Thanks.

A number of years ago my mother tried to start a Thanksgiving tradition. While the food sat steaming on the table, she asked that each of us seated at the dinner table say what we are thankful for. The rest of that side of the family, not really being the touchy feely type, would thank the fates for the aforementioned hot food on the table and then ask when we could eat. I don’t know if that’s what Mom had in mind; I always thought she wanted us to pour our heart out and end up sobbing in the mashed potatoes. Well, maybe she didn’t have that in mind, but I think she wanted us all to get all Waltons and say good night to John Boy while the music went DING, ding, DING at the end.

This is the first Thanksgiving in a couple of years that I have been able to enjoy the day without being paranoid as to when my on-call pager was going to ring for that next telecommunications emergency. Tempted to run around a few states visiting family members, Earl and I decided that we would celebrate the lack of an electronic leash by having a simple Thanksgiving at home for just the two of us. He did his thing in the kitchen and I helped out by staying out of the way, cleaning up behind him best I could and declaring in a comical voice “Cook’s not a t’all ‘appy!” whenever he started the mixer on the sweet potatoes.

While I’m a very lucky man and thankful for all that I have (all sides of the families rock, I’m truly blessed to be able to follow my career dreams, our cat is a cat’s cat and I still can’t believe how much Earl and I love each other after nearly a dozen years), I’d like to say thanks to the online buddies I’ve met in cyberspace and in real time over the years. I have no idea how many people read the blog, but since you do, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and sharing my life’s experience with me. Earl and I have met some wonderful people over the years (hello Greg and Bob, Steve and Tim, Tim and Gordon, Thom, Karl and Randy, Eric, Sean and Jeffrey and a ton of others!) and we look forward to meeting many more.

Life is meant to be lived without regret. It’s all a journey and it’s just a bunch of learning experiences along the way. And once in a while it’s good to remember to say thanks once in a while.

22 November 2007 by Ponderings and Musings 7

I Feel Pretty.

Empress Of Evil.

Some days you just feel pretty.

Actually, I was thinking about Thanksgiving celebrations as a kid and how delighted I was in 1976 when ABC decided to show their Saturday morning shows on Thanksgiving night. This included “ElectraWoman and Dyna Girl”, starring Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis as a groovy female version of Batman and Robin. I really think there was some drugs involved when they dreamed up this show because the special effects and storyline are Electra-weird. Anyway, I remember watching this episode while sitting on the floor of my grandparents’ bedroom watching the “little” TV, since the adults were watching a football game. For some reason, I found the “Empress of Evil” to be one of the most menacing baddies on the small screen back in the day.

Good thing Marlena could handle her.

Here’s a link to part one of the episode on YouTube.

21 November 2007 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Rhyming.

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Back in my senior year of high school every student had to memorise “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. As we stood on the cusp of graduation, one by one we had to stand in front of the class and recite the well known poem to our classmates. If we didn’t do it, we didn’t graduate.

I never figured out the importance of memorising that poem but I was thankful that was all we had to do in the poetry unit in English 12.

Fast forward 21 years to “English 102”. For the past three weeks I’ve had the task of reading an endless array of poems, “cracking them open” and sharing their meaning on the discussion board with my cyber-classmates. To keep it all interesting, we had to write about the works of one of three poets: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson.

I BS’d my way through a five page essay on the works of Dickinson. She was a recluse and she gazed out a window. Maybe she was a lesbian. I always choose the gay one. I’ll be pleased with any grade, I did the best that I could.

The theme of “Don’t Tell ME What To Read!” is going to continue right through the end of the semester and then my English obligations will be met. I wish I could wrap my head around poetry, I really do, but the closest I want to come to Shakespeare is watching an episode of Bewitched that features Samantha’s father Maurice quoting ol’ Bill himself. I just can’t get a grasp on the coy way of saying something without coming out and just saying it. Hell, I’ve never been able to tell if a guy was interested in me unless they walked up, grabbed my crotch and said “let’s do it now”, how am I suppose to know if a brow through forty winters is suppose to be an ugly old hag or not?

I have just one assignment left in this English class and that is to write a paper on “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams. Thank god they production is coming to the college so I can watch the thing.

20 November 2007 by College Kid. 2

Reception.




Reception.

Originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl and I got back from Pennsylvania yesterday evening where I promptly jumped into the daunting task of getting homework done. It wasn’t the best way to bring the weekend to an end but it was the most practical way.

Rick and Helen’s reception was a smashing success. The Irish Pub they selected made us feel like we were right back on the ol’ sod. If you’re ever near the King of Prussia mall, try having a bite to eat at Kildare’s. You won’t be disappointed.

Earl and I had a great time. The head table was up on a platform and it was about a quarter of the way through the meal that we realised that the guests could see under our table. We don’t have a lot of practice sitting in kilts so that was interesting.

All in all it was a good time. I think kissing the Blarney Stone helped with my gift of gab because I was apparently a chatterbox. The Guinness helped as well. By the way, Guinness is enjoyable regardless of the occasion but it tastes decidedly different here in the states.

19 November 2007 by Flickr 1

Wired Relationship.

So this is what technology has brought our relationship to.

11:42 AM
Me: Is there any chance that we could walk around the mall (maybe Franklin Mills) for some exercise before we head back to R&H?
Him: are we eating lunch here?
Me: That’s up to you.
Him: or franklin mills?
Me: I’ll research what’s available at Franklin Mills
Him: ok
Him: they have 3 food courts
Me: w00t

Please keep in mind that I am looking him square in the eye while we are chatting over instant messenger.

17 November 2007 by Geek 1

Feasterville, Pa.

Earl and I have set up shop in a corner of the newish Panera here in Feasterville, Pa. for the morning. We are in town for Rick and Helen’s official wedding reception taking place tonight. We will be kilted for the occasion and I’ll be sure to share pictures tomorrow. It seems the kilt pictures were popular.

We always seem to migrate to Panera when we are looking for free wi-fi and decent food. Supporting my ghetto Panera theory, this Panera is nothing like the one we have back home. This store has a calm, quiet atmosphere going on, complete with fireplaces, lounge chairs and new age music. The Panera at home is really out of the norm with it’s McDonald’s vibe. I think that speaks volumes regarding the area we live in.

Using my quasi bionic hearing I’ve been eavesdropping on the conversation going on behind me. One woman’s daughter is taking the train to New York next weekend and she’ll be spending the night in a “haushaus”. The woman mentioned this haushaus several times before her friend corrected her and let her know that it’s a hostel.

I giggled.

Speaking of bionic hearing, I was reading some superhero geek message boards and noticed that the producers of Bionic Woman (the fake one) have altered the show a bit in attempt to stop the ratings from their freefall. They did this in the last episode by using a bit of slow-motion and sound effects to indicate that “Jaime” was doing something bionic. I appreciate the effort and I watched a clip online, and the effects looked quite cool, but it didn’t make up for the fact that there is a fake Jaime Sommers (which is worse than a fake Jan Brady), Isaiah Washington was on the show and the dialogue was really, really weak (and I only watched a seven minute clip). There’s rumblings that they’re going to “reboot” the entire show in January, hopefully they’ll start from scratch and listen to the suggestions from the public to make it more inline and continuous with the original bionic shows. Lindsay Wagner recently said that she doesn’t like the new show at all. So much for her cameo.

I still firmly believe that there is only one true Bionic Woman.

17 November 2007 by Fun and Games Dept 3

Calculated Irrationality.

After my one class today I had this attack of frustration unlike anything I’ve experienced in a while. The class is scheduled for 12:00 to 12:50. Over the past week or two, my classmates will start packing their books, etc. up at 12:49 and then start walking out at 12:50. The problem with this scenario is that the professor is still in the midst of conversing with the people that live in the chalkboard. I sit at my desk and wait for him to finish. He’s gone as long as another five minutes beyond his allotted time before realizing that the class has dwindled down to a few foolish few.

I find this scenario frustrating for several reasons.

First of all, it shows me that the majority of the class has absolutely no respect for the professor. This can’t be a good thing no matter how you look at it. Yeah, the guy is unorthodox but he holds the key to collegiate goodness. Without him and the next class in the sequence (he’s the only one that teaches it next semester), there’s no goody at the end of the ride. Like him or not, he should be given some respect.

Secondly, it’s confirming my belief that the professor doesn’t have a grasp on what’s going on in the class in any manner; how well we comprehend the material, how much material to cover in a class period or whether the students are sitting in their seats or not.

So I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I jumped on the closest thing we have to the Autobahn (long stretch of expressway with no hiding places for cops), cranked up my theme song of “Distorted” from La Nouba and drove really fast. Like three digits fast. And I’m talking three digits in the archaic manner of measuring things. I slowed down before the curve though and got it all under control.

It was release that I shouldn’t have done but felt really good.

I think one of the reasons that I’m feeling a little frustrated these days is because I’m having really good dreams at night. I remember a sizable number of my dreams (something I’ve discovered is rather rare when I mention this to others) and last night I was flying and flying and floating like a leaf on the wind. It was a beautiful moment for me and it felt very real. I woke up this morning feeling centered and at peace and the goofiness of class just messed it up.

Perhaps I tried to recreate that feeling by flying along the expressway as fast as I can. It wasn’t the same though.

I think I need to meditate.

16 November 2007 by College Kid. Deep. Spiritual Stuff. 1

Food Trip.

Jeff at Esoteric Diversions talks about something that sounds quite heavenly in his blog post today.

The Thanksgiving Sub at D’Angelos. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy in a sub roll! Ooh la la. I’d even venture to eat the whole sub as intended instead of taking it apart to eat it. (It’s a long story).

Me thinks it’s time for a road trip to Massachusetts.

15 November 2007 by Food. 3

Blog Maintenance.

Dear kind and gentle readers, you may notice that I’ve done some tweaking of the blog site a bit.

* You can see me if I’m in the office/studio now courtesy of the Home Office Cam. It updates once a minute and may occasionally venture into PG-13/R territory depending on my mood. If it gets X, it gets covered. I’m shy.

* New additions to the Blogroll include Moby and Gooster. I love clicking on the links of others, which leads me to another, which leads me to another. I think Homer‘s blog started the chain this time. I haven’t met any of these guys face to face but I’d stalk them should the opportunity arise.

* I have a new Xbox Live game card based on my new name. We’ve officially entered Xbox 360 season in our household. Especially since the Eagles are kind of sucky this year.

* I’m getting a little multimedia happy these days with an increase in photos again. I’d like the kind and gentle reader to enjoy a multimedia experience.

Now sit back and enjoy a pleasant flight.

15 November 2007 by Geek 2

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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