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

My little boy turnes 2 today!

This here is Joey. He turns 2 years old today. Jennifer swears that it took a lot longer for Jackson to turn 2 than it did for Joseph, but I sometimes think the whole five years of us having kids has flown by. Though sometimes I think it feels exactly like five years.

Modest Mouse has a lyric: The years go fast, but the days go so slow.

Joseph is so very different than his brother in a lot of ways, but almost exactly the same in others. Joe is friggin' fearless for one thing. He'll jump off of things, run right up to wild animals, eat anything we put in front of him, and I think Jennifer just signed him up for bungee-jumping. He's a lot more rough and tumble. more active, and really really funny. He cracks everybody up including himself.

He also likes to hit things with other things. Anything you hand him, he will take and hit something with it. He talks non-stop. He is stone-cold crazy.

The past two years in the Powers house have seen a lot of fun, a lot of moving, a lot of hardship, and a lot of awesomeness. Through it all, Joseph has remained a smart, funny, happy little kid, and I'm totally glad he's around.

Happy Birthday, buddy.

I love you.

-Dad.

Busy Bees

Best. Doctor Who. Ever.

A friend of mine from Europe once told me that over there, nobody every says that they are busy. "Busy" to them implies that one does not have control of the situation. If you have everything in order, you shouldn't be busy. So if you say you are busy, they will respond with "that's too bad,". Americans love being busy. If we had everything right where we wanted them, we'd have to sit down and relax, and then you're just lazy. I don't know what it is about Americans that they think they can't stop. Our ambition seems to be what defines us(to ourselves anyway), not what we actually accomplish. Even in retirement, everybody had goals and planes and they want to re-do the bathroom or see Alaska or whatever. We have to DVR our TV because we're off doing something more important, and when we eventually do sit down to watch, we zap the commercials.

•••

Keeping the European definition of "busy" in mind, I have to say we are very busy. We went to Denver, we had house guests here from Austin last weekend, my dad will be here tonight, we have a Christmas party in the OKC to attend on Saturday, and that leaves just one weekend left before Christmas. This on top of everything else we do every day.

I'm actually looking forward to Christmas this year, so I can just sit there for a while as the kids play with their new toys, and just stare off into the distance.

•••

The Valentinos were here from Austin over the weekend. They are awesome. Probably my favorite people. I did name my second kid after Joe Valentino, after all. I love it when they come because I don't feel like I need to talk up Tulsa or spend the whole time running around trying to show off the town. Really they just want to sit and visit and eat good food and watch the kids run around, and I love them for that. Good people.

•••

If you want to get me a gift, I kind of want an old-school Ramones T-shirt. Black. XL

-JP

The trip went well

Phillip K Dick. You should read his stuff if you haven't already. All of it.

1) So the trip to Denver went really well. We all had a really good time. The boys did amazing during the 12 hour drive. Thanks in large part to Pixar. The main meal was delicious as always. I saw some great friends.
There will pics soon. I loved how I could walk or tram it where ever I needed to go. I miss that aspect of a bigger city.

2) I haven't owned a cat in over a year, and yet I keep finding hair on my clothes.

3) I have a cold. I hope to stave it off with a constant barrage of Advil, coffee and whiskey.

4) I took a week off, and returned to a rather intimidating hulu cue. I'll muddle through, I guess.

5) I'll go ahead and say it: The Pixies have lost it.

-JP

I Finally Watched This (1)

The Spirit

I resisted this for a long time. But the magic of Netflix brought it to my door. I have a Love/Hate relationship with Frank Miller these days. I respect his earlier work a great deal, and I like about 50% of what he done since about 1995. But that other 50% infuriates me to my core. It's more disappointment than anything else. Like a parent who know his child can do better, but the kid just won't out of some misplaced sense of privilege. It's the same sort of disapproval I have for trust fund kids and lottery winners.

While I enjoyed certain aspects of Sin City and 300, there were more aspects that I didn't like. The good, we now realize was the the doing of the Directors. 300 managed to make a decent movie out of a so-so book, and Sin City was awesome just for the novelty how it was made and the dream cast it managed to secure. This film manages to only take what's wrong with the first two (mainly extreme misogyny and horrible performances) and leaves out all the good. Oh, and it manages to trample one of the best written and iconic comic characters of all time in the process.

Eisner's Spirit was essentially a very long love letter to New York. Eisner loved all of the breadth of culture and temperament and diversity of so many people crammed in such a small space. His character reflected that. The Spirit has it's problems, don't get me wrong. The chief among them the racism that would poke through from time to time. But it was always fun. Miller's version takes this expansive city and localizes it so much by over-use of small sets and tight shots, and very strict lighting that it actually feels very cramped. Miller took this wonderful, campy fun character and sprayed Sin City all over it, then presented it to us like a cat with a dead bird. While the cat thinks it did something awesome, in reality it's kinda gross.

People keep defending it by saying that it is visually stunning. And while I agree, and indeed Millers visual style is what I like most about him and his work. But this movie looks so much like Sin City that it could have been a sequel. But it isn't. But it's really close. But I don't like it for some reason. It's like that time in 1984 when I was expecting Transformers for my birthday and got Go-Bots instead.

The acting is phoned in. Pure and simple. Sarah Paulson seems to be the only one even trying. I have a feeling that the actors spend some time researching and preparing for their roles, wanting to bring depth to them, only for Miller to tell them, "Yer a dame, that's as deep as you go," and then the actor thinking: Fine. Be that way. And not putting any effort into it out of spite. The sad thing is that these are decent actors for the most part. The plot is basically nonexistent, and the characters seem to have no motivation for anything they do.

I think Miller would be wise to take a step back. I don't think he should give up on movies, because I think he has a lot of potential. But he may be able to really shine as a cinematographer. Robocop 2 and 3 showed us what happens when he writes a screenplay from scratch, and The Spirit has shown us what happens to actors when he directs.

He needs to just stick to visuals.

1) We will be in Denver for the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately we are driving. This will be the first really long road trip for the boys. We decided to break it up, and we found a hotel about half what that has an indoor pool with a water slide. That should help.

2) Why is it that a train can block 4 consecutive intersections for hours on end, but I can't park in a fire zone for 5 minutes?

3) My good buddy Joey V has re-launched his web radio show. Friday nights he spins Goth and Industrial for an hour. Check it out:

4) For an hour yesterday, Jackson and I were the owners and operators of an imaginary restaurant. The main dish we were serving to his mom and brother(and the dogs), was something called Chompwurst. I don't really know what's in it because he did all the "cooking", but it sounds delicious.

-JP

None Shall Pass

Has anybody else been watching the 6 part documentary on Monty Python on the IFC Film Channel? I have, and I have to say that it is wonderful. Most Python docs try to cram the last 40 years into a one hour show, and there is just so much missing. This one is in6 parts, and separates them into projects. The first being how they all met, and what they all did pre-Python, the second being The Flying Circus, the third being Holy Grail, and so on.

I have been a Python fan my whole life. I'm trying to remember how I got into them, and I think I came to it gradually. For years and years, on Sunday nights, I used to listen to The Dr. Demento Show, which I think is still actually on. In the early '80s, it came on way after my bed time, like 11:00 or something, so I used to set my digital clock radio* to wake me up. Then I would pull the radio under the covers and listen to the show at a very low volume, so as not to let my parents in on what I was doing, as they were in the room next door. Sometimes this back-fired when I fell asleep again, having forgotten to re-set the alarm, and my mom would come in to wake me up and wonder why my clock was in the bed. The excuse was always that I was fumbling with it, trying to turn off the alarm, and fell asleep with it after hitting snooze a few hundred times. My best friend Sean would do the same thing, and we would always be excited to see each other Monday morning. Singing our favorite songs from the night before, always made funnier by crackling voices, mis-remembered lyrics and sleep deprivation. Anyway, in addition to introducing me to Weird Al, Spike Jonze, and many many other weird novelty acts, Dr Demento also played a lot of Python. I think at first, I thought it was one guy named Monty doing a bunch of different voices.

Years later, my uncle Roger, who kept me in a good supply of cool music via dupes and mix tapes through out my formative years, let me on to the fact that PBS was showing The Flying Circus late at night on Thursdays. By this point, I was living in the basement**, and had inherited a computer when my dad upgraded. But not just any computer. It was the TRS 80 Color Computer. The TRS-80 ran off of a normal TV, and used normal cassette tapes to store data. It also had an insanely loud, 35lb daisy wheel printer which I wasn't allowed to use during football games, while Dallas was on, or if anybody in the house were asleep. This meant that I had a legitimate reason to have both a cassette player and a TV in my room(score!). My parents were naive enough to not realize that these things also worked outside the confines of the computer. So under the guise of studying, I would watch Python(and a ton of other quirky British shows like Dr Who, and whatever else) with headphones that since the TV was mono, sound only had sound out of one ear. This was just as well, because I needed the other ear to listen for someone coming down the stairs to make sure my "homework" was done. Often, I would hold the cassette player up to the small speaker and record the whole show onto an audio cassette, so Sean could at least hear it if he couldn't see it.

When the video age descended on suburban Denver, Sean had a sleep-over movie party to show off this new thing called a VCR. One of the movie we got was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and our lives were changed forever. Sean and I made it our mission to collect every scrap of Python we could get our hands on. Sean recorded The Flying Circus off of the TV, I slowly purchased all of the albums with paper-route money and allowance, we saved up and bought a copy of Holy Grail after having rented it enough times to buy it several times over.

We would be able to insert a Python quote into every situation possible. I once got in big trouble when I was on a vacation trip to my grand parent's house in KY, and was running around their gigantic house singing "Sit on my Face" at the top of my lungs. By 1989, when Graham Chapman died, they hadn't done anything as a group in such a long time, that everybody figured they were over, at least as Monty Python, and this turned out to be true.

I have followed every member's career, post Python as well. Some have had great sauces, like Terry Gilliam, and some less so, although I still count Erik the Viking among my favorite movies.

Every time I see John Cleese in a move I get excited, and he's everywhere these days.

The group will always remind me of Sean. Sean and I lost touch when he went to a different middle school than did due to district lines, but I would run into him or his parents from time to time. He died tragically in a construction accident some years back. I hadn't spoke to him in several years, but his mom made an effort to find me so I could go to his funeral, which I am very thankful for. He was a good kid, and from what I hear, an even better adult.

I'm glad those guys are (mostly)all still around and still being creative. They seem to be settling down nicely. I'm completely excited for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

-JP

* The first real luxury I remember having. I only got it because when I mom married my second step-dad, he already had a clock, so I got hers. Having access to a radio in my room was a big deal for me.

** As is every suburban weirdo's right by law.

Sickies.

Hunter. If only he looked that good when he died.

It doesn't seem that long since a posting but I guess it has been. Not for lack of material, mind you.

A few weeks ago, Joseph started having pretty bad diarrhea. after about 4 days of it, and after he started refusing anything to eat or drink, we took him into the doctor, who promptly admitted him into the hospital. He was severely dehydrated, though we couldn't tell. As the doctor was telling Jennifer that he had to be admitted, he was at the time, swinging from the back of the exam chair and making monkey noises. "They're going to think I'm crazy, for admitting him," the doc said.

So after a little more than 24 hours in the hospital, they let him out and he has been slowly recovering ever since. He seems to be all better now. Turns out he had some kind of fungus in his digestive tract that the doctor actually had to go look up, as she'd never heard of it. Who knows what that kid gets into.

Jen and Jackson were thankfully spared for the most part. Jennifer was a little messed up, and Jackson was perfectly fine. I got it full on. I see why they admitted him. It was nasty. I had to take three days off of work, and do nothing but sleep and stay very near a toilet. No fun. I lost 16 lbs, and am not fully over it even now.

Now we march into Flu season!

I saw the Decemberists at Cain's Ballroom. That was an awesome show. Creeping up into my top five the more I think about it.

Other than that, Not much.

I think I may have a family of rabbits living in my shed.

-JP

Moving and Other news.

Poe. One of the best. Not one of the best drawings of him, I mean one of the best writers. Well, maybe not one of the best, but one of my favorites. Anyway...

So we moved. We now live within the Tulsa city limits and it has made all of our lives easier and our petrol budget lower. The house is pretty much where we want it for now. There a re some project looming for the spring maybe, and a few that are waiting on cash flow. Oh, and Jen decided to re-paint the kitchen cabinets after we already painted them. They look way better.

We are on the look out for an orange couch for some reason, so if you see one for cheap, let me know. Jennifer's dad gave us his ginormous television when he purchased a flat-screen LED hybrid dilythium crystal something or other, and we had to cut out the back of our entertainment armoir to fit it in. It was worth it , though because boy does Zula Patrol look cool when the aliens are the same size as the kids watching the show.

Things we are going add to our house, and may need help with:

-A deck

-A fence

-French doors leading to the above mentioned deck

-Another Bedroom(maybe)

-New Windows

-A half-pipe(Never)

-A hot tub

-An underground Lair(definitely)

If you are experienced in building any of these things, and would like to help, there will be a sign-up sheet outside the drama room after 3rd period.

As promised, I have posted a bunch of pics from my trip to New York, but they are on my facebook page, and I'm too lazy to re post them here. So if you want to see them, go there. Friend me if you want.

Jackson started pre-school at Channing Day School, and he loves it. They do a really good job there. Hopefully, he will then go to Eisenhower, and some day take over the world Evil Genius style. No pressure though. The best thing they have taught him so far: "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." I love them.

It has been raining in Tulsa for like a month now. I LOVE it! It kept the beast that is late summer in Oklahoma at bay. I haven't had a sunburn since Memorial day. The mold allergies can go screw themselves, but it is a small price to pay.

Powers out.