Remember me?

I'm still and I still write, not as often as I should, work is crazy, I have become the trainer of new techs, I hate this job with a passion. It comes with the territory of my job I suppose but that doesn't mean I like it. On a positive note, all of the new trainees have made my job relatively easy. Picking up these programs like they have been doing this forever. Not that they have all of the answers, but their innate ability to pick it up makes me think the program is user friendly after all. On another note, along with the storms we have called Hurricane comes family. My mom was already here visiting for a couple of weeks but decided to stay an extra week when Gustav thought he might come her way. My sister and her family were evacuated and came here. This was not their first evacuation to my house, the first was about 3 years ago and it stretched the limits of family bonds. I love my family dearly, I really do, just not in my house for a week. Along with my sister came her husband, two grown sons, 6 dogs, and a freezer of meat. My sister is a little uhm... odd. I convinced my son to call her Aunty, which was my name for my crazy aunt whom I loved dearly, she let me do things like, drive her car when I was 8. My sister did not catch this reference for some reason until I pointed it out to her at Christmas, but still wears the name like a badge of honor. My son loves her, she will play with him when she's here but more importantly she sends him stuff. His favorite stuffed animal came from Aunty, and half the toys in our house came from Aunty, the other came from my mom. Back to the storm, the last storm 3 years ago was taxing, my nephews and brother in law all are about the size of a mack truck and therefore hard on the furniture, I dispose of my last chair after they left. For some reason they felt a need to sleep in it, a week of 300+ pounds 24/7 was more than my dear chair could take it died right after they left. My mother laid the rules down this time as the patriarch of the family. Absolutely no sleeping on the furniture and no dogs in the house. My family begrudgingly obeyed and we all played nice for a few days, but my sister brought every piece of food she owned and it simply would not all fit in my freezer, determined not to lose this food, we my sister spent all day Sunday cooking whatever would not fit in the freezer. This included 4 steaks, about 2 pounds of sausage, a box of hamburger patties, a package of chicken legs and thighs and 15 yes 15 pounds of ground round. She flew around the kitchen like a doctor in a major surgery constantly murmuring to herself "I will NOT let this meat spoil!". She reminded me of the witch from Hansel and Gretel. I kept waiting for her to throw a kid in the oven. On the other hand, Gustav produced a new song, I meant as a joke for work but decided to test it on my nephews who found it hilarious. They then proceeded to play it for the rest of my family, my mom got a copy of it and emailed it to all of Texas and half of Arizona, this song was so successful that I had several people tell me to send it to radio stations, Doctor Demento and/or Stern and Adam Corolla, I finally decided to post it on myspace so that everyone could hear it. It's been a crazy week. I promise to be back earlier than a month from now.

And the kitchen sink too...

Here's a little bit of everything that's been going on for the last week. I get to work this Saturday, to say I'm excited is an overstatement. I actually talked my way out of weekends sometime ago unless it was an emergency, well guess what? New building, nothing has been moved, we'll show up Saturday to work and magically everything will be there and in place and working...yeah I'm nervous too. I know what our company is capable of and trust me, getting right the first time ain't it. My son has been doing a hot pocket routine that has me rolling every time, it's the way he says "Hoooooot pocket" that gets me. I really should be paying bills right now. I mowed the backyard today, this wasn't as easy as it sounds. We were pretty much in Texas as usual drought mode and the yard died, I'll have to admit I wasn't heartbroken. But then, it started raining, and raining, and raining some more not only did all the grass come back to life, it grew approximately 5 feet tall in 12 hours. I tried to mow it today, well at least part of it, with a push mower, the grass was still wet and the mower would stall about every 15 steps because of all the grass trapped underneath, I might as well have been using scissors, it may have been faster that way. A new guy at work got me Decline of the Western Civilization Punk Rock and my all time favorite documentary, Decline of the Western Civilization the Metal Years on DVD! Well ok, he did get them from some vague secretive website but beggars can't be choosers. I keep forgetting I have to work Saturday and when I remember, I cuss to myself. Good Night.

Jackpot!

I have to say that today did not start out to be a good day. I get to work and heat up my breakfast strudel, you know the kind that you spread icing on the top? Riiiiight, I thought it would be a good idea to heat my icing for about 10 seconds, well at 8 seconds the icing decided it was better to splatter than to be spread and it exploded all over the inside of the microwave. Things got better though, I was notified around 10:30 that I had won the drawing for an Ipod because I referred someone to apply for a job with our company. Cut to this afternoon, I may have mentioned this before but I'm really good at ping pong and it just so happens our company has a ping pong table, I was playing a game with Aaron, a co-worker, we have specials rules for our games, it's done in order to give Aaron an even edge in beating me. We refer to it as the "play at the servers pace" rule. This simply means that when I serve, I serve to the same place every time, unless I'm desperate for a point then we throw this rule out. Aaron has the right to serve anywhere on the table that he wants and anytime he wants. Meaning, if I leave the table to get a stray ball, Aaron can serve and if I can't return the volley, he wins the point. This usually results in high scores and keeps games tight. Today was no exception, I was actually down 19 - 18 when I left the table to retrieve a ball. Aaron had another ball I didn't know about but I turned around just in time to see him starting his serve. In my rush to get back to the table, I became entangled in a lunch room chair, then that chair decided to bring it's friend, so I am running like mad to get back to the table to return the serve with two chairs attached to me, the worst part was that I tripped just about the time I got to the table, to steady myself, I decided to fall on the table, at that point the table crashed to the floor in what appeared to be a broken heap. Once the laughing stopped and we convince HR that no one was in injured in the fall of a 20 year old ping pong table, the game resumed. Just in case you're wondering, I came back and won. THEN, HR had a contest in which they quiz you over the handbook,if you respond with the correct answers at the correct time, you win a ten cent prize, since the beginning of the year, I have won a couple of these and racked up my third one today! What's the point of this story? just because your icing asplodes in the microwave doesn't mean the strudel won't still be good.

It will never be the same...

I work in a technical support department, you know, the place you call when your new fancy program doesn't work, so you call and get someone who doesn't have a clue what you're talking about. They take 5 minutes of your precious time to get info like name, address and contact information only to tell you that you have called the wrong place, this is not their problem. I am the guy they go to when they put you on hold. Well, I was that guy, we've been constantly shorthanded since about Feburary, I got a cryptic email a couple of weeks ago that the boss wanted to meet the next day. I had a feeling what was coming and I was right, while we're shorthanded, I need to be answering calls too, you know to make the stats look better. I don't mind answering calls, I also have no problem in saying that in that department, I am the best at the program we support. The problem is that others are relying on me to answer their questions too, a little hard to do when I'm answering the phone. Needless to say folks are hitting their breaking points, on top of that I get reports from techs who say the other person that sort of does my job, really does nothing, no one likes this person and dreads having to ask them a question because they usually can't answer it anyway. On top of that, this person is also taking calls, only I'm hearing that they hang up on these calls, after myself and the big man leave, they sit idlly by while customers wait in long lines to get help and they leave early. I'm trying to find a good way to bust this person while protecting the innocent and it's really not that easy to do, and even if I do find a way will by boss do anything about it? Probably not, he prefers not to rock the boat on these things. Which then makes me look like a loser because peoples pleas for help are falling on deaf ears. On the bright side, tomorrow is Friday and I won't have to think about it for the weekend. I'm also hoping to have another movie list up tomorrow or the next day. Talk later.

The Balloon Monster.

I had not planned to post today, mainly because I did it last night but I need to get this in before I forget. My child is three, I tend to think that he is smarter than your average three year old. I don't know why I think that but I'm pretty sure if parents were polled, they would all think their child is above average in intelligence for their age. That's not wrong, I'm just saying... I have also discovered that kids, all ages love to be able to put the hurt to their parents. My child did this for the first time tonight and now I know what I have to look forward to for the 17 years. Anyway, my son went to a birthday party for a friend of his, he had a great time from what I am told and he returned home with a nice, shiny, big, green, balloon. He asked me to come to play with him and his balloon in his room, there was no way I was turning that down, I love balloons. All is going well, we are tapping the balloon back and forth and having a great time. When all of a sudden, I was returning the balloon to him and the tap was a little hard, this cause the balloon to take an upward turn and collide with the ceiling, this wouldn't be bad except the ceiling texture is very thick, very lumpy, and in some places, a little sharp. Not sharp enough to hurt a person but sharp enough to say, pop a balloon. It just so happened that the balloon hit one of these places. It exploded into 5 pieces and tumbled to the ground like a mosquito that has been knocked out of the sky. The look on my son's face was one of shock, like he had just seen a murder take place first hand. Before I could say anything, he turned to me and said "You popped my balloon". The wailing and gnashing of teeth began at this point and nothing I could say would console him. He pulled out of my arms to go search for his mother and let her know that daddy had popped his balloon. Mom had heard the commotion when it started and immediately went into action to save me. She found another balloon that she had hid in a cabinet in the kitchen. This was a nice attempt but Mr. B was quick to point out that his new balloon was not nearly as big as the one that I had popped. Finally we came to an agreement, when I came home Monday from work I would have a whole bag of big balloons. Now, here is the really funny part, Mr. B has recovered enough that he will once again play with me, he has a Word Launch video game that teaches kids to spell. He asked me to come play it with him, followed by this statement "maybe you won't pop it". Yes, he is three, I was proud because my child was so quick witted that he came up with this on his own, at the same time I had just been cut down by a three year old. He later referenced the balloon episode again when after his bath, he asked his mother to dress him for bed instead of me because I popped his balloon. If he comes up with this stuff when he is three I'm am terrified of what it will be like when he is sixteen. Besides the post of a fellow blogger, this has been my biggest laugh of the week.

Movie Blog

This has been a week from hades, my job requires me to train all new employees in our department, this wouldn't be so bad if while training I wasn't required to also answer questions, consult with techs, act as a go between with other departments, do my boss's job, come home and build train sets, take out trash, pay bills and other various chores. Tonight my feelings got the best of me and when I tried to explain that I would like 5 minutes to do something for me, it was taken as me being selfish and wanting everyone to go to bed. It's been a Monday all week long and it is causing me to hate my job and resent co-workers, not to mention unwanted stress at home. Whew! glad I got that off my chest, on to tonight's movies!

Tonight's topic, top 5 John Hughes movies!
For those of you who don't know, John Hughes is a writer, director, producer of movies. His best period was the 80's, all ten years. His movies played as big a role shaping a generation as anything else. His best movies were aimed at the teen crowd which was right up my alley at the time. The theme was usually something to do with teen doesn't really fit in but desperately wants to and by the end of the movie they do. You either saw yourself, someone you knew or wanted to be someone in all of his movies. I cannot underscore the impact his movies had on my generation. Most of his films took place in the fictional Chicago suburb of Shermer Illinois. This guy was such an impact that he practically inspired Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back etc.) to be a director. In fact in the movie mentioned above, Jay and Silent Bob are trying to get to Shermer because "All of the girls there are hot". In the 90's he kind of flamed out making such forgettable movies as Baby's Day Out. Now, onto the list!

Honorable Mentions.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles
This movie starred John Candy and Steve Martin as two guys trying to get home from a business trip during the holidays, their paths keep crossing even though Martin's character can't stand Candy's character, it is funny from start to finish and barely missed the top five.
Favorite Scene - Steve Martin telling the rental car clerk that his car was not in it's spot. Very funny.

Some Kind Of Wonderful - Eric Stoltz, Lea Thomson and Mary Stuart Masterson
This is the typical Hughes movie, Artsy guy from wrong side of the tracks has a crush on Hot, Ultra Popular girl in school, while ignoring that his best friend who happens to be a girl has the hots for him. You're pulling for him to wake up and see that he doesn't really want the shallow hot girl. Does he? Rent it and find out.

Best line in the movie - Stoltz: "You can't judge a book by it's cover"
Masterson:"No, but you can tell how much it's going to cost."

Sixteen Candles - Molly Ringwald
Ringwald was a staple of John Hughes movies, she became part of the "Brat Pack" which was a group of young actors that appeared in most of Hughes movies. In this particular movie, it is her 16th birthday and her parents have forgotten due to the fact that her older sister is marrying a "Big greasy bohunk". She also has a crush on the most popular boy in school who doesn't know who she is AND is having to deal with a freshman geek who has a crush on her. Really I can't say more without giving this away. This was too chick flicky to make the top 5.

Favorite scene - Any of them that involve the foreign exchange student, he stole this movie

5. Weird Science - This was the first movie I ever recorded to VHS, I then watched it so many times that the tape wore out.
Two nerds create a hot girl on a souped up computer, she then does her best to turn them into popular cool kids by putting them in a series of situations designed to increase their confidence. I wanted this movie to happen to me so bad in real life it wasn't even funny. The hot girl is Kelly LeBrock who became famous for the makeup commercial in which she says the line "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" This one line instantly enraged every 15 - 25 year old female on the planet causing them to scream obscenities at the TV. To this day when this line is played on shows like I Love The 80's, my wife immediately launches her "She was not good looking" campaign. Every guy that remembers that commercial and this movie will tell you every female was wrong. I still have a crush on her.
Favorite Scene - When the two nerds are drunk in a bar...classic.

4. Uncle Buck - John Candy

Candy plays the black sheep uncle who makes his living by betting on, well anything. He has a girlfriend he has been stringing along for years. Finally he is called to babysit the nieces and nephews while their mom and dad are out of town. It results in life lessons for both him and the kids. I wanted to pattern myself after him so that my nephews thought I was cool, but it's kind of hard to be a loser and be cool at the same time.

Favorite scene - When Buck has a parent teacher conference with his niece's elementary school teacher. Again, I wanted this to happen in real life.

3. Pretty in Pink - Molly Ringwald
Ringwald is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, her dad gave up on life when her mom left him, and she has a knack for creating her own fashion designs. She falls for rich boy from the right side of the tracks and then both of their friends give them flack about dating each other. Ringwalds friend Duckie (Jon Cryer) became a hero of mine and I did my best to dress and act like him for a while, right down to the bolo tie. If those pictures get out I'm ruined...
This movie had a great sound track as did all of Hughes movies.

Favorite line - "Blaine?! That's not a name, it's a major appliance!"

2. Ferris Buellers Day Off - Matthew Broderick
Ferris is a hero to all kids in his school, he can cross all of the imaginary boundaries that kids put between each other, as the secretary says "they all think he's a righteous dude." Ferris decides to take the day off from school to treat his repressed best friend Cameron and Ferris's girlfriend to a day out in Chicago. Meanwhile the rumor has been circulating that Ferris is dying of some horrible unknown disease, the principle and Ferris's sister aren't buying the story and go about on separate paths to bust Ferris. Again, every kid wanted to be Ferris and have a day like this.
You also saw a lot of yourself or your friends in the other cast members, no one ever thought they were Ferris.

1. The Breakfast Club - a cast of many
This was an ensemble cast film, every member of the high school cliques are represented, the jocks, the princess, the nerds, the bad kids and the kids that didn't matter. A group of 5 kids get to spend a Saturday in detention. Over the course of 8 hours they learn that they are not that much different from each other, they all have fears and dreams and if it wasn't for their respective cliques, they maybe could be friends and do become friends for that day. The question is will they still be friends Monday when school life resumes... I very much wanted to be Judd Nelsons character Bender, the bad kid who hung out with other bad kids. In reality I was Brian, a nerd. This movie best represents things that Hughes did that made his movies so original, things like the kids in the didn't use the slang words that were common at the time but used words that became part of every kids vocabulary. Judd Nelson was almost fired from the film for getting a little too into his part and taking on the persona of Bender all of the time. Also look for things like the Most Likely to succeed photos and the license plate of Brian's parents car. Also, Brian's mother was the real life mother of Anthony Michael Hall who played Brian. This movie is considered the ultimate in the Teen Movie Genre and I don't have enough good things to say about it.

Favorite line - "Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"

So there you have it, I guess I could have titled this top 5 Teen movies but Hughes title seemed to fit a little better to me. Have a good weekend.

How I Met Your Mother

Today is my 15th wedding anniversary, to think that I could find anyone who would actually put with me that long is kind of mind boggling. I tend to be wierd, selfish, and sometimes down right difficult to live with. Just to give you the story if you're interested. The year was 1991, I had transferred to a new school where I knew no one. I had a friend that attended there a year before me but he was kicked out due to an accident in which he and some friends vandalized a building on campus. Really he wasn't that bad of a guy I swear and as far as I know he never ended up in jail. It's just the people I used to hang with had a strange idea of what was fun to do. Any way, when he found out I was transferring he called up his friends and they were on the look out for me. These were essentially my friends for the next two years although I added a few to the mix and moved in large circle that had different smaller circles inside of it. Confused? good. My first two weeks were pretty lonely I had yet to hook up with my friends friends, we just hadn't ran into each other so to speak. Any way my wife, doing something very out of the ordinary for her, came over to the dorm I was in to meet a guy who had randomly dialed her and her roommates room number (if you were dialing a room on campus you only had to dial the four digit room number like calling from one hotel room to another in the same building accept it worked all over campus. This little liner note went a lot longer than I thought it would...). I happened to know the guy and passed through the lobby as they were getting ready to go to Taco Bell. They asked me to go with them, so I said ok, it just happened that my future significant other drove a 1977 Buick (I grew to love that car, it's story all it's own.) that would easily hold all of east Texas. The first Iraqi war had just started so I questioned her as to when this boat was to set sail for Iraq. To this day she loves to tell this story. This was not a love at first sight type of thing, more like she hated me and I barely recognized her. Skip to mid-February of the same year. I had invited three friends to come home with me for the weekend, this somehow grew into a caravan of 3 car loads of 20 - 21 year old college students. My wife's roommate had married a couple of months before and moved out, her other best friend didn't like to do much of anything. So one of the girls that was going home with me asked if I knew L.A. and I told her I vaguely recalled our run south of the border. This friend said that L.A. didn't have many friends and was kind of lonely and wondered if it would be OK if she tagged along. At this point my group of three had turned into a group of 8 or more, so the more the merrier. We became friends after bonding that weekend (still one of the best weekends of my life) and she became a regular in my smaller circle of friends although I still didn't hear wedding bells or me even asking "would you like to go out?". Cut to the next year of school, L.A. was a senior, I was failing miserably at just attending school, but there was a tradition of Sadie Hawkins, since I had as many girlfriends as guy friends we decided it would be cool to do the Sadie Hawkins thing as a group of paired up friends. I paired up with L.A. I thought she was fun and a little different and pretty easy on the eyes too. So I asked her out again, we dated off and on over that year until she graduated, I was going home and not returning and so we were at a cross road. I thought it would just kind of drift away until luck would have it that her first job was about 40 miles away from my hometown, great! We kept dating and eventually it became evident to me that I really didn't want to hang out with anyone else. So we got hitched, although we like to tell people that we aren't really married we just live together, this is always quite fun for us to see their reaction. That's my story of how I met my wife, I'm leaving out drama and some other things just because it would take too long. Anyway, happy anniversary Baby!

My week

I have been somewhat of a recluse this week when it comes to blogging. Let me give you a quick run down.
1. Working- The job sucks this week that's all I'm saying.
2. Playing guitar - Actually, kind of relearning, I was taught to play by a great teacher but one that felt technical things like understanding what you were doing just wasn't necessary, " just play whats on the page". I want more than that now and with a wife and child study time is a little bit harder to come by, not to mention I don't play out much except at church and none of my friends play and even if they did they would have more important things to do than have fun.
3. Paying bills, I hate the end of the month.
4. Working, did I mention that it sucks this week?
5. Watched a movie called Big Wednesday, it was made in 1978, it's set in the late 60's three late teen early twenty something buddies get the call from Uncle Sam to go to Vietnam ending their days laying on the beach, surfing, making out with girls and fighting (lots of fighting) I enjoyed this movie, my wife, not so much. I can't decide if it was the acting, the story line, the cheesy 70's look of the film or all of the above that annoyed the crap out of her to the point she got up and went to bed. It starred Gary Busey, he was in things like Lethal Weapon, D.C. Cab, Point Break, now he is the resident crazy man in Hollywood, crashing red carpet interviews and scaring the crap out of young stars who have no clue who he is. It also stars Jan Michael Vincent, his biggest roles were as the pilot on the series Airwolf and Disney movies, his last role was almost killing himself in a car wreck and being Hollywood's worst alcoholic. I am thinking about hunting this down on DVD just hoping it has an extras section or commentary by the director, I would imagine putting these two actors together in one place was quite crazy and probably ruined the career of the director.
I'll return in a day or two with my next movie list stay tuned...

Trey's Top Five Favorite Movies

I have nothing else to talk about tonight so I'm beginning my movie installments I may only post one every now and then. Tonights category is...DOCUMENTARIES! I think I just heard everyone who may read this close it. I don't care I'm talking about it anyway. I love documentaries, it could be a film over glue drying and I would probably watch it. A good documentary can be about anything, it can have a slant to make you believe one way or another on a subject, it could something as simple as following someone around while they really don't do anything. It just depends on what grabs you. I'll list a couple of honorable mentions that weren't quite good enough to crack the top 5 and then we'll get to the top 5.

Honorable Mentions:
Roger and Me - This was Roger Moorer's first big break as a documentary director, it failed to make the top 5 because its a little dated now although it may soon be relevant again. It came out in the late 80's. It basically talks about all the jobs GM cut during a downturn of the automobile industry in Moorer's hometown of Flint, MI. I'm not a Moorer sympathizer and this was before he got really out there and did stupid stuff like go on a rant at the Oscars. It is sad and funny at the same time, his usual formula and it worked really well in this movie. This was probably the first real documentary I ever watched.

Favorite Scene- Cuts between a lavish Christmas party thrown by GM for the white collar workers and people who used to work for GM being forcibly evicted from their homes while Christmas music plays in the background. Good Times.

Endless Summer - It's a movie about two guys who travel the world in the 60's surfing, yes, that's about it. I'm always mesmerized by people doing things I can't do.

Supersize Me- Probably the most well known documentary on my list. The film maker goes on a crazy diet of McDonalds for 30 days and every time he is asked if he would like to supersize his order he has to say yes. He takes a physical before and afterwards (the experiment was actually cut short due to health issues that arose from the diet of fried fatty food 24/7, imagine that.) the change is unbelievable and I swore off of the golden arches for about a year before choosing items off the menu that kill you more slowly.

Favorite Scene- His doctor packs up, closes her practice and leaves town because of threats that are hinted to have come from the main clown of fastfood. Scary.

5. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
This the story of Daniel Johnston, an underground hero in the music world of Austin, Texas and his slow slip into insanity. He is plagued by voices and depression, infatuation with the devil and the number 9. His case is so severe his parents will have to take care of him the rest of their lives, which isn't long considering they were in their seventies when the film was made. You actually feel bad for them and want to take him in if for no other reason to allow them some peace before their time is up. The hurt in them is horrible, you can tell they are both tired and scared for their child once they are gone. His music is somewhat child like, songs about Casper the ghost and other things from his childhood but it is also very nice to listen to.

Favorite Scene - Daniels dad retelling the story of a time when he personally flew Daniel to a show and Daniel, freaking out mid-flight, wrestling the keys from his father and throwing them out of the window. He actually started crying again just telling the story...

4. This Film is Not Yet Rated
It's the history and the quirkiness of how films get rated. Film rating is voluntary but almost a necessity to get a film into theatres. The director finds out that it's a very secretive process, the industry does not even release the names of raters and most refuse to talk after they leave. He makes it his mission to expose the raters of the year the film was made (they change the raters every year). It really is very interesting.

Favorite Scene - When they tell a list of words that are guaranteed to get you an 18 or older rating if used to often and in certain combinations. What words can be said and what words can't be said and they say them all. I haven't laughed this hard at a film in a longtime. My wife who is more conservative than I did not find this scene the least bit funny.

Favorite Scene 2 - When the director submits his film for rating, the hoops he has to jump through just to get a letter on the film. You already know where his rating is headed once they see the content of the film.

3. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
This is basically the story of Enron, it lays out their creative accounting ideas that brought down the largest business to ever fail in the U.S. well, before the whole housing thing anyway. In some ways it is a foreshadowing of what we are seeing now. You get to see up close through interviews how they destroyed hundreds of thousand of lives with their lies. Then when it's over and you're about to get the bad taste out of your mouth, you think about the fact that the CEO escaped prison by dying and virtually getting off free. It's a real feel good movie (sarcasm mode off).

Favorite Scene - Enron found they could drive of the price of electricity by having un-needed emergency shutdowns of parts of or whole power plants and while this is happening listening to two employees joke about squeezing every last penny out of grandma. The whole company should have gotten jail time.

Favorite Scene 2 - The CEO Jeffery Skilling actually showing a future plan in which you could invest in weather. WTF!?

2. Dogtown and Z Boys
This is a skateboard documentary about the evolution and revolution of skateboarding in the seventies. The Z boys were a skate team that took surf moves and brought them to the street (they would skate when there were no waves). In doing this, they took skateboarding from a light version of ice skating and transformed it into the aggressive over the top sport it is today. You meet every member of the team and what they did and what they became. I used to skate before I got fat and old so maybe that is why this appeals to me but it did win best documentary at the Cannes film festival when it was released.

Favorite Scene - The members of Dogtown talking about how they would empty pools just to skate them. Yeah, these were pools they didn't own.

1. Decline of the Western Civilization: The Metal Years
This is actually part 2 of a 3 part set, it deals with the music scene of Los Angeles during the 80's so it is basically about hair metal. You get to see some stars before they were stars, people who hoped to become stars, and how decadent the whole scene was. A time of fast cars and faster women, a time when chicks were hot and guys looked like hot chicks. This was my scene, I grew up on this music and so that is why it is special to me. This is long out of print but supposedly they are working on getting it re released. I was able to catch it on the tube and record it.

Favorite Scene - When the director asks musicians in the scene what will they do if they don't make it, (which most didn't) the common answer? "I will probably end up in a slum somewhere, I can't do anything else".

So there you have it, my first top 5 films of _________ genre. Hopefully you'll look some of these up. If Documentaries don't appeal to you, stay tuned I'll have more in the future.

Everytime I think I'm, they drag me back in.

My friend PJ who got me into this whole blogging mess brought up something I had sorta thought about but not really. Blogging is sort of a cheap form of therapy, I agree on this and I think I am seeing the benefits, I come here and get all the crap out and that leaves room for the more important crap. What I mean is, I completed an "album" of sorts in my personal little music studio here, I intended to be done with recording for a while, but suddenly I am filled with new ideas, songs and parts of songs that come from nowhere. I suck and I make no bones about that, don't look for my songs on top 40 anytime soon, but to write something heart felt about a loved one, or write something funny about whatever it is that makes you laugh and then listen back to it and think "that's not really that bad" is a good feeling. I think I have blogging to think for that, I come here and discard the stuff I don't want or need and save the other stuff for what truly entertains me. I'm hoping the next "album", which I will probably start working on in the next week or so will be all originals, I promised myself after I completed this last one that it was the last one I was doing just to please friends and family, the next one is for me and it will have all of the warts and scars I tend to hide from people. My family won't want to hear it, it won't be nice church songs, it will be about opening my closet of anxieties and letting them out. It will be about things I like, things that make me laugh and things that make me hide under the covers, and that is what art is supposed to be about, whether it's writing, music or pictures or whatever. It's about doing something that pleases you and makes YOU happy and I'm getting there, thanks to this. On a less heavy note, AFI just did a top ten on top ten, the top ten movies of ten different genres. I'm a huge movie fan so I am going to be reworking that into the top five of Trey over the next few days, some will be on the AFI list some will never have been heard of but I'm trying to come up the categories right now so it make take a few days.

I Hate Mondays

The title for a song by the underrated Boom Town Rats sums up everybody's Monday I think. Just because I am full of useless trivia I am even going to tell you what inspired the song. Apparently in the late 70's a teen girl went on a shooting spree at an elementary school (yes, it even happened way back then) when arrested and asked why she did it, she simply replied "I hate Mondays". Starting at the end of last week and continuing into this week, work has been non stop, an upgrade that has largely been seen as "successful" ( my company has a funny way of measuring success) has caused the help desk I work at to be flooded with calls, someone who has been on hold for twenty minutes will tell you that is not a sign of a "successful" upgrade. Things don't look any brighter tomorrow which means my Monday has lasted 3 straight days plus 3 days that I didn't work but did worry about it (when I took time out from worrying about everything else). I will go in tomorrow and do a report for the boss, a report he used to do until he went away for a few days, taught me how to do it and then decided it would be good for me to do everyday, even when he is there. Then I have to train new employees which goes something like me talking and giving them important information and them promptly falling asleep during the middle of the important information. Then, when they start taking calls they will be quick to point out that they don't feel they were properly trained over the material they decided to sleep through, not that them sleeping had anything to do with that though. On top of that there are only about 3 other techs who have a brain to think logically through problems they were hired to solve and only two of those do that on a regular basis, the other 10 are content to let me do the thinking for them. I used to fight this but found out it was totally useless and a waste of our customers time to try and force these techs to think, so now I just dole out answers like I have an unlimited supply. Do I sound a little bitter? Did I mention that there are other outside forces who feel their clients are more important than the 30 customers that are currently holding patiently? Yeah I guess I didn't until then, I hate Mondays.

He's not a fighter...

I learned pretty quickly that my son is not a fighter. He doesn't like confrontation, instead he would rather everyone get along. My case in point we were at the park yesterday and a little girl and her dad showed up. My son loves other kids and considers them all his "new friends" that's his words. Unfortunately the little girl did not feel the same way and as he tried to play with her she pushed him. Instead of pushing back, or lashing out, he just came back and told me that she pushed him. I think he was more hurt that she didn't want to be friends more than anything else. The little girl's dad gave her a good scolding and after several uncomfortable minutes between me and him and us doing our best to have our children avoid each other the little girl came around and decided to be friends and all was right with the world. While I love that my son is sensitive enough to want to be friends with everyone I also want him to know that it is ok to take up for himself. This produces quite a quandary though, how do I get him to understand that we don't bully other kids but we don't get bullied either? I haven't figured it out yet and luckily he hasn't been in a situation that requires him to fight because I just don't know that he would do it. He does wrestle and play fight with me but in a real situation he would probably walk away, I'm ok with that as long as he is not daily being harassed by some kid whose parents have not taught him any proper manners. This is just the latest in my long list of current anxieties.

Waaay tooo loooong

It's been a while, this will be a run down of what has been happening since I have not been blogging.
1. Vacation- In Galveston with the family, we stayed at the "helltell" as Mr. B calls it. I went a whole week and only checked the Blackberry twice!

2. Movies- I got a digital video camera for my birthday and it is scarily taking over my life. I video everything, I found myself standing outside shooting stock footage of a "Spooky" Moon just in case I need it in the future, scary I tell you, let's just move on before it requires me to make a movie of a girl climbing out of a well...

3. Music- This is one of my favorite things in the world and I found the less I try the easier it comes to me as far as writing, I also have tried to become more educated in what the heck I'm actually doing when I pick up the guitar (I play by ear) so I have been learning scales, theory, sight reading, it's crazy. I love it.

4. Mr. B - The wife is going out of town this weekend so we have a guys weekend planned, he's staying up late Friday, we may also go bowling Friday or visit friends. Saturday we're eating donuts, getting a haircut, going to the park, and then eating at McDonald's...for the toy in the meal of course.

5. News - I'm about to drive myself crazy, I obsess over the news, especially gas prices and the middle east I scan all sites looking for hints of what the market will do tomorrow, something has got to give.

6. Finally- I'm having weird dreams, every night since Sunday I have had some sort of crazy dream, Sunday night's scared the crap out of me that's all I can say about it. Monday night featured many former co-workers, me storming out of a large electronics store because they would not accept my Musicians Friend card or a laminated piece of paper that says I'm good for the cost of the video game as payment and me getting irate with people standing in a hall talking. Yeah uhm, just talking... Tuesday nights dream I don't remember much I think there was another former co-worker I just remember waking up and thinking " what the heck is the matter with me?!"

7. Work - Yes, vacation was brief and work has been painful this week, it seems every week I do a little more of everyone Else's job, but I have started calling people out on it and I'm going to get worse before I get better.

This has been nice, I feel better even if there is no one reading this. I have to go now, I have to film a cat walking down the side of the street, you know, just in case I need it in the future...

He's Just Like Them!

If you have ever seen the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there are two characters who are not aliens. In the final scene Donald Southerland (not an alien) is walking down the street in a kind of daze, the girl in the story runs up and tries to talk to him, only to have him shriek at her in an alien voice, letting her know he had become one of them. This same type of scene happened to me with my son recently. We were at a tee ball game of a friend and were priveliged enough to sit in the dugout. My normally docile, loving child suddenly turned into one of the other 4 and 5 year olds around him. Yelling, trying to hang from the rafters, and generally being a disruption. As you can imagine, I thought my child was different, but when put in the same area as others he quickly took on their personality, I was stunned. I admit the dugout is one step away from a guys locker room, it's smells like sweat and there are lots of junivile jokes. I guess in a way I should be relieved, he's normal, but at the same time it's a sign he's growing up and I'm having a hard time dealing with that as I said before. I want my child to be different, not in a nerdy no one wants to be around him sort of way but in a think for himself don't follow the crowd sort of way and I guess this scared the heck out of me. There is only so much warping I can do to him before his mother steps in so he has to do some of it on his own. I don't want him to play sports, I want him to want to stay home on weekends, not care about whats popular and whats not but to be himself no matter what people think. There is still time, he's only 3 and a half so I'll keep working at it and maybe if I pretend that he isn't growing up it won't happen, but I doubt it.

Way Too Long

It's been way too long since I have posted let me see if I can knock everything out at once. I went on vacation for a week to Galveston Island with the family. I discovered that Mr.B is good for about four hours on the town and then he is ready to head back to the "Heltell" to sleep lay around and swim. Next year, the vacation will be to a hotel, no activities. We did have fun though, Mr. B is a train nut and just so happens that Galveston has one of the best train museums around that was stop number one. We also hit Kemah bay which is kinda like a board walk like what you see in the movies only smaller. It's still a cool place to visit though. We also saw my mom and spent sometime with her and went to a wedding for a cousin. Then last week my wife decided it was time to revamp the guest room, so I have been hanging crown molding and things such as that. I have to remember to cancel HGTV. I have also been editing video and not sleeping enough the last couple weeks. All of this to excuse my tardiness on the blog I'll do better in the coming weeks I promise.

I'm Sorry

Forgive me my blogging lately has been somewhat sorry. My amazing week of blogging that was supposed to happen last week was cut short due to my body insisting that I sleep. This week at work is full of training, I have to be honest I hate training new employees. It usually goes something like this, I talk, a lot, and they fall asleep. I can't help it, what we do is not that exciting, I try to make it as entertaining as possible but it rarely happens. On top of that, I am supposed to handle all that tasks that no one else will do. Like jobs they should do but not exactly assigned to them so the feel if they don't do them they will go away. I used to have people that helped me with this but they moved on to bigger and better things. The upside, I am leaving for a week next week to go on vacation with my family. I can't decide if I'm excited about vacation or getting out of the office and someone else handling everything. So since I am going on vacation, blogs will be even more scarce than they are now. Next week ends with a wedding for a family member I have not seen in at least ten years. I am nervous and excited to see these people again but we will see how it goes.

A Sides to Every Story

Sorry I missed posting last night, I uhm, oh yea, fell asleep. Tonight I'll continue with the school theme this week. Ever had a teacher that made you miserable and you seriously considered murdering them or you wished they were in a car wreck? That was my relationship with coach Sides. Remember I'm still going to a small private school at this time and coach Sides was the coach. I mean THE ONLY coach we had. If you played a sport, coach Sides coached it. There was a couple of things about Sides as I grew to call him, leaving the coach part off as a dig at him. First, he was from Michigan but found it necessary to spread his brand of misery in Texas, particularly in the town where I was born and raised. Secondly, he was from Michigan. Sides was about 6'1" and lean, with a rosy complexion, maybe even a rosatia case. He was the Basketball, Baseball, Girls Basketball, Volleyball coach, he also taught P.E. and one year he taught a Bible class, and Health. He was one of these that catered to those that played sports as most coaches do, but I also learned something else, that he changed my view of coaches for the rest of my life. I really believe there is a cookie cutter mold for coaches, the only thing that changes is the color of eyes, hair, and what sport they once excelled at and now coach. Coach Sides and myself gained a history very quickly, the first incident was I had gone hunting over the weekend and had taken my BB gun, some BB's fell out in my pocket, I thought nothing of it, they were harmless BB's but at school a classmate had reached into my pocket for some reason (I forgot why) and pulled out a handful of BB's. He then decided that it would be great fun to chunk these at everyone. It quickly got back to Sides that BB's were being thrown and he was on the scene to investigate, after interrogating the one that threw the BB's he came looking for me wanting to know why I had brought them to school, of course it made perfect sense that I had decided to bring a weapon, in the form of BB's with NOTHING TO PROPEL them with! I quickly found myself in the principles office scared to death. After explaining numerous times what had happened I was finally released on my own recognisance after promising not to bring BB's to school anymore. Coach and I carried on like this every year we had to spend together we were a lot like oil and water. Some other highlights, include a P.E. soccer game in which Sides was playing goalie and I was open with the ball and coming down the field quickly, I got as close as I could and I think subconsciously I planned this part, but, I kicked the ball with more force than ever, and planted it squarely on his chin. Secretly, I laughed until I was crying but on the outside I had to show some concern until a classmate spoke up "Now coaches face is even more red". This statement drew Sides ire and my classmate was banished to running laps for the remainder of the class period. There were other incidents but I would rather not bore you, just know that after the five or so years I spent with him, I learned to hate coaches, all coaches in general, they were all overly macho A**holes with a chip on their shoulder who do anything to look good in front of their athletes, to be accepted not as a teacher but as a peer to those they were supposedly "Teaching". I hold this feeling to this day, I can walk in a school and spot a coach a mile away, I get irritated to the point of being loud and causing a scene when I hear about how the local school hired another coach to fill a position instead of another full time teacher who used to hold the same position. My sophomore year coach Sides left, I heard he was forced back to Michigan by his wife, all I knew was that he could have left sooner and I wouldn't have missed him.

7th grade...

Most of my friends were from school, you know, kids you see one or two years and then they disappear to another school, maybe move to another town (Like Eric with River Raid, can you tell I'm still bitter about this?). There were two friends that I had known since birth, Barry and Lezlie, our parents went to church together which meant we went to church together. We were like the three musketeers. Looking back I was probably closer to Lezlie than Barry, we went to the same school for first grade, she lived two streets over from me so we could play together a lot. Barry lived on the west side of town which, where we grew up, was the "nicer" part. His Dad was a dentist and he lived in a really cool two story house and had 4 older brothers and sisters and by older, I mean the next one to him was probably 10 years older. Anyway, I was slated to go to Cathedral and the Pines for the rest of my student career, that quickly changed one day at the Y when Barry and I were swimming. He convinced me that Christian Schools of Beaumont was where I needed to be. The kids were nice and they played a game called Dungeons and Dragons. Through warting my parents and the fact that the school was gaining public accreditation that year, I was allowed to attend Christian Schools of Beaumont. It was quite a shock to the system, I suddenly was surrounded by 45 kids who were all my age and grade, quite a difference from the 5 the year before. Barry and I had no classes together, he was in 7A and I was in 7B which I later found out was a way to divide the smarter kids from the not so smarter kids. I was told by Barry a few days before that the game took place at lunch, if we didn't have classes together it was OK, just show up at lunch and be ready to play. As the bell sounded I made my way to lunch, books in hand, ready to take a stab at playing D&D. I walked to the table and said hi to Barry, he said hi back and told all of his friends who I was and that I would like to sit in with them. A kid with glasses named Walt who apparently led this crew didn't seem to think this was such a good idea, there was no room and I would probably just slow the game down. Barry turned and looked at me and shrugged and went back to his game, and just like that I was out. There was no getting to know you, no friendly kids that said hi. I slinked off to the end of another table and ate by myself, I couldn't wait for the day to be over. I hated Walt for being Walt, I hated Barry for not standing up to him. Barry and I didn't talk much that year or the rest of our lives, I secretly hated him all through school, I loved it when he got hurt at recess, I made it my mission to, if possible be the one that hurt him. He didn't make the cut for the basketball team and I loved it even though I didn't make it either. Something changed that year, suddenly it was important to have the right clothes and shoes and friends, none of which I had nor could my parents afford.The kids at this school (all schools) placed a lot of emphasis on looking just right. I had never had to deal with that before and it kinda blew my mind that people could be that vain. I tried for a while to desperately fit in only to end up being the butt of a joke ( maybe they could sense the desperation) or made in one way or aonother to feel inferior. I made a decision that I really didn't care what people thought about me I was going to be me. I payed for it all through school but to this day it doesn't really matter to me what people think about me or how I conduct my life, my mom has said on several occasions that I didn't have enough peer pressure. I ended up making friends with a guy named Chip, he was also on the outside looking in (you know what they say, birds of a feather...) Kristi who also attended school with me broke up with me to go with Chip. I found it kind of funny that they never hooked up, she wanted to but he wouldn't, I don't know if it was out of loyalty to a friend or if he just didn't like her that much. Looking back, we kind of became a Beavis and Butthead type partnership but I don't ever remember feeling bad about that, I also don't ever remember us ditching each other because someone else didn't approve of one of us, if you got one, you got both of us, a true friend. More tomorrow!

It was the Best of Times It was the Worst of Times...

1982 - 83 was my 6th grade year, this was a big year for me, there were a lot of firsts and some lasts. I attended a private school called Friendship Baptist Academy. I had gone to school there since the second grade. When I look back it was sort of a redneck version of a real school, for instance we had a teacher (many of them members of the church, hmmm) who made it her goal to call me by my real name and had dandruff in her eyebrows! I swear, it was in her eyebrows. We had more leniency because the state had no say over what we did but it was also a small school, maybe 150 or 200 people from Kindergarten to 12th grade. My 6th grade year was the last year that the school was open, this was a place I had been my whole life, I had never had more than 8 classmates that entire time which meant you hung out with kids your age and grade but recess and things of that nature covered several grades. I'm convinced that I became a much better athlete, and had a quicker mind because of this. It also meant that since I was in the sixth grade I was picked on a lot in a brotherly sort of way, nothing malicious. The school year started the same as any other year, connecting with people you haven't seen all summer, looking for new kids, the same thing that happens at every school. There were 5 other 6th graders, we were grouped with the 4th and 5th graders and I can still recall 4 of the 5 names of my classmates. Anyway this was the year I had my first girlfriend, her name was Kristi and she was a preacher's daughter, although I liked her (I guess, I don't recall having fireworks go off in my brain when I saw her) I was terrified of her too. Knowing that she wanted to do things like 'gulp' kiss me. This was the year I found out I excelled at the not so sport of ping pong, I beat everyone but the principle on my way to claiming the school championship, turns out this was the first in several ping pong titles I would hold, including a single and doubles championship at camp and numerous wins at various church functions. I had my first job, my grandfather and one of his friends had a quail farm, yes like the bird. People and restaurants would buy the birds live as well as "dressed" or dead. My job was to feed and water them, I helped keep the ones they killed in the bucket and for all my labor I earned a whopping dollar a day. I didn't care, I could have made nothing and loved it, I was with my grandad, I was outdoors and doing things that no other kid I knew got to do. I had the world in the palm of my sixth grade hand. The second half of the school year turned out to be not so great and kind of a sign of things ahead. My grandfather died that year, ending the quail farm. He had gone into the hospital for heart bypass surgery and died from a heart attack a few hours before the surgery took place. I forgot some books at home that day and when I called my other grandparents to ask them to bring them to me, that's when I was told. My granddad was a John Wayne outdoors tough guy type. He could do anything, ride horses, hunt, fish, he owned cattle, you name it he either did it or could do it. This was a huge blow to me. I remember crying right after I was told and then spending the rest of that day at my house, with my other grandparents. I went through all the things he had given me in his lifetime, a horse whip, a bird call, I had a metal lunch box full of empty 30/30 casings and firing caps, he used to repack his own shells (yes he was hardcore) and other various things that probably against my parents wishes he had given me, knives, BB gun, a bow he made from a limb, fishing poles. I didn't cry at his funeral, I guess I had already done all of my grieving. Years later I found out that no one knew he had a heart condition until the doctor told him he would need surgery, he had been going to the doctor and taking nitroglycerin tablets and never let anyone know he was sick, not even my grandmother. I find a lot of myself in him. For instance I love to trade for stuff, "horse trading" my mom and dad call it, Paw paw Chilton was big on that. I think I learned to be non aggressive from him, but if pushed I will fight back. Later that year, I found out the school was closing, it seems they grew too much too fast and the funds wouldn't keep up so the only school I had ever been to was closing and the chances were I would not see many of these people again. The problem was the school wasn't accredited which meant that if I went to public school I would probably be placed somewhere around third or fourth grade. That school year ended with me being in a series of short skits for the end of year school program. I was the bad guy in Daniel and Lions Den, I was Noah in a version of Noah's Ark and a boxer in a skit that I really don't remember other than my opponent was a junior in high school, he found it great fun to punch me harder than was really needed in the fight scene and that when I knocked him out with my punch I made sure it counted. I would have won an Oscar for one or all of my performances if you had asked anyone in the building that night. I cried most of that night, I think it was the uncertainty of my future, I had finally managed to establish myself as "somebody" even if it was in a small pond and I knew that things wouldn't be the same. Friends went to other schools, my best friend Eric moved to Woodville with his family and my River Raid game for the Atari 2600 (look it up). I don't remember that summer, at all I don't know why, I think I spent it playing in a summer soccer league. The one event I do remember was my friend Barry convincing me to come to the private school he attended. I was promised it would be great, the kids were nice and they played this great game called Dungeons and Dragons and if I was going to fit in, I had the summer to get it down. That is where we will pick up tomorrow.

I Sat in my car, and contemplated...

I contemplated not going into to work, even though I had just drove the 50 miles to get there, I contemplated not going to church to do the RA thing. I contemplated a lot today. I feel like I haven't seen my family except in 30 minute spurts all week. Monday, there was a mad rush of calls that kept me at work until five meaning it was six before I got home. Tuesday I had gathering of the guys that started at six which means I came home at five changed clothes and left. Today, well it was work and then off to church after seeing my family a grand total of 45 minutes. Tomorrow there will be no delays, Mr. B is making it known in his 3 year old way that he is not happy about how this week has gone. I'm making up for it, he and I are camping out here in blog central station/ recording studio Friday night, if the weather is nice and not too windy we're going to start a campfire outside and roast marshmallows, yes in 90 degree weather. Then we're watching a movie and then a rare 10 o'clock bedtime for me. We'll be up no later than 7 Saturday, he'll make sure of that. The thing is I'm looking forward to this, I feel like I'm a kid again when he and I are hanging out. There is no work, there is no family duty, just trains, games, movies and lots of laughing about boy stuff. Made up words that make us laugh repeatedly when we say them, gases that emit from all the wrong places that make us laugh harder, and my wife, ever the mom, rolling eyes and telling us to calm down. I can't wait for Friday. On another note, next week is graduation week around here, I'm going to post a story everyday from my Junior High/High School days. I have been thinking about this a lot, what stories I want to tell, looking back I see things that happened that made me turn out the way I did. I think this will be very therapeutic for me.

The Roll of the Dice

I love a game called Dice Wars, if you have never played this before, and you like strategy games give it a shot, it will drive you insane. I'm pretty sure I have lost my mind and this game proves to me why I suck at checkers and never joined the military. The basic concept is that of Risk, there is a map of a made up country, you have four plots of "territory" with dice on them. The object is to roll your dice against dice of a neighbor, all controlled by the computer. This part of the game is luck and how the computer feels about you at the moment. You could have 6 die, the country you are attempting to take over could have two, but inexplicably you lose. I know statistically it is possible to out roll 6 die to 2 die but realistically, I have a better chance of being asked to join the Bon Jovi tour as a second guitarist rather than get beat by two die. Which brings me to ol' "No effing way" game basically this theory says that if you are doing too well the computer gets mad and decides there is no effing way you are going to win. This happened to me tonight and has happened many other eliciting foul language and cries of anguish on my part. But for some reason I keep coming back, hoping the computer will smile on me and allow me to win. I have a co-worker who has spent countless work hours on this game and seems to win often. Is it he is a better strategist or that the computer likes him better? I have my opinions on that,but would prefer to keep them to myself so as not to get sued for liable. On another note, Motley Crue has released a new album and the first single I think is called "Angels of L.A." this song rocks like the Crue are 20 years old and hungry again, in other words it's right up my alley. Niki Sixx also has a side project called Sixx A.M. every song is great. Check it out on youtube. Time for me to play one more No effing way game before bed...

My kind of weekend

This is the kind of weekend I like, nothing pressing to do, no one to go see, just hanging at the house. We are the biggest bunch of hermits in the East Texas area, if it were possible I would never leave my house, I would just stay here a play with my toys. Friday was the wife's birthday so we celebrated that by getting her a couple of presents. She loves this series of books by a lady named Janette Oke, from best I can tell, its a series of love stories that follows one family from generation to generation right now there are approximately 6000 books in the series and we own them all. They have also decided to torture husbands everywhere by making every book into a movie, the latest installment just came out so that was present one and it came from Mr. B. My wife also happens to be a nut about scrap booking, she has this thing called a cricut that you buy cartridges for and it makes all kinds of stuff. She even has it hooked up to her computer (yes we have separate computers, mine is full of music and video stuff and hers is photos and scrap booking stuff) well I decided to buy a new cartridge for her. She has a list but I went out on a limb and bought one not on the list, I was in a predicament, I could have either bought a gift card (which I had been warned in one of the few times I was let in on what women think) that gift cards are cool if they come from anyone but your husband. From him a gift card conveys "I was lazy, waited until the last minute and then got you a gift card, Happy Birthday!". So I took a friend with me, at the last minute and sweat out what cartridge to buy, we made a good choice because she used it all day today. We also took her out to eat at the local favorite Mexican food joint and then it was to the grocery store for a cake. I "worked" outside most of the day, cleaning the car and installing patio tiles until an ant bed heeded construction, they bit me, so I poisoned them, construction will continue as planned now that the ants have decided to see it my way and die. The NASCAR all star race was tonight so we went into full redneck mode around 6ish and watched it and then I came out and worked on my CD that I am pretty sure I will finish about December, just in time to work on that Christmas CD! Anyway it was a great weekend. One other thing while I'm here, Mr.B is three and I have noticed a change this last week, I am no longer needed as a playmate, in a way I am thrilled because I can do things I want to do and in a way I'm sad because the thing I do from the time I get home from work until he goes to bed is play, that's happening less, he will still ask me to play but its not the same, I'm more or less an audience member than actually playing. I know it's a part of him growing up but I don't have to be happy about it. That revelation was the only bummer in an otherwise perfect weekend. Can't they start giving warnings when the kids start going through these changes? Something like "Dad, I am about to go through a phase where I want you to watch me play but you can't play with me, just watch got it?" It would be easier on me.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my wife's birthday, thats right, mothers day and then her birthday. She took the day off and has yet to return home, spending our money I guess, she had to take Mr.B and from what I could hear on the phone, they had a good time. So this is short I maybe back later tonight with another post but I wanted this one to be about her, Happy Birthday Baby.

Wednesday Night Fights

Wednesday nights take me outside the home until close to bedtime, it's never good when I get in. I battle Mr. B until bedtime he usually is crying about something, I haven't eaten yet and won't until everyone else is in bed because I'm painfully slow at putting food together. So my night looked something like this. Go watch 6 third and fourth graders for an hour, come home, fight with Mr.B about getting in the tub, getting out of the tub, letting water out of the tub, putting on pajamas, what we are going to play after and if he ever gets dressed. Getting him to go to bed, getting him to stay in bed, getting him to be quiet in bed. Having a brief half fight with wife over boxing on television, eating and going to bed. I hate Wednesdays.

Getting a grip on reality

I missed posting yesterday. I have this thing, I'm recording a CD oooohh! Nothing big, I just do it in my house with my fancy toys, any way I decided about a year ago I was tired of dreaming about what it would be like to make a CD and just started making them. I give them to family and friends, they are nice and tell me it's awesome. I just do guitar covers of songs I like, although I did take a leap of faith and actually sing on one on this one. Anyway to keep the fantasy in my head going I set deadlines, labor over the sounds and what guitars and effects I use, it gets me by without actually being a star. I'm about 3 weeks over due on this one and I still have 2 and a half songs to record. I am starting to realize why it has taken GnR (Guns n Roses for the less rock savvy) 15 years to complete their latest album, this one has been a pain and I'll just be glad to be through with it so I can move on to something else like creating a movie of Mr. B. All of this is not the point of this post though. I want to say Happy Mother's day a day late to all the moms of this world, you keep it turning. My wife loves reality TV, I loathe it for the most part the exception right now being Gene Simmons Family Jewels, this is classic. My wife likes the competition shows, Dancing With The (Semi) Stars, Big Brother (her personal favorite), Survivor. I for one am tired of reality shows, when CBS unveiled their newest "Americas Smartest Pet" I had to draw a line in the sand. Do we really care who has the smartest pet? Have we really become so dumbed down or lulled to sleep that there is a TV exec somewhere getting paid millions of dollars to say "I've got it! Lets do a version of American idol for pets!" I watch reruns of The Office for a TV fix or wrestling, at least it's pretend and we know it from the start. So if there are any TV execs reading this (or anyone for that matter) listen up, I don't care about your next model, dancer, cook, remodeling guru, singer, actor, super hero, inventor, dog, cat or imitator of an actual star! You already steal all of your ideas for real prime time TV from England! Get off your duff, think of something original, if you can't, call me or my brother or any number of my friends and we'll be happy to sell you our ideas but I'm warning you, when you come out with "Americas Most Loved Snell" reality show, I will find someway to get to California, scale your little ivory tower your living in and tear it down! whew! I feel better now.

I have G.A.S.

No not that kind, you silly, G.A.S. is an acronym for Guitar Aquisition Syndrome. If you play guitar you know what I'm talking about, the addiction can be as bad as any drug. My addiction is beyond help, they say you can't help someone until they hit bottom, well I refuse to hit bottom. My days are filled with scheming how to get the next guitar. Let's put it this way, I have a sign that my dad gave me that says "My old lady said she would leave if I bought one more guitar! ...I'm sure gonna miss that girl!" in my home it's almost that bad. You find ways to justify buying them "I don't have one like this", "but this one has an extra knob that provides 5 more sounds!" "This is my church guitar" I have even lied about guitars I have bought! Yes folks it can be serious, at last count I owned, in my house, in my possession, about, are you ready for this? 13 guitars, that's just guitars and doesn't include the ones I have traded or sold after the new wears off. People don't want their kids to be rock stars because of the crap they will collect as a result not because of the pitfalls of fame and fortune I'm almost certain of this. I also have auxiliary instruments, lap steel, banjo, Ukuleles. My wife has given up hope that there will be a cure and just turns the other way when I come home with something new. You see, you also have to have accessories, I have more pedals than I can shake a stick at, enough amplifiers be able to play a large arena with ease, and it never ends. I have a list of things I want, no need! It's silly a boy and his toys, if my son learns to play we may have to have another house just for the instruments... I'm sure gonna miss that girl...

The Family Jewels Rule!

I am into music, big time, like it is almost an obsession with me. I work very hard at keeping up the latest music even though I hate about 95% of it. It's partly what I'm known for, I can tell you every member of Van Halen, past and present. I know who Phish were, I own a couple of albums by The Cure, I have tons of country music. This is something I pursue constantly, to be the first person I know to know who the new hot bands are. The down side to this is that I end up thinking I know more than I really do and then look like an idiot, which leads me to my story. A friend of mine, PJ asked if I watched the Gene Simmons show Family Jewels, I replied with some snobby BS answer about how all he is interested in is making a buck and blah blah blah, I don't even remember most of what I said. So now I'm saying to PJ, I was an idiot, I watched two hours of Gene Simmons tonight, I even missed wrestling because of Gene Simmons, and I loved it. To the point that I wouldn't even turn the channel during commercials because I was scared I would miss something. (I'm convinced that men flipping channels during commercials is some kind of modern exhibition of primitive nomadness, is that a word?) and none of that stuff I said would run through my head ever even entered. I was too busy laughing.
Props also to PJ for designing my new header which looks way more awesome than the standard one I was sporting. So thank you again PJ, this is just PJ day!

Dad Scores a Hole in One

I have a 3 year old, Mr.B, we are very tight as dads and sons go, and even more so than most dads and three year olds I know. We have a friend with a son about Mr. B's age and he told me that his son runs and cries for mom when he gets home from work. Unfortunately my wife gets the opposite treatment, it's almost like he tolerates her until I get home and then she gets no love. Not that he doesn't love his mother and there are times where ONLY mom can take care of the issue. But for the most part he comes to me. I announced today that it was such a nice day it would be cool to go golfing. I golf about as often as the return of Haley's comet, most of my golf comes in the form of hitting Nerf golf balls around my yard and hoping the neighbors dog does not make off with it. My wife made the suggestion, wait for it... that I should take Mr.B with me if I was going...I'll give you a few minutes to let that sink in... OK, Back. So, now the three year old and I are going golfing, right, I see me paying for 18 holes of golf and getting to play about 4. I tell Mr.B that after his nap, me and him MIGHT go golfing. To a three year old and his mother hoping to dump him for three hours, MIGHT means it's been written in stone and will happen. I decided that 27 dollars was ridiculous to pay to only get to play 4 holes of golf. My better half reminds me of a nearby golf course that was about 10 dollars cheaper to play. Better yet, it's a nine hole course that you play through twice, and no hole is over 180 yards long which means this is basically golf for the ADD people. There is little down time, You tee off, you either hit the green or miss it by just a little, you tap on, putt out, and move to the next hole. I actually thought this would be a great place to have what I would call a speed tournament, I just made it up so I don't know what all the rules would be but it would involve completing the course as fast as you can with the lowest score. This could even be done in relays or some kind of crazy scramble or be used as a drinking game, every odd numbered hole you swig a beer before tee off. OK, I'm rambling now. So, Mr. B and I take off for the course at about 3:30, the course has actually raised rates by about 4 dollars that irritated me but my son was excited to get started, it was his first time in a cart. I'm happy to report that all turned out well, he loved it! I would tee off and then when we hit the green he would drop his ball (he has a play set) and would sink the ball. I let him keep score and turns out I had the best day of golf ever, by his scoring formula, I had three holes in 1! I'm certain that is some kind of record. Anyway we were exhausted when we returned home at 7:30 Mom and Now (his grandmother), were able to scrapbook for three and a half uninterrupted hours. Mr.B played his first round of golf, got to drink a bottle of water, two apple juices, and a Gatorade AND pee on hole 6 of the golf course. That alone made it worth going to him, (peeing outside is a very important thing to young boys, and honestly, who am I kidding? Men like to do it just as much). Any way I got the night off, absence really makes the heart grow fonder, Mom had to bathe and dress Mr.B and got the added bonus of reading first and no one was able to sub in for her. She got the attention she wanted, I got to play golf and spend the afternoon with my son. It doesn't get any better than that...well only there had been a Motley Crue, Poison, Guns N Roses concert after the golf it might have been better.

Almost Died!

Well not really, that is my favorite saying from The Crocodile Hunter though so I thought I would use it. Friday morning at work was quite exciting, we had a tornado warming and had to hide in the stairwell, it just so happens that I recieved a new digital video camera for my birthday so I put it to good use. I'm hoping to have something edited together. Some of the Co-Workers were acting like they Junior high kids let out for recess. Very loud, I think PJ would agree. Anyway the tornado actually struck further down the road although several people were not as lucnky as we were. There were severe storms in about 4 states and some homes and businesses were in shambles. Please remember these folks, I know I will.

Night Time Is The Right Time

I think I mentioned in my first post that I tend to be a home body. A better description would that I would be a hermit if possible. Except I do need interaction with others to a certain degree. It's been an unwritten rule in my house that after 10 p.m. it's my "alone time" as my wife refers to it. The rule works something like this, I will help bathe and put Mr. B to bed. I will stick around and watch tv and be a good husband and talk. In return my wife lays down on the couch at 9 p.m. sharp, I take control of the remote and watch whatever thing it is I want to watch. Usually wrestling or whatever documentary, how it's made, or gangser documentary happens to be on. Tonight, it was flipping between Low Life, a 30 minute episode into the world of Low Riding cars and Miami Ink, a show about people getting tattoos. Exciting stuff for any woman. The point is the showing has to be boring enough to put my wife to sleep. At 10 o'clock, asleep or not, I exit to the back room where I watch really interesting things like who killed the electric car, record music, or watch Youtube or some combonation of at least two of these. My wife asks no questions unless something we have discarded but won't fit in the trash comes up missing. I usually tell her that I can't give out that information as she would become an accessory to whatever I happened to do with it and Mr. B would have to live with family while we pay my debt to society. This is my alone time, it allows me to unwind and do what I want to do and I stay in favor with the family. I think I will bring this up and try to get it passed as an amendment at the next "What the heck do our wives want from us?!" meeting. I'm sure this has never donned on a lot of men. The down side is, work starts early and I usually stay up late, so the morning starts with a round of "if you don't get out of this bed, I will put my feet in your back and kick you out!" but by 5 o'clock that eveing the morning is forgotten. So I live for 10, see you tomorrow night.

Hair's To You...

My wife loves reality shows, the topic almost doesn't matter, it does have to have this criteria.
1. They must compete in something.
2. They must kick someone off once a week.
3. There must be an argument that last about the length of the show.
That's about it, it could be old women knitting, as long as one of them gets kicked off once a week. She would also participate if they held viewer voting for things like "Which contestant is most likely to stab another contestant with a knitting needle? vote now!". She would do it. I have my own guilty pleasures that I'm sure I will write about at some point. But the point of this post is to discuss who was on this particular show. The show was Dancing With The Stars, the special musical guest tonight was Def Leppard. I stated in my first post that I am particular to Hair Bands, I grew up in that time period and hair bands ruled not only my world but the musical world in general. They wrote the sound track of my youth, every kiss I got (which was few and far between) was set with some metal ballad playing in the background, so that's why I was interested in this. I couldn't see how they fit the show. Appearently the only requirement to get on is to sing and have a record of some sort coming out. I was never a huge Def Leppard fan, Pyromania rocked, I had a friend who thought the musical world started and ended with them but they never meant enough to me to actually invest in any of their music. They came on and did the most obvious thing they could do, and played Pour Some Sugar On Me, obviously they're most famous song, a song that I have heard so many times I actually emailed a local radio station that if they played this most annoying song one more time I may become diabetic, have a fit and toss my radio out of the car.It was probably a condition of them getting on the show, but as I watched them perform and saw the dancers perform some kind of latin dance to this decidedly unlatin song, I started to wonder what the members of DL were thinking. I think it was probably something like this "I can't believe we are on here! I can't believe we have to sing this song again! We have really sunk! At least the chicks are hot, I hope there is a payday for this." I could also see Tom Bergeron trying to be hip and talk with them before the show "Hey guys, nice to have you here tonight. I really love that song Pour Some Ramen Noodles On Me, it's one of my favorites! Have a good show." The fact that my wife could even pick up on this vibe as they performed made it even more funny. We picked them apart, I think there should be a reality show about these once famous bands, they compete for the opportunity to play one song live on another reality show. Contests could be things like who can book a gig first, it doesn't matter where, the local bar, a funeral, whatever. This is something I would watch religiously, this show would have so much fighting that they would never get anything accomplished, who stole who's wig, one band hiding anothers makeup, what band has to open, not to mention the internal fighting among the band members from the same band. It has everything a reality show needs, excuse, I'm going to put this together and go pitch it to VH1...

Uhm Hello, is this thing on?

Hi, this is the time I have ever done this so be patient with me. I chose 5 year old dad because I'm pretty sure that is about how I act and I have child not quite that age yet. Any way, my life mainly consists of my son, movies, music (mainly of the 80's hair metal variety) and guitar with some work thrown in between. This first one will be short. I was encouraged to do this by a co-worker, so here you go PJ enjoy :). My worst fear is that I will write this and no one will read it, kinda like being at work, now for the highlight of my day.
My son is three and loves to ride his bicycle, he has been asking for the last week to get mine out, he saw it in the back of our storage building which houses everything from tools to forgotten "projects" and the body of Jimmy Hoffa. I finally pulled it out today, aired up the tires and oiled up the chain and rode. I haven't been on this bike since I bought it about 5 years ago, my wife and I got them as anniversary presents and saw it as a good way to exercise, yeah right. One good dog chasing and my wife was out, I simply lost interest, why ride when I can drive? It quickly went the way of the tread mill and every other piece of exercise equipment we have ever owned. Any way, I pulled it out for him and I think this is the most fun we have had in the last 24 hours. We raced, bump drafted, did tricks and just rode for about and hour and a half. My butt hurts and he went to sleep about 20 seconds after hitting his pillow. As Ice Cube would say, today was a good day.