Fear, Coming Out, and a New Chapter

When my ex divorced me, my life changed.

That probably sounds like a colossal "Duh!" but hear me out.

Prior to being divorced I essentially lived my life with reckless abandon. I sold myself out in relationships and most everything else. For those that saw my efforts with .hack//ENEMY I think you saw some of the evidence of that - what I loved, I loved dearly, whole-heartedly, and with all the energy I had within myself.

Then came the divorce, and all that changed. Suddenly the once-fearless one became the picture of timidity. See, to me, the possibility of divorce wasn't in the scope of reality so hearing someone tell me, "I don't want to be married any more," was like someone trying to tell me that 1+1 did NOT equal 2...it just didn't, couldn't compute. But there was the reality I was forced to accept, and it literally changed my view of reality. Part of that change left me as a shell of my former self, timid and afraid.

I vowed to get better.

It took about two years to really get over the divorce and get back to a point where I could handle building new relationships - essentially a prototypical recovery. What I never regained, though, was my fearlessness, and that became evident in my relationships and conversation.

It wasn't what people saw that was the problem. It was what they didn't see.

What people saw was me dating again. They saw me having fun again. Smiling again. Goin' out with the guys and watching fights and gaming again. All that was fine and good, but fear was causing me to hide the most influential part of my life away from almost all that knew me.

I'm a Christian, but I wasn't showing it. I was afraid. Now many of you know I'm a Christian from prior conversations we've had, but that's not the point. The point is that if you didn't know before, you wouldn't have known from how I've represented myself over the past two years and that's pretty much antithetical to the faith.

It should come as no shock to me that once I started making Him a part of my life again, my fearlessness slowly....s l o w l y...started to return. Now this doesn't mean that suddenly I'm going to be this judgemental bible-thumper. To the contrary, this is about me being who I am again rather than me judging others. Frankly many of you have told me some very personal and sometimes controversial tidbits about yourself over the years, and I dare say that I've never placed judgement on any of you. That's not my place, nor my desire. Nor is it my desire to cram my faith down your throat. If you'd like to discuss faith-related issues I'll be more than happy to listen to you and talk with you. What this does mean, though, is that I'll not hide my faith any more, nor my faith-related concerns.

It also means that I should probably once again watch my language. You'll probably see less swearing in my blog posts and hear less swearing from me in general. I've also returned to youth ministry after a three and a half year hiatus: I've now taken an active role in my church's college ministry and am very much enjoying it. It's like an old warrior picking up his sword after being away from the front lines for many years...it's a little awkward, but it starts to come back to you after a few swings.

It also does NOT mean that I'm going to be any less opinionated on things. I like what I like, and I shun what I don't. I still love gaming and football and UFC fights and Ohio State and all that kind of stuff. Michigan still is where Satan was born. Etc, etc, etc.

One other thing this does mean is that I'll be starting a new chapter in my blogging. Rather than adding on to a blog that never let my spirituality come out, I think it's time to make a new start...a literal display of an internal change. My blogging will now take place at boyandhissword.blogspot.com. There you will find all the usual types of posts from me, however intermixed with them will be various posts relating to my spirituality. Some of you may not be interested in reading such things, and that's fine. I don't blame you if you choose not to visit the blog any more. Just know that I still value the friendship I have with all of you no matter what. Hopefully, though, you'll still visit the new blog.

It is what is was, just with a few new additions.

Crouching Clinton, Drunken Bush

A local radio station recorded Bush's recent speech for the purposes of slowing him down, stating that whatever he says is much easier to swallow when slowed down because it sounds like he's drunk.

And I'll be damned if they're not right. I heard a few clips and he just sounds absolutely sloshed. Heeelarious!

Then I heard a couple of clips of Hillary Clinton played slow, and she sounds like a mean drunk. MEEEAAANNN.

Hillary mean, Bush funny. If you get a chance to hear them slowed down, do give it a listen!!! In the meantime I'll see if I can find anything posted on the net.

Lost in Translation

See if you can translate what this says.

Hint = It's a full sentance.

"tyhiksiikeyhb9oarfdkswyhatiktl9o9oikslikikeafrteryh9ouspikllbeerf9onyh9our"

See the comments for an explanation.

So happy I could cry...

Hail to the Victors!!!

If anyone has any quotes from Carr after the game, please forward me the links. I'd *love* to see that post-game interview since he does so well with reporters.

Woody's Wisdom

It 1968 and Ohio State is beating Michigan 48-14 when Woody Hayes decides to go for the two-point conversion, a conspicuously bold decision as related to the game reset.

After the game a reporter approached Woody and asked, "Why'd you go for two, coach?"

"Because I couldn't go for three!"

Damn straight. Testify, coach!

Enjoyment

It's been quite a while since I've enjoyed life this much...

I was essentially told I'll be promoted sometime in the next 4-5 months this past Wednesday. Yesterday I bowled my best game ever, and nearly marked in every frame. It's football season and I'm watching a great game between Virginia Tech and East Carolina. Ohio State is winning soundly, Penn State is winning soundly, that school where Satan was born is losing to App. State, Peoria won yesterday, I'm gonna see a movie with the FGF and then she'll meet one of the best friends for dinner, fantasy draft is on Monday along with smoked ribs w/the fam, and all on a long weekend.

I tell you what, I could sure go for another piece of this pie!!!

Oh, and I found out my girlfriend is a table dancer! That's right. She's all mine, boys...go find your own table-dancing girlfriend.

It wouldn't be impossible for me to enjoy life more. There are definitely things that could make it better, but I'm not about to take this weekend for granted. This is goooood times!

Heeeeeeere's Abby!

For those who wanted a pic, here she be...


I made her laugh in this one :-D

The Jerome Trip

A few weeks ago the FGF and I headed north to Jerome, an old mining town and pseudo-ghost town, to check out the Perseid meteor shower. You can view a few pics here. I'd never been there before and it's a definite point of interest for Arizonans and tourists. After having been there for about a half hour, it was quickly apparent that there were four things in abundance - artists, homosexuals, bikers, and tourists.

The little town really only has about three streets, and they're all pretty close together - a very cramped town. Those streets are nearly completely lined with artisan stores. Leatherwork. Jewelry. Kaleidescopes and other glass sculptures. Paintings. Pottery. In these stores were the tourists...LOTS of tourists...buying the wares. There are eateries scattered about, but the hub of the town...the social core of Jerome...is The Spirit Room - a biker bar/club with live music - and the amphitheater across the street where those younger than 21 gather to listen. And on probably 1/3 of the shops and restaurants there you can find the rainbow flag. The homosexual crowd there doesn't seem to be the flamboyant variety...just fairly abundant, and well accepted by the community at large. The entire town is by and large a deviation from the traditional conservatism that has been Arizona for the past hundred years (although the state's definitely becoming more liberal over the past decade or so.

They have a large, lit up J on the mountain in which the town is set which sparkled like the stars above it. We found a nearly perfect spot just up the road from town to pull into and watch the light display. No clouds, no moon, good times.

They're called drivers...hire one.

My best friend was killed by a drunk driver in 7th grade. That has no bearing on this, though.

Drinking and driving makes absolutely no sense to me. That has limited bearing on this, though.

If you're a celebrity (like a Paris Hilton [who I have no idea WHY she's a celebrity] or Lindsay Lohan or Glen Close or Mel Gibson or countless others) and you're going to be drinking and you've made shows or movies or albums or books and you have money...

HIRE A DAMN DRIVER! A taxi, a limo service, a permanent chauffeur...something. Hell, throw your keys away for all I care. You can buy a new car the next day.

Just don't drink and drive. I don't wanna see any more ugly celebrity mugs.

I'm not laughing at blind people...

...but the picture I get in my mind of the Guiding Eyes for the Blind Gold Classic is just hilarious. As taken from their recent press release...

"Guiding Eyes for the Blind is pleased to welcome New York Giant quarterback Eli Manning as the new host of the 30th Annual Guiding Eyes for the Blind Golf Classic...Participants play 18 holes of golf with an opportunity to play a few holes with blind golfers and will also have the opportunity to meet Eli Manning. On Sunday, June 24, sixteen of the top blind golfers from the United States Blind Golf Association in the U.S. and Canada compete against one another at Mount Kisco Country Club for the coveted Corcoran Cup. "

I can't help but picture players walking all over the place, driving their golf carts across the greens and into trees, golf balls flying everywhere, putting on the tee box and driving from the greens...stuff like that. I know that wouldn't actually happen (very much) but that's the initial scene that pops in my head. I know, I know, I'm going to hell.

On a more serious note, I'm all about assisted living and facilitative accomodations for disabled folks to play sports (or at least modified versions of sports). My dad's been in a wheelchair for years so it's kinda hard not to be for that kind of stuff. But blind golf? Is this reeeeely a good idea?

I have to think Eli Manning is wondering the same thing about trying to play professional football...

2k in two years

Thanks for the hits and the readership! The blog's birthday is in two days so here's to another fantastic year!!!

Real blogger roll call!

Alright, folks of the blogosphere out there...I know you're reading but many of you aren't writing. To those who are (heh...I accidentally left out the space and it said whoare), much awesomeness!

To those who havent' updated in months - share and share alike! New material, please! Updates are good. I promise!

To those who don't blog at all...boooo!

(And no, MySpace tags and bulletins and stuff don't count as blogging. Only blogging counts as blogging.)

Ick...I just used entirely too many "og" syllables. And My combined with Space. Yuck.

Finally they got one right (I hope)

Makers of fortunes for fortune cookies have become discouragingly lax in their originality recently; the pinnacle of the makers' failure can be seen in Triple G's relatively recent fortune of "You like Chinese food."

Brilliant.

Today I went to Pei Wei's - a somewhat faster version of P.F. Chang's but still the same food - and ordered their Kung Pao Chicken.

(Editiorial note - I love getting lunch at Pei Wei's because it's like getting two meals in one for about $8.50, and there's nothin' wrong w/white meat and brown rice!)

This week we announce to our department the changes that are coming - an announcement that's been in the works for months now, one that we're VERY excited to put out there. And VERY nervous about the implemenation of.

So combining all that, imagine my pleasant reaction when I read my fortune today...

"You will be successful in your work."

Dang right, baby!

Home?

In the mail today I received a letter from the company I work for addressed to Some Random Girl. Of course I'm not Some Random Girl so I think this both strange and ironic being that it came from my own workplace.

I then arrive at my door to find an envelope from my apartment complex addressed to Some Random Couple. I don't have a roommate (to my knowledge) nor am I married (to my knowledge).

All of this makes me wonder - do I still live here? Did the bodysnatchers arrive and they're just saving me for last? Alternate universes collided and my apartment is now the wormhole or event horizon or whatevertheheck term it is for where alternate universes intersect?

E.T. phone home...

Blue Days

I don't mean sad days. Or days with bright blue skies.

I mean Outlook Blue.

For those that don't use Microsoft Outlook, when you have an appointment on your calendar the default disposition for that time is "busy" (so that people don't try to double-book you...not that it works, but that's the idea), and "busy" time is colored blue.

I've noticed that more and more of my time at work is being coded blue, and today was essentially a Blue Day. Fortunately today was productive meetings vs. theoretical, planning, strategic meetings so stuff actually got done. *thumbs up* But what that means is I'm becoming more and more busy, and my ability to be available for my staff and coworkers is getting drastically reduced - a concern on two fronts. I need to be available to them for questions and escalations if my lead isn't around, and if I'm busy that means I'm not available for my co-workers. My co-workers in many cases are long-time friends and somewhat akin to family, so if my days are mostly blue, then that means my time to be available to my friends and family is reduced.

And that's not cool.

Things most likely will not get any less busy at work so it looks like I'm going to have to find some creative ways to make sure I still have time for them if they want/need it. I've tried to make it a point in my life to make people first and work second and I'm not about to let that die now.

Change

I don't just throw away my change. Yes, it makes it's way to some container after I get home, but I do use it, either for vending machines or to donate to our annual Children's Miracle Network change drive. This is an important understanding when taking into account these two instances...

- I was at Sonic and my total was $4.52. I handed her a $5 bill and took my food, but before I could turn back around to get my change, she was ten feet away walking back towards the building. Didn't ask if it was okay to keep the change. Just took it.

- I went to a taco joint and the bill was $6.46. I gave her $10.51, including two quarters and a penny. I figured three coins for one was a good space-saving decision. About fifteen seconds later she hands me back $4.02. And then she quickly shuts her window. Hmmm...

I tapped on the window.

"Yes?"

"Can I get my other three cents, please?" I reach out my hand to give her back the two pennies.

She doesn't get it. A few more mathematical statements later she hands me a nickle...but doesn't take the pennies from me. Eventually I have to force herto take the pennies saying, "Trust me, your drawer will appreciate it later." After I drove off I wondered if she even knew what I meant, or what it was to "balance" at the end of the night.

These are only two instances of many over the past year, and I ask myself how many transactions are improperly "changed" in this country? And even further, how does $.02 come to equal $.05? Because that's seriously some math I could use.

Best in the NL? Really???

Technically, yes. We mathematically do have the best record in the National League. But are we really the best?

No. Not a chance. Here's a few reasons why (by no means is this an exhaustive list)...

- Doug Davis gives up too damn many walks as it is. Melvin has allowed Davis to pitch himself out of situations this year and he's on a pretty good pitching streak right now. But that's right now. Good teams know what to do with free bases, and you can't afford to give anything away in October.

- B. H. Kim. At least now he's a starter so we have 7 innings to clean up his mess instead of just two, but that's gonna wear on the psyche of some of our players. You wanna be confident in your pitcher, not thinking that you're gonna have to bail him out. Every start matters for us. The more we give to this guy, the worse we'll be down the stretch.

- Overall pitching. You need at least a good 1-2 pitching duo to get out of the first series. We have Webb and...who? Yeah. The way Davis has been pitching he could be a sound #2, but I just don't trust him to keep it up. We probably lose a 5-game series to Penny-Wolf or Peavy-Young, and there ain't no way we win any playoff series against NY's line-up.

- Youth. This *could* work to our advantage since the book against our hitters won't be as thick and maybe they won't no any better to be nervous or scared, but I don't think that's how it goes down for us. Not this year.

At the beginning of the season I said I think we're a year away from the playoffs. I might be wrong, but if they make it I 'spect it will be by default. I still don't see us winning the division title. I hope I'm wrong, mind you, and if they go into the playoffs and go deep I'll cheer like a blithering idiot. I still think we're a year and two pitchers away from being a true contender.

If Elvis wasn't dead yet, he is now

I was debating on whether or not to watch the pre-season game today. On one hand, it's football, but it's it's still pre-season football. Miss-the-first-ten-minutes-and miss-the-game type stuff. I finally turned it on with about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, just in time to see Indianapolis' struggling back-up offensive unit chuck an interception to the Cowboys.

Neet. What a game. 23-3, Cowboys.

As I'm reaching for the remote I see this commercial come on with a band covering the song "Viva Las Vegas," or so I think. Sounds like it. Words are for it. Right up until the point where it isn't.

"Viva....

"VIVA....

"VIIIIAGRAAAAA!!!"

Ughhh!!!! They totally just gave Vegas a penile enhancement (as if it was necessary). If Elvis really was alive somewhere, this commercial just gave him a heart attack.

Not even five minutes of television and I see two bad products. I knew I should have trusted my gut on this one. Oh well. Bring on the fantasy draft!!!

Welcome, new viewers!

Just wanted to say hi to Hank-Ahn and Wobble! Thanks for droppin' by and leavin' a note or two!

If you haven't done so already, be sure to let me know about any blog or website you might maintain that you want linked.

(Now if only 24 would open up it's website.... *ahem*)

EDIT: Nevermind...looks like they went covert ops on me and launched it, much to the chagrin of the terrorists, Russians, Chinese, and other various rogue elements.

Dorkin' out

A true conversation had between myself and a coworker recently:

Bygood: yeah /sob

Coworker: is that WOW-speak?

Coworker: haha

Bygood: negative

Bygood: ragnarok online-speak

Coworker: hahahaha, i had to sacrifice my RPG addiction when my daughter was born

Bygood: sounds like a reasonable tradeoff to me

Coworker: The call center is my only live action massively multiplayer game now

Bygood: LOL!!!!

Coworker: we have a lot of orcs here

Bygood :so now you have a +7 headset of smiting?

Coworker: lol!

The FGF

This was a pretty good weekend. No beach. No vacation. No frills at all, really. Just a pretty good weekend...in fact, the only thing keeping it from being a great weekend was the fact that my recently replaced brake shoes were defective and wreacked a little havoc on my passenger side drum.

Friday night - Applebees, The Italian Job, and Three Musketeers

Saturday - Car tweakage, Big, car cleanage (for free), Red Lobster, Barnes & Noble, and a massage

Sunday - Church, Kingdom Hearts, dinner at the folks' place

See? Nothing overly exciting. What made it very-nearly-great, though, was the infusuion of girlfriend 2k7. It's been a few years since I've spent an entire weekend with my significant other, and while I wouldn't necessarily want to do it like that every weekend - lets face it, things like poker nights, UFC nights, etc are important - it was definitely a welcomed change of pace from the previous few months.

One of my fellow bloggers refers to his significant other (spouse, in his case) in his blog entries as LWC - aka Lovely Wife Cheryl. My Nemesis refers to her significant other as "the fabulous boyfriend." So, in honor of my significant other along with my friends in the blogosphere, Abby shall genrerally be known as the FGF - the fabulous girlfriend - who helps make weekends great.

Now if I can just get some non-defective brake shoes...

It's like a train wreck...

As if watching PacMan run his career into the ground wasn't enough...



I wonder if they're gonna go after Vick next seeing how they're both kinda sprinting towards the same "Your career is finished" line.

Mmmm...stats!

Precision Counter was suffering from a bad case of Headupis Rectum and was taken offline for a good...idunno, while? Anywho, I was forced to use an alternative hit counter for tracking. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of hit counters that will give the level of tracking detail that Precision Counter does for free so that was kind of a drag.

Anywho, Precision Counter is back, and that makes Shade happy!!! Huzzah for more stats!

Mmmm...stats...

Home to Wendy's, whiskey, and....what???

I was doing some general surfing when I saw on Yahoo's top ten list the Dublin Irish Festival. Having never heard of it before I clicked on the link, which then ultimately led me here...

It didn't take me long to figure out that by Dublin it wasn't refering to Dublin, Ireland, but instead to the great city of Dublin, Ohio, suburb of Columbus, home of the Buckeyes!!! Dublin, of course, is home to a few pretty great thigns in and of themselves, chiefly Wendy's international headquarters (mmm...frostys and chili and burgers and potatos and....).

Besides Wendy's and all of its glory, though, it's also home to the - duh! - Dublin Irish Festival. In case you're wondering, yes, Dublin, OH is named for their homeland capital, and yes, there's lots of folks w/Irish heritage in Ohio. So I'm looking through the Festival's web pages and see they have an Irish whisky drinking seminar (which could most accurately be summarized in three words... "DON'T DRINK IT!!!"), dancing competitions, and...Gaelic Games!!! To the Gaelic Games page I go!

This, my friends, might have been a mistake.

On the page I learn that tug o' war apparently has Irish roots...a fairly benign fact. I keep scrolling down, however, to see that hurling and darts are also events. Hmmm...now wait just a minute. At the same place where Ire-folk and other lads and lassies are gonna be chuggin' the whisky and the pints, we're also going to allow pointed objects and large blunt boulders to be thrown? Or maybe by Hurling they really mean "projectile vomiting" (which would be more appropriate since that's what Irish whiskey makes you do)?

(Seriously...have you ever tried it??? Freakin' foul!!! Anyone that's take a shot of Jameson or some other such concoction and says they enjoyed has some faulty taste buds.)

None of this, however, even compares to the first event they have listed...an event so...uh...I can't even describe it. Because I don't know what it is. It sure does sound weird, though, and the name of it suggests that it does NOT mix well with alcohol...

Click here to view a PDF flyer (yes, a flyer!!!) for the event to see what I mean.

If anyone knows what this illustration is, please let me know. Unless you figure I don't want to know what it is, of course, in which case I'll trust your judgement.

American-flavored Chinese food

I was looking at a take-out menu for a Chinese food place today and on the cover it said...

"Asia Lee - Authentic Chinese Food New York Style"



Uhh....wut? What the heck is that?

Convenience

Convenience is being able to use your debit card.

Convenience is the do-it-yourself checkout stands at stores so that I don't have to wait in long lines or price checks.

Convenience is having your favorite beloved Ohio State Buckeyes fly out to your state for their bowl game like 8 out of ten years or something ridiculous like that.

In the words of TMac the wise, though, "There is nothing convenient about a 40% service charge."

I recently purchased tickets to an event through Ticketmaster, a company which I have long dispised for outrageous extra charges and holding close to a monopoly on the events ticketing market space. Unfortunately it was the only way to get them so I had to bite. The price of the tickets was $25 x 2 seats so I figure $50 plus maybe a 10% convenience fee or something.

After I "submit"ed my order Ticketmaster was kind enough to flash the total purchace price on my monitor. Of $78.XX.

W

T

F

The "convenience fee" alone was $8 per ticket. Then there was a $4.50 facilities fee per seat or some nonsense like that, then some other bs tax/charge on top of that. Essentially what it said is that you're gonna pay what we ask and like it. Now I'll agree that getting to see a good, storied NFL franchise (the Steelers, not the Cardinals...are you kidding me?) for less than $40 is cheap no matter where you go so even with all the nonsense it's still a reasonable deal. What's crap is that they tell you it costs one price while conveniently forgetting to fully disclose the additional costs prior to submitting your order.

Yeah yeah fine print. Whatever.

Thinking outside the box

I don't tend to dive into politics too much on my blog, partly because I hate politics (although I still vote, if for no other reason so that I can complain later), and partly because it causes the kind of bitching in the blogosphere that I'd just as soon avoid. Although I'm a registered independent, I do enjoy Bill Mahr's commentary and comedy. It doesn't matter if I agree with the causes he tends to favor/champion - what I like about him is that his arguments seem to pretty factually based if not somewhat biased (isn't bias a pre-requisite for modern political rhetoric, though?). In any case here's what he said in his latest comedy special that had me clapping my hands heartily...

"Because we did have an election about this, remember? The people said, "No, I think this war is over. We don't like it."...But, George Bush, all by himself, the decider. Just spit-balling, you know, thinking outside the box. You know what? Thinking outside the box is for smart people. The box is for you. You need the box. Stay inside the box."

Freakin' brilliant!!! Even without the political context, his idea is mostly true! If only I could have made this happen during high school...

Catching up

(*Warning* The contents of this email are being written after only about two hours sleep)

It's been nearly a month since the last blog post, and it was an AnimeExpo con post at that. I know I've been rather neglectful of my blogging...uh...duties? I clearly haven't been writing - we're getting back on that horse today - and I've barely been reading, so to my few-but-faithful fans out there I do apologize! What's been keeping me away from you all???

- Post-convention stress syndrome. After I got back from the convention I was simply tired and poor. I'm glad I went to the convention for fun since fun was definitely had! Just the same, what I thought would be less stressful trip since I didn't have to work the con or worry about setting alarms or wake up calls or anything like that turned out to be even more stressful than a con I volunteer at. Turns out that trying to coordinate room arrangements for a small group and meal schedules/dietary needs for a somewhat larger group isn't really all that cool. Oh well. I still may organize the lodging and transportation for a group next year but I don't know that I'll be participating in the group activities.

Prior to leaving I had some brake work done so that we'd have a safe trip. I also noticed that the engine wasn't turning over as quickly and the battery was about due to be replaced. The battery still had some life left, but they recommended I replace the springs and some other hardware on the brake system in addition to the needed parts. I passed.

It's funny what a 720 mile round trip through Death Valley during the hottest week of the year will do to a car. And my bank account. There were no problems during the trip, but by the time we got back the battery was shot (we accidently left the dome light on for a few hours when the car wasn't running - brilliant!) and the springs had warped rendering the rear brakes basically useless. Anywho, all worked well enough to get us home and get me to the car place to take care of the rest of the brake hardware. Then I still had to get back to the office and catch up on the backlog of...

- Work. July is my second least-favorite work month of the year due to employee appraisals being due and the annual budgeting process. On top of those normal duties, we also had to interview for three expansion positions and work towards completing a major volume expansion for my department. That last project will be a labor of love for the next two calendar months, and depending on how everything goes October could be a relative nightmare.

Seriously. Any thoughts, prayers, juju, and positive vibes you can send my way during that time will really be appreciated. There's a pretty significant amount at stake for myself, my boss, my VP, and the credit union with this expansion project. So with the increased stress I need a stress-releiver which has been taking the form of ...

- Games. The Ragnarok Online anniversary event was going on during June/July so much leveling was going on. I'm not the power-leveler like some of my friends are but I still did as much as my schedule, my fatigue, and my sanity would allow for. Who knows...one day I might even finish a character! I've also been developing/implimenting a guild event for our game that will run the course of ten weeks. Multiple updates are necessary each week so that's definitely taking up some time. Nothing outrageous, but time nonetheless. It hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped but I've still got a few participants and if nothing else folks from other guilds have taken notice and asked to join our guild or have me do a similar event for them. I thought I might have the time to do so since my evenings/weekends were mostly free until I stumbled upon...

- Girlfriend 2007. Or rather she stumbled upon me. On July 1st I received an email from an old acquaintance from the high school youth group at church. We didn't really talk all that much back then but I still remembered who she was. Turns out she had a crush on me since that time, but when she saw me with my now-ex-wife she reasonably figured that I wasn't exactly available any more. 'Course now that's different and as "circumstance" would have it our paths crossed yet again. We talked for a while, went out a few times, and we've hit it off smashingly well so far. It's rather hard to believe that it's basically been a month already since that first contact but it's been all kinds of fun! Her name is Abby, she's a graphics designer, loves to read, enjoys action/sci-fi movies, and has a PS2. She even challenged me to a game of Tetris the first time I was over there! And she really enjoyed the new Die Hard movie. I give her two thumbs up. :-D

So that's been life for the past month or so. I don't know if I'll be posting as much as I used to over the next few months but I'll do my best to throw some thoughts up here as they come up. I still enjoy blogging and sharing my random idiocracies!

Until next time...

Anime Expo 2007 Pics

Here you go.

LineCon - Day 4

Day 4 began with Ganon leaving early (that is, before 11) for the convention hall to sign up for the Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament.

"Hey, what character do you normally play?"

"Ganon."

Hmm...go figure. Anywho, we all took our time, then shoved off for the con at some later point. G, Telly and I went shopping for a bit, then we noticed that it was pretty near the starting time for the Transformers movie (yes, the new one). Telly had some more shopping to to do G and I went to find the end of the line.

We never found it, though. By the time we got out there the line was about a half mile long, in the sun. Freakin' LineCon. We were so sick of long lines in the sun that we didn't feel like another, especially on the last day, so we went to eat. Telly joined us shortly afterwards, then it was back to the convention to watch Ganon tear it up in the tourney.

And tear it up he did. He was a bit nervous because another of the tournament players is the guy he lost to in the finals previously. Other than that foe, though, he was very confident. People were pretty surprised by him at first because the character Ganon in the game is something of a 2nd tier character - the pro's usually use different people - but he handled his business very well and garnered compliments from the entire crowd - he was basically coronated as the "best Ganon I've ever seen." In the end his nemesis was defeated and he had to go up against a Jigglypuff. The match was neck and neck for a good while until Jiggly snuck in wicked, unexpected blow that knocked Ganon flying off the screen for the win. Still, 2nd place out of 128 is pretty damn good and he got a nice little truckload of stuff, including .hack//G.U. Special Edition. I <3 .hack!!!

After that was done the convention was basically done as well. We met up w/Drax's crew and grubbed for a while, then went back to our rooms for a bit to relax. Watched some anime, had some pizza. After a few hours we went back to Drax's room to meet up with them again, then mobbed over to Outback. The strange thing is that when I saw Drax again I nearly didn't recognize her and Hom as this was the first time since Friday afternoon I didn't see them cosplaying.

After dinner we started walking back and I randomly interjected my honking sound. It's kinda like a tricycle horn, but without the horn. Apparently, this is one of the funniest sounds known to mankind - so much so that they saw fit to conclude their convention video with it. I'm told that the two girls nearly spontaneously combusted from laughing so hard after I left.

I still suspect that little sound byte is gonna end up on YouTube somewhere. If it really is that funny then girls all across the world could be walking around with beet-red faces and laughing hysterically. Not sure if that's good or bad to be laughed at like that, but it was definitely fun at the time

A couple of thoughts/bits of funniness...

- AX is fun, but good lord to they need to get their shiz together. The registration line was completely fouled up within two hours of it opening, and they had a "critical network failure" to boot.

- Communication from AX in general needs to be dramatically improved. Many times the vol's were left to fend for themselves, make decisions on how to handle crowds, route traffic, give explanations to people on why things were sucking at that moment, PR/spin control, etc. It's a *really* bad idea to leave that to volunteers or cheaply-paid staff. Yes, staff costs more. I guarantee, though, that those 44,000+ attendees would pay ten more dollars each for their badges. Given that next year's con will likely top 50k people, that's over $500k more in revenue just from the registration alone. Even if half of that goes to the extra expenses that's still $250k more to pay for extra staff. That's at least 5 more f/t staff, each of which could handle a team of 15 vols. And that's just from a simple increase in badge cost.

- The Long Beach CC area was not prepared for us at all. They've handled bigger cons and they've handled fan/otaku cons before, but they've never held an otaku con of this magnitude before. By the end of the con I heard the staff of multiple establishments saying they don't want us back.

- What kind of hotel kicks people out of their lobby?

- On the phone - "Why don't you come over to my room? I want to show you something." All the people who were listening on the phone raised their eyebrows.

- Overheard: "I was supposed to get sex with that last piece of candy!"

"That can still be arranged!"

To my knowledge, no sex was had from that piece of candy.

- Two of the times I went to ride the trolley/bus back to our hotel, the drivers were talking to one of the passengers who was also standing in front of the line that they are supposedly legally required to stand behind. I don't like my drivers talking to passengers. I prefer them to...oh, I don't know...focus on driving?

- Butt Seks will get you laughed at by everyone in line, as well as thrown out of the con.

- You don't have to have a beer belly to know your beer.

- Said our server at the Yard House - "I was just standing there and I was really hot!" Yes, honey...yes you were. And are. Hot.

- Outback has someone on staff in the back to carefully grow, peel, roast, and grind your coffee beans whenever someone orders coffee. Very carefully. And if you're lucky, they'll even brew it for you!

Next year's AX will be in the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is great news as far as the sun is concerned - all lines should be inside. It's terrible news from a logistics perspective - there aren't really any hotels close to the con (the closest one is about a quarter mile away and that's fairly small...the big ones are about a half-mile away or more) which makes cosplay a wee bit more difficult, and it really hurts the nightlife as the area around the con isn't conducive to just hanging out. Dodging bullets, maybe, but not hanging out.

Anime Expo - Day 3

The day started off slow. We didn't make it out of the hotel room until about 11:15. Telly found a magical burst of speed and got to the bus stop before us, thereby getting to the con before us (us beeing G, Ganon, and myself). Once we all finally met up we rather immediately split up again. They went into the exhibit hall, and I went to fetch Jynx and Claire.

Claire's not really a fan girl - she plays RO with her husband but aparently isn't so much into the anime stuff itself - and she's with child as well, so I very much applaud her for making the trip! It was great to meet up with a couple more folks before the "big meeting."

I introduced those two back to the regular crew, walked around the exhibit hall some, then we slowly started making our way to the lagoon for the big RO meeting. At first Genesis and a few private server newbs were the only folks there. Then more and more started showing up until when you looked around the only thing you could see were RO players and cosplayers. In fact there were so many of us on the small island out there (connected by bridges...no, we didn't have to swim!!!) that three AX access control staffers had to come out just to see what was going on!

Soon afterwards the pictures started by class. Lots of priestly types and magic users. A few sins. A few archer classes. Only two swordie classes. A few monsters, including a really cute Alice holding a myst case and a really cute little Munak as well. While the pictures are going on we're all meeting people from other guilds. Killer Tomatoes, Dragon's Ire, and Sairai were all represented. KT had one of the larger groups there, but Genesis' following was probably the 2nd largest. We also had some server pictures done and that's when we realized that Chaos - who was bragging earlier in the con that they were going to have about 100 people at the meeting - was outnumbered 3:1 by Loki!!! LOKI FOR THE WIN, BISH!!!

We went to some pub/brewery that had - and I'm not kidding - over 100 different beers on tap for lunch, then started making our way back to the con. Half of us went to get tickets for the masquerade. The other half went to get ice cream at Cold Stone. When we saw the Cold Stone line with about 30 total people in it standing out the door in the sun, though, we figured that was a bad idea. Back to the air conditioning and exhibit hall!!! :-D I bought some fine line markers and a sketch book just to doodle around just to prove to myself that I'm not an artist. I'm not terrible, but I don't think I can do originals very well to save my life. I draw a mean kunai, though!!!

Everyone in the group but me went to the masquerade and had a good time. Afterwards G and Ganon headed back to the room. I was watching the new Hellsing Ultimate (which was pretty cool stuff!) and then met up w/Draxie's crew and Telly in her room for wine and hangin' out.

From there we pretty much just hung out in various places until two am when the dance ended. Telly really likes the dances. The rest of us are pretty /eh about them.

A word of note - Draxie's crew kicks ass. They cosplay VERY well and make their own stuff to boot! In fact, Draxie's HP costume was so good that a Gravity representative (not a GM) gave her an ArchAngeling plushie and evil wing ears!!! The most anyone else got was a stuffed poring! Besides all that, they're just fun to hang out with as long as you can handle the occasional yaoi pose that they force you into (ask Telly for details...I think he liked it a little too much).

Okay, off we go for Day 4!

Anime Expo - Day 2

It started off with us arriving at the con around 10:30 am or so and...well, I have no idea what Telly and G did at that point. We split up and I got in line to get into the exhibit hall. Which was...about a half mile long. The difference is that this line was constantly moving so it went pretty quickly.

The hall itself is amazing. I've watched it get bigger and bigger each year, and this year's is the biggest by far. Bandai and Copic are right up front, with Geneon and ADV not too far behind them. Geneon is pimping it's Ultimate Hellsing, ADV has some anime set in Russia with a French title that they're promoting heavily, and Bandai is it's own normal jugernaut. Funimation has a large booth, but strangely it's pretty much off to the side and out of the way - very strange for such a large company.

The exhibit hall is absolutely packed with people...so much so that it's not convenient at all to browse people's wares. I push through the masses though, going isle by isle (there's about 20 isles) and systematically check it out. Sort of. I had to stop for an occasional picture or backtrack to check out a few new items. There are basically four types of booths there - large producers, anime/manga sales, gundam/toy sales, and culture sales (clothes, weapons, music, etc). The quantity of booth babes at this convention is significantly reduced over previous years, as is the quality. Eh. Oh well.

Sgt. Frog is being sold all over the place, as is Mario stuff. Other big sellers are Final Fantasy, Deathnote, Naruto, and Bleach. DragonBall Z isn't nearly as well merchandised this year as in past years (thankfully). .hack//Roots is pretty well cosplayed this day and .hack//G.U. looks pretty damn cool. Player Killers FTW!!!

It took me about three hours to work through only three quarters of the exhibit hall before I got a call from Telly saying we were all meeting up for grub at the California Pizza Kitchen. There were fifteen of us, including Draxie, Chong, Hom, Tessa, RK, Vodon, Amy, G, Ganon, Myself, and some other folks that we really didn't know but were friends of Vodon. And Telly paid for us all!!!! /slur /slur /omg /slur /slur

I went back to finish the exhibit hall and bought all four of the Final Fantasy Master Weapon works statues that just came out this week; Telly and the rest of the crew did...I have no idea. After I was done in the hall and it closed we met up to watch a Ramen eating contest, proceeded to grub at Rock Bottom, had some drinks, headed back to the convention hall to discuss more Deathnote philosophy and theory (damn those shinigami!!!), and then headed back to the room.

Before we got to the room, though, we tried to catch a free shuttle back to our hotel. We couldn't because it was too full and was the last shuttle of the evening, but the last guy on the bus had the door shut on his arm and the driver just took off like that, arm stuck outside, waving away. It looked like he was giving turn signals with his hand. About ten seconds later she finally realized what happend and let him get his arm inside.

We laughed. A LOT!

K, that's all for now. On to day 3!!!

It doesn't get any better than this, baby (errr...wait...yes it does)!!!

We rolled into town about 9:30, found our hotel with some difficulty (which is pretty nice and has a fantastic freakin' view, as expected from the earlier pics). We couldn't check in yet because it was too early, but we immediately caught the free shuttle from the hotel to the con and sought out the line for registration. Up the stairs we went because that's where we saw the line, which was between a quarter and half mile long at this point (about 9:50 or so?). We ask one of the attendants if this is the line for registration and he lets us know that we're definitely in the wrong spot. In fact, we need to go back down the stairs and walk towards the performing arts center, about a quarter mile down the street.

Okay, cool. Quarter mile, no problem. But he was waving his arms like you would when you tell your receiver to go deeper for a pass and laughing at us. This was our first clue that we were screwed. We had no idea just how badly yet, though.

So we find the performing arts center and there is someone dividing a line into two lines - pre-registered folks, and not. "Hey, where's the end of this line?"

"Keep walking that way. You should see it. Eventually." Uh oh.....

So we keep walking down that same street and see the line loop around the aquarium, then back to the street. Keep going about 5 more blocks down the street, plus the two that went inland, and we're at about a half-mile. We finally see what we think is the end of the line at the corner of a parking lot, only to realize that the line then starts to snake back through the parking lot.

If any of you have been to Disney and waited through their queues, you know what I mean. You work through this queue only to turn the corner and see...another queue. Except this was about 1.5 miles in length. Litterally. And it's only 10:15 at this point. Registration barely started fifteen minutes ago. And we're in the sun with no sun protection. WHEEEE!!!

Oh, and did I mention there is no food or eateries on the street at all? Or even within a half-mile?

After three hours we'd worked our way to the point where we split into two lines. It took us another 2 hours and 45 minutes to work through the second line. Nearly six hours in line for day one. Neet. All we had energy for after that was food, and checking into the hotel. We never made it inside the con.

Registration was so screwed that they had to postpone a concert for two hours because people could register fast enough to get their tickets, and even then they were still GIVING tickets away right before hand because people were too tired to enjoy it. Sadly, this was supposed to be one of the headlines of the convention but they screwed the pooch bigtime.

Now, we still had fun. There was about ten of us that met up and we were laughing and people watching, etc. I made a little Black Ops trip to get some drinks for us. Folks were chatting on their DS's. Good times were defintely had. It just wasn't nearly as good as it would have been if we weren't tired and hungry and burnt and needing showers and ankle replacement surgery after standing on cement for nearly six hours.

He's off again

Off to Long Beach! I'm pretty sure I'll have net access over there but I'm not sure. I'll try to post updates as I'm able.

Take care, everyone! And if you happen to be heading out on vacation while I'm away, please have a good time and come back safely!!!

Until next time...

Just Cause

When I went to pick up my friend from the airport today one of the automated messages that was playing is this:

"The airport chapel is located in Terminal 4, 2nd floor."

Hmmm...what are they trying to say to us? Is there some reason we *should* be praying at the airport that we don't know about?

:-)

Transform your marketing, please

When I recently first watch The Island I noticed that director Michael Bay flashed quite a few logos - many of them GM products - in his film. Kinda turned me off, actually. I want to watch a movie, not an elaborate advertisement. If I see one or two logos in an unintrusive manner, sure, no problem. But the advertising in The Island felt very intentional, very deliberate, very labored to me.

Now with Transformers the cross-promotional machine between GM and Michael Bay is in full swing and it already makes me cringe. I actually may not even see the movie in the theaters because of it. The idea of me paying $10+ to watch advertising for two hours...ugh.

On an island

Every month I have 1on1 sessions with each of my staff. One hour off the phones and away from the office to chat about all sorts of stuff...a little leisure, a little business, a little randomness. These little sessions are vital to the successful management of my team, and are reminiscent of what I loved about teaching - just being with the students, talking with them, teaching them, and learning from them.

One of my employees today at the end of our time started commenting how she and her husband swap supervisor stories over dinner, and that based on how she spoke of me, her husband thought I was a pretty good one. She agreed. I smiled. She came from a team that technically had a supervisor, but there wasn't much supervision. By and large the prisoners were left to fend for themselves so for her to offer me such a compliment doesn't carry a great deal of weight - the standard I was being measured against isn't terribly high. Nonetheless, I was grateful. It's always nice to get sincere praise from an honest critic.

She then went on to comment about how it must feel kinda lonely sometimes since I can be friendly with the staff but can't really be their friend. Now I can certainly be friends with them away from work, individually. Heck, I've been friends with many of my bosses so I know it can be done. But I know what she meant, and she's right. They call it a captain's chair instead of a captain's loveseat for a reason - there's room enough for one. If we go out as a group after work for drinks and such, I'm still management. Friendly, but not friends. And on occasion, it definitely feels like you're on an island.

I remember being part of the crew, one of the rank and files. I loved being part of the closing staff because there was something good about closing up the shop and walking out at the end of the day, machines off, day done, balanced out. One shift started the day out, but we brought it home, cleaning up messes as needed. I liked putting the day to rest with the team. But now, even if I close, it's not like that any more. If I want to go out for drinks after a day well done and shoot the shit, I can't really do that with my staff. It would have to be with other management. I can hang out with my team, sure. But I'm still their manager if I do that, still on an island.

I may never be a rank and file again...I like leading, and I do think it's probably where I belong. There's something to be said, though, for being part of a hard working, highly functioning, tightly knit crew.

Honk if you want to be on TV

I'd like to be interviewed on a nationally televised major morning show or late show. I think it'd be kinda neat to have someone ask me questions, to which my answers are broadcast to millions of people. Just think about if...folks everywhere listening to what you have to say! I dig it.

The problem with this is I'm just a normal guy. No inventions, no fame, no infamy (yet). So I figure my best shot is to get onto David Letterman (which would be my preferred show, btw...I think Letterman is a very interesting man, and Paul Schaffer is freakin awesome) in his Stupid Human Tricks bit. How, you ask? No, not with my jig which - trust me on this - is a sight to behold. No, it would be for my honk.

That's right. I honk. Like a clown nose or bike horn. Except I don't have a squeaker installed in my throat (contrary to my boss' opinion). It's au naturale, baby!

Then, when I get on Letterman I'm going to ask him if he'd have me back to interview me as a regularly scheduled guest. I may be a regular guy, but I've got a feeling I would be one of the more memorable interviews he's ever had. Goodness knows that would be one of my most interesting memories ever.

I'll enjoy it while it lasts

Finally back in first place. It might never happen again this year (I still think we're a year away from the post season).

Team	W	L	PCT	GB
Arizona	44	32	.579	-
San Diego	42	32	.568	1.0
LA Dodgers	42	33	.560	1.5
Colorado	38	38	.500	6.0
San Francisco	32	42	.432	11.0

Forgive me

A good buddy of mine of mine got 4th row clubhouse box tickets to the Diamondbacks game today. Great seats, fun game. A couple of you even got a picture. Rarely do I get seats that good for anything so it was definitely a neat experience...they even serve you your concessions/food! Of course, they do charge you a 19% service charge on top of the already-inflated prices so I don't know if it's truly "service," but it's still neat.

Half way through the game, though, my buddy turns to me and says, "Not that I'm keeping score, but these tickets beat the crap out of any free tickets you've ever given me." He goes on to tell me that he and his wife joke about how bad the tickets were/are when he comes home from events I take him to, and further expounds on multiple instances where the tickets were too high or at a bad angle or too far from the glass or whatever.

Wow. Invite me to something cool only to rip on me. I'm sorry I wasted your time with tickets you wouldn't have bought or used yourself.

You know what...I don't have a six-figure income from a Fortune 100 company. I don't drive a luxury sports car or a gigantic black-and-chrome SUV. I don't have a big screen HDTV with surround sound and all the latest gadgets. And I don't have clients or partners that give me 4th row home plate tickets to games. The best I usually get is upper-bowl stuff. Either that's what the company gives me or that's what I can afford. I never had a lot growing up and I learned to live fairly simply. Digital cable and high-speed internet are about as luxurious as it gets for me, and I'm quite okay with that. Whatever I do have, though, I offer freely to my friends. Now the free stuff (emphasis on FREE) that I get tickets for is laughable? If what I have to share doesn't meet people's standards then they can...well, I'm sure you can finish that sentence creatively, with all such endings likely being appropriate.

Forgive me if what I can offer starts to no longer be good enough any more. I'll be enjoying it just the same. The World Series looks the same to me from the upper deck or behind home plate.

I'm not the only one

I love the fact that I'm not the only one that has sent text messages while drunk!!!

Return to the beach

This coming Friday, I'll be here. Long Beach harbor for AnimeExpo 2007! Bring on the freaks n' geeks!!! This will be the first time I've been to a convention in over three years where I wasn't working, and only the second time ever. Verrrry much looking forward to it especially after last week's long hours. This week could be a rough one, too, but it shouldnt' be as long as the last one. No eleven hour work days this time...there better not be, at least!

Vindication

Dateline, 1997 - I'm working in the call center taking my calls, serving the members, and listening to my bosses shout "We need you on the phones! Watch your Work time!" Ahh...there it is. Work time. The time you spend on After Call Work. Time NOT spent taking calls. Some people abused it, many didn't. Yet the combination of abusers and inexperienced formal call center management resulted in the chanting of that mantra, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. One day during a meeting there was some time at the end and management opened it up to the staff. "So what's going on in the center? Anything we need to know about?"

I decide to say something (note: the odds of my "saying something" turning out well for me up to that point of my life had NOT been good unless I was rebuking my Nemesis, yet for some reason I decided to throw the odds out the window in this instance), and it comes out like this - "I know we need to focus on taking the calls as efficiently as possible, but sometimes I get so sick of hearing 'Watch your Work time!' that I just wanna throw a shoe at your office window." Now I'm not sure where that falls on the Things You Shouldn't Say to Your Boss in Your First Six Months list, but I'm pretty sure it's in the top 20. And needless to say, things didn't go overly well after that.

Fast forward to 2007. My old boss is now my peer, but in a different call center within the company. We're in call center management training and the question comes up, "What do you do when you're busier than expected and you're not meeting your service objectives?" Of course the response about getting your agents on the phones was interjected, and was swiftly met with a firm, "No!" As she started listing off the steps to take, out of the top 5, tracking your agents down and ensuring they were actively servicing a phone call came 4th. I have no idea what the first three were, though, because I was too damn busy laughing at my old supervisor/peer across the way (who was also laughing, mind you) as we reminisced about all the times people were shouted at to get on the phones.

After ten years, vindication is mine!

(For what it's worth, I pledged to myself that if I ever found myself in her shoes, I'd never harp on Work time like they did. In two years, I've said it five times.)

What a long day....

As in, the longest day of the year. Booooo!

That means too much sun and heat!

Of course, that makes tomorrow one of the greatest days of the year, because tomorrow the days start to get shorter. Yaaaaay!

And THAT's when the fangs come out! :-[

I don't think I've ever done this on my blog

He couldve tuned in, tuned in
But he tuned out
A bad time, nothing could save him
Alone in a corridor, waiting, locked out
He got up outta there, ran for hundreds of miles
He made it to the ocean, had a smoke in a tree
The wind rose up, set him down on his knee

A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw
Delivered him wings, hey, look at me now
Arms wide open with the sea as his floor
Oh, power, oh

Hes.. flying
Whole
High.. wide, oh

He floated back down cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed
By faceless men, well, fuckers
He still stands

And he still gives his love, he just gives it away
The love he receives is the love that is saved
And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
A human being that was given to fly

High.. flying
Oh, oh
High.. flying

Pearl Jam
"Given to Fly"
aka The Ballad of Alexander

Fatherhood

All of my guy friends in the Valley out here in AZ have kids, as do many of my lady friends. I've seen kids raised from birth to as old as 9. All have said they addored their kids and the related experiences. I've often thought that being a dad would be cool but have also been extremely scared of it. I've often called it the coolest-yet-most-terrifying experience I can imagine.

Yesterday and today I listened to many fathers tell their stories about their kids and how much they love them, and after hearing their stories, I feel the same but to an even greater degree. I'm still not dead set on having kids, but there's a part of me that thinks it would be one of the best things ever and looks forward to it. Having a family is one of those things that's out of my control, though. Can't force it...well, I guess I could, but I wouldn't.

So here's to hoping for and looking forward to two of the things that I can't make happen on my own.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Proof that we're getting dumber as a nation

There are certain instints we're born with, the most basic of which is the instinct to survive as a species. This includes such activities as seeking nourishment, shelter, and reproducing.

After infancy, most folks wouldn't need too much help with these when it came down to it. It's written somewhere within the folds of our brains (or maybe that crazy cerebellum/brain stem area...can't remember).

So why, then, does my Mr. Goodbar come with instructions on how to open it?

"Lift and Pull here. Hold here."

Have things really become so bad that members of our society have forgotten how to open candy? I mean, it's CANDY, for cryin out loud!!! Not only does this fall under the whole nourishment gig...loosely...but we rehearse this as kids multiple scheduled times per year!

Man, we're in trouble. Next thing you know, we're gonna forget how to reproduce and then we're REALLY screwed!

(And only now as I read what I just typed do I realize the irony in that choice of words...)

Joker's wild in IMAX

I've been a fan of the Batman movies (except for Batman and Robin...what a waste) since they came out, and even moreso with the most recent installment. I like many of the comic book movies but I think what sets this one apart is that it doesn't feel like a comic book. In any case, I dig it.

I think I'll be an even bigger fan of it in IMAX.

Getting under our skin

This past Sunday I volunteered at the Arizona Science Center through my job. The center currently has Body Worlds 3 on display and this weekend was the final showing, so to get as many people through the exhibit as possible they decided to stay open 24/7 until Monday at 12:00am.

If you're unfamiliar with Body Worlds, please visit their home page to get an understanding of what it is.

I'm not really interested in anatomy or science. I like to blow stuff up and know how to do that fairly effectively. I know what a deltoid is. I know how to make humans and, although I haven't specifically TRIED to make one, I suspect I know how to do that fairly effectively, too. That's about all I need to know, really. And I can honestly say that after seeing this exhibit I'm no more turned on to anatomy or science than I was before. That being said, it was VERY much worth seeing. The exhibit is a mix of the history of anatomy, macro-specimens ("entire" human bodies in various positions mean to show how the musculoskeletal, nervous, and cardiopulmonary systems are operating when specific actions are taken), and micro-specimens (cross-sections or examples of both healthy tissues and comparable diseased/disformed tissues).

The bodies were cool enough, I guess. I reallyl liked the javelin thrower, the archer, and the en pointe dancer. What was most interseting to me, though, were the samples of bones, joints, and tissues, both healthy and not. I'd never seen an artificial hip or knee. I'd never seen what liver cancer looks like. Or breast cancer. Or lungs with emphesema or cancer. It provides a completely new perspective on what some of these conditions do to our bodies.

(Oh, just remembered...one of the most unique "bodies" there is a human with basically just the veins/arteries/capilaries exposed. It was a male body. A father/uncle and a littler girl were passing by when the girl says, "Daddy why is his penis full of blood?" A legitimate question, but one you certainly don't expect to hear from an 8ish year old girl, and an even more legitimately funny scene when you see the dad's eyes widen and drag his daughter away without a resopnse.)

There was a section specifically dedicated to bones and bone slices at which point I submitted Hayden's resume. They like to slice brains, too, and if parents weren't careful then their kids left with a wrong impression of what a brain is. Many of the human bodies represented had their brains depicted in three slices only. Kinda weird.

Anywho, if you get a chance to see it I recommend going. It's different from anything else you've ever seen unless you're a Discovery channel addict, a coroner, a surgeon, or disgusting.

Gettin' it done...

Mark Reynolds 3B
AZ Diamondbacks

Career numbers...

10 Games
37 AB
10 Runs
17 Hits
3 2B
2 3B
3 HR
11 RBI
3 BB
7 SO
OBP .488
SLG .892
AVG .459

He never played AAA in his life and has already tied Diamondback club records in his first ten MLB games. I seriously doubt he'll keep numbers like this for the season, but sweet mercy...this is seriously gettin' it done!

An .892 slugging percentage??? WTF?

Some things you just don't forget

Sixteen years ago this weekend my best friend at the time, Stuart Rodgers, was killed. A drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned his family's car. Four were in the car that was struck, two died, one had a broken neck. The drunk driver was essentially unscathed and barely got jail time. He carelessly took two lives and I don't think he got much more than two years, if that.

I dare say that Stuart's death was the defining moment of my class's childhood/early adolescence. At our ten year high school reunion his death was still a topic of conversation. I've never driven intoxicated, nor have I allowed any of my friends to do so if I was around or if they called me. I remember walking home from school that day. Normally I took the bus, but I couldn't even read the numbers on the side of them or tell what time it was to know to go stand there. As I walked by a couple of his friends houses, I remember hearing their cries and sobs through their windows two to three hundred feet away. My homeroom teacher that year, Mr. Love, was a gentle giant. A huge man...over 6 feet, 300 plus pounds, with hands as strong as anything and a voice that would make you soil your shorts. We'd seen him angry but behind his anger there was always concern for our benefit. The day they told us, though, we saw him truly distraught for the first time.

As a class, as a school, as a family...we were broken.

What was neat, though, is that he was coming home from a SoCal vacation. Before he died, he and his family enjoyed themselves and that's how I try to remember him. Happy and smiling, just as he mad so many others smile and be happy.

May all of you have a happy and smiling weekend, too! Drive safely. Hug your loved ones. Come back on Tuesday refreshed and ready for summer baseball!

Take care, everyone!

Things they can't live without

In games like Call of Duty and other FPS's (first person shooters for those uninitiated parties out there), you have weapons to kill people with and armor to help you survive. When you run out of bullets you can't easily kill people in the game, and when you run out of armor you're gonna die pretty quickly. Sounds pretty basic, right? Right.

Funny thing is, our armed forces are largely the same way. The difference is they're not playing a video game right now. Bullets and armor aren't generally laying around in the streets to be picked up and used. Turns out that the enemy is a little smarter than that in real life.

Now the Army and the Navy, they get the funding. The latest and greatest goes to them, as do the vast majority of ordinance and munitions. The Marines tend to get the leftovers and hand-me-downs. One of the reasons they've survived congresional attempts to either have the Corps absorbed by another of the services or cut them entirely is because they can get the same job done for cheaper. They take what they're given and MacGuyver the crap out of it to accomplish the mission. Adapt. Overcome. Improvise. That's what they do.

So when the Marine Corps front lines say they NEED something, it's a pretty damn good bet that they're not jokin'. Apparently those needs aren't getting filled fast enough, if at all.

Now I understand supply and demand, I understand manufacturing time, and I understand budgeting. I really don't care what the root cause of the supply issues are, though, because I also understand how mines work. It pretty much boils down to this: when a mine blows up near a vehicle, either armor/cover is going to stop the shrapnel, or a Marine will.

The difference is armor doesn't die.

A great day

May 23rd is a great day, because on May 23rd American Idol ended.

I can only hope that next year doesn't bring about a new season of it. I've gotta hand it to Fox, though...they're cross-promotional marketing geniuses.

Hurry up and dead

His last words were as curious as his last meal.

"Go Raiders!"

What a legacy he's left behind.

My Office Hero

Yes, Dogbert is my office hero. What's not to like about him? He threatens people with cardboard tubes and attacks a problem with C-4 plastique high explosive when only a shotgun is warranted. He openly ridicules the intelligence of inferior life forms to their face and exploits them when it becomes advantageous to do so. In regards to his call performance, the information and advice he provides is beyond reproach and more honest than a wife who calls her cheating private investigator husband Richard, Dick. His talk time is below one minute but his first call resolution rate is higher than everyone else's (they're too afraid to call back to complain, but that's not the point). And, as depicted, he casts out office demons. What's not to like? I have oft lived vicariously through his actions and, in honor of my work hero, years ago I bought a little plushy of him and sat him on my desk.

After I left the office back in '02 he went in a box that's been sitting in various closets from move to move until I recently unearthed him. Ah, the memories. The important part, though, is he's reclaimed his rightful place upon my desk, taking his thrown once again and returning to his righteous reign as Office Hero.

Hurry up and eat so you can die

A man has been on death row for nearly 20 years here in AZ for shooting someone in the head and stabbing him in the neck, then as an encore during that same camping trip he raped a woman while making her boyfriend watch.

He's finally waived his right to appeal his death sentence further (what a pleasant chap) and will be put to death tomorrow morning at 10am, AZ time.

After being held in a prison for twenty years, what do you think headlines his last meal?

Fried Okra, with sides of 4 buns and 2 slices of banana bread.

No thanks

Pregnancy and child birth is a hot topic in my wing of the work universe right now. One person just came back from leave and we've got a couple more that will be taking leave in the forseeable future. So yeah...much talk about babies right now, which is bad for me since childbirth is something of a mild phobia of mine.

All the sudden I hear this question, "So are you gonna put the delivery on a webcam?"

Uh...wut?

I realize we're in the YouTube/VOD generation but are you kidding me??? If I ever have a child, I don't even want to see it being born (I'll be with the mother, don't get me wrong, but I'ma be focusin' on her and breathing and contractions and all that stuff...not the stuff below the equator), let alone someone else's child being born. Now I realize that the desire may be to have out-of-town friends and family be able to "share the moment" and that's cool - uh, I guess - but there's a huge difference between sharing a moment and sharing the insides of your child's mother.

There's plenty of human birth's on the Discovery Channel. Please don't add more onto the web.

A little Poe

Hello, hello....are you out there?

Television habits

We all know I like sports. Sports, sports, sports. At one point my TV was tuned into one of our four major sports networks for three months straight.

My love of sports stations was temporarily interrupted when I moved into the apartment while I enjoyed the many blessings of HBO and Cinemax. I'm starting to get over my love affair with those fine collections of channels and shows, though, and have mostly returned to sports.

Mostly.

There *are* a few shows that I like to watch that aren't sports-related. Here are some of my recent watches...

- House. Probably my favorite show on TV that doesn't involve a football. The dialogue is well-written and Hugh Laurie does a phenomenal job. The lady doctor in the differential is pretty hot to boot. I love the sarcasm, and House is the tragic hero we viewers tend to have a love/hate relationship with. I've always had an affinity for characters like that. Another similar character from literature is Sydney from A Tale of Two Cities. I wish I had their minds sometimes. I'm no dummy and I'm certainly crafty when I want/need to be, but they have a type of cunning that escapes me.

- Gilmore Girls. Yes, I like this show. I haven't watched for years because I didn't like how it was going after Rory went off to college. I still think...no, I know that she would have been better off with Jesse but the actor left in search for better paying gigs, so oh well. In the end he probably found it in Heroes. In any case, one of my other beefs is that Loralei and Luke are supposed to be together but she got back with Rory's father instead. Married the bastard, even, so I was mad. But she's ditched him again (I have no idea why) and tonight she kissed Luke. Amy Sherman-Palladino said she's going to give the audience a finale to remember...if the studio lets her (she's no longer a writer for the show, even though she created it and wrote it for years...the better years).

- Bones. I see some of myself in the lead male character, and I could see myself being attracted to the lead lady character...and her as a person because she's pretty hot, too. I saw a brief shot of them in wedding clothes on the alter in a commercial but I'm sure it's just a tease. I don't know that they'll ever get married, but they better be together at some point prior to the show being over or I'll be ticked off. Oh, and the lead guy also played a vampire human...what's not to like about that when you're a fan of vampires and you've seen stories in your mind about an angelic vampire human you created?

Oh, and Loralei is pretty hot, too. And she plays a pretty good game of hold'em to boot.

Advertising for KFC

I'm sure most of you remember that KFC used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. It wasn't all that long ago that they changed their name so the majority of people alive still remember it and probably identify KFC with the longer, original name. So how strange is it that in their recent commercials they use the song Sweet Home Alabama for the accompaniment?

Some of you may also have read about/remember when KFC first went into China - their slogan "Finger lickin' good" was poorly translated and was read by many Chinese as "Eat your fingers off."

Mmmm! Tastes like chicken!

Bubble Moments

There are times - particularly at work - when I'll be in a group of people and I'll start looking up off into space after someone says something that, in my mind at least, provokes a thought. Well, more like a scene. The space into which I'm looking contains a "thought bubble" similar to what you see in comics where a separate thought or scene is played out, although in my mind they tend to be a little bit more graphic, more detailed. My old peer group at work had seen the thought bubble in action many times, frequently verbalizing a desire to know what was going on inside it. I told them that, despite their desires, no, they really didn't want to know what was going on. Moreover, I don't want them to know, either. The reason it's in a bubble and not verbalized is because, generally speaking, whatever is in that bubble can get me fired.

Now this isn't to be confused with a jaw-dropped, gaping-mouthed stare at an attractive lady. No, the thoughts in the thought bubble are of an entirely different quality. If you've ever seen Ally McBeal, she frequently would have or see thought-bubble thoughts. Also, in the movie The Upside of Anger, there is what I could consider to be quite possibly the most perfect thought bubble moment ever. Ever. A man's head blows up (but you really need to see the movie and the context to truly appreciate what makes it so great).

The thoughts are necessarily deadly, or even violent, either. They're just...expressive. Or maybe simply too different and off-the-wall for what I expect my present company to understand at the moment. Frequently I'll hear something and my brain will find it funny for some reason, full realizing that others around me just wouldn't find it funny at all. Not necessarily inappropriate whatsoever...just not funny...so to verbalize such a thought would do nothing but waste time and air and unnecessarily ostracize myself just a touch.

So if you see me looking up off into nothingness, just let it be. If you wanna see what's going on in there, just watch a few episodes of SNL, read a comic book, or blow up someone's head. Chances are one of those three will contain the right answer or at least something similar.

Hodgepodge Reloaded

- Imagine how awkward it is to tell someone at his own birthday party in his own house that you would like him to speak more respectfully of your friends

- Nyla has a renewed interest in power cords which has left us in something of a control/power struggle. I've had to re-establish myself as the Alpha; I use a spray bottle as a disciplinary technique sometimes and the cat has found herself very wet very often this past week. I have *no* idea what I'm going to do come Christmas-time. Hopefully she's grown out of her interest by then. I have my doubts about that.

- It was 105 degrees this weekend. Wheeee!

- I don't understand Burger King. Their name says they sell "burgers," or so we're meant to assume. So why do they call their Whopper the Whopper Sandwich? If I want a sandwich I'll go to Port of Subs or Subway, thank you very much.

- Mother's Day had a very strange feeling to it this year. The folks are going through some difficult times right now, and for the first time since I was in elementary school there was some real tension present during a holiday. The difference is the last time there was tension between my folks, I was also mad at one of them. This time I'm not. Just feels *really* weird.

What's your name, again?

Yesterday a friend of mine said she was likely coming out to AZ for the holidays and I told her she was welcome to stay at my place.

I've known her for a year and a half, but it didn't occur to me until four hours after I opened up my home to her that I don't even know her name. Heh...

(It's Jenny. I found out today.)

Over the top

I finally saw The Aristocrats tonight. I think it works better with The Sophisticates, but maybe that's just my mentality. I don't get the Brittish's preference of The Debonaires...that doesn't make sense to me at all.

Bob Sagat is a dirty, dirty man.

Two of the five voice actors for The Simpsons were included in the film, giving credit to part of why the show's been around so long. The voice actors are just damn, damn good. Turns out they can tell a joke in real life, too.

Gilbert Godfreid's telling was priceless, and the South Park version was absolutely hilarious!

"Hold on, Kyle..."

:-)

I haven't paid since 1999

Fall of 1999 was the last time I paid for a haircut. Seven and a half years ago. I've rather gotten used to not paying to have my haircut. Saves a fair bit of money over time.

Normally I shave my head every six days or so but these past couple weeks just sucked the energy out of me. By the time I got enough time and energy to shave my head again, my hair was too long for a normal razor and I don't have any oil for my clippers, so off to the haircut place I go.

If I'm going for a beard shave and full haircut I'll go to the good barber not too far from work. All I needed was a buzz cut, though, and I wasn't about to pay $22 for that. Great Clips will work fine for my needs right now, thank you. Even just for a quick little buzz cut, though...

Twelve dollars (plus tip).

*ouch*

I realize $12 ever seven to eight years isn't so bad. I just don't like parting with money for something that I didn't want and is generally preventable.

Stupid $12 hair cut.

A different kind of meme

I got one of these sent to me in an email by an old friend and curiosity got the best of me. I'd like to see the movie when it comes out, if for no other reason than that I'm a fan of Nicole Kidman. The movie itself does intrigue me, though.

It's just too scary

It's, in part, because of cases like this that I won't teach any more. Chances are all seven of these folks are guilty of the crime. The fact of the matter, though, is that any district who gets a semi-serious claim of sexual misconduct pointing to a young, single, male teacher is going to at the very least put that teacher on administrative leave. Even if the facts prove the accusers made up the story, there will always be a sliver of doubt...a shadow of "what if" that lurks in the students', parents', and teachers' minds and that is simply too uncomfortable.

Plus there's the prospect of a false case actually going to trial, in which case I'd have to make a claim against the $2M insurance policy I was carrying for legal services even though I didn't do anything wrong.

When I taught and coached, never once did I look at my girls in an inappropriate manner, let alone touch them or talk to them like that. The fact that seven different offenders have come to light in such a short amount of time only illustrates the fact that our metro area does have a REAL problem with this, and has for years. It truly makes me sad, and makes my stomach turn a little at the same time.

I went to Vegas, and all I got was this lousy infection

And no, I didn't get it from a hooker. That probably would have been more fun.

I was in Vegas last week for the GAMA (the game manufacturer's organization) Trade Show debuting the hot new 24 TCG and checkin' out the other new releases, of which there weren't really a lot. I was looking forward to the trip because it would be the first time in a long time I've been able to hang out with a couple of old friends, I'd see the first images of our new TCG, I was about ready for a little break from work...and, well, it *is* Vegas. But even with all the looking forward, something felt off about the trip before I ever left. I even told my boss about it, just feeling uneasy about whatever was going to go wrong.

Thursday night, it started to go wrong.

The previous night my buddy Hayden was spouting about how bad pneumonia sucks because the coughing keeps you up all night and your chest hurts and blah blah blah. Whateva Hayden. Suck it up. Then he took his PhD candidacy and turned it into a VooDoo Doctor candidacy and sent me the bad ju-ju in the form of a pre-pneumonia bacterial lung infection. Was hacking by the end of Thursday and feeling not fun, and by Friday morning I was debating running full speed into the corner of a wall. I almost went to urgent care that day before I left to come home, and in retrospect with 20/20 hindsight that would have been the better option. Of course I just thought I had a terrible cold at the time. Blah blah blah...suck it up.

Yeah, right. I was kept up all night and my chest hurt and after the med's wore off there was no more sleepin. Only coughin.

Monday I finally got the meds that I need, including this wonderful, orange-tasting, non-alcoholic syper-nyquil concoction that works just a little too well. Doc didn't release me to go back to work until today, but I couldn't stick it out. By 1 in the afternoon I had hit the wall and was having difficulty concentrating or keeping my eyes open. By 1:30, the towel was thrown in. I came home and ended up passing out on my floor, waking up in a half-delirious state about 4 hours later. I called a friend of mine whom I've dearly missed...might not have been the best time, but I didn't care. Catching up a little was far more important than waking up completely.

Anywho, that's where I'm at now. The trip was fun, pre-illness. Now I'm just trying to get better and return to normalcy in body and habit.

PS - My hit counter provider evidently went belly-up. Oh well, I guess that's what I get for free. In any case, the last number I remember was 1217, so I'll probably start it around 1250 once I get around to looking for a new company. Recommendations, anyone?

Truly fitting

When I was in high school I weighed, at most, 140. And that was after a whole summer of doing nothing but hitting the weights, swimming, and eating grilled meats. I was toned like all get-out and was one of the strongest people in my weight class that I knew, particularly when it came to core strength, but I just couldn't put on pounds. Now flash a gaze at my friends and you'll notice that they're all double my weight and strength. I played defensive back...they were linemen and linebackers. They looked intimidating on their own...I looked intimidating like a toothpick.

In any case, we'd go to parties a lot and I was always the designated driver. As frequently happened at high school drinking parties with football players and egos, fights broke out. Now I was scrawny but I wasn't about to let my friends down and run out, so I devised a way I could assist. Right as it looked like someone was about to lay a punch on one of my buds, I'd interupt them with some kind of random loud shout, then toss out some screwball, off the wall line. Even louder. Something like, "GOAT CHEESE WRAPPED IN FLAGS IS GREAT FOR LACTATING BITCHES!"

(I read the phrase "lactating bitches" on the back of a dog food container once.)

The outburst would typically delay the attacker just long enough for my friend(s) to either run or throw a punch of their own, and thus my toothpicked existence was justified in the fight zone.

Enter 2007.

After seeing this on Shocho's blog I decided to do it myself with my general user name, Bygood. Low and behold...

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Striding through the hotel lobby, carrying buzzsaw hand extensions, cometh Bygood! And he gives a spectacular roar: "By Odin's mighty spear, man, that's some good coffee!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

That's definitely me on three levels. One because of the coffee, two because Odin is typically a summon in my favorite video game franchise of all time, and three because I would TOTALLY say something like that in a fight!

For what it's worth, here's the quote for my MMO character name, Shade:

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Running along the terrain, cutting down all who dare stand in the way using buzzsaw hand extensions, cometh Shade! And he gives a gutteral cry: "I'm going to pummel you until the cops have to tear me off your wraithly spirit!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys