So Long 2005

I began this year in Salt Lake City Utah. I end it in Charleston South Carolina. I began this year with goals and plans. I end it with accomplishments and satisfaction.

Some important things happened to me this year.

1st. Stephanie.
Stephanie has been happening to me for several years now. However, at the beginning of this year I still did not know what would or could happen to us. I knew that I loved her. She had been my best friend for several years. But I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to be in a real relationship at all. Steph and I didn't bond that way. We came together with the idea that serious relationships only keep people from pursuing their dreams. It was a bad way to start a relationship.

But I came to a realization this year. The real reason that Steph and I came together is that we both believe that following our dreams is the most important thing. Additionally, our dreams are practically the same thing. I also realized that I have been in a relationship for a while now, and I DO like it. I still believe that they are bad for people early in life, but Steph and I are doing it the right way. We are making our own model for success together, and I love it. We are trailblazers.

2nd. Star Wars
2005 was the last and greatest single year for Star Wars ever. I came into last year salivating for Revenge of the Sith. There has never been another movie with this specific kind of presure on it. Since 1980, when we found out who Darth Vader really was, we knew this movie existed. It existed in concept if not actually on film. For 25 years I have been waiting to see how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. If this doesn't seem important well then I don't know what to tell you. But I hoped and prayed it would be what I wanted. New toys were going to come out. New Fast Food promotions. Trailers and Commercials. And of course Tickets going on sale. And "THE LINE" How would it be this year? Which theater would I go to? How early will I have to be there? Will I be able to convince Stephanie to go? How much money will it make? How many times will I see it? Will I like it?

Guess what? It was EVERYTHING and more. The toys were great. I got almost every single one. Which I never have done in a given movie year. I got tickets a month early. I got in line on Wednesday afternoon at 3:55, and Stephanie Joined me around 6. We waited until they let us in at 10. We got good seats. The movie started, I was so nervous I wanted to throw up. I'm nuts, I know. It was fantastic. I was floored. It has been 7 months now since I saw it, and I can confidently say it is the best movie of the 6. It made 50 million dollars in a single day. 16 million at midnight shows alone. There were 3am and 6am shows in some cities. It made 380 million dollars. Stephanie went with me and she loved it too. I saw it 10 times, including once in digital at the humongous Cinerama Dome at the Arclight in Hollywood and once at a drive in. It was as satisfying a conclusion to a series of films and to a part of my life as there possibly could have been.

3. Getting my life together. This is something that I knew would probably be a two part deal. And after year one, I am where I want to be. Coming into this year, I was still a little scared. I still was unsure of what I can do. I was still unsure of what I wanted to be. Did I have the guts to go through with my plans. I talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. I tell people that I won't live a humdrum robot life that I feel most people do. Yet I am still not sure if I can fight my fears and go after it. I am still sloppy, I am still unorganized, I am still out of shape.

Today, I am more organized. I am not there yet. I am less sloppy, but improving. I am in lousy shape still, but plans are in place. I have paid off all of my debts, excluding student loans. I am out of Utah, which I felt was a bad place for us. I am working a job that has the potential to send us off on our movie making dreams. I am more confident in my abilities, I am more focused, I am more determined. The best thing is that I am paying attention. I am in gear now. With still a way to go, I am well on the road, and it feels really good.

2005 was a good year. It was a hard year, it was not always a fun year. 5 or 10 years down the road however, I think we will see that 2005 was the year it all turned around for me. I feel like this was the year I really began my new life.

When 2000 came around, I really got thinking about myself. That year I began to pull myself up. I set a goal to change my life around. To rededicate myself to being the best I can be. It took some time to get going. I was in a pretty deep hole. But 5 years later I feel like the turnaround is complete. I am truly on the right path. Right emotionally, right spritually, right professionally. I have a long way to go. But I finish this year, more confident than I have ever been in my life.

So Long 2005. Thanks for everything......Bring on 2006!

Why can't I have what I want?

Stephanie used to say this a lot to me. And she made sense. It sounds like a selfish thing to ask. But why? If I do not ask for unreasonable things, and I do not ask for anything that has not been promised me, then why can't I get what I want?

The answer: Welcome to the Real World.

What?!?

The real world? Thats what they tell me. Thats the real world. You can't have what you want. You can't do what you want. You have to grow up, be realistic, the world doesn't work that way etc.

What?!? I say again.

What do I want? Ok, I want to be treated with respect. I want people to honor their commitments. I want people to behave as though they care about what they are doing.

So maybe if I said "I want someone to knock on my door and offer me my dream job" then I can understand that it doesn't work that way. But I don't want that. I'll get my own job. I'll make my own dreams come true. But don't get in my way just because you have given up on your life.

I want you to not forget my sauce with my mcnuggets. I want you to use your damned turn signals. I want you to not be mad at me for going the speed limit just because you left the house too late. I want you to not expect me to do something that you never asked me to do. And I want to not be called selfish if I say I have other plans. I want you to not be out of the "guarenteed in stock" items. I want you to deliver on time your "guarenteed to be there by.." items. And if I ask you to do something, don't reluctantly agree and then pout and expect me to let you out of it. Just say no. And when I just say no, don't get mad at me for it.

I am sick and tired of the lack of honesty that is everywhere. Everyone is playing this strange game of "tell people what they want to hear, until you can figure a way to get out of it."

I just want to do what I want to do. I'll take care of my part, just don't get in my way by not taking care of yours.

-T

Feeling sick again.

I am now making up for my sickness from a few weeks back. The strange illness I had that had no head symptoms. It was a stomach bug, and I didn't know how to handle being sick without snot and goo and sore throats and hacking, hocking, coughing and spitting.

Now I have that. I have all of those things. But no stomach issues. Weird. I'm walking around work, because overall I feel fine. I'm not particularly tired or fatigued. I'm not weak or queezy. I'm not dizzy or nauseaus or anything at all. I feel basically fine, other than my head weighs about 42 pounds.

A side issue to this, is this. I went looking for some medicine at my parents' house. I found some Walgreen's brand cough syrup. Problem is, it expired early this year. Springtime I think. I don't know if its bad for you to take expired cough syrup. Probably not really. However, its also likely that it won't be particularly effective either. So I didn't take it, and looked for something else. I found some Wal Mart brand cough syrup. Checked the expiration date....May of 2003!!! Wait a second.

I wonder how much of a problem this is. I kind of get it. You only use medicine when you get sick. So if you don't use it all, you may not use it again for a while. Additionally, a lot of times, I'll end up buying new medicine each time I get sick. I don't know if everyone does this. A lot of times I'll start to feel it, and I won't take anything right away. Then by lunch I'll realize I need something so I'll go to the store and buy something. I suppose this happened here at my family's house. Well in the case of the 2005 expiration date maybe....2003? I don't know.

I went and bought some new stuff, so hopefully that will work. I threw the others out though.

-T

ERRRRRRR

Somedays you know that the world just doesn't function the way its supposed to. And today is one of those days..... I don't want to and can't get into it today. But trust upon trust dear reader that in the not to distant future, there will be a wonderful rant filled with bile and venom.

-T

Stephanie is Home!

Woo-Hoo Woo-Hoo Stephanie is home. Sonny is Happy, I am Happy. I got some more presents too. Star Wars Pez Collection, Star Wars Video Game and super snazzy fancy pants 4 disc Gone with the Wind set.

I'm glad your back Steph. I missed you.

-T

An extra day

Today was a great day. It was basically like a free day. Nothing really Christmas related to do, so a good day to get some work done. Most specifically, cleaning my room some more.

I spent all day in that room today. Ruthless. Thats the attitude one must have. I have so much crap, that I just don't need. Keepsake type stuff that I will never look at again. So I started chucking it out. And I did alright too.

I watched two movies while I did it. Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Snatch. I love these movies. Very funny, and good for while you are cleaning too.

Tonight, my Cousin Jennifer came over. We watched EDtv. I love that movie too. Very underappreciated. Overshadowed by The Truman Show, but it is much better.

A free day, and effective one at that.

-T

Merry Christmas to all

Its Christmas Day. A magical, and very busy, day for most people. That holds true here as well. But it is great isn't it?

This morning, it was Christmas at our house. Mom, Dad, Sonny and Me. We opened our gifts. I made out pretty well. I got 400 bucks toward a camera that Steph and I are buying. I got some memory for my computer. I got a computer bag that I don't need, but that I can exchange. And, of course, I got some underwear.

This afternoon, it was Christmas at my Granddaddy's place. All of us Andrews folks meet there and Eat....a lot. It was a great time.

All and all, a good day. I was tired and full when it was over, which is what you want.

I talked to Steph a few times, sounds like she got good stuff too. I can't wait to see her.

-T

Its Christmas Eve

One thing I have noticed. If you havent finished your shopping by about the 10th of December, just wait until Christmas Eve. I went to about 6 different stores this morning in no time at all. Very easy. Clearly the best time to go and it is an age old tradition in my family. As we tend to be procrastinators.

Tonight I had my mom's family over for Christmas. We have been doing it this way for a long time. I'm not sure when it started. It wasn't this way when I was a kid. I did Christmas at both Grandparents' houses on Christmas Day. It was nice today.

First. There was Aunt Joyce and the Macaroni Pie!! Oh my is it good. It was conspicuously missing from Thanksgiving this year, but not from Christmas.

Second, there is Aris Nicole. She is the life of the party and the center of attention. As most toddlers are, I'm sure. My cousin asked me if Aris was walking yet. Ha ha. You'll see I said. Though not quite in that jerky way.

Lastly, its a good chance to have a large group of family in one place and a lot of talking that isn't forced. And no TV. I like to see a circle of people all facing inward and talking, rather than focused on the TV. People use the TV as a crutch, to fill in the blank spots in the conversation. Its nice to see a time when that just isn't necessary.

Only one bummer tonight. No Stephanie. I hadn't given much thought to Stephanie's leaving for Boston. Of course I'd miss her, but I was glad for her to get to be with her parents. However, I really didn't expect it to feel like she was missing the way it did. I mean I wasn't overwhelmed with sadness, but I noticed she wasn't there with me and I wanted her to be. I don't want to do Christmas without her anymore.

Its proof that Christmas is what they says it is. A special time to be with those that you love most. I would think that it might be easy to not miss Steph too much, just because I am doing the exact same traditions as I always did. She was never there before, so you might think I wouldn't notice that she wasn't there now. But I did. She easily qualifies as a member of "those I love most" and I wanted her to be here. Next year will be different.

I think I hear Santa....so happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

-T

Holidays vs. Christmas

Im going to get into this only for just a moment. Every year, this becomes a bigger deal. Stores getting rid of the word Christmas. And every year. The News comes on and talks about the controversy. And every year they show a bunch of people who think its wrong.

You know what they never show? People who think Christmas IS offensive. You know why? Because no one thinks that.

And you know else? No one cares either. This is just another media concoction. Its another STORY. Stories are what get the ratings. News is when when someone gets murdered. The story is the two weeks after the murder when they bring it up again and again, because they know it gets better ratings than Seinfeld reruns.

This is another story. Another way to fill time and get people stirred up. Its not real. And the worst thing anyone can do, is actually discuss this as an "issue."

Just let it go and enjoy your Christmas. Don't give in to the scam. Don't get suckered in. Remeber War Games. "The only winning move is Not To Play"

-T

Alone at home.

Stephanie left today to go back to Boston for Christmas. The Son and I are struggling with it just a bit. Sonny will be sleeping in the bed with me tonight. And I expect he will be restless, as he always is when she is gone.

Its not that he is too sad, just always on edge. The dog and that gal have some kind of special kinship. Its pretty cool to watch sometimes.

Anyway, I have sworn to have my room done by the time she gets back, so I must get on it. Hopefully I can make some headway.

-T

Once an idiot. Now an A-hole

Johnny Damon is a jerk. More than that, he's stupid. He really stuck it to the fans now. Usually I think the players are just doing good business, and I think that they can work wherever they'd like. This, however, is just not right.

After leading the Red Sox to the once unthinkable World Series Championship, JD has left the Sox for the Hated Yankees. And for once, I think this is a real example of a player having no class. We know it isn't money. The Yankees didn't pay much more than the Sox would have paid.

No, clearly this is about attention, and how Johnny can get more of it. He knows that if he stays with the Sox, that it is not particularly big news. He knows that if he goes somewhere else, its not particularly big news. But having signed late last night with the Yanks, he is already the number one sports story of the day and one of the biggest regular stories of the day.

Just another way to add to that Damon ego. The thing is, there were things that we all liked about the guy. And assuming that he is a good guy, then all of those quirky things make him a cool eccentric neat kind of guy. However, when you find out that he is a selfish jerk, then suddenly it casts a different light on all of the fun quirky things he did before.

And he gave up the chance at a real legacy. To be one of the few guys to bring the Sox from almost a century of bad luck and losing the big one. He gave up the chance to be one of those special baseball legends. The kind that everyone remembers, even though they weren't hall of famers.

Heres one:




Fernandomania in LA in the early 80s. One of my earliest baseball memories. Fernando didn't end up being a legendary pitcher, but his legacy as a Dodger is Legendary and unforgettable.


Heres one on the way perhaps.



Eric Gagne. I don't know whats going to happen with him. I know that he is THE most popular Dodger out there. I know that people go to the games just to see him. I know that Angelinos stay till the end of the game just to see him. Contrary to what you might have heard. And if he walks from the Dodgers this year, and went to the Giants we would be devastated.

And that just the Dodgers/Giants. A rivalry that has not been nearly as intense as the Yanks/Sox of late. Devastated I tell you.

Johnny, you suck. Everybody around the league. Royals fans, D-Backs fans, Mariners fans, everyone hates you. Everyone is blown away.

Welcome to being the Poster Boy for Selfish Ballplayers everywhere. At least A-Rod will like you for taking that crown from him. And by the way, better not slump in April because the Yanks fans will turn on you too.

Jackass!

-T

The great Star Wars Finale

A couple of nights ago I won an Ebay auction. I paid for it tonight. I got two of the last 5 Revenge of the Sith figures. This is a big deal. Mainly because it might be hard to get them all.

In Star Wars figure collecting, there is one thing that seems to hold true. Its very hard to find the end of the line figures. This means that when they switch from one line to begin a new one, the last figures of the ending line tend to disappear. Mostly, its just that they have the least amount of time from when the first make them and when they quit production.

The Episode 1 line finishes with an Emperor Hologram, Sio Bibble and a Protocol Droid that I never saw. The Episode 2/Saga line ended last year. I got all but the last three, which I never saw. The Power of the Force line ended in 1999 with some cool figures with talking chips that no one ever saw.

So as Revenge of the Sith comes to a close, I'm looking for the end. I have never managed to collect a whole line before. And I am right on it this time.

It started in February with 4 preview figures. I got those. Then, in April, it started for real. There were 32 figures the first night. I bought about 6. I got all of them pretty quickly. I also got a limited Yoda hologram.

Now there were a few other limited edition exclusives. Target had several "Lava Reflection" figures. I never saw them. I'm not huge on chasing exclusives, so I don't sweat them.

I also don't chase variants very much. Not into errors or changes that they do. One Anakin figure had black eyes. Later, they changed it to have the orange "Sith Eyes." I'm not too worried about that though. However, there are some I did get. The Emperial Guard came in both Blue and Red varieties. Later, they had some varying colors on some of the Troopers. I got those. Those were intentional.

So, there were 56 figures that came out by August. Plus different colors on the Imperial Guard, Clone Pilot, Clone Commander and Clone Trooper. That makes 60. Plus there was the 4 previews. That makes 64. Then they announced that there would be 12 more to end the line. They supposedly came out in October. And I found 7 of them that month. The final 5 though, I have yet to see.

Then they announced the new line of toys. The Saga 2 line. New look, new figures, new card design, starting in 2006. And to kick it off, would be 2 figures that bridge the gap between ROTS and Saga 2. Those were Obi-Wan with Baby Luke and Bail Organa with Baby Leia. I decided those would be the last for me. And I have found them.

This means that the line is over. And, as expected, the 5 last figures have vanished from stores.

Ok, all that said, I got two of the toughies on ebay. I had to pay a couple of bucks more than normal, but is worth it. I'm going to get it. With the 2 baby figures, and my Holographic Yoda that will make 79 in total. And then I am done. For a while.

I don't think I'll be collecting this next group just yet. I'm going to take a year off. Then I'll go back and get em later.

-T

Training Classes

Today at work, I began a three day training period. It was like school...except for not. We had a class at 8, at 9, at 10, at 11 and then Lunch until 1. Then, at 1, we had a 3 hour beginning to electricity class.

I have to say. I am pretty much a stud at school at this point. I have done it enough in my life. That said, this is pretty rough. 3 hours of Neutrons, electrons etc. Ohm's Law, resistance, series circuits...man oh man.

I remember why I became an art student.

-T

The Colts and Nomie

First things.....First. The Colts lost today. No 16-0. No perfect season. No nothing.
I'm pretty mad at Tony Dungy, and if I was a Colts fan I'd be livid. He couldn't commit. One way or another Tony. Pick a side and go. All week it was are you going for the record or are you going to back off and rest your team. He couldn't make up his mind. He kept saying he was just going to try to win. And his team played like that today. They played a half-assed game. They played as if they hadn't decided whether or not it was an important game. I wouldn't care that they lost if that had just come out and said its not important. But they tried to downplay the record AND pretend this game was important. All in all, pretty doggone annoying.


Second. Nomar Garciaparra comes to the Dodgers. This is an interesting turn of events. I like Nomar. I was not particularly impressed with the way he handled his last days with the Red Sox. However, I would like to seem succeed. He has been plagued by injuries for 3 years now. If he can stay healthy, I know he will have a good year. So I am glad he is coming. If he stays healthy, he will be a steal for us at 6 million bucks.
And of course, its now Boston West out in LA. Grady Little the manager, Bill Mueller at 3rd, Nomar at 1st, Derrick Lowe on the Hill and Johnny Damon coming to visit LA too.

Woo Hoo. I heard our Owner was trying to bring the Red Sox out here one player at a time. And really, what so bad about that?

-T

The Christmas Party

Tonight was my company Christmas party. This was a big deal, and a long time coming. One of the first things I was told when I go to work was that I MUST be at the Christmas party. So I made sure to be there to make a good showing.

I'm not a kiss up or anything, but I do very much want to continue to make a good showing. And I guess things are going well. My boss referred to me as her "best pipe bender." So that made me happy.

The party was pretty cool though. We played a silly game where we had to dress our boss up like Santa Claus, using tissue and construction paper and some cotton. My Santa won, so I got a 5 dollar Blockbuster gift card.

We had a white elephant gift exchange. That didn't go so well. I picked something and it was really heavy. Then it got stolen from me, so I picked something else. Then that got stolen too. So I tried to steal someone else's. They said I couldn't because that had been stolen 3 times already. So I stole back my original heavy gift. That was the third time that that gift was stolen so I was confident I'd get it. Then, someone stole it from me anyway. And the guy didn't listen when I tried to say something about the three times rule. As my ex-roomate's ex-girlfriend would say..."What the Crap?" Anyway, I just went up and picked another gift. When it was time to open them, my gift was a potpourri crock pot (potpourri sold separately) and the heavy gift was a full case of those vodka wine cooler things. Nuts!

What are you going to do though. Some free food and goofing off. It was pretty cool. Really my first ever company Christmas party.

-T

Melinda and Melinda and Melinda

I watched a lot of Melinda tonight. One very good and two pretty good.

First was another great episode of Ghost Whisperer. Jennifer Love Hewitt is Melinda, and she can see ghosts. The show is fantastic. Its CBS's replacement for Joan of Arcadia, and I love it. Tonight's episode was right on par.

The other Melindas were Woody Allen's film Melinda and Melinda. This was a movie with a great premise that is a pretty good finished film. Its not as good as I hoped it would be, but still pretty good.

A couple of writers are sitting around arguing over Comedies and Tragedies and which are more significant in the world.

So they are given a brief scenario and asked to turn it into story. One tragic and one comic. We get to watch the two movies happen together. They alternate between one movie to the other and back and forth. It was pretty cool. One thing though, I was far more interested in the Comedic version than the dramatic one. The tragic was way too tragic. The Comedic was also kind of serious. Both being a little more dramatic than they are supposed to be creates a problem for the tragedy. However it leaves the comedy as a much more balanced movie.

The other thing is that Will Farrell is in it. And I HATE him. I, once again, hoped that this would be a Will Farrell performance that I liked. And......it was ok. He wasn't too bad. A little annoying, but not so bad.

Overall, a pretty good night for Melindas though. And a productive night for the Tom and Steph movie watching team.

-T

King Kong Sucks

Steph and I had a little chat about King Kong tonight. I checked the box office report for yesterday. 9.6 million. Thats not bad I guess. In fact, only 20 movies ever have made more money on an opening day that was a Wednesday.

20th place. Oh its sooo funny. Pokemon the movie made more on its opening day than King Kong. What can I say? I'm rooting for it to fail. I'm a jerk. Fine. But Peter Jackson is so overrated. Lord of the Rings was such nonsense. So it gives me great pleasure to watch his super movie struggle.

Its not just PJ either. For about a month now I have heard people talking about this movie. How it was certainly going to pass Revenge of the Sith for this year's title, as well as potentially threaten Titanic for the ultimate prize. Just let me say this. Never ever say Titanic. Yes, someday something will probably pass it. It will be a freak of nature though. One that you won't see coming. Secondly, it apears to be no threat to Revenge of the Sith either. Lets compare. King Kong 9.6 million on opening day. Opening day for Revenge of the Sith was 50 million. In fact, Sith made almost twice as much as Kong in Midnight sales alone.

Additionally, its a Monkey!! You know? A Monkey. I'm the first to say that you can make anything happen in movies and it should be believable, but lets be honest. Its a technical masterpiece? I believe it. Its a touching story about love in the strangest of places? I'll believe it when I see it. And I will see it.

In the end, I really do hope that every movie I see is the best one ever. Honestly though, I take a little sick pleasure in watching it not do well. Lets hope it doesn't do any better over the weekend.

-T

Cold as Crap

Man it was cold today. I mean cold, yo. Seriously though, it was really cold today. I have been loving life after Utah. Knowing that is in the low teens back there almost every day. Ha ha ha. Its so nice here.

But today? No. It was cold. In the low 30s. Oh, poor me right? Its not as cold as other places, right? True, but does that make it warm here? No.

It was windy as heck. The boat ride out to the fort was rough. The water was choppy. It was pretty damned cold all day long.

Just thought I'd take a minute to complain about the weather. Its old school. Complaining about traffic is soooo clearly the new complaining about the weather.

-T

How to get motivated

Sometimes I don't know what my issue is. There is nothing I love more than the feeling I get when I am working on a film. Its one of the few things that I found that I do very well, and also really really love. Yet sometimes, its hard to get started on something.

Its like when you try to start riding your bicycle, and the pedal is really hard to push at first. Then, once you finally get going, you are cruising and loving every minute of it.

I just don't know whats wrong with me. I want nothing more to do this. It seems though that everyday, I'm just too tired to do anything about it. And tired would have never stopped me before.

Got to get my crap together.

Fort Sumter

Today was my first day working at Fort Sumter. Let me just say, it was like Whoa! I mean it was really cool. Just being around there is amazing.

The first thing I noticed is how quiet it is. You are miles away from anything, so naturally it is quiet. There are ships that pass by, and an airplane every now and again. But its very very quiet.

And that is spooky considering everywhere you go, there are reminders of how loud it was there one time. For 34 hours the Fort was bombarded by cannons mounted on islands and beaches all around. There are pictures of the bombing in the Fort Museum. Its just amazing to think how loud it must have been. This, in turn, makes it all the more spooky when its that quiet.

I find myself wondering if any ghosts are watching me. All in all, its pretty doggone cool.

-T

A little Old Charleston Fort Action

Today Steph Sonny and I took a little trip out into Charleston once again. We went out to Sullivans Island to the beach. We went to the beach near historic Fort Moultrie.

Fort Moultrie was used by the Colonials during the Revolutionary War. It was used on and off during wartimes throughout the next century and was used again as an active Fort as recently as World War II

We had a good time, and Sonny got his picture taken with a 250 year old Cannon. It is one of the cooler places to visit in Charleston.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting because I will be doing some work at Fort Sumter. This Fort was built during the early 1800s and was a central character in the Civil War. The Civil War began in Charleston in the early part of 1861, when Citadel cadets fired on the Federal Troops that were housed inside. It all started here. Its some serious serious history. And I must say, its pretty neat to be working there.

The cool thing is that I'll be adding something to the place. I worked for over a year at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. For the last three weeks, I have been working at a new elementary school in Mount Pleasant. Both are places that I will most likely never visit again. But this is different. This is a place that has some significance, and more than likely I will be visiting several more times in my life. I am excited about adding somehting permanant to the place.

-T

A little excitement tonight

Well, we had a little excitement around here this evening. Steph and Sonny and I went up to McDonalds to grab some dinner. When we got back, there was a police car here. My brother was talking to him. Turns out, while we were gone, my brother heard some screaming out in the woods. He said a woman screamed Help at the top of her lungs from out in the woods behind our house. He said he heard her, then a man yelling something he couldn't make out, and then the woman screamed again. Then he said he never heard anything again. So he called 911.

We didn't really know much after that. But about 20 minutes later, my brother was driving out of the neighborhood and he saw the police dragging a handcuffed man to a police car. We could hear dogs barking like crazy out in the woods. We assumed the arrested the guy and where now searching for the woman. Scary.

A bit later, my brother talked to the cops again. He said that they found the woman and that she was ok. They wouldn't say any more than that.

Anyway, its pretty freaky. I know its going to be one of those silly things that no one ever finds out what happened. We will see I guess.

-T

The Matrix

Steph and I were talking about the movie The Matrix tonight. Mostly just because sometimes we feel like WE are in the Matrix.

The catch about the movie however is that it takes the cheap way out. Its a great metaphor for the way the world is. We are plugged into some strange system of jobs and television and family life and politics and cars and entertainment and it all just feels phony. The movie gives us what we want. The thing that would make it easy. The Matrix is real. Everyone wants a revolution. Everyone wants to revolt from their humdrum life, but its just too hard. Nothing is clear. There is no obvious path to take. No one knows who to revolt against.

In the movie, they give us an easy one. The human race has actually been enslaved. The entire human race, not just one group or another. All races, religions and genders together, oppressed by machines. Not other humans, but machines. The easy way again. The enemy is a faceless, mindless monster. It is off in the distance and not subject to debate. An easy-to-hate enemy with no question of its intentions.

Stephanie pointed out also that Morpheus just gives Neo a pill to make him see. Also the easy way out. No need to have to convince him or sell him on the theory. Give him a pill and he will just understand. Furthermore, the pill wakes him up out of the Matrix. Which means there is no way back. Again easy. Neo can't just go back to the Matrix once it gets to hard. You take away his choice and make him be the savior.

What I would like to see is this movie, but where there is no Matrix. Where Morpheus attracts Neo to be the savior, but he has to do it in the real world. Where Neo's job as savior is to convince the world that there is a better way to live. To lead a revolution of mind and spirit without the benefit of a single obvious enemy to revolt against.

What I am talking about is making a cross between The Matrix and Fight Club. There is a real movie in here somewhere, and Steph and I are going to find it.

-T

Apology part Deux

Just a quick add on to my apology from the other day. Turns out that the city of Charleston is getting into the New Urbanism act. The Magnolia project is a large scale redevelopement project going on in an urban wasteland on the North end of town. They are stripping the area out and redesigning it as a high density residential, business, entertainment and retail area. They are even buying and old freight Railroad right of way with commuter rail potential.

Good for you guys. My bad.

-T

Winter Meetings

Its early December and Baseball is in full swing. Yeah. Didn't you know? Its winter meeting time. Owners, GMs, Players and Agents have all gathered in Dallas this week to talk trades and contracts. To make their teams better. Unless they are the Marlins that is.

And it is ON in Dodger camp. The Dodger Message Board is blowing up with rumors. Including the one I have been waiting for: Manny Freaking Ramirez!

The Dodgers are positioning themselves to go after my boy and I couldn't be more excited. Oh please Oh please Oh please...............

Bridge Explosion

Today is a big day for me. Today they began the demolition of the main spans of the 77 year old Grace Memorial Bridge here in Charleston. The Grace Bridge was always the special one. It, and the Silas Pearman bridge made up what was just generally referred to as the Cooper River Bridge.

The two bridges have been being demolished for a few months now, but today was the first day that they took the big bombs to the Grace Bridge. So there it goes. Crashing down into the water. Its a weird sort of sad. Weird, in that its not really sad at all. Yet it is still. I have been following that new bridge's progress for 10 years. And the part that you never remember will happen is this part. Its a great day really. That old bridge did its job well for a long long time. It deserves its rest at the bottom of the sea. Where fish will play on it. That sounds peaceful.

But I am going to figure out how to get a piece of that thing to keep forever though.

-T

A small apology

I would like to make a small apology to the city of North Charleston. For weeks I have been expressing my disdain for this city and its apparent apathy toward planning and smart growth. While I still have reservations, I have discovered something that clearly indicates to me that someone is at the wheel.

So...I apologize.


Last night, I discovered something called The Noisette Project It is a waterfront development, designed to refurbish and revitalize the old Navy Base and adjacent areas. Really, this is a great project and is a clear step in the right direction. Mixed-Use...meaning business, retail, entertainment AND residential. Woo Hoo... Mixed use and density are what IT is all about.

That said. I still have problems with the overriding culture of this area. I read LA papers online and LA messageboards as well. And they all joke about the "LA CAR CULTURE" Everyone does. But I promise you, the car culture in this town is 10 times greater than that of LA. Easily. And that still is a problem.

Now I hate to give an "I'm sorry but..." kind of apology. I really mean it. I thought no one was running this town, but clearly that is wrong. I am going to go down there and see this first hand this weekend.

-T

Rent

I saw Rent today. And it was pretty darned good. Not the best thing Ive seen this year, but pretty doggone good.

One thing of note is the very negative way it portrays New York City. Now it doesn't go out of its way to say NYC is bad. But it offers no views of anything good about the place. This is pretty out of the ordinary for pop culture in recent years. Since 9/11, New York has been the darling city of the world.

Rent was a runaway hit on Broadway in the mid 90s. When New York was really just beginning its comeback. And I imagine the seeds of Rent were starting in the late 80s, when New York was still very much viewed as nasty, trashy place.

So, in some ways this movie seems a little outdated to me. But not so much. I mean even the Glorious New York of today has its share of ultra poor areas. Yet it is interesting anyway.

Really a good show though. I'm really interested in seeing this performed live somewhere some way. Hopefully I will get to.

-T

Its On Now!

Well, what we have been waiting for is now official. January 4th 2006. Texas vs. USC in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship. 12-0 vs. 12-0. Two undefeateds. No doubts, no arguments, no controversy, no complaining, no whining, no overrateds, no disrespecteds no nothing but pure badass vs. badass football gaming.

So Texas and USC each played their final opponents today. The only potential roadblocks to getting the game we all want.

And just so there was no doubt that we are getting the best game, Texas took Colorado to the proverbial woodshed. Texas won 70-3. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, USC beat the crap out of Crosstown UCLA 66-19. Let it be known that both teams are clearly ready to go.

I can't stand it. This is going to be awesome.

-T

Week 4 in the books

I finished my 4th week of work today. And it feels alright. I'm getting paid well. Most importantly though, I'm fitting in well. What I mean to say is just that I feel comfortable in my knowledge and experience, and I know that I do know what I am doing.

Now for another weekend. I simply must see a movie this weekend. It has been forever.
We'll see.

-T

LOST...once again

Just thought I'd write quickly about LOST. And oh by the way, I am feeling a bit better. Having spent all day walking around trying not to disturb my sick feeling.

Anyway, I watched last night's LOST tonight, and once again it was quite good. I am definitly back to the point where the show is great. And I now have to deal with a large break in the action.

Steph and I watched all of season one in a single week. It was hard enough waiting a week between episodes. Now I have to endure a long winter hiatus.

This watching a TV show on the Network's schedule is for the birds. Its like the DVR. I just don't start watching a show until well after it starts, then I can skip the commercials. Well, I will just wait until summer from now on. Then I can cram full seasons into short periods of time. Its really the best way to do it.

-T

Siiiiiccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my am I sick! Truth is, I am not writing this on the day that I am listing it. I was too sick that day to do it. But really, this is the only time I have ever done that... ;-)

First I should mention that Stephanie was sick on Monday. So its very clear where from where I got this.

Now I'd like to blame her. That would make things easier and would probably be somewhat humerous for writing purposes. Unfortunately I cannot do this though. Stephanie told me repeatedly on Monday to stay away from her. I didn't listen. I was arrogant. I thought, I wouldn't get sick. I wanted to be a sweetheart and comfort her and make her feel loved and typical stuff of the sort. Man am I stupid.

So what's wrong with me. I don't like getting sick. I mean I hate it. I think throwing up is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. I am a bad sick person. I do not take it well and I did not take this one well at all.

I have never been sick like this before. Almost all the times that I get sick it has sinus related stuff. Throat and nose and snot things mixed with feeling sick to my stomach. Not this time. No throat no nose no snot. Just something wrong with my stomach. It started in the morning with my stomach just feeling funny. By 9 o'clock I could tell I was getting sick. By 2 in the afternoon, I was sitting on the floor of the bathroom where I was working. By 430 I felt like my head was on fire (no fever though) and that I'd never be able to get home without puking.

I finally got home and collapsed on the bathroom floor. I was shivering and sweating at the same time. I felt like my stomach was full of something horrible and that it was just trying to decide which direction to take when it left. I won't go into all that, but I did finally throw up, and it was awful. Though I did feel better after I did. As Stephanie said I would.

I spent the rest of the night in bed drinking juice and by the end of the night I was actually feeling better. But simply put, it was the worst day of my life. Well perhaps not quite. But its up there.

-T

Don't trust men who talk about women

Ok, what I am saying is this: I don't trust guys that can't talk about sports. Or at least some kind of equivalent thing. Like cars or music. I work with a couple of guys, and all they talk about is women. I mean just about sex and how many women they sleep with. Its ridiculous.

Now conventional wisdom is that when guys can't talk about anything but sex than that means they are gay. Or it means that they just never get any women. I don't think that is the case here. I don't really doubt any of it. Its just...welll...kind of gross. And its very creepy.

In the end, I have known people like this in the past. However, none of my friends have ever been like this. Most of my friends are far too busy talking about important things to care about discussing women. Important things like football, movies, college football, baseball, SEC football, TV shows, Gamecock football etc.
And I just don't think there is anything more boring than listening to another guy brag about himself and women.

-T

Star Wars Cleanup

Tonight, I began the task of looking through boxes of Star Wars toys. Oh boy. Do I have a lot of Star Wars Toys. This will be a week long process I believe, as I have about 8 boxes to go through. I don't particularly care to do it all at once.

I started with the older ones. No, I do not have any of my old old ones from when I was a kid. Many of them are long gone. Some are buried under some houses in Florida which used to be woods when I lived there.

These old ones are only semi-old. They came out in the late 90s. Ah College. The good old days when you had little to do but sleep and watch tv and occasionally study. And everything you needed was paid for. Which left money for fun nonsense.

So I opened this big box to reveal some smaller boxes. I had forgotten just how many of these I'd opened. Yes, to play with. And, I found several that I had done some "work" on.

Over a summer in 97 I decided that there were some figures that Hasbro had not yet made that I simply didn't care to wait for. Or some that needed some "tweaking" So a modeling knife some paint, a couple of head switches, and some creativity I made a few new guys.

My favorites: A young Obi-Wan Kenobi figure. This was 97 so we had little idea of what a young Obi-Wan looked like. I made a Young Anakin Skywalker figure, that I modeled after myself. Later I just renamed him Jedi Master TomCat. I made some of Luke's fellow pilots out of Pilot Luke figures.

When I took them back to College the next year, they became a conversation piece. When the people on my dorm floor were all coming around meeting each other. A couple of guys, Ben and Brian, liked my creative solution to collecting issues. And for good or for ill, they are still two of my best friends today.

So, one box down and several more to go. Can't wait to see whats next.

-T

Downtown?

Have I said this already? What North Charleston needs is a downtown. I don't get it. How does this place work? How does it function? Oh thats right, it doesn't

Now there were parts of Salt Lake City that felt kind of like this. The area near our apartment was kind of a wasteland. 3900 S near State street. Miles and miles of garbage stores and businesses. Spread out and unattractive. But still the area functions in a smooth and orderly way. The reason? Good roads everywhere. Built on a grid. All roads leading to larger roads that funnel everything into downtown.

Heres the deal. I'm not asking everyone to live like the Jetsons. I'm not against houses at all. I'm not entirely against neighborhoods that are somewhat secluded and set apart from the "hustle and bustle" What I am against is single passenger automobile trips and single person office buildings. I'm fine with people having homes and nice houses and huge yards and whatnot. But can't we at least work near one another?

You want traffic to get better? Then we have to maximize the roads and routes that we have. What North Charleston/Summerville needs is a downtown. Find a spot that already has really good infrastructure. There are a couple of places that do, believe it or not. Find that spot. Buy out whatever garbage buildings are there. Reconfigure and rezone the whole area. And start putting up some real buildings. I'm not talking about 80 story buildings. But some decent high density office space. Combine that with restaurants and some apartments and condos, for those of who don't feel the need to hide from the rest of the world. Suddenly, what you have is a real working and functioning city center. Where people come to work and live and shop and play. A small but higly dense area that supports the rest of the city. A place that is easy to get in and out of. And best of all, it keeps the rest of the city quiet, peaceful and green. Isn't that what we want?

But the people here cannot see past their dashboards. They can't see the real problems. So real solutions sound scary to them. If I say density, they think it brings more traffic. No it doesn't. It consolidates traffic into the areas that can handle it. If I say downtown they think Manhattan. Where no one can see the sun shine and there is nothing green anywhere. That isn't true. Columbia's downtown area is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. And its full of parks and green spaces and is very effecient.

In the end, its just frustrating, because North Charleston is clearly the central part of the Charleston area. Yet 30 years after it incorporated, it is still just a wasteland of randomly placed buildings and roads and strip malls.

Its too bad I want to do something with my life. Otherwise I might stay here and fix it.

-T

Shopping, traffic and insanity

So here we are in the midst of the biggest shopping weekend of the year. What is the first thing Tom thinks about at a time like this? Besides will the Dodgers ever hire a manager? Yes, its traffic!!! The nightmare that is Rivers Avenue near Ashley Phosphate. There is a rather large Mall on one side. On the other side are 4 large, and inexplicably separate, shopping centers. One after another, 4 in a row. All on the same side of the road and completely separated and totally impractical to get from one to the next.

Why? Why would anyone think this is a good idea? No one does of course, yet they accept it anyway. Why? Because there are no other alternatives? I don't believe that.

Am I going to whip out the old subway bit now? No. Even I know it isn't terribly practical to do extensive Christmas shopping without a car. Its a lot to try to carry on the train.

But how about building just a little bit smarter. It wasn't too long ago that there were only two shopping centers in that spot. Two with a gap in the middle. And one was really struggling to make it. The other is ruled by Wal Mart. So at the time. There was only Wal Mart, soon-to-be out of business Service Merchandise, Toys R Us and Sports authority. If they were going to add Best Buy, Pet Smart, Barnes and Noble, Linens and Things, Michaels, Super Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Circuit City and a number of others, then why not do it in a more organized manor.

Think Big People!! There was, and still is, a lot of free space around the mall. Why not move things over there. Consolidate. You could have built a parking garage and a pedestrian walkway. You could have traffic converge from three directions onto one large shopping area instead of only one direction to get to 4 separate ones.

Am I the only one who gets it? Why are people afraid? Why do people think that density equals more traffic? What we are talking about is consolidation equaling traffic efficiency. We are dealing with a society full of sociological fence straddlers. Where people are unwilling to do anything for fear of everything. If its the last thing I do, I will show people the truth.

-T

Black Friday

Or so they call it. I call it Lets go out and make fun of people shopping Day. Actually I did not venture particularly close to any shopping areas. Steph and Sonny and I had a little fun today. We go up this morning and went out to the beach.

But first!

We went to Dunkin Donuts! This is something that Stephanie has been craving for awhile. Apparently Dunkin Donuts are somewhat native to Boston, as is Stephanie. No no, I know about Dunkin Donuts and Boston. I watch Red Sox games, I know.

So we have a couple of D-Donuts here and we wanted to give Steph a taste of home.

Mmmmmmm donuts are good too. When I got in there, there was a guy in a Red Sox hat with a very thick Boston accent. I guess maybe each store keeps a token Bostonian around just to create good ambiance.


Then it was off to the beach. Haven't been there in some time. It was chilly of course. It's late November after all. But it was pretty nice. Sonny seemed to enjoy it. He ran around the sand. He ran over near the water, but he wasn't having any of that.

We went home and began round two of Thanksgiving with the Family.

This time "The Andrews'

Oh boy. The wild bunch is meeting for a get together at the Crab Shack. Stephanie had been feeling a little sick today and wasn't sure if she was going to go. But she was a trooper, and nervous though she may have been, she went to meet my family.

The Andrews' are a crazy group. When we got there, my Granddaddy told Steph to watch out. He said they just let them out from time to time and they have to go back to the home afterward. My Uncle Andy started to tell a joke, then asked if it was ok to tell it in front of Stephanie. We said it was ok of course and then it was on. Hey, a little bit of crass humor in a public place never hurt anyone right?

It went well though, and they had hamburgers there, so Stephanie didn't have to eat oysters.

My two Aunts and Uncles came back to our house afterward and had about a 3 hour memory lane session with my parents. Stephanie and I enjoyed the show. And Sonny was in sensory overload with so many people around.

After all of that subsided, Steph, Son and I took a drive through Summerville. I have been here three weeks and this is the first chance I had to do that. Its impossible to get to Summerville now because of traffic. (more on that later)
We looked at my old apartment and my old jobs. We drove by the my High School and then next to the Football Stadium. Where they were in the middle of the Lower State Championship game. Which my team beat arch rival Stratford by about 4 points. Woooo

Then we grabbed Zaxby's on the way home.

Whew---what a day!

-T

Turkey Day

Today was Thanksgiving. And happy Thanksgiving to all of you who read this thing everyday. Today was pretty darned typical as far as T-Days in Charleston go.

Woke up around 8 to the smell of ham cooking in the kitchen. My parents got up and left to go the Turkey Run. This is a three mile race that is held on Thanksgiving morning in Downtown Charleston every year. I often participate in this run. However, I am still suffering from the 31 dollars a day that I had to eat on all this year. So I did not run.

Stephanie is here with me this year, so that is pretty new. The two of us went down to my grandmother's house around 11 and helped out and chatted for an hour or so. Then, around 12:30, people began arriving. The food was layed out, a prayer was said, and then it was eating time.

A Home Cooked Thanksgiving meal was a welcome change for me. I have spent the last two years dining on Turkey at the fantastic Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Now let me be clear if you are thinking that eating in Vegas would be awful. T-Day at the Bellagio was awesome. Both years. The food there is fantastic and it really is a gorgeous place to visit. That said, I had been missing Thanksgiving at my grandmother's a little bit.

There were a few less eaters this year. My Brother was visiting his wife's family with their baby girl Aris. This really is only one less than I am used to though. The last time I ate here, Jesse had no baby and I don't think had even met Kristi. My Uncle Shelton passed away two years ago, so this is my first Thanksgiving without him. That was kind of a bummer for me. Thanksgiving was pretty much the only time I saw him during the year. Which, looking back, was a really stupid thing to do on my part. His wife, my Aunt Joyce, did not come this year either as she was visiting other relatives. My Aunt Ruth, Uncle Steve and cousin Karen weren't here either. They tend to be off and on. They live out of state. But there were 12 of us still, so it was a good turn out.

We stuffed ourselves full of good stuff. Turkey, Ham, Macaroni Pie, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Gravy are all parts of the main food. Plus there was spice cake, Chocolate Pecan pie and Stephanie's mom's yummy cheesecake. Man that stuff was a big hit.

When we got home, my parents pretty much went to bed. They always do. Steph and Son and I went for a walk down to the river. Then we sat on the couch and digested ourselves until bedtime.

All and all, a pretty good Thanksgiving Day back on the home front. I think I'll be in Los Angeles at this time next year. So it may be back to the Bellagio with Steph's parents. And that will be a welcome return too.

But I have to say. This may be my favorite holiday all the way round.

-T

Hammer Time

So here is what happened. There is this drill right? The Hammer Drill, and it is fat nasty. Its a big bad piece of equipment and you have to be careful with it.

Here it is:




Anyway. We had an interesting day today. The last few days, me and some other guys from work have been using this drill. Actually they had been using it. They had reported having a tough time with it. One guy got hit in the nose by the drill. Funny huh?

What happens is that the drill has a ton of torque. And sometimes it binds up inside the wall. So when the drill is spinning and the bit gets stuck, then then rest of the drill starts spinning. It whirled around and smacked him in the nose. Another guy got his arm scraped. They told me about it, but said it was ok though.

Then I used the drill. I realized pretty quickly that something was wrong. This thing is to big and strong for the easy job we were doing. I used a much smaller hammer drill last year in Utah. I did not feel comfortable being up on the ladder with this thing. The first thing I said to do, was turn off the drill part. You can make it so it doesn't turn. It just pounds back and forth quickly. I did that, and it cut right through the wall. The guy with the scraped arm saw that and said, "aww man, thats the way we should have been doing it."

Problem solved right?

The next day, the same guy used the drill. Did he put it on hammer only, as we discovered was safe and effective? Nope. Got back up on the ladder in a tiny space and had that nasty drill spinning away. What happened? He got it stuck in the wall. When he pulled the trigger to try to get it out. The entire handle and motor part of the drill whipped around and hit him right in the forhead. Cut his head open. He had to go to the emergency room for 7 stitches.

This drill is too big and bad for what we are doing. We went to the supply warehouse and asked for a smaller one. They had one, of course, and now we should be ok.

But I don't get how people can do things that don't feel comfortable. I wasn't sure if there was a problem or not. But when I got up there and started using it, I immediately knew there was something not quite right. They don't make tools that make you feel unsafe when you use them. What do I know though?

-T

Charleston....arrrrgggghhhh

Have I mentioned yet how disappointed I am in this city? They say you can never go home again, maybe this is that. Really though, I have learned a lot by living out of state for the last few years. What I know now is that this is unacceptable. Seriously. This city is out of control. I thought LA was a ship with no captain. This city is like 1000 separate life rafts with no captains, no sails and no oars. Just drifting around bumping into each other.

I'm already starting to cross off certain places of town from my list of places to go and see. The reason? I just can't get there during the day. Its ridiculous, and its just getting worse. And on top of all that, the people here seem to not notice its happening. They just complain and complain about the traffic but they have no idea why it is there. When I was in LA, the story was always this: It used to be the traffic was something that you joked about and now it dominates every single conversation.

Guess what. Thats the way it is here too. It takes me 20 minutes to drive the 4 miles to the air force base. It takes 40 to 50 minutes to get to work. What is a total of about 10 miles. How is that different than LA? Guess what. It's not.

Why am I the only one who cares? Why am I the only one who thinks that there are alternatives? Why do people just beat their heads against the rock again and again, rather than try to find the cause of their frustration? I just don't know.

I find myself saying...I can't wait to get back to LA where the traffic is better.

-T

Its been....two weeks

Well, yesterday made two weeks since Steph and Sonny and I landed in Charleston. It has gone pretty well so far, I'm happy to say. Not that I thought it would go badly or anything, but it has gone really very well. Apart from Sonny getting loose that one time of course.

Two weeks at work have been pretty good. Now that I know a little more about what is up, I feel pretty good. And I have some decent idea about where Steph and I will be headed. New Jersey, North Carolina, West Virginia, Missouri are all possible.

I am getting to spend time with my family. Which is nice. It will be very nice to see everyone at Thanksgiving this week.

Steph and I are pretty comfortable living with my parents, so that has worked out. And Sonny seems to be getting along too. He loves my dad. But he is very jealous of my 1 year old niece who tends to steal a lot of his attention when she comes.

Yes, all and all, its been a pretty good couple of weeks.

-T

Swingers and my bedroom

It's not what you think. This weekend, I have spent a lot of time in my bedroom. I am not sure if it is even my bedroom. It was my bedroom in 95 and 96. Then I went away to college. It was my bedroom summer of 97 and summer of 98, but not in the summer of 99 or 2000. It was again my bedroom in the summer of 2001 and most of the summer of 2002. Additionally it was my bedroom on various weekends and other occasions during that time. In summer of 2003 I moved to LA and I really haven't been back since.

Now I am living in it again. Thats weird enough by itself. Also, I have left many many boxes of "stuff" in that bedroom for the last few years. So I want to take this opportunity, living here for 8 weeks, to organize my crap and do something with it. Certainly a daunting task.

The tricky part is the distractions. You start looking through boxes and seeing things that you haven't seen in a long time. Stuff that you don't know why you kept, but are sure glad you did now that you see it. Some examples:

Empty Captain Morgan's bottle from 1997.
Plastic beads. New Orleans Mardi Gras 1999
Orange End Zone marker from Final High School football game 1992
Every Issue of Playboy from 96-2001
Dodgers World Series and NLCS Champions T-Shirts 1988
Size: Medium
Mad Magazines from the mid 80s
And a stack of newspapers that is literally 3 feet high.

So what is required is an alternative distraction. Something to keep your mind occupied. For that I chose what truly might be my favorite movie: Swingers.

Man I love that movie. Here is a movie that is very well-appreciated and is still under appreciated. Great because its a small personal movie that taps into real people and what makes them tick. A personal favorite because its a guy movie. Seriously, the opposite of chick flicks is this movie. Not Armegeddon or War of the Worlds (more on that later)

Not to mention, that the movie was made for about a quarter of a million bucks and sold for much much more than that. So it is additionally inspiring to a filmmaker type like myself.

So its Vegas Baby and boxes of Star Wars toys for me. And I'm supposed to be all impressed because she's wearing a back pack?

-T

We lost to Clemson......

Oh my am I upset. We lost to Clemson. The appropriate thing for me to do would be to write a blog that mirrors my We Beat Tennessee and We Beat Florida blogs. But screw that! I'm irritated. What can I do? I'm not the bad loser type. I'm not one of those annoying College Football "fans" that locks themselves in their room after a loss and doesn't come out for three days, but this one sucks.

First, it sucks because we could have won. Clemson did not play particularly well. Which means the game was ours to be had. I can handle getting beat by teams that are better than us. Even when I hate them as much as these guys. I can handle being beaten by teams that play a great game even. But Clemson is about even with us in overall quality, and they played a clunker of a game. Unfortunately, so did we.

Second, it sucks because it really puts a little bit of a downer on what has been a great season. Thats a hard thing to say. Nothing will water down the feeling of winning those two big games. In some ways though, this is kind of a downer. We beat the two traditionally hardest teams on our schedule, but we lost the two other biggies. And the two we lost are the two that we CAN win from time to time. "I wish we had won against Georgia and Clemson instead of UT and UF this year, because when we beat Tenn and Fla I want it to be the year that we win all 4" Ok, there is a statement that I want to make, but I absolutely DO NOT MEAN it. Its just frustration building up a bit.

Third, it sucks because I HATE CLEMSON HHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I don't know how to say it. I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them!! I'd rather go to Barry Bonds birthday party dressed as Juan Marichal then lose to Clemson. I'd rather have a Lord of the Rings themed Wedding than lose to Clemson. I'd rather live in Utah than lose to Clemson.....alright alright I've gone to far......


But ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
WAAAAAAAAAAA

Damn!

-

-T

2 down ? to go

I finished my second week of work today. Its going pretty well at this point. Today was actually very good. On Monday of this week I was given a couple of new guys to "look after." They are both pretty good. They don't know much yet, but they listen well enough and are eager to learn.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we all went over to Mt. Pleasant to work at an elementary school that is almost finished being built. There is a crew of guys over there already and we went over to be of any help that we could be. They gave us a lot to do. Mostly pulling wires into place.

Those guys work a weird week though. They work 12 hour days on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Then they work 4 hours on Thursday and take a 3 1/2 day weekend. Thats cool I guess. But we weren't doing that. So I asked one of those guys to give us some stuff to do on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

They had conduit running to do. I love running conduit. Well, uh. Within the confines of having to do this type of work, I prefer running conduit.

So yesterday and today were pretty good. I was working on my own steam. Teaching some new guys how to do pipe work. Its a good feeling to know that you know how to do something.

Additionally, my boss has been asking for a lot of input as to where I want to be sent. This is good. I was pretty nervous that my being sent out on the road was going to be really complicated, but it looks like its not going to be too hard. Knock on wood. On top of that, I'm told that the per diam rate is much higher now than when I was in Utah. I was getting 31 bucks a day out there for food. Now it is 54-59 bucks per day. Thats pretty sweet considering that I didn't raise my food intake by 23-28 bucks per day.

So its so far so good I guess. And now its the weekend.....Wooo Hoooo

-T

Sonny!!!

The dog got out today. In actuality, it was not too big of a deal. But it scared Steph and me a lot. I don't think we are too over protective or anything. Its just that in LA, it was impossible for him to be outside without his leash. Wayyyyy to crowded. In Utah, it would probably have been ok, but we just didn't want to risk it. What if he gets hurt or something. The problem is, that since we have been careful to keep him on a leash he now has problems being off it at all.

I couldn't make him stop. He ran into the road. He thought I was playing. So I stopped chasing him and sat down. He ran back toward me. But I just want to know how to make him come back. Its too dangerous for him.

I need dog training lessons for myself.

I love that little guy so much.

-T

LOST...Back on Track

Just a little tidbit about LOST. Its been 4 good episodes in a row now. Following what can only be described as a poor beginning. So things are pretty interesting now.
We are seeing scenes from the back of the plane now. Which could have sucked, but has turned out to be quite good. Tonight's episode, The Other 48 Days, was really interesting. It recapped all that happened to those people since they landed.

I feel like they finally got it together. Like they just weren't sure where it was going over the summer, so they treaded water for a couple of episodes until they figured it out. Which is a little annoying, but in the end I guess I'll take it.

Its nice to have LOST back. Woo Hoo

-T

Oh...You're loving me now aren't you?

Ha ha....I knew it would happen. Last week, ESPN passed on the Big Game. The Carolina-Clemson rivalry is renewed this weekend and ESPN decided it just wasn't cool enough to air. But look at you now. After WE BEAT FLORIDA!!! and Clemson beat Florida St. last weekend, ESPN is clamoring at the last minute trying to get it on the air. Suckas...you should have known better. This is one of the best rivalries in College Football. But because it doesn't usually fit into your annoying drama and storylines sports philosophy, you are going to blow off. Shame on you.

-T

Back to Work again

Well, week 2 of the new job began today and it went about as well as ever. It went fine actually. I had stuff to do, which is good enough for me. I had helpers today too, which was nice. And I found out that tomorrow, I will be going off to work at an actual job site. We will see what happens I guess.

And oh by the way.....We still beat Florida!

-T

The Bridge the Bridge

I did it today. I rode across the New Cooper River Bridge. You might look back to one of my very first ever blog entries. I wrote about the opening of this thing. Its absolutely amazing. I have followed this story for 10 years.

In 1995 it was, according to some, a pipe dream. Some others said it was of dire importance. While some other said that it doesn't affect them and they should not have to pay for it.

Governors campaigned on it. Mayors clashed over it. All before it was ever even approved.

Then it was debated further.

Who will build it? What will it look like? Where will it land? How big? How wide? and my personal favorite. Will we spend a little extra to provide for future additions of commuter trains to cross it?

In the end, they got it done. They all agreed, the money was found, the contract was made, the date was set, the heavy equipment rolled into town.

Finished in summer of 2005. 1 year ahead of schedule and under budget, it was comptleted.


And today, Stephanie, Sonny and I drove across the Authur Ravenel Jr. Bridge for the first time ever! Well worth the wait.

-T

We Beat Florida? WE BEAT FLORIDA!!!

We Beat Florida! I don't know how to say this exactly. Hmmm...oh! We Beat Florida! Haven't we done this already? I feel odd writing the same thing, 2 weeks later. But what can I do? We freaking beat Florida!!!

The last time we beat them in Football was 1939. 19 holy crap 39.

This really never happens. In 95 I watched us lose 63-7, it was 18 degrees at night. In 97 we hung with them for 3 quarters and then got blown out in the 4th. In 98 it was the only good game we played in the worst season ever. Still got beat by 2 touchdowns. In 2000, I thought we might win. We were up 21-3 in the second, but were losing 24-21 by halftime. In 2001 I really thought we'd win. The "Blackout" game. We all wore black. All of us. Old people too. It was night. It was cold. It was loud. ESPN Gameday crew was there...and then the game started. Steve Spurrier kicked the crap out of us. Just to put us back in place after two good years. 3 years of more games where we played pretty well. Hung around, but were never really in it.

And then...this year. We all felt like we could win, but no one really felt like we would. We just don't. But got up early and kept playing tough. The Stadium was loud. And fan participation has really become well-organized since I left. (more on that Later)

Wait Wait...I'm not excited enough....WaaaaaaaaaaaaaHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa WE BEAT FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do I do with myself? Seriously? I just can't rationalize it. At all. I'll read about it in the morning, so I'll let you know if its a dream.


Natalie: 1939
Jeremy: 1939?
Natalie: Thats right. Know what happened?
Jeremy: Hitler invades Poland.
Natalie: Nope
Jeremy: Yes
Natalie: Not it
Jeremy: Melvin's BBQ opens in Charleston?
Natalie: Dana!
Dana: Last time South Carolina beat Florida in football Jeremy.
Jeremy: Of Course.
Natalie: It happened today.
Jeremy: They Beat Florida?
Dana: They Beat Florida
Jeremy: Casey, they Beat Florida?
Casey: Who?
Dan: South Carolina
Casey: I had the best Barbeque at a place in South Carolina
Dan: Melvins?
Casey: Melvins.
Jeremy: 1939

1 week down, many to go.

I finished my first week of work today. And I must say, it went pretty well. I am working at the office right now, but I believe they will be sending me off to a local site next week. I have been working on the new part of the building this week. Which, interestingly enough, is one of my dad's projects. No one seems to care. I think we may have already disspelled any thoughts of working around my Dad as being a problem.

In more important news. Brian called me today and informed me that Stephanie and I have tickets for tomorrow's game against Florida. I am PUMPED UP man! I cannot wait to get up there. It has been 3 full years since I have been to a game at the Cockpit, and I am out of my mind about it. And its Florida too. I want to beat them so bad I can't see straight.

We will see though.

-T

Aris

Oh my do I love this little kid. My brother's little gal. She came over the first night we were here, and again tonight. I am glad to be around her again. And hope that she'll get to know me too.

She can walk now. And not just walk, but she's cruising too. Running around, bouncing up and down. Climbing on stuff. She's lightning quick too. Its fun watching her, she's starting to become like a real person now. I mean, of course she's a real person. But you can see what she is going to look like for the rest of her life. And you can see the beginnings of her personality now too. Its really great.

She came in and saw Sonny and said "Doggie." It was awesome. She can say Ball and Book and a few other short words. I will teach her Uncle Tom by the time I leave here. She is great though. I can't wait to babysit even more.

-T

13 boxes and no visible carpet

1 week ago today, I took 13 boxes to the post office in Utah. Today, 13 boxes showed up on my doorstep. There were 3 yesterday and there is one still outstanding.

Heres a funny thing.
Last week, I mailed 3 boxes on Tuesday, 13 more on Wednesday and 1 more on Thursday.
This week, I got 3 boxes on Tuesday, 13 more today and I expect 1 more tomorrow.
Makes sense right?

but...

Two of the three that I got yesterday were the ones from last Tuesday, but one was from Last Wednesday. I got the other one today with the other boxes, but also today I got the single package from last Thursday. The one that is still left to come is from the big shipment last Wednesday. Weird.

Anyway, the more significant thing is this. I have no room to do anything. 9 of the 17 total boxes were mine. Add that to the 10 other boxes of stuff that is in my bedroom here that contain stuff that I left here two years ago. I have too much stuff!! And after I have spent time really dedicated to ridding myself of stuff.

300 or so Star Wars toys, Playboy magazines from the last 8 years. A stack, literally 3 feet high of newspapers containing stories of "significant" events. Mad Magazines. My entire 5.1 surround sound system. Keepsakes and what nots from every era of my life. And clothes galore. My goodness I have a lot to do.

Where to begin?

-T

Charleston...ahhhhhhhh

One thing that is cool, is that I really do love this town. I love where I am from. I do really love it. I don't know that I want to live here, but I love being from here. So Steph and I have some things that we want to do while we are here.

Places to go:
Across the New Bridge!!!
Beaches, early and often
Downtown/Market
Downtown/Battery
Fort Sumter
Summerville
Area Malls
Citadel

Places to Eat:
Melvins--mmmm Barbeque
Zaxby's--mmmm Chicken
Perkins--mmmm Breakfast
Moe's--mmmm I don't know, but I heard its good.

There are a few other things that I want to do while we are here. Some urban planning areas to critique and some relatives to visit. Fun Fun Fun. Hope to get out soon though.

First Day

Well, today was the big day. And....it went alright. My dad is still out of town so I am driving his car to work. I went in about 8:30 just because I didn't want to be in anyone's way as they were getting set up. That seemed to be the right thing to do.

I met my new boss finally, after several phone conversations. She seems cool. I got the talk about my Dad and how they feel about nepotism. But really, I get where they are coming from. She just can't afford to have to deal with any other guys in my position complaining to her that I'm getting favoritism. If they hadn't hired me because of it then I'd be upset. But they did, so I can understand a little hesitation.

It was a lot of busy work today, I'm looking forward to the chance to do something cool and show what I can do.

-T

Well, we did it...Now what?

I got to Charleston today. Oh boy. I moved myself and my stuff back into my old room at my parents house. I moved Stephanie and the dog into my brother's old room. It pretty weird.

I have a ton of work to do in my room. Getting all of my old stuff organized in some way that will be good to leave it. I don't want my parents to have to deal with my old crap when I leave again.

We just finished a 2000 mile trip and boy am I tired. Unloading the car was a chore.

And on top of that....I have to go to a brand new job tomorrow morning....Yikes.

Its going to be a busy week I think. But I'm here and here is not Utah. So we are off to the right start.

-T

One looooong day

Today was crazy. I don't know how it happened, but it took forever to get to Greenville from KC. Seems like we got on the road quickly enough. We got through St. Louis without much problem. But it took like 18 hours to get from St. Louis to Nashville. Not true of course, but it felt like it.

Steph and I considered stopping somewhere along the way and not going all the way to Brian and Ben's place.

But we didn't need to. Because Steph and I talked our way through it. We talked non stop from Nashville to Ashville. I love that girl. She's just like me. We can talk forever about how stupid so many people are. We talk about why the world is so crazy and why we seem to be the only people who get it.

I love her.

Anyway, we got to Brian's late late tonight. But it was good to see him and Ben again, and the dogs too. It was also nice to drive back into South Carolina. Its been awhile, and I kinda missed this place.

Tomorrow I will be home, and a new adventure begins.

-T

Going to Kansas City

Kansas City here I come. We drove a good long way today. From Wyoming to Kansas City. It was a long drive, but it wasn't all that bad. Its gets dark quickly, so it feels late quicker. Our drive so far has been exactly the same route as the most famous drive that Stephanie and I ever took. The 2002 California to Carolina trip.

So it was kind of cool to reminisce about the first trip that we ever took. It was a lot of fun. We got gas in Kearney Nebraska. Thats one place that we spent the night on our way out that year. We went through Lincoln tonight. We stopped at the U of Nebraska and looked around. Not tonight, it was already dark. We got to Kansas City tonight around 9.

When we got to the hotel I saw a local pizza place nearby. We hit that up for some pizza and it was damned good.

Tomorrow is another long day. But a free place to stay at the end of the line. Going to see my boys Brian and Ben. I saw them last year at a wedding. But otherwise I haven't seen them much in a couple of years. Ben did, of course, come out to visit me in LA. He's the only one though.

Til then.

-T

Time to go

We left Utah tonight. I can't believe it. I don't know for sure what I am getting into. I am nervous about this job coming up and our plan to get money for the movie. But it feels good to get on the road and get out of Utah.

Steph went to work this morning, I dropped her off. I went back home to finish throwing out trash and doing last minute cleaning.

I picked her up, we had lunch and made the final push.

We got checked out of our Apartment about 430. I'd hoped to get out by 4 but we almost did it. We got in the car and hit the road. Had dinner in Evanstan, our favorite Wyoming place.

We are in Rawlins Wyoming tonight. Its cold. Damned cold. Winter is here and we can't leave soon enough for me. 4 hours of driving tonight wasn't too bad. It gets dark so early and it feels later than it is when you are driving at night in the middle of no where.

Its a long day tomorrow. 13 hours or thereabouts to Kansas City. Going home again. Nervous, excited...a million different things. Most of all, happy to getting moving again.

-T

13 boxes and a wet carpet vacuum

Today was probably the biggest day yet in our moving process. First off, I spent all day taking stuff out to the trash can. We have a lot of crap to just chuck. Crap crap crap. Trip after trip.

The big deal though was the packages. I sent three big boxes of my own the other day. Today I have 7 more and Stephanie has 6. I have 7 because I split up a larger box. I had about 4 boxes stuffed into a big box. But the Post Office person told me that if the box is too big, then it's not worth it to ship together.

So this was an adventure. Steph had some heavy boxes. Not so heavy for me but, hard to carry more than a couple at a time. When I got to the Post Office I had to borrow a cart to bring them all in. In the end, it cost us right at 400 bucks to ship all of our stuff. Which really is pretty reasonable I think. It would have cost around 1800 bucks or so to get a trailer or something

The other thing was the vacuum. I don't know what to call it. Shampooer...no. It doesn't shampoo. Steam cleaner....no. It uses cold water. Its a cold water carpet cleaning vacuum. But I'll tell you what. It seems to work pretty darn good. I did all the living room and hallway, and it seems that it work really well.

Today was tough. A lot of work to do, but it got done. Tomorrow, should just be about packing the car and getting out of here. Wow.

-T

Star Wars Day!!!

It's here It's here. Star Wars day is here. I got up this morning. Steph went to work. I got on the bus. I got on the Train, I walked to Wal Mart from the Train Station. I was listening to my iPod on the way. As I got to the edge of the WalMart I changed my iPod song to The Imperial March. Bomp Bomp Bomp BomBaBomp BomBaBomp....etc. I know its a little stupid, but well, that's me.

There it was. The last Star Wars movie. Sitting on the shelf available for me to own. It's just crazy. I considered not getting it. I don't know why. I'm about to move. I want to have as few things to pack in the car as possible. But what can I do? I'd probably buy it today, watch it while I pack, and then throw it away before we leave and buy it again when I got home.

I bought it. I took it home and I started watching it while I packed. I watched it for a while and then turned it off. There is simply no way I can get my work done as long as this thing is on. Man.

I did, of course, watch the deleted scenes first. They were pretty good too. I'll be watching some of the other features later.

This is it though. Today was the final day of episode three. A half a month shy of 6 months. 7 months after I waited at Toys R' Us for the new toys. Today it ends. I looked forward to this most of my life. And today the circle is finally complete.

-T

Cars and Candy

Today was a busy busy day. I took Stephanie to work so that I could take the Car to Midas to have it checked out. I was pretty nervous about this. Its an older car, and its been across country twice already in the last couple of years. Turns out, its ok. They said that its really in pretty good shape. Its got an oil leak but not too major. They even said the shocks are ok. Wow. After all the bouncing around on these Utah hills and stuff. So we are good to go. Or so I'm told.

Oh by the way, its Halloween. I was expecting a decent turnout of kids and stuff. Our apartments are loaded with kids. So we got some candy, and I decided to get a costume. I went down to Savers, a local thrift store, to see what I could find. A 2 dollar Darth Vader mask is not too shabby. Then I found some Darth Vader kid pajamas. And then a red whiffle ball bat. PERFECT!

I went home, dug out my black ski pants thing that I used last year and a small black cape that I borrowed once from a small town theater. Put them all together and what have you got?

This.......


Unfortunately we only got three sets of trick-or-treaters, and some of them were like 20 years old.

But the ones we did get got a kick out me. So that was cool. And we have plenty of extra candy.

-T

One last Sunday in Utah

The first thing that happened was that I asked Stephanie if we beat Tennessee last night. And she said we did!!!

Today we have spent most of the day working in the house. We talked about going to a last movie in Utah, but we didn't. So we packed and organized and packed and packed some more. This is hard. There is so much stuff. SO much stuff. I am packing boxes to ship. I am sifting through stuff to determine what I actually want to keep. Its going to be a fun week.

Oh, and the Redskins got their butts cut. But thats ok, and do you know why?

-T

We Beat Tennessee? WE BEAT TENNESSEE!!!!!!!!

We beat tennesee. We beat Tennessee? We beat Tennessee! WE beat tennessee. we BEAT tennessee. we beat TENNESSEE.

I don't know what to do. I'm not sure. I'm sitting here. Its kinda quiet in my living room. ESPN is rambling on and on about Tedy Bruschi and now they have switched to horse racing. Oh, now we turned to Nick at Nite and the Jeff Foxworthy Show is on.

The problem is that I don't really understand whats happening. I'm confused. I'm serious. I don't understand why the TV didn't explode with Fireworks. Why didn't we get raptured away to South Carolina? Why didn't Sonny turn into a person? Why is ESPN now talking about NASCAR? Why isn't Nick at Nite covering the postgame at Tennessee? I'm not being stupid. I'm just blown away.

We never beat them. No, never. I have been to games vs. Tenn. I have watched on TV. I saw in 2000 when we were winning with 30 seconds to go and couldn't stop them at the very end. I watched in 2003, when we were supposed to get beat by 40 and took them to overtime. Only to barely lose.

I have watched us play game after game when we couldn't kick a field goal to save our collective lives. And then there was tonight.

Down by 2 with 2 and half minutes to play. 4th down and a 50 yard field goal ahead of us. We can't kick. Never could. We can't hit easy field goals when the game is on the line. We never make kicks longer than 40 yards. Staring down a 50 yard field goal, being 2 points behind there were two things I knew.

1. We can't make a kick like this.

2. If by some chance we made it. We could never keep Tennessee from taking the ball downfield to win the game in the last minute.

If anyone is reading this and you think it sounds like a typical little guy wins sports story, thats fine, but stop that and listen.

Did you ever drop an egg on the ground, see it hit the ground. See it spill egg all over the floor? Pretend someone asked you, while you were staring at the egg already broken, if you could catch it before it gets there. What would you say? That is this. Those two things that I said. They are as true as saying Ice is cold, water is wet, ESPN is obnoxious, Sonny is a wild dog, or Star Wars will make money. You just don't understand how impossible this was.

Yet....we beat Tennessee. We made the field goal!! We made the field goal. He hit it. It was straight, it was long enough by about 6 inches. Then guess what. We stopped them. No really. They got one first down. We got the ball back. We got a first down. They called their time outs. And we stopped them.

We beat Tennessee!!! I simply don't know what to say. I'm dumbfounded. I really feel almost like if this happened, the world was supposed to become like Zathura. Like I was going to walk out the door and see the rings of Jupiter or something. I guess I'll just sit back and try to enjoy it. But the truth is. I feel like the world is a different place. Like we will all start saying "South Carolina can beat Tennessee, but the can't make a trash bag that won't tear open"

Oh well. In other news. The Dodgers were expected to name a new manager soon, but they fired their GM instead. Pretty wild and surprising news. But to be honest, I don't have anywhere near the energy to care.

Dan: Carolina beat Tennessee.
Casey: They beat Tennessee?
Dan: That's right, they beat Tennessee.
Casey: Dana!
Dana: They beat Tennessee Casey
Dan: See?
Casey: The Dodgers fired DePodesta
Dan: That's right.
Casey: But Tom doesn't want to talk about it?
Dan: Nope....And do you know why?
Casey: Because they beat Tennessee?
Dan: Because they Beat Tennessee!

Roseanne

I never watched an episode of Roseanne until two years ago. It started coming on Nick at Nite. Now this is a pretty funny show. I like it. Its funny and sarcastic. But I have a real problem with the way the show went downhill in the last seasons. Most significantly, the way they killed any hope for their kids.

They talk often about how a parent is successful if they can give their kid 50% more than they had. But Dan and Roseanne both graduated from High School and neither Becky nor Darlene did. Darlene did get some sort of equivalency because she was in college. Until they made her drop out because she got pregnant.

Becky got inspired by Darlene and decided to go back to college. She thought that she might have to leave her husband, Mark the not-so-smart mechanic, to do it. Roseanne told her that she should not give up on her marriage. Not a bad piece of advice necessarily, except that she made Becky think that she had to choose between Marriage and College and that it should be Marriage. Why not both? My parents both got college degrees after they were married.

In the end, it just annoys me. They made a show that was supposed to be what "real life" people were like. Instead of Leave it to Beaver. Yet they wanted to make it not a cartoon like Married with Children. But in the end, it was just a cartoon. The idea seemed to be that they could prove that regular working class poor people are good people. What they proved to me that these particular working class poor people will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes and never actually make any progress.

I don't know. The character Roseanne is a really great one, but the show seemed to sell her out. Because they need ratings, they just kept pushing this family back down by making them do stupid things. It's sad to me. I'd have liked to seen Becky and Darlene make something of themselves. They didn't have to get rich. But they could have escaped upward to middle class. Instead we have Becky thinking that a 30,000 dollar a year job is the living the high life.

Its not that its all about money. But Roseanne and Dan sucked up doing what they had to do so that Becky and Darlene could do something that they wanted to do. But in the end. They just crapped out. And that sucks.

-T

ESPN....I can't take them.

I'll make this short. As short as I can. To be honest. I think I could write a book. And one day I will. Tommy Tuberville, coach of Auburn Football, recently called out ESPN for affecting the way the football rankings work.

Maybe he explained himself badly or something, I don't know. But the ESPN rank and file acted out exactly as the usually do. They got offended and made Tuberville look like an idiot.

If the playing field was level, this would be fine. I mean if it was a fair debate between one guy from ESPN and Tommy. And if it was on a neutral station and they had a chance to talk about it, that would be fine. But ESPN is 24 hour 3 channel, radio, and internet. And Tommy Tuberville is, well, just a coach. So ESPN has every chance to make Tommy look bad and all Tommy can do is try to coach his team.

This is mostly what Tommy's problem is anyway. ESPN's dominance over the sports world is so widespread and pervasive, he contends, that it can actually influence the voters as to who goes to the championship game. ESPN will defend themselves not by saying it isn't true, but by blaming college football for having a system that allows them to screw with the system. Think about that.

You know what? ESPN is screwing up sports. Its not their fault. I don't think they have made any unethical decisions. Its just that their dominance has created a bad byproduct. That byproduct is this stange world of sports where people care more about off the field "drama" then on the field games. Where people are football fans and not fans of a team. Where people are fans of single players on teams they never cared about more than a team from their hometown. It has become the world wrestling federation all over again. Only this time its not scripted. However anyone who knows anything about media editing, directing and general presentation knows that you can take anything unscripted and make it into whatever you want.

The fact is, I'm not mad at what they do. Just at their refusal to acknowledge it.

-T

Up All Night/White Sox Champs

The big questions of today were "Did anyone stay up late last night to watch the end of the World Series Game 3. It ended somewhere after 2 am on the East Coast. I did. But, then again, I live in Utah. It was exciting. Damned exciting, and I watched it. Yes it was a weeknight and yes it was late. And I don't blame people for going to bed. But I dislike the implication that this proves that TV rules sports and the games are on too late. It was a 14 inning game. It was the longest baseball game in World Series history. The point is, the game was a bit of a freak show, so its not a good example to use if you want to say that games are starting late. I'll add that it was pretty much only ESPN that was implying this. 2 things about that. 1. Of couse it was only ESPN implying it, because isn't it only ESPN.....uh....that exists?
2. ESPN rules the world in sports reporting, sports discussion, sports over saturation, but do not rule the world in broadcasting the actual games. Of course that might seem like the least important part of stats. But I promise you, I've never heard ESPN complaining about games starting to late on their own network.


The White Sox are champions. They broke their curse....or did they? People are already talking about how this was the lowest rated World Series in history. I'm sorry ChiSox, you are the ultimate cursed team. Not the Red Sox, not the Cubs..Just you guys.

You cheated the game. You offended the Baseball Gods. You threw the world Series. Your punishment is to go 88 years before you win another, to have nobody notice that you haven't won in a long time. To have nobody care that you haven't won in a long time. To have no network try to sell the broadcast on you your curse/slump and then when you do finally win to have nobody notice or care. And there you have it.
I hope now your punishment is over. I hope now that you can go out and do well. And potentially win a World Series that people will care about. And I hope now that people will remember WHY you were cursed and what happens to teams that do offend the gods of baseball.

-T

Toilet Seats: Politeness or Secret Key to Women's Domination of the World?

I am a generally polite person. I do believe in the yes sir/yes ma'am theory of talking to people when you are a kid. I believe in please and thank you as well. Somewhere along the line, however, I missed the part where putting the toilet seat down was polite and appropriate. I did not miss the part where I was taught to put the seat up so as not to pee on the seat. I learned this very easily and I understand why its a good idea. In turn, I have not peed with the seat down, in about 25 years.

I'm sorry. I don't know how it happened. But the problem that arose was that no one ever did a good job explaining this theory to me. Oh, its not that I never got anyone explaining it to me. Just not doing a good job.

Let me first explain a little something about men and peeing. In case you don't know. This is a very very easy thing for us to do. It requires the bare minimum of energy. And some times we do need the seat down when we use the bathroom. And the energy that it takes to engage in toilet seat management is not even measurable it is so small.

So I have spent all of my adult life and almost all of my kid life living under these circumstances. So I must say, I get a little offended when people accuse me of being insensitive, stupid, obnoxious, or a slob because I forgot to put the seat down.

First off, I didn't forget, because it was not my intention to put it down. Now I sound like a jerk don't I? Ok I'm sorry. I don't want to be a jerk. And I'm sorry that I didn't put it down. I didn't forget, I'm just not in the habit of doing it.

Should I be? This of course is the question. Let me first say, that the answer to this question is yes. But I want it to be because its right, and because I think its right. Not because I'm bossed or bullied into it.

Maybe its my fault. Maybe I'm irritated at a bunch of people for no good reason. Maybe I live in a world where I'm the only one who feels this way. But I feel like most of my life women have been telling me that I'm a jerk for not putting the seat down. And yet, at no point that I can remember, have any of these women ever stopped to say why. No no...more than that. At no point that I can remember have any of these women ever said anything to me about the toilet seat without it being specifically to embarrass me or put me down or assert some sort of symbolic dominance. Now this might just makes me look like I'm nuts. But its true.

I should be in the habit of putting the toilet seat down. Yes, its true. But why? Because it is polite, sanitary and generally more classy. And that is something I can get behind. But women are lousy explainers. Or men are lousy understanders. I am of course willing to say that both of these things are true. Women are not willing to say anything but men don't listen, don't understand or just don't care. Or at least most women I have known aren't willing to. They do seem to be willing to say that I am a pig. That I am a jerk. That toilets seats are nasty and they are too delicate to be asked to touch them. Or that if they go to the bathroom at night, they might fall in.

That has pretty much been my entire experience with the toilet seat issue. So I'm sorry if it is difficult for me to put these experiences behind me. The fact is that toilet seat management is so incredibly insignificant in a man's life that it is difficult for us to accept the level ire that women seem to put out toward us. I am willing to listen, if they are willing to tell me. And not treat my like a jerk. If I am to understand that seat management really is a bigger deal to women, than I would ask that women be willing to explain it to me as though it was ok that I have not understood it to this point. But I am treated as though I'm a jerk, and a sexist for not getting it.

There is no room for me in this world apparently. At this point, it seems that I have only 2 choices in this matter. 1 is to accept putting the toilet seat down because I have been insulted, embarrassed and bullied into doing so. Or 2, to be an unapologetic a-hole and tell women to kiss off and I'll do what I want.

I'm lucky that I have Stephanie. It was Stephanie who said, that its a good thing to do simply for the politeness factor. It was also Stephanie that helped me to understand that for women, it really is an issue that matters and for a few different reasons.

So I will develope a third choice. I will accept that its the right thing to do fundamentally, and I will rationalize to myself that I am doing it because its the right thing to do. And I will endure my belief that women will be looking at me with a satisfactory "we broke another one" grin on their faces. And I will take on faith that they are not, in fact, thinking that. But in my experience, that is what I have been lead to believe.

-T