Here’s a salute to the parents out there that have always taught their children the ways of life and have done the best they can, and still do, to steer them in the right direction. These are the parents whom have lived life and have already been through certain hardships that they don’t want us to follow, and advise us time and time again not to follow, yet we find ourselves as the great Dr. Cosby has described as “brain damaged.” (more…)
September 17, 2012
parental cycle of wisdom
July 5, 2010
(disc) jockin ain’t easy
DISCLAIMER: I just want to say that I am in no way a professional disc jockey. The only things I do fairly well is put together a pretty good playlist and enjoy being an on-air radio personality. Only one of which I’m going to discuss doing recently.
Can someone buy me this t-shirt? Thanks
Over the holiday weekend, I was asked to play some music for the family reunion cookout party that was going on. It was suggested I play the typical music I’m known to play at events like these: oldies from the 60’s to 80’s, a few newer hits thrown in mixed with some gospel. A fairly easy gig especially if you set up all the music you’re going to play ahead of time.
I’m not a pro at being a DJ, and I wasn’t getting paid for what I was doing, which was basically bringing a little amp-like-device and my iPod. But having someone like me around keeps the host/hostess from having to worry about background music. But I know most of the basics:
- Know your audience. The only functions I wouldn’t mind being a DJ for events put on by my family or church. But even if I were to be a DJ at some wedding in Nashville, I’d probably want to have a few hours worth of country songs. If I were at a night club, hip-hop/techno… something of that nature. This event was more of a family friendly sorta thing. So with kids running around and half the family being more of the religious type, songs with lots of swears wouldn’t be ideal. Most of what I played might have been a decade too late, but lesson learned and no one complained either.
- Have plenty of music. I usually don’t have any playlists longer than 5 hours. There hasn’t been any reason for me to play music that long anyway… although had I stayed at this cookout the entire time, I would’ve needed maybe 7 hours worth. But the more music you possess and have prepared, the more options you have. I make it a goal to never repeat a song at an event unless asked for. Even during my church’s Halloween parties, when they play musical chairs with the kids (even the adults), I changed the song each time a chair is taken away. It’s also good to have a diverse variety, just in case a request is made (see Take requests below). And if you are playing music for an event with crowd participation, you’ll want to…
- Feel the vibe. Even when I prepare playlists, I have the songs set in an order that will allow me to leave my area if I needed to. I would groups songs together that seem to flow into each other fairly well so just in case I wasn’t at my table area (probably to get food), I wouldn’t worry about what’s about to play next. But I usually stay put, and if the next track doesn’t feel like people will really like it, I will skip to the next one. And it’s not always easy to feel the vibe of the crowd, especially at the event I was at. I was ill-prepared and didn’t have the best speakers, so I was easily overpowered by louder neighbors or louder voices, unless they came over to where I was set up… then yelling over the music was necessary. But keep an eye out on the crowd, if they seem to be tapping their foot or singing along, reward them with another hit. Sadly, it might be a miss if you play the wrong song. But should you have enough music or access to unlimited music (or a friend with like-minded musical prowess), don’t be afraid to…
- Take requests. This is where I failed most recently. If I am to be a party DJ, there are some staples I should already have on stand by. “Electric Slide” and “Cha-Cha Slide” are those that every DJ on the planet should have. As much as I dislike the latter “Slide”, a DJ must remember, it’s not about you and what you like, it’s about the people you are entertaining. If they wanna hear it, you should be able to play it. Sadly, I didn’t have either of these songs. I let the requester plug in his iPod to play something they were looking for. For a little while, I let him play whatever he wanted from his iPod, reminding him of the rules I was set to follow: family-friendly. He played about 4 songs and then 2 of them were repeated before he gave it back to me. Even though I had never heard the songs he was playing, I warned him to have a next song ready if he wanted to keep playing music. This is an essential rule to any party DJ or radio DJ to have…
- No dead air. To have silence at a party or on the radio might signify something is wrong or the party is over. Once this guy realized he was out of songs to play, my iPod was already ready with the next song so the silence didn’t last very long. To be fair, the majority of the crowd we were entertaining probably could’ve cared less at that point. I was 30 minutes away from packing up anyway. And the small group that was around me was with the dude with the iPod. So once he was done, they all left. When I’m a bit more organized and I have more equipment, I usually bring a microphone. The mic is either for me or whoever is running the show to make their announcements or say what they need to say. Speaking of equipment…
- Be as self-sufficient as you can. This makes the host’s job easier when all you really need to do your thing is an area to set up, and an electrical outlet. What would be awesome is if I had my own back up generator. Why? Black outs and beach parties, of course! But since I’m the A/V tech at my church, I have access to things like speakers, amps and microphones. I have an assortment of my own audio cords. I currently have a lawn chair and a card table in my trunk. They aren’t in there for DJ gigs… but I could use them for that if need be. Power strips and extension cords are great to have. But I would assume these things are a must to know and to have if you were a beginner at some event that needed music.
And at some point on my life, I’d like some of the cooler niftier gadgets like an iPod mixer and turntable. So then I could be a “real” DJ. It’s not really my dream job and I’m not looking to make a living off of it, but it’s just fun to do. And that should be the number one thing to know: have fun.
January 23, 2010
“the iron giant” film review
(I’m the resident film reviewer at my job’s monthly newsletter. Here’s my latest review for the month of January.)
I’ll admit that I’ve been slacking lately in my movie-watching experiences and have neglected films of a certain major target audience: family. I went through a list of recent movies I’ve watched and came up pretty short on movies worth writing about that fits in that genre. So I had to dig in my own movie collection to see what might fit the family flick group besides any and ever Pixar movie to date.
Actually, I didn’t stray too far from Pixar. Master storyteller Brad Bird gave us what I believe is an often overlooked and under appreciated gem of a tradition animated feature called The Iron Giant.
Before I jump into that movie, Brad Bird is the guy who brought us the Pixar hits The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Unfortunately, I can’t watch The Incredibles for a couple years due to my lovely niece and her fondness of the repeat button. Fortunately, however, I don’t remember the dialogues verbatim anymore, so there’s some progress. But no disrespect to these movies whatsoever. They appeal to kids and adults alike. These are movies where kids are welcomed and encouraged to view with you, but not necessary. And at the same time, parents can rest assured letting their kids be merry and dandy watching it on their own over and over again. But hey, it’s definitely important to watch what your children watch, even though there are some movies (and TV shows) that require another stimulant of some kind just to keep you from drifting off into madness. I just want to clarify and not mislead anyone into mistaking “family movie” with “children’s movie.” Believe you me (what does that mean, anyway?), there is a difference. The Iron Giant is a family movie. Humans and robots of all ages are allowed to enjoy.
I saw the movie for the first time as teenager. A cool movie about a boy and his giant robot romping around the woods. I got the point of the story, I laughed, got tearful around the end, it entertained me overall, but that was about it.
Then I got older, and thanks to a suggestion (and great review from famed storyboard artist, Karen Lloyd), I watched it again. I missed a lot of the subtle humor and subtexts that adults tend to pick up but are missed by kids. It’s not their fault, it’s intended to be that way. Some good “kids shows” are designed that way, too. Shows like Animaniacs and Sponge Bob were and are well aware of its adult fans, and throw in things for them to appreciate. That’s why they make sleepware for grown men with Sponge Bob on them. I don’t advise going out in public with them, but that’s your choice. But these storytellers want adults to be entertained too. And I forgot to mention, for an animated movie around the 90′s, I’m so happy there were no big song and dance numbers involved. Disney may be the only animated studio to pull this off effectively in their own movies, but I know that’s a turn-off for many adults including myself.
Not only did I pick up on the subtle humor in The Iron Giant, but the plot made more sense. Not that there was a deep analytical study or anything. The story takes place during the tense times of the Cold War. I wasn’t savvy to what all of that was about at a mere 13 years of age. So the paranoia these characters were feeling was lost on me, but at the time, I understood enough to know that the government had the wrong idea.
Also impressive to me at an older age: Vin Diesel. Most of the time, to me anyway, he seems like a laughable actor. But I won’t lie, I like a few of his movies despite the flaws. But his role in this movie voicing this innocent man of metal just seemed to fit so perfectly. I won’t say Oscar-worthy, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. The giant doesn’t talk much, but when he does, it’s fitting.
Overall, this is a good movie to show next time you’re entertaining guests, especially with kids. It’s probably not the #1 movie for your next gathering, even if they are all mature adults. But don’t let this “cartoon movie” go unwatched even if it’s just a movie for two.
December 1, 2009
break’s over
I’m back… again… after my unplanned hiatus. I took a lot longer than I planned but as the saying goes, life happens. I was struggling juggling both life and blogging, so obviously something had to give, and the Indoob unfortunately had to suffer.
So I apologize to the Indoobians whom may have felt abandoned for the few months I was gone. I certainly didn’t forget. A friend once said that if you have a blog, you should practically be in love with it. And trust me, the Indoob is definitely my main squeeze.
Now the $20 question (it’s all I can afford, if I were buying or giving the money away): where did I go? Or maybe more accurately, what was the big project I claimed to have been working on?
To make a long story short, I was working on a screenplay with a friend of mine. The story is still under wraps because I do plan on returning to it. (That answers the question if I finished it.) I kept running into walls. Not writer’s block. I’ve learned that there’s really no such thing. Sure, as a writer, I may stumble and have some trouble… but I won’t say that I’m blocked or anything. If I ever get stuck, I just come back to it later. Similar to what I’m doing with this screenplay. However, I could’ve easily picked up a second idea my friend floated over to me, but no. Like I said, life happened.
By life, I mean friends and summer and church events and school and just an assortment of things that undoubtedly would’ve been blog-worthy. And perhaps I shall revisit those moments in time at another time… but since I’ve been away, I had been considering how I’d revamp the Indoob with my return and all. I probably won’t change a lot… or maybe nothing at all… except new content of course.
I’ve been pretty immersed in the entertainment industry. Not really contributing, but observing and commenting. My Facebook and Twitter are highly active and were basically my means of staying connected. As much as I enjoy tweeting, 60% of the time I want to say a lot more than what 140 can hold. So I knew I had to return to my beloved soon.
I also haven’t forgotten my plans to possibly move into making podcasts. There really isn’t anything that’s stopping me with that one since I have everything I need now. I can even make myself a theme song or two!
And I did mention school; I’m back at Middlesex Community College with a goal to work on getting a web design certificate. Although, in retrospect, next semester I may also continue with broadcast communication where I left off a couple years ago. Kitten is also in school and I found myself somewhat tutoring her or helping her with her papers she writes for her classes. She’s going for early childhood education. She’s also taking a psych class. I’m learning so much about both that I think I should get some honorary credits. Or maybe I should just take those classes next year and breeze through them. Yeah, I doubt that. Although I may need to take psych… I don’t know why though. And I don’t really want to. The one class I have this semester is Intro to Digital Arts with a pretty awesome teacher that reminds me a lot of Rob Paulsen. This is a good thing. With a three hour class, I need be somewhat mildly entertained to stay awake. The class isn’t boring, just long. And there’s just something about staring at a screen in a dark room for a period of time a couple hours before bedtime that just makes you want to make that keyboard a makeshift pillow. But I’m learning stuff and it will surely all come in handy. Some of it already has. And getting trial versions of some decent software I can use later in life for sure.
Now you know a little more about why I’ve been away. If I can help it, I won’t stay away for too long again. As always, you can follow me on Twitter or be a friend of mine on Facebook. (Be sure to tell me Indoob sent you.) 9 times out of 10, whatever you read from me on Facebook, is what’s on Twitter.
So stay tuned for opinion pieces about movies, TV shows, news and of course, food and the places to get them. Hopefully I will also be a little more liberal with some pictures. Either my own or borrowed. We’ll see.
I’m back Indoobians!
June 19, 2009
death of the gentleman generation
I have a few friends that, unfortunately, keep running into idiots. Some call them “dogs” or “pigs” or “man whores” or much worse and vulgar terms I choose not to publish. Such dudes are only out for one thing: to bed any attractive female they see. This is a problem for me because the majority of my closest friends happen to be attractive females. And growing up in a house of sisters, I acquired an overprotective trait, particularly to any male that might peak at any female close to me. I can’t help it. It’s not that I consider them my property and I’m ready to grumble “get off my lawn!” all Clint Eastwood style, but I just don’t want to see them disrespected or hurt. I perfected a specific “back off” look so well, that I didn’t even need to speak.
I recall walking aroung a store with my sister one evening. In the distance there was some dude checking her out. I suppose one could compare “the look” to what is called “the crazy eyes” in the movie The New Guy which is a movie I love by the way. Need a reminder? Here’s a couple…
Anyway, while I didn’t give an actual “crazy eyes,” I gave a look that had the same effect and said dude effectively looked away from me and my sister and began walking in another direction. Another instance, I intimidated a guy taking my sister out on a date of sorts by going out to the car to meet him. For some reason, I was holding a broomstick and brought it with me as I went out to chat with the dude. I wasn’t going to hurt him, I just wanted to say hi.
My sisters have since been married to wonderful, loving gentlemen and I am not worried about anyone disrespecting them whatsoever. If they were, their husbands will handle it, then my father, then me. Not necessarily in that order, but whatever.
Speaking of fathers, that’s the very reason why I’m the kind of guy that I am. And today, I became an angry man due to such an idiot disrespecting a wonderful female friend of mine. I was taught that a woman should be treated with the utmost respect at all times. You know, opening their car doors, pulling out chairs, giving them compliments, etc. All of that and more my daddy taught me. And not just by sitting me down and going, “Boy, this is how you respect a lady.” It was more of a learning by observation. Not only does this make the woman feel good, but it shows others that she is in good care. In fact, I’ve heard other women complain to their man when they see another man opening a door for a woman. “Look at that! You never do that for me.” And the guy groans, secretly hating the gentleman. Sadly, I feel like guys are doing less and less of this as time goes on. I hope I’m wrong.
I don’t do the opening-her-car-door all the time, especially with my car, Sam, who’s doors continuously lock every time it rains which makes it difficult to keep it unlocked while I’m outside. Forget the car remote, it makes it worse. But when I can do it, I do. And sometimes, the girl I’m with will race me to the car door just so she can open it first. I have weird friends.
Anyway, from what other women tell me, this classic gentleman is a dying breed. And it’s a shame. The stories I hear these days about how their men treat them angers me because it goes against what I’ve been taught about how to treat women. There are some guys that are out there that still believe women are objects. You see it in the music videos or maybe you know someone who does it. And it’s not all guys, of course. But I know a specific group of guys who go around to see how many women they can sleep with before they move on. Like a conquest contest. The catchy title is not meant to be flattering in this instance. It’s quite sickening.
Unbeknown to my friend and I, one of these conquistadors was attracted to my friend. She, at first, thought the guy was cute and even her type. After meeting him after weeks of shyness from both parties, she got a bad vibe and it turned out that she was correct in thinking he was trouble. Instead of a formal meeting, or even a friendly greeting, she gets a very vulgar R-rated text message from this guy. (I’m not going to talk about texting someone for the first time because it doesn’t matter to me. I’m a person that texts a lot more than calls, but that’s not the point I’m making today.) Really? Who does that? For the sake of argument, let’s just say the text said, “Let’s hook up tonight.” It was worse than that, and when I heard it, even I felt insulted. Again, there are some women out there that don’t mind one night stands or hooking up with random strangers they just met… this isn’t about them. This is in defense of those girls who like to get to know somebody first and take things slow. The kind of girls that are looking for a good man.
And I do know quite a few guys who like to cut to the chase, and perhaps that has worked on some women. Good for them. But my beautiful female friends have class. They have morals. Values. And they want to be treated and talked to like the beautiful women they are. And that’s where my a lot of my frustration comes from: I think some guys just don’t know how to talk to a girl they admire. I guess it’s different if you aren’t really looking for a relationship, but still. I’ve also heard stories of some dudes that think they are giving compliments, but come off as rude insults. Many of my female friends are sensitive about their hind parts and guys who “compliment” them in their guy-ly way only makes them feel worse. Again, I repeat, this does not apply to all women, nor am I talking about all guys. I just need to voice some frustration since I’m not the violent type. If I was, I might be in jail by now for knocking out the guy who said some pretty nasty things to my friend.
This really isn’t anything new, its just never been this bad for her. I think these kinds of guys should really keep their thoughts in their heads. But that’s my opinion. It angers me because it upsets her and other girls like her. It might even cast doubt on the next guy she meets that could be a genuinely nice guy, but is turned down because of a bad experience. So now, what’s left of these gentlemen must work even harder to prove that not all men are pigs. Some of them are actually looking for friends, girlfriends, companions, wives and not just a one night stand or bed buddy. They also call these guys keepers. So ladies, I think if you know any like that, you should let them know. Not that you want to keep them, but that they are someone who should be kept.
For the record, I’m aware of Ne-Yo’s album “Return of the Gentleman” or something like that, I haven’t listened to it and have heard good things about it, but I’m glad someone else has the right idea. Leave it to the soulful singers to get it right. Thus ends my rant. Goodnight and Happy Father’s Day to the real men doing it right.
June 4, 2009
adventures in the big city
I spent a vast majority of last Thursday in the Big City, aka Manhattan. I must say that it was indoob a delight. We had a great time. We, being myself, my best friend Kitten and my New Yorker cousin Kim, whom I’ve last seen the last time I got myself lost in the city back in my Purchase days.
Kitten and I took the train from New Haven, which required us to park miles away from the station and walk there. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but we weren’t looking forward to the return hike. Especially since the weather wasn’t looking too promising. Our entire day was covered in clouds, and on occasion we were welcomed with a mist to a light drizzle. If there was any real rain going on, we were fortunate and blessed enough to be sheltered in a dry warm place.
So the train ride was fun. I don’t get to ride the train very much and it was surprisingly cheaper than I expected it to be. $28 round trip! Off-peak times of course. But it was all good. We spent a good hour, hour and a half looking out the window or watching other boarding passengers that looked weird or amusing to us. For example, a group of kids not too much younger than us that had the same NY destination caught our attention. One girl brought an entire salon kit: she first did her make-up, then her nails. I mean really did them. Filed, buffed, and applied special creams and everything. There was also a man who we thought was talking to us or the passenger in front of us, but we were mistaken and also relieved when he got off at the next stop.
We arrived at Grand Central and exited onto 42nd St. I couldn’t tell you the actual way we were going, but it was the wrong way from where I wanted to go. What was my goal this trip? 30 Rockefeller Center, home of one of my favorite TV shows: 30 Rock. We were also super hungry, so we figured we’d get food first.
We jokingly kept a running tally of how many Starbucks compared to Dunkin Donuts we found. I think from the streets we were on, we had Starbucks as the winner 2:1. We are D&D people by the way. We headed towards Times Square in search of a favorite pizza place we ate at a couple years before. But alas! ‘Twas gone! And it looked like it was turning into some makeup store or something. I don’t know, but it didn’t feel right. An awesome pizza place in the heart of Times Square now vanished! Evil villains! So we went to a Sbarro instead. We followed up with a trip to Hershey’s store before continuing on to our destination.
After a few wrong turns (again, it was my fault), we finally found the GE building I was searching for. By the way, my handy-dandy state of the art nifty phone was nigh-battery death. So using my GPS navigator was out of the question and was primarily used to keep in contact with Kim, whom I kept telling our current location to meet us, which didn’t help her because we kept walking. After reaching 30 Rock, we went into the NBC gift store and admired TV shows past and present and their memorabilia. I didn’t buy anything. I really wanted to take the tour, but the next tour wasn’t for another hour and a half. Surely we could come back later. And we planned too. We never did.
Salvador Dali & t. sterling: Artists de la Surreal
We headed off towards the public library where we decided to wait for Kim to catch up. Once she joined the party, we were off to Madame Tussauds. This is where I can stop talking and let the pictures speak for themselves. This was a fun experience and I recommend people visit this place if they never have. (The captions on my Facebook album are better, by the way.)
After the wax museum, we got ice cream at Cold Stones, which was across the street. This is another hot spot for the Kitten and I. Next stop, the Empire State Building.
Like I mentioned before, the weather hadn’t really been on our side. Due to the cloud cover over the city, and much of New England that day, visiting the observation deck of a skyscraper wasn’t in our best interests since there was 0% visibility. However, due to events beyond the Empire’s control, the tour gave us a 1/2 price for another attraction called the NY Skyride which was a helicopter simulation of a tour through NYC. I might want to add here that this ride isn’t for the weak stomach. I was expecting a nice relaxing tour, with some gentle man or woman showing you the best places to visit. No, this is more like a ride found at Disney World where your seat moves along with the giant screen in front of you, rocking back and forth, jolting here and there… Kitten and I admitted to closing our eyes a couple times just to help settle our nerves. Overall, it was mildly fun if you leave out the sick-inducing part. By the way, it’s hosted by an amusing Kevin Bacon (in which he constant refers to previous movies he’s been in while play six degrees of separation) and annoying song called “I am New York” which we told Kim she must learn and sing for us later.
By this time, it was almost time to go. We hit up a couple stores on 34th since Kitten and I made a pact to buy ourselves something. What did we buy? Belts. That’s right, belts. And wouldn’t you know it; the belt I bought was too big? I have to put a hole in it later. An ongoing dispute had been going on about what the name of a certain movie was called that involved a miracle on a numbered street in Manhattan. Miracle on 42nd St? Miracle of 54th St? But we figured it out once we saw Macy’s on 34th.
We walked back to Grand Central, killed some more time in the shops there before it was time to board our train. We said our goodbyes and hopped on a car that looked like it had some good seats. I was mistaken; it was right next to the bathroom. We endured a stench for a good (or bad) 90 minutes. The last 10 minutes I avoided the mysterious blue liquid coming from the bathroom. We aren’t sure why it started leaking from the bathroom, but we didn’t hang around long enough to find out.
After we arrived back in New Haven, we had to trek back to the car that was parked what felt like 34 football fields away. My feet were screaming and continued screaming after I got home when Kitten dropped me off. My phone hadn’t been screaming because it died probably hours before I got home. I charged it enough to order some food and then called it a night.
Despite the gloomy weather, sleep inducing train ride, cab drivers who ignored walk signals and red lights, brazen pigeons, tiredly sore feet, and being poked/stabbed/attacked by unnecessarily opened umbrellas, I had a really fun day as I usually do. I heart NY.
January 14, 2009
a wonder (and) full weekend
Last week was pretty busy and a little on the rough side for not only me, but my family, church and a few friends. I don’t normally get into the person aspects of my life, but I do see the Indoob as somewhat of a documentation. But in retrospect, I must say that some positive things came out of such a long week, and I felt the need to recognize them.
For most of the week, I’ve been doing some much needed work on my church’s website. You can check it out if you want, but as you’ll see, I haven’t updated it in a long time. It hopefully will be fully updated by Thursday, or Friday. And I’m no pro at web design, I just know the basics and that’s all that is. Besides, I’m the only one my dad knows that is capable and I currently work for free.
Thursday, my friend whom I shall codename as “Kitten” (although she probably wouldn’t mind if I used her real name) dropped off a gift of appreciation for just being her friend. Internally, I felt like weeping, but really I just don’t know how to handle unexpected niceness like that. I think it’s a guy thing. Pineapple is my favorite fruit… so…
My first chocolate covered fruit!
And check out this sentimental special note that almost surely brought the tears.
In case you are struggling to make out the words, it says “Thank you for being there for me. You really are the best friend anyone could ever have.” She’s awesome.
Friday night, the Kitten and I met up with my other best friend whom I’ve affectionately dubbed “Dearest” and had dinner at a buffet that Kitten and I actually ate at for lunch. So yes, I went to the same buffet twice in the same day. No judging, thanks. Anyway, we met Dearest’s boyfriend whom I heard so much about, and now I can officially approve. But the highlight for me was to have two awesome, beautiful women who happen to be the best friends I’ve had for some time, share a table with me. Another minor note, we seem to share a love for discussing poop. Buy that book, it’d be awesome to see that on a best seller’s list. You know you’re curious. Anyway, the Dearest mailed me a letter I recieved possibly a couple days late, also telling me how great of a friend I am. Look at the time she put into writing me! This is what I love about my friends… the time they take to show me that care is worth so much more than what money could buy.
Saturday I watched an awesome movie called The Notorious Bettie Page. I knew very little about the real life person, and Jaden at ScreenwritingforHollywood indirectly recommended I look into it. I fell in love with the way the movie was shot, that’s the first thing. Secondly, between the actress playing her and Ms. Page herself? Absolutely beautiful. Before the movie was even over I was at my laptop writing up a draft of a treatment to a brand new story this movie inspired. The interesting this it has nothing to do with Betty, pin-up models, or anything that movie dealt with. It really doesn’t have a title, but it’s about a young man who moves from the city to an old southern country town and converts a run down barn into a makeshift movie theater. I was going to use this set up as a way to showcase several short films that I, or others have written and filmed. But the concept took on a life of it’s own as I started fleshing out who this guy was and why he was there and things like that. Honestly, that’s my favorite part about storytelling.
I finished with great timing… Kitten wanted to go out to dinner as well as test her car in the snow. I live on a hill so she had trouble getting to my house, but she made it just as I wrote the ending sentence. We ventured out to Friendly’s which closed early. Too bad for them.
During service on Sunday, I was happy to see some people hadn’t seen in a while. That’s always nice. It also struck me, while someone was talking, not to hold grudges which apparently I think I may be doing. So later today, I will fix that error. Nobody’s perfect, but if there is something wrong with ourselves that we are aware of, why not get it right?
Afterwards the entire family went out to the Olive Garden–where everyone is family. Good times. Dame (my brother-in-law) told me about an idea that he (and my sister, his wife) had been thinking of for sometime. Basically, he’d like to start a production company with me, mostly to help out around the church but to eventually branch out and help others. I’d take video and graphics duties, while he did mostly audio work like recording and sound production. He’s the church’s keyboardist and wrote a few songs. So we’d be a dangerous combination. So we chatted about that later that night while also discussing some recently favorited songs, or styles of songs. I’m currently getting into Go-Go music, similar to this:
The night got better with a phone call from not just a best friend, but one I consider a brother-from-another-mother. We chatted for a while, and for once, about me and my life. It was nice to get some of my own drama out even if I hate admitting I have it. But even while I was telling him my story, it came out as a comedy because it made him laugh. Imagine that.
Lastly, one of my newest friends who doesn’t have a nickname yet, I chatted with online as we watched the last hour of the Golden Globes. Woot woot for 30 Rock and Tina Fey. I’ve been strongly recommended to see Slumdog Millionaire and have even been given a website to watch it for free. But I have morals. And if the movie business is something I want to get into, then it’s like robbing from myself. It’d be different if it were a legit site, like, Netflix, Hulu or something. But ’twasn’t. Yet I do want to see this movie really bad.
Oh, and now Sam is back and fully functional. There’s a picture of him being towed away, but I’m too tired to do that right now. There’s more than enough links and pictures to make this a fully interactive post, no?
So, my lesson to all is that although things may look bad, they could always be worse. Appreciate everything and reflect on the positive because who wants to sit around being sad and depressed?
December 31, 2008
last picture post of 2008 – presents, popcorn, poop and cheese
As many Indoobians know, I’m known to be pretty lazy when it comes to the taking and posting of pictures specifically for purposes of sharing with the Workforce. Nevertheless, I did a few snaps today (literally minutes ago) and will share them. Some include Christmas presents, others… well… you’ll see.
Here we see the first of three T-shirts I requested. I sometimes still wonder if this shirt really applies to me, but why not? I like it because my year of birth is 1986… so… yeah.
Most people that know me personal and have seen me on the street, might say “Hey, that’s one of the brightest shirts I’ve seen in his collection, other than white of course.” Okay, maybe they wouldn’t say that word for word, but this is a new bright color for me, and according to my sister, this was the only color available. No problem, I wanted this shirt bad enough, and yes, I love this movie!
I didn’t think I was going to get this shirt, but fortunately my sister shares my sense of humor. And I told them all I’d wear it to church that Sunday, and I did! Well, no one noticed since I had a button up over it, but I stuck to my word and people who read it love it. Plus, who else can say they have poop on their shirt and be excited about it?
What an interesting next shirt to debut… but this is from my mother and one of the few long sleeve T-shirts I have. I’ve never been a fan, but I like this one. This is actually the back of the shirt and it’s quoting Joshua 1:9 “Be Strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you.” I want to say the symbols are Chinese, but I can’t be sure. The left one means strength, the right means courage.
This was my last gift given to me, today actually, from my Dearest Insta-friend of… how long has it been? Over 5 years maybe? The “insta-friend” part I’ll explain another day, but the reason for numbering the years is important to what this is a picture of. You see, my friend boasted about these delicious apple muffins she would make back in high school, but I never got to taste them. So after all these years, about 5, she finally made me a batch. She made 6, there are 2 left, and I was nice enough to share with my parents. This is one reason why I decided to take the pictures because there wouldn’t be any left and I know the picture doesn’t do the muffin justice, but trust me, it’s delicious. And I enjoy sliding that box out like it’s some luxury food item. Don’t mind the other things you see in the picture, especially the cookie tower.
Here’s a look at my TV I bought myself last year for Christmas (I think). Anyway, it’s showing season 5 of Seinfeld, which my other dearest friend whom I call Kitten bought me. She also bought me the Scene It: Seinfeld edition, which I have yet to play. I don’t have anyone around here to play with, but now that I think of it, I might be able to play with my siblings, or wait until I can group up with Seinfeld fans that I know. Either way, I can’t wait.
This is from “The Lip Reader” episode. My TV is definitely not big, but it was affordable and suits my needs. Plus it’s thin and widescreen. Very nice.
My gift to myself this year. Due to the movie coming out next year (and rave reviews I hear about it anyway) I decided to up my geek points and buy it. It arrived Christmas Eve and I read it in three days. But you knew that already. As for the movie… I recently heard some news that doesn’t bode well.
I touched on this before regarding my love of cheese, one of my favorite kinds is white cheddar, and Smartfood Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks. I eat so much that I’ve noticed a difference in cheese levels. People might think I’m crazy, but I say try it for yourself. Here in this picture we see the 1.5 oz, 3 oz, and the most popular 5 oz bags. They are all empty. I ate the two smaller bags a couple hours ago for this investigation. Anyway, my theory is that the smaller the bag, the more cheese is coated. Now I gave the sizes, but I usually refer to them by the price. The 5 oz bag WAS $2.49, but I’m thinking due to slumping sales or trying to keep up with the economy, the prices rose, and now as you might make out, it’s $2.89. “BOOO!” I say. But it doesn’t stop me from purchasing whenever I get my cravings. The next size up USED to be $2.99, I don’t know what the oz size is. 7 oz maybe. And then there is the family size. Usually those are the most expensive. Now listen carefully, the bigger the bag, the lesser the cheese. There is one exception. There is a wee 25 cent bag… possibly .5 or .75 oz. It’s really small and stupid. Sorry, I just don’t like it. No cheese and the last couple times they tasted burnt. Anyway, between the 1.5 and 3 oz, it’s hard to tell which has more cheese, but check it out for yourself. I’m content with my 5 oz still, and sometimes sprinkle this on for extra cheesy fun.
So for my last picture, it involved once again hanging out with my Dearest Insta-friend. We were out dining at what you can clearly see as Friendly’s, and my usually ordering involves mozzarella sticks. Well, they have mini-mozzarella stick. I had chicken quesadillas too… but as you see, they didn’t last long enough to make it to print. But my mother never told me not to play with my food, and this show it. Plus it kept my friend in tears as I voiced each mozzarella stick sitting in their saucy hot tub, discussing what happened to all their cheesy friends.
Well if you don’t hear anything else from me by tomorrow, I’ll be back next year.
December 24, 2008
i’d like a new window for Christmas
I was going to post something last night on Christmas Eve Eve, but I guess Christmas Eve isn’t that bad either.
Anyway, I just want to wish all Indoobians, friends, family, strangers and strange-looking people alike a Merry Christmas. For those that don’t celebrate Christmas… I can’t help you. I jest! I jest! I’ll just say the traditional Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings. The list of “other holidays” steadily gets longer every year, so I will refrain from saying any of them except for the one I celebrate. Deal?
And for those who are just begging to know what kept me from posting last night… it’s a long story that I’ll shorten by saying the ice/snow melting from my room is causing the window in my room to leak. Badly. I’ve already soaked up 10 man-sized beach towels–and that’s only from the water I caught. It doesn’t help that it won’t stop raining until tonight… so… yeah…
I’d also like a new CD drive… I think I broke mine playing with iTunes… I can fix other people’s computers, but mine? Totally clueless. I’m going to try again sometime in a few days.
I even managed to clean my room and do ALL my laundry. When I mean all, I mean I was down to the new underwear I hadn’t broken into yet, and possibly #65 pair ‘o socks. Hey, it’s my goal to have 365 pairs of socks some day. So at least that will be it’s own laundry day. Sock Day! Yes!
But all of this has kept me from staying on the good track I was on. I was up to 23 pages on “The Writing Retreat” and had stopped to sleep, but then if it wasn’t one thing, it was another. The CD burner, the window, visiting with family, Christmas… So much to do, so little time.
I jest of course, I didn’t plan to do much of anything on Christmas Day other than familizising (yeah, try pronouncing that one!) and that’s always fun for us. Between the gift giving, the food and the general good times, it’s what I love about the holidays. Then again, I just love my family and cherish anytime I get to spend with them. I guess that goes for my dearest friends too… but I don’t like sounding sentimental here… so with that I say bah humbug.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays y’all!
October 23, 2008
wise words from a wise man
Without getting too much into details about how this conversation came to be, this is a father-to-son chat my dad had with me the other night after returning from a court house out of state.
DAD: Don’t go to jail in New Jersey.
(awkward pause)
ME: Ooo kaaay… Uh… Dad, I’m trying not to go to jail at all.
This statement was almost out of the blue, had I not known where he was earlier. But it was the timing.
(Just to put minds at easy, none of us have been arrested. However, we keep finding ourselves at court for numerous reasons… which is a whole other story I’ll be sure to chat about later.)
