I've Been Thinking

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2010-04-14T22:00:00.001-04:00

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Monty's New Collar

2009-11-23T09:23:00.002-05:00

Best collar ever...and Monty has one. What else is there to say really?

Super Megafest 2009: New England's Largest Multimedia Fanfest

2009-11-22T09:22:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I finally had the opportunity to attend Boston Super Megafest. I've been trying to go for the past couple of years, but something always seems to come up and I haven't gone. This year's celebrity guests weren't all that great; unlike previous years when they had Adam West, Burt Ward, William Katt (The Greatest American Hero), Jeremy Bulloch (original Boba Fett), and Lou Ferrigno (TVs Hulk)...this year, the big guests were Ray Park (which was pretty good), Spike from Buffy, and Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek). David Prowse (the man in the original trilogy Vader suit) was supposed to be there , but he cancelled at the last minute. So, there were no celebrities I had to meet, but it was fun to see the crowds react to them. But first, I had to wait in the ticket line.

Ray Park and the guy from Buffy had huge lines. Data from Star Trek had 4 people in his line...probably because he was an ass to his fans. I overheard him in a hallway conversation tell some young guy carrying a Data action figure that it would take 12 seconds to take a photo with him and that was 11 more than he had. Ouch. Data. You played an android with no emotion on TV...apparently it wasn't a far stretch. I would have snapped my Data figure's head off and handed him the body and told him to suck it. But that's just me. I almost said something, but I didn't want to be on the news as the guy that got kicked out of Super Megafest for berating Data. Here's Data looking angry...maybe someone asked him a question.

Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson were there from the original Bionic Woman show...in hindsight, that would have made a good photo op. And sure it would have been amusing to take a picture with all the Playboy models, but whatever. Strangely none of them, or the two Baywatch girls that were there (one of which was signing her Playboy pics...awkward), are airbrushed in real life.

So instead, I wandered and looked at merchandise (which may or may not have included Batman the original TV series on DVD (how do they get away with selling that at a public venue))? There were action figures and autographed photos as well...I questioned the validity of the autographs until I was overheard by the vendor and came over to politely explain how he got his photos autographed.

Out of everyone, I chose to get my picture taken with the celebrity in attendance that I cared the most about which was the Batmobile from the 1960s Batman series, which was one of the original cars used on the set (the door was broken so I had to be careful climbing into the driver's seat). I walked away with that...an autographed photo of William Katt from the previous year (thanks Ethan), and a print from a new artist, Tracy Lee Quinn. It was a good show...can't wait to go back next year. Maybe I'll get lucky and the guests will be better. I'll be sure to let you know.

Nobody Should Pay Full Price

2009-11-11T03:54:00.012-05:00

There are so many discounts, deals, coupons, and promotional codes on the Internet today, it leaves me feeling bad for those people that are still paying full price for anything. Yesterday, myself and a handful of friends purchased a new release, bluray version, of the movie "UP" with a $10 off manufacturer's coupon from Disney that really anyone could have used if they had known about it. A movie priced $19.99 in the store for only $9.99 plus tax, making this purchase cheaper than the standard definition version of the movie and it INCLUDED the standard def version. If you wanted the movie Monsters Inc at the same time, you could have saved an additional $10 off of both movies with a Target "in-store" coupon. Where did I find out about this? One of my friends turned me on to SlickDeals.Net, one of many websites that goes out and finds money saving deals for you and reports them.

With the holidays coming up, and with the economy not being the best of times, I wanted to share a few of the sites I know about with you and encourage all of you to use sites like SlickDeals.Net, DealNews.Com, DealCatcher.Com, and Dealio.Com to save yourselves some money whether you're buying online, or shopping in stores...there's something here for everyone. Enjoy!

The Blogs of Strangers, Part 1

2009-11-10T03:03:00.001-05:00

I've been told that November is National Blog Posting Month and I've already failed at posting something every day, but I've decided; since I'm awake every night now at around 2am, and because there are only so many websites I regularly visit, that tonight I'm going to try out Blogger's NEXT BLOG feature. "Next Blog" selects a random blog from Blogger and displays it for you, which I'll then tell you about if I find them fun or interesting in any way.

The first handful I came across were dedicated to people's children and families. It's easy material...I get that. I definitely have some of that to include here, but I want to make sure I keep enough other material for the non-baby people that might be interested in reading my site. As I click through multiple random blogs, I'm finding that out of 20-30 clicks, about 95% of them are family related blogs, which changes my experiment a little. Let's see what the first non-family or non-baby blog turns out to be.

Click, click, click, click...ah, here's one. Jessica Horowitz Photography blog. Nice pictures...good advertising for Jessica, but nothing fun to read. And then apparently I'm stuck in a "photography" section of Blogger so I'll check out the "Blogs of Note".

The first "Blog of Note" was actually the first unique blog I've come across and that was Anthony's blog, "The Fenetic Pen Project". This guy draws everything he sees...interesting hobby. Makes me want to learn how to draw better. And then I've moved into the artists section of Blogger. I get it Blogger...this isn't really random.

If you haven't noticed, I'm writing this live and it's not exactly working out the way I hoped. I was thinking the Internet was filled with thousands of unique blogs on a variety of topics...even some individuals and their random thoughts, but that's not the case. SO...I've labeled this post "Part 1" but really, I have hundreds of other things to write about, so this will likely be "Part ONLY" of The Blogs of Strangers. Of course, instead of reading random blogs, if any of my friends out there have something fun to read online, I'd rather be reading that in the middle of the night than the ramblings of strangers, so post or send me your links! If not, I'm sure I'll be prowling the Internet evenings and I'm sure to report anything interesting I might find.

And now it's time to sleep.

Up in the Middle of the Night

2009-11-06T03:32:00.003-05:00

I find myself awake at 3am a lot these days. Having a four and a half month old will do that to you, but considering that he is sleeping right now and I'm still up, it's not all him. You see...he woke up at 230am, I fed him, Katharine changed him, and they all went back to sleep with the dog in tow. And now it's 317am and I'm typing typing typing...drinking a big old bottle of cold water. Blog updates, Facebook, email. I remember when I was young--er, I used to stay up until wee hours of the morning. I'd be at Dunkin Donuts at closing...taking home all the Donuts that they were throwing away, home watching TV in bed until 2am until I fell asleep to the glow of some situation comedy or a rerun of Saturday Night Live. I'd wake up to an infomercial, roll over and leave the TV on for the rest of the night (which somehow doesn't make for a restful night's sleep). That behavior remained through my 20s...ish. Then there was that whole period when I graduated to my 30s where I would stay out until 2am on Wednesday - Saturday night at bars, clubs, and whatever...sleeping most of Sunday away. Of course that got expensive, but whatever...at the time, for those couple of years, I had little responsibility. I slept in a recliner in front of the TV a lot then too...from 3am to time for work. That was until I met Katharine and we got married...then I graduated to late night movies, videogames, and this wonderful Internet that keeps me in touch with all of you great people...that didn't have anything to do with Katharine specifically, but I wanted to place this in timeline perspective. And then Nathan was born and here I am...at 326am finishing a statement on being up in the middle of the night...finishing up that bottle of water...yawning a bit...and shutting off the computer for a few more hours of rest. Thanks for joining me...I see some of you are awake too. What are you doing up so late?

Long Weekend

2009-10-15T09:24:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, a bunch of people in my office came in to work for many many hours to deal with an emergency situation and this is how I left my office on Sunday afternoon. I thought I would share the disaster that I've been sitting in for 5 days now before I clean up.

Any Questions?

How Am I Driving?

2009-10-15T09:02:00.004-04:00

You ever see those commercial vehicles with the How Am I Driving stickers on the back? I tried to the other day to take a picture of one of those stickers with my iPhone so I could call it later and complain, but the guy was driving so erratically...this is all I could get...after he cut me off.

So there it is. A graphical depiction of how he was driving. And I can't call because I can't read the number. Sure I could have dialed the phone instead of taking pictures, but then I'd have nothing to write about. Has anyone ever called one of those numbers to complain? And even better...anyone ever call with a compliment? "Your driver was so courteous...he stopped at every crosswalk and got out to help an old lady cross the street".

Worst Movies in the Last 10 Years

2009-10-04T22:36:00.005-04:00

I noticed Katharine wrote in her blog about Rotten Tomatoes Worst Movies of the Last 10 Years, and how many of them she has seen. Knowing that I have seen so many worse movies than she has, I thought I would go through this list and admit to you all the crap that I've seen that also appears on this list.

#93 A Sound of Thunder. I actually liked it better the second and third time I saw this on Sci-Fi.

#90 Dragonfly. Had Kevin Costner; it could be nothing *but* crap.

#79 The Adventures of Pluto Nash. I remember when Eddie Murphy was funny.

#66 The Fog. This wasn't so bad. The Mist on the other hand had my #1 most depressing ending of all time.

#61 Good Luck Chuck. I remember when Dane Cook didn't sell out for piece of shit romantic comedies. And Jessica Alba...what were you thinking?

#48 Bloodrayne. Almost embarrassed to say that I saw this low grade piece of shit. I can't believe they made a sequel. The videogame kind of kicked ass though.

#44 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. Really? I liked this movie...but I didn't watch it expecting anything fantastic to begin with.

#42 House of the Dead. Should have been more like the rail first person shooter game. Oh wait...there was one scene that *was* ripped from the rail shooter game.

#37 Code Name: The Cleaner. Katharine said it was a piece of crap...I kind of liked this one too.

#38 The Whole 10 Yards. I liked the Whole Nine Yards enough to see this disappointment in the theater.

#31 The Convenant. This came out before all those other vampire love fests. Wait...was this about vampires? Who cares?

#25 Meet the Spartans. It was late. I was drunk. Can I use one of those excuses?

#21 Epic Movie. OK, I'll stop renting these pieces of crap from Netflix. There was that one scene where Superman gets shot in the eye.

#18 The Master of Disguise. Really Dana Carvey? This was the best you could come up with?

#1 Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever. I agree with Rotton Tomatoes...worst piece of shit of all time...ever! "What was that about," asked Katharine. "Nothing! That's why it was a piece of shit".

What are some of the worst movies you've ever seen?

The Automobile Idiot Light

2009-09-30T19:00:00.007-04:00

My stepdad used to call them idiot lights...those lights on the dashboard of the car which you are supposed to rely on to tell you when your car has a problem. The real problem is, you never know what the real problem is.

For example, I have light on in my dashboard of what is supposed to be a flat tire icon and its significance is to tell me that my tire pressure is low. Fantastic. That works, right? Sometimes my tire pressure *is* low. Wrong. You see...this light has been on since the beginning of last winter. And when I asked the dealership, they said, "this can happen when it's cold". I don't know if I've told you this or not, but I live in New England...where it's cold at least half the year. So I ignored it. And that light stayed on through the summer until I determined that my tire pressure was low. I know what you're thinking and I *did* check it originally when the dealership told me it was fine and it truly was a result of cold temperature then. But recently, it is a result of a slow tire leak. I don't know anything about cars...and in this case, the idiot light didn't work so well. But it did. But not really.

So last night (it was 1am and I was going to get Nathan some much needed cold relief), I get into Katharine's Jeep and low and behold, the CHECK ENGINE light is on. Here is a light without a point.

Sure I can open the hood and look at the engine to see if it's covered in seaweed or to make sure there isn't some severed head out of a slasher movie in there. In both cases, I've checked the engine. This light tells you nothing other than there's *something* wrong with your car, but it's not going to tell you what. It doesn't blink. There's no code next to it. But now you must CHECK YOUR ENGINE to clear it. And that light can only be extinguished at a dealer in most cases, so you're dropping at least $100. And it *could* be simply a computer malfunction in the car that randomly just turned that light on. But we won't know until we take it in. So that's what we'll do.

Do you have lights in your car that randomly turn on when you least expect it?

Hurricane? Flood? Zombie Attack?

2009-09-27T15:05:00.005-04:00

I have never seen so many people in a supermarket as I saw in Market Basket this afternoon...at least not when there wasn't some national emergency announced on the local news. And I used to work in a supermarket (three different markets actually), when I was in high school...for a 4 year period of time...and once when there was a hurricane approaching (remember that Jim Jenkins when you wouldn't close the store and we all had to drive home during a deadly storm where my car was struck by a falling power line? But back to the real story).

Anyway. Apparently a rainy Sunday is the day to avoid shopping at Market Basket...everyone in the world was there and they were all in a hurry...and cranky. Whenever we go to this particular store, it's like roller derby with shopping carts. Everyone cuts you off, the isles are crowded, people zip past you and bump into you. And everyone blocks the isles going in the opposite direction when they stop to check out how cute Nathan is. I know every parent says that, but people keep stopping us in the market to tell us how handsome he is. So yeah, traffic jams all over the store and everybody shoving everybody else aside to get where they want to be. Sounds like good times, right?

So why go to Market Basket and battle this massive crowd when the other stores are empty? There's a reason the other stores are empty...Shaws and Stop & Shop have ridiculously higher prices. And to get any kind of discount at the expensive stores, you have to have a card. If you don't scan your card...you pay more...even though you're already paying more. So Market Basket is a huge moneysaver if you can get past the danger of the other customers. It's worth it for me...would it be worth it for you?

First Full Day Alone with Nathan

2009-09-08T16:45:00.002-04:00

So here I am at the end of my first full day alone with Nathan and I find myself with a few minutes to write about it (don't worry, I won't do this every day for the two weeks that I'm home on vacation with him). What did we accomplish today?

We got up around 630am to see Katharine off to work and we ate. Nathan went back to sleep in his swing while I did some dishes. I haven't done dishes in a while, but my dishwasher was at work (KIDDING). Browsed the Internet, did some work (I know I'm on vacation, but I did some work), threw in some laundry just in time for Nathan to wake up...oh...and I won't make you guess...he was hungry again. We clipped his teeny tiny fingernails (I'll never get used to that)...I watched a little bit of Friday Night Smackdown while he slept, and he grumbled to go back to his swing to sleep more.

Right around Noon, we had a visitor for lunch and we had some grilled cheese sandwiches. Homemade grilled cheese with two kinds of cheese...no messing around with store bought (can you buy a grilled cheese at a store?). Thanks Katja, for coming by to see us! After our visit, and another short nap for Nathan, we read Curious George Gets a Job...the second story in his Complete Adventures of Curious George book. Nathan went to sleep again (sort of) and I did some more work, played a little Fallout 3 on the XBOX (all of those that said I wouldn't play videogames after I had a baby...oh so wrong you were), and then I started dinner (Stouffers Family Size chicken parm; nothing but the best on my wedding anniversary)...and already, Katharine was on her way home. So that was that. My first day home alone with Nathan...EVER.

Summer Blockbusters

2009-09-06T08:43:00.005-04:00

I haven't seen a lot of movies this year, likely due to the fact that I have a 10 week old baby at home. To tell you the truth, there weren't a lot of good summer movies to go see anyway. I saw Star Trek, which was awesome with a capital AWESOME, and I saw District 9, which I wasn't sure I would like, but is likely the best movie of the year. But what happened to the movies that were supposed to be blockbusters? Why didn't I go see them? I could have...I just didn't. I thought I wanted to see Terminator: Salvation, but from what I hear, I got better Terminator for free with the Sarah Conner Chronicles on TV. Terminator Salvation - Rental. I thought I wanted to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen because I enjoyed the first Transformers movie. I heard it was a big piece of crap that even unnecessary shots of Megan Fox leaning over a motorcycle in every trailer couldn't save. Transformers 2 - Rental (maybe). I didn't really want to see G.I. Joe because I never played with the toys. Katharine did...I think her Cobra Commander dated her Barbie or something. I heard that G.I. Joe was only slightly better than Transformers 2...RENTAL. Harry Potter and the Something of the Something...never read the books, but I enjoy the movies. I usually see those movies when they come out, but this year I stayed home with Nathan and Katharine went with her dad. Harry Potter and Something of Something - RENTAL.

So there it is...all the big summer movies that I didn't see. Next theater movie for me has got to be "9" I think...it looks interesting and apparently it's out this week.

My Life in Film: Part 3

2009-08-30T21:52:00.017-04:00

Back in May, I started to document My Life in Film...basically listing one movie from each year that was either my favorite or had some significance to it. I was listing a decade at a time and I only made it to 1992, so here's the next 10 years of that list. I was in the military for most of this decade so let's see how this goes.

1993 I would normally say something like Jurassic Park...Steven Speilberg...blah blah blah. Which I loved by the way. But truthfully, I was in my second year in the military and movies like Waynes World, Hot Shots, Loaded Weapon 1, and Groundhog Day were more what I was enjoying. I'm not proud of those choices, but I won't lie about it either.

1994 Forrest Gump. Loved that movie. Not a big Tom Hanks fan. Would prefer to have chosen Beverly Hills Cop III, which apparently nobody else liked, but I don't see a sequel expecting to be blown away...I just enjoy watching movies with characters that I like. It's that simple.

1995 Bad Boys was the type of movie I was enjoying during this time period and this particular movie brought back the buddy cop action comedy. And then there was Pixar and a small movie called Toy Story which brought animation back.

1996 My first instinct was to say Independence Day, and then I realized that the best of all the Star Trek moves came out in 1996. But Scream made people want to make good horror movies again. Thanks Wes Craven...you should have stopped with Scream 2.

1997 I didn't want to see Titanic...three hours in the theater with one intermission...and then there was Celine Dion (sorry Canada, she's annoying). But I saw it, and even though it was a romance built on the backdrop of a disaster...I actually enjoyed it. Hey, it was either that, or I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Katharine would say there's only one reason I chose that movie...or maybe two.

1998 There apparently were no huge movies in 1998, but a lot of movies I just enjoyed. Lethal Weapon 4 was a third sequel that didn't suck. That's a rarity. The Truman Show was interesting...the X-Files movie was out when I didn't watch the X-Files...and hey; I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. I remember going to see that in the theater and I was the ONLY person in that theater to see it. I admit that it was a little creepy watching a slasher flick and having not another person in the room. I jumped a mile when the usher walked in around the middle of the movie.

1999 I know everyone hates Star Wars: Episode I, but as I said earlier about Beverly Hills Cop III...I just enjoy seeing more stories about my favorite characters. Sure, I could have done without Jar Jar and kid Anakin, but a lot of that movie kicked ass too, right? Right? Subtract all those scenes where the 8 year old and the teenager were flirting and consider the rest of the movie. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan fighting Darth Maul? Awesome, right? There was also a little movie called The Sixth Sense. You're a liar if you say you saw the ending coming.

2000 Hollywood must have been like, "Screw it...the world is going to end when the clock strikes midnight anyway so we shouldn't bother making any good movies." And they didn't.

2001 Not a big fan of those Rings movies. Movies about one giant 9 hour long walk. BORING. There...I said it.

2002 Another boring Rings movie...a poorly dialogued Star Wars movie...a bad M. Night Shamaylan movie...and almost the worst Star Trek movie ever. What??? A different Ring movie was scaring the crap out of people though, so there was something.

2003 I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell's Elf movie. It was funny. Freddy fought Jason. Classic battle, even if the ending was less than a decision. The Texas Chainsaw remake was scary as hell.

What were your favorite movies of this particular decade?

The Learning Channel is Not Really Teaching Us Anything Except How to Exploit People

2009-08-19T22:26:00.008-04:00

Didn't TLC used to be The Learning Channel? I'd like to know when they stopped teaching and when they started exploiting anyone and everyone who is different. Katharine is currently watching "I'm Obsessed with My Pet", which is only slighty better than "Toddlers and Tiaras" and a little less creative than "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant". I absolutely despise this sort of reality television and there's more and more of this on TV all the time. As if John and Kate plus 8 wasn't bad enough...then there was a Table for 12...which turned into 18 Kids and Counting. Little People, Big World gave The Little Couple an idea for a show. And I haven't even mentioned the shows about conjoined twins or giants.

Some of the shows are interesting as one time specials, but then TLC takes it to another level and creates a 22 episode season...then a second. Apparently there are plenty of people in the world for TLC to expose and they're looking for more all the time. You think it would be fun to be on such a show...you can sign up:

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/apply/getontlc.html

I'm should write a letter to TLC and ask them to produce a show for me called, "There's Nothing Special About Me" or "Jeff and Katharine Plus One and a Dog in a Small House". Come on...it could work. What would your TLC program be called?

Where Have I Been: A Blog Post for Those That Might Not Be on Facebook

2009-08-04T08:16:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted anything on my website since May 25th...that wasn't my intention, it just happened. No blog updates, no comic updates. That's no way to treat loyal readers. But I have the best excuse of all. I had a baby! Well...I didn't actually have the baby, but most of you know how that works so there is no point in detailing how that works. So yeah, at 37 years old, I am a father for the first time. What is that like? Well, first of all, here's what he looked like at 6 minutes old.

I intended to live blog the whole having a baby process (again, without the details that nobody wants), but that didn't quite happen as planned. After about 24 hours in the labor and delivery ward of the hospital on June 26th, live updates to the web weren't exactly first on my mind. I was tired, Katharine was more tired, and then when it was all said and done, they handed me an 8lb 1oz bundle of baby wrapped in a blanket and part of me panicked, while the other part was excited. While the other part of me panicked. For the next 48 hours, I would have help keeping him alive at the hospital, but after that, he would rely on me and Katharine for all of his needs.

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital with our son, Nathan, and it was an interesting stay. I won't dwell on it. The nurses in the labor/delivery/maternity wards were excellent, aside from the lactation consultants, who were like Nazis that insisted on breastfeeding and gave no other options for those that might not be able to or, god forbid, chose not to breastfeed. I won't discuss that whole thing in detail...it just annoys me. I'll try to remember all the positives surrounding our hospital stay instead...like the wonderful nurse that coached Katharine through the delivery and the fact that they gave me free meals. I know they weren't really free, but nobody asked me to pay for them.

So then we went home with our baby. The drive home was pretty scary...I likely drove slower than I have ever driven in my entire life, aside from that one time...never mind. Did I have to drive like my grandmother used to drive before they took her license away? Probably not, but I did anyway. I didn't want to break my new baby on the way home from the hospital. He made it home in one piece. The first night was a great big unknown. He cried. We tried to comfort him. We had no idea how to comfort him. We cried (not really, but we wanted to). We called the hospital to make sure he was OK. He was. When he had cried *in* the hospital, someone came and took him to the nursery so we could sleep. There was no nursery unless Monty the dog was going to comfort him. Unlikely...he was still pissed that we brought this "squaking thing" home without asking him first. Nathan cried a lot of that night. Here's how he looks when he cries (this was his first bath).

The first two weeks were trial and error. We figured out how to bottle feed the boy on our own...breastfeeding is way too stressful for mom and baby if you ask me. There's no way to tell how much food your baby gets and he's always hungry. If you've done it, more power to you. My baby is doing just fine on a bottle and we're all happier that way (hospital lactation consultant...STFU). We've figured out his sleep pattern (mostly). We know when he's tired, hungry, needs to be changed, and just plain cranky (he gets that from me). He gets almost everything else from Katharine...except for his eyes...those are mine.

The second two weeks were easier, altough he was more active and we learned that he only likes to sleep on our laps. As fun as that is to stare at him and take pictures while he sleeps, it's hard to get anything done. Bills still need to be paid. Household chores still need to get done. Blog updates need to be updated. Nathan is learning to like the swing now, but it takes some coaxing. I tried cake...he wasn't interested. Sometimes a pacifier works.

The fifth week, and now the sixth week, we've been trying to get him used to the co-sleeper when he sleeps. We get a good 5 hour block of sleep once a night (he does...we haven't learned to sleep when he does yet), so we better plan it well. We usually do, except for that one night...that was last night. Nathan is doing fine...we're trying to introduce him to stuffed toys, we've increased how much he eats by an ounce or so per meal, he tolerates swaddling and sleeps better that way (except when he's trying to break free and grunts as he struggles), I've read him some DC and Marvel Comics to let him decide for himself, Katharine has taught him about the piggies that go to market and the wheels on the bus ("What the hell is a bus," asked Nathan)...and that is that for now.

And I'm back to post more posts.

Testing Baby Delivery Live Blog

2009-06-07T22:05:00.001-04:00

Test string

Sent from my iPhone

My Life in Film: Part 2

2009-05-25T09:28:00.003-04:00

1983 - National Lampoons Vacation
The early 80s was a time when half of the movies produced were teen sex comedies...and since I was 11 in 1983, they were the movies I wanted to see the most because I wasn't supposed to. Sure I could have picked a number of movies from 1983...Eddie and the Cruisers, War Games, I recall going on a date of sorts to see Two of a Kind (remember, I was only 11 so that stands out in my mind, even if it was a girl movie)...and oh geez...Return of the Jedi came out that year. But it was a National Lampoons movie that wins the prize for this particular year (although I probably didn't see it until a couple of years later. I probably still shouldn't have seen it as early as I did. What teenager could ever forget the Christie Brinkley swimming pool scene. I would learn later that there were so many funny moments in that movie.

1984 Beverly Hills Cop
The list gets more difficult as I go through the 80s. There was Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, the beginning of the Police Academy series, and another Star Trek movie…The Search for Spock…and a plot. But it was Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop that wins…funniest movie I had ever seen at the time with action to top the cake. The original BHC is still a favorite…others have tried and failed.

1985 Back to the Future
Sure, when most people think 1985, they think Brat Pack…Breakfast Club, St Elmo’s Fire, and Weird Science…there was also Rocky IV (the US vs the Soviet Union was an obvious shadow over that movie), and Rambo: First Blood Part II (doesn’t it seem like Stallone is always releasing Rocky and Rambo in the same year? Must be easier to only get in shape once for bothor those franchises). And Fletch could easily have won this year, but the original Back to the Future (now pretty much a classic) was THE movie that got me interested in time travel stories.

1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Stallone was making Cobra, Eddie Murphy was the Golden Child, Star Trek took The Voyage Home, I remember going on another “kid” date to see Platoon of all movies (how did I get tickets to THAT at 14)…but Ferris Bueller took the day off. And because my brother was in high school with me for that one year…I took the day off too. Sometimes. But not too often. OK…maybe more often than I should have.

1987 Lethal Weapon
At the time, I think The Pick Up Artist with Robert Downey Jr was one of my favorite movies. I was trying to learn…I was 15. Superman IV had just disappointed me…Rocky had beat the Russians two years earlier so we didn’t need Superman for that. Although Mel Gibson is apparently an ass in real life, the original Lethal Weapon defined the buddy cop action comedy movie to me, and that genre would continue to interest me for years.

1988 Die Hard
I’d like to give some credit here to Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, each which could have won if it weren’t for the introduction of John McClane in the original Die Hard. The was my action movie phase…when action movies were allowed to receive an R rating…when society wasn’t so sensitive and everything had to be “kid friendly”. It’s an action movie…with killing and swearing and explosions. It’s not supposed to be “kid friendly”. Stop ruining my favorite genre movie studios…take chances like 2008’s Rambo did.

1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil
A lot of sequels came out this year. Back to the Future II was good, but not quite as good as the original. Batman came to the big screen that year as well, but it’s been done better now so it doesn’t get credit. I choose See No Evil, Hear No Evil because out of the list I’m using of movies from 1989, it was just funny. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, neither of which I had enjoyed in movies before, cracked me up as a “blind guy” and a “deaf guy” caught up in a wacky caper. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth a rental.

1990 Back to the Future III and Die Hard 2
Sorry…I’m picking two for this year. It’s my prerogative…and I’ll do what I want to do. I loved Ghost…who didn’t in 1990? Another 48 hours reunited Murphy and Nolte, which was awesome, but much like the original 48 hours. The 5th Rocky movie doesn’t even exist. And sure…Arnold made Total Recall, which was pretty awesome, but at 18, I was sticking by my favorite franchises and loving them.

1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I was going to give this to Terminator 2, but I probably enjoyed the Star Trek movie more at that age. Trek VI also was the end of the original series Trek movies and a new beginning for the movie franchise would soon begin. That kind of gives it something of a win in a category of memorables. I also moved away from home and joined the military at the end of 1991 making it the end of a chapter of my life and the beginning of a new chapter would follow….the “Undiscovered Country” indeed.

1992 Waynes World
Sure, I was officially an adult off on his own for the first time; I was in the military, but spent 2 months of this year in Basic Training and another 8 months in tech school. Sure, I was studying a lot during the week (they say the amount of material covered is equivalent to 4 years of college in 8 months), but the weekends are a bit of a blur. If you were there…you know why.

So that's the second decade for me. Comments anyone?

More Creepy Crawlys

2009-05-24T08:25:00.000-04:00

Just when we thought the house of clear of pests with the "removal" of the mice, we find ourselves inundated with much smaller crawlies in the form of PAVEMENT ANTS. At least with a mouse, you can snap them into a trap and get rid of them quickly and quietly. The pavement ants apparently have a colony of up to 4000 and they bite. I know because one bit me and left a red itchy welt which has since gone away. I thought it was a spider bite, but no...no wall crawling and web spinning for me. If I turned into what bit me, I would simply turn into a pest that looks like this.

So once again, I throw my hands up in surrender and spend more money on something I have no choice over...it's exterminator time. And what BETTER time to lay poison down in the house, than 5 weeks from having a baby!!! Good thing there will be plenty of time to air things out before that happens.

Oh look...there are two in my sink right now. GET THEM!

My Life in Film: Part 1

2009-05-21T21:04:00.022-04:00

A list of the movies that had some impact or has left me with a memory of some sort. I will break this up into chunks by decade.

1972 - The New Scooby Doo Movies
Although not really movies, this is what I watched every morning before school for a long time. This and the 1960s Batman television show.

1973 - The Exorcist
To date, one of the scariest movies I have ever seen and I still will not watch devil possession movies because of this. No picture here because it was creeping me out.

1974 - Magnum Force
Dirty Harry Callahan...the first cop movie hero that wasn't really a hero in that he didn't follow the rules.

1975 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I've only seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show once, and that was THIS night...at a strip mall in Biloxi, MS at midnight in 1992.

1976 - Rocky
Because it's Rocky and who didn't love Stallone movies of the 70s and 80s

1977 - Star Wars Episode IV
Remember when we all wondered why Star Wars started with Episode IV?

is this a boring and predictable list?

1978 - Superman
The original Christopher Reeve version of Superman is still one of the best Superman movies and it did not spend hours on the origin that everyone already knows. I'm stillreading new Superman comics today.

1979 - Escpape from Alcatraz
Although my obvious choice here would have been Star Trek: The Motion Picture, that was a REALLY boring movie. Escape fromAlcatraz was just pure gritty prison escape.

1980 - The Empire Strikes Back and Superman II
Is it possible that both of those movies came out the same year? I can't possibly be expected to pick just one and I don't have to. Best Star Wars movie and Best Superman.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Of all the movies in 1981, I only choose Raiders over Taps and Stripes because I remember going to see the first Indy flick with my grandmother. I actually didn't love the movie. Taps was a much better movie. Stripes was just funny.

1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
So now I'll pull out Star Trek for my last pick of this decade...one of the best Trek movies of all time. But what about 48 Hours, First Blood, and Rocky III? This was a great movie year.

New Carpet for Baby's Room

2009-05-13T15:31:00.005-04:00

We're getting closer to this whole new person in our house that we're totally responsible for, and we're finally getting his bedroom together. On Monday, we had the carpet installed in his room and it looks fantastic...nicest room in our house now.

Nathan is not even born yet and he gets the best room...he's already the king. Funny how that works. I know there is no furniture in here yet and no decorations on the walls...we're not going to make him sleep on the floor...all of that is coming on Friday this week. we'll decorate on Saturday and hopefully be done by Sunday.

I know...seems like I've been working on this room forever. It is third time in as many years that it's been painted. Once because Katharine wanted it to be a purple color that she liked. That turned out pink. Then we decided it was an office and it should be a darker color...like brown. And brown was OK, but pretty dark and a little dank. And now it's a baby room, so it's happy colors and jungle animals.

This is just a preview since it's not done yet...more on this over the weekend when it's more decorated!

Monty's Latest Visit to the Emergency Vet (Not for the Squemish)

2009-05-01T20:39:00.010-04:00

Monty is a clumsy dog. I think I've talked about this before...how he runs around the yard in the rain and slips and falls. And how he jumps up and down like a jumping bean, only to slip on the kitchen floor and fall like Bambi on the ice. Oh, and that one time when he tried to jump into the back of our car before the door was open and whacked his spine on the corner of the door...bruising his back. So right now, Monty is walking around with a bandage on his back right paw...and I'll tell you why.

Thursday night, Monty was running around the yard like he always does, and when he came back into the house, puddles of blood formed around his back paw. I tried to get a hold of said paw, but he kept moving away from me...walking around the kitchen...slipping and sliding on his own blood. He pretty much turned my kitchen into a scene from a horror movie (I have pictures, but I've refrained from posting them). I tried to catch up to him so I could put pressure on his paw, which was literally spurting blood as I called the vet to find out what else I was supposed to do. Not easy to make phone calls while you're putting pressure on a paw spurting blood. I finally got the blood to stop after applying pressure for about 15 minutes and Monty laid down on the floor for about a half hour after that. When I walked away from him in the direction of his food...a hungry Monty jumped up to his feet and whoosh...more blood. Spurt...spurt...spurt. Back to the kitchen that I had already cleaned once for more bloodbath. It stopped again with additional pressure. The vet had previously instructed me to put pressure to stop the bleeding and put him in his crate for the night so he would be lying down and that I should bring him to a vet in the morning if it continued to bleed. To make a long story short...it did continue to bleed throughout the night...we brought him in first thing in the morning, and about $300 later, we discovered that he punctured an artery in his paw.

So after spending all day Friday at the Emergency Vet, Monty is now lying comfortable on his pillow with his paw bandaged, complete with antibiotics and pain meds in his system. He's tired...he's had a long weekend.

34 Issues of the Current Run of Superman Comics

2009-04-27T20:43:00.005-04:00

I just thought I would share my good fortune to have found every issue of the comic series I was just looking for in it's complete current run on Ebay for $21.50. That's right...Superman Comics #650 - 683 plus an Annual for $21.50 which would normally run $119 if I bought each one in a comic book store.

Now typically I don't read the mainstream Marvel and DC superhero books, but for this price, and because I've always been a Superman fan, I'll certainly make an exception.

Those Annoying Alarmy Things at the Front of Most Stores

2009-04-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know why they have those magnetic alarms at the front of department stores?

Does anyone really pay attention to them when they go off? When I've been in stores such as Best Buy and Target, I have witnessed, when people walk out the door through the security gate and set off those alarms...nobody even looks. Some of the stores that have those theft indicators even have security guards, whose sole job it is to stop you from stealing and they don't even look up when the annoying beeps sound. Maybe those guards know that the person at the register usually forgets to demagnetize the security tab or that the demagnetizing machine at the register usually doesn't work. What's stopping people from taking things (aside from general honesty of course)?

I went to a club once that had the same kind of thing only it was a metal detector. It was 3AM...it was an "after hours" club and the detector was going off like crazy...people kept shuffling in. Nobody stopped them to check. So it seems, whether you're sneaking something out or sneaking something in, this type of detector deters NO ONE! I guess I feel the same way about car alarms and virus protection. All useless tools that nobody pays attention to, so why do they exist?

Records, 8-Track, and Cassettes

2009-04-22T23:29:00.000-04:00

When a band releases new music, it is referred to as an album. An album used to be a phonographic record, but has now been updated to be defined as "A set of musical recordings stored together in jackets under one binding". As time marches on, people will forget that music used to be released only on vinyl albums. I barely remember it myself. I may not even be right, but this is my space so I can say whatever I want.

My parents had albums...a few of which I can recall included Roger Miller (King of the Road is the only song I can remember off of it), The Bee Gees (maybe it was the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack), Kenny Rogers something or other, and likely Elvis. Myself...I had KISS Double Platinum in vinyl...and later on it was a DOUBLE CASSETTE. Somewhere in the middle, I had Aerosmith's original album on 8-Track.

I'm not telling you all this to age myself...I think it's fascinating to see how the release of music has changed in my lifetime alone and wonder how it will change again. Digital downloads through iTunes and other such services are the thing of today. I owned Twisted Sister "Stay Hungry" and Quiet Riot "Metal Health" on cassette...I now own them in CD quality digital download formats via iTunes. Oh...in all the confusion, I forgot about CDs. I swore I would never rebuy my cassettes on CDs...I lied. I guess it's the same as not rebuying all my VHS tapes on DVD. I lied about that too.

It's fascinating to me that not only can you find popular artists from yesterday all over the Internet today, but that so much more music is available from independent artists such as Hope Roth, who I happen to know personally and recommend that you buy her album from iTunes. See how I did that? I promise you that this was not paid advertisement...I bought a copy myself and it's quite good.

Maybe one day, if you're lucky, the new music format will be "beamed directly into your brain" out of thin air just by thinking about a particular artist. And after that...who knows!?