Summer Movies I plan to see

Last Summer I don't remember any movies that I just had to see. This year several are on my to see list.

Star Trek
Transformers 2
GI-Joe
Terminator
Night at the Museum 2
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Where the Wild Things Are
Up

Tribute video I made for my boss.

video

Here is a video me and Nic made messing around at the park.

Mac vs PC Apple iMAC G5 vs IBM PCjr

Which is better?

For me the answer to that question is always changing. It started out with an IBM PCjr back in the early 80s. The current answer is an Apple iMac G5.

The current inventory is
1 - HP Pavilion 503n - used for kids games
2 - Dell D510 Laptop - corporate issue for my day job
3 - Apple iMac G5 - used for all my graphics needs

I have the most fun on the Mac. Making DVDs and organizing photos in iPhoto. A Mac is a must for all the desktop publishing needs I've had over the years as well. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark Express are premium software packages. iLife is by far the most fun though.

I've started playing around with Finalcut Pro for video editing and hope to learn more about it.

Back to the PC - I have no choice but to use one at work and prefer it that way. We have a rep or 2 that force a Mac into the system. They are the die-hard Mac enthusiast that probably think a genius bar is a good way to spend some time on Saturday.

Bottom line for me
PC = work
Mac = fun

2009

Every January I make a very detailed goals list with numerous sub-categories:

Here's an example:

I WORK RELATED
A. New Business
1. Visit all non buying customers
2. Take some key people out to lunch
B. Existing Business
1. ABC Printing
a. sell new products
1.1. sell equipment
1.2 sell supplies
II. PERSONAL
A. Kids


You get the idea. The final copy would be close to 10 pages long.
Every January my list would get more detailed.
The problem was - NOTHING EVER GOT DONE!

This year I decided to try something new.
Don't make a list - Focus on action and get some crap done. - this goes against everything I am but it seems to be working.

So far:

Painted the kitchen and dining room - COMPLETE! - this has been on the goal list for 8 years. REALLY.

Made some posts for the front porch. - COMPLETE! - this has been on the list for at least 3 years and may or may not have compromised the structural integrity of the home. Reeves Williams (the builder) said no which is why this turned into a do-it-yourself project. They have gone bankrupt since. Also painted and caulked the posts.

Went to a Riverkings game - this may seem strange but it usually makes the list.

This is sort of a side-goal - being ready to take care of car repairs.
Battery replacement. 12/29/08
Overheating. 1/6/09 - drained & flushed radiator, replaced radiator cock & plug. You heard me right.

I havn't consciously thought about not making the list until tonight. I'm hoping it's working in the background and not just a serious of lucky endeavors.

Major neighborhood developments.
We have a new pace-maker installed across the street and next to them, a vacant house.
Except for a hermit with a ladder and a grill who has decided to wait the foreclosure out.

It will be interesting.

1) New install complete

2) Trees at Willow Lake

3) Sunset on Magnolia Lakes Dr

4) Princess enjoying fall weather

We went to SportsClips yesterday. A regular haircut is $16 which is more than I'd usually spend, but we had a coupon for $8/per. It's great for me and N, not because they have ESPN on or even because you're guaranteed to get a decent looking hetero female stylist. The big deal is that it's not a beauty salon like all the rest. Although it's not discussed, these are mostly female only clubs that guys just have to deal with. I've been to a Barber Shop, not for me either. They are a little strange to me. Oh you can be sure the guy cutting your hair is straight alright, but so is his razor. Sports Clips will probably see me again, even without a coupon.

Maintenance News! - The dryer is still not fixed. The tech is coming out again tomorrow morning. I've figured out a way to rig it functional so we can dry clothes. The gas engine procedure in the attic helped a lot. He's replacing the main control panel tomorrow. This is week 4 and I'm probably going to demand an additional year of coverage over this drawn out process.

Ben the Plumber - Day 2: I've been thru 2 new wax rings already. 2 lifelines to dad and I'm still no further along than I was before I started. Except for knowledge. I've learned a lot from it. They main thing I've learned is that I hope I have the money to pay someone else to do this next time. Lining up the bolts with the bowl holes is a real pain. I probably should have taken the tank loose from the bowl, but figured that would cause more leaks. I'm sore from wrestling the thing around all day yesterday. The real reason I'm still working on it is because the flange was broken and all 4 times I aligned the toilet over the bolts and then tried to tighten them, it would slip out of the lock. This part is not easy to replace unless you saw off the main pipe under the floor. I got some compound putty and let it dry overnight. This will probably make things easier. 

Olive Branch Car Show

A friend from work invited me to the car show. Normally I wouldn't go to something like this but decided to try something new. It was neat since it was free. The blue car has a $10,000 paint job. These people are very into their cars.

Kid's Meals

McDonald's really messed up when they did away with the traditional Happy Meals of the 70s/80s. It's a special thing when you get your fast food packaged in that cool box with the golden arch handles and know there's not just fries and a burger insdie, but also a cool toy. Rarely they still have them but it not frequent enough. It's a slap in the face to get a Happy Meal in a recycled paper sack.

Picked up lunch at an unlikely place today AND.... KFC delivers the goods. They've had the Laptop kids meals for some time, but today they had Guitar Hero Laptop kids meals. I've never played GH and the food inside probably wouldn't pass code, but the packaging is GREAT!

Birthday Number 8 & Halloween

Chicago Trip

Gumbo

At the Delta Fair we tried a sample of gumbo. Nicolas really liked it and wanted to make some. We got a recipe online, got the ingredients and went to cooking. Andiuolle sausage, chicken, and other magical stuff. It was really good. A repeater for sure.

SITE PRESENTS

After 2 years of ideas and planning, the site is now live.

Now it's up to the marketing and sales dept.

www.sitepresents.com

Fishing Trip

We had a lot of fun last week fishing. The weather was great.

You need a lot of patience when taking a 7, 11, and 13 yr old.

There was a lot of tangling, hanging up, getting caught up, and baiting and unbaiting going on.

I'd rather be montaging

4:54 is where the defining moment of the music starts. Check it.

The music during the fireworks display tonight reminded me of this from last week. 

I finally found it on the web. One of my favorites, mostly the last half.

Aldi

Things I like about Aldi:

1) If you manage to spend $100 there, I guarantee you it won't fit in one basket.
2) If it takes more than 45 minutes to shop there, something is wrong.
3) PAPER BAGS! Welcome back old friend....
4) You have to bag your own groceries, which on the surface sounds not so great, having done it myself I will say it's much easier than the archaic lazy suzzanne bag setup WM has. It's not as fun as having someone from Kroger do it for you, but I don't mind it at Aldi.
5)The store has all of the staples in a very small footprint - basically you don't feel like you've been thru a Gauntlet when you get to the car.

"We are!!??"

We watched the olympics a lot this week. There were a lot of political ads during the commercials. My 7 yr old is coloring while she lays in the floor, she's waiting on Nastia Liuken to come back on. A Mccain ad that has played about 3 times already comes on, and about half way thru it the voice over says "we're worse off than we were 4 years ago". 

All of a sudden coloring stops and I hear "WE ARE??!!" 

This is news to her, and she's quite surprised by it. I get an unexpected laugh and smile out of her sudden concern for such matters. The tone in which she asks it and the look on her face when she's looking back at me for confirmation suggests that she thinks the speaker is full of crap.

In her world, this kind of statement makes no sense.

I can tell you that when your child confirms everything is okay in their world, it makes the "worse off" adult stuff seem not so bad. 

It happened again last night. This is about the 6th time in a year. Each time has its own visuals and subtle differences but the overall theme is the same. 

This time, I'm 2 stories in the air overlooking Battery Park. I'ts an exciting ride, but I'm on more for the view it provides than the thrill. Everything is in color which is unusual for my unconscious adventures. It's as if someone has picked up the 4 story sphere-ride from Navy Pier and rolled it in front of her to amuse her or distract her from her steady gaze over the water. She is unflinching as she holds tight to her document and light. The friends I have just met are motioning for me below with excitement. It's as if they have just got up on Christmas morning and they want to race me to the tree. As my basket climbs to the top I grab the railing to brace myself and as my head and shoulders rotate my eyes blaze past her.. All I see is the blurred faint trace of light green. I hope she doesn't think that I'm ignoring her and remembers I've shot an SD card full as she modeled for me 3 years ago. Today, I am there to see her big brothers. I almost fall out of the basket looking for them, but like the other 5 times, they are not there. Maybe they are hiding behind the multitude of their other relatives, and besides it's probably to foggy to see them from here. A quick moment of disappointment is replaced with knowing I will join my friends and we will go find them together. As I'm let off the ride, I wake up.

When I was a kid, I would dream almost every night. It was usually good and sometimes bad, but never just average. Now that I have aged, I dream less and it's usually just an everyday event with nothing too exciting, good or bad. I don't know why I keep looking for the Twin Towers. For some reason I seem obsessed with them. I do like dreaming about them and the search for them. As I write this, I'm thinking perhaps it could be that I'm searching for life before 9-11. Not the low end security at Memphis International, or gas at $2/gal, or the economy or even the war issues. A certain innocence to life in my own mind, perhaps even an oblivious approach to the hard facts of life. Even in the age of technology, the more I know, the more I sometimes wish I didn't know.

I don't know what the latest is with the Freedom Towers, but perhaps they will bring me some visual closure with my own 9-11 timeline.

Blog Continues with Marlowe's

The Apple blog I was going to use is too much trouble. Imagine that. So, I will continue to post here.
It was death week in Memphis. Usually I wouldn't go near the Graceland area, but one of my new customers is on EPB, and I needed to go see them. I was with a co-worker in from Nashville. He had heard about a Nike Outlet Store and wanted to go. This is a great place to buy Nike brand shoes or shirts of any kind at a great price. Not the greatest area of town, but worth it if you like Nike clothes.

I had heard about Marlowe's restaurant on Food Network. On TV the placed looked stuffed with Elvis memorabilia and some good Memphis food. I am always looking for a new place to eat so we went. From the outside we saw 3 pink limos and there was only 1 other car in the parking lot. Taking this as a bad sign at 11:45 we almost left. I noticed a sign saying "now open at noon for lunch" so we went in. Turns out that they just started opening for lunch and we were a little early. The service was great and the food was good. The waiter recommended the ribs before we even looked at the menu. They fell off the bone and the sauce was good. Flavor left a little to be desired but was still pretty decent. The prices were in line with the value and I will go back at least once more to see if they have the official Elvis peanut butter and naner sandwich with 2 sticks of butter on the menu.

The attached picture was from Google Images.

Last Post Here

New blog site on the way. Will post address here in a few days.

107 heat index

Woa, is it hot. Me and the kids went swimming this afternoon. It's about the only thing you can do in this kind of heat. I saw some lady running for exercise on the way home. I guess she is trying to see if she can cheat death.

The water wasn't cold at all so we got snowcones to cool off more. I got a strawberry cheesecake with cream on top. It's still my favorite kind.

We had to leave 15 minutes early because there was an unusual clap of thunder and they closed the pool. Still no rain but it's clouding up.

Should be an interesting week at work. Stay tuned..