Vert Traveller

Play Errors

2009-09-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

I have gotten the bug to play magic once again. It is my favorite game ever, and I have found a nearby place with some fun folks to play it with.

This is a good time to get back into magic. The tournament scene is comprised of "blocks" of cards that are made up 3 sets released through the year.

Big set + little set + little set / Big set + little set + little set

In October a new big set will come put and that means only 4 sets will be legal. When a new block is issued, then entire older block rotates out. That means fewer cards to chase down to be competitive.

So these few weeks, before the next set comes out, I am at a bit of a disadvantage as it relates with cards to play with.

Three weeks ago, I wondered into the shop and went 2-1 and grabbed third place with a pile of junk I cobbled together for $12. I was pretty pleased with my showing.

However, three 1-2 performances have left me slightly frustrated. This is a tendency of mine. I understand the game, I study it, and I get results below what I feel I should.

I just make too many play errors. I want to avoid them and start playing error free games.

Magic uses a best 2 of 3 format. So my matches have looked like this:

Sunday Type II: 2-1 in match play 2-1, 0-2, 2-0 in games.
FNM Type II: 1-2 in match play 2-1, 0-2, 1-2 in games.
Sunday Type II: 1-2 in match play 1-2, 0-2, 2-0 in games.
FNM Limited: 1-2 in match play 2-0, 1-2, 1-2 in games.
Sunday Type II: 1-2 in match play 1-2, 1-2, 2-0 in games.

In most of my losses I forced a game three. So my game count is 18 - 20. Unfortunately, I have lost a lot of game threes. More than I should.

Match losses so far: 1 royal mana screw, a color hoser that I had no answer for, 2 cases of just being outclassed on cards, and at least five dead-on-wrong play errors, if not more. Now losing is a part of gaming and I am fine with that, but I have to stop making play errors. Time and time again I see that these dumbass play errors cost me key games.

Boner one: Ignoring a Planeswalker. I did not play with Planeswalkers before and am not used to them. They add a whole new permanent type to the game and I need to get used to them and NOT underestimate them.

Boner two: Not be clear of the game state before making a complicated play. I am just getting back into the game, and the cards are all new blah blah blah. This is an inexcusable game error. I must know the state of the board before making a play.

Boner three: Not knowing the mechanics of a key card. You can always call the judge over and get an explanation, and as soon as I had the card in hand and was unsure of the play, I should have called the judge. This misplay was in a game three and I had a strong limited deck. Who knows what can happen, but it clearly would have bought me two more draws, and that is the great thing about magic. The game can change with every draw of the card.

Boner four: Ignoring a Planeswalker AGAIN, in a critical game three, for the loss. This one really stings, because I had the answers...THREE of them in my hand, and just ingnored the Planeswalker and lost.

Boner five: Just a run of the mill misplay. The kind where right after you do it, the opponent sheepishly points out that you made a misplay.

GRRRRRRR!

I don't mind losing. Bad draws, bad mana flow, bad luck, all factor in, but I must eliminate these sloppy play errors.

I only have one or two more tournaments before the new set is in, and it is game on! Next Friday, I have one single goal. I don't care what my final record is, but I want to play with no errors!

Looking back on my tournament record, I am shocked by how poor my record is. I have a few high finishes, but so many crappy showings.

One year of competing, and I want to try and get over a 1700.

We shall see. One error free game at a time.

Harry Potter No Shitter

2009-08-28T20:17:00.001-07:00

From Box Office Mojo, with rounded down to the nearest million.

For all 6 movies:

Cost $905,000,000
US Gross $1,700,000,000
World Gross $ 5,367,000,000

Yes, that is 5 BILLION world gross. So call it 4.4 BILLION net, before advertising.

Mind you, the Half-Blood Prince is still in theatres and they have decided to turn the last book into two films.

HOLY CRAP!

A forum post of mine.

2009-08-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Got into it with some religious folks and had some ideas that were brewing in my head. So I thought I would share them. This was from a thread that was getting into Evolution vs. Creation.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As for the Darwin haters. This is really a dead issue. Evolution is a fact. Much of the current religious push back on Evolution comes from books published by the Watchtower, also known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. While they did a decent job of dressing things up and telling a nice story, it was mostly written at the end of the 70s and early 80s. Two things have come up that have made it irrelevant.

1) The anti-evolution folk insist on attacking the fossil record. 30 years ago this was a weakness. However, hundreds of thousands of fossils have been discovered since then and we do, in fact, have intact complete fossil records of evolved species. For example, the horse record is complete.

2) Genetics. The work on genetics and DNA/RNA strands, not to mention the Mitochondrial DNA, has really closed the door on any scientific argument against Evolution. You really need to catch up on the science.

The discussion has really moved from evolution to the spontaneous generation of life. While this has not been scientifically nailed down, there are some very interesting projects that have advanced the theories of spontaneous generation of life. Case is not closed on this yet, but we are WAAAAAAY closer than we were 35 years ago.

Carbon Dating is not a scientifically contested process....other than by Creationist. Again, the half life of atomic structures is very predictable. You can actually set a watch by it. {Rim shot.}

The bible is our oldest literature. It is an incredibly important document from a moral, historical, and story telling perspective. But why does it have to be scientifically correct as well?

2,000 years ago people believed the earth was flat, the earth was the center of the universe, the universe was comprised of 4 elements and that Sea Monsters were a real navigational hazard.

All of this is false, yet we refuse to except that the bible is an important guide for people, but doesn't have to be literally true.

Can't their be some compromise on this? Can't I believe that the Creation Myth is a wonderful story, that I should not murder, and the love is important, and not have to eat the flesh of Christ and pray to All-Knowing All-Powerful Diety that lives in the clouds?

I mean really, lets all grow up and accept we are responsible for our own actions, and that being a good person is its own reward.

Second Life

2009-08-08T17:22:00.001-07:00

For a limited time (Apparently) the film "Second Life" is available to watch, for free, on Hulu.

If you ever wanted to know what the attraction/fascination with online gaming is this is a good view for people on the outside looking in.

Check it out!

Second Life

Health Care

2009-08-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

My mother has had some issues with the health care debate, and in light of the fact that EVERYTHING that I warned her about with Bush ended up being correct, I now feel comfortable bombarding her from the moral high ground in regards to health care.

Good op-ed here;

Canada VS. US

Advice to live by

2009-08-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

The Move

2009-08-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

I suppose one of my biggest difficulties as a blogger is writing “in the moment”. Emotions well up and should be released, but I need to keep them inside and digest them. Processing unpleasant parts of my life into easily digestible parts is part of my coping method.

I am no longer a home owner. It sucks, and no matter how I parse it, or examine it, it feels like a loss.

Lakewood seemed a bit cursed to me, right from the start. I recall the ancient tradition of sacrificing someone or something to the corner stone of a new building. Well Duffy died the first day I moved into that house and I never forgave it. I secretly hated that house for killing my dog. Poor Duffy. I loved him so much. I remember just crying my eyes out and Tim holding me. Not the most propitious beginning to a new venture and the omen seems to have been borne out.

However, there is a silver lining. A short sale is worlds better than a foreclosure in just about every way. Furthermore, you can save quite a bit of money when you are not paying to live somewhere. (sigh)

I guess this final chapter started about three weeks ago. Tim walked through the door with a wad of papers that had been fixed to the front door. The Trustee sale date had been set! (The foreclosure sale) Whoa! We are in the midst of completing this sale. I jump on the phones and make a round of calls. The foreclosure firm doesn’t care about anything I have to say. After much dialing, waiting, googling numbers, I finally get my negotiator on the phone. He tells me not to worry, it’s his deal and he has approved the short sale. GREAT!

Wut?

We are approved? Our realtor told us we had months left in the house. In fact, we are so sure of this we have made vacation plans for the last week of July and beginning of August. I scramble to call our realtor and she reassures me. “Don’t worry, I have seen the deal and the second mortgage is only being offered $5000. They will never take that!” Not only do they take it, they turn the deal around in 3 hours! That same afternoon, my realtor calls me back and informs me that I am in Escrow and will likely need to vacate the house by August 8th.

Wut?

So I now have less than 2 weeks to find an apartment and move. Funny how that will knock you out of a stupor. I found a place and spent the week doing “car trips”. A single flight of stairs turns into quite a workout when you have no stairs in your life at all. By Friday I am exhausted and stressed out, and we still have the heavy day. Now my apartment is up on straight flight of stairs. Tim and Laramie are in a 3rd story walk up and the stairs have 4 tight landings. Oh and Tim and I are not in our twenties anymore. I swear that day nearly killed us both. But we were moved and had new homes so with that behind us we were more than ready for a little Rest and Relaxtion on the coast of Oregon. A lovely beach house just a short walk from the ocean. I pack my beach towel, goggles and two suits. Just what I need to recharge my soul.

Oh yeah, no one swims the Oregon shore. Arctic currents.

Wut?

A Letter to Jason Song

2009-06-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

So, Jason Song has become my bete noire due to a series of articles he has written, in the LA Times. I wrote a letter to the editor that was ignored and then wrote him directly. To my amazement he responded.

My Letter:

Dear Jason,

I have been following your series of articles closely, and the negative comments that seem to accompany them on the LA Times website. I follow them closely because I am a teacher in the LAUSD.

For years I have heard phrases like “Education in Crisis” and “Reform”. Quite frankly, it has made me depressed. I have excelled in everything I have done. I graduated on the President’s list, when I completed my credentialing process my portfolio was recognized as exemplary. I was always quickly promoted, did very well on testing, and have had the numbers to back it up.

However, in teaching, I have felt like a failure. The constant bombardment of OpEd pieces, journalist such as yourself, and even the administration that I work for just keep hitting us with the fact that we are “failing our kids”. I work my butt off, as do the vast majority of teachers I know, so I finally decided to find this failure.

For nearly a year I have been googling news stories on “Educational Reform” and “Failure”. I then back track the articles references until I get back to the original source or study.

I have read them all. They all say the same thing. For nearly 40 years, every single measurement of student improvement has gotten better. Graduation rates have increased. The percentage of people with college degrees has gone up. Performance in every area in every age group has gone up. The gap between different demographics has decreased, and the gains made by minority groups has been greater than that of whites. Internationally, we have improved in math and science, both quantitatively and in ranking.

You like to beat this “reform drum” pretty hard, Jason. What reform do you want? Where do you think we are failing? You have fashioned yourself as a muck-raker, but your seem to have the Teacher’s Union squarely in your sites.

What is your agenda?

If you would like to have lunch sometime and discuss, I would be interested in hearing your opinion.

Sincerely,

Joseph Matthews.

PS And yes, I have the studies and numbers on my computer. None of this is anecdotal.

His response:

Other than writing factual stories, I don’t have an agenda. If you’d like to meet and talk about your experiences, I’d be happy to do that, I’m sure you’re a good teacher, but any conversation about what I want would e a short one.

Best
Jason

My response back:

Well, I have to admit, I have a bit of a one sided relationship with you. Reading your articles and the bashing of teachers that goes on in the comments has driven me to research into the studies of academic progress and the reform movement as a whole. I have dozens of studies and a fresh box of books from Amazon.com, I am reading, because of you.

I have always worked my butt off, but teaching and teachers seemed to be mired in this assumption of failure. That we aren't doing anything right and every meeting I attend its "reform, reform, reform". So I went looking for this "crisis". I just can't find it. Not statistically. Tons of anecdotal stuff, sure, lots of Op-ed crap that tends to track itself back to conservative Washington think tanks. But no smoking gun study that says "Aha! Here is the problem." I am looking and I just can't find it.

Your series of articles really does seem slanted. The language, in most cases, 'colors' the UTLA very poorly. I am not a sycophant, and I realize all organizations are flawed, but you really seem to be grinding an axe.

Your phrasing make it seem as if things like due process and the assumption of innocence are some shady backroom perks and not rights enshrined in the constitution. Furthermore, by definition, what is a Union but a protector of seniority? I know, in theory, it is collective bargaining, but at its heart isn't the purpose of Unions to prevent ownership/management from dumping senior (read more costly) employees in favor of younger (and cheaper) employees? Don't workers have a right to job stability and the hopes to raise a family and earn a wage that will allow them access to the "American Dream" of being a home owner and sending children to college?

Studies in three different states have shown that the number one factor in children improving is having a teacher over 5 years of experience. National studies indicate that nearly 50% of all new teachers leave the field in 5 years! The only crisis in teaching is the retention of teachers, not getting rid of them.

I am sure you have uncovered some instances of abuse or wrongdoing. Large institutions make mistakes. However, you seem to have taken the stance that the cure to what ails education is streamlining the firing processes and that the Union is, as a direct effect, operating to hinder improving education by systemically resisting calls to make it easier to fire teachers. Implying that teacher's union are the problem with education. Don't you realize how much that sucks?

Look, unions have a checkered past, certainly, again I am not snorting pixie dust here, however look at the history of Unions; Solidarity and its role in ending communism, the impact of Unions in South Africa, the targeting of unions by military regimes in south America. In fact, it is hard to find a common enemy of more unlike folks. Oligarchs, fascists, communists, dictators all hate Unions. In short, the rich and powerful!

In this country's own history, the time of least partisan politics and lowest percentage of wealth concentration occurred when Unions had their memberships representing the largest percentage of the working population.

Union are the voice of the working man and only force pushing back against the billionaires that are trying to turn the whole world in a gated community. It just saddens me when I see journalist toting the party line and running down unions on a fringe issue.

Any rights unions have won are in responses to prior abuses. If principals and administrators had not previously abused their positions, Unions wouldn't have fought for the protections they have.

You just have a tendency to paint the union with a broad stroke and imply that accused teachers are the same as guilty teachers. It’s not cool, Jason.

I have been accused of abuse before, and while I was completely cleared, it is a terrifying experience, and it happens a lot more than you might think. Parents side with vengeful children or have an axe to grind of their own.

I'm just saying, walk a mile in our shoes.

Sincerely,
Joseph Matthews
Teacher and UTLA member

The Human Voice and Beat Boxing

2009-06-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

I love beat box. The first time I heard it was the Fat Boys, back in the old school.

Fat Boys Human Beat Box Live

Then the next time I was vocally wowed was by Bobby McFerrin. I can't find his cover of Sunshine of your Love on Video, but hearing a human being scream an Eric Clapton guitar solo is amazing. Here is a cool one of him.

Bobby McFerrin Drive

Now Beat Box has come a long way and actually has spread out it different directions. There is even an online world competition for beat box. Last years was won by a 17 year old white girl from Canada! ha ha. That is awesome to me.

Julie Dales, Beatbox Champion

Now then, some beat boxers are using technology to loop their beats to make more complete sounds. Some can do this live and even incorporate other musicians.

DUBFx and Woodnote

However, some do the whole band with a band!

Naturally 7

And Finally, some purists might not refer to this as beatbox, however, I think you can clearly see the influence. Furthermore, when did you ever think you would listen to Toto's Africa and think, "Whoa that is cool"? This group is Slovakian and not native english speakers either.

Choir does Africa

Hope you enjoyed these!

The Illusion of Superiority

2009-06-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

This fantastic little short illustrates a phenomenon we have all experienced, however I never knew how to express it.

I warn you the short is done in an odd way, but just hang with it for a few minutes and listen closely.

Very Good.

The Illusion of Superiority

Now then, I find this second short, very interesting when the two are considered together. What do you think?

Are we in control of our decisions?

It strikes me as a stunning situation, that we have a world of full of people that are not only incompetent and unable to recognize their incompetence, but are also unable to make decisions.

Scary.

What a beautiful day!

2009-05-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

So I hopped on the scale and was down a few pounds.

At school, we ran a few scenes and the kids were really finally getting it. The players are becoming really funny!

We then went to the mask making class and my kids masks came out great! They will be a terrific addition to our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Then Phil Lumbang, the artist I found online, and gave all the kids signed and numbered prints and gave the kids a great lesson in art. My principal came in and was super impressed and wants him to do some murals at the school.

Then my principal informed me that one of the art teachers was at another school and remembered our bulletin board for our play and connected with a teacher there that is doing the same thing. He was able to get a bus and is going to bring his cast to our school next Thursday. We are going to perform for them, and then they are going to perform for us, then we will have a big round table discussion of the play.

THEN!!!!! My realtor called me and we got a real offer on the house so we can start the short sale dance and likely dodge the foreclosure!

WOOOOOOOOT!

Whuttaday!

American Idol, Logic, and Math

2009-05-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

The surprise flowing around the inter-webs, that Adam Lambert lost American Idol, reveals to me that Americans are very bad problem solvers. For those of you that don’t know, a Bowie-esgue singer with the range of Freddie Mercury, lost to a kid from Arkansas with the range of…oatmeal. Hey, it can come with raisins or cinnamon.

But just a little analysis reveals it should have been no surprise at all.

Top 4 week had Danny Gokey and Kris Allen. Both are nice safely heterosexual white boys from fly over states. Allison Iraheta is a spicy little Latina from Los Angeles who can channel Janis Joplin and Adam Lambert is an openly gay stage performer from San Diego, read Los Angeles to anyone from Gokey’s or Kris’s states. Both Adam and Allison are high flying rocker vocalists from So Cal that had a fondness for unnatural hair color and leather. In the duets we even had Gokey and Kris paired up against Adam and Allison.

Supposedly 65ish million votes were cast in week 4. Divided 4 ways this would indicate an average of 16.25 million votes each. We know that Danny, Allison, and Adam were in the bottom 3. Kris was “Safe” and therefore already must have had well over 16.25 million votes in hand. Allison is eliminated. Meaning she had less than 16.25 million votes.

Undistributed votes is the key here. Where can we expect her <16 million votes to go? Clearly the bulk of Allison's votes would have gone to Adam, with X amount of people not voting anymore out of disgust. However, I think that people that actually pay a dollar to vote in this silly show, in the quarter finals no less, probably feel some sort of ownership at this point and would keep voting. In light of the fact that each week saw the vote total go up, I don’t think that many pay voters actually stop.

Top 3 week sees approximately 85 million votes cast for an average of 28 million votes each! Wow. This is 12 million more than each averaged the week before. Certainly, with the bulk of Allison’s votes with him, Adam should have been well in front, yet we are informed that the spread between 1st and 2nd place was less than 1 million votes? Gokey is voted off. The similarities between Gokey and Kris mean that Kris should be getting a lion’s share of his votes.

So what do we know going into the finals? Over 99 million votes are cast. Kris does a great job and the final song really plays to his Hokey strengths. So I imagine any new-to-the-season voters are going to break slighty to the sweet southern boy. We know that Kris was the top voter in the Top 4. We know that even with Allison’s likely votes with him, Adam was unable to get a gap greater than 1 million out of 85 million votes, and that Kris was likely going to pick up the bulk of Gokey’s votes.

Why is Kris Allen’s victory so shocking? Quite frankly, an Adam victory would have defied all logic.

Although I will throw this bone to the conspiracy nuts. One of my students, A Jehovah's witness, informed me her mother voted 50 times for Kris Allen...to ensure a gay person wouldn't win it. I wonder how many others did the same?

Our Government and a brilliant poem!

2009-05-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Very interesting short film on

Our Goverment

and a bit of GENIUS!

A Bad Rap for Teachers

2009-05-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

A recent series of articles in the LA Times, by Jason Song, has put teachers and the teacher’s union in a terrible light. Several issues seem to have been muddled together in this series of articles; district employees that have committed criminal acts, incompetent teachers being kept on staff, and how firing those teachers will somehow help resolve the budget crisis.

The LAUSD has planned to lay off between 2300 to 5000 teachers to deal with the budget crisis. That is somewhere between 6.5% and 14% of the teachers. The 160 “housed” employees, referred to in the articles, represent just 0.4% of the staff. The housed teachers, while a concern, don’t really have an impact on overall staffing or the budget crises. Furthermore, one of the most egregious abuse cases in the article was a teacher’s aide not a teacher. However, no distinction is made between the two.

The premise that the education system is full of incompetence is just not borne out statistically. Data indicates that student performance has improved for 37 years in the vast majority of the areas measured. Is every teacher great? No. The biggest reason some teachers are not very good is no training program can prepare teachers for the job. The act of managing 20-40 children while teaching them is very difficult. National studies show that nearly 50% of all teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years. The crisis facing many schools is not getting rid of teachers, it is keeping teachers! When a teacher begins working for the LAUSD they go through a three year probationary period where their contract renewal is not guaranteed. When the probationary period ends there is no blanket protection from being fired, teachers are merely allowed due process and may only be fired for cause. With no protection from being fired for 3 years and upwards of 50% of new teachers leaving the field within 5 years, how are the teacher’s union and the teachers that have stayed in the classroom at fault?

Is the LA Times really suggesting that the state’s budget crisis is being made worse because accused teachers are presumed innocent and have a right to due process? Sometimes children lie to get back at teachers, and sometimes parents have an axe to grind. Sorting out the true bad apples from teachers falsely accused is a difficult job. However, no one is intentionally allowing criminals and child abusers to gain access to children, and the inference that the teacher’s union somehow condones or knowingly protects abusive teachers is outrageous.

Happy stuff

2009-05-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

So I have been pretty down of late. April was a banner month of shite for me.

Forclosure proceedings began.
Failed the first test I can remember failing in my adult life. (No worries I got a 197 out of 200 on the multiple choice test so my ego wasn't completely shattered)
Warcraft finally petered out in a rather unpleasant fashion.
And work has been frustrating too.

So, here are some things that make me happy.

Lots of people singing

Susan Boyle

Feeling Good

Testing

2009-03-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Remember that scene in "Back to School" where Rodney has been cramming all night and the professor, that is his nemesis, walks up and....

"I have only one question for Mr. Melon...
in 14 parts."

"Discuss the foundations of modern global business systems.
Part one: Define and differentiate...
the three economic philosophies of capitalism, socialism
and communism as pertains to:

A... management fundamentals

B... organizing and staffing

C... labor management;

and D... production and operations.

Part two..."

That was my essay test. But I had FOUR questions like that!!!

AHHHHHH!

Two hours to complete and I had less than 5 minutes left when I finished.

But I think I rocked it!

Are you getting
all this, Mr. Melon?

Kutiman + Thru You = Amazing Music!

2009-03-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

This may be the coolest thing ever.

This guy has taken individual performances on Youtube and mixed/edited them.

THRU YOU

I just have to point out that this guy found a hundred, or more, average people and turned them into amazing.

And I don't mean average in a derogatory sense, I mean real people, out there, putting themselves out there for the whole world to see and then this person out in the world fuses them together into something greater than the sum of the parts.

It is a fantastic endeavor that borders on sheer poetic brilliance.

It just makes me love humanity even more. Truly amazing.

Kutiman is my hero!

Karma wheel turns

2009-03-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Its not all bad, all the time. HA HA!

Back in Decemeber, someone grinded into the front fender of my motorcycle, scrapping it up pretty nicely. Now I love my motorcycle and it has never been down. I've kept it garaged and pretty cherry. So this bummed me out a lot. The fact that it happened in a locked parking lot at work made it more irritating.

My principal tells me it is no big deal and the district will reimburse me, but maybe due to budget contraints or whatever, I get the guy on the phone and he is jerking me around that they won't pay.

I just can't justify paying for a $500 cosmetic repair at this point so I resign myself to the big ugly blemish.

Cut forward to this nonsense in the dentist's parking lot and my bike all messed up now. I am not a fraud kind of guy. I know I could get the fender thrown in on the repair, but that is not who I am. So I tell the lady she didn't do it. I tell the insurance company that it is prior damage. I tell the dealership that it is prior damage. The adjuster calls me to tell me he has inspected the bike and has authorized $1700 in repairs. I used to work at a dealership I can estimate this as well and I know he is high on that number, so I tell him that the fender is prior damage and did he include it?

"Well that fender is consistent with the rest of the damage."

"Yeah, but it isn't and I am not the type to engage in insurance fraud."

"It IS consistent with the crash damage, but thanks for being honest. I will make a note of it. But we are goin to replace the fender anyhow."

WTF? Okay I was totally honest. I can only figure the guy already wrote it up and cut the check and didn't feel like undoing the deal. WOOOT! Cherry bike coming back my way.

And on the house concerns:
1) The mortgage companies have not started foreclosure proceedings yet, so our 4 month timeline has not even begun yet! So my concerns of having to move before the school year ends are over.

2) The second mortgage is not a second mortgage in the way that term is normally used. It is primary purchase money. It is legally more like a first mortgage in 2 parts. It was not a refinance. No money was taken out of the house, so the "second" is not a seperate liability! Woohoo.

3) We got a new rep from our company and she seems a lot more on the ball than our other guy.

I took the pretest for my exam that is coming up and basically got a 91%. So I am feeling pretty good there too. On the going back east tip, I got 44 resume packages out into the mail on Friday as well. Getting some stuff done.

I really miss playing WoW with my brother, but I needed some away time to get my life in order. Now I just need to get into a gym, and get "addicted to working out" like my brother suggested.

Saw Watchmen on Friday night. Well made, but just lacking somehow. I mean it is amazingly accurate visually, but just doesn't resonate the way the book did.

Nice to get out of the house for a change.

I finished my abridgement of Midsummer's Night Dream. I had a classroom set of the 60 minute Shakespeare version, but me being me, didn't like their abridgement and did my own. She just threw away too much poetry in her cut. I like mine better. I am not afraid to rewrite Old Bill, just a little, if I can keep the rhymed couplets.

Oh, so this is how it is, is it?

2009-03-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

I go to my dentist and his bills just seem as dodgy as the quality of the service has been. I get the insurance company on and there are all sorts of irregularities. So I am pissed.

I call the dentist office and get the old, "I can't discuss this over the phone". So I storm down there with copies of policies and their bill. Not to mention sore infected gums.

I get the COO [Of a friggin dentist's shop?] and get another run around. "Have your insurance company call us". Meh!

I walk outside and my motorcycle has been knocked over and some lady is telling me it is my fault for squeezing it in. Now get this. The dentist office has a row of "compact" spots. Labeled and everything. And she parks her big ass SUV in the spot and even cheats over, taking a spot and a half. Now, no car can park there, but a bike can and I do. She pulled out and knocked my bike over, into a BMW!

Then when she sees its just not the mirror, but the floorboard, wind screen and who knows what else, she says she won't pay for it. After telling the cop, she did it! You see, because it is in a parking lot, no fault! So I need to take her to court if she won't pay! Thank god the cop was cool and made her give me all her info, after she said, "Maybe I do, I don't know", after I asked her if she was covered.

GAH!

I don't have another vehicle to drive!

I have so much crap to do, and more just keeps piling on me. /cry

No news is good news??

2009-03-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well not really I suppose.

It is funny how, in retrospect, my emotional health is. Decide to Forclose? Stop blogging.

Nearly 5 months give or take since the last post and clearly it is has been a time of emotional turmiol for me.

However, every cloud does in fact have a silver lining. I feel closer to my brother than I have in my whole life. We talk regularly and have become friends. Seems odd, but while I loved my brother, being my brother, we never seemed really close. It is certainly my fault. Not keeping in touch, being a prickly bastard, and not really giving him room to be him. But I am really glad we have tried to reach out to each other more.

Trying to get some creative stuff going with Jeff. How amazing are my friends? It is like I somehow chose the "Quality over Quatity" option at birth. If anyone can show me how to channel my overactively creative brain into some form of productivity, it is him.

On that front, I am full bore ahead with my production of Midsummer Night's Dream with my students. I am so proud of the confidence and gusto they all showed auditioning. My prinipal has given me a bunch of time in the auditorium and has let me schedule two performances for students and an "afternoon" performance for parents on "Open House" night. Just working with kids and scripts makes me happy.

And I am on the road back to Connecticut. I am negotiating a nightmare-like maze of paperwork to try and get my credential in CT. I have to take two tests to get full credential. However, other than the normal paper shuffle BS these things seems to take, I don't see any real road block to getting my teaching credential. The hard part is getting a job. With record unempolyment and state budgets in free-fall, there are not a lot of openings.

I have put a package together and am going to try to end run the regular hiring avenues and mail out a resume etc, directly to 50 principals. Hopefully, I will get a nibble. I am really ready to get out of Cali and go back home, but in this economy, I just can't give up my job.

Although, one downer is my weight. My happiness or depression is always a barometer of my weight. Just is. Its stupid and clearly indicative of some deep seated character flaw I can't sort out, but I am back up in weight again. Not into uncharted territory, just gave up some of the progress I made last year.

March 1st. I have made some many declarations and little mini-rituals and sceremonies in my life in regards to changing my habits, I am going to avoid making another now. I just need to eat less and exercise more. Ha ha, I mean its not rocket science, but it has been the bane of my existence. So much self loathing tied up in my self-image, and I just can't get a grip on it.

I have stopped my subscription to World of Warcraft again. Need to get some things in order. I need to study for these tests. Pack up and mail some belongings.

The foreclosure timeline is starting to run out. I suspect May, but I am going to try and push it to June/July.

If I get a job offer in CT, having to find a place to stay for 8-10 weeks would just suck. I don't want to bail on my kids, or the play, or my contract with LAUSD and leave CA when I have to move out of the house. I would really need to hang out til the end of the school year, no matter what.

Not sure how it is going to play out, but I need to start clearing some stuff out and streamlining so I can be ready.

Bumps in the road

2008-10-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

I suppose we all have them from time to time.

Bumps in the road. Perspective largely determines how large they may be.

Tim and I have decided we need to walk away from our house and mortgage. :(

Yup, it sucks. I have spent my entire adult life building up my good credit, and I mean fantastic credit, when I say good. But it has to be done, I think.

My house is close to $200,000 upside down now. We wanted to roll it over in 2 or 3 years and thus took some of the hinkiest loans out there. We have a 6% Interest Only first, with an ARM and a 9.99% second with a baloon payment.

We are totally hosed.

I feel like the biggest loser in the world too.

One of the bonus stings, is that my father knew too.

I asked him for help when I go into this and he refused. He said "I don't think I will be able to get my money back out of this investment."

He was right. Unfortunately, all I heard was, "I don't think YOU are a good investment" and blew him off.

I wish my relationship with my father wasn't what it was so that I could have either heard better what he was saying, or he could have communicated it better to me.

The situation is clearly my fault and I am not trying to share that, it just seems like there was a missed opportunity there.

Life sucks.

I'm Joseph the Sailing Man!!!

2008-07-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been thinking about all this Fuel concerns and peak oil and what not and it occured to me that transportation in the future is going to be an issue.

What can make way without fuel? We are considering all these other types of alternative energy, but what space age vehicle exists that can transport us around the world with a renewable energy source?

Oh yeah. Sailboats.

Sailing and I have a good karma.

My first sailing was back in 1980 with my best friend, Jeff, on Candlewood Lake. He is still a dear friend and I speak to him all the time. (But not enough even then)

My next sailing was on a catamaran in the Gulf Of Mexico with this Engineer I met while working on Oil rigs. We hooked up with a pair of strippers and spent Easter sailing and then indulging in very non-religious activities.

Then, the family took a trip to Hawaii and booked a trip on sailboat. Well the captain recognized a Wellfleet Beachcomber T-shirt on one of us. Turns out his girlfriend owned a gym in Wellfleet or something, anyhow 6-degrees of seperation later, he has the Jethro Tull rocking on the stereo, a cooler of beer open and our half-day quickie turned into a all dayer to all the cool snorkle spots.

So sailing has had a real positive vibe for me. Factor in my Grandfather and namesake was a seaman and you have something there.

But I am not one to just make an assumption like this. Just buy a boat and take off? I need some training. So I find this company, Bluewater Sailing and check out their website. Looks good. I sign up for a Basic Keelboat Class. ASA 101, more or less.

Well the positive Karma just flows out of this. It is supposed to be four people and the instructor in the boat. The couple cancels so it is just me and the other guy. The other guy turns out to be Aaron Sorkin. The writer/creator of West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War and A Few Good Men. Now I saw a Few Good Men on Broadway, and the instructor and I are both former Marines. (A Few Good Men is about the Marine Corps base in Gitmo way before the hole POW camp thing there).

Cameron is a great guy and so is Aaron and we really just hit it off and have a grand old time.

Today is the final day and test for our certification. I get a 97% and Aaron gets a 96% (Bwahahaha Aaron ^__^ ) Actually I get like a 97.82% but that is another funny story.

Bluewater offers a package deal to get Basic Keelboat, Basic Coastal Cruising, Navigation and Bareboat Cruising for a discount if you pay the whole thing in advance and they give us an option to convert our current class and tuition into the package deal.

It is a lot of money and I look at the bank account and decide to do it. I plan to buy a boat and sail it solo around the world some day. I better know what the hell I am doing. So I write the check and go out and sit down for the review and test.

A few moment later the fellow in the office hands me the reciept for the package deal. $1600+ He also hands me my check back!!!!

WTF!

Aaron has paid for my classes. No shit. I have never had anyone do something like that for me. I am really sort of flabbergasted and deciding if I should refuse this largesse. I don't like owing anything to anyone and it just seemed weird to me.

He looks at me and says, "It is a gift from my family to you to thank you for our service to your country." Wow. So I shut up and get on with the class.

At a later point I was stumbling over some way to thank him again and he just shook it and said, "Anyone can tell what kind of man you are."

So if anyone says any crap about Aaron Sorkin, I'm going to have to kick their ass.

Oh, and we both passed our check out as well.

What an awesome week!

New Bio Fuel Source

2008-07-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

Sis keeps the hot links coming.

While I am glad that some people are developing non-food sources bio-fuel, I am still concerned about competing over fertile growing lands for it. But it is something.

New Bio-Fuel

The Picken's Plan

2008-07-14T15:31:00.001-07:00

My sister sent me this.

The Picken's Plan

I certainly hope he's right. This could help a lot.

My Thoughts

2008-07-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

I am glad to see you guys are aware of whats going on.

And Bro, I desperately hope I am wrong. But yikes!!!

The only question to the Peak Oil scenario, is not if, but when.

I am looking at the worst case scenario timeline, certainly. But what if?

It just seems that we have passed the peak, the oil wars have started, we have had food riots in the news, Charitable organizations say they can no longer deliver food to many spots that need it, and the weather is going bonkers world wide.

I am not trying to get biblical here, but there are some really scary indicators that we are in for a bumpy ride.

Preparation and readiness is never going to go to waste. It is good to know that we are financially sound.

And Sis, that sounds great. I'll fish, Bro will hunt, you and yours grow grapes and my roomies will grow veggies!

I recommend seeing "Crude Awakening". It is very interesting and in depth. The scary part of the film, ultimately, is the way serious scientists list off the issues with most technological solutions. Quite frankly we don't have the tech to replace oil right now.

Nuclear? To replace oil we would burn through the world supplies of U235 in 10-20 years. It is a bridge answer only.

Wind? Will help, but lacks consistency and 'density".

Solar? We can do it with solar, but we need a square footage of solar panels equal to a third of the size of California. We need to start a massive program right now, and that doesn't deal with the infrastructure questions in terms of delivery.

Undoubtably, science will answer some of the questions but that is a tough bet. And when? How soon? Soon enough to forestall the coming crisis?

I don't know. I certainly hope they do.

But I just don't know.

Mankind didn't leave the stone age because we ran out of stones. I think hoping that we will evolve out of the fossil fuel age, because we ran out of fossil fuel is being pretty damn optimistic.

My brother's Response

2008-07-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

I honestly believe we have the technology to create engines besides those which have such a massive dependency on oil.

I actually believe the government is at the very least not investing in it, and probably hindering/stopping/purchasing anyone from creating permanent alternative sources.

I believe they do this because they are paid off by major corporations that manufacture cars and oil. ( I could go into this in much more detail but you probably understand where I’m going here)

I believe as we get closer to this point of total oil depletion, the govt. will force these same corporations to create these alternative sources of energy and thereby create other jobs and industry.

Although I don’t believe our economy will be as strong as it was, I do not believe it will collapse. I think the market/economy will change and adapt as our industry changes and adapts.

1. My money is in the bank and on four wheels, and is accessible.

Invest in wind power/solar power/grease power-any alternative sources of power or those companies that are currently investing time and capital in their R&D dept. for this change.

2) New England has a lot of water sources-I’m going hunting and fishing in the blue hills(N.H.)!

3) I can make sand castles, to live in.

4) I don’t have that much crap except for furniture that I use-I plan on selling my car in a year or two.
5) I have no dept except my home.

6) The sky is falling the sky is falling-but maybe it really is?

My Sisters Response

2008-07-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

you are too cute - I already checked it out! ( I do check it regularly)
I considered it very thoughtful and insightful and certain aspects so Very true and well articulated (eer written that is) other parts were a bit 'off the grid' for my brain if you'll pardon the pun. my thoughts go to current alternate energies, and i don't mean crazy let's burn cow methane, but more mainstream, currently used currently successful. even today the congress is wetting itself over Having to change this country's energy policy much as they Hate Hate Hate to do it!!! they (both parties) are sitting on their crossed fingers wanting oil prices to come down so that they don't have to 1- open ANWR, 2- open offshore 3- reinstate solar tax credits 4- support wind credits for placement in tornado alley etc. i guess I am more optimistic that we will pull our collective heads out of our butts and do it All starting Now! as do think the mid east problem with continue to swallow us as long as they have a critical commodity. even If barrack wins the election I just don't see how he will be to extricate the US from that region of the world. some mid-east countries Continue to seek us out and will do so. ie: read recent news of Israel/ Iran standoff and their seeking US's weighing in.

I do think we are in a bear market for the next few years and personally have never had so little debt in my life (zero credit card debt. literally Zero. if I charge a tank's worth of gas i make an electronic payment next day. only debts are my mortgage that I am paying off as fast as poss and maintain 18months mortgage payments in easy to access accounts. - naah me worried : o

the food/water crisis will likely suffocate huge parts of the planet. I think we will see disease and malnutrition continue to rise significantly and the wealthgap issues in the US will only 'go global' and certain wealthy nations will have to take care of to an even greater extent the poor as disease does/will transfer too easily that we (and other wealth nations) won't be able to ignore it. all the while phantom rice shortages and corn corn corn, what the F do we do with corn? eat it? process it? oh don't worry the flooding just killed all the crops anyway. I think we will sooner end up with futuristic style MREs that people will eat as the food /agricultural, access to clean water continues to squeeze us. i will mourn they day of old fashioned roast beef with Yorkshire pudding when one day it comes in multi squeeze tubes and desserts are ice cream pellets as we move beyond this generation's power bar. and we will be washing with antibacterial soap (which I have stockpiled in addition to my 5gallon jug of water in my condo crawl space)
but I still think this will not be our lifetime's problem. pls refer to my 4 part series: 'why I don't want to have kids'

when I directedMarc to your blog earlier he and i back and forthed about when we retire to Sonoma and what will be able to contribute to the JM compound, he offered this reply to me "I'll tend the vines, you can assist. I will also grow wheat for flour, and chickpeas for hummus"
xoxo
love you!

The Darkening

2008-07-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

I am not much of a chicken little. I am no Cassandra. But I am worried. Deeply fundamentally worried.

I am going to change the direction of my blog a bit. Not so much as a traveller in distance, but in philosophy and life.

I also hope that my friends and family, whom occasion this blog at times can start to brainstorm with me.

Mom, Dad, Chris, John, Jeff & Michelle and the boys, Ted and Rebecca, Mac & Aubrey, and Tim and Laramie comprise the world of people I care deeply about. Some of the folk of Da Kine have built a bit of connection with me too. I suppose I will reach out to them as well.

For years now I have been aware of Hubbert's Peak. If you are not aware of this guy and his theory then check this out:

Hubbert's Peak

I will put it into a nutshell for you. After a fixed time from the discovery of oil a production peak will occur. Hubbert predicted the US would peak oil in 1970. He was exactly right. He did this in 1956 and was laughed out of the industry. We now refer to this peak after his name because he hit the date nearly exactly.

His prediction for world oil peak is basically now. NOW!

What does this mean? The end is near my friends and family. You see, peak production doesn't mean we are at the half way point. The first 75 years of oil use, only the US, Canada, Europe and Russia were substantial users of oil. But now China and India, and many others are in competition with us for this resource. Usage is skyrocketing as China's economy is growing by 10% a year.

Bush and his tax cuts, combined with our war (For oil) have burdened the future with an massive debt. Borrowing from the future presumes the economy will always continue to grow. Think of a college student with a credit card. You use the credit to live beyond your means, because you know the prime earning years are ahead of you. But suppose they are not.

What if the economy is never like it was again.

It takes 1$ of oil to produce a barrel of oil. A barrel of oil does the work of one man in a year (24,000 man hours of energy). Do you all concieve of how dependent our society is on oil? We use it for EVERYTHING.

The scary part is not that we won't be driving cars, the scary point is that food production is hugely dependent on pertroleum. The tractors use it. The fertilizers use it. The herbicides use it.

So food production is going to decrease. Never mind the ability to transport food is going to radically decrease.

This leads to some nasty issues as well.

So what does this all indicate. The US is going to use its military force to control the middle east. The middle east contains 75% of the worlds reserves. We can not let it go. Understand, I completely oppose war, and the invasion of Iraq. But the US will not let it go, until it is sucked dry. The war in the middle east will not end until the oil supply ends. China and Russia will need it as well.

Our oil dependent economy will not improve. Oil is going to keep costing more. Read the news, more banks are expected to fail. The oil prices are not the result of speculation, but rather the law of supply and demand. Food prices, already rising are going to continue to rise. Now we are just seeing the impact of higher gas prices increasing transportation costs, and the competition of India and China for goods. But it is going to get worse.

The estimates say peak is going to be between now and 2020, which means no later than 2030 we are likely to be going off the grid. Food and water supplies are going to be a real issue. Markets are likely to collapse. Every business listed on the stock exchange has a value based on the availablility of cheap oil. But as that is over, that means all of these companies are currently overvalued.

I don't know where to put my money, but I am telling you right now, that our "retirements" are going to look like nothing seen in 75 years.

I am going to start learning how to sail and take some archery classes. Tim and Laramie have already started gardening vegetables and are going to take horticulture classes.

You know me folks. I am not a survivalist nut by any stretch. But we are not long for southern california.

I anticipate a small period where there might be a lift in market prices. After that, who is going to be able and or willing to buy a house for half a million dollars when we are all riding bikes to work.

As soon as we can show ANY profit on our house we are selling. Socal is going to be a nightmare. A city of 15 million, designed for autos, with no available water source? GTFO!!!!

So I say this with all love to you. With all seriousness.

1) Where is your money? Can you get it? What should we do with it?

2) Where do you live? If we go off the grid where can you get food and water from?

3) If the ability to manufacture is curtailed, what can you actually make? What do you know? Start getting books that have info that can help you.

4) Start selling your crap. Converting stuff you don't need to money is important. I'm selling my books. Trading in my video games. Selling my MtG cards and my Warhammer armies. Hey, I figure I can get a few $1000 for my crap, while people are still willing to buy it.

5) I don't know about debt. I have been removing all debts myself and only owe on the house. Seriously, I have no credit card debt, car payments, nothing. I am not sure how the financial markets are going to be. Will debt matter if the system shuts down?

I know, I know this all sounds really extreme.

But I love you all. I think most of you respect my intelligence and understand I have been doing a LOT of research lately. I don't think I am off the mark here.

We have 10-20 years to get ready for the worst of it. But we are seeing the beginning of the end. This war? These gas prices? The economy? Long term, none of this gets better.

So get ready.

I want to start a serious dialogue with anyone that wants to.

Tim, Laramie and I are likely heading to Portland area as soon as we can get out. I am going to try and get a sail boat and become a liveaboard. They will farm and I will fish.

Airplanes are going to become the province of the super elite in our lifetime. It is unlikely our grandchildren will fly in planes. I am concerned that I am living 3200 miles from my family, when I might become impossible to fly to see each other.

Communities are going to have to develop growing plans for food. I would not want to be so far from my family that we can't help each other.

The Marriage Ceremony of Tim and Laramie

2008-05-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

As performed by me on Thursday, May 1st 2008

May Day (May 1st) and Walpurgisnacht (April 30th)

May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.

In the Norse tradition, Walpurgisnacht is considered the "Enclosure of the Fallen". It commemorates the time when Odin died to retrieve the knowledge of the runes, and the night is said to be a time of weakness in the boundary between the living and the dead.

BEFORE THE CERMONY
A book was given as a gift to commemorate the Walpurgisnacht. The book was the Encyclopedia of Mythology.

Another tradition, when marrying on such a day as May Day, is the couple would take a boat over to a place to light a fire. When the couple married and lights a fire, they are filled with good luck and happiness.

PREPARING THE SITE

In many parts of Highlands, the folk of the district would meet on the moor on May Day. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of sufficient circumferences to hold the whole company. I now ask the groom to symbolically cut the sod with this spade to make a place to perform the wedding ceremony. Make a cut in the sod on four “sides” of a circle large enough to hold us all.

The bride will place seven fig scented votive candles around the circle, describing its circumference. The fig tree is the symbol of Israel. The Pythagoreans 7 called it the perfect number, 3 and 4, the triangle and the square, the perfect figures. There were seven ancient planets. The sun was the greatest planet of the ancient seven and next to the sun, the moon, changing in all its splendor every seventh day. The groom will light 4 candles and the bride will light 3. This is the fire for May Day and your blessing of luck and happiness.

PREPARING THE BRIDE

A horseshoe had many pagan supernatural powers. For some, it symbolized the crescent moon which is concerned a sign of fertility. Because the horseshoe is “U” shaped, to retain the good luck forever it is essential that the horseshoe is never turned upside down or else the good luck of the marriage may fall out.

AN OFFERING TO THE GODDESS OF LOVE

Traditionally, many pagans would get married on Friday, Freya’s Day. In the stories of the gods and goddesses of the Angles and Saxons we find two goddesses, Frigga, the wife of Odin and queen of the gods, and Freya, the Goddess of Love. Some people think that Friday was named after Frigga, and others that it was Freya's day. Since very similar stories are told of each of them, it is quite probable that they were really the same person. To honor Freya, for not marrying on her day, and to gain her blessings will now make an offering to her. Oatmeal cakes were also consumed on May Day. Thus we will take a bite of an oatmeal cake and make the rest an offering to Freya. Each member of the company takes a bite of an oatmeal cake and leaves the rest for Freya.

THE TOKENS OF MARRIAGE
Each item in this poem represents a good-luck token for the bride. If she carries all of them on her wedding day, her marriage will be happy. "Something old" symbolizes continuity with the bride's family and the past. "Something new" means optimism and hope for the bride's new life ahead. "Something borrowed" is usually an item from a friend or family member, whose good fortune in is supposed to carry over to the new bride. The borrowed item also reminds the bride that she can depend on her friends and family. As for the colorful item, blue has been connected to weddings for centuries. In ancient Rome, brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity. And finally, a silver sixpence in the bride's shoe represents wealth and financial security.

Something Old, Something New
< The knife from the groom's mom, the knife from me >
Something Borrowed, Something Blue

And silver sixpence for her shoe
< A 1937 “Walking Liberty” Silver half-dollar from Laramie's father>
The items are presented and described.

AN OFFERING TO THOR

As the Thursday is Thor’s Day, and we have made an offering to Freya, Odin’s wife, we make an offering to Thor, in the form of Lamb Meat and Goat Cheese, to gain his blessings. Lamb Meat and Goat Cheese are placed next to the offering to Freya.

THE BLESSING OF BETROTHAL

A cup of wine is used in the wedding ceremony and accompanies the betrothal blessing, and after these are recited, the couple drinks from the cup. This is a Jewish tradition Kosher wine was used to honor and recognize the bride’s heritage.

May Good Fortune be with you and bless you;
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

THE CEREMONY

Two rings for each. Engraved inside of the thick one:
AEQUALITAS (Equality)
Engraved outside the thin ring:
AMOR VINCIT OMNIA (Love conquers all)

The saying of the Vows

The Bride and Groom exchange their vows to each other.

The bride’s ring is offered to her on the hilts of the groom’s new sword (something new) and his tendered to him in the same fashion: this juxtaposition of the sword and rings further “emphasize the sacredness of the compact between man and wife and binding nature of the oath which they have take together, so that the sword is not a threat to the woman only, but to either should the oath be broken.” The sword from the bride is family heirloom from the groom’s mother (something old). In theory, the new sword, kept by the bride, would then be given to the bride of their son, in his wedding. The rings hang from the hilts with blue ribbon. (Something blue.)

Now for you there is no rain, for one is shelter to the other.
Now for you the sun shall not burn, for one is shelter to the other.
Now for you nothing is hard or bad, for the hardness and badness is taken by one for the other.
Now for you there is no night, for one is light to the other,
Now for you the snow has ended always, for one is protection for the other.
It is that way, from now on, from now on. And now there is comfort.
Now there is no loneliness. Now forever, forever, there is no loneliness.
I chose this blessing, as the Salish are a native American tribe, and this recognizes that we are actually Americans.

Another legal requirement set forth by the Gragas for the marriage to be considered valid, is the ceremonial serving of the bridal ale. Here the new wife first assumes the foremost of her official duties as a wife, the ceremonial serving of drink. The bride will pour ale into the Pewter Mug (something borrowed) and recite the following, while serving the ale:

Ale I bring thee, thou oak of battle
With strength blended and brightest honor;
‘Tis mized with magic and mighty songs
With goodly spells, wish speeding runes.

THE CLOSING BLESSING

I would like to formally seal this wedding with an Irish blessing and toast with Irish Whisky.

Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad.
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad.
Always remember to forget
The friends that proved untrue.
But never forget to remember
Those that have stuck by you.
Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

AND NOW!!! Feasting!!!

A final note: When asked to perform this ceremony, I wanted a way to create a sense of ritual but did not know how without parroting Catholic traditions. I wanted to honor the groom’s Nordic heritage, that of Vikings, and the bride’s Jewish heritage. The groom has never been baptized and none of us go to church or temple. In light of the fact that they chose May Day, a largely pagan holiday, as the date of their marriage, I chose to research pagan/pre-Christian traditions as my source of inspiration. Very little actually exists in regards to how pagan wedding ceremonies were conduced. As such I chose many different traditions and combined them in a manner unigue to this marriage. I also wanted to recognize that we are Americans as well, which is why I chose a Californian Ale and a blessing was that of Pacific Northwest native Americans. I hope I succeeded. The Bride cried and looked beautiful, so that was the important part. ^__^

Politics...WUT?

2008-04-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well I have shocking proof that someone actually reads this blog: my sister emailed a question about some of the things I have read. Even more shocking is the fact that she asked me for my political advice!

I peppered my family with emails about the Bush administration over the last two elections. So much so my sister told to stop bothering with our Mom as she was likely going to just delete it without reading them anyhow.

I will be honest. The last two elections and my families “republican” persuasion really bothered me. So much so, that I have not brought up politics again since then. I have refrained from any “Nyah Nyah, I told you so” rounds as well. Whether they choose to recall it or not, I predicted and warned them of virtually every scandal of the Bush administration and revelations about torture and Iraqi war lies that had not yet come out in the general press. Truth be told, my family is very intelligent. Every one of them is. Now my family is well off, but we are not rich. So why are they republicans? It baffled me how such smart people could be conned by the Republican Party. Unless you are in the top 1% of the wealthiest people in the country, they do not represent your best interest. They represent the interest of millionaires, billionaires and multi-national corporations.

This isn’t anything new, they always have been. From the Civil War to now, the Republican Party has been the party of big money and millionaires. They use the politics of hate and “moral” issues to get poor people to vote against their economic best interests, and that is how they always have operated. This isn’t some left wing nut job conspiracy thing, they don’t even hide it. “I consider you my base”, said George W. Bush to a gathering of millionaires. He wasn’t being ironic.

This administration will likely go down as one of the most corrupt and incompetent in modern history. Bush’s presidency is a real throw back to the administrations prior to Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. The amount of things in common with our country, economy, and politics right now and the pre-progressive era is freakish. The amount of cronyism is right out of the old school “Payback” party boss school of how to pay people off for support. The economy is in the crapper, largely due to money manipulations by big business, partisanship is ramapant and divisive "moral" issues is the trick they use to create a party of hostile poor people and manipulative billionaires. If you realize that the Neo-cons are really just an attempt to undo the New Deal and the reforms of the progressive era, they actually start to make sense. In a twisted WTF manner.

In fact, this coming election may well mark the beginning of a new progressive era.
So which way to go?

As a veteran myself, I honor John McCain’s service in the Vietnam war. He survived an awful thing and that makes for a great story, but being a P.O.W is not a recommendation for being President. He has said himself, that he is not strong on economic issues. Well no shit sherlock! We should recall, he was a member of the Keating 5. Have we all forgotten that bank meltdown and the culpability of McCain and others? He claims that his strength is that knows foreign policy, but have you heard his quotes lately? He doesn’t know more than anyone in the streets that bothers to pick up a newspaper now and again. Out of touch with the common people? He seems out of touch with reality.

Now the issue of Islamic Fundamentalism and the threat that it poses is a thorny one. However, a chief executive that once sang “Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran” to a Beach Boy tune, in a place that he knew was being recorded is not the man for the job. Bush scares me because he is an incompetent power-mongering moron, but that is nothing compared to McCain. He seems to gleefully look forward to more war, when we are in the process of losing two, due to mismanagement. Until we recognize that the conflict with Islamic Fundamentalism is an economic issue and not a ideological one, we are doomed to warmongers and terrorism.

So, clearly we are stuck with the Democrats. A party that seems more capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory more readily than any major political party should be able to.

I know Hillary freaks a lot of people out. I also acknowledge that the Clinton’s have their share of shady and bad business dealings; however, I do believe that she would make the best executive for our country at this time, from a purely resume point of view. As you cannot just isolate someone from their past, I do think that in this time of high partisan politics, she is going to have some issues getting things done. She has too much baggage to pull it out.

I do like Obama, and think he is likely to clinch the nomination. Health care has to be dealt with and I hope he has the nads to do it, although 100% coverage really needs to be the way. I think he might be able to kick off a new progressive era in politics and hopefully help this nation get over its bizarre relationship with the past and African-Americans. Racism has cost us social services and health care for nearly 100 years. It is time to move on and take care of both if this country is going to move forward into the next century.

What I'm reading

2008-04-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

I have had this habit, for years now, to buy 2-4 books on a topic and read them at once. I love to read things from opposite "camps" to try to extract my own perspective from out of the inherent bias all writers have. Fun and informative!

What I have just read:

My War by Colby Buzzell (The Iraq war from soldier's perspective, solid and entertaining)
Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast (Invetigative journalism about the Bush administration, fantastic, highly recommended, tons of great information)
Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks (The Iraq War, very good)
The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich (The Bush Adminstrations run up and 'sale' of the war, amazing info)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Underground women's reading circles in Iran, intereting, but not great)
Three Cups of Ta by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Building schools for children and women in Afganistan, amazingly inspirational and thought provoking)
High Tide by Mark Lymas (Global Warming - liberal, most anecdotal althought pretty well written)
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming by Christopher C. Horner (Global Warming - Conservative, This is fun to read, but it shows clear logic flaws and is full of attacking the opposistion as opposed to any research or theories of its own. Right out of the conserative attack philosophy)
The Conscience of a Liberal (Economic forces at work - Liberal, very interesting)
Supercapitalism (Economic forces - Hmm progressive, but not quite so anti business)

What I am reading now:
The Great Tax Wars (Surprisingly interesting recount of how taxes evolved in the US from the Civil War through the progressive era)

On Deck:
The Bin Ladens by Steve Coll
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Knowing thy Enemy by Mary Habeck
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

310/274/200

The Plan goes on

2008-04-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well my back seems back in shape and I rode this week and felt great. Other than being cursed by some mysterious flats I would have rode more than I did.

I am down to 276 this morning. A total loss of 34 pounds, and I am feeling good. The going to bed earlier has started to erase the massive bags under my eyes that I was beginnning to fear were permanent. I have lost 4 inches off of my waist. Things are good.

I said this to my father and it is so true with me. I find my self-esteem is not so much based on my actual appearance, for at 276 I am certainly still a fat man, but rather the direction of my progress. At 276, coming from 310, I feel a lot sexier than I do when I am at, say, 250 but coming from 225. It is much more fun to be riding the wieght change elevator down, than up.

I found a picture I took a while back. I had seen that Viral Video, of that guy that took a picture of himself every day for a few years and thought it would be really powerful to do it with me while losing weight. I have a picture from 2006 where I am at 312 and have no shirt on.

AHHHHHHHHH! RUN!!

However, that picture is going to get me PAID by Nutrisystem if I keep this wieghtloss up. My before and after is going to be awesome!

The End of the Curse?

2008-04-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have a brother and sister. They are really good people. Both of them, like myself, college educated professionals and extremely intelligent. While I would not refer to any of us as "Gorgeous" or "Handsome" we are certainly all well within the standards of being "Just Fine". We were spared the blight of deep acne scars. We are of or above average hieght. We are litereate, social, cultured and fun to be with. More or less.

And yet, at the ages of 42, 40, and 38 not a one of us has ever married or had children. Now that clearly is some statistical wierdness. Now, I have been engaged twice, but they both fell apart as these things sometimes do. I can't and won't recount the rise and fall of my siblings romances but there have been plenty for all of us. Because we are in fact three highly sexual people and have usually been in relationship most of our adult and teen lives.

So why no spouses or kids?

I have some theories that normally fall back on blaming my parents. It is handy and an easy thing to do. However, people from all backgrounds breed, and whatever failings my parents had (as all parents and people have) it just doesn't seem to make sense. My uncle is a moron and yet his kids seems to be breeding like rabbits. So not sure.

However, this all may be moot, as my delightful sister is now engaged to a man that has met and passed the sniff test of my brother and I. He is a good man and will be a good match for my sister. I am confident, that unlike myself, this engagement will actually result in a marriage and will be a successful one.

I wish the best of luck and my heartfelt good wishes. Hopefully, the breaking of the curse will bode good things for my brother and I.

Addendum: Whatever the fallout of our childhood or accumulated character flaws, I am guilty of not talking to my sibllings enough and letting them know that I love them and they are often in my thoughts. For a man that can rarely shut up, I seem oddly reticent in this regard. I do love them both very much. Hopefully, they will read this and I won't have to tell them HA HA!

Time moves on

2008-03-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well I have lost 28 pounds to date!

I bought a new bike as well. It is awesome and I am able to knock the trip to school out in 60 minutes now. That is a 30 minute reduction. I love making the ride too. It is tough on my body right now though, but each day I get stronger and lighter, so it becomes easier. I have been only doing one day a week, but I am
going to try for two this week.

As I am riding so much now, I encourage people to take this test.

Nutrisystem rocks! For $315 a month I get food for a month delivered to my door. I just add some fresh stuff to it and the weight is just dropping off.

I take a multi-vitamin and a 81 mg aspirin each day too.

With all this bruhahaha about the high rate of STDs in teen girls, I was able to find out some new info about HPV as well. "Most HPV infections clear up on there own after a while". WTF!!!??? I haven't had a breakout in 10 years. Am I done? Is it gone? Can I finally clear my head of this thing? I hope so. More research needed, but it felt good to hope.

There is this woman I see every day at school.
The one I took to Wicked. I think I am falling for her. In like slow motion. She walks out to the lines in the morning and on some days she has slight curls in her long black hair and bounces in the sunlight. Other days her hair is pulled back and her face is so severe she looks like a death mask of stress and tension. I just want to hold her and make her relax.

Don't know where that is going, but I have another date with her in a bit. Going to take her to the Police and Evlis Costello at the Hollywood Bowl. She is pretty devoted to her two sons so getting time with her is tricky. I hope and can manage to get to see her more often. Taking is very cautiously right now.

I have decided to really focus my attention on being the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) coordinator at my school. At this point in one's life, thoughts turn to one's legacy. Children seems an outside shot at this point. Maybe this can be my little gift to the world. Create a real and effective Gifted program at one poor innner city school, in spite of the lazy unmotivated teachers below me and useless adminstration above me. Maybe this can be something that I can make better for the world. It would be something? Right?

Rained out!

2008-02-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hmm, the gripping saga of my bicycle commute has not really been the nail-biting adventure I anticipated.

So here is the greatest video evah!!!!

SWEEP THE LEG!!!!

The song is pretty good, but the video is the awesome. They are just missing Pat Morito.

On the real life side, rained out from riding this week, but the diet is working and I am down to 296!

310/296/200

Woo Hoo!!

2008-02-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

I weigh less than 300 pounds this morning.

I know it is not that big of a deal in terms of absolute weight loss, but weighing more than 300 pounds was just one of those bad milestones that was so depressing for me.

I have a long way to go, but I don't weigh more than 300 lbs. anymore!!!!!

310/299/200

I MADE IT!!!

2008-02-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

Ha ha.

My first day on the commute and it looks like it is going to work. I left this morning at about 6:05 and made it to work at 7:35. That is right on time. And I figure this is the slowest its going to be. My legs and wind is only going to get better.

You know the old saw, "You never forget how to ride a bike"?

Well it is true. I am surpised at how well I felt in the saddle and riding a bike. Even at my weight I still managed to fit pretty well on my bike.

Butt and legs are a little sore, but not bad at all.

I was happy riding the bike too. Hard to explain, but riding bikes makes me happy.

So, until my legs get better I think I am going to do Mon-Bike, Tue-Car, Wed-Bike, Thu- Motorcyle, Fri-Bike.

At least for two weeks, so I don't kill myself. The other advantage to this cycle is I can ferry clothes in and out, and lighten my bag.

Victory.

And weight loss as been pretty good too!

310/301/200

D-Day....H-Hour...M-minute

2008-02-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

Well tommorrow is officially day one of the bike commute.

10 miles there and 10 back. 10.6-12.0 miles. Haven't gotten an exact number yet. But I think 10.6 is pretty accurate.

Bike is ready.

Gear is ready.

Bags are packed.

All systems are go!

My last test it was soooooo cold on the bike I wussed out and turned back. >.<

But this is a go!

Better check the weather.

Procrastination

2008-02-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

I can put things off. Any reason, any rhyme is a way for me to put off doing something I should. I always get it done. I just push it to the last possible minute.

It is like a little mental game I play with myself. I have written papers or done crucial work at 4:00 am, the morning it is due.

I can just put stuff off and off for a looooong time.

My goal is too ride to school on Monday. 12.3 miles each way. I presume that if I leave at 6:00 am, I can make it to school by 7:30 am. I am hoping I do better, but I think that is realistic.

The bathroom is nearly completely redone. I took it from a horror of faded pattern wallpaper, aged faux gold/bronze fixtures and dark heavy overbearing wood too a cool blue and white. Ahhhhhhhh.

Going to go on and around towner on the bike today to get the legs loose. Just going to ride for fun and count the miles later.

Might try to restart Yoga today too. That would really help with my flexibility.

VOTE!!!!

2008-02-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

I am not going to tell you how to vote in the upcoming elections. Politics has been a really painful subject for me, since the last presidential elections.

My family, whom I consider to be very intelligent and well read, seemed blissfully ignorant of the many failings of our president and voted for him a second term.

This terrified me, for I realized that if my very intelligent parents and siblings could be fooled by the machinations of the Bush/Cheney regime, what hope for the great unwashed masses?

It confused and saddened me. I still don't understand how they missed the boat. Lord knows I bombarded them with enough emails and links.

At 23 minutes this video is painfully long. It is not painful because of its length, but because of what is says about all of us. As Americans, it seems to me, that we haver greatly failed our duty as the greatest economic and military power in the world.

I hope we have learned our lessons.

Yes We Can

2008-02-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Change is a powerful word, but what does it mean. Really.

I am not advocating Obama, but this is a cool video.

Will.I.Am's Yes We Can Video

It seemed appropriate to post this today.

My food, for my diet, comes today, and so I guess this is true beginning of my change.

I hope.

310/308/200

This little ticker I picked up from message boards. First number is my starting weight and the second is my current weight, with the third number being my goal.

I'm back in the saddle again!!

2008-01-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

Well that was an unfortunate hiatus, but life is what it is.

I got back on the bike yesterday and did 4 miles.

Did another 6 miles today.

To bring things back up to speed with a quick recap.

Folding bike is TEH LAMO and thus left me with a dilemma as to using mass transit [the train] as they require folding bikes on the train at rush hour.

Mucking with the map [how much do I love internet maps?] I realized my commute was 12.5 miles directly.

So retooled my old mountain bike as a commute bomber and then went on vacation to home.

Came back and slacked off and then just as I got my motivation back, got socked in by a week of torrential downpours.

However, I am not out of this by a long shot. The plan is still on. I bought some riding shoes and shorts today and they felt great.

I also subscribed to one of those meal delivery diet plans. $355 a month isn't much more that what I spend on groceries and by the time you add in fast food here and there, I bet I end up saving money. It will be great to have nutritious food laid out and me not having to scrounge for it.

So I am back. Hope the two of you that read this stupid thing wander back. Ha ha!

This is a fabulous strip

2007-12-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

I want to do this too!

Death Star Canteen

2007-12-08T00:00:00.001-08:00

For my money, Eddie Izzard is one of the funniest guys out there.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

Just doing my part to spread the holiday cheer!

Where the plan stands`

2007-12-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Okay here is the deal. I haven't been blogging because the plan has been stuck. I am going to keep you updated and not a day of the commute will go undetailed.

To recap:

To commute on the train I need a folding bike. I ordered one from Citizen.com and it got here. I built it. As I thought folding bikes....fold really well.

Even though I stepped up and bought the "better" model, the bike is utter crap.

Problems with the Citizen folding bike are as follows;

1) Small wheels. Wheels have a huge impact on ride. The smaller the wheel the less gyroscopic effect and thus a less steady ride. That feeling of the bike "standing up" on its own when you ride is based on the gyroscopic effect of the spinning wheels. Small wheels also mean less shock absorbtion. Furhtermore, they wear faster as there is physically less rubber on the road. These tire sizes are not standerd so tubes are usually hard to fine for when they inevitiably pop. Small wheels = bad

2) Terrible parts. The parts quality on this bike is horrible. If Tim (My roommate) and I were still actively bike mechanics as we were (Ohhhh, 15 years ago-ish) we could throw it up on a stand and play "Pimp my Ride" but we don't and were not. Bad derailers. Bad brakes. Plastic brake levers = squishy unresponsive braking. Only 6 gears and shifter with a terrible shifter.

3) Too small. I don't mean my weight, I mean the physical size of the bike. With the seat post fully extended I still can't get a full extension with my legs. As a former bike snob that is not going to work. Also, the reach forward is too short so you are forced to really sit straight up on the bike which causes riding issues with sensitive nether regions.

4) Poorly built. The headset is loose and the front end shifts around badly.

Overall it is just not going to work for a 300lbs 5'11" man to ride 11 miles a day.

So!!!!!! Meh....

This left me slightly defeated and depressed. My options seemed to be narrowing to;

a) Do it illegally. Ride my regular bike and run the risk of a $234 ticket every day, while on the train. Mind you, LA Metro trains are patrolled my the LA sherrifs dept. Not nice people to deal with on at 6:30am on a crowded landing in the inner city.

b) Rent a pair of bike lockers at my two stations. Ride the moutain bike to Norwalk. Lock it in. Ride the train to Firestone. Unlock the citizen folder for the 2.4 mile leg of the trip. Rinse and repeat. The bike lockers are supposedly only $50 a year. I am rather suspect of the bikes safety with this plan though.

c) Drive to Norwalk and then do as in #2. This will have the benfit of saving a lot gas as the original plan intended but will only provide me with two 2.4 mile rides a day. Better than the nothing I am doing now, but not really what the plan called for.

So, no good options really. Then while messing around with Yahoo maps, I noticed that the ride north to the train station was just a little south of a cross street that was relatively close to my school. HMMMMMMMMM?!?!

So using the magic of right clicking the points on the map, I got Yahoo to tell me something amazing! From my house to my school, via surface streets, it is only 12.5 miles. Holy crap!

Yup, it takes me 45 minutes a day to commute via the freeway for something that is 12.5 miles away. The reason the number were so odd is that I had to go east to the train station, and then the train takes me west of the school. By going directly NW via the surface streets it is much faster.

So here is the modified plan:

1) Sell that crappy Citizen bike on Craigslist.

2) Start riding and building up my endurance. I go off track December 21, and don't go back until the end of February. So this will be plenty of time to get my legs back and sort out the acutal route I will take.

3) Ride directly to school 12.5 miles as opposed to 10.5 and a train trip. It will give me a 25 mile round trip instead of 22. However when I am up to 22, another 3 miles will be nothing.

So that is where the plan stands. I took pictures of the citizen and the practice run, so I will get those up soon.

Thanks for checking in and updates will be more frequent now that I have a plan again.

Oh, and I asked this lady at work I like to go see some music with me and she said yes! Woot. Not much, but it is a start. ^__^

Rap Graphs

2007-11-29T19:35:00.001-08:00

You either down or you're not.

Rap Graphs

Have no Fear!

2007-11-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

I recovered from the nasty whatever.

Just didn't blog much this week as I was sort of a standstill with the "Plan". However, the Citizen folding bike arrived today. This weekend will be rather busy.

Plumber tommorrow and then I build and test the folding bike.

I hope to start the bike commute this week. It should be a good time to start.

I only teach on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So I will be able to rest for 4 days after my first 3 commutes.

More to come!

Yuck!

2007-11-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

Well something got to me yesterday.

About 5:00 am I wandered into the bathroom and started and "blowing it out both ends" as it were.

Felt awful and even worse as Tim and I had planned to paint the computer room today. He soldiered on and painted the whole room while I spent quality time in the bathroom.

Sheesh.

Gingerale and sleep for me. Luckily I have veterans day off. So the weekend won't be totally useless.

Check it out!

2007-11-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

That Reefer Man

Road Block!

2007-11-10T19:25:00.001-08:00

So it seems I have met my first real road block.

No fear! I pulled the ride off. 20.5 or so miles and I am in surprisingly good shape for it all.

And the timing seems fine. However, that is not the concern. When I got on the train there was another bike commuter and he told me that we could take our bikes on the train at prime time.

I couldn't believe it. Mark had been bike commuting for a year and had no issues.

Then I read this: Bikes On Metro Rail

Note that he can take his bike from the west side, but I can't coming from the east side!

Fascists!!! How can I pull this off now?

There is a loophole!!

Folding Bikes are allowed on at anytime.

So after reading that article, I headed over to Citizen Bike.

For $315 I got the allow frame bick. I have a rule about buying things. Never buy the cheapest model. That is normally a cutrate item that has inferior parts just to make a low price point for advertising purposes. So I bought the other one.

Now I won't lie. I used to be a bicycle mechanic. Folding Bikes are a really good at....folding.

I am a big man on wheels that are small. Also, parts for folding bikes are normally a nightmare, as the bikes designs are unigue to the maker and are not usually available from your local store.

That being said, my roommate Tim and I have both been bike mechanics, and truth be told, he was a more experienced wrench than I. So I look on it as an adventure.

The path has been sorted out. Timing seems fine. I really want to maintain an 11 mph pace on the first leg though. That shouldn't be an issue.

9:04 of the test run

2007-11-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow is the trial run for the bicycle commute route. 7.5 miles to the train station. 2.5 miles to school from the train. 10 miles one way. 20 miles round trip. A day. Should be fun.

I have been trying to get into bed by 9:00 pm so I can be chipper and functional at 5:00 am when I wake up.

Part of the process to do this has consisted of me moving my schedule back to accomodate the travel time of the new commute.

Truth be told I needed to get more sleep anyhow. Staying up till midnight and getting up at 6:00am and driving into work cranky and slubbing down a Jack-in-the-Box breakfast was just not working out.

Bought a new camera. A movie camera and some software.

Time to make a movie. ^_^

To the Train!

2007-11-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

~Clive and Bellini chilling out under my monitor.

Its Wednesday and I having been trying to be a good boy all week. No crazy binge eating. One pack of illicit fudge cookies. Okay. So I am still far from perfection. ~_^

I am going to ride the bike to the train station and ride the train around this weekend. Also have to paint the computer room. We have like 6 computers up now. It is sort of silly. Except three of them are mine.

I have taken the precautions.

Stress tested my heart in front of a cardialogist? Yup

Able to ride the 7.5 miles to the train staion? Yup (Did 9 miles on Sunday last)

This will be a dry run for Monday when I plan to start bike communting.

Should be funny.

I am going to ride the bike and train tommorrow and go to a museum that is near a train station.

I want to do a Saturday trip to a museum with the gifted kids at my school. The train station is 2.3 miles from school. I figure, that if I can get a dozen or so gifted poor inner city kids together on a Saturday, go for a train ride, and check out a musuem, then that would be a cool thing to do.

Need to go surf the train maps!

Tommorrow night I will tell you the story of my Dad the hero and Dodge Dart. The Great Thanksgiving Turkey Massacre will have to wait for the holidays. As for the book? All is in progress.

300 vs. me

2007-11-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

~Me on a wine-tasting/atv adventure tour in Mexico. You just can't pull that kind of activity off in the U.S. anymore.

Above that, its not a movie title. Its my weight.

Holy crap.

How did I let this happen?

I was pretty fit, for a while, a while ago.

I remember telling a friend of mine that, "If I ever get fatter than 300 pounds I want you to sneak up on me and bash my brains in with a rock!" Well while I am glad they did not want to take me up on it, I do wonder how I did this to myself.

I was watching CurrentTV and saw a piece about trafficing women for the sex trades in Dubai. How is that still possible? It seems that certain parts of the world still have issues dealing with the whole 'woman' issue. In Africa and the sub-Saharan they seem to not get the monogomy and women making choices of their own. In Islamic countries they don't even trust women to expose an ankle without having the ability to tempt a good holy man to sin with her and face the eternal damnations. However, in the Far East they seem okay to have sex industries that not only have enslaved women, but sex with children available. Don't the cops in Thailand recogize the pre-teen prostitute bordello? Come on!

Why does my dad just make me angry thinking about him? What Fruedian/Jungian dog crap do I have stuffed in my melon about the man? It wearies me just typing this.

Ahh well. So here is another random thought.

I am doing conferences this week. "You plant a potato, you get a potato," as my father used to say. Why is it that the most screwed up kids have parents that never have a question about their kids education but would rather make some big issue about something ludicrous?

I have this kid, that might have a decent brain in his head, but he has no impulse control. Anyhow I get the word that he won't be attending the kids Halloween Parade, a tradition that seems will never die at XXXXXXX School. Seems it is some family/religious reason. Cool. I totally respect peoples decision to raise children according to their beliefs. I wish more parents would take an active control of their kids. Be that as it may, I can see this big beast woman snorting up the confidence to confront me on something that needed the whole 20 minute conference for her to build up a full head of steam for.

"Did my son ask you a question about Halloween or something like that?" She bursts out finally.

"No, but in response the to the Halloween parade, some students asked me if Halloween was the Devil's birthday." I responded directly. I have seen these get out of control quick, so I try to lay the law down quick.

"Well I would appreciate it if you didn't tell my son that his mother is a liar! If you are going to answer questions like that you should just answer the kids that asked!"

These are the times where having the ability to not laugh in people's faces is the greatest talent a teacher must have. I am thinking about all the genuine questions and things she could be asking about her troubled son? The Devil's Birthday?

To his credit, the boy recognized he had a situation brewing here that he didn't expect to happen and he hedges a little bit in what, I suppose, he told his mother. This causes her to lose a little momentum and shoot dirty looks at him.

"Ma'am," I calmly proceed", I believe in the seperation of church and state and I do not teach religion at school. However if I am asked questions I am going to answer my students as truthfully as I can. I respect your right to your beliefs, but Halloween is not the Devil's Birthday. I allowed students to surf the web and many went to history.com and some other sites and read the commonly agreed upon origins of the holiday, none of which have to do with the Devil's Birthday."

She sort of spun and sputtered and took her child out of the room.

Those are the moments that should be fun, but they aren't because you just think of how screwed up that kid might become.

300.

I need to get that back to a much better number.

The Hurdle

2007-11-05T18:16:00.001-08:00

So I had to get back on my bike. Let me tell you, girlfriends, at 300 pounds, perching your fat rumpus up on a way too tall bicycle saddle is no joke.

You need to understand my bikes. To the uninitiated, my two bikes likely look like torture devices. They are really tuned for a much younger and fitter man. The handles are waaaaaaaay down low, and the saddle is waaaaaay up there. Now prop a big guy with a big belly and big ol' hand reaching around to pull his shorts up. Are you getting a picture here?

The blue bike is a beast. Thick tubes and old school gas and gromet shock absorbing fork, converted to road duty with new tires, and split gel saddle and brand new Vetta speedo so I could clock my speed and distance. Yeah right. If I don't fall off the thing it will be a miracle.

It was intended as a hard core, top end mountain bike, and as I write this, sits in the garage with the Hallowed Dirt of Mt. Tam, the mountain that "Mountain Biking was invented On" that I put there over ten years ago, while living in San Fransisco. The poor iron goat sat in the garage for ten plus years and never saw a bucket of water or more mountain glory.

The red bike. Rather the burgandy Grateful Dead sticker festooned hand crafted jewel of a road bike. She is the glider and ultimate goal. That frame and that bike are joys of mine.

The frame is made of Columbus SL tubing and the joints are silver soldered lugs. Strong yet flexible and for the time, light. The parts are a hand mix of Campagnolo and other little treasures that a bike shop employee could work into his prize hand made Dal Sasso. I stiched the matching leather hand grips on myself. I bought out the last four the store had when I left. I think I only have one left at this point. I love the leather grips over tape.

I love that bike and can't wait to ride her again. I saved my shoes that fit the strapless pedal system that I still have on that bike. But that is a while yet. She needs to be treated more gently than the mountain bike. The road bike? I want to be under 230 to ride her again. That will take a while.

However, I did get back on the bike. Rode it for 9 miles on Sunday.

Didn't fall off.

The Plan

2007-11-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

1) Sell the house for a profit.

Market is soft
A few years makes a big difference
Sell house in 2-3 years

2) Reclaim health in 2-3 years

Help the environment
See the world around me
Incorporate an execise in a daily activity

3) Bicycling back to health

I rode a bicycle 2200 miles or so, once before.
Saves money on commute
20 miles a day round trip
Can combine with train for 60-75 minute commute

4) With new found vigor and trim from riding and eating smart

Sell house and bank 20-30k
Quit job
Ride bicycle to South America or Australia.
Maybe Ireland and Europe

5) Figure out who I am and what the hell I am doing here

6) Get job somewhere doing something.

7) Live to ripe old age and pinch the butts of cute nurses with my buddies Tim and Jeff in a nursing home for dirty old men.

Vert Traveller

2007-11-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

I was teaching some Latin Roots to my kids today, when a thought came to my head. The Latin Root was 'vert' which meant 'to turn'. "To turn, to change. I need to change," I thought to myself.

Truth be told things are not working out as planned. The part about me being a retired rockstar sipping Pina Coladas under a palm tree on Bora Bora where the women don't wear shirts and they have no marriage customs, never seems to have panned out for me.

Instead I find myself Fourty-Two, way obese (fat), graying, and cranky. Really cranky, all the time. I feel like I should be shooting squirrels and chasing kids off of my lawn. "Get off my lawn you damn kids!" Chasing them with a walker and my robe flaring open exposing my Sponge Bob Squarepants Boxer shorts, I swear I would never get caught in...

But I did. I thought I had a heartattack. It sucked. I don't know what it was, but it turns out I am healthier than I have any right to be. And yet. Gets you thinking. About death. And your life.

All of the sudden I feel like I have wasted the last (and only) Fourty Two years of my life.

No wife.
No kids.
No dog.
No fun.

I can't remember the last time I had fun. Real fun. Belly-laughing-with-a-bunch-of-friends fun!

Been a long time.

So. It's time for a change.

To take a turn to something else.

Change. Turn. Vert. Traveller.

So here we are.

The chronicle of the recovery of the soul of one man.

I just wish I knew where I left it.