July 2007

July 2007

Tuesday, 7-31-7 Lithasblot

I just wanted to write a few hundred words and go to sleep tonight. I have had momentary spurts of inspiration in my new project. Ideas that spring to life in notes and blurbs but have yet to really take form. I wanted to sit here and make one come to life and then get some sleep. I have another drive ahead of me tomorrow before I can start my work day. Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi is three hours away and I have to be there at 10am. I figured I'd get to sleep early. That didn't work. Not yet anyway.

I finished my paperwork around 8pm. I have the sliding-glass door to the balcony open and the noises from the pool drifted up into the room. Children laughing and somewhere a radio played "the hits of the 80's and 90's" just soft enough that I didn't hear it unless I listened for it. The noises got softer as the sun dropped below the horizon, extinguished by the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I sat here in front of this laptop while the breeze blew the curtains into the room and the only remaining sound was the waves crashing on the shore. I looked up toward the ocean and I see the recently full moon making her journey, chasing the sun. How can I waste my time in front of a machine on a night like this?

So I went downstairs and grabbed my drum and sat on the beach. For a long time I didn't play anything but just sat there enjoying the night air. I started to think of all the complaining I do and all the joys of life I take for granted. I know that I truly don't deserve all I have, but if I don't, who does? I'm not a great man but I'm also not a bad man. I think all I need to do is recognize that I put myself in situations and if I don't like it, I can change it. After some thought on this, I remembered that I have it pretty good and that for all my inherent fucked-up-ness, I'm doing alright.

I started playing (lightly) on my drum and let her take me where she will. As much as I don't like the beach, I love the ocean at night. And my drum LOVES the beach. Every time I get a chance to play out here I truly feel inspired. Tonight I was reminded of just how good life is and how much of a pussy I am for bitching about my own mediocrity when I am the cause of it all.

Monday, 7-30-7

Wow, time sure does kick you in the balls sometimes. I had a week (mostly) at home and a full weekend with no travel plans and nowhere to be. The possibilities were endless. I have so much I want to get done, so many people I want to check in with but... well, those empty slots fill up fast. I got the call that Heffner was going to be in the area for the weekend and did I want to hang out? Of course I did. I never see him at work anymore and I miss hanging out and getting drunk with my buddy.

We spent Friday night drinking and digging on old movies and older music. Saturday we went out and drank some more. By the time he left on Sunday the few brain cells I had left were happy to see him go. A weekend without plans is just impossible to imagine. The expectations of what I can get done with such a weekend is crushed every time I fill the "empty" time with stuff to do but then, who am I if I'm not busy? That's all I seem to know anymore is rushing around to get all the good times in before I die.

He and I have a lot in common musically but he always brings up some good music that I passed over. We spent much of our drunken Friday night playing music. Reverting back to our suburb-roots by downloading Journey songs. I hadn't listened to them in years. I forgot how much I liked some of their songs back then. Not a band I'll really start listening to again but definitely one that brings up old memories. We also downloaded some Joe Jackson. Heffner was surprised when I told him I never heard of him. When Anthrax did a cover of "Got the Time" I read the liner notes and saw it was by Joe Jackson, I assumed it was the Jackson 5. Well after listening to this guy, I still don't like him much but at least now I know who the hell he is.

As usual I loaded up on my Podcasts before I left for the week but now I'm finished listening to them and now I'm listening to retro-pop like Journey, Rush and the Cars. This will last all week. Heffner and I downloaded a few of these songs on the pirate network but after listening to them all weekend I broke down and bought a few albums from iTunes. I never understood how the music industry gets upset that people are stealing music over the internet. I would have NEVER bought these CDs this weekend if I hadn't stirred the memories by downloading a few songs for free. And those people that pirate and never buy, those are the same ones that have trunks full of copied cassettes, they are the type to never buy music, online or otherwise. New media, same problems.

Friday, 7-28-7

Proof that the political correctness that everybody is bitching about is not a new thing. PC is thought of as a relatively new concept. Say, in the mid to late 90's. This is a picture of the FAA's safety tags you put across a switch telling you not to turn it on. They generally pile up as new ones are issued. If you look at the fine print, the top one was printed in November of 1968, the bottom was printed in August of 1981. PC was in effect in the 70's, they just never called it 'PC'. I know this really doesn't prove anything but I thought it was funny enough to take the picture...

Thursday, 7-27-7

The bug-du-jure; Dragonflies. There were thousands of them swarming me as I tried to work today. Yesterday it was horseflies and they are out again today but I think the dragonflies have them outnumbered. I don't know if dragonflies bite but I seem to have gotten bitten less today than I did yesterday. The gnats are a constant presence but after stuffing paper towel in my ears and squinting I can get past them for the most part. Although Teresa said I spent most of last night tossing and turning swatting at imaginary bugs in my sleep.

Last Friday I was heading home when a quick storm hit I-10. One of those immediate downpours that you don't see coming. The wind was so bad I really expected to see a tornado come across the highway. The rain was coming down so hard that I had a hard time staying on the road and I just trusted that no one would be stupid enough to slow to a stop in the left lane. That's putting a lot of faith in strangers but I really had little choice other than pulling over into the right lane and that's where all the REALLY stupid fuckers were. You do NOT drive with your flashers on you dimwits!

So I couldn't see much but I was expecting to see a tornado. What I did NOT expect to see was a rainbow. Not some beautiful-high-in-the-sky rainbow but a strangely horrible rainbow that scared the shit out of me. It was ON the road. I mean, it stretched from the word on my right to the woods on the other side of the highway and it had an elevation of zero. At first the light was sepia toned and then I saw the colors. I was driving right for it and I felt like I would come out on the other side into the Twilight Zone or something. It was something out of a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Of course rainbows being what they are I never really "hit" the rainbow but when it dissipated I felt better. A little sad because it really was beautiful but it was scary more than anything.

I said I was headed home but really I was driving to my parent's house in Hernando. It was "home from work" at least. As I got off the highway and closer to their place I hit a two lane highway. There is a Black Navigator on my tail and a slow car in front of me. The Navigator all but runs me off the road trying to pass me and pulls in front of me. He taps his brakes just to teach me a lesson I guess. The only thing I learned from that was that there was an asshole behind the wheel of the Navigator in front of me. So we drive out three in a row because there is enough traffic in the oncoming lane to keep us from passing the slow-poke.

On the right there is a little clearing where the power lines cross the road. Right at the edge is a deer. As the cars approach it turns and leaps into the clearing as butterflies float around her. The sun is coming into the clearing and it is a scene right out of a television commercial for natural spring water or something. I don't have time to really take the moment in because the asshole in front of me wanted a better look and slammed on his brakes. I really didn't need the adrenaline rush. I am really starting to hate this guy. Another mile down the road and this guy's tossing bottles out of his truck. Not even two miles after the beautiful scene with the deer this guy is tossing garbage into the woods. Now I really do hate this asshole. I felt like "Iron Eyes" Cody (we DO have something in common; neither of us is Native American) and wanted to cry at the pure stupidity of this guy. Thankfully he passes the next car and takes off.

I decide not to pass the slowpoke car because my turn is up about a mile ahead. I can wait. As we approach the turn the guy in front of me turns on his signal. I guess I'll be following this guy all the way in. Right at the turn, this guy comes to a complete stop. This is not a 90 degree turn. This is not even a sharp curve. It is a sweeping fork in the road. You can hit this turn at top speed and not even skip a beat. But for some reason this guy slows to a stop and pauses like there's a stop sign and he's waiting for oncoming traffic! As soon as there is room I hit top speed and pass this guy. I don't give him a gesture or even a dirty look. We're too close to my parent's house and they might know him. So I didn't egg him on but for some reason the guy who held up traffic to 40mph on the one road is now on my ass and I'm doing 60mph! I finally got to the house without having a stroke but I did come up with some new words!

Wednesday, 7-25-7

Whoever said nature is beautiful was full of shit. I was sweltering in the heat out there today. I was completely soaked to the bone. It was so bad that I had trouble turning a screwdriver because my hands were so wet. I couldn't dry them on my shirt or jeans because they were just as wet. But I would have gladly endured twice the heat if there was a way to keep the bugs away! Bugs suck! I was out in the middle of nowhere and the heat was bad enough but the gnats, mosquitoes and horseflies were unbearable. I can see how some people will go mad in the jungle when faced with these things every day.

But, on the good side (on the more civilized side) Teresa called me to let me know that my package arrived today. I almost don't like how fast things ship nowadays. ALMOST. I mean, there was really no anticipation on this one. I ordered it late Monday night, it arrived early Wednesday morning. No time to drool and fret, wondering when I'll get my package. I didn't even have it shipped priority overnight or anything. Of course, I actually DO prefer the speedy delivery way of things, I just remember a time when you'd have time to plan and fantasize over what's in the box. I mean, I ordered it, I know what's in the box. It BETTER be what I ordered... but until I open it there's still a small part of me that's like Ronnie Howard singing "The Wells Fargo Wagon" song from "Music Man".

In the box? My new 1T external drive. That's one Terabyte. It's actually dual 500Ms and I have the option of running it in RAID1 or RAID0 but I don't really need the security, I need the space. 1T is plenty of space, for now. The 1.5T was nice but it wasn't available (where I ordered it from) without being the version that is the network server type. I'm staying with the Western Digital MyBooks series because that's what I already have at home, at work and the only people I swap drives with have the WDs too so it's a matter of convenience. Maybe I can parley this into a new computer? I do need more RAM, I need a FireWire800 input, a faster processor would be nice. In fact, a nice new iMac would really do the trick!

Of course, now that the new drive has arrived, Teresa and Jerry are going to start expecting me to crank out new DVDs for them rather quickly. They don't understand that the space problem is fixed but the TIME problem is still an issue. It's a bitch capturing and editing these videos. I've got twenty BetaMax tapes to go through, each is capable of holding 4 hours. I have transcribed one hour of the first tape and I'm not looking forward to what's left. But, the cool thing is documenting these things for later. The one hour I've already completed was well worth the time. It was from around 1986? Teresa's grandparents were on it and they've since passed on. It also had some nice footage of Lada and that made everyone smile. Everyone else on the tape is still alive (for now) but that won't last forever. Plus I got to see Teresa dancing around when she was 14/15 years old.

I'm starting with the Beta tapes because Jerry bought the Beta player and is looking for results but I have more to go after that. I have a box full of tapes from my family and another box full of Hi-8 tapes from when Teresa and I were first married. That's my next project; find a cheap, used (working) Hi-8 camera so I can get these damn things on DVD as well. The BetaMax cost us $75 and it has been obsolete for years. They are still producing Hi-8 tapes and Circuit City still sells one Hi-8 camera for $300. I don't expect to find one soon but then, I have a lot to get through before I can start that pile.

Wednesday, 7-18-7

I may have lost my job on Monday. I'm not sure yet and probably won't know for a while. Things move S L O W L Y in the FAA and it is possible that six months from now things will get caught up and they could finally get to this guy's complaint against me, OR, maybe he never filed the complaint in the first place and I'll never hear anything about it at all.

Monday morning I was working in Panama City with my regular TOR and the local FAA technician. The local FAA guy was gruff and abrasive but I just dealt with it like usual. He escorted me over to the Vortac building which is always out in the middle of nowhere, this time it was out in the middle of all the runways. After we got to the building, he started getting chatty. In just about every other sentence he had something ugly to say about someone or something. Everything he said was so bigoted I thought he was joking. After a while I figured out he was just ugly so I kept doing my best to ignore him and nod/grunt in the right places to get him to leave me alone.

It was freaking HOT out there and I was wearing black jeans and a black shirt. In a case like this I would normally run my test cables into the building and test from inside the air-conditioned space. I chose to sit out in the heat with the sun directly on my back just to stay away from this asshole. After about ten minutes I guess he got lonely because he followed me outside. He continued his tirades against blacks, Chinese, Irish, gays, Mexicans, women and just about everyone else.

It was hot. I had the option of being inside but chose to stay away from him. He followed me so now I am very hot AND dealing with him! I just cut him off in mid sentence, "Hey! I don't want to hear anymore of that shit. Knock it off!" He retreated inside for about five minutes and then told me he had to go back to the main building to use the bathroom, he'd be back. An hour later I was done and ready to leave the VOR. Of course I don't have runway clearance so I had to wait on my escort. He eventually showed up and really didn't talk much after that.

I don't know if he complained about me or not but it is a real possibility. I know in the real world I don't have to put up with that kind of shit but the way things work out here on the "good ole boy network", it is very possible that he complained to someone that I snapped at him, leaving out the WHY I snapped. If I were the type, I could probably lodge a real complaint against him but I'm not the type to take action on words alone. I only use his words to evaluate him for myself.

Wednesday and I am already feeling like it is Saturday. Not the cool, happy, have fun type of Saturday but the worked all week and having to work on Saturday type of Saturday. It's 3pm and I haven't gotten much done today. I can't get a straight answer out of anybody on the base about whether or not my new T1 has been delivered and I am guessing that answer will come at 4pm on Thursday, just in time to make me work on Friday.

This job sucks for a lot of reasons. The constant travel is one, the incredibly long hours is another. Chargeable time accounts for 10-14 hours a day but driving back and forth to the hotel, going out to have dinner, completing paperwork at the hotel and prep-work for the next day... I never sleep well on the road and it just feels like 24 hours of pure hell. We never know where we will be the next week until Thursday of the week before. It's like being lost in a fog at all times.

One of the perks has been that we try to work 4 ten hour days and are home on Friday. That has gone away. I have worked Fridays for the last two months and it looks like this will continue for the foreseeable future. I am burning up and burning out. There is only so much more of this I can take. It is like an endurance test. I don't want to quit because I want to see how much I can take and I don't want to stay because I know it won't get any better. I am keeping the hope that we can get over the hump and get back to normal but once you show these guys you can work under these conditions, these conditions BECOME normal. I can't find anything local in Jacksonville that pays anything close to what I make. I have trapped myself into a shitty situation that I can not walk away from without incurring severe consequences. I guess I'll see what more they can throw at me next week. And the week after that...

I've been down these last few weeks. I can hear you saying, "No... You Chris? Down? Never!" But I've been faking it enough to keep the peace. After a day like today I really just felt like shit. On the way back to the hotel I called Teresa and that perked me up a little. Normally she is the only thing that can cheer me up and when that doesn't work I'm just considered inconsolable. So I got a smile or two talking to her but then I remembered how much I'm losing by being gone all the time and my smiles were crushed again. I finished the last of this week's stock-pile of podcasts and so I switched over to my random music list. I heard a few good songs but nothing seemed to really get my attention. Then I heard it. The low rumbling of thunder and rain. Then three quick hits of the drums. Pause, then another three... Slayer, Raining Blood! Before I knew it I was doing 96mph on SR231. Stupid, but I was feeling something. I was alive for those few minutes. It was like a candy bar. The sweet sugar rush wore off and now I'm back down. Now I'm back to standard MO where every day is just another 24 hours of hell. Pure hell.

Monday, 7-16-7

The Holy Book of Chris; Chapter/Verse: TBD.

"And lo there was a day in which the illiterate hastened to sendeth forth e-mail. Forsaking all reason and sense, failing to take up a book to verify their false claims or even to point their mighty browser toward the light contained within the lord thy Google. Neither did they checketh their facts against the all knowing Snopes dot com. For ignorance dwells deep within them and lo, they know not the level of their own stupidity. For it is written in their false doctrines and in their holy scriptures, "Sendeth forth this e-mail and thou shalt have good fortune, if you breaketh this chain, thou art doomed." And the people were frightened and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Behold the righteous man, honoring his inbox by keeping it holy and clean of spam. He waits not for his check from Bill Gates, neither does he wait for his free vacation from Disney. Little heed does the righteous man pay unto these words. He shalt be free of the inequities of the foolish yet, harken not to all correspondence from thy brethren. For they have fallen victim to the spam of others. They have squandered their riches into the sand, sending coin to exiled Nigerian princes and to registration fees of foreign lotteries, though they know not how they won. Their efforts are wasted and shall net them nothing but dust. And there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

If a strange people gives forth spam unto thee, delete it from thy inbox and worry not. For an unanswered spam can do little harm. If thy kinsman does sendeth forth spam and they do saith unto you, "Here, readeth this scripture for it shall surely give thee great fortune." Then readeth not their spam and delete as you would from a stranger, for their eyes have become blinded by the evils of false doctrine. Yea verily I say unto you, should your tribesman repeat their offence unto you, it would be wise to cast their e-mails into the darkness of the pit of the recycle bin, where there shall be (say it with me now...) wailing and gnashing of teeth."

It never ceases to amaze me how many people I know that don't do any of their own research. If they read it on the internet or heard about it from a friend, it MUST be true... I'm as guilty as anyone of being lazy and allowing some "facts" to be assumed until they become important enough to look up or if they come up in conversation. I'll let something I heard simmer in the back of my mind unless I am really interested or if I am asked for an answer. If someone told me that the capitol of Samoa was "Pago Pago", I'd probably let it ride. However, if they told me the capitol of Samoa was "Girl Scout Cookie Town", I'd be sure to look this one up before sending it to every damn person in my address book. Recently I was called out on one of the old standards and when I looked it up I found out I was wrong. So, I am very careful to be certain of my information or preface it by saying, "I'm not totally sure of this but..."

This brings us to the disease of e-mail and internet rumors. I know there are stupid people out there. I know we all get stupid e-mails from them. But why do we insist on passing on their stupid e-mails amongst ourselves? If you are sending me an e-mail about something "amazing and totally unbelievable" then you are obviously on-line. If you are on-line, there is no excuse for your failure to do even the most cursory fact checking before forwarding them to me. If you can not verify them, then they are indeed, unbelievable; don't send them!

The Bible does not say that the Anti-Christ will be a Muslim, Nostradamus never predicted 9-11 and the Quran does not say that America will cleanse the lands of Allah. In fact, that's the one that got me fired up again. I got it three times this week. I believe one of them was trying to be funny by sending it to me but I'm not even sure anymore. People are losing their wits on all sides of me now...

The claim:

[Koran 9:11 - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; And there was peace.]

Allowing for translations in multiple tongues, I searched the Quran for eagles, hawks, albatrosses, raptors, vultures, seagulls, turkeys, owls, doves, ravens and even fucking chickadees. I only found a few references to birds in the entire book (and NO reference to "Arabia"!)

One verse is about allowing foods to be eaten which are retrieved by well-trained hounds and birds of prey.

In a show of God bringing life from death, Abraham was told to kill and scatter the remains of four birds on the hilltops. When he called to them, they returned.

Solomon was taught the language of birds and has birds fighting in his army but there is no description of and bird-warfare or bird-wrath.

Another verse was about Jesus shaping a bird out of clay, breathing on the statue and it flew away. This story repeats in the first person account as well.

In the desert, Moses tells the story of Cain and Abel in which a raven scratched the earth to show Cain his wrongfulness.

There is NO possible way to interpret any of these and re-phrase it in the text above. It is not like someone just missed a word and inferred a different meaning. I can't even begin to find a way to get from point A to point B. I'd probably start with Abraham's bird army but there were no mentions other than them being in the army.

Another dead giveaway was the "chapter/verse". How convenient. It couldn't have been a more glaring example of "Look this shit up before believing it" if it had been dated April 1^st.

The actual verse:

[Surah 9:11 But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion. We detail Our revelations for a people who have knowledge.]

Someone just made this shit up about "the Eagle and the Son of Arabia". Just made it up! Much like the entire Quran itself. The Christian Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Constitution of the United States. They are all just made up! Words from a creative person's mind, set to paper and ink. The only two differences between anything I write and any of those "holy" texts is that I don't claim a phony pedigree of deification and also, no one is going to attack and kill you if you don't like my words (except maybe my mommy, she thinks I'm special). If you want to read your holy fairy tales, enjoy them. If you want to read into Nostradamus and believe he's talking about your next-door neighbor's cat, go right ahead. If you want to wave the flag and spout Constitutional law, feel free. But if you want to share any "Amazing" and "Unbelievable" coincidences with me, please take a second or two to make sure there is at least SOME basis of truth in them.

Thursday, 7-12-7

Sitting here in Gainesville. Only a few miles from home but no telling when I'll get there. I can't leave until the work is done, the work has to wait for two or three things to happen before I can even get started. So I'm sitting here in the truck trying to stay awake.

I got NO sleep last night and it is all my fault. Well, I can try to blame the television but that won't get me very far. I finished reading a book last night around 11:30 and decided to flip through the channels before going to sleep. Ostensibly, I wanted to catch up on the news but I was really hoping to catch "Robot Chicken" on the Cartoon Network. While flipping I saw the beginning of "Faster Pussycat Kill, Kill". I haven't seen that in years so I decided to stick with it until a commercial. Well I ended up watching the whole thing because it was on TCM.

When the movie ended I was ready to roll over and get some sleep but it was just too funny watching Robert Osborne discuss the fine points of a Russ Meyer film. Why can't ANY one just say, "This was the finest film he created" or "This was the zenith of his career"? Why must everyone refer back to "Citizen Kane"? It especially grates on my nerves when they mean it. When someone said, "Shakes The Clown' is the 'Citizen Kane' of alcoholic clown movies" it was obviously a joke and kind of funny. But when a serious film critic says, "Faster Pussycat Kill, Kill' is Russ Meyer's 'Citizen Kane" I just want to give up on movies in general! Not everyone has a "Citizen Kane" in them. I would say that MOST don't. Just a quirk of mine, I think films should stand on their own rather than always being compared to freaking "Citizen Kane". "FPKK" is a shitty "B-movie" that has no place being mentioned in the same paragraph as "Kane".

So, with my little tirade over I was just about to hit the remote when they announced the next movie was "The Last Picture Show". That is one of my all-time favorite movies and I hadn't seen it in a while. I just put it in my Netflix queue last week because I wanted to see it again. So after watching the whole film it was close to 4am and I had to get up at 6am. It really is my own damn fault but something good has come from it. I looked up these movies in IMDb and found that "The Last Picture Show" has a sequel, "Texasville", filmed almost 20 years later. I put it in the queue and I'll watch it soon. I know that sequels suck most of the time and I'm not expecting this one to be any good. But watching the original again last night, I fell in love with the story all over again and I want to see where the hell they took the story after that. I'm almost expecting it to suck. It ended on such a perfect note, if they try to pick up from there will it damage the first one? I'll find out soon.

Wednesday, 7-11-7

Why is everyone coming down on the Pope? I don't see why he's taking such a beating for standing up for his belief system. Why do the protestants care? Wasn't the whole point of forming the protestant church to get out from under the Pope's authority in the first place? I don't get why this is such a big deal.

Baptists are ALWAYS yelling about how they are the one true church, why is it that when the Pope does it, suddenly everyone gets upset? The Baptists say that the Catholics are cultists and that they are not true Christians. The Catholics say that anyone who does not recognize the Pope is not a true Christian. I see no difference.

If I play with some friends in a tree-house and I decide I don't like their rules and I leave to make my own tree-house, should I care that the old tree-house says I don't belong to their club anymore? No. I have a better tree-house over here and we have better tasting cookies so there!

These Christians can't even decide how to run their own tree-houses. Some claim that anyone that lets a woman run their tree-house is damned, others claim that by allowing homosexuals into my tree-house and allowing them to eat my cookies and drink my Kool-Aid, that we are now damned. Still others claim that if I don't run my tree-house the way the Italian kid runs his tree-house, I'm damned. But someone else tells me that if I run it the way the Italian kid wants me to run it then I am damned because his imaginary friend wants it run a different way. Most often the imaginary friend wants things to run a little easier for his close buddies and screw everyone else. Sounds to me like we're all damned if we do, damned if we don't. So let's just have some fun huh? I gave up on tree-forts and imaginary friends long ago. Too much trouble.

But I like a man who tells me where I stand. And the Pope stood up and did just that. He is in charge of running the oldest tree-house in the world. He stood up and said, "do it my way or you are not in my club anymore!" And people that left his club a long time ago got upset about it. Weird. But still, I like a man that stands up for what he believes in, even if it is on the advice of his imaginary friend. You gotta believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink... ba-ta-boom!

If the Pope backs down and tries to make peace with everyone I'll really be disappointed. I really think this firm stance is the only way to show strength. In today's world of instant gratification and laid back religion, the staunch religions are losing ground. The "Great Schism" and the "Papal Schism" were big deals and everyone took it seriously. That was also true during the "Protestant Reformation" but ever since then there has been a never-ending line of people nailing their theses to doors. Every time something becomes inconvenient for more than two people, a new church is formed. Orthodox this, Eastern that, Reformed other... It's impossible to keep up with how many Christian churches there are out there and most of them claim to be better than the others. If I had to pick a church I'd rather be in one that sets up its rules and sticks by them rather than one that changes their rules to allow room for more asses in the seats on Sunday.

And then there are those that walk around with holy blinders on claiming to have roots in the early formation of Christianity. They claim that their faith, while protestant, came BEFORE the protestant reformation and therefore has not changed in 2000 (+/-) years. Bullshit. You have to cry bullshit on these people early, or their story will get legs and run. Yeah, you can claim back to the early 1500's (much further back than 1954 anyway...) but this "Perpetuity" is just as much crap as any other neo-classical movement. Don't ruin what you have by grasping for authentication in the past. Stand up for what you are, what you believe. If it's not the original, so be it. But it will be a firm standard from here on out. Build upon your truth, reconstruct your faith to the best of your ability. Then stand strong and true and those of worthy stock will support you. Waver with the wind and you will gather a great flock of refuse that will leave you as soon as they find a more comfortable place to rest.

I can't believe it; I'm actually rooting for the Christians. Not true, I'm rooting for anyone that stands up and refuses to back away from the plate when they are given a high-inside pitch. Go Popeman!

Wednesday, 7-4-7

So, Happy 4^th of July. I'm not blowing anything up this year. I remember the days when the neighbors would gather to watch me blow up hundreds of dollars. I'd drive in to South Carolina to get the really good ones. The first year that I didn't do it, everyone came by to say how much they missed it. Now you can get those good fireworks on just about any street corner. So I'm sitting here behind a bottle of wine celebrating in my own way and I have a lot to celebrate tonight. This morning I finished up the last chapter of my latest project. I trimmed the fat and I really liked how I tied it all up. I won't break tradition; I won't let her read it but maybe the next one. I still have to edit it but I'll wait a week or two before I start that process. I really like writing and I'm starting to gain a bit of confidence in it. Maybe I really will get good enough to allow it to escape beyond just my eyes.

I got most of the lightning damage repaired/replaced around the house. The alarm system was the biggest priority. Teresa wouldn't sleep without it. Luckily I had a spare board all programmed up from the last lightning strike. I verified that the phone line is good and that the answering machine is blown so now Teresa can buy the phone she wants. I reset the DSL modem and I replaced the wireless router. I installed a wireless card in my desktop unit so now the lightning will have to come in from the electrical wires instead of the usual phone lines. I took precautions against it but in the few hours I left the puter alone and plugged in, the storm came and kicked my ass. So now it will have to work a bit harder.

It's funny what you can learn when you're willing to break from the norm and experiment. I finally decided to go through and edit all of the old archive pages from the Comcast days and change out all of the odd characters. I have been doing this page by page and character by character so far.

Open a page, ctl+F, select the curved left quotation marks, "replace all" with straight quotation marks. Now ctl+F, select the curved right quotation marks... And I do this seven times per page because the new system doesn't like; curved quotation marks (L and R), curved single apostrophes (L and R), ellipses (which I use a lot of...), hyphens that for some reason become double hyphens if you hit enter after them and the accented e. It doesn't like a lot of other characters like the degree symbol but I think I found all of them already. So this is a slow and boring process.

Well I just found out that if you screw around with the search parameters, you can search for the offending characters not only on the page you have open but through the entire site! I did seven searches and fixed all of my problems. If only I had looked for it earlier! I knew I had to get it done and I knew how, I didn't look for an easier way until I was already half way through the work. Could be worse, I could have found it while working on the last page.

So what this means is, I should have all of the odd squares and question marks removed from the entire site. I'll probably post them by the end of the week. I'm sure I missed a few oddballs out there somewhere so if you spot one after the weekend, let me know which page it is on and I'll fix it.

Sunday, 7-1-7

I've been writing and writing. It's hard to write with the house full of people but I've been getting it all down on notebook and ink. I've got the basic outline for my next run all lined up. My new pen Wade made me is my new exclusive writing implement. I bought a new notebook the day after I got the pen and I've already dirtied up the notebook with three different story outlines. One is full length, the other two are shorts or novellas, depending on how much I feel like developing the story arcs.

I should be getting all of these ideas into the puter but I'm taking this time to write this update for the website. There was (still is) a big storm ripping through and we're out of power. My laptop is running on battery and I can finish writing this al; up before the power comes back on and we get back to the normal chaos of life.

We started out this morning real early. I woke up at 6am and stayed awake from the pain. I've had a swollen ear for a couple of weeks and now the headaches won't go away and the whole right side of my face is numb. I couldn't sleep so I got up and watched a movie. I was disappointed in the movie but it wasn't horrible, it just wasn't what I wanted. So I got a shower and everyone was still asleep. I went back into the den and watched a few episodes of Penn & Teller BS. I love that show. I dozed off in the third or fourth episode and Teresa finally woke up around 10:30 or so. She urged me to go to the Acute Care center to get my ear looked at. I have an appointment at 9am tomorrow but the pain is bad enough that I let her twist my arm. I get over to the doctor's office and there is a big sign on the desk saying that they don't accept XYZ medical insurance. I open my wallet to look at my card and sure enough, XYZ Insurance... For the price of a co-pay, this can wait another 24 hours since I've gotten used to the pain for the most part.

So I get back to the house and after a nice breakfast (mmmm, scrapple!) we all get in the car and truck on down to the dirt-mall. Other that the in and out trip Teresa and I made last year to pick up something for Jerry last year, I haven't been to a flea market in years. I immediately remember why. It's hot, smelly and full of rednecks. If you can get past all of the fat, close-set -eyed rejects, there's the burly guy wearing the t-shirt that shows the White House flying a rebel flag and the caption reads, "I have a dream" Oh please let another eight years pass before I'm in this place again...

We're in here because Jerry is looking for an LP. Any LP to test the new USB turntable we bought. I can turn records into MP3s now. We were also looking for a BetaMax player. Jerry brought a box full of Beta tapes he wants me to put on DVD but the Beta player he brought just eats the tapes. I've got a bid in on e-Bay for a player and that looks like the best shot for finding one.

So now I've got hours and hours of cassette tapes to digitize, hours of Beta tape to digitize, hours of VHS to digitize and as soon as I can find a Hi-8 camera/player I have hours of them to digitize as well. After all of that is done, Jerry is going to deliver hundreds of old-timey 33s and 45s for me to digitize. I really like doing this, I should start a side business doing it or something. Maybe after I get good at it I will...

So while we are at the dirt-mall a strong storm starts up. Lightning was popping al around us. It was pretty bad. Anyone who knows Becca knows that she hates big storms and really gets nervous in them. I tell her not to worry, this really isn't "Big Storm" type of weather, it's more like "Tornado" weather. This shakes her up real good and I calm her down by telling her to relax, tornados only hit trailer parks and flea markets. I think she hates me now. I go out to get the car among the lightning strikes and the deluge of rain. I am completely soaked to the bone before I get 20 feet into the parking lot. I stand around and dance left and right looking for the truck. I can't quite see Teresa and the girls because I left my glasses with Teresa but I see that they are waving me to my left. I dodge the lightning bolts, promising to later thank Thor for allowing me to pass unharmed, and I still can't find the damned truck. I walk back into the covered area and they are laughing at me. This is the wrong entrance. This is what they were trying to signal to me but even with my glasses I don't think I would have seen them clear enough to get that through all of the rain. So I finally swim out to the truck and only inside do I realize just HOW wet I am. I was drier at the bottom of the spring while diving last weekend. I lean forward to put the key in the ignition and the rain runs off of my hat and onto the steering wheel. Wet.

The drive home was fun. Dodging all the assholes that run on the highway with their flashers on. I want to destroy every damn one of them. It is illegal and it is also very confusing. If it was one or two people I'd be upset enough to bitch about it but this was more than half of the damn cars on the road this time! I wanted to put them in the wall. Fucking brain-dead morons! Last week I was driving out to Pensacola and the rain hit in a sheet. Dry, dry, dry, WET! This happens all the time in Florida and I'm sure it's not an unheard of occurrence anywhere else. So the guy in front of me SLAMS on his breaks and goes from 75 to 45 in a matter of feet! I really wanted to run him off the road too. These people better learn how to drive while they're on MY damn roads...

Speaking of that, while I was bitching about all of the morons using their flashers (in the left lane I might add!) Teresa asked me if I was going to write up something about using flashers in my "Emperor of Earth" page. I realize I haven't added anything in there in a long time because I bitch about those things every day now. I don't know what to do with that page. The same with the religion page. I bitch here in the day-to-day section and I don't really need a special section to rant about special topics. The website should get overhauled soon enough. Wade told me about the blogging software and as soon as I get a chance to sit with him and work on it, we're going to tear up the site and freshen it up. Another thing that is going away is the music quiz. It was a failed experiment and should be put out of its misery. I haven't put one up in a month and no one has even asked about it (other than you-know-who) and so it appears that my attempt at creativity was poorly received. I'll just stick to my standard bitch-mode, it's all I know how to do I guess. Here's a peanut, dance for us monkey-boy!

We took another hit during those bad-ass storms today. The router got hit and my computer took a hit to the Ethernet port which is of course, on the motherboard. I've brought the DSL modem back to life but it meant resetting our main account password which dumps al of our other e-mail passwords. Teresa is having to move her laptop to a manual plug instead of wireless and I may have to add in a new card to get my puter back on-line if that is the only part of it that got hit.

The really sad thing is that I always unplug my puter from the wall when I'm gone during the week and I also installed a quick-release up by the monitor so I can also disconnect my puter from the network. I ALWAYS unplug it while I'm gone but I didn't unplug it this weekend. It sucks. I HATE having to troubleshoot my own network. It is always a pain in the ass and I'm always expected to know what the problem is. Big clue here folks, I don't know shit!

Back To Updates Forward to Next Month

Last Updated: 08/01/07 01:32 a