Planet T

Saturday morning I arose early and stepped boldly and calmly into the garage. I then noticed the weather had turned cold. I scurried back inside and got dressed.

I obtained coffee and more clothing and once again stepped boldly and calmly into the garage and looked with pity upon Eugene. I placed my hands on the fender, “Be brave, my friend, The Doctor is in. Today is surgery day and I shall heal you, nay, I shall resurrect you.” ( more... )

 

  I recently learned that we really have no real evidence for evolution. I was rather shocked. We have the theory, which, as theories go, is a pretty good one. But it has holes in it big enough to drive a Brontosaurus through. ( More... )

Well I took the day off from work to go to the zoo with my son's class. They canceled the trip due to rain. So I came home and finished the primer on the inside of my spiffy new front door. I have a few other projects I need to work on as well.

I like going on class trips when I can. The teachers always seem a bit apprehensive around me because I don't act like the other guys around the church/school. They all seem a little too soft and sweet. When I am around kids, especially boys and they are acting up, I tell them to knock it off. They always stop dead in their tracks and stare. The teachers look at me like they are going to say something. My attitude is if you put up with them acting like idiots, they will continue to act like idiots. In spite of this (or maybe because of it) I have somehow managed to attain "Cool Dad" status. A rare honor indeed. Now when we go on field trips, they always give me the rowdy boys. We get along fine. Boys respond to discipline. But you gotta let them know that you like them too. Seems like a lot of these kids don't have adults in their lives telling them that they like them. I also make sure they get fed and watered regularly, even if they act up, I take care of them. If I yell at them it is for doing something dangerous or inconsiderate to the other visitors. They get it, but I think they need to test and push. I try to maintain my cool dad status, but it is a fine line to walk.

I realize how few the chances are to do something special with my son. He is already 10. In another blink of an eye he will be driving and all grown up. I don't want to go into a lot of crap about my dad, because he was not a bad guy. He was a product of his experiences just like everyone else is. But I see some things I wished he had done and I want to do them for my son. I could blow a wad of cash at Chuck E. Cheese and Gavin would have a blast, but he would have more fun riding bikes with me at the park, or playing catch with a frizbee or a football. It is all about time. Because I have had to reprioritize my time to allow for P90X exercise sessions, I have paid more attention to all the other time. I am wasting less time. Instead of burying my face in the computer, I am looking for ways to do more things with my family. Sometimes we play on the computer together, but I try to really watch how I'm using my time.

That is really the biggest reason i got the Jeep. My dad had a 1958 GMC pickup. I loved to ride around with him in that truck. I watched him rebuild the engine when i was a little guy, like seven or eight. It was very cool. Gavin has this jeep as part of his childhood. I donlt care if he likes mechanical stuff or not, I want him to remember how I included him. I am going to find some things for him to do so he can help work on it this weekend. Then we are gonna drive around in the rain with the top off.

All my life I have heard that a big appetite is one of those things “Real Men” (Tm) have. It is part of manhood like a hairy chest and a deep voice. Real men eat steak and potatoes and maybe some vegetables while resting between bites of steak. Salad? If I must, but hey, make it a TACO-Salad and now we're talking! Breakfast? How about eggs and bacon or sausage? Yep I need that toast to mop up all that yummy grease. Pancakes? Okay, but keep the piggy parts too, I need my meat! If I eat pancakes, I want a stack of, say, a dozen! I gotta keep my energy up, right? And Pizza! Yay Pizza! Burgers and french-fries, and ribs, oh my!

One of the key things about the P90X program has been reprogramming the food. Instead of my previous normal brekfast, which was coffee only or maybe with a bagel (belly-bomb), I now have coffee with Shredded Wheat and fruit. I get the good old fashioned Shredded Wheat which has one ingredient. Coffee is a non-negotiable but I have increased my water intake to match my coffee intake. The guts seem to like Cereal. More importantly, I can't skip meals and then pig-out later. That is so bad in so many ways I can't even explain it.

For lunch I have been having a Wendy's salad and maybe a yogurt. If I am feeling lavish, I'll go for a Quiznos salad which is about the finest salad money can buy. But If I am tight on money, I bring lunch from home which, today, was a salad with fat-free mayonnaise and a can of tuna dumped on it. I thought I'd hate fat-free anything, but the mayo is good. The tuna and the whole Omega 3 deal is a big thing for good reasons. It goes back to evolution and what the ancestors ate. I don't buy the dolphin-free tuna, it just does not taste the same without a little dolphin in it. :D

For dinner I have not usually been hungry until I am about ready to go to bed. Thats because P90X is so demanding that, by the time we are done around 6:30-ish, I have no appetite. I am in an endorphin-induced fog, drinking water, and thinking un-stressful happy thoughts. Its hard to concentrate with that. It makes playing on the computer difficult. I have to semi-force myself to make dinner or forage for leftovers. But I keep it light. I may just have some yogurt or a slice of peanut-butter toast or some milk and I'm good till morning. By nine I am feeling drowsy and by ten it is bed time. At 5:30am, when I get up, I am ready to eat! The cereal tastes really good and sticks with me most of the morning. If I get hungry, I just tough it out 'till lunch. I have read all the stuff about eating five times a day. I'm sorry, but that doesn't work for me. Eating mini-meals only annoys me. Instead of mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks I'm having water, or, in a moment of weakness, a diet coke. The great thing about salad is that you can eat a lot of it. Since I am losing weight and, more importantly, feeling much, much better than I have in recent memory, I can forego manly meals.

But you know what? I found out something. “Sissy food” is not for sissys; it is for grown-ups. We have been brainwashed into thinking we can eat what we want, as much as we want, and there are no repercussions. We don't eat like men, we eat like teenagers until we have a heart attack or get diabetes and THEN we modify the diet 'cause we have no choice. I decided to skip open heart surgery and insulin injections. For me, manly food is food which will help this man live longer and better.

The labs came back from my physical: I got an “A” in Blood and Urine. Please, pass the salad!

I decided to take a year away from the SCA. It has taken me almost half of that year to figure out why. So if anyone asks me now, I can be lazy and just give them this link. Speaking of LJ, I have quickly learned that few people really want to read a blog; they want to WRITE them and have everyone else read THIERS, right? Well, that's okay. I don’t honestly expect anyone to be interested in what I write. I’m doing this more for me at this point.

Ok, Time for a story! ( More... )

Yesterday Ron and I tore out all the bushes around his porch and leveled it off. it looks much better. It was humid and hot yet it was fun. We will move and rebuild the side fence today. I have not been able to work like that in a long while. It was great to wake up this morning and not have a back-ache. The tide is turning.

First I need to do the deed: I start Phase II today. Don't know what to say except its working. Between P90X, the book "Younger Next Year", and my experiences with Dr. Nick, it feels like all the pieces are sliding into place for me. They talk about turning the tide, or fighting the tide, that's what it feels like. The tide is strong and relentless. Takes a lot of effort.

I have to exercise alone this morning. RL is grabbing people. I understand. They are young. There are so many things pressing on their minds. They have not yet faced the bill collector demanding payment for all the abuse upon their bodies. There is no way could really get it. All I can do is keep on, try to set a good example and provide information. One of these days the tide will turn for them and they will understand. I truely fear for them, all of them. We do nothing to help them condition their bodies to bear the rigors of fighting. The cost is so awful but everyone is in denial. No one knows what to do so they do nothing. The kids have not met the bill collector so they don't understand.

I slept in today, something I rarely do. An extra two hours in bed with nothing hanging on my mind. Felt nice after staying up late. The game was great last night. Afterward we hung around and yakked for awhile. It felt nice. Lots of good vibes. I feel blessed to be in a good game group. It's been, literally, two decades since I had this. I think we would have fun no matter what we played. But I really like our current team. Everyone is on board with their characters and doing a great job. Everyone gets their big moments. At various points, everyone has come up with great ideas when we needed them most. Yeah, it’s just a game, but it is not about the game it is about the players being a team. Yeah they are just characters, but it is about the performance, not the numbers.

Mr. Horton is out there in the garage waiting. I have to stop stalling, get out there while the cool of the day is still here. Time to press play.

Getting caught up on entries...

Eugene the Jeep

My Jeep is a CJ-8 Scrambler. It started life in 1983 in California. It moved to a ranch in Oregon and was all but forgotten. A sailor found it and started a body-off-frame-restoration. The Navy gave him orders to the east coast requiring him to hastily assemble the jeep just well enough to ride on a trailer here. Finances got to him and he had to sell it before he could finish it. When I got it, it was still on the trailer and came with a lot of parts and a big binder full of receipts, instructions, and notes from the rebuild. “Some assembly required.” I do not enjoy benefiting from another’s misfortune. I hope the money helped him out. I have loved every minute of reassembling and driving it. ( More... )

I have been playing City of Heroes, since a couple of months after it was released in 2004. It was and is very fun and a real trip down memory lane for me. Why, at my age, I am interesting in what is predominantly a kids game, is somewhat complicated. If I could sum it up, I would say that its because I am a sucker for a good story. I am not biased in my love of stories. I find exceptional stories in lots of unexpected places. Some very good, even great fiction writing takes place in comic books.
So I play City of Heroes. But I am kinda picky. I can only play a character that really resonates. I do not play "me" as some people do. I am not even really "Role playing" my heroes and villains. What I am really looking for is performance. At my best, I want to "Perform" the characters. I have a full stable of heroes and a few villains. Some of my heroes are pretty basic, power-wise, some are elaborate. My main hero, an old-school phantom/Shadow/Batman-esque guy named Mike Halo, was really coming into his own and I decided to write a little fan-fiction featuring him. He needed someone to play off of. Taking some things that actually occurred in the game, I wove together a story. His sidekick turned out to be even more interesting that he was. Thus the "Training Day" series was born.

Why "Training Day"? That's complex. And it's getting late.

We went out for dinner at a pub and were told that the place was booked. It was almost empty, but it was booked. I have not felt discriminated against since that time I felt honor-bound to rough-up a waiter in Paris, back in 1984. I am older and wiser now, and I have no desire to spend hours in a Police station, so we left and found another place. This one was a family operation. The food was great and the daughters who ran the front-end of the place were terrific. Later we found out that the first pub was probably awaiting the arrival of a tour coach. Still, I was feeling crabby about it. ( Read the last half! )

A Scottish Vacation

Why Scotland? It’s a long story. But, to be brief, we have been all over Europe yet we never went to Scotland. We normally go camping for vacation, but last year it was not as much fun as it has been, so I was interested in trying something different.
We got off to a rough start. US Airways cancelled our flight on Friday, 17 August. That was it. No ceremony, no warning. Weather and too much traffic in Philadelphia forced them to cancel with little more than an “Oops, sorry!” Bear in mind that every other flight from now until eternity was “booked solid”. That evening, after literally hours and hours of dealing with customer service, first, at the airport and then on the phone, we found a sentient life-form who could help us. We flew out the next morning. Thank you, God.( Read lots more! )

Ok, so this is all about "sharing".  I can share.  Let me share some stuff.

1. I grew up in San Jose, California. 

2.  My mom and two younger sisters are still alive. 

3. I am in love with my best friend, who happens to be my wife.     

4. I have a son who is ten as of this writing.  He is great.

5. I have a wierd dog, but I like her alot.

6. I did 20 years in the Army, most of it either at Fort Bragg or in Europe.

7. I am in the SCA and have been for a long, long time. 

8. I am fascinated by beautiful and unusual things. 

9. I admire heroism.

10.  I have gradually become less religious and more spiritual.  I am still adapting to this.

11.  I have learned the difference between tolerance and acceptance.

12.  I am a skeptic, but not in an obnoxious way.  I really would like to see something like a UFO or a ghost.  Just once.

13.  I sometimes hurt people's feelings without knowing why.  That seriously bothers me.

Ok, now I'm getting all touchy feely.  Thirteen is a good number to stop at.

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