Down But Not Out

My blog is going to be going without an update for a little while, just know this is planned and absolutely nothing to worry about. I'm just going on a vacation that is much deserved if I do say so myself and very much needed. Part of this includes me disconnecting from the internet.

Whether the disconnect from the internet is a good or bad thing is still up in the air.

I'm sure my wife thinks it's a great thing, since she thinks I spend too much time on it, but the internet has given me folks to talk to who are just as passionate about the same things I am as I am, and when you're me, this is wanted very much. I like to talk to folks and I'm sparing my beloved wife the hassle of hearing all sorts of jibberish about guitars.

And there's always my blogs. I'm leaving the 5th Fret to my contributing writers while I'm away. I hope to come back and see at least a couple more articles. I could imagine it would be like starting from scratch if there weren't any updates. I've (we've) put in a lot of work to the 5th Fret blog and each time another person comes to the site I feel pretty good about it, like maybe we're gaining ground.

The more ground we gain, the more real it'll become and then maybe we can get into NAMM, my highest aspiration for the site.:-)

Anyway, I'll be back, don't you worry. In the meantime, keep checking back to see if there are any updates.

Have a merry X-mas.

Reading Journal

I call it a journal because "log" always reminds me of poop.

I started a reading journal that officially started on January first, 2008. I started it because 1) I have been wondering just how many books I've read in my life and as opposed to trying to remember, I figured I would just keep track from then on and see how many books get read from then on.

What I did not expect was that, after a while, when you look at the list you remember little things about where you were when you were reading that book and what you were doing when not reading it.

It's like a little reminder of the past and completely cool. I recommend everyone do it.

So, in 2008 (so far) I've read the following:

The Summons - John Grisham

Kingdom Come - Tim LeHaye and Jenkins

Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks

Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

Untitled - Julie Kaewert

State of Fear - Michael Crichton

Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King

Song of Susannah - Stephen King

Timeline - Michael Crichton

The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore

Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk

Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore

Hamlet - Shakespeare

The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson

Soldier's Heart - Elizabeth D. Samet

Yes, You're Pregnant But What About Me? - Kevin Nealon

Nothing's Sacred - Lewis Black

Slaughterhouse-five - Kurt Vonnegut

In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

Unsigned - Julie Kaewert

Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Christopher Moore

The Good Guy - Dean Koontz

Cujo - Stephen King

The Testament - John Grisham

1984 - George Orwell

Clapton - Eric Clapton

That's it but I'm hoping to read at least one more before the year's done.

The Final Chapter

In 2004 I started readin the Dark Tower series from Stephen King. It's been a long road reading them obviously since I am only halfway through with the last book. I remember reading the last page of the Gunslinger on a concrete step outside a police station as I waited to clock in to work thinking "what a piece of crap. I'm mroe confused about everything in life now than I was before I read it."

I was told, however, to read the second book.

After a while I did. I don't know, maybe I was bored. I read it and loved it. And on I went to the third book. I breezed through those books and then for Christmas that year ('05) I got the fourth book which took a while to get through. I wasn't in the mood to go trapsing through Roland's past. As a matter of fact I really objected to it since Roland was a pretty mysterious guy, just a gun that talked, really. I liked that. I liked not knowing anything about him and now here I am reading about the circumstances that made him who he was. I couldn't care less. Because of this it took a long time to get through it.

Then I deployed. Let me tell you something about deploying: you can read. A LOT. I wore through the collection of books I wanted to and a friend was reading the last three books in the series so I borrowed them. I read through them very quickly and when I came back to the States I started reading the last book, the Dark Tower.

I'll say this: the series is weird. There's a definite turn in the road from book four to five and I wasn't really a fan. But they are written well and I do like reading them. It's an odd ride to be on and I'm enjoying it. Going through the book however was a fast process until something (two things actually) drastic happened that made me stop reading.

And now I'm reading it again.

I have mixed feelings about it though. This is a series I've put a lot of time into and now it'll be over.

I have this feeling often with just about everything. Perhpas I'm just weird, but it's more likely that this is a case of one more thing that I had as a less responsible youth that will be done. One more chapter finished. As much as I love being a dad and a husband, I kind of hang on to these things. I don't know. It seems kind of sad in a way or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much. I certainly don't want to give the impression that I'm not happy - I am - but, you know, it's still sad.

Animal Crossing City Folk AKA Back In Debt

I've been a fan of Animal Crossing ever since I watched an old friend of mine play it in college. My wife and I watched him for about twenty minutes and then we both drove out to get the game (in Kim's case she also bought the Gamecube to play it on).

I bought it for the DS when it came out and had some complaints but I got used to the controls, the rolling-pin world, etc. etc.

And now I'm playing the Wii version which is very similar to the DS version. I actually took my character from the DS version because he had the look I wanted (always a roll of the dice with Animal Crossing).

I think it's a great game. The motion control of the Wii takes a back seat if you want it to and I'm glad that, when fishing, I don't need to constantly be flicking up in the sky with the Wiimote to pull the fish out of the water. One tug and that fish is as good as mine.

I like the look, which isn't so different from the previous two (you can see a lot better than on the DS version though), the rolling-pin world is still there, but I've gotten used to it. I haven't been able to do any favors for the town's folks yet which I think is a little odd. They just tell me random stuff (interesting stuff, but I want to get stuff to sell so I can make money and get out of debt).

Ah yes, the debt. That old Nook is at it again and I think it's great that this time he gets called out on it in a way. I was talking to a wolf named Fang who was saying that Nook casts a long shadow and we've ALL been in my position, just moving into town, with no money and a need for a house.

I bet ACORN would help me out.

Anyway, now I'm in debt up to my eyeballs for a tiny one bedroom house and am I asking the town of Rukian for money to pay it off? Nope. I'm busting my butt fishing, collecting seashells, trying to win competitions and digging up whatever I can to pawn (if I haven't already given it to the Museum, a very worthwhile pursuit) and help pay my house off.

I really like the game. I can't wait to play with my friends on line.

Five Guys & Fries

I went to a new restaurant (new to me) called Five Guys and Fries and oh man, let me tell you about it.

I walked in and went up to the counter and said flat out that this was my very first time here, I need some help. The lovely lady behind the counter explained that the burgers are all two patties each one made from fresh, never frozen, lean US beef that weighs in at at least a quarter pound pre cooked. All toppings are free as well.

She explained that the fries are freshly cut and in plentiful supply.

OK, I say, I'd like a cheeseburger, fries, and a medium drink.

When it was brought out to me it was brought out in a pretty big brown bag. The bag was FILLED with fries. Somewhere in there was my burger (which was delicious) and it took some time for my friends and I to work through the two orders of fries the three of us got (I bought the normal ones, one friend bought cajun fries. I prefer the normal fries, FYI).

All this food was under ten dollars too!

If you have a Five Guys in anything resembling the general area, you need to check it out. Amazing food!

PROGRESS!

To everyone I say the following:

Do not give up on the residents of Warner Robins, Georgia for I have seen evidence that would indicate what no one ever thought would be seen.

Progress.

Yes folks, I said progress. I was driving how from work and saw a gentleman standing next to the road, not trying to cross it, not timing out his frogger-like trek across the FIVE LANE road, just standing there. Then I was stopped at a light and the cross walk light changed and the gentleman crossed the road.

HE CROSSED THE ROAD IN THE CROSSWALK!

Oh MAN! Can you believe how big this is? I have been here since 2005 and this is the FIRST time I've seen ANYONE wait until the light changed to cross the street let alone cross it IN a crosswalk and stay INSIDE the lines.

Oh MAN! PROGRESS! Soon everyone will be doing this and less people will wear cammo and then building can be built and it can be properly called a City.

Yay Warner Robins! Kudos!

Burger King De-Throned

I said a while back, when talking about being a parent, to try and get sick at different times than your significant other (provided you have a significant other). This makes it easier to watch your child and it take a lot of stress of you, the sick one. It does add some stress to the non-sick one but their time is coming and you're going to pay it back.

Always be certain, you WILL pay it back. Hopefully you don't mind though.

Well, the other day was the first time that both Kim and I were sick at the same time and since it was food poisoning (provided by your friends at Burger King's breakfast menu) it was a little... sporadic. At first I didn't feel bad, Kim was the first to start hurting. But then I started to not feel well and from about 11:30 in the morning on both Kim and I were very much of the "I don't want to move" mentality. But poor Annie wanted to move and I volunteered to take her outside on the porch. She could play with her crayons and I could lie in the chair and do my best not to die.

I think the worst part about getting this kind of sick is the build up. Once you start expelling whatever you have inside of you OUTSIDE of you from whatever entryway or exit, it's more of a feeling that you feel better for a little while and then it's back to the bathroom. That's what it was for us, too. We both felt so bad until about 3:00pm when we started asking each other "You got her? I need to go!" as we're running to the bathroom. I'm sure Annie didn't know what was going on.

A couple times Annie was privy to seeing us puke though and that must have been awful. She doesn't have any experience with it so I'm sure it didn't make her want to get sick, no sympathy puking here, but she didn't like seeing her mommy and daddy yelling at, say, the sink.

Last night we were so beat up that we decided she had a dedicated bed time and hopefully she'll be able to go to sleep. Kim was in the bedroom laying down because I told her to and I was getting Annie in her PJs. I was about halfway up the snaps when I broke out in a sudden sweat, a sure sign of getting sick VERY soon. It's not like I could have asked over the monitor for Kim to come in and help out, it would have been too late. I didn't want to put Annie on the ground just to upset her more when I'm supposed to be calming her down for bed either. So I hurried up with the snaps, put her in her crib, turned on the glow worm, stuck a pacifier in her mouth, threw some blankets on her and ran out of the room, turning the lights off and closing the door HOPING to make it to my bathroom but I ended up making it to the kitchen sink instead (I'm not complaining since we have carpet).

Annie did indeed to go sleep.

Kim and I however were up for a long time, drifting in and out of consciousness and utilizing both the bathroom and our puke buckets.

It was a long day and a LONG night and this is why you want to be sick at different times.


I will say that, in the past, I’ve often thought about how sweet it would be to have family living nearby. Usually this coincides with me thinking about how nice it would be to be out of the military (a feeling that comes and goes). It’s just that I know that if I wasn’t in the military I would probably be living in beautiful Tucson, AZ and my in laws would be nearby.

And what a resource that would be. I would LOVE to be able to call someone close to the family, like more family or really close friends and say “Look, things aren’t looking so hot for Kim and me right now. Would you mind watching Annie for the night/weekend?” That would be pretty much the most awesome thing ever. It would also be great to have babysitters for when we just want to go out and have dinner, watch a movie, maybe take a short trip, just the two of us.

I’m sure there are some out there crying out “bad father, bad father!” but sometimes you really want to get away and if you can get away for just a little while you’ll come back feeling rejuvenated and ready to step back into that role. It is NOT like I’m talking about dumping her off with her grandparents for a month or anything. I love having my Annie around, it’s just that sometimes you want to do adult stuff without worrying about bedtimes, high chairs, diapers etc etc. By no means am I not appreciating my daughter.

But yes, never before have I wished so freaking HARD to be near family. It was bad enough worrying about Kim and me at the same time (there was lots of “How are you feeling, sweetie?” as you lay there feeling like crap, but worrying about Annie was kicking my ass all night, having her see her dad like that.

But oh well, I guess. She’ll get over it and we’ll go back to normal. I’m here, able to write today and yes, I don’t feel top notch, I don’t feel all that up for ANYTHING but at least I’m not as bad as I was yesterday. I kind of wish that if I were to ever get sick again that it would be like this with a fast bounce-back time. It’s a lot better than the slow build up and slow recovery to wellness (though there really is nothing like that first day when you wake up and feel GOOD again, is there?). Yup, quickly getting sick and quickly getting better. That’s where it’s at.

...So That Other May Read Hits 100 Posts!

That's right my inability to stop blogging has pushed me over the 100 post mark! I'm sure they aren't all winners, but it's a milestone nonetheless and a little thing to be proud of.

I plan on milking it for all it's worth.

So! During the 100 Posts there have been visitors from all over the world, who seem to mainly come by due to my post so long ago about guitar giveaways, but that isn't important right now. The blog has been visited from people the world over and it has been visited over 2,000 times. I know that's chump change to the bigger blogs but when blogs rise and fall so quickly I'm pretty pleased to see that this kind of traffic is coming to my lowly blog.

And the visitor rate has been slowly growing. It isn't really seen on a day by day scale where the numbers are more or less equal with slight growth and reductions, but on a month by month scale the sight is very impressive. Check THIS out:

Now, for those of you who can't see the numbers on this picture, I'm sure the bars really help out. The blue bars is the only one that REALLY matters when you get down to it as the orange is counted in the blue but the orange is important too. The orange represents return visitors while the blue represents ALL visitors. 24 visitors total in August when I started the blog, 123 in September, 558 in October, 741 in November and SO FAR, 139 people this month. This is current as of 7Dec08 (A day that will live on in infamy).

And let's talk MAPS! I posted a map of the most recent 500 visitors a little while back and I think they're fun to look at so this is the most current one.

I think this blog might be more popular in Europe than it is in the States!

I'm pretty pleased with this, like I have accomplished something. I'm not entirely sure what that something is, but I feel the accomplishment. I know I say it a lot but I want to say it again and please know that every time I say this, I mean it. Thank you for visiting and taking the time to read. There are literally millions of other blogs you could visit and I think it's great that mine is in there. It's because of you that the bar graph is so impressive (without a single reduction from the previous month! Hopefully this trend continues) and it is because of you that my Google AdSense account is filling up slowly but surely (just click on any ad in the top left). It's because of you that I feel good about what I'm doing and I really mean it when I say thank you.

THANK YOU!

Top Chef

Top Chef is blowing my mind! Three chefs went up on the chopping block on Wednesday, December 3rd each for failures in their dishes that they were to present on television. One of them, a guy who was set to be married in a month chose to cook creme brule and there was no way that he had enough time to even PREP it, let alone cook it live. I bring up this marriage thing just so you know. Later I'll go into this a bit more.

The next chef (a woman) cooked an egg that was basically raw and when confronted about it in front of the camera (because she had also run out of time) she folded her arms and looked down as if she was all of five years old.

The last chef (also a woman) cooked shrimp that was so spicy that one of the professional chef judges said he considered it inedible. One of the other judges said that half of her mouth was throbbing.

This is ridiculously bad. The challenge was television related which means that you're playing to a huge audience. A huge audience does not usually consist of people who like things hot. I like things hot but going from what she was using, even I would never cook anything like that.

So right away I'm thinking that one of the women are going home. All the guy did that was wrong was pick a dish that was impossible to accomplish in the time permitted, a small mistake that didn't involve taste or personality and it is something I doubt any show's producers would give the go ahead (they would probably at least ask to confirm on ANY dish "You CAN do this in the allotted time, right?") on it anyway. The other two had serious problems, one serious, one wickedly serious. Raw eggs are bad and can lead to bad things, things you do not want all of America trying out (they'll sue you if things go bad). As bad as raw eggs are though, telling someone to use habaneros is pretty ballsy and very limited as far as the market goes.

True, the egg lady could have SAID toward the end when time was running out, "make sure you leave YOUR egg in the pan a bit longer so it cooks all the way through but since my time is limited I'm going to go ahead and plate this fairly raw egg just for demonstration." That would probably save her in the long run, at least with the audience. The judges are always a different story.

The shrimp lady was very vehement about defending her dish though claiming to the bitter end that she likes spicy food and basically called the judges pussies for not being able to take it. Then she mentioned sort of off hand that SHE wants to stay there very much while some OTHER people may want to leave (hint hint: the dude who's getting married in a month and has said that the competition is not the thing that makes his life) and the judges asked who did NOT want to be there and she said "Oh I don't know, but I'm just saying that I DO want to be here."

Weak. I'm sure if you turned the guy around there would be a boot print and tire marks from getting kicked under the bus.

So who did they send home? The guy.

BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL! Now, he wasn't my favorite chef of the season (Richard is still number one to me, it's a damn shame he had to go home) but I think as far as the challenge and results of said challenge went the dude should have gotten a scolding at best to be a little more thoughtful on his dishes in the future and the chick who was STILL SAYING HER SHRIMP WASN'T THAT SPICY should have gotten the boot.

On a slightly different note, one of the judges said to the shrimp girl that she should not have used habanero peppers because people who aren't experienced with handling such a hot pepper shouldn't even try. I paraphrased there.

I use habaneros in a dish I make and it only once has gotten the best of me (where I washed my hands THREE times and about a half hour after the last washing itched my eye and felt like my left eye was going to shrivel up and wave a white flag just before dying) so I felt pretty good that me, not even an amateur chef manages to work around the ticking time bomb that is the habanero.

I'm Impressed

Did you know there’s a blogger out there, a Mom Blogger at that, that writes a new blog every day and has done so for ages? I’m not talking about the weaker Nablopomo two short paragraphs and maybe a picture blogs but seriously lengthy blogs. I’ve seen longer of course, but the fact that this is a consistant thing and not a random lengthy post followed by a ton of short ones (like mine, I guess) is very impressive to me.

What really impresses me though is that she writes a MOM BLOG and still manages to write that much! I mean, I think I can rant pretty well. I used to rant and complain all the time on MySpace and I think the reason I scaled back on the length is that by the end of the blog I would have contradicted myself, marked myself as a hypocrite and therefore not worth reading and what started as venting left me feeling even more frustrated because I realized that I was wrong to feel frustrated in the first place. I’m pretty sure that’s why my blogs became shorter and shorter. It just made sense really.

By all means I am not saying that I am fine with letting emotions go and stop at a specific point without exploring them to their finality but I started to think that maybe I should do that BEFORE ranting on the internet, which I am convinced is a bad idea in the long run.

Famous Russ Tangent: A girl was given the boot from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Squad for having pictures of a… I wouldn’t entirely call them sexual persuasion, but they were of her in her bikini or underwear or whatnot. The pictures looked very high school / college “not a care or aspiration in the world.” I found it interesting though that these pictures came back to haunt her this way. One day she’s doing fine in the training camp for the most famous cheerleading squad in the world, the next thing she knows she’s being dragged into an office to be told that she is OUT because of these pictures. They were saying that the DCC is not an organization that smiles upon pictures like this, that they are as professional as professional can be.

I was fine with this. I loved seeing a situation that you always know is going on with bikini contests, Girls Gone Wild, etc. etc. that is looked at as fine, acceptable, just kids being kids. I loved seeing this situation have repercussions. Take THAT! Ha ha!

Now back to my being impressed.

I’d like to write longer blogs that are more thought-out and a little more involved, but this means less blogs and less… spontaneity of writing. My usual blog style back pre-child was “Oh man, that doesn’t sit well with me at all! I’ll be right back!” And then I’ll go to the computer room, knock out a blog and come back to the living room. Now that just doesn’t happen.

But do you really mind? I hope not. I hope you’re fine with reading my tiny (by comparison) blogs about random stuff with a few jewels of blogs tucked in there somewhere.

So this is basically me saying I’m sorry for not being able to write lengthy, engaging blogs that entertain to no end and bring THOUSANDS of people per day to check it out. I’m doing my best though. And if you dig it, come back often, tell your friends, make them come and check it out, click click click on the ads (the money it generates is very much appreciated and I have not gotten to the point where Google sends me a check and it’s almost W2 season. I’d hate to have to pay taxes on money I haven’t even received yet).

But yeah, come back often. I love the company.

A Sleeping Baby

Annie woke up after about an hour of sleep and was really wailing so I went in and picked her up, found her Nuk, sat down in the rocking chair and started rocking her back to sleep. Kim is addicted to this stuff. I had never done it because Annie does not like to fall asleep in my arms. Something about it makes her stay awake but tonight, after about ten minutes she was falling asleep and watching those big eyes droop a little, then open up wide, then droop even more, then open back up and finally, slowly, descend all the way down...

That was priceless.

I love my Annabelle.

eBooks and eReaders

Those who are in the know, know I read. I don’t read nearly as much as I would like to, but between juggling my hobbies of guitar playing, blogging, reading and trying to spend time with my beautiful wife (because when my beautiful daughter is awake I probably won’t be doing any of the previously mentioned activities) I do not have enough time to dedicate to one particular hobby for as long of a period of time as I would like. Maybe if I did not need to sleep I could, but until then, I just have to settle for doing them all, just not enough of each.

On my Blog Reader today I found this:

http://www.ebooksjustpublished.com/2008/12/04/the-state-of-ebook-technology-today/

I’m the kind of guy that gets excited for things like this. Progress. I think the author nails it with the idea of fiction books that cost under five dollars and non-fiction for under 25.00. I especially like the non-fiction price. I think if College book stores sold eReaders and all of their books were available for download at 25.00 a pop the amount of sales for both eReaders and eBooks would SKYROCKET. Right through the roof. Could you imagine? You could get an entire semester’s worth of books for the price of ONE average printed college textbook.

But I already wrote about that and the amazing potential of these devices and as easy as it would be to slide back into that and tell you all again that if you don’t support new technology there will be no development of said technology and it will fall to the wayside with the developers thinking there’s no market for it and the market “just waiting for a better version,” I won’t.

I wanted to write and just put this guy’s blog out there because it makes sense. He makes sense. I wanted to spread this around in case any of you are thinking about being authors (and with digital distribution ANYONE can be an author) this is a viable option and if you are looking to see eBooks prices fall or better eReaders to come out, try to buy them (the books or readers).

I wish I could say that I have a Kindle but I don’t. They’re still out of my reach but maybe someday I can take my own advice and get one. Just in case you’re curious, I put that sentence in so no one would comment with something along the lines of “how dare you preach like this when YOU don’t even own one!” I know, OK? But I’m doing the next best thing and reminding people about these great devices and asking you to support them.

Singing The Blues

Today was a raffle for the TDPRI, a forum I just joined today. I am a member of its sister forum Gretsch-Talk. Because I am a member there I was eligible to enter the raffle too for some truly awesome gear. They did not have any Gretsch guitars but I think Gretsch-Talk has only a fraction of the members that the TDPRI has, and it’s pretty new so that was to be expected. Four Telecaster (or “Tele Style”), two amps, three pedals, four bridges, and a completely new set of hardware. Over $11,000.00 worth of gear all together.

How awesome is that? The entry to the raffle was 25.00 which is the most expensive raffle I have ever entered but the prizes were also far greater in value too, so it was worth it to me.

The raffle was to take place today at 11:00 Eastern on a live blog that required no refreshing, no page loads, just sit there and watch. It was entertaining to say the least. No one but the MC had the power to talk so we all just had to sit there and stew or exclaim to whoever was around us our feelings. He knew how to draw it out too. The whole giveaway was an exercise in building tension and by the time that there were only two prizes left, one that was pretty cool and one that was REALLY cool (and greatly desired) I had a strong feeling I was not going to win either.

And I was right.

But the ticket price went to a good cause (keeping my forum up and running) and I’m glad I participated. I can’t lie and say I’m not a little bummed I didn’t win anything, especially when so much would have been useful to me. Like I said though, it was worth it.

So now I’m playing the blues, but not seriously.

Treasure Chests of GOLD!

Kim thinks I'm pretty silly about this, but I don't think it's silly at all more... unconventional.

Here's the plan: get a pirate treasure chest and put a lock on it and cut a small hole in the top so you can drop coins into it. Gold coins. Gold dollar coins.

And then you could go to the bank every week or so and turn in five dollars and get five golden dollar coins and into the chest it goes. This saves you money, is fun to do, and when it's full you can pry the lock off (because by then you probably would have lost the key and besides, it's more fun to pry), open up the chest and see all that gold!

GOLD!

Then if you wanted to you could roll them all up, deposit them in a bank account, or just go out and spend them. I'm even thinking of maybe making one for Annie and the other kids too. A pirate chest for their gold coins that they cannot get into until they graduate high school. It would be for their college tuition. I know, about $4,320.00 isn't really all that much but it would be $4,320.00 more than they had previously! And maybe they wouldn't need it for college and they can keep adding to it over time with gold or silver dollars.

I don't know, I thought it was a good idea. It would be a fun way to inspire saving for the kids and it would make for an impressive reveal once the lid finally gets opened (can't deny that!).

Perhaps when they start getting allowance I could say to them "I will give you 20.00 a week but you have to put half of it away for your savings (and your savings will go to either college, emergencies, or retirement)." And then we can all go down to the bank and they can get their coins (or they could use bills, just so long as they are saving) and bring it home and put it in their box. Maybe when they turn 18 they can invest it if they like. That would be a direct thing that can take part in and see their money grow or shrink.

I think it's important for them to have their own box at home where they can grab it too. Maybe they can even have it unlocked so they could count it or just look at it (I'm a big fan of doing that). When I was a kid I had a savings account through the school and it didn't really teach me anything other than how to fill out a deposit slip. The money was, for all intensive purposes, not available to me so there was no draw, no temptation to remove the money and spend it and it's that temptation that needs to be dealt with at an early age that is going to end up benefiting them later on in life.

I know I could take that ten bucks from each of them and without telling them dump it into three savings accounts for whenever I think it's right to use it, or to put it in the stock market and hope to see it grow but I'm not trying to make them rich here, I'm trying to tech them monetary responsibility and from a very early age, saving needs to be emphasized. That's what is going to let them retire.

I figure if I can teach those kids to save and to not use credit cards in stupid ways, then they'll be set for life money-wise.

Team Rainbow

I was watching Top Chef and Richard was let go, or chopped or however they want to say it.

I thought it was uncalled for, honestly. I thought that Richard, if he had to go home, should have gone home way later in the season. He had the drive and desire and his food looked like it tasted great. It blows my mind that chefs like Aryana are still around even though they've demonstrated that the whole reason they are still alive is from dumb luck and people like Richard go home.

I thought he was one of the coolest this season and hope he doesn't get discouraged. His was the most gut wrenching goodbye too. I genuinely felt bad for him.

So here's to you, Richard. You'll always be Top Chef for Season 5 in my heart.

My First Wordless: She Loved It

NaBloPoMo Comes To An End

It's been fun making sure that there's a new blog coming out every day for the last month. This is something I thought I would never do, always insisting on quality over quantity but for the most part I think that it was the fact I HAD to post something that day that made me dig deep and come out with whatever I did - good or bad.

Thanks to you for coming by and reading, for returning and reading more, and for clicking on the ads to help support the blog.

I plan to keep posting as many blogs as I can. With the holidays coming up and the fact that more and more time will be spent with my family, where all the good blogs come from, I'll try to put those in the queue to be released every day. This is my personal challenge to see just how far I can go posting at least one blog per day.

How far do YOU think I'll be able to go?

Nintendo And One Person's Thoughts

I love playing video games but will admit, I don't play them often. I have other hobbies that I'm much better at and prefer to spend my time doing those.

But I bought a Wii because I loved Nintendo growing up, I thought the Gamecube was great, the Virtual Console seemed like a great idea, and it seemed like Nintendo was focusing more on fun games than games that "pushed the envelope."

I'm disillusioned though.

I haven't bought many games for the Wii because they all look so boring. I read comments on the Internet saying that the people who grew up with Nintendo (me) have matured and we need more mature games.

I agree to a point. I think that while I would sometimes like to destroy zombies with all the gore possible, I also want a system that has games that Annie could one day play.

I DO NOT THINK it should be one or the other.

And now, after the Wii has been out for years I am getting more and more fed up with the CRAP that they want you to buy to play "games." It doesn't even seem like the games are all that fun anymore. And maybe this is because I'm older and now a "mature" gamer but I have no problem playing classic games. They were fun.

Here's what I think the problems are:

The controller. Yes, bowling is fun. However, sometimes, heck MOST times when I come home I'm tired and just want to lie back, controller in hand and play a game without having to exercise more and make myself even more worn out.

Third party games. It would solve a lot of problems if third party developers would produce games for the Wii, but they don't and I think it's because of the controller. I HONESTLY think that Nintendo pushes the controller pretty heavily instead of saying "yeah go ahead with a Gamecube controller or SNES type controller" and as a result, the developers just don't want to do that.

I can understand why. If I had a great game that would work on the DS but Nintendo insisted on utilizing the touch screen even though I had no intention of using it, I just might scrap the idea (or put some stupid touchscreen capability that just pisses you off like the upgrade selection in Bomberman).

Yes, Shiguro (apologies if I misspelled your name), you got your wife to play video games and enjoy them. What a great achievement. I know how it feels to convince your wife that something you love dearly is awesome. But I think Nintendo went a little far in dumbing it down.

Now, I'm not saying you need hardcore games exclusively, but you need SOME, at least more than you have now. You need to drop the idea that motion is necessary too so that third parties may be more interested.

I read an interesting article here: http://screwattack.com/node/12980 and must say that I don't think it's a matter of everyone saying that Nintendo abandoned us or we abandoned them, but Nintendo instead focused EXCLUSIVELY on "family" games instead of offering more for the ones that want, well, more. I know my daughter would probably love Wii games, but she's one. I'm 25 and still enjoy games like any Mario Brothers game, but I also like Gears of War.

So I Cowboyed Up

Jeez, I hate that saying. As if cowboy signifies anything good. I don't see it. I don't see how you should aspire to be someone like that.



But anyway, here's today's story.


Every year you have to do a PT test for the AF. Before I joined they changed it so you had to run 1.5 miles in a certain time as well as do X push-ups and sit-ups (X depending on your age). They also measured your height, weight, and abdominal circumference.



Fun stuff, right?



It USED to be that you could ride a bike (I've ridden that bike. It's not easy.) or you could run the 1.5 miles. I heard stories of crusty old men walking to the track smoking cigarettes and about to run in black socks and loafers. They'd meander around the track six time and then light another cigarette and the test was done.



But apparently no one was happy with the looks of the Air Force and the phrase Chair Force was tossed around more and more and the AF became something of a joke to the other branches.



Now, I do not think it's a smart idea to rise to any amount of goading in situations like this because it seems to stem from jealousy most of the time. But the AF ROSE to the challenge, demanded more running, harder tests and a mandatory PT program for everyone.



It sucks. I'd understand if my job required me to be physical but it doesn't. I'd understand if I had the strong possibility of being placed in incredibly dangerous situations where you would need to run 1.5 miles to get away from whatever is chasing you. But I'm not. So the whole stay fit to fight is a little beyond me, BUT I do it because it's required for me to keep my job and I need my job. I have a wife and child (soon to be children) to take care of so if they want me to exercise then I will exercise.



However, I can't run. I injured my hip a few years ago and now have to walk to take my test. Three miles timed. I know what you're thinking. Three miles is no big deal, but three miles WILL take it out of you.



I took the test today and passed with flying colors. It was awesome, I feel very proud of myself and here I sit, Diet Mountain Dew in hand in victory over and annual evaluation.



Like the minute where you get released from church and you know this is the longest time before you have to go to church again, I relished this moment.

"I'll Always Have This One Thing"

Have you ever told yourself that? Have you ever done something and sat back and said to yourself that no matter what life throws at you or how much gets taken away fro myou that you will always have this one thing?

And it can be anything, anything in the world, but it's some accomplishement or moment that you want to hold on to forever and ever.

The great thing about growing up is that those moments and achievements start stacking up and after a while, you'll have all sorts of them. Cherish them like gold.

For instance:

No matter what happens, I will always have the first time I held my daughter in my arms and thought to myself "It's all over now," and at the same time "Thank God." I'll always have that uncertain feeling like I might be messing up and feeling each day that I should strive to be a better dad than the day before and have more patience than the day before and spend more time on the floor with her and less on the couch with the TV.

No matter what happens, I'll always have that trip to Nashville where I met up with a bunch of like-minded people and had a blast.

No matter what happens, I'll always have my annie and the day I found out that it was mine.

No matter what happens I will have the fact that I beat Super Mario Brothers 3 last night. I've been trying for years and finally did it.

There are oh so many more moments and achievments, but mentioning the ones I have I now feel very sentimental and have to stop typing before my vision fogs.

Thanks Giving

I'm giving thanks right now and would like to start by thanking YOU for reading this (and clicking the ever-present ads in the top left, heh heh).

I'm thankful for my wife. I am not that bright of a guy, not that thoughtful of a guy and when it comes to being selfish, I just about top all. But I try to be as good as I can and I'm thankful that she has stuck with me thus far and hopefully she's seen an improvement since she makes me want to improve myself in every way.

I'm thankful for my lovely daughter who knows just how to melt my heart. She likes to run up to me sometimes when I'm lying on the couch and I'll pull her up on top of me and she'll lay down with her head on my chest and hug me. Having her that close to me in such a loving way, there's really nothing better.

I'm thankful for the life we've had because without it we would not be where we are and even if we're not a fan of the location or other things, it has shaped us into the people we are and honestly, I'm happy with who we are.

I'm thankful for the future ahead of us. It's a bright one. hope you feel the same.

I'm thankful for Black Friday, not because I'll be shopping but because it has inspired an idea in my head that churches should have service at 4:00 AM as well (it's not like it hasn't been proven that people are willing to wake up that early) that way no one is in front of me in line at any restaurants gossiping over the events at service.

I'm thankful for the miles between people I don't like and myself. Keep your distance, you.

I'm thankful for the delicious meal that my lovely wife made. It was scrumptious and honestly, if I died today I will die knowing that I have eaten one of the best meals I have ever eaten.

I'm thankful for life and all that it's giving us.

I'm thankful that I GOT THE LONG END OF THE WISHBONE! That and the letter I wrote to Santa is SURE to make me get what I want, maybe not this year or next but hopefully sooner or later.

I'm thankful I beat Mario 3, but sad that I need to find a new one to play. Maybe Mario 2...

I'm thankful for you, like I already said, for reading this. I recently found out I have readers in Russia and China, two countries I've always wanted to have folks read my blog from.

I'm thankful to Nicholas for being a good guy and maybe supplying me with our future son's (if it's a boy) name. Depends on if Kim will give the name the go ahead.

I can't get over how thankful I am for my wife. Without her... Well, I wouldn't be much.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and for those who do not celebrate, just because you don't eat turkey and get the day off does not mean you shouldn't take inventory of all the things you're thankful for.

Take care, everyone!

Nintendo DSi

Nintendo will be releasing a new Nintendo DS. One that includes cameras (no clue why they're needed), SD card slot, NO backward compatability and bigger screens.



Reading about it on Wikipedia (which has everything correct on any subject in the world) left me saying I won't buy it. I think I'm done with Nintendo. The isles at Target are divvied up like this: on the Wii wall more than half the wall is accessories, not games. On the 360 wall more than half is games not accessories. I didn't buy a system to keep buying additions and toys and accessories. That's a waste of my money and not a clever way to cover up the fact that the games are boring or frustrating. Yes, the Wii can tell you're moving the wiimote BUT accuracy is WAY off.

The way I look at it, the only way that Nintendo can release this and convince me to even think of buying it is this: With the SD card slot offer every single game boy/gameboy advance game as a downloadable program from the internet (accessed by home computer). If I can pay five bucks for any GB/GBA game and store them on the SD card basically making the DS a portable emulator, then that might be worth it since SO many great game boy games cannot be found anywhere.

This is the only way I'd ever consider it. I don't feel any draw to any current DS games and think their utilization of the touch screen feels forced and it makes gameplay awkward.

Boo.

The Scene

I'm reading Eric Clapton's autobiography right now. Kim says it's boring (she hasn't read it) and that no one knows who Eric Clapton is anyway. The shock on my face must have been visible because she defended her statement.

It got me thinking, though. Do people still know who Clapton is?

Now, all truth be told I'm not a huge Clapton fan, I never bought into the Clapton is God thought but there's no denying he's a living piece of musical history and as a guitarist, I'm interested in that kind of stuff.

I know a lot of people no longer know who Brian Setzer is which really freaks me out.

Anyway, I'm reading the book and it's interesting reading about how he played at clubs and the Beatles would come in and watch, or the Stones, and that there were all these other guitarists who seemed to come up with Clapton. A whole flood of music that seemed to at least be related to each other the way soap opera characters are, where everyone knows everyone in some sort of way.

And it got me thinking about how cool it would be to have musician friends in the very local area that you could jam with and you could feed off of each other's passion and playing, learn new techniques, go to their shows, they would come to your shows, and who knows? Maybe you could all rise together too. It happened in England, it happened in Seattle. There was even a Midwest metal scene not too long ago.

I just think that would be awesome but you would need 1) musician friends and 2) a town that had some sort of place where shows could go on.

You'd also hope to have a population in the town that likes music and I'm pretty sure no one likes music here. Because this place is death.

But still, it would be cool to have a scene, even if it was for other players. I certainly have no expectations of stardom or even getting a band together for any gigs. It would still be something cool for this town to claim and be proud of instead of relying on the athletic achievements of twelve year-olds.

Tyra Banks A Hypocrite?

I'm sitting her right now, I just took a sip of mud water (caffeine free diet coke) and cracked my knuckles feeling the old feeling of myself being on the cusp of a good rant. It won't be backed up with any real data as most rants aren't and it'll probably end up being wrong, narrow-minded, or just piggish, but that's what rants are, right? I'll probably even contradict MYSELF by the end of it, just wait and see.

I'm glad you're here for the ride.

Watching an episode of America's Next Top Model from this most current season I felt kind of sick. Kim loves that show, and it's fun to watch the models (whoo, they're picks of the litter, they are) and their valued opinions on topics that vary WIDELY. On the episode I saw today Jay Alexander, one of the... choreographers - for lack of a better term - told one contestant she was being too "hoochy."

Slutty, sexy, alluring, seductive, enticing, beckoning, etc. etc.

She was all this and too much so.

Pull it back he kept saying and she mentioned that yes, she's very sexual BUT she never considered herself too hoochy.

Later, when being judged Tyra went out of her way to make sure she knew that high modeling is NOT "hoochy" but "jeans and a tee shirt."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tyra. Let me think here for a second. You've got me all out of breath.

Didn't YOU become a household name in America by posing in your underwear? I don't even think I paid attention to her in a swimsuit (since swimsuits are less sexual to me than underwear since you wear swimsuits deliberately for wide audiences to see but underwear for significantly smaller audiences (maybe)) but always in her underwear.

Maybe I don't pay enough attention to high fashion. I know I don't. One of the judges asked a girl who her favorite photographer was and I was reaching for an answer myself. Even if I widen the spectrum to, oh, just about everything, I can't nail down ANY photographer's name (no offense to photographers) so I'm obviously not part of this "high fashion" world she speaks of, BUT I did look at the Victoria's Secret catalogs as a kid and I know why Tyra Banks' name is known to me (even before TV execs went nuts and gave her the reins to just about everything). It was because she was almost naked. It was because she was all the sexy words I posted earlier.

She was "hoochy."

What I think this is, is that she knows it and she's trying to outgrow that, like a band who is known for one song that will try their hardest to drop it from the set list only to have the crowd chant it as they leave the stage, demanding an encore.

It won't go away. Ever.

That's what I think is happening anyway. Maybe over time her attitude toward that kind of modeling has changed (she certainly has the right to change her mind) but standing there and telling a girl not to do something SHE DID and that made her so much money, paving her way to a household name, several TV shows, and basically anything she wants, that's a little messed up. I know if I was that girl I'd probably question her motives. If all I had to do was pose seductively for X years to get all this STUFF, well, shouldn't it be up to me whether or not I should do it? Is the opinion of those stuffy people in "high fashion" going to have any say as to what I'm going to do with my money?

I mean, there's posing in your underwear and there's posing in Hustler. There IS a difference and honestly, I don't see too much difference between VS and whatever the heck is a good example of high fashion. Most of the time high fashion is confusing and boring (you read it here first folks: chicks crying NEVER makes for good pictures, I don't care how "artfully" it's done) so don't feel bad about stripping down so long as your morals are in check.

And I am all about YOU choosing what YOUR morals are. Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

But Tyra, shame on you, for flaunting everything taking your clothes off gave you and telling some chick she shouldn't do the same. "Do as I say, not as I do," is a HORRIBLE motto for life.

How Cute

I just looked at the ads in the top left (where you click to make me money, even without buying anything) and there's an ad for Blu Ray players. This is hilarious to me since I do NOT like Sony or Blu Ray and even wrote a blog (I'm assuming this is where they got the "relevant term") about my distaste for them.

So it looks like the whole "relevant term" thing is very loosely bound. Perhaps it should expand its search to the whole sentence. Maybe they are going on how often I wrote "blu ray" in that blog?

I wonder...

Please, indulge me for a second.

Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments. Depends undergarments.

OK, check back soon to see if the ads change to, you guessed it: Depends Undergarments. I don't know about you but I think this is going to be very interesting.

But seriously folks, I don't know who out there is clicking on the ads, but thank you. I have almost 20.00 in the bucket as of right now, 80 away from getting a check and I already have something I want to spend it on, so kudos to me and my constant wanting of stuff, eh?

Keep up the good work with the clicks! I'll keep posting my drivel.

Well, I'll keep posting it regardless of if you keep clicking the ads, but if you do keep clicking the ads I'll keep posting but with a smile on my face.

Depends Undergarments.

My Brother and I

We are 16 months apart in age. That's pretty close. I think that the closeness in age might have been one reason why we didn't get along very well and Kim and he sister are separated by YEARS and because of that it seems like they have nothing in common. Anything Kim played with that was cool was no longer cool when he sister got to be the appropriate age to play with it.

So when Kim found out she was pregnant with our second child I did the math and you're looking at almost a two year difference. This is pretty good, I think. Two years older means Annie can watch out for her little brother or sister and help out with the new baby. I'm not saying she's going to be a babysitter or anything, but I am going to be able to TALK to a two-year old about why you should or should not behave this way or that way and HOPEFULLY she won't be too jealous of the attention the baby is getting and listen to what we have to say.

Am I worried? Worried isn't really the word for it. I am very much enlightened to the fact that we can't do THIS one on our own. With our first, I stayed at the hospital with Kim. We were there for about a week and I would leave to get myself some food and to check on the cats. Then I'd come back to the hospital. Yes, I had to sleep on a very uncomfortable couch in a tiny room (once the baby had been delivered) but it wasn't that bad and the nurses were watching Annie when Kim and I were napping or whatever.

It wasn't hard at all.

But NOW I'll have to sleep at home so I can be with Annie, leaving Kim all alone at the hospital, someone will have to keep Annie busy while I'm in the delivery room, etc etc.

It's going to be very overwhelming.

But I'm OK. I'll be OK. I'm getting pretty excited about this happening and will post often about this new development in my life.

FORE!

Being in the AF I always think of golf. I'm very torn on learning how to play. For one thing, I could spend that money on guitar equipment, something I'm already decent at and very passionate about. Do I really want to cut into potential guitar time for golf? And then there's the matter of daylight. Because it's entirely dependent on time and weather, I'll be away from home when I could be playing with Kim or Annie. Not like playing guitar where I can wait until Annie's asleep and Kim is watching *shudder* the Gilmore Girls to go off by myself and practice.

And the MONEY! Clubs, balls, tees, accessories, shoes, clothes, membership fees AND money to play a game, rent a cart, jeez. That's the kind of sport where all your money just disappears before you even think about playing.

Ah, but it would be cool to play golf and connect with my father in law like that. We don't have too much in common and it might be kind of nice to say "Your dad and I are going to play golf today, honey. Have fun with Annie."

And then there's the fact you're playing GOLF, the epitome of a classy adult sport.

Today I drove around a golf cart for HOURS selling sodas, water, beer, candy, etc. etc. for a Christmas party fundraiser and came out just as torn about the situation. Right now I'm thinking I have enough hobbies as it is and I need to lose a few of them to concentrate on the others to make any sortof progress on them.

I don't need another hobby.

And the biggest thing standing in the way of me playing golf is that a lot of tool bags play golf and it rulestheir lives like nothing I've ever seen. Well, maybe like guitars and me. Exactly like guitars and me. But I don't think I'm such a huge ass, right? Just a sarcastic one, eh?

Hmmmm.

A Little Bit Of Realization

You may remember my blog about how happy I am that Blu Ray sales are going down. I'm happy the sales are going down and I'm happy that the people who bought blu ray players when they had a CHOICE are paying so much money for crappy movies.

But I mentioned in that blog that I may look back through my archives and see if I could find any blogs I had written about the debate a long time ago when it mattered (and no one listened to me then either).

That was what I was doing this morning. I realized I had some spare time before I had to throw on the old uniform and go to work so I started going back in time and realized that I complained a LOT back then.

You may be sitting back thinking "But Russ, you complain a lot now," and that's true. You are right about that. I'm very... vocal about my misery because I'm a firm believer that most misery is self-induced and that it is a CHOICE to live out your life in misery. It's true unless you join the military and then they can send you to somplace you don't like and no matter how you may try to fight and wriggle and squirm your way out of the sorry excuse for a town you are LOCKED in until a certain amount of time is up. So my theory is when you're in misery do something about it. Unless you're in the military or for some other reason forced to endure it and then complain. Loudly.

Because they say the squeaky wheel gets the grease right? But they say the squeaky rat gets squished. Solution? Don't be a rat. Instead of blindly complaining do your best to WARN, not complain. Complaining would be like saying "man this unnamed place sure is a suck on my morale," but warning is like this: "You there, stranger, do not come to WARNER ROBINS, GA. It is less pleasant than a sea of whale vomit that you are caught adrift in the middle of with no hope of being rescued (ever) so you are forced to try to survive in this horrible sea by fishing through the vomit for whatever horrible creatures swim beneath only to eat them raw and contribute eben more to that growing sea of intestinal rejection. Do not come here!"

That's a warning.

Anyway, Going back through it all I realized that I was very angry. Incredibly angry. I was also depressed quite a bit and still very vocal.

So I'm pleased to say I've calmed down quite a bit. I've chilled out, I've mellowed. I'm a more happy guy, less angry, and less prone to fits of depression. Sure they still hit every now and then but they come and go much faster now and will probably go by even faster in the future.

So you may sit there and say I still complain quite a bit or I'm a very bitter person and you may be right, but if you just go back to my Myspace page (if you're my "friend") you'll see I have progressed significantly in these last couple years. I'm practically the happiest guy in the whole freaking world compared to what I was.

Yippee!

It's So COLD!

Well, I wouldn’t say it’s really COLD, but it is most definitely cooler than it was on Friday and it made me think of Georgia and how the weather is absolutely ridiculous. In the south it’s hot one day it’s cold another and my FINGERS can’t take it! I can’t type with any of the same sort of speed OR accuracy and I’m slowing down a ton in an effort to increase accuracy and I’m still messing up all over the place and maybe if I sit here and type for long enough I’ll end up warming up my fingers somehow. Maybe by getting some more blood flowing through them.

See, here’s the problem. With weather this crazy you get thermostats that do not get changed until a specific day on the calendar or X many people complain about the temperature.

The problem with X many people complaining about the temperature is that the next day when it gets changed, the temperature OUTSIDE will change to make it uncomfortable inside AGAIN.

You know why?

Because God hates this region. I don’t know why, I mean, he’s got a TON of blind followers who are always exiting their churches and getting in line in front of me at wherever I am going (doesn’t matter where, they will always be in front of me) and are always putting up billboards about god being amazing and encouraging you to go to church and all that stuff, so why he hates this region is beyond me.

Maybe there are too many faithful.

Come on people! Aren’t you cold and uncomfortable? Man up and turn him down for a while in an effort to stabilize the temperature! I don’t CARE if it’s hot or cold but switching between both on a daily basis?!

F That. This place sucks.

But Seriously, Folks...

Things that are popular always intrigue me. Or, I should say, WHY they are popular always intrigues me. Often I’m left wondering why.

Take the nightgowns that hip teenage GUYS wear outside. Shirts that are big enough that people will remark to their wives while driving that the end of the world is upon us because a billboard has sprouted feet and began walking. Shirts big enough that there have been waivers that need to be signed before buying them because 15% of people who buy them walk against the wind and actually get scooped up by their shirt (effectively it should now be called a “sail”) and whisked away to god knows where.

Pants around the knees confuse me too.

And leaving the labels and tags on ball caps.

Thugs wearing Nascar jackets. Is this supposed to be ironic? Or are these people really racing fans?

Women are an even more confusing species. Half jackets? Saying written across your butt but you don’t like guys looking? Ug boots and shorts?

Man, I must be getting old.

Grey’s Anatomy is NOT a good show and yet it’s popular! Same with Desperate Housewives. Why on earth are people watching these shows?

And finally, which is more popular, Snickers or Milky Ways? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking Snickers.

You’re right. The one thing that’s popular and makes sense in the whole freaking world. Someone left a bag full of Snickers AND Milky Ways and it was a half and half mix and all the Snickers are gone now.

So that’s one thing so far that is popular and makes sense.

The Homosexual Agenda

This is something that blows my mind: On the day when we made great strides in a civil rights movement by electing the first black president, we took another's civil rights away.

Gay people can't get married in California anymore.

What gives? Well, if you watch the news you'll see a bunch of people say the same thing: that the minority voters that would not have voted had the presidential race been between white guy #1 and white guy #2 actually voted against gay marriage. Apparently it pisses people off.

So, I'm here today to talk to you, just one blog out of the reported 70,000,000 blogs out there that easily gets skipped over and for all intensive purposes would be failing if it wasn't for my constantly running brain triggering my constantly running mouth or demanding a bigger audience and therefore making my fingers constantly typing, to tell you, my reader what this is.

It's insane.

To tell someone you are not allowed to be married automatically makes them worse than you, a deficient person, if they are indeed a person at all. You are subjecting them to humiliation that we are constantly regretting forcing on people in the PAST and yet we refuse to learn our lesson.

Slaves and racism. Constantly we talk about it, skirt around it, mention it, whisper about it, make jokes about it, pretend it isn't there and then hear from ten sources that it is. It's there. It's RIGHT there right in front of your FACE and YES, we regret it. I didn't even DO any of it and I feel bad!

So you'll understand if I say I have a bad feeling about what's going on right now.

I have this philosophy in life, and it's an easy one to understand (I hope). I believe that before you do anything you should think to yourself "Self, is this something that can come back and bite me in the ass?" If the answer is yes, the best course of action may be to not do it. Unless you like bad results to completely avoidable situations.

So you say to someone that they can't get married. You think it's wrong for some reason. Perhaps you think marriage is the holy bond it's reported to be. Perhaps you think that by two guys or girls getting married, somehow YOUR marriage will be tarnished. Maybe you think that the happenings of two completely unknown people WILL HAVE ANY SORT OF EFFECT ON YOUR LIFE!

If this is the case, you're wrong. How can marriage be a holy bond when so many (straight) people get divorced? How can you think that someone, ANYONE would look at you and your husband or wife (of the opposite sex) and say to themselves or their significant other "sure they're married but that doesn't really mean anything,"?

Anyway, you say to these people (because they're people too) that they can't get married and then they rise to power or at least to an equal level (because NO ONE is equal if they don't share the same rights) and I swear, you're going to be paying for this for the rest of your life! Your KIDS are going to feel the shame YOU are bringing down on them all because you didn't have a mature adult mind to realise that just about anything someone else does IS NO BUSINESS OF YOURS!

So if you think you have a voice and a right to impose your fucking will on someone else, you are WRONG and you are DANGEROUSLY wrong. And you're a dick to boot.

The fact the government even thinks you should have a SAY in this leads me to have even less faith in it than I did on November 3rd.

So in summary, if your intolerance of complete strangers' ways of life bugs you, and you voiced it in a voting booth because SOMEHOW it made you feel better you should do the world a huge favor and sew your mouth shut and cut off your hands (you may need some help for the second one) so you can't talk, can't type, can't VOTE and can't spew your poison everywhere that you are right now.

The fact that this even HAPPENED makes me know that this can't be the best country in the world. If it were the greatest country in the world, I wouldn't be writing THIS blog, I'd be writing about how something AWESOME happened today and how great I feel living in the greatest country in the world NOT gagging at the thought that I am now lumped in a country with a state that I very well may be from (who's to know?) that is more concerned with the leg room of the produce that it will eventually EAT than the basic civil rights of its residents.

MUWAHAHAHAHA!

During the format war between HDDVD and Blu-Ray, I was the one on the side of the HDDVD. It had all the perks as far as I was concerned. Cheaper discs, the fact that the same facotiries that make DVDs can make HDDVD (Blu Ray, not so much) etc. etc. I've written a couple of blogs on it in the past that I might try to dig up today and post (I won't consider it Nablopomo material since it's archived) for your situational awareness.

When Blue Ray won I was shocked. They basically won because ONE movie house moved over to Blu Ray for whatever reason and almost every other movie house that had an HDDVD contract also had a stipulation in said contract that said something along the line of "if X movie house moves to Blue Ray we reserve the rights to follow." This was probably because of the format wars of the past like Beta Vs. VHS, VHS Vs, Laser Disc, etc. when companies see a decline in sales because consumers aren't entirely idiots and they refuse to throw as much money as they normally would into a format that might be extinct in a matter of weeks. So once X moved, so did everyone else leaving HDDVD, and the tons of folks who bought the players because they're cheaper and the discs because they were cheaper and who thought it would win because it was cheaper completely out to dry.

Thanks, movie houses.

But now, Blu Ray sales are going down. Sales of players are going down as well as movies.

The reason? They say it's because DVDs are widely considered "good enough" that you can justify keeping the format around.

It's like this: VHS to DVD was a huge change in quality. If you watch a movie twenty times on a video, the color gets washed, sound gets fuzzy, the tape basically disintegrates. But if you watch a DVD 20 times, assuming you take care of the disc and don't play Frisbee with it when it isn't being played, it will look the same as the first time you played it.

Also, there's the cost. Blu Ray players are still wicked expensive, as are the discs. What would normally be a five dollar disc at Wal-Mart is now 30-40.00 thanks to Blu Ray. It could be some awful, horrible movie from the 80s that you just want to own because it's so bad, a fun purchase that you can no longer justify the purchase of because at 40.00, I had better get more than just some crappy movie. I had better get two GOOD movies.

Also, there's the fact that times are tough right now, there's no doubt about that. Times are tough and many people are getting by with their non HD TV that isn't huge ad mounted on the wall. They don't have amazing sound systems and they aren't willing to spend a ton on this stuff. Yet, at least.

Ah, and then there's the collectors. Like me. I have over 300 movies that I've collected (this is not counting TV shows) and I was always of the mind that if DVD went away, so would my collecting ability. When you can build a good collection with the average price per disc being something like 10.00, it's not bad. It's encouraging. You can get a ton of good movies for not that much money and your collection will grow very quickly. At 30.00 or hell even 20.00 it gets a lot harder and besides, I already own that movie on DVD! I refuse to buy any of those movies again. If DVD goes away, my Netflix account will get a much stronger workout.

Anyway, Blu Ray is on the decline and my smile is ascending. Funny how that works out.

A Dad's Required Shopping List For The Soon-To-Be Dad

OK, so you're thinking about having a child or you're already getting ready to have a child. Here are some tips and advice a dad has for you.

Of course you don't have to take this advice if you're set on being completely wrong and torturing yourself as your kid grows up.

1) You need Mylicon. It's a gas relief liquid that is safe to use on babies. I'm telling you right now, babies, they're gassy. They need this stuff. If they don't get it, they'll get gassy in the night, wake up because they are uncomfortable, realized they have pooped and that they're hungry and that it's about time you got up to ease all of their aches. Buy it. Buy lots of it.

2) Teething tablets. Have you ever been hurting and some douche didn't give you what you needed to make you feel better? Say your stomach was really hurting and some ass had a bottle of Pepto and they would not give you any. "No way man, I'm saving it for when I hurt." You don't want to be that guy, right? No way. Your kid will hurt when they teethe. Ease the pain.

3) Baby Tylenol. OK, this is the third drug I'm recommending and I don't want you to think this is a blog about keeping your kid drugged up because honestly, that's not what I recommend, but sometimes your kid is in extreme pain or has a fever that won't come down and you do not want to NEED this and not have it. Best to have it and not need it. Especially when your kid gets their first shots. This will be the first time your kid will ever experience REAL pain, pain they have NEVER experienced before and you'll want to do anything to ease the pain.

4) Swaddle sacks. Babies like being wrapped up tight and restricted in movement (that's how they've been for about nine months by now) and when they sleep and they are NOT in a swaddle they flail their arms (can't be helped), wake themselves up, and honestly, they're uncomfortable. When you go to Target or Wal-Mart or wherever you are going to buy them, don't go cheap. The cheap ones a) do not keep the baby warm and b) they don't last long at all. You need to buy the ones that have a ton of velcro on it (that looks super durable). You'll use them for every nap, and every bed time. They are GOLD when you have a newborn.

5) BUY SOCKS. This isn't so much a newborn thing, but when your kid starts wearing shoes (and socks hopefully) they will lose their socks. You will lose their socks. Their socks will hardly ever match (if you're anal about this, buy all of your socks in one color) and you will always be looking for that one freaking sock that disappeared.

6) While we're on feet: Don't buy expensive baby shoes. 30-40.00 for a pair of shoes is way too expensive and they WILL outgrow them with a quickness that will blow your mind. When you do buy shoes though, make sure the backs of the shoes are tough and stiff. My god, they need to be. If you can bend them without any real effort, just put them back and find a pair you can't.

7) PJs. I don't know what genius decided it was smart to sell PJs with two shirts and only one pair of pants. Watch out for this trick.

8) More than one set of bedding. For obvious reasons.

9) You need to buy a GREAT BIG BOX of chill pills. It's stressful raising a kid, sure, but it's one experience after another that you will not be able to experience again (at least with this particular child) so enjoy it. When you get past whatever phase your kid's in you're going to wish you had RELAXED more and enjoyed it as much as possible.

What Will The Future Bring?

As much as I don't like cross pollination, I didn't really think this blog belonged on 5th Fret as it's more about me than guitars.

They say the average blog lasts three months and then either dies or goes away, either way you never hear from the author again. I think this could be for a variety of reasons like something coming up in life to take your attention away from your blog, you becoming so bored with your own life you decide to stop posting as a way to stop the suffering of your readers, you aren't inspired to write because your readers and in the "few" category, you're putting unrealistic standards on your shoulders like demanding yourself to blog every day (you don't have to or you can do what the Nablopomo cheaters do and just post a picture as a blog), etc. etc.

For whatever reason blogs don't last that long and I could see that happening. I am almost out of that window. Just a few more days. But honestly, do you think I'm going anywhere? I have been posting blogs on MySpace for a very long time (since about 2005) and I don't really see an end in sight. There's something I like very much about blogging. Perhaps it's the chance that my stuff is actually being read.

Anyway, my guitar blog, located at http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/ is still trucking along as well. When I started I knew I wanted contributing writers to help out with the blog load with a goal in mind of one new article a day and while we aren't there YET, I hope to be one day soon. The blog count is still over 20 in about 1.5 months so that isn't TOO infrequent I guess. Not frequent enough, but not too bad. I just don't want people coming and seeing the same article they saw last time on top and then think that the blog is dead and never come back. But I digress. I knew I wanted more authors to help me out but at the same time I felt guilty going into it. What if this blog does only last three months, if that? What if I end up wasting the other authors' time and energy by not keeping the pace?

Well, like I said, 1.5 months down and we're still going. I'm finding ways to keep the blogs coming mainly from listening to a guitar podcast (six string bliss) and letting it inspire some ideas. I think that's been the problem with my lack of new material. I think what I needed was to talk to someone about guitars that I don't know (or listen to them talk) an use it as a springboard for my own ideas. A blog coming up soon will give them all sorts of credit too because I find their podcast not only incredibly entertaining but invaluable to my own article writing.

WARNING!!! TANGENT: I like to call them articles instead of blogs on 5th Fret mainly because I really do strive for a level of professionalism and am treating it as my own personal magazine.

Anyhoo, I hope 5th Fret sticks around for a LONG time. I also hope this blog sticks around as well. I'm sure this blog will, but I just hope 5th Fret does. I really like it and I'm putting a lot of work into it, more and more everyday (a great escape from the fact I live in a crappy town doing a job I'm not too fond of while thinking every day I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do but not knowing what that something is) and frankly, I love it.

I hope you visit both blogs to see what they're about and if you like them, recommend them to your friends and subscribe to them (if you use a Google reader I can know when someone new subscribes though it won't tell me who or where they are so your confidentiality is secure save for the fact you are one more hashmark on my vanity wall).

Thanks for reading and sticking with me. I appreciate it!

Doug Scrubs

I was getting Annie ready for bed when the idea for this blog hit me and I wrote down the idea ("Doug Scrubs") on a piece of paper and told Kim I have a new blog idea. She saw the paper and couldn't figure out what it was.

What it is, is this: I had been watching a few episodes of 3rd Rock From The Sun and was thinking about how they end the episodes with a "what did we learn" kind of moment on their roof and how this was kind of like the greatest show ever.

I speak of course, of Doug. Well, it might not be the greatest show ever but it was pretty cool. It was entertaining and funny in a very tangent-ey way but taught morals in a way that didn't make you gag, like, say, McGee & Me. It was a great show for kids.

And if I may break off for just a moment: Nickelodeon NEEDS to release Doug on DVD in season form. I'd buy them in a heartbeat for my daughter (and for my wife and myself's nostalgia attacks).

Then ABC got a hold of the show and ruined it.

So I was thinking how TRFTS is like Doug but then it hit me that while similar, there was another show that was even more like Doug.

I speak, of course, of Scrubs. Morals, tangents, funny stuff, it's all there.

And oddly enough ABC is getting a hold of this one too........

I hope it goes better than Doug did!

Annie's Found A New Friend

Usually I let my wife post blogs about how cute Annie is, but I had to do it this time. Annie is adorable.

She is absolutely terrified of vacuum cleaners though. Well, she's terrified of MOST vacuums. For some reason she's not scared of OUR vacuum, maybe because she sees it all the time, but any other vacuum, even one at daycare that she does see every day scares the hell right out of her. There have been many times that I've gone in to pick up Annie from daycare and see the janitor looking very guilty as he's running the vacuum because Annie is flipping out, red face, tears streaming. I feel bad for the guy, I really do. I feel bad for Annie too. Little girls are supposed to be scared of weird things I guess, but I never thought it would be a vacuum that got her.

Now, at home she apparently thinks it's her friend that she can play with and who am I to say no?

November's Trying to Stop Me!

By now you know about the challenge to write a new blog for every day of the month in November, right? We're almost to the halfway point and it has occurred to me that whatever genius decided that November would be the National Blog Month wasn't really a genius at all, but a person who has no life, no hope and probably no friends or family.

Now, I know that probably sounds harsh. And hypocritical. After all, I'm here typing right? But hear me out: It's NOVEMBER, one of the most awesome months of the year to go OUTSIDE and observe the fireworks displays of changing leaves, to play with your kids at the park, to lay under blankets with your significant others and watch movies, read books, lay by the fire or, you know, other stuff (statistics show most babies are conceived during the months of November and December).

You have Thanksgiving, you have shopping the day after, you have relatives coming in, long lost friends, Christmas cards that need to go out, a mother-in-law to fret about presents to plan, clothes to buy for the changing seasons, etc etc.

WHO HAS TIME TO BLOG WITH ALL THIS GOING ON?!

But oh ho ho, you haven't gotten ME pegged in a corner. Not by a long shot! I'm very... verbose shall we say, and there is such a thing as scheduling a blog to be published in the future so if you're having a particularly chatty day with lots of inspiration you can end up with a buffer of blogs in case you forget, get too stressed out, pass out, have emergencies or any other thing. Life can go on as normal even if it is not and everyone on the internet will still think you are living deficient.

I don't know whether to be happy about this or doubtful in my own humanity...

Anyway, this is my last blog for this day, to be canned for a future publishing date. This is the third, and I'm pretty happy about that because I'm pretty sure I'll have more to write about tomorrow and IT will be pushed to the back of the line to help insure that all of the blogs that go out will go out in an orderly fashion to avoid any possible confusion.

Also, thanks to the people who are coming to the blog, and who are clicking on the ad in the top right. According to the Google money counter I've made almost two whole dollars in a day. Now, scoff if you will, but that is two imaginary (imaginary until I get the check and it clears) dollars that I did not have yesterday.

Be sure to click often to help out. Every penny will go into an old military ammo box I have that is reserved for musical equipment. It's kind of like a handout except all you're handing out is a small movement of muscles under your index finger to click on an ad.

Ah, this blog is nice and long wouldn't you say? Something to help you pass the time enjoyably I hope. I say this because my wife is one of the people that November seems to be beating. Every night she sits down and says she has no idea what to write about and that she has homework to do and all that stuff. But she pulls it off every night. Good job, sweetie! Keep it up! Only * cough * cough * cough* more days to go.

Take care, everyone!

Suddenly I'm Proud

Going through Boot Camp for the AF, I was never really proud of myself. It's tough to be proud of something that so many people have done before you (and will do after you). I always thought that the pride you'd feel about being a part of the AF or the military in general comes after some great deed you did, when people come up to you and thank you for saving their lives or when you get some hard-to-achieve medal pinned to your chest. You know, when you become a hero.

And being part of such a great military it is tough to shine in comparison to the other fine members so I was never really proud of myself. Especially about being a flier. Less than two percent of the enlisted AF actually fly and I'm in the percentage but it isn't really something I've been proud of. There is a LOT of stuff that comes with being a flier that I do not like, but have to put up with. Just like any other job, I guess. We aircrew were taught from the very beginning that we're the best, the absolute best because we're the guys that the guys on the ground call when they need help. Maybe so, I thought, but that doesn't make me the best, it just means it is my butt in the seat and it could really be anyone's butt in the seat. It doesn't have to be me. I was not actively sought out to be what I am and to do what I do.

So going through the military like I'm doing, I never once said I'm proud of myself because honestly, I'm not. I'm not even proud of myself now, even as I write this blog.

But I am proud to be aircrew. Not obscenely proud or anything, I'm not shoving it in anyone's face thinking I'm better than them (I'm not). I'm just proud to be part of this little organization.

It came from going to the air museum. Let's get it right out in the open: I find planes incredibly boring. I don't care what model this is, or how far that one can fly, or what loads that one can carry, I really don't. It's just not interesting to me. But seeing the sea of flying jackets they have on display there really hit home for some reason. They were all worn, cracked with age and abuse, painted and faded from the years, sewn up with patches and equipped with all sorts of pins. Morale is what I was looking at. It made me wonder if there is any current guidance on the leather jacket.

I think (I say this of course, before finding out if there IS any guidance) that to get rid of the capability to do this to your jacket, to make it yours to show your pride in whatever you're doing or have done is a horrible thing. That is the AF to me. My entire belief in the AF is summed up in a couple of jackets and it's all right there and nowhere else. I don't look at the blues and feel the same way, nor the flight suit. I don't look at well manicured bases and think about how great it is to be able to say I'm a part of this, no matter how long I'm going to be a part of it. Everything good about the AF is right there, in the worn, faded, painted jackets from an era not too long ago.

Driving At Night

The other night I had to go out to get dinner. Usually my routine includes not going out after I get home from work. I think there are tons that will agree that when you get home from work, all you want to do is relax. I get out of my uniform, put on the General (the leader in the pajama pants regime) and play with my daughter until it's time to feed her, bathe her and then put her down for bed. Then I relax, watch some TV, maybe get on the Internet and then it's bed time. But the other night, I ventured out to get dinner.

The temperature was 73 degrees (Fahrenheit thank god) and the night was clear. It was great. I drove with my window down, enjoying the night air. It wasn't that long ago that I would hang out exclusively at night during summer vacations and then sleep through the day in preparation for the next night's events (which included little more than guitar playing and hours of talking with friends outside in the cooler-than-daytime Mississippi air) and I was enjoying it.

On the way to Wendy's there was apparently an accident and the blue flashing lights of the cop cars lit up the dark rural road that I was on and it was beautiful. It really got me in the mood for Christmas.

By the way, I don't think anyone was injured, or if they were they had already been taken away because it was just cop cars, no ambulances.

Then, sitting in the line at the drive through, right next to the neon light advertising Wendy's willingness to stay open late for everyone to be able to enjoy their delicious food at all times, I was pretty happy. The hum from the neon, the blue from the cop cars, the smell of the delicious food, the darkness of the night and the air blowing in the car, it all combined to make for a pretty great little trip out.

Changes

I was getting frustrated by the squeeze of the previous blog template. There was too much negative space and not enough positive space and it was irking the heck out of me. Here were my words, all cramped together and yeah, it made for a very column-like look but at a cost that I didn't agree with.



This template is one that is still colorful, though not nearly as cool as far as the colors go. But the words are no longer cramped.



Do you like it? Do you find it easy to read or is the informative column with the subscription a hindrance to easy reading of the actual blog? Let me know in the comment section!



I'm still in the deciding stage about this, and changes might come again and possibly again and again. I'm trying to be satisfied and if they just offered a stretch version of my old template I'd be happy.



Anyway, my point here is to not be alarmed.



Also, I know these "under construction" posts are kind of a cop out (much like photo only blogs) for the November challenge, so I may come again today to post something but if not, I copped out and you can just deal with it (but please come back!).;-)

Where I Am Currently

My wife and I talk about our blogs sometimes, about what we aim to achieve and who we are trying to entertain. Kim runs a mom blog and blogs about nothing but being a mom and I think it’s working out pretty well for her. If I limited myself to one topic for every blog I could only imagine how quickly I would run out of quality blogs. Especially with this challenge of putting out a new blog every day in November. Of course, with Kim raising Annie, every day is an adventure of some sort and there is never a shortage of fresh material.

So if you haven’t guessed, I’ve moved all of my guitar-oriented blogs to http://5th-fret.blogspot.com/ and I think it’s going well. The site hits are running at about even but I’m putting forth an effort to get it out there more. I don’t really know what I aim to achieve with it. I’m not looking for sponsors because it’s a free blog to run. There’s no need of money. There IS a need of time. There just isn’t enough time in the day to work, play with Annie, spend time with Kim, and focus enough energy to both 5th Fret and this blog.

So what do I hope will come from 5th Fret. I have no clue. I’m just doing it for fun. I’m playing, I guess. I have always wanted to write for a living, especially for a guitar publication, but the more I read them the less I want that. It seems so… not guitar related. I guess I could start my own, but the costs would be pretty high and honestly, it would be much more easily accomplished on the net. So I suppose that 5th Fret is my magazine and maybe it will grow. Maybe one day guitar companies will send me or my contributing writers stuff to review (I’d be up for thatJ).

And what about this blog? What do I aim to achieve with this? Nothing more than to entertain you, the reader, and to rant and rave in my own space. I appreciate you reading this and wanted to let you know what the stats are right now. I’m a pretty practical person and numbers impress me and I wanted to thank you by showing you exactly what you’ve done. This blog has been visited over 1,000 times from various cities and countries in the world, some that are a real shock to me. Thank you so much for visiting and reading. I hope you keep coming back for more and enjoy it.

Just for visual reference, here’s a picture of where the last 500 visitors have logged in from. If you don’t think I appreciate this, you’re wrong. I appreciate it very much. You've made a ham very happy.

Sell Out

Yesterday I decided to see what this Adsense business was all about and submitted an application to have ads put on my page (where I choose and with the size, font, colors, etc. all of my choosing) and I’m awaiting an acceptance or rejection email. I think it’s a pretty cool idea, definitely something to further help inspire a better blog, more regular postings*, and even more of me asking you to tell friends about the blog if you think they’ll be entertained by it.

I had to promise not to click on my own ads since there’s a possibility that I’ll get a bit of money per click, so I’ll have to restrain myself but if you happen to see any of the ads that look interesting and want to click on them for further information go right ahead. Anything at all.;-)

They also say that the ads are going to be relevant to the blog, that they’ll somehow find common threads and pick things that are related to the blog and besides obvious candidates like Scene It I’m incredibly anxious to see just what THEY think is a relevant ad to my constantly off topic blog. I think yesterday morning when I threw the gadget in, there was an ad for a bed. Maybe they know something I don’t and are seeing what my readers want and not necessarily what I’m writing about?

Anyway, I’m excited for this to happen, just to see what WILL happen. I have no illusions that this could be a way to make a ton of money or anything like that, I’m just curious what will happen in general.

Anyhoo, this is day seven of November, the seventh entry for the National Blog Month and I think I’m doing pretty well with it so far.

YAY!

Edit: I see I now have an ad about MRI dye lawsuits on my page. Very interesting stuff....