Life is complicated

Do you ever feel sorry for someone whom you probably should not? I am a bit of a soft heart, so it is kind of easy for me to feel sorry for people. However, I find that not everyone is this way.
For example, I had felt sorry for Paris Hilton. I realize that in many respects the abuse that she has taken and the embarrassment she has endured are largely due to her own actions. However I still feel sorry for all the trouble and ridicule that has been heaped upon her.
I have argued this with family and co-workers alike. I admit, I've got a tough sell here. Many times people in Paris' position (hehe) deserve what they get, it is said. It is a work of their own doing, and they have to reap what they sow.
Whereas, I can not disagree with this on its face, I do still feel sorry for people who are constantly ridiculed, no matter the cause.

Another person to whom I have begun to feel sorry for as of late is Britney Spears. Much like Paris, she's brought a lot of this on herself, but you got to believe that she would do much better if she had a parent (or two) who were/had looking/looked out for her, or if she had a good friend, husband, pastor, girlfriend, doorman, blogger, whatever that she could trust to give her good advise. Advise like "Don't marry that loser!" or "Put some clothes on". Simple, plain advise.

She is a great example of the phrase 'life comes at you fast', and in that vein of thought, I would like to introduce you to a blog I came across called Indexed, that, if you like XKCD, you will like Indexed as well.
In particular, it had a blog that referenced Britney and her troubles of late.

Great Wolf Lodge

Whew...what a few days.
We took our lives into our hands yesterday and ventured into "Enemy Territory", also known as Ohio.
I know, I know...you're saying to yourself "NOOOO! Why would you risk life, limb and points on your driving record to go into Ohio?"

In general I would agree. Ohio is not a destination...it is a nuisance...it's a thing to be endured, driven thru and avoided if at all possible. However, it is also the home of The Great Wolf Lodge.

My wife, somehow, convinced me that I'd LOVE to spend a few days at a waterpark...where there is water...in a park. I've been to waterparks before, but have never been all that impressed. Now, I'd have to drive for 2 hours to get to one, and, did I mention it was in Ohio?
Well, she worked her feminine wiles on me (again) and the result was we ended up in Sandusky yesterday afternoon.

You know the bugger of it? It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed it, Kim enjoyed it, and yes I enjoyed it. This place is a waterpark with an emphasis on both Water and Park.
Kim snapped a picture of the kids, just before they were about to get pummeled with 1000 gallons of water.

Number one reason to NOT speak publicly!

I've been speaking publicly in church for over 10 years. In all that time, this has been one of my biggest fears....I kinda feel for this guy, but it IS funny!

Invasion of a bunch of girls

Girls girls, everywhere are girls!
Seriously.
Everywhere.

This has happened once before, and it looks like history is repeating itself!

One of my daughters best friends, two of my four five six nieces and the three daughters of one of our families best friends...plus my daughter.

My wife tells me that it was my idea to invite them all over but I seem to remember saying something about taking the boys to a hotel too....she doesn't remember that part.

So there are six girls under the age of 12 in my house.

Yeah, I know...I'm a Saint.

Anyway, one of the coolest things that happens over here when we got all this sugar, spice and everything nice is a little thing called Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). DDR is cool and if you've never tried it, you should.
Whereas it's not as sick as Guitar Hero, it's definately worth a roll.

I said all that to say this...my little niece, Claire, talked me into playing a game with her...and my darling wife snapped this photo....heheheh.

What do you do?

I've read that "Writers write."
I don't know if I want to be a 'writer' but I do know that would like to be a better writer than I am now. That's a big part of the reason why I started this blog. It's a place where I can get some thoughts out of my brain as well as try to see if I have a 'voice', what that 'voice' sounds like and if I have any talent at this.

Part of the reason why I have this desire is because I read. I read things that, after I read them I think: 'Wow, that's cool. I wanna be able to do that.'

I've point to Wil Wheaton a bunch as part of my inspiration for this. One of his inspirations, John Scalzi wrote something that I really enjoyed reading and figured I'd point you to it. It's called The Exisitential Plight of Chester Chipmate

Also, for those of you who would also like to write a bit better, either for enjoyment or for other reasons, here's something else he's written.
1. Writing Tips for Non-Writers
2. Advice on writing
3. How much you should write each day

Half As Much As Tomorrow

On my way home from work yesterday, I heard a comedy skit by Bill Engvall yesterday on the way home from work called Now That's Awesome.
In it, Bill talks about how, because of the 90's, we overuse the word Awesome.

I'd have to agree.

There are few things that I've seen that truly earn that term.
Yosemite National Park....Awesome
The birth of my children....Awesome
Seeing God work in the lives of family and friends....Awesome.
Those have all inspired awe and wonder in me like few other things.

What has been the most awesomest part of my life for the longest is my wife.
She's awesome. In every way.
She's been a major part of my life since is was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD. I'm 38 now...you do the math.
In that time, we've broke up a few times, made up even more times, been mad at each other and been madly in love at others. Through the entire time, she's been my center, my compass, at times my conscience, and at other times the reason I've been in trouble.
Everything I see in her I admire/love/lust after/harken to/etc. more today than I did on the day we got hitched. Hopefully when we're old and she's grey (I'm already there) I'll be able to say the same thing.

I'm not gonna get all sappy and such here in my blog (you're welcome), but I do want to convey here the truth of Spiral Starecase song....I can honestly say I love my wife more today than I have ever loved her before, and fully intend on loving her more in the future than I do today.

That's Awesome.

Back in the day...

So, in my last post, I may have seemed a bit, um, hmmmm, cheesed. I wasn't really; I was just kinda fed up with all the cold weather crankiness.

While I was in the mood to reminisce, I happened to be surfing around the usual haunts and for whatever reason, a memory popped in the old cranium.
So, I jumped into the WABAC (for those of you under 30, that's pronounced way-back) machine, also now known as You Tube and did a search.

When I was young, I had a huge affinity for cheesy Japanese TV.
Godzilla, Gamera, Jet Jaguar....I could watch them all day.

I remember going to my local dollar show when I was a kid to watch Godzilla vs. The Mechanical Monster back to back to back. It was awesome!

As you can imagine from this, I was a huge babe magnet. But on the rare Saturday Nights that the hotties weren't banging down my door to go out with me, I could even be found watching KUNG FU THEATER!

One of my favorites of the entire genre was Ultraman. (In a superjet he comes from a billion miles away....Loved it loved it loved it).
I would come home from school, and jump on Channel 20 to get my fix. First there would be Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (another Japanese TV show), Ultraman, Get Smart, Batman and if dinner was late, The Green Hornet. But when I was outside with my buddies, the super hero I wanted to be was Ultraman.

So, back to my story, I hit You Tube up for some Ultraman and FOUND IT!!! I watched the very first episode, from 1966. It was exactly as I remembered. The episode was broken up into three parts, but it was awesome.

I think one of the things I like so much about those kinds of shows is how serious the actors tried to be, but how utterly silly they actually were. The dialog was terrible, the special effects were hideous, the monsters were ridiculous and the premise was silly. Perfection.

I don't like to live in the past. There's no future in it. But I do like to visit now and then, and for people that grew up like and when I did, You Tube is as cool as 8mm Super, Slide Shows, Photographs and the like to help remember.

I also don't really like to think of the hours that I wasted sitting in front of the TV. There were lots of them. I could have been solving world hunger, inventing the cure for cancer or at the very least doing my homework.

However, those hours paid off in the many hours I spent with my buddies pretending to be an outer space man, a caped crusader, a masked hero with a cool side kick (and no matter what you say, having Bruce Lee as a sidekick is as cool as it could get), and all those other really neat and really cheesy superheroes of my youth.

I don't really know what that buys me now-a-days, but for a half hour the other day, when I was watching the Science Patrol fly in the planes and shoot at the bad monster, well, it was cool and I had a grin on my face the whole time.

Now, I'm gonna have to find some time to check out Johnny Sokko….NOW ROBOT!

Waxing Nostalgic Debunked

If you live most anywhere in the Northern or Eastern parts of the good ole' US of A, you may have noticed that it's been a bit cold of late.
Just a bit.
The first two days of this week were cold enough to have many, not all, schools closed in Southeastern Michigan.
The Windshield* factor hit minus 20 in some cases and school administrators felt these dangerously low temperatures would be a danger to those kids who walk to school or had to wait outside in the cold/dark mornings for the bus.

This produced quite a ruckus around here. I've heard more 'When I was a kid' comments over the last few days then I can stand. It seems that people are up in arms over the schools being closed because they don't EVER REMEMBER having days off of school because of the temperature.

There are two things about this that is irritating.
1. Just because they can't remember it, doesn't mean that it didn't happen. I can vividly remember once when school was cancelled the night prior because of the weather forecast. When the morning came, the promised snow was no where to be found but we still had the day off.
Unless you lived in parts of the state/country where deep cold and heavy snow are a constant, you got days off when the weather was bad. Period. Just because you don't remember it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

2. Lets suppose for a second that it's true and people didn't have those days off of school. That 'back in the day' parents did send their kids to school when it was a trillion below zero. Is that supposed to impress me? All that means is that parents took unnecessary risk with their children's lives for no real reason. Missing a day or two of school for the kids because of the weather will have ZERO effect on their education in the long term, but the POTENTIAL damage for children who have to wait out in the cold weather 20 minutes for a bus that may or may not come can be terrible.
I realize that it's only potential damage, but still, is it worth it? Not to me.

Back in those same days, parents didn't cover up electrical sockets, didn't lock-up poisonous kitchen chemicals and didn't have gates up over stairways. For the most part, we all survived. Does that mean taking the precautions that we do now are silly? Of course not. Oh, and for those who didn't survive...only a little precaution; a plastic 5 cent cover, a simple drawer lock, a wooden or plastic gate, would have made a huge impact on their lives.

People often wax nostalgic for the halcyon days of their youth, when in actuality things were rough then too, they just choose to forget. You often hear about the longing for the 'Cleaver' experience or the 'Ozzie and Harriet' life.
Actually, those days had their own sets of trouble that I wouldn't want now. So many stay at home moms had such serious depression and were so over-medicated that the Rolling Stones wrote a song about Mothers Little Helper.
Rape, which happened way too often, was rarely reported because of the impact on the family.
Out of wedlock pregnancies resulted in the young mothers being ostracized and their children being labeled bastards!
Oh let's go back!

Here's your sign...

You just gotta wonder about some people.
I was reading about the County Treasurer from Alcona County who got involved in an email scam. The story says:

Thomas Katona, 56, was arraigned in Harrisville today after an investigation that began in December when county officials learned he had directed eight unauthorized wire transfers totaling $186,500 to beneficiaries linked to the Nigerian Advance scheme, Cox said in a statement. Investigators also found that Katona had wired $72,500 of his own money to the same accounts.

So, not only did the guy steal a big portion of the counties funds, but he emptied his bank account also.
What makes this really hit home for me is that I've got a ton of family that lives in Alcona County. Those people up there can't really afford to have this kind of stuff happen.
You just have to wonder how this guy got his job don't you? I'm sure this couldn't have been his first brush with stupidity. I guess this just goes to show you that stupid people should come with their own sign.

If you've ever thought about responding to one of those email scams, hopefully the PSA below will disuade you:

Happy Birthday

My wife and I got to meet a new member of our extended (re: work) family yesterday. Her name is Mia and she is: a doll; cutie; sweetheart; (unpack your own adjective here, just as long as it's sweet!).

Her folks are some of the nicest people you're gonna meet.
We've gotten to know them over the last few years and really enjoy their company.

We got her some cute little boots and an pink outfit that she won't be able to wear until sometime next year :)

If we were more clever (which wouldn't be hard), we would have gotten them something from one of the white trash stores (you know, Old Navy, The Gap, etc) cause little Mia's mommy is a bit picky on the stores she goes into (and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to tease her about it).

I'm always reminded of the line from the Ded Bob Show where Ded Bob says he's gonna be all over this lady like, and I quote, 'Old Navy on White Trash'.
That may be, just may be, the funniest thing ever said by a puppet.
What makes it particularly funny is that we like Old Navy close and don't really dispute our White Trashi-ness!

We could have gone over the top and bought her something from White Trash Mecca, Wal-Mart, but that would have just been mean, and everyone knows I'm not just mean.

Anyways, I digress and say, congrats to the (once again) new mommy and daddy!
All looks to be fine as wine and dandy as candy.


*couldn't find a good poem with Mia in it, so I found the next best thing....enjoy

Found it on eBay

Well, I've done it. After years and years of procrastination I've gone and done it.

I've bought AND sold on eBay.

I can't really say why I've never really bought much on eBay. I've shopped there many many times, but always preferred Brick and Mortor stores to the eShopping of eBay. That's all changed.

We recently upgraded our cell phone service and for doing that, we received two new Razr cell phones from Motorola. That was cool...free is almost always good. It was cool until I went to buy car chargers and belt clips for both of them. At the verizon store, they were (you may need to sit for this) $40.00 A PIECE for a charger clip combo. $80 bucks for some plastic and wire.

Well, that's silly. So, off to eBay I went. Bought THE SAME THING on eBay (new, yes, brand spanking new) for $13.00 for both. Including shipping and handling. That is a savings of, what, $67.00. That's not chump change there. That's real cheese.

So, seeing as I was now the eBay king, because I saved $67.00, I decided to sell some speakers that I've had for a few years. So, I dialed up eBay, signed up as a seller, and auctioned off two speakers. Some dude from Georgia bought them yesterday for $200.00 plus $20.00 Shipping and Handling. Nice. A good deal for both of us.

Not sure if I'll do a bunch more of either buying or selling on eBay, but it's proven to be a fun little experience. I'm considering letting the kids give this a try. Find a toy or something that they don't use/play with/like anymore and see if they can sell it. I think it'll be an educational thing for them to do...the whole free market thing. We'll see.

In any case, if you've been hesitent to give eBay a try or any kind of electronic shopping, start with something small, where there is an obvious savings for you and see if you enjoy the experience. Saving gobs of money should be fun for all.

The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth

There's the famous saying, "Be nice to geeks, cause someday you're going to work for one!"
That's very very true. Think of the difference between old school companies and new, high tech companies.
Whereas in many cases they both started in a Garage (Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, The Guys from HP, Apple) the type of people who started those machines are very different.
However, they both have one thing, one major thing, in common. CREATIVITY.

This SOC was generated based on this here shirt at Think Geek dot com

This is clever. It's inside baseball. It's all the things that the Fellowship of the Geek like (unless you're part of the HATE BLOG subculture, in which, you're not reading this anyway and I really don't care).

But most of all, it's creative.

IMHO creativity is looking at some 'thing', be it technology, process, nature, people, whatever, and you put a twist to it that no one has seen or thought of. That, by itself, isn't enough to make something 'creative'. To make it creative, its got to be 'gotten'. (get it?)
People, even if it's a small group of nerds, will look at it and go 'Dude!! Why didn't I think about that??"
Nowadays, Geeks do that better than anyone.

I went to the doctor and the doctor said....

So, today was my follow-up appointment for the doctors.
I went last month for the first time in forever. I didn't like my old doctor. Didn't like him at all. I'd wait for an hour in the waiting area, then another half hour or so in the little room (it was generally such a long wait that they actually put little TV's in there to keep you occupied). When he finally would grace me with his presence, it was for 2 minutes or less, only to be given a prescription for something or another and told to lose weight.
Note to Doctors everywhere: People who need to lose weight, generally know it.

As a result of this frustration, I stopped going. Stupid? Yes. Surprising? No.

Lots of people have this same frustration, I'm sure. You go to a doctors for a while because that's the one you've always gone too. Once it's realized that he/she's a creep/bad/stupid/lazy/scammer/(unpack your own adjective) you stop going and are afraid to find a new one.
Or, maybe it's just me.

One way or another, my wife found a doctor she really liked and convinced me to give her a try. She was sure I would like her. I did and I do.

As a result of this, I went to the doctors last month. After taking my Blood Pressure, the nurse asked me why I was still alive.
"A little high?" I suggested.
"Um, yeah. Like King Kong was a little gorilla."
She didn't have to be snarky!

So, after spending quite a while with the doc, and getting a prescription for some BP meds, off I went, vowing to lose weight and bring my blood pressure under control (and liking my doctor for the first time since....ever).

Fast forward to this morning. My BP is now on the low side of normal and my weight is dropping. I still got all the other out of shape and over weight things to worry about (cholesterol and tri-glycerides), but those will come under submission with the diet and exercise.

Maybe I will make that 40th birthday party.

Glittering Jewels of Colossal Ignorance part 2

Ok, so, I think if you spend much time at all watching/listening/reading the news you find some people doing some things that make you scratch your head and go "hmmmmmm".
The latest among a long line of people who should win the Darwin Award is this lady from California who died from drinking too much water.
However, that doesn't really make her a Glittering Jewel of Colossal Ignorance. It just makes her stupid.
No, the GJCI is her family. They are filing a WRONGFUL DEATH lawsuit against the radio station for KILLING THEIR DAUGHTER. The local police are looking into filing charges against the radio station (DJ's?)
Now, I'm not sure about whether or not a crime was committed but to sue someone over this seems utterly ridiculous.

Think about this. You sign up for a contest to win a video game (No Wee for a Wii or something like that). You decide to drink water and not go to the bathroom for a week in order to win this. Now, I realize that no one really thinks that drinking water will kill you, but wouldn't you think that, after you start feeling bad, you do a little research, realize that you can die from this and give it up????
I would. I would also think, if I'm one of her parents "Gee, my daughter was a moron for doing this!" Not "Gee, my daughter was duped and someone is gonna pay!".

I also understand that she had three children that need to be taken care of and if they win the lawsuit those kids will be helped. But, shouldn't the mom have thought about those three kids before she did something that COULD KILL HER?
I'm sure the game she wanted to win was for those kids, but that's hardly justification.

At some point, people are going to have to start to take responsibility for their actions and ought not be able to push that responsibility off on anyone else.
She signed up for the contest.
She got sick
She either didn't do research or did do research and ignored it
She died.
No one forced her. From what I read, no one lied to her.
Does her family deserve any money because she was an idiot?

Or, am I just being mean?

Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? Here's why!

For all of you who have a hard time being efficient and can relate to the following, found on a T-Shirt:

Top Ten Reasons to Procrastinate:
1.

There is now a scientific explanation* for your malady.
In effect:

"Steel's formula, called the Temporal Motivation Theory, calculates procrastination like Albert Einstein's equation for energy, E=MC2. It factors the person's expectancy for succeeding at a given task (E) or self-confidence; the value of completing the task (V); its immediacy or availability (Gamma); and the person's sensitivity to delay (D) to come up with the desirability of the task (Utility)."

I love the highlighted quote from the article, where the professor who came up with this explanation talks about the 'motivationaly toxic environment' that people live in an likens it to dieting:

Imagine trying to diet with a magic floating spoon of ice cream following you around.
--Piers Steel, professor
University of Calgary

Of course, my spoon would be carrying Rocky Road ice cream with chocolate syrup drizzled on top and maybe a touch of whip cream....oh the humanity!

I think the key quote in the story is where Steel says

"The heart of procrastination is an adaptive natural tendency to value today much more than tomorrow,"

That's so true when I'm putting things off that I should, but don't want to, do. Right now is so very important, but by doing and living that way, I am, in effect, devaluing later! Wow, what a cool way to look at it.

*note the date for this publishing...so many great things are born that day!

A time to reflect..

Ok, so, two weeks into the New Year, how are you doing?
I hope all is well and you are becoming the person you ought to be. I'm feeling a bit introspective today and started thinking about how my New Year's resolutions are doing.

I'm pretty happy with the results so far.
I feel closer to my family than ever. Not quite sure how to explain it, but something seems to have clicked with me and the boys. They've always been (and really continue to be) closer to my wife then to me, but lately they've seem to have find a bigger place in their heart for me. Gotta love that.
Marion and I have always clicked in that fashion and still she continues to be daddy's little girl.
As for my wife, I still get amazed at how much I care about this woman. We've been married for 15 years, and I love her way more today than I did then. We've gotten to be even better friends, even though she's been my best friend for as long as I can remember.
So, resolution 1: on track

I've lost 11 pounds so far this year. I'm on a bit of a plateau right now, but even though the weight isn't going away, I'm looking a bit thinner in the mirror, so that's cool
Resolution 2: on track

I feel like my mental disposition has changed a bit, but not nearly enough. I still get sullen and have a difficult time pulling out of it, but I recognize both when it's happening and why it's happening and am working at getting out of the funk when it does happen and prevent it from happening as much. I think more than a little of this is because we've not been in church as much as we need to have been. That's changing now that we've found a new church to call home.
Resolution 3: On track (but behind schedule)

We've even gotten a bit of control on spending. Still got a lllloooonnnngggg way to go but you gotta start somewhere. Besides, this was the long shot resolution.
Resolution 4: still to early to tell.

How are you doing? Many people don't make resolutions, either because they always fail or because the feel that this is a never ending effort that shouldn't begin arbitrarily at the beginning of each year, but still.
How are you doing?
Do you like who you are?
Who you are becoming?

I hope you find yourself where you need to be. I'm of the mind that, no matter what this year has in store; good or bad; sickness or health; feast or famine that I'm going to become the person who I ought to be. The Christian, husband, father, son, brother, in-law, employee and person that I ought to be.

It's good to be me.

What a weekend. VV nice.
I'd like to thank the family and friends who came over to the house yesterday to help celebrate my birthday. You all rock so hard the house shakes!
We had a brazillion people over; half of them seemed to be girls!
I got to see the cutest thing ever. We had 6 (count 'em 6) girls under thirteen stay the night last night (in age they were 6, 6, 8, 10, 10, 12) plus my two boys (6, 12) playing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)...all at once. It was like having my own Chorus line in my living room. That was the definition of cute (I know, I looked it up and there was a picture of the 8 of them playing DDR).
All of my wife's immediate family came over and it was sooooo nice to see them all. Billie and John brought little Eden's (known as 7 of 10) Pony Walker over and she was zooming all over the living room.
Missy and Brian stopped brought their three over with them(all girls, one of which stayed the night!)
And Nick and Sabrina came with Mal (Bad, in the latin) who may be about the most handsome little boy ever.
The Wallace's and their Daughter, Son-in-law and their daughter (who is the second entry in the dictionary under cute) stopped by as well. What a nice surprise and I was sooo happy to see them all.

Also, Sunday was the first day at our new church. Service was excellent and the people there are really great. The Pastor has been a good friend of mine and my families since we were teens. Pray that we are a good fit there.

My buzz got a little harshed late Sunday night when my mom called and told me that my niece and the family she has moved in with are planning on suing my folks for my nieces' social security money. Never mind that my folks DON'T RECEIVE ANY MONEY FOR HER!
When she moved in with that family, I told my pastor that I didn't really harbor any ill will towards them, I just felt sorry for them for what they had brought into their home. Well, that is no longer the case. I'm to the point where I'm wishing gobs and gobs of ill will on them. Not a place I like to be in.

My guess is that's it's either a bluff or a lie, but that's really beside the point. I can't believe that a lawyer, being the wise, upstanding people they are, would take their case.


Not much to do in either case....what comes around goes around and these things have a way of getting worked out.

Oh, and BTW, Happy MLK Day folks. Keep the dream alive!

This is the day that the Lord has made....

Famous People Born on January 11:
Actress Amada Peet born 1972
Singer Mary J. Blige born 1971
Husband, Father and all around good guy Donnie Castaldini
Singer Naomi Judd born 1946
The L'Esperance quintuplets

Significant events on January 11:
1787 - Uranus' moons Titania and Oberon discovered by William Herschel. (editors note: "Does anyone else find if funny that Uranus and moons are mentioned in the same sentence?")
1805 - The Michigan Territory was created.
1843 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and writer of the National Anthem died. (editors note: "Oh say ain't that sad?")
1861 - Alabama seceded from the Union. (editors note: "Why did we let them back in?")
1902 - "Popular Mechanics" magazine debuts
1934 - Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. (editors note: "You go girl!")
1964 - The first government report regarding the dangers of cigarette smoking was issued by the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry.
1964 - Billboard magazine publishes its first country and western album chart. At Number One: Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire album.
1969 - Shirley Castaldini gives birth to her third (and final) child.
1973 - Baseball's American League adopted the "designated hitter" rule which allowed another player to bat for the pitcher.
1974 - The world's first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
1978 - Ibn-e-Insha, Pakistani humorist and Urdu poet died (editors note: "Gotta love that Pakistani humor!")
1980 - Rupert Holmes was at the top of the pop music charts, with "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)".
1995 - The WB Television Network begins operations. (editors note: "Should they apologize?"
2003 - Outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan cleared the state's death row by commuting the sentences of 167 inmates. (editors note: "MORON")
2007 - Bill Ford Jr. gives his entire share of Ford Stock to (then) little known employee Donnie Castaldini, who uses his new found fame and fortune to turn the company around financilly, making it the most successful business (of any type) in history.
And of course, every year on this date, the planets align, stars shine brighter and cats and dogs live in peace.

That time of year (revised)

It's approaching that wonderful time of year again. For 37 years now, on January 11th, planets align, stars shine brighter and cats and dogs live in peace. For one day. My birthday. Yippee.

My wife has asked me to post my birthday list.
"Post my birthday list?" I thought. "hmmm...isn't that a bit pretentious?"
Probably, but I'm gonna do it anyway but I'm going to also post the 'why' of the list item.
Without further ado, the birthday wish list of a semi-nerdy-geeky-but-ultimately-way-cool-guy.

1. The Communist Party T-Shirt. This is the funniest t-shirt I believe I have ever seen. I like funny things, and if the thing is funny AND clever, OMG it doesn't get any better than that! Threadless.com has tons of cool t-shirts...thumb thru the site and I bet you'll find something you like.

2. New addition to the "Galaxies Greatest Vehicles" collection. At work I have several models that I call the Galaxies Greatest Vehicles. These are: The 65 Ford Mustang, The P-51D Mustang WWII Fighter plane, a small scale model of the Millenium Falcon, X-Wing Fighter and a Ford GT40. I'd like this collection to grow, so whatever you think falls into this category would be shiny. Some suggestions: Millenium Falcon model, The Mach 5 from Speed Racer, another Mustang wouldn't hurt and Serenity.

3. Books. I read books in bunchs....I'll go through several books in a row then not read anything for a year. Well, that year is about up. The last book I read (I think) is book 4 in the Pendragon series. A good book. However, I'm looking for something different. I've been itching to re-read and finish the series of books from the Mythadventures series by Robert Aspirin. I started reading these in college and was upset when Asprin stopped writing them. After a few years though, he started again and I never picked it up again. These are books that my oldest son will ADORE so if you can find a set of them, that would be awesome! Another couple of books I'd like to read are by Wil Wheaton. He's got two, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek. I started reading his blog a few months ago and found that I really enjoy his style of writing. For those of you who don't know who Wil is, he played Ensign Wesley Crusher on the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show.

4. Guitar Stuff. I'm working at playing my guitar more. I have a few guitar tab books (Bob Seger, Mtv's Top 100 songs, and I think one called 100 Pop Songs). I like to play songs I know (I know, weak!). I like a pretty wide range of music, from John Denver and Johnny Cash to Jimmy Buffet and Harry Chapin. I also needs some new guitar strings for my Acoustic. I love the guitar. I thank and credit my Brother in Law, John, with getting me re-interested in the guitar a few years back.

5. Finally, stuff for the house. I'm really, really (no seriously REALLY) hating to admit this, but I'm starting to get taken with IKEA stuff. We've got a couple of IKEA shelves, and I'd like to add a few more of the same to our collection. Whereas the shopping experience at IKEA is akin to stabbing myself in the eye (but only, like, twice), the range of stuff you can get and the inventive sundries are pretty sweet.

6. This falls under the category of: Please God?!?@?---R2D2

Did somebody get the license plate of that bus?

Wow. Backwards. Wow. Anyway you look at it: WOW!
Yesterday was our last service at the church we've called home for more than 15 years.
When we told our Pastor that we were leaving (reasons and all) we left it for him to decide what the best way for us to go would be. Whatever would make it better for the church. Since we have been pretty active members in our church, we weren't sure if we should just leave without saying goodbye or what. It was his choice.
After some deliberation, he mentioned that he and the Asst. Pastor thought it best if we came back for one more service to say goodbye. That service was yesterday.

I'm not sure what I thought would happen. Really didn't have much of a frame of reference. I figured that near the end of the service he would say something or another and we would come up front and have the church pray for us and say our goodbyes. Simple.
One snag, however. The sermon.

The Asst. Pastor preached yesterday. We've known him for the last few years, since he came to our church to help when our Pastor was diagnosed with cancer and would have to go through radiation treatments and all. It was a good thing he and his wife did coming to our church. His wife and I had worked together for the last year or so in the Kid's Church Sunday School program.

I don't recall all the scripture verses that he used in his sermon....they were in the book of Joel. However, to our ears, the sermon sounded something like: Get ready church, it's gonna be a great year because TODAY is the day the God is getting rid of all the troubles and problems that have PLAGUED THE CHURCH FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS!!!
That's it in a nutshell. He spent twenty minutes telling the church that today was the last day of trouble. God was purging, pruning, burning, getting rid of the junk. The Northern Army was defeated and leaving. Yippee!

Then, when he was done, and people prayed for a few moments, the Pastor got up and told the church we were leaving. (Coincidence? I think not.)
Of course by this time, Kim had left, humiliated and upset.
Like I said, I wasn't sure what to expect, but to be asked to come to church on that day to say farewell, and then to have to listen to a sermon like that was not really on the top ten lists of things that I would have expected to happen.

What makes it even harder is that we had planned (are planning?) to go to the Ypsi church starting next week. However, the Pastor of that church is now a board member of the church we've just left. If we are seen as such a problem, will they want us? Will they see us in the same light? Are we a problem? Who knows.
Another problem is that we had planned on still calling that church our home. We've got so many good friends there, so many good memories. Would we be welcome back there? Can that still be home if we have been "pruned"?

When it all comes down to where the rubber meets the road, it feels like we were made an example yesterday, and I kinda guess we thought we didn't deserve that.

Who knows, maybe it's true. Maybe we have been a problem in the church all these years. All I know is, yesterday hurt. It hurt me and it hurt my wife. It hurt a lot and will probably hurt for a while.

Goodbye Westland...goodbye.

Crud.