Das year in review...

Welcome, folks, to the year end review from pre war condition.

On the left we have Elsie giving the classic fowler gaze. i am going to start with her, as she has been the biggest thing that EVER happened to me besides meeting Terri.

Elsie,
you have given me so much and have taught me more in three and a half months, than i have learned in as many years. i will protect you, guide you, teach you, nourish you, engage you and make sure you understand as much as possible about life, in the best way that i can. you mean so much to me-yourself and terri that is-and i want to make sure that you know this each and every day. i thought i knew everything about life until i helped create you and you deserve the best that i can give to you. i hope that i can show this to you some day to let you see what i have written, because it comes from my heart and my being.

i will love you endlessly...

wha? that's not the usual cynical sarcasm that we are used to? what gives?

sorry, things have been too good to wallow in the mire.

i have enjoyed a year of constant progress, both internally and externally. i have found new things to distract my self with as well as finding new ways to challenge my self to be better.

1) 'How To Be Free' by joe blow. don't let the author's name fool you. i downloaded this as a free book through the app store for the iphones. it's sort of a self help book, but not in a cheesy way. 'joe' guides you in a very easy way through how to let all of the things that hold you back GO AWAY. he leaves a lot of room for one to ponder but never forces his ideas on you. it's as though you are having a conversation with a stranger on a bus and you have an epiphany. if you can find it, i suggest you read the story. It opened me up and let me let go of a lot of baggage.

2) family. there is no doubt in my mind that i love my family. it has been an ever expanding, contracting and morphing entity that i have enjoyed, hated, endeared and was confused by. the thing is, the love has always been there. because of my family i have the thick skin that i have today. BUT because of my family, i am also losing pieces of my armor and am able to let them see me for who i am. each and everyone i am related to has had some impact on me in one way or another, and i'm grateful to be part of every one of you.

3) gadgets. the laptop, the iphone. the flat screen t.v. i don't mean to follow a meaningful paragraph with THINGS, but it's these things that help as the glue to keep my family together for me. i am entertained, enjoyed and constantly in awe of what technology has given me over the past year. and to think, thirty years ago these things were a thought in someone's head.

I hope that some day i can give back to technology. for now, i will continue blogging in my lonely corner of the interwebs.

4) friends. this is an expansion of family, but i had to give my friends some mention. you are all my family, when i am not with my family. you take me for who i am more than anyone else and i appreciate that. most of the people i am around with now, have been in my radar going on twenty years. we have had epic adventures, lots and lots of good times and many battles too. you don't find a good friend, they find you. that is why we are all gathering tomorrow to ring in the new year and i cannot wait.!

You know, technology aside...things are pretty damn good. i never in a million years would have thought that i'd be in the place that i am in, in this world. you are reading this and i can't express it enough how important family and friends are and have been.

so that's the year in review?

i'll check in with you later.

from january 7th until the 12th, i will be on vacation in new york city whilst terri goes to buying conventions for her job. free hotel room on 7th street! i'll be taking care of elsie all day, terri and i will be going out for dinner. i hope that the used copy of half life 2 for the pc comes in before we leave...

happy new year everyone!

some favorite favorites.

i don't have really much going on today, i'm on elsie duty and don't want to go out. this is due to the fact that when i stop my car, the brakes make the worst grinding noise ever. i have an appointment monday to get it checked out.

this could mean only one thing:

CAR RENTAL!

i love renting cars. they are usually things that are beyond my financial reach or are so odd that they bewilder. my last two were a stark contrast for sure. i want to get a compact or sedan next. i need to get elsie back and forth 18 miles out of my way every day now, so the big truck is definitely out.

the best part? it's only $15 a day. this is due to my mechanic. he has a great deal with the only car rental company in town.

so that is one of my favorite things...

...here are a bunch more:

yukon gold potatoes

making homemade chili

smelling a freshly opened bag of chips

rice and bean burritos

easily killing a boss in a video game

finding a record on the cheap that reminds me of my youth

getting the right ratio of sugar and milk in my coffee

swedish fish

monterey jack cheese

cheesy 80's horror movies

all green lights on king street

terri agrees to let me loll around on sunday because i worked 6 days prior

christmas gifts

getting a fire started on the first try (kerosene usually solves the problem)

the smell of the inside of our shed

iced tea mixed with lemonade

a good stout

head shots in a first person shooter

a good salami on rye with some mustard

tropical fruit cocktail

chai

seeing a storm roll in

finding a satellite in the night sky/seeing a planet

driving home from work at the start of a three day weekend

arriving at a party

caramel and chocolate

no lines at a store

orchard beach-off season

the cabin in goshen

paddling a canoe/boat

writing a song

reddit.com

rage comics

hanging out in the back yard with friends

abandoned buildings/places

cheeseburgers

afternoon naps

i am out of ideas and elsie is hungry...thanks for letting me share.

A few more things (& more things.)

Hello, to the left we have an image from http://derp.memebase.com/. a rather insane site that looks into being caught at the wrong moment and in general, other funny stuff.

i was unfortunate to find the website http://www.reddit.com/, which suggests that it is the 'front page of the internet.' i can spend hours looking at things that anyone and everyone in the www can find. you have to be aware though, that a bit of the content is geared for college students.

and then there is http://cleverbot.com/. um, ask it anything....you will be surprised by the answers.

these have both been great distractions, and i wanted to share them with you. both have adult content...so..be an adult and not a baby about the content.

the other thing i recently watched was found here: https://buy.louisck.net/. he is offering a streaming/downloadable copy of his special for a flat rate of $5. you get to watch it streaming twice and download it twice. FOR $5!

if you haven't heard of Louis C.K., he is one of the funniest comedians out there and has his own show called 'Louie' on the FX network. this guy goes to places with his routine that would make gilbert godfried and bob sagat wince.

i keep looking at the picturrrr above and cracking up. that is the internal face that i make when i make a mistake.

for instance: a co worker said that a record he ordered from japan finally came in.

i asked if it was an import.

the words were sliding out of my mouth and i pictured my brain having hands and trying to grab at the words and then giving up.

it happens to all of us. you try to carefully construct a reply or rebuttal, you have matured to the point that you can immediately pull any file to the front of your mind in a nano second, you wind up the response and...nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

the best part is that when it happens, everyone will usually get a laugh out of it. some mistakes have gotten mileage in my work circle.

so everyone wins. unless it ends up on the derp or the reddits.

O.K., christmas...the holidays...happy holidays?! what? this is the time of the year for good cheer. we want everyone to feel the warmth of the season no matter who you pray or don't pray to.

the 'happy holidays' greeting is an all inclusive greeting. it doesn't take away from 'merry christmas in any way. you don't hate christ if you don't say merry christmas. on december 25th, i switch my happy holidays greeting with merry christmas....because that's the day you say that. i have said 'happy veteran's day' to a vet on verterans day, i called my mom on mother's day to say 'happy mother's day....'so, by default, i say merry christmas on christmas. AND I AM AN ATHIEST!
i love christmas! all the good food and cheer and everyone is getting along for once. it's great!

let's try to put our stupid personal ideals aside and take the good cheer for what it is, as this is the most wonderful time of the year.

christians aren't in any more danger of being persecuted that any other religion in this country...except for muslims?

check out this 'moral compass:'

http://floridafamily.org/

Eh?

mysteries of the cosmos and beyond!

We're all going to die:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mysterious-planet-sized-object-spotted-near-mercury-154443870.html

I read that the explanation of this is that it's a mirror effect of mercury after it was hit by a solar flare...others are more colorful with their ideas.

i have a friend that insists that we never went to the moon. his theory (which i have to listen to, because it's a THEORY) is that were were lagging so far behind the russian space program, that we made up the whole thing to be there first. he also said that we couldn't possibly have the brain power to get onto the moon, let alone space.

my rebuttal was that if we went to any observatory with a really good telescope, we'd be able to see the stuff we left behind on the moon.

again, he was stating a theory. as ludicrous as i thought it was, it's not hard fact and we debated physics a little bit before our brains started to hurt.

my brother and i-wait, my brother- was a huge fan of the early space programs. he would spend hours drawing rocket designs and we even had some model rockets to shoot off. my dad had one when i was really little and i remember sitting in his truck with my mom as he and my brother were shooting one of the small rockets off at a school parking lot in wilbraham oh so many years ago. space exploration is the most amazing thing besides just being alive. i love to hear of new discoveries and to see what we found day after day. any skeptic or theorist misses out on the earth being a great place to sit and fly through the universe.

check out this site to get the newest pics and info of space:

http://apod.nasa.gov

Or check out this recent article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/new-habitable-planet-the-view-from-kepler-22b/2011/12/06/gIQA3ah9ZO_blog.html

maybe if we can reach these places and they aren't inhabited, we'd be able to do it right....maybe that's why we came here in the first place?

Just a theory.....

Gizmo saves man's life...or lets him find it again.

From my last bloggers, you found out that I got an iPhones. I am weary of the new technologies, but this thing has literally changed my life.

How, may you ask?

Here's how:

1) the ability to utilize an assortment of functions to gain knowledge and understanding.

I now have the ability to almost instantly discover, correct, edit and relearn anything at the touch of a finger.

Through applications, I have gazed at the stars, learning conversational Italian, and am learning how to cope with depression. All of this is for free-or the price I pay for this. I have uploaded books by Poe, Vonnegut, and others. I have discovered and spurned the reddits, and succumbed to the memes. I can see Elsie growing even when I am at work and can share her growth with those I love. I can' T say that I wasn't t sceptical of this iPhones, I can say that all of the flashiness and hype was a bit of a turn off, but I have to say that this is one of the better things I' be ever agreed to participate in. It really changed my life in msny ways. I am typing this with said phone. I could be in a park, in a hot air balloon, or on a bear rug in front of a fire, but I am here and wanted to contribute this to my blog, my Corner of the interweaves.

Thank you mr iPhones, rest easy.