and painful to the touch. So now I'm limping and still have 4 hours to go at work.

What. a. great. day. *sigh*

Music for my Monday

2009-07-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

I feel kinda sick today, and I really don't want to be at work right now.

So I'll just pick my go to song for these types of days, and say "bad Day" by Daniel Powter

if you look it up on youtube, the video is actually very well done.

Favorites 4 my Friday

2009-07-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my least FAVORITE way to start the day.

Have my boss insult and demean me

*sigh*, at least it's Friday. I can build up my self-esteem over the weekend, so it can be slowly chopped away at by my coworkers during the week.

And no, it's not actually like this all the time. I think this is mainly a combination of feeling slightly sick, being cold, and being embarrassed.