Pics of the litter

Christmas pics here.

Catch up!

Well, we have a lot to cover. First off, there are some pics of Jeremy's trip here.
Second, we had an awesome Christmas! With the exception of a short jaunt to OKC for a small family thing, my plan to not go anywhere, and make everybody else do the driving this year worked just as I had planned!
We spent a good time at Grace and Lonny's house, where she had a big announcement, and Jack got a set of Jack-sized cleaning products (vacuum, mop, broom) that he was EXTREMELY excited about. He loves to help us with chores, and he flipped out when he saw them.
Sunday, Jen and I made a big batch of snacky food consisting of a shitload of sweets and things that can be dipped or scooped into other things. We munched on all of that all night in lieu of an actual meal. We stayed up late, played video games and watched movies and had an all around good time. Monday, we all woke up about the same time Jackson did. He didn't have the full understanding of what the day meant for him and his playtime activities, but he got up early nonetheless. When we dug into the pile, Jack made out like a bandit, and his favs were a toy coffee pot, that we got him so he would leave mine alone,* and a the trikie, as evidenced above. The rest of us had a good haul as well.
The rest of the day was spent being very lazy, eating food, and playing with all of our toys.

Today I had to back to work. :(

slacker week

So I don't have many projects, and my company had to have everything sealed up for Christmas a few weeks ago, so we are down to slacking and having holiday parties and things like that. The staff is dwindling as they leave to visit their families anyway. Today we had out secret Santa thing and a little raffle thing, and I got some cool stuff. So that's cool.
Turner got off okay, with just a massive delay with his connecting flight in phoenix. I guess they have a huge blizzard right now. Good thing to come home to when you live in Denver. Makes it feel like home.
Jack just got done getting pics with Santa, and from what Jen tells me, he wasn't a big fan. He wasn't scared or anything, just didn't want to sit in his lap too much. I remember my brother going nuts come Santa time, and I think we only did it for a few years. This is corroborated by the distinct lack of photos depicting either my brother or me with Santa. I don't seem to have missed it much.
My cards are not done, and my gifts are not mailed because I'm a total slacker. I'm hoping to get that done today, and everything will be late, so don't expect much.
I tried not to go overboard with Jack's presents because he has grandparents and will be very well taken care of.
I am finally over the horrible stomach virus that I got on Sunday night. Yay. I didn't eat for two days and dropped 5 pounds. I slept 12 hours Monday night. I woke up hungry, and took that as a good sign. Thankfully there was a pot-luck at work. I brought pop-tarts and a toaster. Un-thankfully* Jen now has the stomach thing. I think this may be what Jack had when he was throwing up and not eating for a while. Mystery solved!
Having kids mean you get sick a lot more than you used to.

weekend of fun

we are having a great time. Turner have been here since Wednesday. Lats night he and Cookie made home made green chili that was the best I have ever had. Then after Jen's sister and her husband came over, we all drank beer and wine and sat around the chimenea and played video games into the wee hours of the morning. Right now we are eating cinamon rolls and watching the discovery channel and nursing hangovers.

The X-mas

Christmas is creeping up! 10 days left. If you don't receive a card or something, well, it's because we have an 18 month old and a house guest right now.
Speaking of: Turner made us the most awesome dinner last night, because I won his contest. It had pasta and chicken and a cream sauce and asparagus and a bunch of other stuff and we ate till we wanted to pop it was so good. Then an hour later, we gorged ourselves on ice cream. Turner ate three bowls I think. Maybe more. We drank a bunch of beer and watched a movie, part of a dog show, and then some documentary on discovery about puppies. It was doggy night I guess.
This saturday, there will be a party in his honor. You should come, it will be fun.
Jackson seems to be over his bout of barfing, and is not only feeling better, but has decided to sleep through the night two nights in a row. This has NEVER happened, and getting all that sleep is a weird feeling at this point. My chemical dependencies are much more noticeable. All that coffee in the morning used to just keep me functional, but now I'm actually a bit jittery. All bleary-eyed and happy. It's like an old friend I haven't seen in years. I welcome his return. Jack LOVES Turner BTW. He follows him around, and wants to be picked up by him all the time, but it think that's because Turner is like eight feet tall, and Jack likes to see everything. They cuddled on the couch for a while last night, and Jack usually saves that for really close family members, so that's cool. So remember that, ladies: Turner is good with kids!
What else? The new HP trailer is up, and though I now a crazy huge fan or anything, I do like these movies. The thing that struck me in the trailer is that I didn't realize how much I hated the haircuts in the last movie until I saw that all the characters get shorn in this one. Although if that's the main thing I took from the last movie then they must have had some major storytelling issues.
So that's it.

The sun will come out.

Tomorrow the Turner man comes to town. Excited I am.
enough of that.

So yesterday, on the way back from school about 1:00pm, Jackson had his first big boy barf all over the car. We got everything cleaned up, hosed off the carseat, washed all of the padding, and let everything dry out in the sun. He seemed okay after that. After I got home from work, we needed to go to the store, so we put everything back together, all the padding back on, put the carseat back in, and he barfed all over it as soon as we pulled into the store's parking lot. So we used up all of our wipes, and almost had to run in to get more. Luckily, most of it landed on his hoodie, so it wasn't near as bad. He's still a bit oogy. He should feel better today, I hope.
Jen stole my phone on accident. And she's out of town tonight, so don't call me.

The Turner of the screws

So next week, Mr. Turner will be visiting, and I am very excited. For all his neurosis, he is a good and honest man. He became one of the best friends I have ever known within hours of meeting him(those hours spent at Streets of London Pub). I knew him before he had flames. I trusted him so much when we met, that I didn't have a problem with him moving in with Jen, him being an ex-boyfriend and all. For a whole year, and especially during the build-out for Pablo's,we played NHL HITZ and watched Blind Date or Conan every single night. We kept Gabor's in the black. And now he is coming for a visit. We are going to throw him a party, we like him so much. So come to our house on the eve of the 16th to wish him well, and help get him drunk. He will regale you with yarns of a tattooed goth existence.
In other news:
1)I need a new drafting table. If you have one, kindly set it on my porch.
2)Jackson's back teeth have turned out to be complete assholes. Nobody likes them. They keep Jack up at night, which keeps mommy and daddy up at night. Which makes mommy and daddy cranky and destroys their immune systems. In addition, it keeps daddy completely chemical dependent to appear human.
3)A happy birthday should have gone out yesterday to Tom Waits.
4)Happy birthdays go out today to my Dad, Joey, and Kyle.
5)Happy birthday goes out to Heather O tomorrow.
6)Yoko can go fuck herself.

Snow Day!

So as many of you anywhere in the Midwest know, we got a hella snow storm last week. It was a full on blizzard with only fifty yards or so of visibility. Since I now live in an area that doesn't see this very often (compared to Denver), everybody freaked out. And nobody knows how to drive in it. Like how turning you lights on would be rule #1. I went in late on Thursday, and ten inches later they sent us home and told us not to bother coming in on Friday. Woo and then Hoo. Three and a half day weekend!!
We spent Thursday night staring out the window. Friday I shoveled the driveway for the first time in the four years I have lived here. Then we got all bundled up and took Jack out to play in the snow.

He did NOT enjoy it. --->

The snow was way too high for him, and he couldn't move in it.
He did have some fun splashing in the slush. He spent most of the time in the garage bawling.

Saturday we had a little pre-emptive Christmas party at our house with Jen's dad's side of the fam, though Jen's dad didn't show up. We had a really good time. Jack got a book. We had a shit-ton of food and some really good coffee. After that we just hung about the house. I watched The Island. It was pretty, but stupid. Just like a few of the girls I dated after high school. Sunday we went to the city and did some shopping with Jen's sister and her husband, ending the weekend by stuffing our faces with Mexican food. Last night Jack decided that three AM was breakfast time and I am really sleepy.
We have little going on at work, so I've been watching the whole of Red Dwarf on my computer. I love bittorrent.

That is all.

This man taught me how to draw.

Dave Cockrum died on Monday. This is particularly sad for me because as the title states, Cockrum taught me how to draw.

X-men was one of the first comics I really got into that wasn't of the 'kiddie' variety. It was also the first one that I knew all about, as in I knew the history of the characters and followed it the closest until it got too ridiculous, or I grew out of it. I don't remember which. Cockrum was my all time favorite X-Men artist, and his creation, Nightcrawler, was my all-time favorite X-Man character(followed closely by Longshot and Art Adams). Some time in the '80s, there was a four part mini series about Nightcrawler going to a parallel universes with Kitty's pet Dragon Lockheed. I read this series about a million times, and must have drawn and re-drawn every panel of every page. His art became the foundation for everything art related I have ever done since, no matter how hard Art School tried to beat it out of me.

He had a relatively short tenure with the X-Men, but his character and costume designs persist to this day. I followed his career pretty closely for a long time, and I remember that on the list for my hold slot at the Mile High Comics in Buckingham Square (slot 32. The lower the number, the cooler you were) I had written down "All Dave Cockrum".

He will be missed.

Any ethnic food will do.

Man. Holidays for latch-key kids, especially if they marry another latch key kid, involve a shit-ton of driving. This year wasn't so bad, but the whole mom's house in the morning, dad's in the evening, Denver for one holiday, Tulsa for the other, see these sets of people, then go across town to see the other.... Oh and if you are the first ones to offer up a grand-kid? Forget it. Even distant cousins want a piece of you.
So that being said, I have decided that now that I have my own house and my own kid and my own Christmas tree, the rest of you can piss off or drive to my house.
I racked up a lot of mileage in the last few decades, and now it's your turn. So come on down. I'll be the one sitting comfortably on the couch, half drunk by noon.

Okay. So despite all the driving, we had an awesome weekend. Thursday was spent in Enid America(the worst city in OK, according to many of it's own residents), At Jen's Aunt's house. There were stairs there which must have looked almost exactly like a jungle gym, because all Jack wanted to do was climb up and down them the whole day. He was also really into getting olives. Not to eat, but to squish, then feed to the dogs. There was lots of yummy food.
Friday I had to freakin' work, but I came in late, and left early. I spent the time in between decorating the internet marketing area for Christmas in the most obnoxious ways I could think of, eating the free pizza they provided for us, and watching downloaded movies on my computer. That'll show 'em! Then I drove to Tulsa, and helped prep for feast #2. We watched "the break-up", and although I generally like Vince Vaughn and I think Jennifer Aniston is a cutie despite myself, the movie was a let down.

Saturday was a giant pile of food with us having to eat our way through it. Lots of family and kids and running and yelling and then more food. After we watched Bedlam and had naps, Jen and I went on down to Arnie's for Larkin's CD release party. That was a blast. I love drunken Irish parties. I can't help but feel like I'm fulfilling the wishes of my forefathers. When Indian people participate in traditional dances and rituals, they must get the same feeling I get when I am in an Irish pub, with a Guinness, belting out drinking songs. It's a connection to your past.
Sunday was spent putting up Christmas decorations and getting the house ready for the holiday party we are throwing next week end.

I want Chinese food.

House (not MD)

We had a working weekend of sorts. Friday was spent not doing much of anything, and I think we went to bed early in another of our rockin' Friday night extravaganzas, involving me watching Doctor Who, and Jen Watching What Not To Wear. We may have put a load of laundry in after Jack went to bed. We're crazy like that.

Saturday, Jack went to the Grandparent's house to stay the night and to help in the yard as part of chore deal we have worked out.
Pictured is him in his favorite Elmo fleece hoodie, and his extremely small and therefore extremely cute Converse All-Stars.
His visit allowed us to paint the living room that we've neglected since we moved in. It is now a dark toupe color that really makes the fireplace pop, like you give a crap. I also reinforced the new shelves, and put the rest of my books on them. Our house is finally coming together like we want. Yay.
The real fun was Saturday night, when Cookie came over for dinner (we had Steak), and we actually were able to go to the bar. It was awesome fun to sit and drink Newcastles, ogle the college kids, yap endlessly, and watch drunks try to play pool. Frat kids, bikers, women of ill repute, and the best players were the Asian physics majors. They stay sober, and know all the angles.
Sunday, after realizing there was nothing resembling breakfast food in the kitchen, we went to iHOP for breakfast. Small town family restaurants are always a treat on Sunday mornings, and this one did not disappoint. Mixed in with the old people, hungover college kids, and church-goers were these two kids, about 15, who were right out of Rushmore. They were both dressed a little too nicely, and the one in the blue blazer was reading the paper and talking on his cell phone, while having a deep discussion with his friend about WWII. In response to these two old-before-their-time kids, Cody and I went and played video games the rest of the afternoon.

Cody is master of the X-Wing.

Shelves!

Finally!

Lookkit dem shelves!--->

We sold some of our old shelves in a garage sale over the summer, and gave the others to cousin Preston after we repainted the room, because the red stain didn't vibe with our new guacamole colored paint. So all our (read: my) stuff had been sitting on the floor ever since. We had been waiting for some extra cash to build new ones and never seemed to have a spare $200. That is until we found the brackets we wanted on sale for $2.50 each, and found some really cheap wood. The third and most important piece was Mr. Dopps. He came over on Sunday with a mad fat pile of tools, and helped me put them up. They look really awesome. Jen had an idea of what she wanted, that I turned into something much more elaborate and expensive in my head. When we got all the stuff together, the whole thing ended up being under $75. So that was even cooler. Jen smart.

Friday I spend a good deal of the night looking for cousin Ryan's dog Roscoe who ran off earlier that day. We looked and looked until about 10:00 when we got a call from his roomate stating that Roscoe had showed up on the back porch out of the blue, whining for some food and smelling like a rotten creek. Crisis solved, I went back home and crashed out watching Doctor Who on the Sci-fi channel. Saturday we cleaned the house, raked the leaves, washed and detailed the Xterra, put it up for sale on the corner, did laundry, and bought the lumber for the shelves. Oh, and played with the kid. A lot.

Monday and today were work days, and as work is kinda slow, I spent most of my time watching my new love(thanks again, Cody!): The Mighty Boosh. I love those guys. They have a talking Ape as a main character. They break into elaborate musical numbers at odd times. They had mod wolves. That's what sold me. I also will have a new NGV5 page up by tomorrow, if the stupid scanner at work is functional.

um... That's it.

I voted

And I couldn't be happier. Finally the country has realized that letting any person or party have absolute power is dumb, because being able to do whatever you want without impunity always leads to bad things. The "value voters" have realized that no one party has a legitimate or singular claim to morals. People realized that making a living wage is better for business. When people make more, they spend more. They have realized that they want a health care plan that doesn't pander to big pharmesutical companies. They have realized that they like clean air and a pleasant landscape, and that they don't really want Florida or Manhattan or London under water. They don't want their civil liberties trampled on any more. And finally, they have realized that they want peace in Iraq with a viable exit strategy, and that they want to know what that is.
I have to give Bush a teeny bit of credit for realizing this as well. At the press conference yesterday, in addition to seeming pretty peeved, more at the party and Rove than anybody else, he seemed pleasantly open to the fact that he was going to have to change how he does things. And starting with replacing Rumsfeld was the best first step we could have hoped for. Maybe now some civility will return to Capital Hill. Maybe now the politicians will return to the center, where all of their constituents are. Maybe now the arrogant posturing will leave one side, and some confidence will enter the other. I doubt it, but maybe. It will be really interesting to see how '08 goes, because you know that shit's gonna start really soon.
Yay for change!!

Go Vote!

If you don't, then the terrorists really win. What they hate most about America is our freedom, and voting is the very basis of that. Also, If the current people stay in charge, even though they spout freedom in every speech, they are slowly taking it all away. So go vote for whoever is not the incumbent, so we can get some new decision makers in there. If the Congress goes Democratic, I'm not sating everything will be gravy, but change is sorely needed at this point. Checks and balances have to be in effect for this system to work, and there aren't any right now.
Voting is not so much a right as a responsibility, and a civic duty.
Enough of that.



A stern boy-->

We helped Grace and Lonny move into their new house in the sub-urbs of OKC this weekend. We moved everything from their storage until that they have been living out of while staying with an aunt for the past few months, and they seemed relieved to have their stuff back in a home of their own. Nancy stayed at our house with the boy overnight Saturday(and took this pic), so we got to go out that night. We visited Derrek and Caroline, and had a lot of fun. I didn't drive, so I drank a little more than I should have. Chris told the story about the time he got shot in the leg during a dispute in a parking lot that he was not involved in. There is now a spot on his leg where no hail grows, to his dismay, but I reminded him that pain is fleeting, and chicks dig scars.

Yesterday, we did jack shit. The only time we left was to look at an old Volvo that we are thing of buying. Jack played in a bird feeder while I test drove it. The guy only wants $300, so I think we're gonna get it.

And now I am at work, wishing I wasn't.

halloweenies

Well, Saturday, we went to Jenn's parents' house to celebrate her dad's birthday. That was fun. lots of family and burgers and things. Norm took this pic, further solidifying that my kid is way cuter than yours. Just accept it.
We thought we might be able to go out that night to some Halloween stuff or maybe go see Larkin, but that didn't work out. We ended up coming home and falling asleep on the couch. Jenn during the new Hellboy cartoon, and me during the credits for The Grudge, a terribly disappointing horror movie, even though Ted Raimi and Clea DuVall were both in it. It was just a bunch of jump-out-of-the-closet crap involving human versions of manga characters.
Sunday was the really fun day. We did a bunch of Halloween stuff. We made cookies, carved pumpkins, and watched a bunch of cheesy horror on TV. Cody "snake"* Dopps came by to chat for a while, and that was awesome. It was nice to have a day to ourselves.

So here is a weird bit about how stupid local politics are: Before Oklahomans passed a measure allowing the lottery here, there were a bunch of opposition from the conservatives. Their point, keeping with their Reaganesque ideals that government should get off our backs**, was that gambling is bad. The pro side said that Oklahoma was behind the times and missing out on a great means of revenue which were previously going to border states. Since each state can decide on their own where that revenue is spent, and the OK public education system was in the shitter, that's where they decided to put the money should it pass. Projected estimates were in the $200 million range BEFORE operating costs, installation of machines, training, and the like. Also on the ballot that year was a new tobacco tax that was projected to draw in $100 million. They liked that one, because smoking is bad too.
So now, after the projected revenue on both were way below expectations ($59 mil from the lottery and $30 mil from the tobacco tax), the Republicans and conservatives are blaming Scott Meacham, the treasurer for the $211 mil "shortfall", and want him out of office for it.
Here is what I think is so stupid:
1) Conservatives think smoking and gambling is bad and that Oklahomans shouldn't do it. The shortfall proves that they aren't. Shouldn't they be happy about that?
2) $59 mil and $30 mill are both more than zero, which is what it was at before.

To my mind, the choice between the two parties comes down to a simple distinction: Republicans want everybody to look out for themselves. Democrats want everybody to look out for each other. In every other way, they can seem totally indistinguishable. I for one want to live in a world where somebody's got my back.







*Cody thinks "cookie" is too effeminate.

**unless you are foreign, gay, unborn, or enjoy having fun.

Zardoz

So, if you were flipping channels, and came across Sean Connery with a giant mustache, wearing what can only be described as underoos with some pirate boots, running through the forest, you'd stop and watch for a bit, right? Well I did. two hours later as Zardoz was ending, I was unsure of what I had just seen. Something that was a mix of Barberella, The Prisoner, Planet Of The Apes, bad '70s soft-core porn, and Farenheight 451. Only really shitty.

Connery stars as Zed, who spends his days galloping around the post-apocolyptic Irish countryside happily raping and murdering "brutals" in the name of Zardoz, a giant floating stone head. All of said brutals are wearing suit jackets for some reason, while Zed has to settle for a loin cloth and a Janus mask, which the writer probably chose for no other reason than that is looks kinda creepy. So one day Zed gets laured into a disused library, and discovers the joys of reading, and by extention, the joys of free thought. He wants to get to the bottom of all this weirdness, so he stowes away in the head, and ends up in "The Vortex", a place where those who were once well-to-do who now call themselves "Eternals" live in a utopian society where they have been for a few hundred years because some crystal robot thing has made them immortal. They live in a perpetual rennaisance festival, blissfully unaware or apathetic to the troubles of their mortal bretheren on the other side of a sort of giant wal-mart bag. While on the giant head, Zed has inadvertantly killes Zardoz, who was really just some guy that got his name from The Wizard of Oz. Zardoz gives Zed and his buddies guns and ammo in return for the crops that the brutals are forced to cultivate. Zed gets trapped in the Vortex with all the hippies, and disrupts the ideallic society therein.

Didn't see that coming. I'm sure that this was supposed to be an allegorical commentary on the.... something. But it sooo does not work that way. Not with Connery in his undies through the whole thing.

Turns out that Zed was genetically engeneered by A few Eternals who are so bored they just want to die already, and need him to do it for some reason. The Eternals decide to impart Zed with all of their wisdom, one at a time, by fucking him. He becomes the new leader, and the societies combine to form a new race, and we see Connery in a full-on wedding dress. and the less said about that the better. Man the '70s were a weird time for science fiction. Until Star Wars in '77, we mainly got things like this and Logan's Run, which was great when I was a kid, but deeply flawed when I watch it now. That happened with The Dark Crystal and The Black Hole as well. Don't do it, kids. Let those movies remain cool in your head. Watch something you haven't seen before.

In other news, page 26 is up. Have a nice day.

Amnesia

So I totally forgot to write about last weekend, because I had to write about the Goth wedding from the weekend before. So I'm a week behind. I'll do a two for one today.
LAST week Jason, Jennifer, and Jackson received a visit from Cody, Kindra, and Cori, who were in Stillwater as part of their world-wide alliteration tour 2006.
As Jenn graciously stayed home with the increasingly cranky and tired boy, the rest of us got Chinese food and bubble tea. The conversation of the evening was some of the best I had had in a long time, and I hadn't made somebody shoot egg drop soup out their nose since I was a little kid. They had all watched almost all of Spaced the night before, so many a reference and/or quote was made about that. There was far too much conversation time devoted to tapioca in my opinion, but Cori just would not shut up about it. We also all agreed that Kindra is terrified of silence, and that the waitress was not very good. The table next to us had a little girl who did not like the obnoxiousness of our little party, and kept making faces at us, but then Cody did that thing he does where that thing comes out of his head and it scared her away. I always have to laugh when he does that, because I mean, what is that thing?
We then went to the coffeeshop, and the poor small town girl behind the counter just could not wrap her head around the meaning of Cody's T-Shirt. She was all like: what's beautiful about suicide, and Cody was like: it's in the eye of the beholder, I guess, and she's all: I guess I don't get it, and he's all: BLARRGHH!! And he does that thing with he head again, and we all laugh. Cori did not get coffee because she still had bubble tea. Then we went home and gave Jenn her Chinese food, and watched her eat it like she just got out of Guantanamo. Then we yapped the night away. Hanging out with them and meeting Cori did make me a bit homesick though. I don't meet really cool people like that any more, much less get to just hang and yap with them into the wee hours of the morning. When I do meet people like that, they end up being from Denver.
So there! On to this last weekend
It was a very collegiate weekend for us. On Friday, after giving Jackson a not that great, trial and error, keep going until it looks okay home haircut, we went to OSU's Walk-Around. It is a sort of reverse parade where the floats are stationary, and you get to walk around and look at them all. They are really intricate, and have moving parts and things. The two best involved a robotic undersea adventure and a robotic version of Chutes and Ladders. There is lots of live music and food and stuff, and Jackson had a great time in the snuggly, for which he is way too big for. We retired to Cousin Ryan's house and drank some beer while watching Jack and the Pug 'play". Saturday morning, we went to the actual homecoming parade for OSU, and Jackson had a great time there as well. He really like marching bands in general, and the drums in paticular. We found this out because every time a band came by, he would start shaking and giggling hysterically. Later, Jenn's parents came up to watch the boy so we could go to the OU homecoming game against the Colorado Buffaloes. This required a drive to Norman, OK with out the boy. It took about an hour and a half, and I kept looking in the back seat, thinking Jack was there but asleep, as I do every time we go anywhere with out him.
The game was fun and cold, but the tix we were given turned out to be really good. We had access to this little lounge where you could sit in the heat and eat without you or your food going cold. The game itself was kind of boring, but being there was great fun. We left a but early, and still hit the horrible traffic. Horrible traffic usually happens when a hundred thousand people all want to go somewhere at the same time. Just so you know.
We ended up at Robin's house. We stopped in because we were "in the city" and she had beer. There were a few people there already, and Jenn's sister and her husband showed up as well. We stayed there until about 1:45, which was dumb, because we still had an hour to get home. But home we got, and Jack actually slept until a little before 8:00, so we got to "sleep in" a little. Sunday we hung out with the fam and ate chili. A whole freakin' pot of chili.
After the coma subsided we just bummed around the house, and I got lost in Wikipedia for several hours, having wanted to find out something mundane about the French Revolution.
That was it. See what boring lives we lead? Why do you keep reading these things?

Goth Wedding

Alright, here you go. ---->
The Goth wedding was a lot of fun. The flickr set is here. Begona made this weird lace-up thing with a bunch of flowey fabric all over, and made the groom wear a top-hat, which I am convinced only Jack White and Slash can really get away with these days.
The affair was held in Begona's back yard, giving it a very bar-b-que feel, only with a bunch of darkly clad ne'er-do-wells instead of hillbillies. You could tell that even though the sun had set, they were a bit uncomfortable being outside. I'm sure they had a hard time deciding when to hold the wedding, as October (the gothiest month) had a full moon, a Friday the 13th, and of course, Halloween. They opted for the full moon. Cooler parties on the other two.
The funny thing about it was that the ones who dress like that every day, just came dressed as if they just happened to drive by, and saw a party, and the ones who don't dress like that every day tried really hard to sift through their wardrobes to find any and all black attire, and just put it all on. All of it. Then they just over-did their eye-make up and called it good. There was a third contingency that rolled in just looking for free food.
The ceremony was Wiccan, and very nice. Basically the same as any other kind of wedding. Actually kind of an amalgam of other types of weddings. They lit candles and jumped a broom. The officiant wore fake horns and was draped in a pentagram flag obviously purchased at Hot Topic. No devil worship, no bloodletting, no sacrifices, which was kind of a disappointment. It was all very nice and tasteful. For a wedding wear people wear horns. My favorite Wiccan participant was the guy with the shaved head, jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt reading: Wanna see my broomstick?
I have been around the punk/emo/goth culture my whole life, but had never been to a wedding that went all out. It was great fun. We ate small sandwiches and drank cheap beer, and chatted and mingled until we decided to go. We had left the boy in the care of his Aunt Grace, and when we returned to collect him, he was still up and at 'em. He slept very soundly on the ride back to Stilly.
In other news, I find that as the election season gets into full swing, I am simultaneously entranced and disgusted. Much like when a deadly car accident throws a dead body through your living room window: You have a personal stake in the outcome of these events, but you can really only watch what happens from the side and hope your house gets fixed eventually.*
We are going to the walk around thingy at OSU this Friday, and then going to the OU football game on Saturday. I not the biggest fan of football, but in my opinion, going to a game is better than TV, and college is better than pro. Jen scored some awesome tix in a boot or something somehow, and they are playing Colorado. So there's that. Her parents are gonna come up to watch the boy, and that means we can go out after the game.
I'm getting excited for Halloween.
Page 25 is up.
This guy is a douchbag.
That is all.

Stupid stupid stupid

So I keep meaning to post pics of the uber-goth wedding we went to over the weekend, but I keep forgetting that the camera is still in my wife's car, and she keeps having to drive really far away for meetings and the like. So I'll post those on Flickr and here when I get a chance. Suffice to say it was a lot of fun, and I haven't had an excuse to break out the goth gear since I moved away from Denver (nobody has a "goth night" in Oklahoma).

Remember back in this post when I said I would vote for McCain if the GOP put him up? Well that's out the window. Yesterday, McCain, playing the Rove card, said it was all Clinton's fault that North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon.

"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the
Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's
administration negotiated was a failure,"

This seems to be the new rallying cry of the republicans. Even though it has been 6 years since Bush took office, and four since all three branches of the government were put under GOP control. You would think they could have done something about it during that time. Constantly blaming Clinton is a total cop-out, and they know it. The sad thing is that a vast majority of the populace will believe them,because they are too lazy to look into the situation. Well, I did. Turns out that Clinton'ss policies were working just fine until 2002 (the same year Bush gave them 95 million dollars). The deal was that they would stop making plutoniumm. Bush cut off talks when he found out they were enrichingg uranium instead. A dick move on North Korea's part. But from 1994 to 2002, they did not produce any weapons grade material, never tested a bomb, and allowed IAEA inspectors into their facilities. When Bush walked away in 2002, it allowed them to start up the plutonium production again, kick out the inspectors, and continue the uranium enrichment, and spend the 95 mil on whatever they wanted, not on food for the poor. How is that Clinton's fault? Truth is, just like with 9/11, this happened on your watch, republicans. You should have seen it coming. Here is what Kerry said (the first concise, intelligent thing he has said in a long time):

"The truth is the Clinton administration knew full well they didn't have a
perfect agreement. But at least they were talking. At least we had inspectors
going in and we knew where the (nuclear fuel) rods were. This way, we don't know
where the rods are, the rods are gone. There are no inspectors. Ask any American
which way is better," Kerry said.

So why the paradigm shift, Mr. McCain? Could it be that you don't think the party faithful will put up a centrist? Is that why you gave the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University this year, after bashing him and his ilk six years ago? Turning away from your ideals for votes is a quick way to loose the center, the independentss like me. Bad move.

Once again, off the soapbox! Back to work!

My Name Is Michael Caine

The Caine from the '60s is far superior to the one we have now, I think. Don't get me wrong, he's still awesome. But his string of tough-guy movies were some of the best. I kind of wish he'd revisit one of those characters like Terrence Stamp did in The Limey. Now that was a good film. I think that what I like about a lot of British tough-guy movies is how unpretentious they are. From Get Carter on up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and even L4yer Cake. They just kind of do their thing. Most don't even have a love interest, or if they do, they aren't used as a MacGuffin or some other lame plot device. The best are the independents. Once studios start getting involved, you get James Bond. I love Bond, but there is far less style in those movies. I have high hopes and low expectations for the new Bond. I dig Daniel Craig, and I love that they are thinking outside the box and reinventing the franchise, but I am weary of the studio involvement. Looks like it was shot well.

Also, The new Thom Yorke album: I wouldn't say I am disappointed, because I saw it coming. I don't really like it though. Remember when the Pixies broke up, and then The Breeders started doing their thing, and Frank Black started doing his thing? I could tell who had done what in the Pixies, and could see how "creative differences" came into play after the band members parted ways. I thought Frank and The Breeders did some awesome stuff, but neither did anything close to what they did as the Pixies. Well, the same thing is happening here. Eraser is filled with everything I didn't like about the direction that Radiohead took after OK Computer. Again, a lot of what they did was bloody brilliant, but certain aspects of it I didn't jump on board for. Listening to this album it is easy to see that the rest of the band may have kept reeling him back and insisting there be actual drums and guitars in their songs. I think there are some good parts on the album, but the further Thom gets into the electronic stuff, the further away from OK Computer he gets. It seems like OK Computer is smack dab in the middle of this album, and Pablo Honey, right where it should be. I think that may be where I like them the best.

The Fall Season

I don't think my head works right. Did something big change and I missed it? I feel like I was anticipating something, and then I missed it, and then it turned out to be really anti-climactic anyway. So there is a bunch of residual anticipation that isn't directed anywhere. Maybe it's hockey season. Maybe it's The new fall TV season. I did miss a bunch of premiers when I was in DC, and a lot of those were extremely anti-climactic as well. Maybe that was it. That'd be kinda sad, though. If my mind was subconsciously excited about the fall TV schedule.
Some of the new shows I didn't really get to see except Heroes. That show I really liked. They did a good job of showing what it would be like to suddenly realize you had super powers. Most of us would freak out, but the comic book nerds would be overjoyed.
I never got into CSI or Law and Order or Lost or any or the ten billion stupid reality shows that are on network TV. Some of the more obscure reality shows I like, though. I have a few geeky shows that I watch like Smallvillee and Doctor Who, and now Heroes. Smallville and my secret guilty pleasure Gillmore Girls (a show I have been watching since day one and not telling anyone about it) are both on the new CW station, a merger of the WB and UPN. I'm sure the W is for Warner, but I don't know what the C is for. This was a good idea, as both networks had a heap of crap, and they seem to have done a good job of keeping the good (or at least the most successful) shows. I liked Veronica Mars, but there was always a scheduling conflict, but now I can watch it. OLN has picked a lot more Avalanche games this season, so that's good. Most of the time I don't even really watch TV. I mean like sit and stare at the screen for the whole show. I do that with movies, but with TV, I'm usually doing something else, like drawing comics or surfing the net, or blogging, or making dinner, or playing with my boy. It does always seem to be on though. At least after Jack goes to bed.
I had one awesome weekend. It was just me and the boy, as Jen was in Dallas. We had a good time. He is getting to really enjoy specific people and specific activities, and when you get around the things he likes, he's just as happy as can be. We got haircuts, went to the park, a lot, and generally just played and farted around Stillwater. It was a lot of fun. He's slowly starting to get easier to manage a night, so that's good. He still wakes up at 4:45 ready to start his day, but at least he sometimes sleeps straight through till then. Sometimes. We and a good time.
I rented The Proposition. This is the Australian Western that Nick Cave Wrote. It was very good, and very violent. No the Die Hard cartoony kind of violence that we usually get stuffed down out collective throats, but really mean, brutal violence. Violence that serves the very well written plot. Check it out.
Well, that's all I got for now.

SB 17 M 4

There are some movies you see as a child that stick with you for various reasons. Barbarella was one such film for me. For many males of my generation, the first time they really realized that there was something about the fairer sex worth looking into, came when they first saw Princess Leia in the slave girl outfit.* It was the same for millions of adolescent boys in 1983: They collectively tilted their heads to the side like a dog does when confused, and quietly uttered a single word: wow. It became the basis for many a fantasy from then on. As I grew older, I realized that we all had this in common, but we rarely spoke about it. It was always under the surface somewhere. What we didn't realize, and I didn't know until a few years ago, was that many a girl from our same generation had similar feelings for Han Solo. Maybe not as strong, and certainly not for as long, but it was there.

I was no exception, but I got a deeper dose of sci-Fe sexuality when my dad took me to see Barberella during a re-release at the local art-house sometime around 1985. Based an an extremely racy French comic book, Barberella was about... well it was really about Jane Fonda put into as many situations as possible where she could either get nekkid and have sex in a weird locale, or change her extremely skimpy psychedelic quasi-futuristic outfits.

It did make quite an impression on me. On the whole, it is a bad movie, but I love it anyway. For what it is, it is the best. The movie has had long reaching influence, the most obvious being where Duran Duran got their name. I you watch Arena, the "plot" of the concert vid concerns the Duran Duran from the movie exacting revenge on the band for stealing his name.

I have to say that 1968 was a wonderful year for film. Some of my all time favorites were made or take place in 1968. Night of the Living Dead, The Itallian Job, 2001: A space Oddessy, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Bullit, Planet of the Apes, the list goes on and on...

Page two:
The Missus has gone to Dallas for the weekend, and I have the boy to myself all weekend. I think we are going to go to the dog-parade. He'll like that. We may check out Celebrate Stillwater, but I don't know. I don't know if we'll have the time. Cody is leaving town for the weekend as well, so we can't take Jackson to the coffeeshop pretending to be a gay couple with an adopted kid. I know it works better with an Asian baby, but you've got to work with what you got. Had Jackson came out as an Asian baby, his mother and I would have had to have words. So that's all I have planned, but that's enough. If you want to stop by and say hello, and maybe watch him for a sec while I pee, feel free to do so.

Page 23 is up.

*One notable exception, is a friend of Jen's who's first thoughts of the opposite sex came while watching Wonder Woman as a child. He was young enough that he didn't really know what he wanted to do with Wonder Woman, but he thought it would probably be nice to sit in her lap.

Celebration on the Hill

Hi, all. Jen and I just spent the week in our nation's capital. We traveled with Jen's co-worker Karen, the second most rockin' girl at ACS. And the second shortest. These two distinctions were won through hard work and determination. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't be the second shortest person where you work. Unless you are Jeremy Turner.
The first thing I notice about leaving the mid/south/west/"heartland" is that nobody serves Dr. Pepper. I don't know if they don't serve it because nobody drinks it, or if nobody drinks it because they don't serve it. . All I know is that Mr. Pibb is a very poor substitute. Mr. Pibb never went to medical school. He's just some dude.
The second thing I notice is that where I live is really... white. I know I'm coming from whitey white Stillwater, but even Denver was pretty white. This is why most of the ethnic food I've ever eaten in the mid/south/west/"heartland" is sub-standard. Diversity is a good thing.
The third thing I notice is that being in airports and airplanes all day sucks ass, unless you have a really good book.
We got into DC around 5:00, and had to fight rush-hour traffic from Dulles into the city and to our hotel, the Marriott in Westpark, next to the Zoo which we didn't realize until we were on our way home. We got checked in, and took a cab to the kick-off event for COH. We got registered, and schmoozed a bit, then went in search of ethnic food. We found an awesome Thai food right by our hotel. We both got Pad Thai, and spring rolls, and ate every bit. They did not serve Dr. Pepper. We then crashed.
Day two:
We started with showers. The funny thing here is that we both took showers the night before after traveling all day. Off to the Ambassador breakfast for our region. For no adequately explored reason, Hawaii is part of our region, prompting a lot of "Aloha Y'all!" all day. The breakfast was yummy for hotel food, and we met a bunch of people who we'd be spending the day with. We then boarded the Metro en masse, pissing off the locals late for work. The Metro let out at Union Station, and we walked down to the Capital, where the giant stage was. After opening ceremonies, there was a parade, and we went to work. What we mainly did was man the booth, and visit others. But in the afternoon, we got to go meet with the politicians from our local districts. The point of the whole thing was to get a massive amount of people from all 50 states and provinces into Washington to show support for cancer research. Each state had ambassadors to meet with every representative and congressman who would meet with them. Jen and I were on the teams to meet with Rep Lucas and Senator Coburn. Lucas was very open and honest, and was all for what we were doing, happily signing the promise to help get funds back from reappropration, and to take a leadership role in getting more funds sent that way. Coburn, on the other hand was not so eager. I have never liked Coburn, so let's just get that out of the way. He violently pro-life, and extremely homophobic. He was the one caught doing a crossword puzzle during John Robert's confirmation hearings. What I do like about him, is that he has made it his mission to cut pork barrel spending in The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Katrina. It was because of this that he wouldn't sign. Morally, he won't sign things just for photo ops, that he doesn't intend on working toward. He said that if he signed it, and it didn't get done because of Washington bureaucracy, he'd be held accountable. Which is true. That was the whole point. But the fact that he'd rather not sign and stay safe than sign and try was weird. Especially for a two time cancer survivor. Better luck next time.
We went on to the Wall of Hope, and as the night was getting chilly, we wanted coffee. After about a half an hour looking for any coffeeshop, a local walked us the three blocks to one that was in a hotel near the Holocaust Museum. I found all the locals I met, with one very drunk exception, to be extremely nice, eager to help, and just a great bunch of people. Armed with hot choc and lattes, it was on to the Luminaria celebration: a ceremony where white bags lit from within by a candle, representing a loved one effected by cancer, are lined up along the reflecting pool in front of the capital. It was massive and beautiful, and I have no pics of it. After closing ceremonies as the night was winding down, a bunch of staff members ducked out and went to Murphey's Pub. There was live music(a large Irishman with a guitar who did a great cover of Down Under by Men at Work, au=amung others), and we all sang and danced and drank and ate cheese sticks. Then we climbed the way too steep hill back to the hotel and went to sleep (after showers).
Day Three:
Day three was the really fun day. Day three was the sight-seeing day. Day three was the day we all went rogue, not bowing to anybody else's time tables. Day three was the day of the trolley. The trolley takes you to almost every significant monument or touristy thing in the city. All for a mere 30 dollars. They take you there, telling you interesting historical facts en route, and trying hard to be funny. In this fashion we saw most of the main monuments of DC. My favs were the Jefferson and the Lincoln monuments. They had a lot power behind them. They don't make monuments like that anymore. The sad thing that I noticed is this: After 9/11, they put up temporary concrete barriers around all of the monuments. These prevented anybody from driving a vehicle within a certain distance of any one monument, as they blocked the drive-ways that were used to unload busses and what not in front of each monument. Well, this "war on terror" has become a seemingly permanent thing, as they are slowly creating permanent barriers, or in some cases, removing the streets that were brigaded. I think they thought these things would be up for only a short while, but the sad truth is that they have to make lasting plans. But I digress.
I was moved by the sheer size of Arlington. That place goes on and on, and they just bought a bunch more of the surrounding land for expansion, another sad fact. I also really liked the Korean War Memorial. That wasn't there when I went as a kid. When we were waiting on the for the trolley to take us back into town, as we were all really hungry by this point, we were accosted by a bum. I'm not sure what his main point was, but whatever it was, he backed it up the assertions such as: "My black ass was born in DC" and "You need to get your white ass out of here". I tried to tell him that I was waiting for the trolley to do just that, but he wasn't buying. Through a barrage of insults, pointings, profanity, and gin-spittle it was determined that I was a fag, and he seemed satisfied with that, and staggered on down the road. Of course, the trolley was 30 minutes late, prolonging our temporary friendship. When the trolley did come, all we wanted was food. Not so fast there. First you have to wait while they block traffic for the president's motorcade to go by. Cops and black cars and giant SUVs carrying men in suits with machine guns drove by for about 10 minutes. The two attractive Norweigans on the trolley with us had a hard time wrapping their brains around that one. They asked us if that's how he traveled every where, even to the market. Well, he doesn't go to the market. They seemed astonished by this. Then we had to fight all the backed up traffic to get to a restaraunt. ANY restaraunt. We ended up in Chinatown, and I had some awesome sesame chicken. The bill came in Chinese, which made it hard to figure out who owed what, but hey, it's Chinatown.
After that we got back on the trolley to see the national cathedral, embassy row and Georgetown. Here I parted ways with my companions to go have dinner with my friend Ann whom I had not seen since Blur played the Ogden in '96. After a bus ride, and a Metro ride into Alexandria, she fed me lazagna and Newcastle, proving that she is indeed a wonderful friend. Jen and her crew had some dinner, and went to Hotel Washington to see the view. They got to see The Prez fly over in a helicopter, the second sighting of the day. We all made it back to the hotel in one piece around 2:00 am, and decided it was a good day, but now it should end. The guys at the hotel told the girls that it was a good thing they came back late, because the president of Pakistan was there that night with a truck load of entourage to have dinner with Cheney and Condoleeza. Off to sleep.
Day Four:
The last day. We only had time for a few things before we had to go to the airport. We chose The Holocaust Museum. A good choice. Everybody told us that if we could only see one museum, to o that one. They were right, and I offer the same advise to everybody else. It was very moving. We were there a good three hours, and I still didn't see everything I wanted to. We started walking back into town, stopping for pizza, and to get a closer look at the Whitehouse. The Snipers on the roof also got a closer look at us, which was a little unnerving. They don't like it when you wave at them. We did some shopping, and headed off to the airport. The flight back seemed longer than the way out, but at least I got to sit next to Jen this time. We watched Poseidon on the tiny TV screen, and read, and did a crossword, and napped. The lay-over in Denver was too long, but no long enough to go into town to see friends. So I ate a sammich instead. We got into Tulsa around midnight, and headed off to the Grandparents to collect our son. We missed him so much, it was all we could do to not wake him up when we got in.
So ends our trip to DC. We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to bring Jackson there when he is old enough to care.

SB 16 M 3

Hey there! Here is a Reservoir Dogs sketch for ya.
A fine film. I watched it again the other day. I hadn't seen it for a while but this post got me iching to see it. I wish people would stop giving Quinten loads of money so he'd be forced to make more creative movies again.
In other news, Jackson decided that this was the weekend to start walking. Grace was here visiting, and at some point, Jen and Grace and Jack were in his room playing, and he just tore ass down the hallway. On foot. Laughinh hysterically the whole time. He's very proud of himself. He'd been holding onto furniture and stuff like that for months, but this was a bit of a surprise. Now he won't stop. He's all over the place and he's friggin' fast. We now enter a new level of containment and surveillance.
As I mentioned earlier, we're going to D.C. tomorrow for the COH.
Jack is splitting his time between the grand-parents, and they will have their work cut out for them with him walking. I don't envy them. The trip will be fun. I've never done anything important or political while in D.C., so this will be a blast. I haven't been to the east coast in forever, either. We're going to do some lobbying, some sight-seeing, and some old-dear-friend visiting. Probably in that order. See ya afterward.

S -15 / M - 2

Here is last month's calendar drawing. I for got to post it a few weeks ago. Another of the movie sketches. Kill Bill is an enigma for me. I like it a lot, but there is something missing. Tatantino used to do really stylish things because he didn't know any better. He just shot things in certain ways either subconsciously, or as a direct homage (read: theft) of something else. Now it seems he makes things overly stylish because that's what he does, and he knows that people expect it. Like how there is always a shot from inside a trunk, and a long steady-cam shot somewhere in all of his films. I think he is a lot better with scripts that he's come up with himself. A great example is the utter turd that is Jackie Brown. Getting horrible performances out of both Sam Jackson and DeNiro can only be attributed to Director error. And what the hell was Bridget Fonda doing in that movie? One thing I love, is that this was made during the time when Tarantino was the poo, and everybody was crazy about him. Less than a year later Steven Soderberg makes Out of Sight, based on another Elmore Leonard book, and manages to out-do Tarantino. The funny thing is that Michael Keaton plays the same character in both. I love that movie, and I'm glad that JLo made it before she went nuts. She'd never do something that cool now.
Okay, enough about that. Um... so Jack slept through the night on Monday. We almost shat ourselves. He was down from 7 to 7! No drugs or anything. Unfortunately we kept waking up every few hours or so, expecting him to be awake, and running in to check for SIDS. So it wasn't like we got that much sleep. We were hoping it would be an ongoing thing, but it seems that it was a one time deal. It did set a precedent, so we'll be sure to mention that to him. He got right back into the swing of waking up every two hours the last two nights.
Next week, I get t go to DC to participate in the American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill. We get to lobby politicians en masse to get some of the funding back that they have steadily taken away during the last, oh 5 or six years. Personally, I think the stem-cell ban is one of the worst things the Bush administration has ever done. It puts a screeching halt to a lot of research in America that now has to go outside the country, taking jobs and talent with it. Bush likes to surround himself with the "Snowflake Children" whenever he speaks about it. Saying that these kids couldn't be here if they had used their embryos for stem-cell research. But he misses the point that these kids wouldn't be there without extensive stem-cell research. Idiot. Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic companies get to test on live animals in gruesome ways all day long, but we can't use a few stem-cells from an embryo that has a 99% chance of being destroyed anyway and has a higher potential for useful information gained. Seems odd.
Enough soap-boxing! Get back to work!

Sketchbook #14 (movie #1)

I'm on this weird kick lately of doing sketches based on my favorite movies. Here is a Shaun of the Dead one. If you haven't seen that movie, please do so. Pegg is a genius. I have a deep love of Zombie movies. I think the first one I ever saw was Night of the Creeps, and that ended up being the worst one I ever saw. My Dad watched it with me, and soon made me watch all the Romero stuff, "'cause he got it right", and I love him for that. I love the new direction Zombie movies have taken. Fast, mean bastards, not the slow-pokes who can be easily out-run and only pose a threat in really large numbers (which they usually have). They pose way more of a threat now.
So this weekend, we had a little dinner party, and were graced with the presence of my good friend Sarah, as well as the one and only Cody Dopps. We had a lovely time. I grilled a tenderloin, some fillets, asparagus, and ginormous mushrooms. Jen made some scalloped potatoes and some awesome garlic bread. For desert, some carmelized pears atop vanilla ice-cream. yum. Cody brought wine, Sarah some beer, and I nursed a half dozen jack 'n' cokes (actually Evan Williams and Dr. Pepper, but it doesn't sound as cool). We yapped about travel and politics and why Enid is such an utter shithole. Sarah is excited to move to Las Vegas, although why she ever left Boston is a complete mystery to me. Jen hit the sack, and around 1:00 or so, the guests left, and about 1:30, Jackson woke up screaming his head off about how his head was spontaneously creating new bone in the form of teeth, and that said bone was making it's way to the surface in a most mean-spirited way. He got back to sleep about 3:30, but woke up at 6:00 wanting breakfast. I think I was still a little tipsy, making scrambled eggs through bleary eyes.
Saturday, we cleaned and went with cousin Ryan to the city to help Jen's sister Grace move. We were hoping to leave at noon, and it ended up being 4:00. They have successfully escaped the horror that is Parsons, KS and made it to a city. A real city, well sort of. They both landed jobs ay OSU OKC, and should be sitting pretty for a while. Lonny is considering switching from the KS National Guard to OK, but since he is up for Captain, he might stick it out in KS for a while. We had a nice dinner at Abuelo's, came home, and after moving, fighting a hang-over all day, and more beer, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Sunday we did very little.
Today is 9-11, and although I feel very deeply for all those who lost loved ones, or died themselves, I am very weary of the political posturing that will go on today. I really hate the way the Bushies take these opportunities to tell us over and over again that we are much safer than before 9-11, but that an attack is possible ay any moment. Go shopping, but keep an eye on the sky. It is a stupid scare tactic, that contradicts itself, and people lap it up. I'm staying away from it. I usually listen to NPR or sutchlike most of the day, but today I'll just listen to all the music I downloaded over the weekend. I got lots to listen to. Some OK GO, Racantours, Gnarles Barkley, and other stuff that I am WAY behind the curve on.

Stay smart.

PS- This, is really cool

Labor day

Page 21 is up.

A relaxing weekend. Not really by choice. We're kind of broke right now, and that forced us to be home bodies for the weekend. We went to the park, took a few walks, and watched the start of college football. A bunch of Jen's family came by before the OSU game, and we had a good time hanging out with them. Jen's step-mom who wasn't going to the game, offered to watch the boy so we could go get a bite to eat, which was nice. I downloaded a butt-load of music and stuff, including the new Decemberists album, which is awesome. I truly love bittorrent.

We finally rented V for Vendetta. I had been wanting to see it, as I was a big fan of the comic. It was really good. I hope that some people take to heart the message of not giving the government unlimited power. The original was a criticism of Thatcher, and pitted fascism vs. Anarchism, but the movie makers managed to update the story nicely. They made it a bit more about neo-conservatism vs. Liberalism, but since it is set in England, the parallels to the American political landscape are a little more hidden. Jen was put off a bit by the very comic-booky opening, where Evey is saved by V in a dark alley where she was attacked by thugs, but after the plot really started rolling, she got into it.

I hadn't read the book in a long time, yet I have some very strong memories about the time that I did. Here is the story: (kind of gross)

Back in the day, I had moved out of my parents house when I was about 15, due to some... um... "Domestic Issues". Mom was totally on board, by the way. It was best for everybody. That is a long story. For a while I lived with friends, so I could still get to school and what not, and most weekends I stayed with my brother, who had an apartment downtown, having moved out at a similarly early age from my Dad's house. This paticular weekend, I got a ride from my mom to my brother's house. I usually took the hour long bus ride that picked up at the aurora mall, so I was happy to get a ride. Since I was showing up early, I wasn't sure if he was going to be home. If not, I was to go by the Mayan two blocks away and get his keys, let myself in, and amuse myself until he got off work. The place he lived in was an old Victorian that had been converted 4 separate apartments, and Jeff lived on the top floor (what used to be the attic) with his buddy Lorne. There was one long staircase that went all the way to the top, and as I was going up, on the second landing, there was this big dude banging with all his might on the door to #3. He was very agitated and screaming something about how he left his jacket in there, but really he just wanted in. He wanted to kick some ass. I got past him with a "what's up?" and went up to see if Jeff was home. He wasn't, and the whole time I'm waiting there, the Guy is still screaming and banging on the door. I pushed past him again and hopped back in the car. Mom and I run to the Mayan, get the keys, and head back to the house. I told mom all about the weirdo in the car, and she was worried about me, so she wanted to come up with me. Good thing, too, because when we opened the main door, there was the guy. Sitting on the stairs. Holding his face in his hands like he was crying. He may have been, but we couldn't tell because of the massive amounts of blood all over his hands and on the carpet and on the walls. I said something like "dude, you okay?", to him and when he looked up, half his face was gone. Just not there anymore. Mom and I freak a little, then run upstairs. I tore the apartment apart looking for a first aid kit or anything that could help while mom called the cops. I go back down there with a roll of paper towels, to try to stop the bleeding. I remember seeing his eyebrow dangling in front of his eye and wanting to just stick it back where it was supposed to be. Pretty quick, the cops showed up, and I retreated back up to the apartment. We heard the guy telling his story, and saw him through the tiny front attic window carefully led to an ambulance and taken away.

Soon after, the cops tried to get into apartment #3. They knocked politely, the inhabitants turned up the stereo. They banged a little louder, and raised their voices slightly. They got a firm "Fuck you!" from inside. They bashed the fuck out of the door and stormed the place. There was a lot of commotion, a lot of yelling, and then through the tiny window, we saw the neighbor and his girl get violently tossed into separate police cars and taken away. Thinking the crisis was pretty much over, and having some place to be, mom left. She had to get a cop to move his car which is a chore in itself.

Then the real commotion started. Seeing something like this from beginning to end was a pretty surreal experience, and I didn't realize at the time that there is a lot of post incident work that goes on. Keep in mind that this would have been the early '90s, well before the rise of all the CSI type procedure shows that I never watched anyway. So the detectives, firemen, media, police photographers, and whoever else start stomping in and out of the building doing whatever it is that they do. I poke my head out, and tell one of the cops that I saw the whole thing and that it was me who called the cops. They had been looking for me, and lead me to a cop car, where I spent the next 45 minutes sitting in the front for once, giving a statement, and then writing that whole statement down on official looking carbon paper.

When I was done, they said I couldn't go back in, because they were busy in the hallway. Great. Now what? All my stuff was inside. I decide to go to the Mayan and see Jeff. I told him and the rest of the very interested staff the story, and decide to just hang out there till Jeff got off. He had a copy of V for Vendetta and a few other comics in his bag, and I sat in the upstairs cafe drinking coffee and read the book from cover to cover twice. When Jeff's shift was over, we went to Mary and Lou's (God how I miss thee) for a burger and then back to the house. We got up stairs, and decided to start drinking.

Now, one thing that CSI never shows is how all those people stampeding throughout the building never clean up after themselves. They leave that to you or to who-ever owns the building. So we get back and there is bits of paper, bits of medical supplies, bits of door to #3, and bits of the guy's face and circulatory system all over the place. They never even closed the door to #3, and there was so much blood every where, that the carpet made a little squishing sound where ever we stepped. It stayed that way for a while, like a few days, until somebody decided to call the landlord, who had no idea that anything had even happened. The carpet was eventually shampooed (badly) and the door jamb fixed, but rather that cleaned off the blood from the walls and door, they just painted over it. You could still see where the blood used to be when Jeff moved out a while later.

I never got called to testify or anything, and #3 was rented to somebody else pretty quick, actually, to our friend Eric if I remember correctly. In retrospect, I don't know why that wasn't a clue that everybody should move. Jeff and many of his friends stayed in that house or the one next to it for quite some time, and weird shit was always going down. Maybe the corner was cursed or something.

Probably not.

Random #3

New NGV5 is up. The Slug Zombies have arrived!

Um... What else? The weekend was hawesome! Jen's parents came up to Stilly to watch Jackson for the weekend so we could get a break. We thought we were going to go to Wichita to pick up a drafting table that I had bids out on ebay, but some fucker outbid me by a buck at the last second. So instead we went to Tulsa and just stayed in Jen's parents house. They were up here with the boy, and we were down there on our own. It was glorious. We ate out, shopped, and slept in. Basically became slugs because we could. So nothing really to report, which is a very good thing.

Random thoughts:
-This whole Jonbenet thing is retarded. I knew from a mile away that guy was a) a creepy little shit, and b) not the killer. If he was so gung-ho about confessing, and felt so bad about it, he would have done it a lang time ago. And BTW, a known pedophile goes on the run and nobody thinks to check Thailand? Idiots. He was even using his real name. And there was something very Lee Harvey about how they kept parading him around.
-A year after Katrina and nobody has learned shit. Bush said yesterday that he's not giving anymore money out and that it is up to the locals to make it work with what they have. What they have is Jack and Shit. And Jack left town long ago. dick.
-We finally saw Brokeback Mountain last night. I was waiting for the hoopla to wind down, and to forget about what I had heard about it. It was a very good movie. Being in the middle of Homophobistan, which is full of cowboys, I thought it was a nice comment on tolerance.
-This is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

That is all.

Esquire.

So this post by ELB, (take your time, I'll wait...) made me have a pang of nostalgia. Though I never worked in a video store, I did work in a movie theatre. An art-house one at that. Most of the people in the neighborhood were convinced that we were a porn theatre.
I started there the week reservoir Dogs opened, and left the week, years later, that reservoir dogs was re-released for some festival or double feature or something, making for good book-ends to that career. For a bunch of kids on minimum wage, we sure had a lot of fun. We threw parties every few weeks centered around the arrival of new movies, these started as employee screenings, but degraded into debauchery until every few months the management would tighten the reigns, and only allow employees for a while, but it would always go south sooner rather than later.
And the sex. Holy shit was that an incestuous bunch. It seemed like every body was banging somebody else who worked there. For a while, we had the honor of having the most gay employees, and were dubbed "the Esqueer". There was even one infamous instance where one girl joined in on a couple's wedding night.
I got held up at gunpoint there once. We had just emptied the lock box, and these two guys came in, waving guns. By "waving", I mean discretely hidden in coats, and held low, but hey, a gun is a gun. They got the a night's cash for some French movie, and my manager's wallet, who in his gay little way went prancing after them, and they shot at him. They didn't hit him. Or his giant Freddy Mercury mustache.
Erin's post concerns, partly, getting really stoned and fucking with the customers. This was a fond past-time of ours as well. The projection booth must have had a permanent layer of THC on the walls. The upstairs theatre was converted from the old balcony, and the screen sat in front of this little curtained area that we had a bunch of junk in. For a while we had a James Bond Standee up there, positioned so that when the light on the screen was right, it looked like a guy with a gun was hiding back there, behind the curtain. That lasted about a week before somebody complained. I think the projectionist adapted the idea to have a head on the film platter, so that if you happened to look up there while the movie was playing, it'd look like somebody was up there nervously pacing.
We had this massive stock pile of movie posters in the basement of the Mayan (part of the same chain, and although we technically worked for one theatre, we really worked at all of them.), My brother was put in charge of getting them in order one slow summer, a daunting task, given the piles and piles on posters there, form every movie any of the theatres had shown for the previous 20 years or so. Jeff decided to exact his revenge for such a menial task by alphabetizing all of the posters by the second letter of the title. Jeff could find any poster you wanted in a matter of minutes, but it took everybody else hours. I'm not sure they ever figured that one out.
By far, our favorite people to fuck with were the Rocky Horror Picture Show people. I mean, come on. They're asking for it. They're like the nerds of the band fags. How can you not? We did some really horrible things to them.
First off, the last movie of the night usually went in about 9:30 or so. It would take us about 20 minutes to do our side work, then we would lock the doors, file into the booth and get fucking shit-faced. Every once in a while, we'd poke our heads out to see if anybody needed to be let out, and to make sure nobody in line was setting anything on fire. To minimize their exposure to "real" customers, we started the line around the corner on 6th ave, and every week, we'd inch that velvet rope back just a little more, till the line almost started in the alley. The show was supposed to start at midnight, but we would rarely venture out of the booth before 12:30. THEN we'd let the "cast" in to set up for a while, THEN we'd start letting the idiots who actually paid good money week after week in, and start the show around 1:00, pushing back the 2:00am show, if we had one, even further. NOBODY was let in before we said so. That meant that if some poor sap was in his Frank-N-further garters and it was -10 degrees and snowing, he still had to wait. He should have brought something other than a cape to cover himself. We'd make them go get us pizza or send them to the grocery store for stamps. One of our favs was that even though we had a cleaning service, we'd make them clean the theatre of rice and toast and toilet paper before they left. The weird thing was that they were happy to do all of it, because we were the cool kids, and they desperately needed our approval. The even weirder thing is that in the circles we ran in, we were NOT the cool kids, and we desperately sought approval from everybody else.
It was a fun job. No responsibilities, very little politics. If it weren't for the appalling pay, I probably would have left later than I did. For a while I worked there in the evenings and at the coffeeshop in the mornings, but I was making far too much at the coffeeshop to warrant a second job, so I quit. After a while, they stopped calling me for employee screenings, and that was that.

The Nothing and a rant

So usually at the begining of the week, I regale my two readers with tales of weekend shenanigans. But this weekend we didn't really do anything interesting. At least not to you two.
Jack had some live viruses injected into his chubby little thighs on Friday*, and that in conjunction with the three teeth that are cutting made for a very cranky baby indeed. For the most part, he either slept or whined all weekend. This was also the first weekend in a while that we didn't have a major obligation an hour's drive away, so we spent a lot of it cleaning a very dirty house, and trimming the yard's hair.
So what should I write about? How about a few little things that are creeping and crawling around in my head. 1) I am slowly getting more confident in the country. More and more people are starting to see that the Bush administration in paticular and the Republican party in general have been corrupted by absolute power. These mid term elections will be a good test to see how much total bullshit the country can take. That is, of course, if the Democrats don't fuck it up like they usually do. The thing about the Dems is that they hardly ever really fuck up them selves. They just don't fight back when attacked, so the general populace figure whatever the GOP said was true. And they don't have any balls. The Repubs went after Clinton so hard for a seemingly crooked land deal in Arkansas that they ended up being exonerated for, yet they cried impeachment because he got a hummer from tubby. Bush has done so many horrible things that are WAY worse, and the deems sit on their haunches afraid that if they say anything they will be called a traitor. But they are pulling out of that. They are gaining ground as the Repubs slip.
That being said, 2) I really don't want Hillary to run in '08. Not a good idea. I think she's a good politician and that her heart is in the right place, and she would make a good president, but she's not electable. In the same way that Obama isn't. They are too green, and the demographics of the people who actually vote are still to old school** to open their minds that much. So I think Gore should run again. Stop laughing and hear me out.
-He's already beat Bush, and anybody that they put up (except McCain, whom I would totally vote for) wouldn't be anywhere near Bush's crazy crazy, tipping the odds heavily in Gore's favor.
-In the 2000 election, all of Gore's mud was already slung. They already dug up whatever they could dig up on him, and nobody seemed to care that much.
-I really like what he's been doing with his time off. The web stuff*** and the environmental stuff have been top notch, and I think a lot of people have seen that.
- He's tall, good-looking, and Nader isn't running.
- He's not in the pocket of the oil companies.

I don't think he'll do it, but if he did, and if he was for some reason up against Hillary in a primary, I think the same thing that happened to Lieberman would happen to Hillary. She'd get swooped by the one guy more left than her. I would totally vote for him. Again.



* He also went to his first day of pre-school. He wore a dinosaur outfit. He was really cute.
** (racist redneck chauvinists)
*** The only beef I have is that he fired Layla Kayleigh, who was a correspondent on Current, after she did a Maxim shoot. That wasn't cool, but she's on AOTS now, which is cool.

Bowling and Sleep Deprivation

Here is an actual conversation I once had with one Aaron Taylor, after showing up unannounced at his house, and finding him in the back yard:

J: What the hell are you doing?
A: Well, this tree died.
J: So....?
A: So I'm painting one half of it red, and the other half blue.
J: Okay.

Man. As some of you know, Jackson does not sleep through the night. Never has. He only recently decided that naps were a good idea. For ever he just didn't sleep. Not at night, not during the day. There were a few times when we had to take him to the grand parents for the weekend, just so we could catch up with our friends in dreamtown, but it never worked, because our minds have programmed us to think that if he doesn't wake up every few hours than something is wrong. Well, he is making slow progress to remedy the situation. He sleeps now, but likes to get up around 4:30 or 5:00. Jen the saint usually gets up with him and lets me sleep for a little while. So once she's up and moving and has some caffeine in her, Jack decides it's time to take a nap. Usually around 8:45 or so. I think just to piss off his mommy. He's a sly one.
The point of all this is that before, if we wanted to go out, we knew he wasn't going to sleep anyway, and if he did sleep, it'd be from 3 to 9 or so on the weekends, giving us about 5 hours, which is pretty good for us. So we went out this weekend thinking that. We roll in from the bar at 2:30 or so, a little tipsy, pour ourselves into the bed, and get a whoppin' 2 and a half hours of sleep before he wakes up. Jen the saint once again took care of it, and made his some early morning eggs. I love that woman. She got a little nap later in the day, but I think she needs about three days of uninterrupted sleep to really catch up. I'm implementing a new thing where, on Saturday, I get him up and fed and out of the house as soon as possible, so Jen can sleep. We'll be spending Saturday mornings at the coffeeshop now, so if you want to come keep me company, please do so. I'm the guy with the funny glasses and the sleepy mug.
That isn't to say that we did not have a lovely weekend. This we did. Friday, Cookie joined us for some Chinese food and what we call "porch time", which is exactly what it sounds like. Saturday we dragged cookie kicking and screaming to Tulsa to attend another one-year-old's birthday party, and for that, I am truly sorry. We had a good time inspite of the heat.
We then met up with him and his new girlfriend to eat some awesome Italian food. It was muy yummy. The off to go disco bowling for Gretchen's birthday. There were about 15 of us, and we were all really bad at it, which made it a lot more fun. Jen and Alison were the surprise winners. Who knew? On to Caz's to finish up the night. There was some sort of event going on. They raffled off a Heiniken chimenia during a burn ban. I don't know why. I did walk out with a little pile of PBR swag.
Sunday was spent recuperating and eating red meat.

Robot with knick-knack

I missed the calendar thingy this month, but here is a detail because it was the only thing I drew on it. That robot's gonna mess you up.
So we finally had a weekend at home. A three day weekend for me due to an uninvited migrane. I got to work Friday morning, and felt pretty crappy, and had a bit of a headache, but I just could not stop sweating. It wasn't hot in the AC, and I was pouring buckets. Then a mythical being hit me in the back of the head with a sledge-hammer and I almost passed out. So I decided to go home and sleep it off. That took till 2:00, and I was pretty groggy the rest of the day. Jen was having a garage sale, so I just stayed inside with the boy, so he wouldn't get heatstroke, and I wouldn't fall over.
Friday night, we ended up having dinner with a bunch of sorority girls. I'm still not sure how. But, we got a lot of offers to babysit Jackson, so that was good. We now have this massive list of girls to call when we need to go get shit-faced. Always handy.
Saturday was the rest of the sale. We got totally cleaned out, and that was including a bunch of stuff that cousin Ryan dropped off. We had to close down at 12:30 because it was 106 degrees. At 12:30. Not even the hottest part of the day. Fuckin' sun. God hates us. We spent the rest of the day trying to stay places that were air conditioned. We finally got to leave the house and go for a walk around 9:00, when Jack should have been in bed and right when all the bugs come out. I'm still itchy. I think all we did on Sunday was housework. We were really starting to get cabin fever. Poor Jack would look out the window at his little swing that I put up in the tree for him, and whine. It was very sad.
In other news, the Cheerleader comic that Jeff and I did got published. It is in a cheesy goth themed rag, but hey, published is published. Always nice to see yourself in print.
I leave you with this random thought:
Why the hell can't Fruit Stripe Gum last longer? So good. So fleeting.

Whiners

So NPR did this story this morning about the awful heat wave going across the country. They were making this big deal about how some place was having trouble coping because for 10 days the temperature had been above 90 degrees.
Above 90! That's horrible!
If you click the pic to the right, you will see that Stilly had exactly zero days under 90, and only 5 that were under 95. Oh, and do me a favor and click here.
You see that? Forecast is another week of above 100, and another month of above 90. John on KEXP Seattle's morning show was so happy because the intense heat (88) was finally over and it was back into the 70s for the rest of the week. I wanted to leap through the internets and throttle his throat.
This heat makes me cranky and sick to my stomach. My electric bill may as well be another car payment. It would probably be cheaper to get another car, and just sit in it with the engine idling, blowing the AC all over me. It can't be any more expensive. I wish I had the money to go live in Australia or New Zealand where it is winter right now. We need to make a really cool city somewhere where it is really cold year round, like Siberia or in ANWaR. If millions will flock to Vegas, they'll come to my new city.

Who's with me?

Hella busy

So this was the weekend of Birthday parties. As we celebrated the 1 years old birthday * of the wee Jack, back in Denver Jeremy and Carrie, two of my favorite people of all time celebrated their spiraling decent into their 30s. I wish you both the best, and I am truly sad that I was not there to watch the pair of you defile yourselves. Cookie was not on hand, due to a previous engagement of a family reunion, celebrating his decent into insanity, I imagine.
Our weekend was (as the title suggests) hella busy.
Let's start on Friday. Jen had an event, so she took off early for that, having to drive to Tulsa, drop off the boy at the babysitter, then venture way up North to the event. I, after a full day of work, had to book it home, collect the dogs, and motor to Tulsa myself to pick up my mom at the airport. We then went to The Grandparent's house and hung out for the remainder of the evening. The house was full of guests including Jen's sister and her husband. We ate fajitas. Jen rolled back in about 2:30 am, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving her a really nice, full night's sleep. So as not to wake up the rest of the house, we went to the coffeeshop, and then to a park for the morning.
Around 11:00, Lonny and I had to go help cousin Preston move. That was treat in the 101 degree heat. We were the first to arrive, and did the bulk of the heavy lifting, Lonny with a bum thumb (a result of a "combat injury" suffered in Iraq during a particularly intense volley ball game). We got them moved, however, and after some wonderfully cold beers and tacos, Lonny and I headed back over to the house to prepare for the festivities.
Streamers, balloons that popped every two seconds, snacks and goodies, extra chairs and tables, the cakes, the splash-pad, and a bunch o' grillin' meat. Done in time to take a quick shower that I was still in when the first guests arrived.
It was a "pool party" of sorts. More like a splash-pad party, but hey, nobody really complained. I think the older kids were a little disappointed, though. The whole thing was vintage cow-boy themed, and I think it went off really well. Jack tore into the strawberry cake after a few test jabs, and had a hell of a time. Then presents. That kid got more stuff on Birthday #1 than I did on all of my childhood birthdays put together. Craig and Heather got him the coolest items by far. They really went the distance with a little boy's cowboy cut button up shirt, and a really cool t-shirt, coupled with a really awesome print of a cowboy for his wall. People really want that kid to read, as he got so many books, we have to go and get a a new bookshelf just to put them all on. The Walkers each got him a copy of their favorites books from their own childhoods, and inscribed each with a personal note, which I thought was really sweet.
After the guests dwindled and we cleaned up both ourselves and the house, and after Jack crashed from the MASSIVE sugar high he was on from the cake, we decided to go to the bar.
The Nelson's and The Powers headed to Caz's, and had to turn around and go back to Sapulpa to get Jen's ID, because she forgot it. When we got back, Craig and Heather had already left, but forgot a half a pack of cigarettes on their table, and we assumed they were a gift, so we happily puffed away the night on their dime (thanks, guys!). The One and Only Andrea was there and we all chatted away till closing. We got home sometime after 2:00, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving us another night of rest and relaxation. Jen lost it, and went home to sleep. I stayed up with the boy until my mom woke up, and we packed up and left around 11:00. We got back into Stilly and all took naps while doing absolutely nothing** for the rest of the day.
There was an awesome gift waiting in the mailbox, though. This was the new Evildoers CD, and a bunch of other swag that I had designed for them. I've done CD covers and buttons and things before, but there is always something really cool about getting your hands on the final product for the first time. Joey also included a shirt for Jack. All of this enclosed in a pop-corn box.
I think we all went to bed around 10:00, which was good, because Jack woke up at 5:30 again, and we were all a little less likely kill anybody.


* Blogger's picture thingy isn't working for me, so go to Flickr.

**if you conceder watching a bunch of Sealab "nothing"