November 4, 2007

  • I found a great Alpine in-dash stereo that I want.  The wife has given me permission to get it as my Christmas gift from her.  Even better, I found it online for around $140 less than in the stores.  It has no CD capability.  But it is satellite ready, and hooks up to an iPod and gives you full functionality from the stereo, w/out fiddling with the iPod.  Plus, it keeps the iPod charged.  I'm so excited that I've been burning all my CDs to the iTunes in anticipation of having them on the iPod and available in the car.  Imagine, my whole (plus Jana's) CD collection in the car w/out the CD mess.  Plus, I plan to subscribe to Sirius satellite radio.  Another cool plus of the radio is that it is bluetooth enabled.  So it will pick up my phone allowing me to be hands-free.  It also has HD radio, which are the regular FM stations in HD quality and the AM stations in FM quality.  But I don't plan on messing with that too much.  You might need some kind of receiver also.

    Well, I'm getting tired of typing around the pile of CDs on my desk.  Later.

November 1, 2007

October 28, 2007

  • Once again, sorry I haven't been around very much.  The Orange Box (see last post) has had much of my attention.  Not too mention I ended up staying late a couple of nights at work last week.

    I went to a Halloween party last night.  I drank a lot.  I'm damn glad I took today off in anticipation of just such an eventuality.

    Hmmm, I guess another reason I haven't been by to post lately is because there isn't much that I would consider exciting going on.  So, for now, I'm out of here.

October 13, 2007

  • FUN, FUN, FUN...

    Jana and I went to the fair last night, along with seven adults and three kids.  It was a good time.  I got what I wanted.  Lots of food.  I ate a turkey leg, two cajun pistols (pastry full of cheese and crawfish), chicken and sausage gumbo, drank some excellent lemonade, and then at as much of a chopped brisket sandwich as my stomach capacity allowed.  Jana rode a lot of ride with others in the party who were interested in rides.  I don't go on rides that are thirty years old, were put together in a day, travel on the road in between gigs, and are operated by strange folks.  Jana and I got our picture holding a baby tiger.  That cost us the remaining cash I had leftover.  But I took the money out specifically for use at the fair (I assumed my stomach was going to hold even more food).  I'll try and get the photo scanned and then put it up sometime. 

    I finished season one of Heroes.  I love the show.  My favorite remains Hiro, followed by the Petrelli family.  I'm looking forward to watching season two.  From what I hear, they have the show loosely thought out up to season five.  I'm also looking forward to my brother-in-law finishing up with season one, so I have someone to discuss the show with.

    I've been playing the games contained in the Orange Box.  Portal is an excellent game.  I haven't played Team Fortress 2 yet, but loved Classic.  And I just started Half Life 2: Episode Two.  I have much fun ahead.

    In the meantime, I'm hungry, despite having eaten everything in sight yesterday.  Later...

October 9, 2007

  • Sorry for my absence lately.  All I can say is...Heroes: Season One.  Yeah, I'm hooked.  And I'd have to say my favorite hero is Ali Larter, because she's hot.  But without using hotness as a factor, my favorite hero is Hiro.  He's an amusing character and the hints of what he might become (I'm only on disk four or five) make the character very intriguing.  Check it out if you haven't already.

October 2, 2007

September 30, 2007

  • MY RESPONSE...to a bulletin I got on MySpace titled "Bush is a Piece of Shit."


    Is there a way to not get bulletins from friends?  I'd like to keep you on my friends list but I'm not too big on posts that are titled, "Bush is a piece of shit."  The media doesn't normalize anything Bush or other conservatives do.  For the most part the media is anti-Bush and is liberal run.  For instance when that kid got tased at that John Kerry appearance it was turned into a Bush hates free speech deal by the press (by the way the kid was clearly resisting arrest).  Much like people tried to blame Hurricane Katrina on him.  I find that for the most part, liberals spout catch phrases that they hear without adding much substance to it.  In addition, I wouldn't use anything Al Jazeera puts out as a source.  But I guess it's perfect for people trying to find another reason to support their hate for Bush.

    Normally I don't get into political discussions.  I find that people who are frothing at the mouth about something you're not going to change their minds.  But I'm getting tired of hearing what is basically a petty -hatred- of a man instead of a disagreement with his policies.  I haven't seen anything the other party can come up with that is better.  They all agreed with him until it worked better for them to disagree.

    In my opinion, society seems to think the world is a nice, happy place where nothing bad happens unless you make it happen yourself.  I think this is rooted in the fact that most things in life are handed to people, or the vast majority of people (edit: people in this country).  You know your role.  You do your job.  You get money.  You pay other people to do things for you that are outside the scope of your skills (ie, farmers grow your food, butchers prep your meat, mechanics fix your cars, etc.).  Nobody has to get their hands dirty anymore.  You live in your isolated world and depend on someone else (tv, radio, internet) to tell your what is going on outside of your world.  The fact is, the world in general is not a fun, nice place.  Don't get me wrong, there is love and there are good things in life, but people do fight, cheat, and kill other people.  Many, if not most, countries don't look after their people.  Many governments actually oppress, hurt and kill their own populations.  This is a fact of the world, not an exception.  I see it every day at my job. 

    Americans and a lot of Europeans live healthy, safe lives.  You don't worry about dying every time you step outside your house.  I think because of that, we have a spoiled mindset.  Then a presumption sets in.  It becomes presumed that everyone in the world must have it as easy as us.  And if that is so, then if we hadn't invaded Iraq then those folks over there would probably be living nice, cushy lives like we do here.  Unfortunately, that is not true.  In fact, it is not entirely true in this country.  Most people are not aware of what is happening next door or down the block from them.  I mean what is -really- happening.  For instance, in the last week in my town, two people were shot to death outside a club with several others wounded.  Two other shootings occurred within a block of a high school and then one of the victims was chased by the shooter into the school.   I personally was the first responder at a crime scene involving a dead guy who had been there more than a month.  Besides that we've had a couple fatality automobile accidents.  And there is drug activity going on in nearly every neighborhood of every town, regardless of what class or race is residing there.  And yet, we are still one of the safest countries in the world.  And that is because there are people sacrificing for you to be safe.  From the street cop, to the military person, all the way up to the President of the Unites States.  That man makes the tough decisions that might involve losing lives or, at the least, will be unpopular and cause some ignorant person to call him a piece of shit.

    Keep in mind.  People are still sneaking, begging and fighting to come live in this country that some people seem to think is being run into the ground. 


    I didn't know how to end it.  So it does seem a but abrupt at the end.  Sorry to vent.  But I'm getting annoyed.  I know not everyone will agree with me and you don't have to.  I don't love conservatives and I don't hate liberals.  If a good liberal candidate came forward I would consider him.  As it stands, I don't see one right now.  Frankly, these day I like Lieberman.  I didn't like him much before.  He's done some dumb stuff.  He did all those hearings looking into heavy metal music in the 80s and video games in the 90s.  But I give him this, he didn't jump on the bandwagon that most liberal politicians jumped on.  He voted for the war and he's stuck with it...and become very unpopular in his party as a result.  Which is probably why he's not running this time around.  The point is, this country is like sex.  Even bad sex is good sex.  Even this country at it's lowest has still been a great country to live in.  And I by no means think this is a low point in our history.  I don't think anything is happening now that wasn;t happening 40, 60, 100 years ago in this country.  The only difference is that we have a media that, both, makes us aware of more than ever before, and also tends to put their own spin on things...

    Well, I'm gonna leave it there.  I'm tired and I have to work tomorrow.  It's time for bed.  I'd love to hear responses, opposing and supporting.  Good night.

September 13, 2007

  • FROM THE NY TIMES:

    After much delay, Weezerzeke will finally be starting his next great American novel which will be titled Weezerzeke: A Voyage of Procrastination.  Said Weezerzeke, "After many delays and false starts, I will eventually be beginning this new novel sometime next week or the week after."

September 5, 2007

  • ONE HELLUVA YEAR

    Well, tomorrow is the day.  Tomorrow Jana and I will have been married for one year.  I can't believe it.  A year went by really fast.  We're poor as hell, so we're putting off the celebrating until the next week.  I think it will involve seeing Halloween and eating somewhere nice.  Anyway, one year ago we were married by Justice of the Peace (JP).  I think it was funny, because I chose the judge because I spoke to her most often on the phone about deceased people.  Yeah, strange I know.  But she would always answer the phone even when other judges (who were actually the ones on call) would not.  And she was always nice on the phone, even when it was 3am and we had to wake her up.  I thought I put up the JP Wedding photos.

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       (above) Jana, myself, and Judge Vi McGinnis

    (below) Jana and I.  This is sort of the official wedding photo.

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    I thought I'd put up more together photos through the time we were together.

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    (above) This was at Jana's 20th birthday party.  We had only been dating a few months at this point.  But I think you can already see the connection forming.  That's Jana's best friend, Sarah, in the background.

    (below) Me mudder came to visit us for a few days.  So to the right of us is me mudder and Jana's MeMe.

    Us

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    (above) Our trip to Sixth Street in Austin to celebrate Jana's 21st birthday.  Sixth Street is great.  Lots of cool bars and a lot of live music.  That's where we saw 'Sparrows Swarm and Sing' live.  Never heard of them before that.  They were great.

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    (above) In Destin, Florida for two weeks for the "big" beach wedding last May.  These are after the big wedding.  At the top we're on the upper deck of AJ's bar.  (below) We're on deck during a sunset dolphin cruise. 

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     (and below) The big "beach" wedding.  It poured rain...and I don't think the word poured does it justice.  We did the wedding upstairs in the reception area.  We stepped outside when it slacked and got this photo.  But I think it made a great picture.  The wedding actually turned out really nice.

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    So some of these photos are from before we got married.  But it shows how great a year it has been.