Big Day

It's been a big day for me.

First, while harvesting pretend crops on a pretend farm for pretend rewards on the ever-popular Facebook game Farmville, I decided that I was never really having any fun and it was more just something to do. Five to ten minutes once or twice a day and you're done.

But why do it when it isn't fun?

So I quit. The rice I planted has not fully grown yet, but it won't be harvested when it does. I'm not playing anymore. We'll see what the repercussions of that are.

Maybe I'll have a little more time to peruse the internet forums

Oh yeah, I'm not so hip to them right now either. I've got nothing against them, it's just that right now it doesn't look like anything really interesting is happening right now.

Though I will say that the Telecaster forum never fails to post some great looking pictures of worn out Teles and I want one pretty bad. Not a worn one (well, maybe a worn one) but a lacquered one and not JUST lacquered on the body but the neck too. Half the fun of showing wear is showing it on the neck. Unfortunately, Fender doesn't offer this except on the really high end guitars (about 17-2,000.00).

Now, there are builders that will build you a Tele to your specs and more and more are popping up every day so when I say that I've been thinking about a sea foam green la cabronita Tele with a single TV Jones Powertron in the bridge, there are people that can do it (for less than a real Fender too).

But I'm not close to getting a new guitar at all. Not at ALL. Oh well. I'm pretty happy with the ones I have. Sometimes I think I should replace the neck on my Tele for one that's a bit more chunky like an old Tele is, but the idea of carrying the whole guitar stock throughout my career is pretty tempting too. Maybe the frets just need leveled out or replaced. I'd be more prone to do that, honestly.

I also had an afternoon to myself and I drove up to Macon to a Mac store there. Not an official Apple Store with a glass front or anything, a small store that had a fairly knowledgeable staff that helped me out and answered my questions. I told them if I were to get the Macbook Pro like I want it would probably be while deployed and they didn't say they could ship it or that if I ordered it from THEM that I wouldn't pay tax.

Though I would like to order from them.

I'd like that very much.

It would be nice to support a small shop like this one and say that there is a market for this kind of stuff.

Perhaps I could email him from the desert and organize a mail-order.

When I went in there was a kid carrying out a 27" imac. His mother/grandmother referred to it as his toy and it blew me away. Here I am, 26, trying to convince my wife that a Mac is what I need to be able to jump into audio recording and hopefully not break a computer like I seem to have a knack for and this 15 year old kid is getting a "toy" from his relatives.

The manager of the store said that a soldier bought a macbook pro, a real expensive one, and also bought a super duper case. One that costs somewhere around 400.00 that has Kevlar and titanium and all that. In Iraq, while carrying the computer in the case a sniper shot two shots. One ripped the guy's leg right off. The other hit the case. The guy lived and brought the case and macbook in to show that the 400.00 was well spent because nothing on the inside was hurt though the outside looks like... well, like it was shot by a sniper.

The afternoon off was a big thing for me. Kim likes to think that me going to work is a break and I don't want one from the family or kids which just isn't true. I think everyone needs a little time to themselves and always try to give Kim that time because she's a little more vocal about needing it. When I told her it would be nice for ME to have a personal day she sat back and said it honestly hadn't occurred to her that I would want one.

Driving back, with the sun coming down from its apex, music up loud and going a bit faster than I should have, I was having a good time.

And I didn't spend a dime. Not even on a book I want to get called Love Is A Mix Tape.

So I got home, took Kim's library books back, took Annie to the park where no less than seven ladybugs landed on my shirt (must be the color), burned the living hell ut of some pork chops in the last grill of the season, and after putting the kids down for their sleep settled in for a good forty minutes of reading God's Middle Finger, a travel book about the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico. Very entertaining. Doing coke with cops, being chased by armed gunmen who want to kill you because they're bored, watching fat prostitutes (mucha carne) strut by batting eyelashes because no Mexican girl apparently feels bad about themselves and every one is confident in their looks, all of this makes for some great reading.

So yeah, big day.

Family: Bah!

I think it's interesting, this idea that your family needs to be together, stick togethe rand help eachother through whatever life hands them regardless of how each family member feels about them.

Maybe I have a unique perspective because being raised in the military I rarely saw my family outside of the nuclear capacity and when I did, it was more than likely grandparents and few others.

So I don't exactly have strong ties. I didn't grow up playing with cousins and nephews and nieces. I don't mind that, either.

I don't mind it because when a person who happens to be related to me acts like an ass, I'm not incredibly torn up about severing the tie. I barely know whoever I'm talking to anyway, so what's the big deal? It's not like we have clans anymore where we'll wage war on an opposing house.

But you can't imagine the grief I get from other family members about "not caring," or "turning my back on a member of the family."

Nuts to that. I would much rather judge everyone equally because this whole tied by blood thing is a myth anyway. No one REALLY cares about that, they just pocket it until it's useful to them to manipulate and I need no more people manipulating me.

If someone's an ass, they're an ass and you don't need to be around them. Why let them depress you and drag you down? There is no reason.

Now, I'm not saying family doesn't matter. In my opinion the reason this whole family through and through mentality came to be is because in a good family, their attitudes and love for eachother make you WANT to give them everything you can and stick together and that's fine. That's a good thing. You should do the same with friends.

But if one of your friends was just an awful person, you wouldn't be their friend anymore right? The same rules apply to me and my family. If you're an awful person who's bringing me down, you won't be bringing me down for long.

Post #10

So Adam, my sweet, sweet son who always seems to be happy and smiling and laughing - oh how he laughs when you play patty cake with him - woke at 3:30 in the morning.

THREE THIRTY!

Oh, but I'll survive, don't worry about me. I don't have any coffee, but somehow I'll make it through. At least I don't have to worry about making dinner tonight.

Why?

Because yesterday, with Ida straddling middle Georgia and pelting us with rain and wind (that's gross when you think about it), I took the kids to Publix. Oh, it was GREAT. First off, the rain. Glorious rain. I covered Adam's car seat and carried it and held Annie's hand as we booked it to the store and then into the cart with both of them.

For the record, this leaves very little room for food.

But I was getting so frustrated about not having dinner in the house that I had to do this and I picked up three frozen dinners to tide us over until payday when maybe I can leave a child with Kim and go grocery shopping with a little more real estate in the cart.

It was a nice little trip though. Annie laughed at how she was getting wet and I was just trying to make sure everyone was OK and as dry as possible. It did the kids good to get out too.

So you'll excuse me since I've been up for nine hours already that my blog isn't all that entertaining today. Sorry.

Maybe tomorrow.

Post #9

It seems like I was wrong earlier when I wrote about the Nook, the Kindle and the Sony. Apparently it's only the Kindle that sucks. And by sucks I mean is more forced to get books from Amazon. There are workarounds, but they're still workarounds, while the Nook is open to get books from other sources and the Droid OS is going to help out eventually too.

At least, that's what I've been reading.

I'm pretty excited. I don't get embarrassed when I read books even though I read a little bit of trash, but I was recently thinking of reading the Twilight series purely to see what all the fuss is about. Even Kim devoured it in a little over a day (the first book) and was talking about how it's SO much better than she thought it would be and "oh, Edward..."

I have to know what everyone's so wrapped up about.

And I do NOT want to be caught reading the book with the actors' faces on the cover.

The idea is gross.

But on an ereader no one's the wiser. I could be reading 1776 for all anyone knows!

Post #8

It's like some sort of Disney movie, I swear. On Friday we were in the car somewhere and Kim asked if I would be game for swapping jobs. She would go to work at my job and I would be a stay-at-home Dad. Of course this is impossible to actually do.

Right?

To an extent, I guess. She was mainly asking me to validate her job as a difficult one and it's true, her job is tough. I know this. I knew this before this whole ligament thing. I never for an instant thought her job was cake.

Well, I guess she pulled out a shrunken monkey's paw and made a wish because her back got hurt and now I'm a stay at home dad. But it's like stay at home dad XTREME! Where the usual grocery trip involves Kim taking Annie and me staying home with Adam or her going by herself, I have to go everywhere with both kids.

And we need to get groceries.

It's tough. But it's also mighty COINCIDENTAL that this happened when it did. Me thinks the lady put a curse on me (temporarily). I swear honey, I respect you.

Post #7

Still alive! The 5th Fret dropped out of Nablopomo and so did New Rukian, so that leaves just me. Good thing I wrote that blog about God being a bit of a butt early yesterday.

So where to begin? Kim was in bed all day yesterday which meant I got to take care of the kids. So I did. It was everything I thought it would be, good parts and bad.

I went out to check the mail though, and there was a little boy, probably seven or eight sitting on top of a hill crying in direct view of me, with his back turned to me.

Just sitting there doing the boy cry which is less of a whaaaaa and more of a mmmmmMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMM. Campbell's should sue.

At first I was going to leave him alone. What business is it of mine? But I looked around and no one was coming for him, no one cared. There were people that could see him and they weren't doing anything. So I said nuts to this and went over there and tried to make myself as physically menacing as possible. Not to scare the poor kid, but to let him know that I'm an adult and can probably be trusted. No sense in me going over there to try to make the kid feel better only to have him run away screaming.

I squatted down next to him and asked if he was OK. He was not. He had a red line with spots of blood going down the side of his face. This is the result of another little boy breaking off a tree branch and beating him across the face with it. A little boy that happened to be watching this with his friends and mother. The crying child also said he was pushed into a big pile of dirt by the same little butthole.

I asked if he wanted to go home and he didn't know. Go figure. I convinced him that he needs to have his folks look at his face to put some neosporin or ice on it. I really wanted them to see the face so they can get good and pissed and put that little boy in his place. He was as good as guilty in my book.

I just thought, what if someone brought home Annie or Adam like that. Oh, I'd hand the kid off to Kim in a heartbeat to get fixed up while I went on a little walk. And woe to the kid and parents of that kid when I get to their step.

We walked past the group of oglers and the boy was telling his mom that it was an accident and the mom was eating it up. I wanted to explain that it could not have possibly been an accident. When you're running through bushes and a branch that you pushed through snaps back and hits your friend, that's an accident. But all of the trees/bushes are cut too high for that to happen in this neighborhood AND the mark was vertical not horizontal. That kid was hit.

I dropped the now-calmer child off with his dad who was concerned about what happened and I left to go back home. I had my own kids to tend to. But the little branch user tried to talk to me as I walked by saying it was an accident mister and I controlled myself enough not to look his way. Best not to get too involved. It would have been way too easy to escalate.

Meanwhile Kimmy was really hurt. Really hurt. I had to take her to the ER and then they told her that she had torn a ligament and it would take quite some time to heal but as for now she can't lift anything heavier than a book and I'm in charge of the kids now.

It will be interesting to see how much longer I can keep Nablopomo up.

Post #6

I'll be completely honest here: I think God exists. I do. SOMEONE had to make this place.

But I for one don't like Him. He's kind of a dick. At the very least he makes life "interesting."

For instance, today we were supposed to drive to Macon. We would get breakfast on the way to an exit far past Macon and go to a park, a nature preserve-ish type of place where we would walk and everything would be fine. Kim would get good pictures, the kids would get air.

Except Kim woke up and while getting ready, her back started to hurt and get progressively worse. She swallowed some Aleve and we made our way to the car, her leaning on me quite a bit, both of us thinking if she still hurts by the time we get to 75, we'll turn back, but we didn't make it that far. No, we got breakfast and had to go back. Then I took the kids to Target to get icy hot back pads for Kimmy (and to give her some quiet relaxing time) and when I got back in the car to go home, the brake light came on. The constant DING DING DING DING DING DING came with it. I was annoyed, but no big deal. The brakes did feel squishy. I'll just pull off to a gas station and get some brake fluid.

Bought some break fluid and Adam was crying (howling) when I opened up the car door to pull the hood lever and guess what didn't release?

The hood.

I pushed it down and it seemed to connect, but when I pulled the lever, nothing happened. I couldn't get the damn hood to open up.

So I drove home with the constant DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING in my ears and when I got home and was feeding Adam his bottle as Annie tried to kiss Mommy better, Kim reminded me that a few months ago, something happened with the car and they said that eventually this one thing is going to need to be fixed and I said it's too expensive so we'll wait. Kim thinks it's that and I'm inclined to agree, but why today of all days?

And it's not like we have the extra money to fix the car right now either so it looks like we're going to be a one car family.

Maybe He is just using this little series of... events... to draw us together as a family.

But right now I just think it's messed up.

Post #5

This is why everyone should consider joining the Air Force:

We had a fund raiser today to raise money for the squadron Christmas party and random things that pop up (like if a military spouse needs something and their husband/wife is deployed, the squadron may be able to help) so we had a golf tournament and had the day off from work to accomplish this. So we showed up in civilian clothes and golfed. Carts with beer, snacks, chips etc. were driven around to us in case we wanted to buy stuff to further support the squadron.

The carts were full of Hooters girls.

Now, I don't like going to Hooters. Their food is awful. But these girls volunteered their time for free to come out and help us out (not really doing anything but posing for pictures and flirting) and I think that's pretty cool.

For the record, this was my first time playing golf. I enjoyed it but after seven or so holes, I was done. I don't know how people can go a full 18. I think maybe if the kids are in to it, I'll get in to it too, but for now I'll save my money for more important things.

We received an award too. A spray-painted gold playstation controller that said stick to Tiger Woods golf because we sucked. The whole team, save one, was out on their first golf outing. So us sucking was expected.

But where else are you going to get a day off from work to golf, drink beer, hang out with friends, AND all the money raised will go to making your future parties great and your families a little more secure?

Go Air Force!

Post #4

I have good news and I have bad news. And contrary to the way everyone usually likes to hear the delivery, I’ll tackle the good news first, then the bad.

So the good news: I found my iPod. It was under a couch cushion.

Unfortunately (bad news) I found it AFTER I took a PT test today. If you walk around a walking track twelve times, it’s tough to stay motivated, tough to stay moving at a decent pace and it gets REALLY boring. So boring your mind starts to drift and you don’t even realize that your pace has slowed drastically. No kidding, a blue jay landed on a tree branch and I almost stopped to look at it. I slowed considerably and caught myself just in time.

Man, I hate PT tests. I know I’m not alone in this either. I understand the need for them, I understand the desire for the AF to keep you trim (you look better in your uniform – no one wants a slob working for them) and fit (so you, you know, won’t die after running a mile in a bullet-proof vest) BUT it still sucks that you’re being evaluated in an official capacity on your body. I don’t know, there’s just SOMETHING about it that freaks me out, borderline scares me.

Maybe it’s because it feels like – as they wrap the tape measure around your waist – they’re measuring your worth. Your whole worth, summed up in your body, the thing that, as a member of the USAF, you probably don’t use that often. Nothing to do with your intellect, nothing to do with your job skills or leadership skills or anything that really matters, none of it comes in to play. But if you have a 40” waist, oh boy, you better watch out.

And this just seems a little wrong to me. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if it wasn’t such a HUGE thing to the AF. If you fail to meet the requirements, they can kick you out. How bad would it feel to be kicked out of a job you were qualified for, that you were good at, in a career where you were excelling in ALMOST every way, but you happened to eat fast food too much? And because of that, you got kicked out.

That’s a little ridiculous.

Oh well. It’s not like one guy is going to change this.

But I went out and walked my three miles (I can’t run) and my scores were good. Unfortunately it was a practice test so I get to do it again next week. I wouldn’t be so damn angry if I had FAILED the test, because it was a practice test and I was just seeing where I was after ALS. I’m more mad at myself for not having the confidence to say I can still do it.

But oh man, I’m mad at myself. Not cool, Russ. Not flipping cool.

I like to end most things on a positive note though so here we go: Next week, as I wake up early to drive to work to get evaluated again for a test I have absolutely zero faith in just so I can say that I’m worthy to stick around for one more year, I’ll step out into the chilly air and I will definitely have my iPod ready to go.

Post #3

During Thanksgiving of 2007, Amazon released their Kindle. While ereaders had been around for a while, this was a big step forward both in terms of use and book availability. It was likened to the first iPod.

Then Amazon released the Kindle 2, which featured "upgrades" that slimmed down the body, streamlined the keyboard, made the page turn buttons smaller and stronger, sped up the page turning process and got rid of the expandable memory, supposedly in favor of getting the body as slim as possible.

But the Kindle has some problems too. Mainly that it's a little pricey. The price has dropped significantly since its release, but it's always been a bit high and there's also a big threat of them acting in a very Big Brother fashion.

They can reach into your device and take what you bought if it doesn't seem legitimate or make changes to your library without you knowing it. It would be like if someone went into your house and started marking out words in your books o taking them altogether because they were borrowed from a friend.

A student was using the Kindle and its handy note taking feature in a college class only to have Amazon pull the book off of his system and now he has no book for the class and is pissed. Amazon manned up though and said they're sorry and gave him back his notes but without the text nearby, the notes are practically useless. They also said they would never do something like this again.

They also offer services that other ereaders are offering but Amazon is wanting to charge you for the service and the others aren't.

Since the Kindle has been released, I'm sure many people in the industry are thinking that this is the iPod of books and they want to get in on a lower floor. Look at what happened with Apple. No one else wanted to support MP3 formats and the iPod became the king of MP3 players and now you can ask someone if they have an iPod and they'll say yes and caveat it with "well, it's a Sansa." "Ipod" has become synonymous with MP3 player, much like Kleenex has become synonymous with tissues.

Because of this we have good looking competition from Sony and Barnes & Noble.

Honestly, for me the “benefits” of buying the Nook from Barnes & Noble or the Amazon Kindle just don’t work for me. I will never use text to speech, especially when it sounds like a robot. I can barely make it through automated phone recordings so how can I expect myself to make it through Brave New World? This is not an actor or the author reading the book, this is a machine reading it. Not cool to me.

Also, why on EARTH would I want MP3 features on my reader? It is NOT a computer, why should it be treated like one?

I don’t really understand pictures on readers either, but would rather have the reader to have that capability because it probably means that it could handle illustrations in books.

The dictionary. Whenever I didn’t know a word, my parents made me look it up in the big heavy dictionary. The work put forth in finding it helped me remember the word and its definition. I thank my parents for this because I’m pretty sure it’s what has helped the most with my vocabulary. The Sony does not have an instant dictionary where the Nook and Kindle does but again, the work of finding the word will help you remember what it means.

I also don’t need a web browser on my reader. I just don’t. The reason it’s there in the first place on the Nook and Kindle is because they want you to be able to buy books from them and since you have access to that, they have access to you.

I’m not TOO worried about Big Brother but stay the heck away from my devices.

All the perks of the Kindle and the Nook are probably not going to be applicable to me. I probably won’t be hanging out with other Nook users who have their reader on them and happen to want to lend me a book of theirs for 14 days. I’m not interested in paying way too much for newspapers and abbreviated magazines either.

But the Sony, ah, the Sony. What a great looking reader. It does not offer expandable memory, but honestly, since I’m not going to be paying for a NY Times subscription, and have no interest in MP3s or pictures, how am I going to fill up any level of memory when a normal book is 2mb? And when I finish, am I going to hold on to it or am I going to get it off of my device and into the folder that has all of my other finished books in it? I want my device as clean as possible so I can see which books I have that I’m in the middle of and which books I have that I still need to read.

The price is decent too. At 200 bucks I can get the reader, have access to Google Books which is all but a book dealer themselves now, AND Sony’s bookstore which might cause some healthy competition. Sony’s shop offers books in series at a discounted price too when they’re in bundles. Prices are comparable to Amazon’s shop (B&N is still pricey even in electronic form) too.

It doesn’t have text to speech nor a web browser, nor pictures, nor lending, nor any of that other stuff. It’s just a solid reader with the ability to get books from multiple sources (when Amazon and B&N realize that they should be offering an inexpensive device that can go to different sources they’ll sell more) and at a decent price point too. You can’t beat it, honestly. Not at the price.

I plan on getting it because it doesn’t have all that fluff that, while cool, I’ll never use. AND it doesn’t connect via internet and no one cares what I have on my device.

Take the hint, Amazon and B&N!

Post #2

I seem to have misplaced my iPod. This really bumms me out. I know I had it the night that I graduated (the 28th), because my mom was commenting that Metallica whom the iPod was playing (Damage Inc.) came to town and she didn't even know it.

I'm not quite sure if Mom could handle a Metallica show. I can't remember the last time I ever saw a mosh pit break out at a Metallica show though so maybe she could. I know she REALLY likes the black album and not too much else, so it may end up a disappointing night for her until they play the obligatory Enter Sandman.

God I hate the black album. It was a fine album until my dad decided to play it in the car for (no exaggeration here) 14 months straight. If you listen to ANYTHING for 14 months, you're bound to feel the same way I do. And he would always go back to track number 1 to start the trip off so I could be sure to listen to the first five or six songs and little else.

*shudder*

But moving on. I know it's around somewhere. I need it though. The iPhone is not the best for listening to music in the car what with AT&T's screeching speaker interference, or the fact you have to slide to open then press track forward, backward, menu, etc. The classic set up is much easier to navigate without taking your eyes off the road.

I have got to find that thing.

Ah yes, tomorrow I plan on posting about ereaders, so watch out. My love for the Kindle has taken an odd turn, one I'm not sure it can come back from and what with Sony's new ones and now even Barnes & Noble has one so research needs to be done in case anyone out there is planning on using my info as research of their own for their ereader-buying experience (if so, please let me know your opinions because I'm still a bit on the fence about which to get).

Until tomorrow!

Post #1

Well, it seems that I've missed day one of Noblopomo this year so... dangit. BUT I figured I'll do it anyway and extend to December 1st. I think that's fair.

So what's new in Kid Land? Annie moved to a big girl bed last night. We had to move the nightlight she's used to which is a brass turtle with light-up shell (very cool) because it was just too obvious that there was a plug attached. This might mean that she would follow the cord to the wall and pull out the plug. I'm not worried about her pulling the plug or putting her fingers in the holes afterward but perhaps completing the circuit with the plug halfway out and electrocuting herself... yeah, that crossed my mind.

But after the initial meltdown of not being in the familiar crib, she calmed down and actually slept pretty good. I hear she even had a great nap today.

In Adam news, Adam has a misshaped head. We were a little worried about it, and the pediatrician referred us to a shaping doctor (I think they're called "orthontists") who said that it's purely cosmetic and it isn't impacting his brain at all and the unevenness would probably work itself out as he grew BUT that didn't stop him from doing scans and seeing just how much is wrong with his head.

Now, an interjection. My kid is not Quasimodo or anything. He looks fine but we noticed that in the back of his head he has a flat spot.

Anyway, he said he wanted Adam to wear a helmet and work up to wearing it for 23 hours a day for an indeterminate amount of time.

Tricare does not cover the helmet. The nurses said it was because Tricare considers the helmet to be... optional. Whether that's true or not is beyond me. The helmet costs 2,100.00 and THAT means that Adam is going to have to develop a good personality because we just can't pay for that. He'll get dates, no worries though. He's got eyes that will probably attract the chicks like moths to a flame.

Meanwhile for me, it was supposed to be back to the grind today but between having to take Adam to the doc and having to do some currency things, I was just unable to do any work.

Tomorrow though...