Where has December gone?

I was blogging at a pretty good pace back in November. What happened you may ask? My answer is what it always is: life.

Been really busy with painting. I'm working on 6 pieces from my sister right now, 2 pieces for a client down in Alabama, 1 piece for my dad's cousin down in Tampa, 3 pieces for a client here in town, and I'm kicking around ideas for a piece for Patrick of My Morning Jacket (the drummer). It's hard work but very, very rewarding.

Fantasy Football came to any end. I had an abysmal year. It was horrible. I was hovering in last place in the league most of the season and I just hated it. I took data during the season to see what went wrong. I'll analyze it later. There are a few things that jump out at me. One is that at one point I had 100% own rating on 5 of my players and 99% on another two. So I guess there goes the theory on wisdom in crowds. Another stat is that that in week 5 I had the highest ranked receiving squad and the 2nd highest ranked rushing unit and my record was still 1-3-0. And that leads me to my next stat: my schedule difficulty after week 5 (which was a loss) was calculated at the highest and never wavered. Hell, there was only so much I could do (I'll blog about FFL final thoughts another day).

And hey, Christmas is coming! We've been busy shopping for everyone. We, like everyone else, are feeling the pinch from the economy and opted to not buy anything for each other. It sucks, but I'd sacrifice that everyday of the week to make sure everyone I love gets what they want. Besides, with the love that I have for my wife I can't ask for anything else :)

Issue 13

I play games. My obsession started out with boards games as a child. It moved to the Atari and Commodore 64 in adolescence, with a little traditional D&D thrown in. And I still played board games along the way - Stratego and Scotland Yard being two favorites. I continued my affair with the Nintendo game consoles - the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, and Wii. I picked up an Xbox along the way. I play PC games. I am what some refer to as a gamer.

I'm not hardcore. I give my wife and family the time they deserve. I usually game after everyone goes to bed. Sometimes I game during the day. And when Will is home I play games with him... Star Wars: Battlefront (1 and 2), Halo 2 & 3, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Nazi Zombies, and this little game called City of Heroes/City of Villains.

This game is an MMO. That means that the content is meant to be played with any number of actual, live people teaming with you. It is *possible* to play the game solo but it is designed for team play. In it you create a hero or villain, complete with super-powers, and run around completing missions. Sounds kind of bland on paper but it really is a lot of fun.

So anyway, Issue 13 - which is just their lingo for the thirteenth content update - is being installed onto the live servers as I write this. And I'm pretty stoked. This issue has a bunch of new features including new powers. But the thing I'm really excited about is the leveling pact. This feature ensures that when I play with Will, we create a "link" between two characters (referred to as "toons" in game) that keeps them in sync. It's like our two toons will always be teamed together. And that sounds pretty cool with me.

I see gaming, when it involves others, as a wonderful bonding experience. Can it be obsessive? Sure. But all things in moderation, right?

Thanksgiving, Triple Feature, and Japanese Pajamas

What a tremendously sweet long weekend it was. It was nice having time off to spend with Jooj and the kids. And it was very nice to be able to see our families over the holiday break. I was much too busy either relaxing or being busy to blog about anything so here are some highlights:

* Thanksgiving was great. I ate three times. We started at my mom and dad's for a small dinner (times two for yours truly) and then picked up the kids to head over to Jooj's brother's household to celebrate on her side. I ate again and was truly fat and happy.

* Kim and Marcy rule (you know why I wrote that :D )

* Black Friday. Jooj and I went shopping. We weren't out long and didn't leave at the ass-crack of dawn so it wasn't too bad.

* Kelsey's Japanese pajamas came in. We couldn't wait until Christmas to give them to her so we woke her up and surprised her. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she rose like a possessed demon-child when she saw them. I don't know really how many times I saw her after that without them on. I must admit, they are adorable...

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/marron-kuriya/599182/1766677/

* The shelves are finished and we all spent some time priming them and painting them. They are going to look fantastic when they are done.

* Over the break the kids and I watched "Cloverfield", "Pan's Labyrinth", and "Saving Private Ryan". Will and I also watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark". He had never seen it before. Jooj even joined us for "Cloverfield". I believe everyone enjoyed everything they watched. I love movies!

So that was the weekend in a nutshell. I'm sure more went on but those were the highlights. We need to get Will two more gifts and we're waiting on one more for Kelsey in the mail and we'll be done with the kids for Christmas. Yay!

Greatest. Survivor Moment. Ever.

I've watched my fair share of the reality series Survivor. I've skipped episodes here and there and I've skipped whole seasons too. But in the years of watching Survivor I have never seen such a moment of PWNAGE as I did last night.

Randy is an ass. He is a racist and an alcoholic and an all-around loser. He is a snake and sniveling. I actually think that he'd played a good game up until last week. But he started firing his mouth off and became a real pain in the backside.

So he concocted this plan to be an even bigger ass, hoping that Bob was going to find the hidden immunity idol and then be willing to give it to him. For some reason, after Bob returned from exile, he confided in Sugar (who has the hidden immunity idol... and why wouldn't she? the opposing team sent her to exile, like, five times in a row) that he made a fake immunity idol. Who knows why? Maybe he wanted to try and flush out whether or not Sugar has it. But that's beside the point. The fake idol looked awesome and really authentic.

Sugar told him to give the idol to Randy but not to tell anybody. He did and Randy completely fell for it. At tribal council Randy kept his mouth going and went into the vote thinking that he was safe. When Jeff asked if anyone had the hidden immunity idol he stood up with much bravado and swaggered over to hand it to Jeff. Jeff recited the rules of the hidden immunity idol and promptly threw the fake into the file. The votes were read and Randy was voted out of the tribe - the utter look of chagrin smearing the face of him and Corinne. The rest of the tribe were caught unaware and were cracking up. The jury was cracking up. I think Bob felt a little bad. And Randy was spitting fire!

Sugar, FTW!

Pan's Labyrinth

I watched Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth last night. Wow. Wow! WOW!!!

It has been suggested to me time and time again. And I've owned it for quite some time. While I am no stranger to subtitles, I guess that is the reason I haven't watched it. I rarely go on solo movie watching missions these days. Jooj doesn't care for them and I don't think that Will.i.am is quite old enough. Kelsey wouldn't mind them but we haven't gone through enough of my non-subtitled DVDs yet. So, in a nutshell, that's why I hadn't watched it.

I don't know what to say about it. I don't want to give a single inkling of a bit away. I think everyone should go see this movie. It's in Spanish, yes, and there is no English dub track, just English subtitles. But the movie is stupendous. I actually cried (although they were tears of joy for what the... well, I can't really say w/o giving something away... let's just say after the last thing Capitan Vidal says). After watching it I went back and watched parts of the movie with with del Toro's narration track. I can't wait to watch this with Kelsey. Hell, I can't wait to watch this with ANYONE!

I will highly, highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone. I can't wait to see what del Toro does with The Hobbit. His Hellboy movies, IMO, really knocked it out of the park! Muy bien!

Gotta get some cheer up in here!

My wife, Jooj, pointed out that my blog posts for November have all been very negative. I'd have to agree. So we need to get some cheer up in here! You know what's going wrong these days. What's going right?

Cleaning the litter box less has been a real joy. I've always enjoyed cooking but I'm finding quite a bit of peace in it this days. I figured out that adding turkey meat to my chili, an ingredient I've avoided for over a year, is what the ingredient that lets Kelsey add my chili back to her "will eat" list. I've discovered that I can make a mean pulled chicken BBQ. Will.i.am is doing very well in school. Kelsey has been in a terrific mood for two weeks (a rare feat for some 15-year old kids). I finished the painting "Spooky" and am about to get going on a series for my sister. My little niece Emma is growing and happy and such a joy to be around. Kyle is working on the built-in shelves in the living room and helping us move along our plans to convert that room into the library/study/home office. We've already started some Christmas shopping and hope to pay for everything with cash (instead of credit). And my wife *loves* the state of Texas (if you know, you know).

Hmm, that's about all I can think of but that's a pretty good list, yeah?

I won't bother to mention in this post about my brother-in-law's father or the office news (save those for another day)...

Turning 12 was never so much fun...

We celebrated Will.i.am's 12th birthday with his friends at the Renaissance Fun Park this weekend. I thought it was going to be a whirlwind of boys and headaches. While it was the whirlwind of boys, as expected, it surprisingly lacked all headaches.

The staff at Renaissance was spectacular. We had to worry about the cake... and that was it. They took care of everything else and it was awesome. They cleaned up. They kept the drinks filled. They served up the pizza. They had a schedule to follow. And they checked on us, literally, every 10 minutes. It was spectacular.

Oh, and Will had fun too. He and the boys burned through $35 in tokens. They played two games of laser tag. And he pulled $14 out of the air in the cash cube. I think everyone had a great time.

If you have a 9-12 year old with a birthday coming up I highly recommend Renaissance!

Farewell Felix

Two cats in two weeks :(

Mom put Felix to rest yesterday. She was their 19-year old cat. She was black and white and the runt of the litter. And yes, her name was Felix. We named her before we knew her gender.

I remember the day 19 years ago when he snatched her up. The back alley momma cat had a litter under our deck. The "uncle" of the cats (hell, it could've been the father too) didn't take kindly to the bunch so he came around and mortally wounded one of the kittens. Mom and the sis managed to get to the kitten and took it to the vet hospital.

We did everything we could but the poor thing had a punctured skull and slashed windpipe. We were going to name the kitten Miracle when we got it home. Unfortunately, Miracle died in my sister's lap on the car ride home from the hospital. It was quite horrible.

So we did what we could to coax the kittens out and I pounced. I scooped up the kitten. She started clawing and biting so I tossed her in the air at my sister. She was waiting with an open cardboard box and caught her perfectly. We took her inside and declared her ours.

Yep, that was 19 years ago. I think I had just turned 15. So let me wish a fond farewell to Felix. She wasn't the most friendly cat. But she had been around for more than half of my lifetime. I'll never forget her.

I hate Vicki

Just a quick entry. One of the few shows that I regularly watch is "Biggest Loser". My wife and I devote every Tuesday night to it. This year the Blue team, Bob's team (love Bob, he's great), has a two-couple alliance and I don't like any of their attitudes. I hate Vicki and Brady and I don't care for Heba either. And then after the challenge last night Ed, Heba's husband, is back on. Ugh!!! It was really looking like one of these wankers was going to win. And I just can't sit there idly and watch either Vicki or Heba win!

Well, last night, Amy C. (the only member of Blue that isn't exclusively part of the gang) took her mom's advice and took matter into her own hands. Michelle and Brady were on the block and Amy C. switched her vote to side with the Black team. That forced a tie in the votes and since Brady had the least amount of weight lost, it was bye-bye for Brady. Take that, Vicki!!!

I hate you, Vicki >:)

Are things normal yet?

With everything going on I feel like there is another shit storm just waiting to erupt. I'm keeping inventory of what's coming up, ready to switch gears at a moment's notice to go into disaster mode. When will the next impending crisis happen?

Will.i.am's birthday party is this Saturday. Will it be then? Will some child break their neck while evading a kill shot during laser tag?

Report cards are coming out next week. Will it be then? I think the boy is in the clear but will the grrrl's grades be an utterly shocking disappointment?

I talked with a tech recruiter today. Will I soon be faced with a tough choice regarding my career and, more importantly, the financial stability and well-being of my family? Will it be then?

I don't know. And I don't want to know. But I smell it in the air... disaster. So friends, don't let it happen to you. Be wary of dark alleys and strange men in trench coats. Look both ways before you cross the street. Chew your food. Put on clean underwear. Hug your momma. And like ol' Bob Barker said, make sure to spay or neuter your pet.

Dad had a heart attack!

Mom called last night exclaiming something about "ambulance", "father", and "heart attack". I understood what she meant and asked her to repeat it. Dad had a heart attack and was on his way to the hospital in an ambulance. Did she just say that? Really? I mean, I'm still sick with the flu and am still kinda shaken by the passing of Miss Annie so did she really say that? Yep. She did.

Jooj and I went to the hospital and went back to the ER. There was mom and my sister. And there was dad, sitting up and talking. He looked tired but this didn't seem as bad as it could have been (remember that line). He asked for some gum. The doctor explained the procedure that they were going to perform. Everything seemed like it was quite fine. I was expecting them to find a small blockage, blow up their balloon, and have him home for the weekend.

Jooj and I woke up this morning and went to the hospital. Dad was in a cramped room with an older fellow running a temperature of 104. Mom was not happy. After several hours they wheeled him away for the procedure and mom, sis, Jooj, and myself went to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat. We came back and shortly after were taken back to see dad.

He was groggy. And he was in pain. The nurse was luring us with information but not telling us anything. That was odd. The doctor spoke with us and explained that he had 95% blockage in a major artery. After some finagling they managed to get a stint in there. The doctor emphasized how lucky we were - that most cases with this much blockage and pain that went on for 7 days usually end up fatal.

Fatal. Sheesh. That word has so much... finality to it. It scared me. And all of the sudden I felt very, very lucky to have my dad still with us. The kids still have their pops. His new granddaughter still has her grandfather. Mom still has Thurston. And I still have a dad.

I would ask if this week could get any worse. But I already know the answer. Of course it can. So I won't ask. I'll just contently thank whatever forces call the shots and do my best to not ripple the cosmic harmony that glues it all together while I quietly celebrate the fact that I still have a daddy. I love you Pops!

Farewell Miss Annie

We had to put Miss Annie to rest yesterday. She had been very lethargic and drinking massive amounts of water. She hadn't really moved from my chair and had soiled the dining room carpet to the point that it is not salvageable. In fact, Julie pulled it up and threw it out yesterday.

So we took her to the vet and told him that she had not been doing well and had started to urinate wherever she pleased. He held her and did not like what he felt. He explained that he was going to give her a shot to make her go to sleep, then anesthetize her, and then give her a lethal dose of barbiturates to her heart. What a way to go, eh?

She took the initial injection without flinching and curled up in my lap. I petted her and told her what a good girl she was. She fought the impending sleep so I placed her on the chair and wrapped the towel around her. She closed her eyes and flicked her tail as I sweet-talked her and did what I could to make her feel comfortable. That's the memory I will always hold onto as my last of her.

It was a pleasure having you around, Miss Annie. You kept me company during a time in my life when I thought no one would. Your New Orleans sass and attitude always came through. I will miss you!

Drip, drip, drip...

We came home Friday from work and were just ready for the weekend to begin. Jooj and I had both had a long week and we were ready to relax. We finally received a good amount of rain and I was outside with the dogs bringing in the trash when she frantically called my name. I ran to her in the kitchen and saw the source of her shock.

The ceiling was leaking. And it was leaking at a healthy pace. I put a bucket down and raced outside to see if I could locate where the water was coming from. My ladder wasn't tall enough to I called dad to ask for him and a ladder. He told me to see if I could tell where the leak was coming from. The dry wall was going to have to come down anyway, I reckoned, so I started tearing at the soaked ceiling.

The culprit turned out to be a pinhole leak that sprung from the cold water copper pipe. I suppose it had been going for quite some time before saturated the drywall and leaking out. I called the plumber and they came out yesterday to fix it. Now we just have to wait on the bill...

The Halloween bash was, well, a BASH!

Fun was had by all on Saturday. We celebrated Halloween with our seventh annual Halloween party. This year's theme was "A Night at the Movies" and the highlight of the evening was easily the movies being projected onto the door to the garage. I was quite impressed with the brightness and the clarity that my little projector could pump out. We started the evening off with "A Nightmare Before Christmas" and then moved onto "Ghostbusters" before settling into a colorized version of the original "Night of the Living Dead". We had a modest turnout for what turned into a very intimate party.

Thanks to all who came! I was quite buzzed by the end of the evening and very, very satisfied with another fine party under my belt.

Illness Begone!

I don't care what I have to do. Rain dances, voodoo, virgin sacrifice. I want a state of health to return to each member of my household. If not for my own mental health, for their physical well-being. The wife went back to work yesterday. The boy went back to school today. The grrrl made it to the car but then came back home with me to take another day off. We had two separate bugs hit the house at the same time and I just want everyone to feel better.

On a completely different subject, the Halloween party decorations are nearly complete and the party is this Saturday. I'm not sure the turnout will be huge but I'm looking forward to having a good time!

Sick

Julie and I were both sick over the weekend. I think that we have the same stomach bug. She stayed home from work today and that is very much not like her. Will went to bed early with a headache and body aches. He got up for school and showered but ultimately decided to stay home too. That is most definitely not like him since he had perfect attendance last year. And poor Kelsey is going back to the orthodontist today to have a piece of her new hardware reattached to her bracket. My poor family :(

We were able to drag out most of the decorations this weekend for the Halloween party though. I hung all of the lights and they look spectacular. There are still a few more I need to buy. And I still need to go to the fabric store to finish up my costume. I'd tell you what it is but that would ruin the surprise :)

Movie news...

I read a lot. I surf a lot (web, not waves, bro'). And I really like movies. So it is natural that I spend some amount of time reading about movies - future, past, and present. So I'm going to sound off (in alphabetical order) on some projects that have me interested...

The Good, The Bad, The Weird - This stylized "noodle Western" remake of the classic "The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly" is shaping up to be something special. The trailer had me interested and the buzz I'm reading really has me excited. I'm a sucker for anime and this live-action fare from the Far East looks like it can fit right in.

"Island of the Dead" - I've heard rumblings that George A. Romero (you know, creator of "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", "Day of the Dead", "Land of the Dead", and "Diary of the Dead"... yeah, *that* guy) is working on a new zombie movie. This one supposedly takes place on an island. I could care less... it's freakin' George A. Romero doing another freakin' zombie movie! Woohoo!!!

Max Payne - I love movies and I love video games. But I am not really a fan of video game-inspired movies (and, besides "Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay", am an avid hater of movie-inspired video games). But this video game adaptation is looking pretty sweet. While I have never played a Max Payne video game I am familiar with the game mechanics (lots of shooting and action in bullet time). I'm not sure if this ties in with any story arc from the game, which may piss off some fanboys, but what I've seen so far looks very interesting.

RocknRolla - I'm a Guy Ritchie fan. I admit it. He wooed me with "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" and then swept me off my feet with "Snatch". I've lucked out and somehow missed his subsequent movies. And I say lucked out because people say they are crap. But RocknRolla looks good and people have a positive buzz so I'm getting excited. It's been a long time Guy...

Role Models - Funny. Stiffler and the heart-broken funny guy from "The 40-year Old Virgin" together in a movie together? That sounds funny enough. But have you seen the trailer? OMFG! I peed my pants (just a little squirt... nobody noticed and it dried quickly) when I saw the little kid's drawing. If you've seen it, yes, the caption on his drawing did in fact read, "Beyonce pouring sugar on my dick." Comic gold!

The Spirit - I liked Miller's and Snyder's "300" (and yes, I know that people refer to it as "war porn"). And I really like Miller's/Rodriguez's/Tarantino's "Sin City". Both were so vivid and beautiful to watch. I'm not so sure how I feel about "The Spirit" since it looks a lot like "Sin City" (hey, aren't they working on a sequel?) and I'm not as familiar with the comic as I was for "Sin City". I'll see it. I'm just not as stoked as some.

Watchmen - Holy shit. Zack Snyder could propel himself to god-like status if he pulls this off. The Watchmen is, hands down, the best comic I've ever read. It was Alan Moore's masterpiece. If you are reading this and haven't read it then just stop. Nothing I have to say is worth keeping you from going out right now and buying it. The month of March cannot come any faster.

Where the Wild Things Are - So what's going on with this movie? From what little I've seen it looks like Spike Jonze has one helluva movie. But I've heard a lot of things about the studio wanting to meddle with it. They don't like the monsters? They don't like Max? WTF? Just let Spike do his thing and count your bags of money when the movie comes out.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Seth Rogen and Kevin Smith? C'mon, you gotta be kidding me. I think that Kevin Smith is a bit of a hack but I like his movies. Seth Rogen is comedies Golden Child right now. A movie about making amateur porn? And the supporting cast? There is 0 chance this movie *won't* be funny.

So, there are my thoughts on future flicks. I'm ready to watch something. Maybe I'll watch "Rushmore" with the wife tonight.

Clone Wars

"The Clone Wars" animated cartoon series premieres tonight on Cartoon Network. The boy and I are very excited. We saw the movie which was, I think, composed of four episodes. I'm not sure how that all gets worked into the series. I assume that the movie will be incorporated into the series somehow. But if they are not no biggie. Will and I agree that the movie was fun but not that spectacular. We both gave it a "Meh +".

I just checked cartoonnetwork.com and it looks like we're in for a double-feature tonight. The show starts at 9pm and two episodes, "Ambush" and "Rising Malevolence", will be aired. The DVR will be ready and so will the two of us.

May the Force be with us.

It's October

It's already October? Wow.

The air is getting chilly. I need to put the top back on the Jeep. I picked up Bobby Engram in FFL. Kelsey had new hardware installed in her mouth. It hurt. She's doing better. I call her my cyborg daughter. The Halloween party is coming up. I'm getting psyched for that. I had a job interview the other day. I think I did well. The pets are all doing fine. Julie is juggling parent conferences and is tired. Biggest Loser, Grey's Anatomy, and Survivor all started their new seasons. We steam cleaned our carpet. Rented the unit from Lowe's. I'd recommend it. Kids are already tracking dirt back in the house. I want to kill them. Well, no, I don't really want to kill them. The wife and kids have Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off. I. Am. Jealous.

FFL - Week 4

Okay, I've been pretty quiet about my FFL team. The Hillbilly Hairybacks (formerly L'ville Hotspurs) team is a team named after my former boss. I'll leave it at that and let your imagination put the rest together.

So anyway, I started the year out with a very poor 0-3 record. I went up against Tom Brady in week 1 and couldn't pull out a victory despite poor ol' Tom being taken out 8 minutes into the game. I played a team in week 2 that suffered from Hurricane Ike and the coach forgot to switch out his QB who was forced into a BYE that week... and lost. So I started the season against two gimped teams and couldn't pull out a victory. I scored good points in week 3 but my opponent scored better. This was a disturbing trend.

Week 4 showed up and so did my team. Larry Johnson scored huge. Lavernanues Coles scored huge. DeSean Jackson is still coming on strong. And even Earnest Graham had big numbers. Chris Johnson, my rookie RB from the Titans, even scored big on the bench. So my RB and WR numbers have gone from the bottom of the tank to being ranked #2 and #1. Hell yeah!

I have been forced to ditch some good backup talent (Ravens DST, JT O'Sullivan, Stephen Gostowski) to compensate for a tangled BYE week dilemma in weeks 4 and 6 (and Plaxico Burress' suspension has me pulling out my hair) and that may come back to bite me in the ass. But I am happy with my starters and hope they keep producing big numbers.

Go Hillbillies!

Killer Skate Weekend

This past weekend was an awesome one. The Concretins converged in Louisville (the ones that could make it) and we had a video-tastic good time. I am so jealous of Skidzilla's lens. It rules. RULES, I tells ya. See for yourself...

Epic Weekend Photographic Evidence

Ike beat us like Tina

Louisville may be hundreds of miles from any coast but that didn't keep Hurricane Ike from bitch-slapping our city around a bit. Ike raised his pimp-hand and we took the force of his winds - up to 75 mph - all afternoon on Sunday. We lost power. Everybody lost power. Half of Louisville lost power (and some still don't have it). The amount of damage was pretty unbelievable. Trees were down everywhere. Power lines were down. Poles were smashed. Cars were smashed. It was pretty neat actually :)

But we got it back after only a couple of days. We lost some things in the fridge but managed to save the important stuff (meat and beer). The kids were out of school an entire week. Kelsey stayed with friends mostly. Will and I made the best of it. Julie loved being off work. We all loved it!

But things are back in action and settling back to normal. I know that Ike caused massive damage in Galveston and the surrounding areas of Texas. But I'd like to thank Ike for giving my family an only slightly stressed late-summer break.

The Mark of Great Art

The Maker's Mark online gallery is now up...

The Mark of Great Art

Go check it out. Go vote! And if you like, vote for me :)

I like my blurb on my artist page...

Eric Brinley - Artist Profile

When Did September Hit?

Wow time flies. September is upon me and I feel like I'm coming back to this blog for the first time in a long time. Where have I been? Seriously, I'm not asking rhetorically... where the hell have I been? :)

I started skating again. My blood came back with low iron but I'm feeling very good nonetheless. The Mark of a Great Artist show opened this weekend and I went down with my family to proudly stand by my two contributions. I am very proud of my work. The kids are digging school. Julie is not so much digging her school. I hate Kelsey's orthodontist and went toe-to-toe with them. Miss Annie is alive and I think recovering. Boba had his first trip to the vet and is in great shape. I watched the movie "Fight Club" with Kelsey and then again with Julie. They both loved it. My new niece is getting more personality every week. I'm still stuck on the game City of Heroes. I saw "Pineapple Express" with Julie and giggled. I watched "The Dark Knight" again. Awesome. I need to get some creative juices flowing and start painting again. I need to update my web site. The NFL season started (and my FFL started too) and my Vikings lost their first game against the Bears (and the Hillbilly Hairybacks lost their first game too). Weak.

So yeah, I've been busy with this and that. But overall life is good.

It will only get worse

That was Jed's mantra. He spent an exhaustive amount of time explaining to me that it is not a pessimistic way to view the world. I was never really convinced. But now I think I've got it. Instead of lamenting when things go awry and expecting everything to work out, maybe he's suggesting that we should expect things to just go downhill. And when they don't, well, won't that be a pleasant surprise? Well, things with Miss Annie are only getting worse.

I took Miss Annie to the vet today for what I was hoping would turn out to be a simple checkup. Miss Annie is not doing well. She's lost another 1/2 pound. The doctor is gravely concerned about her weight and told me to forget the prescribed food and to load her up on whatever is her favorite. She will die if she does not start taking in more calories. He sent me home with three IV bags and a bag full of needles to administer 200 cc's of fluids every other day. My attempt to stick her while in the office was unsuccessful (I stuck in and back out of her skin... so sorry Annie!) but I can do it moving forward. The vet pointed out that even he still does that from time to time.

So wish us luck. We'll go back to the vet in four weeks. With her health a growing concern (her eyesight is also failing the vet informed me) and mounting medical bills... well, I could be up for discussing the "other" option :(

Maker's Mark pieces done

Whew! It's been tough but the two Maker's Mark pieces, "Bottle to Barrel" and "Red Wax Dip", are done. I'll post pix once I take them and have linkies. Here are a few things I've learned in the studio over the last few weeks:

1. I don't like Raw Umber - Raw Umber sucks just as bad as Burnt Umber when it comes to applying the paint. Both suck less than just about any shade of yellow but only because yellow requires at least 2 coats and possibly more. Why can't everything work as well as Cadmium Red?

2. Golden Raw Umber is best - Of the different brands of Raw Umbers I tried the one that I liked best was from Golden. Not Liquitex. Not Winsor & Newton.

3. Brushes survive the dishwasher - Due to an innocent mixup ("Put everything in the sink into the dishwasher") my daughter put two of my prized brushes into the dishwasher. They survived and work just fine :)

4. What goes into a dog... - Paint goes into a dog one color but always comes out brown. Colored pencils go into a dog one color and retain that color. Sharpies make a mess going into a dog but do not kill them. Oh, and when a rope is sticking out of your dogs butt, pull it but don't yank.

5. Procrastination - I am and will forever be a procrastinator. No matter how much I try I simply cannot shake it.

"Procrastination is like masturbation... you're just screwing yourself."

Low Iron... Still

I called to get my blood test results from earlier in the week and my iron is still low. Bummer. I've been taking my iron pills and my multi-vitamins. And I'm still eating red meat (much to my wife's chagrin). I'll go back to the doctor in two months. Meanwhile, he suggests taking a vitamin C tablet with one of my iron pills and continuing to eat red meat twice a week. I guess that's good news for Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Skyline Chili - bad news for those who have to smell my meaty farts(that would be the wife and kids). Boo-yah!

What a night (and morning)!

I was exhausted last night. I spent over 4 hours in a cold, chair-less server room yesterday. I was already a little sore from standing so much at the My Morning Jacket concert. After work the fam went over to my parents' house and had dinner. By the time we got home and I helped the kids with their homework and eBaying I was pretty whipped. Julie went to bed and I quickly followed at 11:15.

She wakes me up at 1am telling me that one of the dogs is really whining. I go downstairs and see that poor Boba has thrown up several times in his crate. I let both he and Jack outside to take care of any business and then put them both back in the basement. I didn't put Boba in his cage and just left him out.

Then at 2:36am the phone rings and I answer it. There is no answer on the other line. I checked out the caller ID and it read "Sexy Black". The wife asked who it was and I told her, "Sexy Black." I don't remember what else was said as I was already asleep again before I was even back in bed.

I woke up feeling very tired this morning. I went right into my morning routine: got her coffee, showered, woke Will up, dressed, woke Kelsey up, let dogs out (to pee), fed dogs, fed cats, let dogs out (to poo). The second letting of the dogs out is normally followed by "give dogs treats and put them downstairs". However, Boba seemed to be having trouble in the ivy (he poops in the ivy in the back 80% of the time). The garage door opened and Boba came running up. As he approached I noticed that things weren't right "back there".

He had a heinously long turd sticking out of his butt. And it slapped back and forth against his back legs as he wagged his tail. I immediately grabbed him and held him still. Julie came over with a bag and pulled it out. She then sprayed him down and delivered a homemade enema with the house. The turd turned out to be rope mostly and he appeared very relieved once it was passed.

What a way to start the day!!

My Morning Jacket concert

The wife and daughter and I went to the My Morning Jacket concert last night on the Great Lawn. I know a few of their songs and dig them. Julie's cousin has been dating the drummer, Patrick, forever so we were pretty much obligated to go. We met up with part of her family as well as my sister and brother-in-law and my cousins Rachel and Matt. We brought folding chairs and had great seats. The company was great and the show was terrific!

In keeping with my newfound tradition (starting with the My Chemical Romance concert over at ) of blogging about the highlights, here are mine in no particular order:

* Glowstick explosion - At certain crucial points in songs large amounts (I'm talking dozens at a time) of glow sticks were hurled into the air. This went on throughout the night. It was fun to watch!

* Seeing my daughter rock out with her Poppi - Julie's father is hip and it was cool seeing three generations of the family representing at the concert.

* Booze and drugs - The amount of drug use at the place was comical. I was worried about the impression it would leave on Kelsey but she rolled with it and we laughed together. And the alcohol was flowing freely. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were hammered. My poor sister-in-law was so smashed that she fell over... TWICE!

It was a good time had by all. I can't wait to do it again!

One week down...

Well, I think (I *think*) my wife survived her first week back to school. It is a new school. A new class. New kids. New assistance. New building. The place is awesome and her room is super cool. And the stories I've heard so far lead me to believe that she'll have a pretty good year. She would never admit it now but I am holding out hope for her. She has eight 5-year olds (a pair of "Irish twin" sisters both suffer from Down syndrome) and one third grader. All of them have special needs. Thankfully, the one girl that was blind was placed elsewhere. And, with a little luck, the open spot in her class will be filled from within the school. My gut tells me she will have them all whipped into shape in no time.

Other than that, the week has settled down. Some projects at work are winding down. Miss Annie appears to be doing better. She's eating a whole can of special wet food a day. I'll be painting, skating, and running errands this weekend. The weather looks terrific!

Annie passed...

The vet called me this morning. He spoke with my wife last night and hinted that she was doing well and may come home today. I answered the phone and he said:

"Mr. Brinley? This is Dr. Vaughn. Well, Annie passed..."

My heart dropped. My mind buzzed. My blood went red. Time crawled to a standstill.

"... her blood test this morning."

(Heart, mind, blood, and time all returned to normal)

So the little grrrl rebounded and is coming home today. I'm going in an hour to pick her up. She's coming home with medicine and special food. And they are going to show me how to mix and administer an IV bag. That'll be interesting :P

I'm just happy to hear that she is doing well. I'd hate to have to tell Jed that Miss Annie passed away. I'm more than happy to tell him that she passed her blood test :)

Miss Annie Update

Miss Annie was put on an IV last night and will be given 2 liters of fluids. She did not eat so they force-fed her with a syringe. After doing that she managed to eat a little on her own. She is stable so that is good.

Kelsey also started her first day as a sophomore in a public school. I'm excited for her.

Oh yeah, it's my mom's birfday today. Happy birfday, Moms :)

Birthdays and Funerals

Kelsey turned 15. My mom turned an age that cannot be revealed. Narayan at work turns 31 today. Goodness gracious! We celebrated Kelsey's birthday at my mom's last Monday. Then her friends spent the night Friday night. And finally we had Julie's side of the family over last night for burgers and birthday fun. Mom was able to squeeze in a lunch with the fam on Saturday at PFChangs (Yummy!). So the theme this weekend was birthdays!

But we also lost some great entertainers this weekend - Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. I was shocked to read that Mac passed away. And I knew that Hayes was in bad shape a year or so ago but, to my knowledge, was on the mend.

And then last night I started to worry about Miss Annie. She hadn't eaten all weekend and she turned her nose up at wet food when I put it out for her. I took her to the vet this morning and they called her situation an "emergency". Ugh :( More details as they come...

BTW, Will and Kelsey and I made it to Kentucky Kingdom and he managed to conquer his fear of rollercoasters. Way to go, son!

Damn you Kentucky Kingdom!

As Will and I walked away from the gates from Six Flags: Kentucky Kingdom last night I made the call to Julie.

"We're leaving Kentucky Kingdom. Will threw up all over himself," I told her.

She gasped and lamented his misfortune. But then I gave her the real news.

"I'm kidding. The park is closed!"

No kidding. Kentucky Kingdom, during the week, closes at 7pm. What a crock! We rolled up at 6:30 and the ticket booths were empty. The folks at the turnstiles told us that the park was closing. Will was devastated.

I know that he thinks that the whole thing is a bust now. I had to keep telling him that notion was nonsense. He finally lightened up but I know that he thinks we're not going to make it. I'm leaving work today at 4pm and we're going to race over there and ride some damn rollercoasters!

The Wall

Kelsey and I shared another wonderful movie moment last night when I introduced her to "Pink Floyd's The Wall". I listened to *every* Pink Floyd album in middle school and high school so it was really awesome to watch "The Wall" together. I was waiting until she actually heard (and hopefully liked... she did) the album, which she got on vinyl on Monday.

Kelsey turns 15 tomorrow and we celebrated her birthday at mom and dad's. The big gift from us was a wooden, all-in-one unit that plays MP3s, tapes, CDs, vinyl, and has a radio tuner. It rocks. So dad and I went into the garage and brought out my old vinyl collection. Then he sent home some choice picks for her (with a healthy selection of Pink Floyd LPs... "Dark Side of the Moon", "Meddle", "The Wall", "Animals", "Wish You Were Here", and "The Final Cut"). The world of music evolved for her that very night. She dug "The Wall" so we watched the movie.

One more quick note: I have to give a shout out to Will. He and I are returning to Kentucky Kingdom today to conquer his fear of rollercoasters. He is going to King's Island next week with some buddies and wants his coaster cherry popped. I'm honored to be the one to be there when he loses his twisted metal and wood virginity >:)

Fun in the sun weekend

Whew! I had a whirlwind of a weekend. The family spent Friday afternoon at Six Flags: Kentucky Kingdom. Saturday was spent at Julie's sister's cabin and on the dock and boat at Nolin Lake. And Will and I spent the afternoon playing mini-golf and riding go-karts on Sunday. My pasty, IT-geek skin can't take all of this sun :)

I got a little burned at the lake but Julie really took the brunt of the rays that day. She was suffering from sun poisoning that night and Sunday. Poor thing :(

Kentucky Kingdom was fun. My little nephew Patrick joined us. Will really is getting bold and expanding the rides he is willing to ride. Patrick also did a great job with the Ferris wheel and the viking ship (although he definitely had a "thrill" on the ship). Afterwards we hit up the flea market. What a weird place. This was my first flea market ever. They had the stuff that I thought they would have like knives, homemade goodies, and collectibles. But they also had stuff like aspirin, shaving cream, cereal, and other food stuffs. Strange.

Riding go-karts was absolutely awesome! I promised Will that we would do that again. Maybe next time we'll go to Kart Kountry. It was a blast :D

I loved the weekend. I'm tired but it was scads of fun. I love when the kids are with us 'cause I love being a dad so much (don't worry honey, I love it when it's just you and me too :)

Life seems like a smudged blur

I remember when I was a kid I had playtime, dinner time, bath time, time to go to bed, time to get up, breakfast time, outside time, lunchtime, and nap time. Everything seemed to have its own time allotment and fit like LEGO blocks into their respective slots in the day. These days, not so much.

First off, let me say that this is not a complaint. I am not bellyaching about this. I'm just making an observation here. That said, whereas life as a child appeared to be a box of crayons with it's tidy scheduling division wrapped up into a nice box of 8 (or 64 with a crayon sharpener if you were so lucky), life these days appears to be overlapping streaks of crayon marks, smudged further together by the pressing fingers of the confining hours of a single day.

It all starts with waking up. After that it is a melody of feeding dogs, showering, working, feeding kids, spending time with wife, playing, skating, reading, painting, talking, listening, arguing, feeding cats, watching, playing more, parenting, learning, taking medicine, cleaning, planning, saving, budgeting, emailing, feeding myself, gaming, sleeping, and finding enough time to spend a few quality moments with my wife and also for myself.

Life is hectic. But in the chaos I find a good amount of challenging fun. "Hard fun", as the wise Matthew Barzun used to say. In time, with kids gone off to start their own lives and responsibilities shifting, things will slow. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the blur and bear witness to its sublime, chaotic beauty.

Vegas Pix

I uploaded the pix from Vegas to Flickr...

Las Vegas Vacation Pix

Glad we went and glad to be home.

Viva Las Vegas!

What an awesome time. We arrived Saturday morning and checked in. Everything was so smooth and easy. We ate at the the Bellagio buffet and stuffed ourselves. We walked the strip a bit and then shopped at Miracle Mile. Afterwards we went back to the room and headed to the pool for some sun. We each had a drink and then headed up to the room. It had been a long day and the walking and the sun had taken it's toll, so we crashed about 7pm.

Twelve hours later (yep, TWELVE hours later) we woke up and walked the strip some more. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant (I can't remember the name but it was the place where you bought a yard of Margaritas). There was more shopping, more walking, and more sunning by the pool. Later we showered and headed toward Treasure Island for the Cirque de Soleil "Mystere" show. We grabbed a quick sandwich at Canter's. The show was astounding. It was truly the highlight of the trip. And we were nearly in the show. The couple in front of us were the victims and we narrowly escaped. Whew! We walked back and went to bed.

I woke up Monday morning and whispered "Happy one year anniversary," to my wife. We did our best to sleep in but just couldn't. We walked the strip some more. We picked up a new pair of sunglasses for our daughter and Julie modeled them in front of the MGM and New York New York. We went to Mandalay Bay and I won $8 on a penny slot machine. We walked back, sunned by the pool, napped for a bit, dressed up, and went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We walked through Caesar's Palace on the way back to the Bellagio. That place is amazing. We caught the fountain show in front of the Bellagio and then headed in. In the Fontina Bar we noticed a World Poker Tour tournament taking place and I saw Danny Nguyen. Crazy! We had a drink and went upstairs to bed.

Tuesday morning we packed and headed home. Julie bought a book in Vegas and had the damn thing read before we reached Memphis. Man-o-man, that grrrl can speed read. I finally finished "Microserfs" (loved it) and read the 6-issue trade paperback "The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite" (loved it too).

Overall, it was a great trip (tainted only slightly by us locking ourselves out of our house once we got there). Four days in Vegas is the perfect time. We'll be back and we'll stay at the Bellagio again for sure!

Vegas, here we come!

We're nearly packed and just about ready for our Las Vegas trip. It will be a very relaxing four days, spent mostly at the pool of the Bellagio. I'm taking my camera and some books and plan on doing as little as possible. This will be our first time in Vegas and we will be celebrating our first year of marriage. We'll be landing about 27 hours from now...

In other news, we're taking the kids to go see Hellboy II tonight. We're all looking forward to that. The kids and I watched "The Host" earlier this week. It is a Korean film that was actually very good. Later that night Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead", George Romero's latest installment of his zombie genius. I'm also playing the crap out of the game City of Heroes/City of Villains. Will picked it up two weeks ago and I spend an hour or two a night, on average, fighting good or evil with the super-heroes or super-villains that I've created. Good times!

Still Not 100%

I am still somewhat struggling with day to day affairs at work and at home. I had hoped to have bounced back from my hospital stay by now but I'm not where I want to be. I have energy when I wake up but ultimately run out before I'm done with the day. And it sucks. I'm used to being able to be on the go and do what I want when I want. But I just don't have the energy to get me through each day. Weak.

Well, enough of the whining. Life is good. I had a low-key July 4th weekend. My friend, Brandon, from high school was in town and I had breakfast with his family. We had planned on a little get-together with another friend, Duane, but the wife came down with a terrible stomach bug. We did manage to make the family reunion on my dad's side for the afternoon on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone. But I ran out of gas around 5pm and we reluctantly came home.

The kids and I watched the Korean flick "The Host" yesterday and then Kelsey and I watched "Diary of the Dead". Both movies were good. I was pleasantly surprised by both. Who's a huge Romero fan? Yep, this guy!

Julie and I leave for Vegas this weekend. I'm so stoked! I'm doing my best to finish up the painting Coco Monique before I go. I'm looking forward to a break - a real break and not a hospital stay or bed rest :)

Internal bleeding

A day or two before the birth of my lovely little niece, Emma Kathleen Galloway, I was suffering from some nasty bowel movements. The "output" was black (not dark but black). I was also suffering from some serious fatigue and also some body aches. I figured it was all of the excitement with the new baby and maybe some nerves thrown in. Saturday, June 14th, I was convinced by my mother and wife to go to the Immediate Care Center.

The wonderful Dr. Quaye took his stool sample (Julie left the room for that) and I joked with him as he became "acquainted" with me. He smeared the sample on a test strip and squirted a fluid on it. He explained that what we didn't want to see was blue as that indicated blood in my stool. Not too many moments passed before the strip was blue. Smurf blue. Solid smurf blue.

The doctor assured me that there was nothing to worry about. They were going to take some blood and I would probably schedule some procedures. The doctor left. The nurse took my blood. The doctor returned. And the look on the doctor's face made my heart drop. "Mr. Brinley, this isn't critical but it is serious. You need to go to the hospital right now." Uh oh!

I was admitted that night and spent the next seven days at Audubon. I received two units of blood as my hemoglobin dropped beyond the doctor's comfortable threshold. I developed an infection from the bleeding and was put on antibiotics. I was given Protonix to help solve the problem. I was administered morphine to help with the pain. I was given Fenegren for the nausea. I was poked every 6 hours. And I had, in order, the following performed: EGD (camera down my throat), colonoscopy (camera up my butt), ct scan, ultrasound, some test where they took my blood and irradiated it and then injected it back into me to watch, and then a small bowel follow-through.

We never found a smoking gun. But the bleeding stopped. My hemoglobin has been going up. My strength is returning. And the surgeon is blaming the whole ordeal on the Naproxen I was taking for my swollen knee. He says to stay away from Naproxen and most other anti-inflamatories like Advil and Alleve. I'm only to take Tylenol and I'm supposed to limit my alcohol intake. I'll also be on Protonix for the foreseeable future.

Sorry to give everyone a little scare. And thank you all who visited. It was nice to see you all, even when I wasn't the most coherent. I want to especially thank my wife who barely left my side. And my parents as well, who were bouncing between hospitals visiting me and then my sister.

Emma Kathleen Galloway

I'm an uncle!!! My sister had a baby grrrl this morning. She had the baby completely naturally (I know, everyone says that she's crazy). I saw her this afternoon and she's adorable. She was still in the nursery because she's nearly a month early and is experiencing some trouble breathing... possibly due to underdeveloped lungs. But Melissa, Jeremy, and the baby are all doing well.

I find her birth date to be fascinating. It is exactly 17 days after Melissa's (May 25th) and 17 days before mine (June 28th). I'm no astrologist or psychic, but that's gotta hold some kind of cosmic weight :)

Welcome to the world, my new little niece. I'll always keep a watchful eye on you and promise to love you forever!

In space no one can hear you scream.

The kids and I sat down and watched Alien and the special edition of Aliens last night. Will claimed that he was ready for a scary movie and I figured that either of these, mixed with a good amount of action, would fit the bill.

The kids were turned off by the slow, suspenseful pace of Alien. They were bored with the mounting tension. Kids these days! They were happy when the movie ended. They liked it but it was more "meh" than "yeah".

The second one grabbed their attention almost immediately. As I imagined, they loved Hudson from the beginning. Will kept pointing out all of the similarities between the movie Aliens and the Halo video game franchise. I explained that Aliens was truly a milestone movie that helped shape the genre. The action kept them interested and the aliens kept them on their toes. Aliens is one of my favorite movies and the special edition had many scenes that weren't in the original. It was pretty cool!

That damn bluish-grayish egret/crane!!!

I drove up the driveway the other day and was amazed to see a huge, bluish-grayish crane/egret taking flight from my little pond in the backyard. It was as tall as Will and was a sight to see. Later it occurred to me to check on the goldfish in the pond as my bluish-grayish friend was possibly stopping by for more than just a dip. I counted the goldfish and... GODDAMMIT!!! What was once a happy family of 15 goldfish was now a terrified, broken family of 11 goldfish. And that avian bastard ate one of my prized gargantuan goldfish. Shit!!! I had two huge goldfish that I had nicknamed the "Big Daddies" and only one is there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The leopard goldfish is still there. The milky one with the bright orange spots is there. Blackie is still there. So I guess he got one of the Big Daddies and a few of the smaller ones. Bastard!

"You need some terracotta in there to protect them from predators," was a statement that my friend and botanist Matt had told me. And that statement is searing in my brain right now. How serendipitous was it that I received a call from him the next day? Well, I asked him to come out and help me out with the pond. I don't want to lose my other Big Daddy or any other fish to that bluish-graying egret/crane bastard again :(

Painting updates

Maker's Mark commissioned around 60 artists around the region to create works that were inspired by the facilities and the brand. I submitted four concepts and they accepted two. The pieces will be finished in the next few months and may go to any of the following cities: Louisville, Lexington, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, London, or Madrid. Exciting!

I put the finishing touches on "Dave & Sharon" two nights ago. Dave picked it up yesterday to hang that night and Sharon should have noticed it this morning. He had me paint it for their ten year wedding anniversary. How sweet :) I hope she loved it!

I started putting paint to canvas for a surprise graduation gift for my niece. Her older sister helped me with the colors and I hope to have that done for her in the next day or two.

I'm also juggling a piece named "Dottie" and another piece, "Coco Monique", that I've been dragging my feet on. I hope to have them done by the end of next week so I can move on to my June slate. I have a busy month ahead of me.

Stick around for updates.

Ob1shinobi - What's with the name?

I'm on a very boring conference call with GE. I am trying not to scratch my poison ivy. My wife is home for the summer and I'm hating the fact that I don't have summer break with her.

So anyway I thought I'd throw up a quick post to explain the URL, ob1shinobi.blogspot.com. The "ob1" in the name is a play on words for Obi-Wan, as in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan and having some reference in there is just a reflection of me. The "ob1" actually started with stand-up video games and the recording of high scores.

In most stand-up video games the player is regulated to only three characters when they are adding their high score to the high score records for a particular video game. Normally the player is limited to letters and numbers - occasionally special characters. As a child I would sign in as "EEE" but later I started signing in as "OB1". And it's stuck with me over the years.

The "shinobi" is an homage to the old stand-up arcade game of the same name, Shinboi. It was a game in which you play a ninja rescuing hostages and whooping ass. I liked it a lot and it seemed to be wherever I hung out. A dear friend of mine who passed away also loved the game and I still hold onto a very fond memory of the two of us pumping quarters into a Shinobi machine one night while the rest of the youth group ate at Mr. Gatti's.

And finally if you say the whole thing, "ob1shinobi", is sounds like Obi-Wan Kenobi - again illustrating my fandom for Star Wars. Yep, I'm a dork.

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

Had a very busy and fun Memorial Day weekend. In no particular order are some highlights:

• Enjoyed some extended family time out in Shelbyville. My cousin Rachel, who had spent several days in the hospital, was able to make it and it was fun chatting it up with her. I had also lent her my iPod and it was good to get 4LOM back ;)


• Skated the Frankfort mini on Sunday with the Concretins. There is a post over at the Concretin web site (featuring a few shots of yours truly), titled Short Trip to Frankfort.


• Helped Junior move on Saturday. I was called away a little early with the news that Rachel was in the hospital. But I did what I could and dad, my moving mentor, would be proud at what he and I did with so little time.


• Layed down 55 bags of mulch. I hurt.


• I think I picked up Poison Ivy along the way. I hate yard work.


• Puppy Victims To Date: Battery compartment on the TV remote, wire connecting Nunchuk to Wiimote for the Wii, plug from the lamp (don't know how the little guy didn't die on that one), half of my wallet.

I hope everyone had a safe and memorable Memorial Day.

Rode in the back of a cop car last night

But I wasn't the perp.

While out with the dogs last night I noticed two teenage kids in the neighbor's backyard. I thought it was odd but didn't say anything to them. I took the dogs in and went upstairs to the bedroom to settle in and watch the Grey's Anatomy finale.

I heard voices right outside the window. I looked outside and saw the same two kids in my front yard. Are you kidding me? Sheesh, I wasn't having it. So I went downstairs to go say something to them. As I was on the second-to-last step one of them body slammed into the door. I just snapped.

I wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes but that didn't keep me from tearing out of the front door and sprinting after them. They instantly split up and I tailed the door-slammer until the end of the block. He had youth and fear on his side and I was barefoot... I wasn't going to catch him. I let up and yelled, "What's wrong with you, you fuck," before walking home. We got in the car and patrolled the neighborhood while we called the cops. The clubhouse was vandalized over Christmas and I caught some punk cutting through the flower garden just a week ago. I am sick of these punks messing with my yard and stuff.

The cops showed up after we returned to the house. I told them everything and then hopped in the back seat to go talk to some neighbors. I knew that we wouldn't be able to do anything about it but having an officer in tow may strike some fear into any kids we find. The cop thought I'd probably scared them enough by chasing after them. We hit up two houses but there were no teenagers matching the description. The last one we tried, however, had a kid that pretty much looked just like the one I had chased.

He wasn't wearing what he was wearing earlier but I'm pretty sure it was him. I stared him right in the eye and explained what I just mentioned above about kids and vandals and such. He seemed very uneasy. I didn't let on that I thought it was him. Oddly, he offered me a piece of gum. I thanked the parents and wished them a good night before walking off with the officer to go home.

"I think that was him, " I told the officer. He smiled at me with a chuckle.

"I think it was too."

Do I like Acid Rap? Nah. Oh, I do?

Eminem once rapped the following line:

"I'm not acid rap but I rap on acid."

I have to chuckle. Of course you aren't acid rap, Em. He is pretty mainstream (although the tracks that don't make it onto the radio are by far his best work... so much hate). And acid rap, so I thought, was pretty trippy. I fancy myself a true fan of hip-hop, with a healthy dose of trance and trip-hop included. I never really considered myself a fan of what I perceived the genre of acid rap to be.

My favorite DJs and MCs are DJ Shadow, DJ Q-Bert, Mixmaster Mike, Dan the Automator, Del the Funky Homosapien, and even Kool Keith and Kid Koala. DJ Shadow and DJ Q-Bert are my absolute favorite. They are godly in their spinnin' and scratchin' prowess. I own as much DJ Shadow as I can find. And I love DJ Q-Bert's "Wavetwisters" DVD... GENIUS!

So I was listening to some Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) on "Dr. Octagonecologyst" the other day. It was a pioneering album that just blew me away. I looked it up on wiki and found it classified as acid rap. I then clicked through to acid rap (I love clicking through wiki as much as I loved read the encyclopedias when I was a child) and found the following entry...

A pioneer in "acid rap" is the alternative MC Kool Keith, especially as Dr. Octagon on the 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst. Dr. Octagon's "Blue Flowers" is often thought of as defining the acid rap genre. Del tha Funkee Homosapien and his super-group Deltron 3030 are also known to make "acid rap" from time to time, while the alternative rap group The Pharcyde are credited with "acid rap" tracks in their 1992 acclaimed album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. DJ's and producers that commonly create acid rap beats include Dan the Automator, DJ Q-Bert, DJ Shadow, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, and occasionally Kid Koala and Mix Master Mike.

Wow! Seriously? Those are all of my boys. I totally forgot about the Pharcyde. I have their albums. I have the Invisibl Skratch Piklz album "The Shiggar Friggar Show". I love Deltron 3030. And "Blue Flowers" is one of my favorite songs ever (and the remix "Blue Flowers Revisited").

So I guess I'm a huge acid rap fan and didn't even know it. Funny what one can learn on wiki. BTW, here is the original article from wiki...

Wikipedia - Acid Rap

Boba is just too cute!

I can't go on enough over how cute the new puppy is. Check out these pix...

Boba's Flickr Photo Set

In other news... oh, who am I kidding. My life has been spent on this puppy since we got him. I haven't painted. I've barely skated. The kids are with their father this week so I may have some time to catch up.

Boba is sleeping through the night and holding his bladder and bowels until the morning. This is all spectacular and, from what I understand, makes us lucky puppy owners. I let him out as often as I can during the day and regulate his eating and drinking as the night draws to a close. I also make sure he has a few toys to sleep with at night in his crate (I rotate between Afro Dog, Loofa Dog, Rabbit Dog, Rubber Chicken, Patriotic Rope, Soccer Ball, Brown Rag, Blue Socks,
and Patriotic Ball).

Puppy!

I've always wanted a boxer or boxer-mix. And I've never had a dog of my own. We had a poodle when I was young and I've owned cats. But I've never had the pleasure of having my own little puppy.

Well, that changed last night. We saw a cute little boxer/shepherd mix online at 5:58pm. By 7:30pm we were on our way home with the new addition to the family. He was named Rodney after the late Rodney Dangerfield and we renamed him Boba Fett (I always wanted to name my puppy Donkey Kong but my wife nixed that and came up with Boba... that's cool too). He's as sweet as can be and appears to be somewhat crate-trained and house-broken. Sweet!

I haven't had time to get a decent shot and the little bugger never stands still, but here is what I have so far...

Boba running in the grass
Boba's coming right at us

You kids and your blogging (shakes cane in air)

I have more than an insignificant cyber-footprint. I used to blog over at GameSpot. I blog periodically on my site (shameless plug... Brinley.com). I currently blog as NoShow of the Concretins. I post in forums. I have an ever-growing presence over on Flickr. I have a mySpace page that I never really setup. I IM a bit. I email a lot. I'm tuned in to what's going on. So why has it taken me so long to start something up over here on Blogger and, more importantly, why?

I guess it's because I'm tired of sharing space with the Concretins for my own stuff. And I'm tired of having to muck with HTML and FTP files onto my server for my site. And the GameSpot blog is just old and... well, not a good representation of me since it covered a rough time in my life (and screw CNET and their properties anyway). I'm familiar with the tools and I want to blog more. And the process I go through now is just cumbersome.

Besides, the aforementioned Concretins are here. And so is Smorty71 and Twinkie. I like this place and I'm tired of ignoring my desire to blog more often. So here I am!

Yea me :)