Busy day!

I woke up this morning to find that I lost my first FFL game last night by 4 points. Grrr! I do take some solace in the fact that I could have only tied him if I had maximized the points on my bench (but why would I have benched Matt Forte???). I had my weekly Tuesday lunch with mom and Granny. Georgia joined us. Got a call from Melissa that she thought she was about to have her baby. Woohoo! I came home and found that Issue 16 for City of Heroes has been deployed. I can't wait to play around with it. I had a phone interview at 2 o'clock. And then I got a call from someone who was only laughing on the other end. IT WAS JED!!! The desert man is home - for good. Whew, all of this and the day is only half over :)

The Hyksos

The Hyksos (pronounced hik-sohs) were an ancient people that ruled Egypt for roughly 200 years between 1700 BC and 1500 BC. Much of their history was destroyed by the Egyptian historians after the Egyptian rulers retook power and expelled the Hyksos people. Egyptian history tells us that the Hyksos invaded Egypt and sacked and razed towns. But evidence for that claim simply does not exist. There are no old battlefields nor remains of large battles. Instead, many believe that the Hyksos simply migrated their way into power. Egypt was weak at the time, battling famine and plague, and the Hyksos were migrating at an alarming rate. The Hyksos were a collection of traders, doctors, accountants, artisans, farmers, mercenaries, lawyers, and skilled workers. There were a Semitic people, possibly Hittites or Canaanites. While it is true that they introduced better axes and bows to the Egyptian military, along with introducing the horse-drawn chariot to the battlefield, it is not clear whether or not they actually used them to gain power. It is becoming more accepted that the Hyksos simply married their way into powerful positions and claimed power through popularity of the masses. While the Egyptian rulers eventually expelled the Hyksos, the benefits of their culture helped advance Egyptian society. Besides the aforementioned advancements in military technology, the Hyksos were responsible for introducing the hump-back cow as well as new crops and fruits. They also preserved key Egyptian texts by recording them (there were, after all, lawyers and accountants among them).

There is no reason I should know this. But since Will is doing his class project on the Hyksos, I do.

September 11th

Do you remember where you were eight years ago today? I do. I was sitting in Texas, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, watching it go nowhere that I really wanted, and wondering how in the world I had taken so many wrong turns. I woke up and attempted to log onto CNN.com. The site was overloaded and I thought that to be pretty odd. Then my friend Bernie called and told us that a single-engine plane had collided with the one of the World Trade Center towers. We turned on the television and didn't turn it off. Speculation grew that the plane was something much bigger. The second plane hit. The first plane was certainly not an accident at this point. Surely an attack. The Pentagon was hit. Was the White House next? All planes were immediately forced to land. Eight flights were missing. Nothing seemed safe. The towers came down. I was shocked, scared, and very angry. Sadness would come later - much later.

As Captain James T. Kirk stated in Wrath of Khan, "How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life..." So to honor this quote, I'm going to balance the sadness that may be attached to this day with some thoughts about life.

Today was a good day. The cats have a new (used) cat tower. The grass is mowed. The plants are watered. The baby fish in the pond are growing. Will has some new shoes and experienced White Castle sliders for the first time. Jed is back in town. Kelsey did well on her Algebra test. Time keeps on slipping (slipping) into the future...

9

I took the kids to go see 9 today. It was opening day (9/9/09... get it?) and we've been talking about it for a while. I think that Capone, a reviewer for aintitcool.com, summed it up best with the following statement...

"Capone gives Shane Acker's 9 a 3 for story, 8 for voice acting, and 10 for visuals!!!"

The visuals were truly stunning. I know that it was all computer generated. But more times than not I was believing that I was watching stop-motion. And a few times even I forgot that what I was seeing on screen wasn't real to begin with. The voice acting was spot on. That is something that is sometimes overlooked, forced, or simply miscast in animated adventures. And the story was alright. It felt like I'd seen something similar in any number of end-of-the-world anime over the years. The ending was down-right horrid, but in a feel-good, corny, dorky, sappy kind of way. I wonder if the ending was the director's original or if it was force-fed to him by studio execs.

Either way, I liked the film and would recommend it. The little robot-doll-things were adorable. And the robot-creature-nasties were downright terrifying. This is definitely not something for the little 'uns.

Labor Day recap

* "There is nothing better than beer and chocolate." This was stated by Jooj's mom Mimi at their birthday party at Susu's house. And honestly, I can neither agree nor disagree.

* Pat can sure boil up a low-country feast for the masses! I enjoyed drinking over an over-sized pot full of shrimp, potatoes, sausage, corn, and Louisiana spiciness on Sunday. In fact, I had a blast seeing the whole gang :)

* Had lunch and saw my side of the fam Monday. It sure is nice to have such wonderful families.

* Taking Kels to get her driver's permit today. Wish her luck!

This and that

* Mom is out of the hospital. She did not suffer a heart attack and will go in for more tests later. She passed her stress test and the doctor said that, physically, she's doing just fine. I guess we'll blame it on stress... with Granny's failing mental health and the passing of Cubby and her son *and* son-in-law unemployed she's got a lot on her mind. Oh, and thanks for asking about her Silver :) Hang in there, mommy!

* I'm gearing up to work on the new Toast on Market (New Albany) pieces. I have the canvases stretched and am working on the images.

* New web site! I'm redoing my web site to focus more on my art. I've already started it and want to get it finished before I start a new job. It's going to have a newer, modern look. I'm going to tone down the playfulness and polish it up a bit.

* Jed is coming back from the desert. Last I heard the day was this coming Tuesday. That may have changed but I know it will be soon. It's going to be so nice to have him back.

* I hope everyone has a safe, happy, family-filled, friend-fueled, drama-free Labor Day weekend. If you drink, don't drive. And if you drive, watch out for drunks!

"Something good is going to happen today. I can feel it."

Those were my exact words to my wife in an email to her this morning.

Three hours later I received a call from my mother at the hospital. She was admitted after she drove herself there with chest pains. They discovered an abnormal EKG and are keeping her overnight. They did not find any signs of a heart attack... and that is great news.

So much for my premonition today, eh?