Holy Crap Joe Turns 3 Today!

Dear Joseph,
Three??!! Already??!! This has been a bang-up year, Mister.
There are a few things I've noticed about you. For one thing, you are totally effing crazy. I mean that in a good way. You just love being alive. You run, jump, laugh and giggle through everything life throws at you, good or bad. You are a super cuddle-bug. Way more than Jackson, whom I suspect is part Cylon. You already have a big imagination, and can hold your own against older kids when role-playing, and I've seen you defeat many an evil Jedi all on your own. You love to sing, which I find hilarious because it's always about whatever you happen to be doing at the time. You have a great sense of humor and are already the trickster of the house.
There was a night a few weeks ago where you took over the reading time during our bed time ritual, and you made up a whole 5 minute story about a dog named Jello-head just by looking at the pictures in the random book you picked out of the pile. That alone just about sums you up as a person. Pretty impressive for a 2 year old.
You are completely fearless. Still. Three years of banging your head, scraping up your hands, bruising up your legs and generally getting knocked around haven't had any impact on your wonderful ability to jump into any situation and hold your own. You once fell off the ladder to a slide at the pool. Eight feet down, and you landed mainly on your head. Within 20 minutes, you were back on that slide. I don't know if that's stubbornness or determination, but that's a fine line anyway.
Credit where credit is due, you are a happy, thoughtful kid due in no small part to having a wonderful mother. She is the best parent I've ever even heard about, and having such happy, healthy, smart kids is proof positive.
Anyway. I love you, buddy.
Happy birthday.

-Dad.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds

Kit Fisto!

Dr. Zaius

The Doctor and Amy Pond

Skully

Cyberman

Brock Samson...

21B

V.I.N.CENT.

Anybody remember this guy?

The Black Hole was Disney's fast-tracked answer to Star Wars, and was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. I think it was one of the 3 movies that HBO ran non-stop during its infancy(the other two being Porky's and Patton). This movie and a few others, I have attempted to watch as an adult and have been severely disappointed. I remember this movie being awesome. It is not awesome. It is a very good effort, and is interesting on a cerebral level, but too slow moving and too high-brow for the crowd Disney usually brought in at the time. I hear the creative team at Disney that is responsible for the Tron sequel are making a new version. I don't really see the point. Back in the '70s, black holes were weird, mysterious things that many respectable scientists didn't think actually existed. Now that we know so much more about them and how they function, what ground could the movie really cover? Of course the original threw science and physics out the window, so why can't the new one?
I had similar experiences with The Dark Crystal, and Dreamscape. Both movies I loved as a kid that DO NOT hold up. I really wish I hadn't watched them as an adult and just kept the memory of them being awesome when I was little. Instead, now I know that I may have had shitty taste even back then.

-JP

It's a TRAP!

Dr. Girlfriend

Trooper

Sketchy...

What's with the codpiece?

-JP

Tales from On Demand 4

2012

Well, this should be interesting. The wife and one of the kids are in Florida for a wedding this weekend. The younger boy is here, but he goes to bed at like 8:30, so my free time has grown by leaps and bounds.
I'm going to try something new this time, and comment as I watch.

00.01.34 - Ominous music and an opening shot of Saturn. I guess they want us to know that Saturn is about to do something really bad. Saturn's always been kind of a dick.
00:02.34 - There is a shot of the sun almost identical to the opening shot of Blade Runner. Weird.
00:03.14 - We meet our first main character. An intelligent, world traveled African American. I predict a gruesome death in his future.
00:05.59 - Enter the sleeze bag. Oliver Platt, even. I predict an even more gruesome death for him. Or he lives through the whole thing.
00:08.33 - Danny Glover! Looking too old for this shit.
00:11.00 - Arabic e-reader. Didn't the manufacturer know that reading white text on a black background is not only bad for one's eyes, but reduces comprehension?
00:13.20 - Enter John Cusack. I bet he's grizzled in some way.
00:16.24 - I was right. The ex married a plastic surgeon.
00:16.34 - grizzled old men. They will live.
00:21.26 - A father daughter talk about the world ending.
00:25.34 - Woody Harrelson playing himself.
00:37.14 - Hey, look! Linoleum cracks just like cement. I knew I should have just poured concrete in my kitchen.

...


Okay, I have to admit something. At this point, it was well after 3:00 AM, and I fell asleep on the couch. And let me tell you this: If you're an action movie, and you can't hold an insomniac's attention at 3AM, then you are not a very good action movie. I guess live blogging a movir wasn't a good idea at 3AM either. So that was friday. I didn't have the desire to finish watching it until monday while Joe was down for a nap. I have to say that this was not a very good movie. The whole point was that some made-up science was going to cause the Earth's crust to do all sorts of bad things, which it did. Here is what I don't get: After the explain that being on a boat is bad because of all the horrible tsunamis (that's tidal wave to you and me), and even show one of the main character's father die horribly by a tsunami while on a boat, the answer to saving civilization is to put everybody on boats. =/ It seems like hot air balloons or dirigibles would be the better choice, if you want to avoid both the land and the sea. Also, even though they explain that all the oceans will cover all of the land masses for some reason, it seems like even if the Earth's crust shifted, a good solid, high place in the middle of a continent would still be the place to be. May the middle of Canada or something.
Any way, skip it. Totally not worth it, even with all the mass destruction and people getting killed by walls of dirt. Okay some of that is pretty cool. I do always love it when a whole shit load of people die in movies.

Powers out.

Tales from On Demand 3

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Meh.


-JP

Tales from On Demand 2

Day of the Dead(2008)

So Zombies are in fashion now. I get that. Zombies are cool. I've been a big fan for a lot of years. Thanks to Zack Snyder and Danny Boyle and the Resident Evil frachhise, we even have a new breed of super-human zombies that rely less on over powering their victims with sheer numbers and more on kicking ass. And running. These new Zombies can run really fast. The new breed are also not really dead. It's a virus all the time now. This has shifted the idea of what to do about Zombies. Every Zombie movie is basically the same. The survivors have to fight them off long enough to get somewhere and hole up until they eventually break in, or you run out of food and had to leave or there is enough in-fighting among the survivors that they all kill themselves. Regardless of which, you are eventually fucked, and this is the basis for every climax of every Zombie movie. The difference being that before, the dead stayed undead forever. Until you put a bullet in their head, they are here for good. With a virus, Zombies could either die of Starvation or old age or decomposition and as long as you had a big, heavy door and enough cans of Spaghetti-O's you'll be alright. The purists hate this, and think the dead should be lumbering, brainless masses that use sheer numbers to over power whatever defenses the survivors managed to piece together. I can see it either way. I like gigantic swarming masses of Zombies. Always awesome. But fast, super-human Zombies make for some really spectacular death scenes. I guess it comes down to how much gore you like.
Day of the Dead is not much of a sequel to Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. It has Ving Rhames in it, I guess to add some street cred, but that's where it ends. It follows Mena Suvari, who is supposed to be believable as a military officer as Zombies over run her home town of Leadville, Colorado, where her unit just happens to be dispatched. That's really all the plot you need to know. The rest follows basic Zombie protocol. There is a sibling who needs rescuing, a family member who has to be killed, a remote bunker, and a government conspiracy that needs exposing. And there you have it.
The movie is perfectly serviceable as a Zombie movie. It offers nothing new. And this is where I have a problem. Not so much with this movie in particular, but with the last few years worth of Zombie movies. With the notable exceptions of Zombieland and Land of the Dead, all of the recent Zombie movies only deal with the initial out-break. I guess that's more exciting, but having the characters deal with a world already overrun with the undead seems like it would be more interesting. The original Day of the Dead was about a bunch of scientists living in a bunker, doing experiments on the Zombies, trying to find a cure, or at least a way to stave off the infection. Way cooler of a scenario, if you ask me. If the remake had gone that route, it would have been not only a more interesting movie, but could have had served as a better sequel to Dawn of the Dead.


-JP

A letter to my eldest son of his 5th birthday

Dear Jackson,
Five years ago today I became a father. There is a song lyric that goes something like: The years go fast, but the days go slow," and that is how I feel today.
I fear you may have inherited my mild case of social anxiety. Just like me, you are open and talkative and funny and interested and smart until you walk into a room full of strangers or a room with more than three people in it. You don't like being put on the spot, and you don't like performing tricks like a trained monkey. You like playing, but you don't really like sports, especially team sports. You don't like to join it in things like wearing your Halloween costume to school, preferring instead to watch the action from afar. You tend to find a little corner and play by yourself within your amazing imagination. I used to think that was kind of sad, but I don't any more because that's how I was and still am to a certain extent, I'm okay with that. You are so much like me in so many ways, it gets a little frightening at times because I can sense what you are thinking because I'm thinking the same thing. It's weird and awesome.
You are so dang smart, and I love that. You would rather watch NOVA or the Science Channel than Sponge Bob or Power Rangers, and even when you do want pure escapism, it's Star Wars or something. I know people are thinking we are turning you into a little nerd, but I don't care. I guess there could be an argument for nature vs. nurture here, but you tend to gravitate gravitate to that stuff on your own, and I guess you can't fight what's in your genes, because you come from a long and proud line of nerds. I just hope you do something with it, because the rest of us seem to be overly educated and unmotivated all at the same time. Like just knowing things is good enough for us.
You also have the biggest heart of any kid I've ever met. There is a lot of love in there, and at times you seem to not know where to put it all. Like how you keep saying you want a sister, and how you want to name her, but you don't know what name because you'll have to decide when you meet her. That right there, where you love your non-existent sister so much you can't stand it. That's what I'm talking about. You also love your brother more than anything and want to teach him things. The whole reason you two share a bed room and a bed is because you lobbied for it for a whole year.
I hope this next year, when you go back to school, and keep learning and keep living and keep figuring out how this world works and how you fit into it, that you stay happy and stay weird and stay awesome.

I love you, buddy.

-Daddy.

Tales from On Demand 1

So I don't know if you know this or not, but I have suffered from insomnia on and off throughout my life. It comes and goes depending on several factors, such as stress, food, caffeine and drug use*. My high-school and college years I hardly slept more than 3-4 hours a night, and that was when I was trying to go to sleep. If I wasn't too concerned, I'd just forget to go to bed, and it would magically be time for work all of a sudden. Well lately I have been in one of those cycles. In the past, I would draw comics and read and watch movies and listen to music and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee and Dr. Pepper and get snacks from the local 7-11. I know what you are saying: All of this crap is exactly why I couldn't sleep, and to that I say: FOOLS! I didn't do all of that at the same time, and I periodically cut every last bit of all that out on similar assumptions, and it never worked. It actually made me more loopy because I was bored and hungry. Also, my insomnia started around age 12, long before all that stuff was so important to me. Well I am in a similar cycle now, and I can't blame it on junk food because of my new found respect for not being a fat-ass and wanting to live to usher my kids into adulthood. Since I now have a house full of people with relatively regular sleep schedules and not a house full of a brother with the exact same habits as me, I can't do all of the stuff I used to do to keep myself sane. If my gym was open 24 hours, I'd go there, but it isn't, so I can't. What I usually do is play computer games and read and watch TV. We all know broadcast TV sucks egg rolls late at night, and I haven't purchased the cord to hook up my computer to the TV like I keep threatening to, so I can watch whatever I want via download and hulu.
All this is a preamble to a new, hopefully short-lived series here at powerama called Tales from On Demand. Where I occasionally review a movie or show or whatever found on Cox On Demand.

Case File #1: Surrogates.
(Spoilers)
Is Bruce Willis done? I mean that in the "stick a fork in 'em" kind of way, not the "Can I get that plate out of your way, sir?" kind of way. I don't know. He's always been a little hit and miss, and I still love him, but he seems to be making really poor decisions lately(The notable exception being the Stylo video for the Gorillaz).
Or maybe I just notice when he's bad more than I notice when he's good, because he's supposed to be good, that's what they pay him for.
I can see why the movie was green-lit. A comic book movie starring Bruce Willis? With robots? I'm in. Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate ("Avatar" was taken. Twice.) robots the film follows Tom Greer(Willis), a cop investigating the death of the son of the inventor of the surrogates, who had been ousted by the company he founded to make these things. In this world, everybody stays home and their robot counter-parts live their lives for them. The benefit being that everybody is safe, free from bodily harm or disease. There hasn't been homicide or an accidental death in years. But someone has figured out a way to kill the user by destroying the robot, something that should be impossible. It takes the weird fascination we have with the Sims and Farmville out of virtual and into reality. But here is where the movie makes a few false assumptions. The most important being that people like me, and a good chunk of the world can't fucking stand the sims, and see it as a complete waste of time. They do address this, by way of a fringe element of society living without surrogates, relegated to reservations where they can sit and think about why they haven't kept up with technology. It would be like sending everybody who still uses Internet Explorer 6 to live in Canada. Naturally, these folks are the main suspects in the murders because they are all uppity. So the plot becomes very predictable here. After Greer's surrogate is destroyed, he has to venture out into the real world himself, uncovering a conspiracy to take down the surrogates. Guess who's behind the conspiracy? Yep. The guy who invented them, and who now thinks they are bad and is, ironically, leading the anti-surrogate movement by use of a surrogate. His idea is to destroy them all, along with their stupid users, and wipe the slate clean. Not if Bruce Willis has anything to say about it. He just wants to destroy the robots themselves. Which is what happens. Completely predictably. Everybody then ventures out in their house pants and woobies and see the sun again.
The movie is shot well, and acted okay, but is just kinda dumb. I like how the surrogates look a bit 80's glam in a little nod to William Gibson, but other than that, not much going on here.

Next time: Day of the Dead.

-JP



*prescription, silly.

Happy 4th, everybody!

You know what the fourth always makes me think of ? Of course not, you are not in my head. Two things, actually:
1) The time when I was 14 and set off a bunch of fireworks in my room. They were cleverly hidden in a coffee can, and I was messing around with a bic lighter, and lit them. As soon as I realized what happened, I tried to smother the fire with my hand, and off they went. In a coffee can which also had my hand in it. When the smoke literally cleared, I had burns up to my elbow, and a big black spot on the carpet. The doctor at the ER asked me about my Sisters Of Mercy T-Shirt, explaining that he did his residency at Mercy Hospital, not realizing it was also the name of a goth band. We put an area rug over the spot in the carpet, and my room smelled like smoke for a long time after that.
2) Holy crap Jackson is almost 5! Do you know how different my life is now than it was 5 years and nine months ago? A lot I can tell you!
The boys are totally into Star wars right now. Joe just likes the robots, but Jack in starting to get into the ins and outs of the whole story. By chance, we are going backwards chronologically. We watched the Original Trilogy several times, but then we played Lego Star Wars a whole lot and they started wondering who the other character were, and so instead of watching the Prequels, we started on the Clone Wars movie and are about half way through the first season of the TV show. So when he eventually does see the Prequel Trilogy*, he'll all confused.

So anyway, Happy 4th everybody!

-JP


*If someone wants to purchase the Prequel Trilogy on DVD in widescreen for Jackson for his birthday. he'd love it!

Weight loss challenge!

So as some of you know, I have been in a weight loss contest at work. It ended today, and even though I didn't win the whole several hundred dollar sha-bang, I lost the most weight. Yay, Me!

Here is how it broke down for me, according to the scale at the gym:


So 31 lbs! That's awesome. I haven't weighed this little since before Jackson was born! I was unemployed during the first three months of her pregnancy, and gained an Orca amount of Jobless depression/sympathy weight and never seriously did anything about it. Well now I have.

Everyone at the office did a great job, and we all look great, except for Brandon, who may have actually gained weight, by his own admission.

Round two starts tomorrow, so tonight I'm going to try one of those Double-Downs from KFC.


In Other news:
• Summer is upon us. I know this because of how sticky certain parts of my body get on a regular basis now.
Jackson starts Swim lessons today. Jennifer and Joseph will be splashing around while that happens. I hope they all stay cool.

• I everybody watching Doctor Who? I really love this new Doctor. He's all playful and stuffy all at the same time. They have really taken the show to new, very entertaining levels.

• I painted our entire family room over the weekend. Jennifer and the boys went to a family reunion, and I stayed home and painted without the little "helpers" under foot. It looks great if I do say so myself. Before it was all dark paneling and dreary, and now it's all happy and bright, and doesn't make me think I'm in the break room of a 1980s Insurance company.

I think that's it.

Powers out.

Science Fiction Double Feature...

LOST. At this point, I just want the thing to be over. It's like December 23rd. There is still a bunch of last minute stuff to do before the big day, and all you really want to do is start drinking and opening presents.

If you get this joke, you rock.

Odds and ends

This thing is awesome.



I want one.

Start:rant
So I need to ask what's up with Arizona? This whole citizenship thing weirds me out a little. What I do not get, is that a lot of people on the right, mainly Tea Baggers, who I do realize are on the extreme right, and are not indicative of the majority(or so they would like you to believe), thought it was fun to compare Obama's health care overhaul to practices of Nazi Germany. Take this little exchange with Barney Frank from a town hall meeting:




So then when Arizona decided to adopt a practice that Nazi Germany actually did use, and few in your party bat an eyelash. Some defend it. Including McCain:

"This law is a response to the president's and the administration's failure to secure our borders," McCain said.

See it here:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

So your party in your own state come up with a blatantly racist policy, and you blame a black guy who has nothing to do with your State's legislature. Nice.

You stay classy, Arizona.

End:rant

In other news:

G4 held a car wash to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. The best car wash ever.

In which I phone it in...

So I haven't posted in a while but I think that's because not much is going on. We were supposed to take a trip to Kansas City with Jen's parents, but decided that it would be cost prohibitive. So we just stayed home. We are still slowly renovating our house, and have spent the past few weekends working on small projects and trying to get the yard in order. So... that's exciting.

I did win an award a few weeks ago. It's from the AP. They held a little regional contest, and the editors from the newspapers in the region submitted work on behalf of their people. I won First Place for Graphics/Illustration. I even got a little plaque in the shape of Oklahoma. They had a nice awards ceremony at the Hard Rock Casino, and I was treated to free Newcastle all night. So now you can call me "The Award Winning Jason Powers".

That is all.

In which I rant about the airline industry...

So I took a trip with Jackson to Denver to see my mom get married. It was lovely. Tim is a great guy.
We got in with no problems last Thursday. The flight in was with United, and they seemed to have their shit together as much as airlines do these days. I did notice that the already stupid practice of charging you to put your bag on the plane which is going to the same place you are is not only still in full effect, but that the prices have jumped 10 bucks since the last time I flew to a wonderful 25 bucks($175 if it was over 50 lbs!), adding $50 to the price of the trip. And that was just with one bag. If Jackson had to check a bag as well, it would have been twice that. However, my plane was small enough that most people's carry-ons weren't going to fit in the overhead, so they were gate checking those for free. So I guess the trick is to get a bag that is just the right size to be small enough to carry on, but too big to fit in the over head, and you won't have to pay to check it.
We stayed in a very nice hotel, on the 15th floor, which Jackson loved. Even more so when the blizzard hit on Friday, because he could watch the city get covered from above. My brother and his wife were in the next room, which was nice as well. I spent more time with them this trip than I have in a long time.

My dad took us all to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where Jackson freaked out about the Space Odyssey Exhibit. They have an awesome new "Science on a Sphere" display. It looked like a planet was in the room with you. Totally awesome. I half expected Admiral Ackbar to come out and start telling me where the shield generator was. We stayed in the Exhibit for a few hours, then did a whirl-wind viewing of the rest of the Museum, as Jackson was less interested in ancient Native American tools. We ate lunch and Watched an IMAX movie about the Hubble. A good time was had by all.
Let me tell you something about my son's crazy memory. Two days after we saw the Hubble movie, we came across a picture of Orion in one of his books. He started reciting the narration from the Orion Nebula part of the movie word for word, and went on for 5 minutes. That kid is a genius.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, where I are one of the best hamburgers I have ever eaten ever. Jackson had one of the most awesome plates of Mac and Cheese ever.

Saturday was the Wedding. My suit is getting steadily too big for me. I'm gonna need a new one by summer. YAY! We had a great time Jackson did really well considering how boring weddings are for children. Mom looked great.

Sunday I met a few friends for coffee, and spent the afternoon at my dad's house. Jackson is fascinated with my dad's basement. We don't have those here in Tulsa, and the fact that it is a catacomb of shelves and books makes that much more interesting.

Here is where the fun started. Monday was our day to leave. Or so I thought. We had a 1:10 flight on Frontier, and My brother and his wife had a slightly earlier flight on Alaska Air. Dad picked us up a little after 10:00, and we made it to DIA about 10:30, a good 2 hours, 40 minutes before our flight. At check-in, the nice lady informed me that the flight was over-sold, and to check with the gate crew to see if I have a seat.
I assumed that traveling with a 4 year old would save me. Not so. Boarding started at 12:35, and they did the usual pre-boarding, including anybody with a child under 5. I waltz up and they say, "not you, you are on stand-by. If we have available seats 10 minutes before take-off, we'll seat you then." So I wait, and a steady stream of people who didn't show up 2+ hours ago parade by and take their seats. I'm getting nervous now. They make an announcement looking for a few passengers, and at T-Minus 9:59 minute, these two obviously hung over sorority girls in pajamas show up and take the last two seats. So they bump us. I ask why the guy with the 4 year old who checked in 2 and a half hours early even made it onto the bump list in the first place, and they say it done by when you check in, and that I should have done it over the web. I was in a hotel, I say, and they don't have a good answer for that. They start looking around, and tell me that there is not an available flight until Wednesday at 7:10, but that I can be on stand by for all the flights until then. They send me to the customer service center, where we wait in line for 30 minutes, then stand there hashing it out for another hour. They confirm me on the 7:10 flight Wednesday,give me a $400 check (double the cost of the two tickets) that I can't cash and some food vouchers, and tell me that if I can't get on the plane that night, they'll put me up in a hotel. What about my luggage, I ask. Well that went on to Tulsa on the original flight. Great. I have a 4 year old with me and no luggage. The guy says that the 7:10 flight is only over-sold by one, so I'd probably get on that one. After 5 hours wandering around the airport with Jackson (who is handling this way better than I am, BTW), we get in line for the 7:10, but don't make it. They only had one seat available. Not wanting to wait in line again for them to get me a hotel, I call my dad, who comes to get me. We stop at Target for some new underwear and deodorant, and crash at his place. The next day, we go to try for the 1:10 flight, and of course, don't make it. Luckily, the same gate crew was there, and seeing us in the same shabby clothes as the day before, and hearing Jackson repeatedly ask why we can't get on the plane, they felt really bad for us. I asked if they could get us on the OKC flight, which was miraculously held back because a connecting flight from Las Vegas was late, they put me on the top of the stand-by list for that flight, knocking out an equally distressed looking couple. I start to feel bad for them, but they don't have a Jackson with them, and haven't been at this for two days, so I decide to re-tune my moral barometer for the time being. I make it on the flight(YAY!), and call Jennifer to tell her to head for OKC. This was doubly awesome because another blizzard was heading for Denver, and was supposed to hit that afternoon. I make it to OKC, and Jen comes to get me after fighting rush-hour traffic, and after hugging it out, we get some dinner and head to Tulsa. Later that night, I go to Tulsa International to get my Luggage. Waiting with me in line was a woman who's 15 year old son was stranded in DIA because the 7:10 flight that I would have been on stand-by for was canceled because of the storm. So I dodged another bullet there, because if that flight was canceled, and every other flight was over-booked, that would have been a shit storm I would have been right in the middle of.
I have to say that the Frontier employees were awesome. They were just as frustrated as I was, and bent over backwards to get me into Oklahoma, and gave me every incentive they had available. However, the company's policy of over-booking every single flight they have and charging for every little thing, and not letting one know their status until the very last minute is pure bullshit. I vowed to never fly Frontier again, but since every airline now employs these practices, I may not have a choice. After my wonderful trip to New York a few months ago where I arrived on a Sunday, and my luggage arrived on Wednesday, I may be off air travel altogether. But we are home and safe now and that's all that matters. Jackson did really well. He's a good kid.

Powers out.

TL;DR: Frontier bumped me off three separate flights, stranding me in Denver, and they suck.

In which our hero has a slight headache..

I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little hung over this morning. My buddy Chap decided for no good reason to have his bachelor party on the Sunday night after the daylight savings switch. I'll never forgive him for that. It was one of those nights where I was fully intending to just stop by, have a beer, say my congrats and go on my merry way, but somehow, probably (taking into account both my Irish heritage and the close proximity to St. Patty's day) Leprechauns, I kept getting drinks handed to me and they magically ended up in my stomach. I had a good time though, and am not too far gone today. If anybody asks, I never touched that inflatable sheep. My workout will be interesting.

In other News...
Jackson and I will be in the Denver area this weekend! Yay! My mom is getting married in a small ceremony, and Jack and I are gonna tear it up. You should see his tie. It's awesome. Jenn and Joe are sitting this one out, because neither of them like to travel, really and it was cost prohibitive anyhow. So. we'll be in Thursday night, and out Monday afternoon. The Wedding is Saturday, and other than that, I don't have much going on. We are staying in a hotel this time, so if you want to go out it'll have to be in the day because leaving 4 year olds in hotel rooms while you go clubbing is generally frowned upon in polite society.*

So call me or something.

Off I go to get a gatorade or something. Coffee, maybe. Screw it, I'll get both.





*Unless you're Britney Spears.

Charlie

oh, Charlie... You were always my fav, and I hope you come back again.

Anyway, Our family has been doing really well. We joined the gym, and I was partially expecting it to be like every other time I've joined a gym, where I go diligently for a few weeks, then it fizzles out until I cancel the membership somewhere around August. But this time is different! Partially because of the $500 challenge my former boss threw down, but mostly because I'm sick of being the fat daddy in all the holiday snap-shots. And maybe because of a recently obtained sense of ambition, I'm going gangbusters on this. Previously, it was a chore, but now I actually want to go. Sometimes more than once a day. How crazy is that?
Jennifer is in on it too. The YMCA we go to has two awesome child areas, so every day, she brings everybody down there, the kids get to run around for a while, and Jenn gets to exercise without three crazy boys pawing at her every second of the day. Everybody wins! I'm down 15lbs, and Jenn is all toned all of a sudden. The boys are worn out, and sleep like.. well like babies. Which they never really did, so that simile doesn't really apply.
Also! Thanks to a little more scratch coming in, and amazing money management on the part of my wife, Jennifer and I have actually been able to go out on dates on a regular basis again. You childless people won't care, but you parents know exactly what I'm talking about. It's awesome. I get to wear the clothes that don't have juice stains on them, and I get to drink adult beverages. Yay!
And spring seems like it finally got it's ass out of bed, and made it to work. We've all been spending more time outside the last few days, doing yard work even.
So, yeah. We are in a rare spot where nobody is sick, broke, or angry. Good times!

-JP

Slow news day.

Am I the only one suddenly obsessed with Olympic Curling? I even spent an hour learning all the rules and whatnot so I could know what the hell is going on. I find the women's way more interesting than the men's. I think because they employ more strategy and don't just resort to brute force as much. They are a little easier on the eyes as well. The USA vs Canada game was awesome.

I turn 35 on Thursday. I'll finally be out of the coveted male 18-34 demographic that television and advertisers hold so dear. They will no longer want my money. Which is a relief because I was sick of buying Star Wars stuff anyway. On to retirement funds and mini-vans!

Regardless, I am stoked for the new Dr. Who. I'm a little nervous because they have a whole new production team, they're re-designing everything and the new Doc looks to be about 12. But, I'm excited for exactly the same reasons. I just hope they aren't trying to go all Twilight-y on us.

Last night Jennifer made me some awesome burritos and we had the family over. She also made this sickeningly wonderful cake that the boys decorated with little sugar Go, Go Diego heads and bits of Heath bar. Greatness.

-JP

LOST

(Spoilers)

So I thought Locke was the Island. Turns out he's the Smoke Monster made incarnate. Which has happened before with Yemi, so that part is not so weird. What's weird is that the Shark in the beginning had a Dharma tattoo on its tail. So if the bomb even went off at all, since the flash of light may have just been "The Incident", as Jin alluded to, does time reset with the plane in 2004, or with the explosion in 1977? If it is 2004, then everything is hunky-dorie and they all just go on with their lives. If it is 1977, then any number of things could have changed. I think it is the latter, as things are already weird.

Discuss.

-JP

Indeedy.

Alright. So. Remember in my last post how I felt really optimistic about this year? Turns out I had every right to be. The T-Dub just gave me a pretty meaty promotion. Well, I say promotion, but since I'm already doing several people's worth of work, it's more like I'm just being recognized for the work I already do. Though I am getting a lot more responsibilities as well, mind. The new position is basically my old position with some training thrown in, and a few obstructions taken out of the way. I'm basically in charge of making sure all of the ads that we create for our web site don't suck. And if they do, I'm who you go to. The ads we don't create are on their own. I'll still be doing Illustrations for the newsroom. There is a raise as well.

WOO HOO! Enough of one that I can quit the part-time job I had to get in order to make some ends meet. Also, Jennifer's sister Grace is working again, and Jennifer is watching her son Zane during the day now. So there is some extra scratch as well. I think we can finally stop living paycheck to paycheck and start putting away some money. See the trick is to stick to the same budget we had before. Most of the new money gets socked away, and the rest is gravy.

♥ I have to give Jennifer some big-ass props here, because her awesome budgeting is what makes it possible to live on one income and not feel like the Joads. She takes care of 3 rambunctious boys all day long, and takes care of most of the house-related business as well. She is awesome. Anybody that thinks being a stay-at-home mom isn't hard work is full of shit. All I do is draw pictures and carry heavy things. She does everything else. I picked a good one. ♥

So yeah. Awesome. This year is starting off well.

-JP

2009 year in review...

Can't say I'm too sad to see 2009 go. There were some good points, but they were few and far between. 2009 saw the Powers in mostly a holding pattern, waiting for wages, recession and everything else to come out of their collective funk. The new year and the new decade hold nothing but promise...

In 2009:

-I turned 34.
-Jack turned 4.
-Joseph turned 2.
-Jennifer had a birthday as well, but she'd kill me if I revealed her age. To me she is perpetually 25, so let's just leave it at that.
-I saw massive lay offs at my work place and as a result, I have taken on a lot more duties, but somehow am not getting paid any more.
-I blew up my car.
-Eventually I bought a new one.
-Watched Joseph get double pneumonia and have to be hospitalized because of it, more than once. It weakened his immune system, and he seemed to get every cold and virus that went around, each one knocking him on his ass. He is only just now getting up to full speed.
-Jennifer watched a good friend's kid during the day for a few months, and though the experience was a good one, and the girl was awesome, it was insanely stressful on all of us. We couldn't really figure out why.
-We moved. Again. This time into town again. Glenpool was great and all, but it didn't really offer enough to stay. Everything we wanted to do usually happened in town, so there was a lot of driving involved in our lives. Now that we are back in town, our stress level has gone way down, along with our gasoline bills.
-Jackson started at a really kick ass school. He in insanely smart, but a tad sensitive and a little socially awkward (just like I was). The Tulsa school system is in such poor shape right now, that we are seriously considering home schooling the boys. Not in a creepy overly religious way or anything, but we both feel that things like music and art and science are important in a child's development, not regurgitating facts on some stupid standardized test.
-I started working at a local independent coffee shop to help make ends meet. I like the social aspect of it a great deal, but I thought I had moved on from sweeping floors and cleaning toilets for close to minimum wage.
-My work sent me to New York for a week long training trip. I had a really good time. Saw some really awesome friends, watched a taping of David Letterman, ate a lot of really good food, and did some touristy stuff. Oh, and learned all about the new ad serving system for the TW's website.
-I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is the first full calendar year that Jennifer has stayed home with the boys. I have to say, this is one of the best decisions we have ever made. Having two kids in day care would be cost prohibitive, and the last time we tried it we came away with nothing but one kid bullied horribly and the other one getting pink eye. Jennifer is the best mom a kid could hope for, and I'm happy she can be with them every day.
-I saw my sister-in-law start divorce proceedings. This is not a good thing. Although I know in my heart that she will be better off in the long run, watching her go through all the hardship associated with it is gut-wrenching. She's a great girl, a wonderful mother, and deserves all the best. She doesn't need this shit.
-Saw Jackson and Joseph get smarter and smarter. Jack is turning into quite a little brainiac, and Joe is starting to assert himself in amazing and wonderful ways. Their cousin Zane as well. He's a great kid. I realize that for the time being, I'm really his only male adult figure, and I'm trying to take that as seriously as possible.
-We took a few trips. Went to Texas in the early summer, and back to Denver for Thanksgiving. We had a great time.
-Work was good. I need to do more and get paid more, but on the whole, I love my job.
-I saw the country go in a really weird direction. It seems like politics has become a giant game of football. Way too complicated, and each side only cares about winning. Neither cares about sportsmanship. Each will do whatever it takes to stop each play, giving no thought to strategy or the bigger picture, and after three quarters of no score, each side is getting desperate and starting to play dirty. Each side also has completely rabid fans who will fanatically support the team no matter what. Even when playing very very badly.

I have really high hopes for the new year and the new decade. We have a lot of home improvements planned, and are really excited about them. The boys have the whole world at their fingertips, and my wife the the coolest person ever.

I am optimistic in a way I haven't been in a long long time.

-JP