Epic Fail

Think about all the technology that keeps you connected to the world around you. Cell phones, email, texting, instant messaging, gps, laptops, wireless hotspots, cellular modems.. the list goes on. Hell I have two cell phones now that I carry around and can get my work email from anywhere. I can connect my laptop wirelessly at home and VPN into work, control my desktop at work and run any application.

Yet in this day of technology and staying connected, I was just informed by one of our vendors that the shipping company that Cisco used to send out our new UCS servers can't find the semi that it was shipped on. Yes, you read that correctly. THEY LOST AN ENTIRE SEMI TRUCK. Follow that up with a notice that they had delivered a set to one of our other locations and then had to take that back this morning as it had not actually left the factory in CA yet!

I know.. keeping track of big trucks and products that have been delivered or haven't actually even shipped is REALLY hard. But cmon.. this is Cisco. I would think a company that big would utilize some technology to keep that stuff under control. /sigh

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Bad Form!

It's common courtesy. It's common sense. When planning a meeting and you look at the week as whole.. you DON'T plan meetings on a Friday afternoon. It's bad form to do so. Yet repeatedly I find myself stuck at work slugging through some boring ass meeting on a Friday afternoon. What is wrong with these people? Just because you have nothing better to do than work on a Friday.. don't make that a problem for the rest of us.

Friday's are for easing into the weekend. Friday afternoons are for wrapping things up and shooting the shit with your coworkers. Something major better be going on for there to be a meeting after 12pm on a Friday. If it turns out to be something lame that definitely could have been done on a Tuesday ... then you get to stab the one that called the meeting in the neck. That's the new rule.

Since I am stuck attending a 2pm meeting today.. I think I need the tattoos this guy has so I can look like I am paying attention while I take a nap.

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The Adult Rock Show

This past Saturday I went to see G. Love and Special Sauce with my brother, my younger son and a friend. It was a great show and I really enjoyed it. I was a little leary upon arriving and finding the opening band was GPGDS.. which I had to google to find out stands for "Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad". I didn't know what to expect from those guys at all. I was pleasantly surprised to find they were a decent reggae band, but was vastly disappointed that no one was dressed as a giant panda.

Never let it be said that I don't expand horizons for my children. As it was an all ages show and my friend happened to have an extra ticket, my 12 year old got to go with us. He was far from the only youngster there, in fact it was quite a mixed crowd. However, the majority of the crowd was that 18-25 year old college crowd. If you know anything about G. Love, you know he is partial to his weed.. and even has a couple songs detailing his love for the stuff. Therefore I am pretty sure my 12 year old can now identify pot smoke and may have even come away with a little contact high there. He spent the latter part of the show sitting in his seat just listening. He said it was because he was just tired.. but who knows for sure :P Just the same, he said he enjoyed the experience and I enjoyed getting to share the joy of some good live music with my son.

The opening band started at 9pm. They played for about 50 minutes and then the stage change. G. Love came on about 10:15 and played for over 2 hours, meaning the show ended around 12:30am and then getting out and the drive home. My son was asleep in the car on the way home. I was not far behind him. I was starting to get that "old" feeling again. I remember the days when I could stay up til all hours of the morning, sleep for a bit, and get up and do it all over again. Those days are gone now.. and I found myself wishing the show started at 7 instead of 9 and maybe that opening band just played a couple of songs isntead of an hour. Or skip them all together. O. L. D. I tell you.

I heard this guy on one of the XM comedy channels on my way to work the other day.. and he summed it up perfectly. His name is Greg Behrendt and he has a great concept called 'The Adult Rock Show'. Watch the clip:

Greg Behrendt - Adult Rock Show

Greg Behrendt is Uncool	Watch more
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

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Gravity can be your friend...

To all those who might have a hand in ever designing a hotel, or house or any other kind of structure that might contain a shower....let me remind you that gravity makes water fall from the shower head in a downward motion towards the ground. Therefore, in case you are not grasping the concept, you can put the shower head as high on the wall as you want.. and the water will still get to the ground, hitting all the short people, children and midgets along the way.

So why do I constantly go into showers and find the shower heads somewhere around 5'5" on the wall? It's a major pet peeve of mine. The hotel here at work is actually very nice, so imagine my dismay when I went to take a shower at 1am this morning only to have to deal with crouching to get my head under the water. I was already not thrilled to be up and showering to go to work at that time of the morning so running into that did nothing to help matters. :P

Well here's hoping for a smooth cutover this morning. Time to make the donuts!

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Shake me like a Monkey

I finally got to listen to the Dave and Tim: Live in Vegas recordings that were released and they are amazing. I had the fan recorded concerts that were out there, but in the smaller venue there was just too much crowd noise interrupting the performances. There were some amazing acoustic versions of some of their new material such as 'Shake Me Like a Monkey' 'Funny The Way It Is", 'Alligator Pie', 'Squirm' and a few others as well as some of their classics. There were some cool covers they did as well.

The bluesy acoustic version of 'Shake Me Like a Monkey' is by far one of my favorites on the disk though and while the audio isn't as good as studio release, here is a video I stumbled across that is actually very clear and from somebody with very good seats. How they got away with recording it I don't know.. but enjoy:



Already making plans to see DMB both days they are at Alpine Valley this summer over 4th of July weekend. Sunday's show will actually be on the 4th, which should be very cool. Going to have some tailgaiting fun and then enjoy the concert both nights!

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Test Post

This is merely a test post to see if I have the Networked Blogs thing working on FB which I stole from Ren's post.

Been looking for a way to get my blog into FB so I don't have to decide which place to post things since Facebook only imports the text and doesn't bring in videos and such.

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Access Denied!

I had a dear family member call me yesterday to seek help with some computer related issues. After about an hour of trying to help walk them through getting their new router connected, I suggested they contact their ISP to see if there was something on that end causing an issue. I got a call back a bit later saying that they managed to get it worked out and that it was some confusion over which device was which and thus was a simple cabling issue.

This family member felt bad I think.. so I thought I would share what I deal with on a daily basis to put it in perspective.

There is an individual who works as a PC Tech.. who told a user who was having printing problems to "Just reboot it a few times.. sometimes printing problems can take up to 7 reboots to fix". Which for you non technical people is completely made up out of thin air. If one reboot doesn't do it.. another 6 isn't going to magically resolve it. That PC tech spent two days working on the printing issue before that facility called over here looking for further assistance. As I was headed over there for a different issue, I said I would take a look. After about 15 seconds of investigation I was able to determine the cause of the problem. The print server for that printer was unplugged. No power. But hey.. maybe another 10 or 12 reboots of the computer would have made the power cord jump back in. You never know.

Then on Wed. I had a user call me and say this.. word for word.. no joke: "I need you to change my password for me and then set it to not change ever. New passwords are just too hard for me and I lose them when I write them down." This is an adult. Who gets paid a good salary to work here. Who can't handle changing her password once every 90 days. It only has to be 6 characters and you get to pick. I'm sorry, but if you can't come up with a password that you can remember.. then obviously you need to not work in a position that involves computer network access and go back to being a greeter at Walmart.

So to my dear family member....worry not. It's still much easier to help you than a good portion of the people I have to deal with at work.

Happy Halmark-ChocolateCandyCompany-JewelryStore-FlowerShop holiday all :P May your day be full of cliche and over priced meals and gifts! Or something like that.

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My True Self

The latest "copy this to your status" thing going around facebook these days was to put your first name into the urban dictionary search engine and see what comes up. Then you are supposed to put that as the first comment. Some people had interesting ones. If their name was also a real word as well.. it got really interesting. Like my friend Mark for example found a definition that he was a "sucker" or "easy target" because that is a definition for a mark as related to a scam for example.

The rest are obviously just definitions people have made up for the names, but some were entertaining just the same. I suppose that you can always find similarities to yourself in those definitions if you want to. Kinda the same way people read their horoscopes and somehow apply that stuff to what happens throughout the day. I did find it funny though that of all the possibly definitions for my name, this is what was there:

Josh:

He is a fun loving guy really funny and can make anyone laugh.He is very quiet at first and seems shy but when you get to know him you will fall in love.He has very good style and always looks handsome.He also always smells really good :)


I was surprised not to find a definition relating to joking around with someone as the top as that is sometimes referred to as 'joshing' someone. At any rate the rest is somewhat accurate. While the good style and looking handsome is in the eye of the beholder, the rest is pretty accurate for me. I am quiet until you get to know me, but once you do, I usually surprise people with my comments and will make you laugh. Sometimes even if you don't want to because you probably shouldn't laugh at what I just said. :P

Anyway...some people apparently have different opinions on my and my personality. Case in point... here is a picture of the shirt that K brought back for me from Vegas with the statement: "When I saw this.. I immediately thought of you"


I suppose in many ways this is fitting.. but as I have said all along... You gotta gotta go with what you are good at!

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Send the Wolf

If you have seen the movie Pulp Fiction.. you will know what I am referring to. Or at least you should. There is a scene in that movie where John Travolta is talking to a guy sitting in the back seat of the car while waving around his gun. He accidentally shoots the guy in the head from about a foot away and pretty much explodes the guys melon all over himself, the driver and the car. They drive to a guy's house they know and Wallace agrees to send The Wolf to help take care of the situation.

I needed The Wolf the other day. The back end of my car looked like the same kind of thing happened. I assure you I didn't shoot anybody though. I had purchased a case of Cherry Dr. Pepper and left it in the back of my car. Well for a couple of days last week, it got down well below zero. The soda was mostly frozen, but I still didn't take it out of my car for some reason. As I was driving to work, it was sliding around in the back and near as I can figure there was still some liquid in the middle of those cans. The sliding and slamming around of the cans had excited the carbonation in the cans and suddenly... BLAMMM!! Sounded like a shotgun going off in the back and I look in the rearview and it looks like bloody chunks are sliding down the back window.

I was on my way to work.. so nothing happened with it then. I had to leave it til later. Apparently more exploded while I was at work and then as I was driving home the last couple decided to join the fray. When I got home I opened the back and frozen soda was now streaked all over the back like blood smears and chunks of frozen soda and aluminum were every where.






Fortunately, I have my own team of Mini-Wolfs for crime scene cleanup. So I sent the boys out to clean up the car which they actually did a good job of. So not only did I learn a valuable lesson about storing soda in the car in January in WI, but I imparted that knowledge to my children as well and made sure they would remember it. I have this parenting thing down cold!

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Sometimes the truth hurts....

Regardless of your opinion on the show American Idol...I happen to think the first few weeks of the tryouts are absolutely hysterical. I mean it brought us the musical hit 'Pants on the Ground' after all. But it's the truly awful people that think they can sing that come in and just get blasted by Simon and the other judges that cracks me up the most. When a judge can't even manage to stop themselves from spontaneous laughter at your performance, maybe you shouldn't be there.

What really makes me watch this show like a car driving slowly by a nasty wreck on the freeway is the fact that all these people that are truly horrible singers show up with huge groups of family and friends that are all shocked and disappointed when their 'star' doesn't get a ticket to go through to Hollywood.

I know that as a spouse or a family member or a friend that you don't want to be cruel or dash someones dreams. You smile and nod when the belt out their tone deaf renditions of their favorite songs. You laugh a bit when they put on a strange outfit and dance around the living room. Maybe you have a few drinks and join them for a night of Karaoke at the local bar. That is all well and good.. and makes you a great friend to have.

However, if said tone deaf friend comes to you and says:

"Hey I am thinking about driving half a day to stand in line for 10 hours so that I can get a chance to be on national TV singing my version of 'Achy Breaky Heart'... what do you think? Oh and I am going to wear a giant banana costume to really grab their attention. Want to go with me?"

This is where you need to be an even better friend. You need to be the kind of friend that takes away keys at a bar when you know someone has had too much to drink. This is the time for a reality check. Time to finally tell them that while you like their voice and have fun with them at karaoke, that they are not cut out for singing as a career and they should save themselves the time and embarrassment of showing the world that fact.

I encourage my kids to pursue their dreams and do the activities that make them happy. For example, my older son likes to play basketball. Really enjoys it and I love watching him play. However, if he told me tomorrow that he wanted to drive somewhere to tryout for the olympic basketball team, I would tell him honestly that he was not ready for that level of play. I would offer to help him find a way to get more practice, playtime and such if he was really that interested in becoming great at the sport. I just wouldn't encourage him to go get his dreams dashed when he was clearly not ready.

Sometimes.. you need to just give that special person in your life a bit of a reality check so that this doesn't happen:



Know when to say when. Or know when to say "I heard a cat being gutted with a rusty spork that sounded about the same as your last cover of 'Put a Ring On It'. :P
Be that friend!

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It's Entertainment People..

I am not sure when going to the movies stopped being about a few hours of enjoyable entertainment and turned into something that should be over analyzed and dissected to the point where people are getting offended and feel the need to fight back against the injustices being brought down upon the world through film!

I just saw Avatar again yesterday. I went with my boys while on Vacation in Phoenix and enjoyed it enough to go see it again yesterday with a friend. I won't give out any spoilers in case anyone is still planning on seeing it, but the basic storyline is of a mining company that has discovered a valuable resource on another planet called Pandora and the resulting interactions with the indigenous people there.

I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the extra dynamic that the 3D presentation brought to it. The environment of Pandora was very intriguing. The plants and animals were unique and very creative. It was 3 hours of entertainment.

What I didn't do upon leaving the theater is start trying to draw parallels to society and find some kind of way to be offended. If I didn't like the movie, then I would say so, but not try to turn it into some slanderous tragedy. Avatar has been hit with accusation of racism. Conservatives and liberals alike have been attacking the film from different angles. The disabled have lodged complaints because of the fact that the main character that is in a wheelchair is not using a specialized cushion which anyone with a spinal cord injury would be using in real life to prevent pressure sores.

Seriously people.. it's a fucking movie. It's fiction. It's a creation from someone's imagination. A huge portion of that movie was computer generated. Stop trying to turn movies into broad political statements or get offended because some little detail is not what it would be in real life. If you want real life, go out into the real world. If you are going to the theater to watch a movie that is pure FICTION .. then get the hell over yourself and your sensitivities and enjoy the entertainment. If you don't want to participate, then don't.

Here is the link to the article in case you are interested: HERE

Anyway.. my point is simple. CHILL THE FUCK OUT. Not every book, movie and song has to be some kind of statement on politics or society or some other issue we are supposed to be politically correct and overly sensitive on. Learn to relax and enjoy life sometimes. You will be a lot happier in the long run.

Next up... Southern Swamp Dwelling Rednecks get offended by the movie 'The Waterboy' and how they are portrayed. See the clip below and get offended for yourself!

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Pants on the ground!

You know those teens that wander around with pants that are 4 sizes too big and thus they have to hold them while they walk so that the waist, which is already at the back of their knees, doesn't fall all the way down and trip them up? The ones that might as well skip the pants all together as you can see their underwear plain as day anyway?

Well finally someone has made a song about it. Frankly.. I think this guy should have a record deal.. or at least turn the song into a public awareness campaign.



I remember walking through the airport with my grandfather one time and him stopping to ask various people if they were trying to shade the sides or back of their necks since they had their hats cocked to one side or on completely backwards. It was embarrassing when I was younger.. but I guess that is a sure sign I am getting old I now kinda get it. Every time I see some idiot holding his pants up so he doesn't trip himself up.. I want to go tell him how stupid he looks and make him duct tape his pants up in place so I don't have to see his underwear hangin out all over.

What I find truly amusing is that many of the people that dress like that consider themselves 'thugs' or 'gangstas'. Yet they dress in a way that makes them as least efficient as possible for carrying out any of those gangsta related activities. How are you going to run from the cops after your robbery or fatal stabbing of a rival gang member when you can barely walk with your pants like that? That's why all the cool gangstas use weapons that can be fired with one hand. They need the other hand to keep their pants at least halfway up.

Maybe we should be thankful. If they started dressing normally and used two hands for their activities, they would probably be a lot more effective, thus causing more casualties and gang related crime. Also, they could get away from the cops better, keeping more of them on the street. I guess in many ways, baggy pants are responsible for slowing gang related crime and reducing casualties.

So rock on with your pants on the ground.. pants on the ground..looking like a fool...walking...talking...with your pants on the ground!!

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View from the box.

Thats the view from the luxury skybox suite I was lucky enough to get to watch the Packers game from on Sunday. It was quite the experience for someone who has never been to Lambeau Field. My girlfriend got invited to attend with a business contact and I got to tag along. She didn't even make me root for the Lions even though she does, being from Detroit originally. In fact she put up with a lot of crap from me as the Lions lost 26-0.

We drove up to Appleton and met the 'bus' which was an RV that had all the bedroom stuff removed and more seats and tables added. We were on the bus around 945am.. beers in hand.. headed for the tailgate party before the game. We arrived in Green Bay about 45 minutes later and had a reserved spot for the RV right across the street from Lambeau. There was a party going on at the house we parked at that was also sponsored by the company we were attending with. Steak sandwiches, brats and more beer! We hung out here for about 45 minutes and then started to make our way up to the suite.

This suite was something else. 2 fridges stocked with beer and soda.. full liquor cabinets with all the mixers and alchohol you can think of. Cold sandwiches, brats, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken wings, nachos, cheese and crackers, veggie and fruit trays, gourmet desserts.. all laid out for just the 20 people that were in our suite. Theater like seating.. comfy padded chairs with a view out a huge window that covered the entire front wall of the suite on the 45 yard line. It was of course climate controlled so we were not out in the wind and chilly fall temps, not that Sunday was bad for Lambeau.

It was quite an experience watching the game from that suite, but what really struck me was how die hard those Packer fans are. Even though it was just the Lions.. which is pretty much a sure win for anyone at this point...they were all out in force. Close to 72K fans (capacity for Lambeau) came to watch the game and support their team. Green and Gold everywhere enjoying the pre-game tailgaiting as well as the post-game celebration. A lot of people don't know this, but if you sign up for the waiting list for Packers season tickets, you will be waiting a long long long time. This is right off their website:

How long is the waiting list for season tickets? How do I sign up?

The season ticket waiting list has more than 81,000 names. The Packers tell fans adding their names that the average wait is 30 years. To get your name on the season ticket waiting list, click here.

Most season tickets are passed on among family members.. even willed to the next generation. Say what you want about the Packers, but you would be hard pressed to find a group of fans more dedicated to their team and who treat football and the Packers as a way of life. Hell there was one guy walking bye us on the way out that had on full gear.. cleats, football pants, official jersey, the works like he was hoping enough people would get injured that they would call him in to play. Maybe he should have worn a Lions jersey instead.. they probably would have put him in.
:P

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Sticker Wanted: Don't Touch, You are too stupid.

Yesterday was one of 'those' days. The kind where you have to be at work before 2am for server maintenance and then just goes on and on and on from there. The early morning stuff actually went pretty smooth and we were hoping for a nice relaxing day to celebrate. This was not to be however.

Shortly after 8am the calls started coming in. Department heads were calling looking for my boss, who was on vacation yesterday signing his house papers (Congrats man!) and thus those calls come to me. We found out the clinic was on the verge of shutting down and everyone was in a panic. The problem? Severe network connectivity issues at the facility that houses all the medical facilities and clinics. They couldn't run any of their medical programs and thus couldn't provide patient care properly.

So after assuring about 12 different people that we were indeed working on it (which took about 30 minutes of time that I actually COULD have been working on it) we started to track down what was wrong. A switch closet at that location has the two switches that provides the bulk of the connections for that area. We went over armed with a new switch and started to figure out what was going on.

I know some of you are glazing over already.. so I won't bore you with the technical stuff. I will just say that after some troubleshooting we found that the fiber links for those switches were not in the right places. We moved them and suddenly everyone was back to work and the clinic was open for business. You could see the mixed emotions on the faces of the personnel over there as we informed them that they could all indeed work again. :P

So how did this happen is the real question. Do connections on switches that have been working for 3+ years suddenly jump ports on their own? Was it the wiring closet gnomes? A vindictive tooth fairy? Who knows for sure. So what I want is a big sticker to put on the switches that says "Don't Touch. You are too stupid"

Its a simple rule really. You add up the blinking lights on the device and then divide that number by your IQ and if the result is a number greater than 1, DON'T FUCKING TOUCH IT. Clearly the 6 brain cells you have rattling around in that cavernous wasteland you call your skull are all going to be mesmerized by the 'pretty lights' and you aren't going to do anything but make it worse. The only downside to that simple rule.. is the people who shouldn't be touching it probably can't handle the math that the rule involves anyway. So maybe we should keep it simpler. If you are even the slightest bit unsure if you should be touching it... then DON'T!

After a 15 hour day yesterday.. I am ready for a half day today followed by a nap and then many beers and passing out for about 12 hours. I leave you with some of the most amazing guitar playing you will ever see. Timmy is just incredible.

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Compatible Crazy

It's a phrase I have tossed around for years now and I still get some weird looks when I mention it, but I feel it is a valid statement when relationships are involved. I am not talking strictly about romantic relationships either. Friendships are subject to the same rules in my opinion.

See I look at it this way. You are born and you are sweet and innocent. Shortly thereafter, you start to develop and are influenced by all manner of things around you. By the time you clear high school you have been subject to so many experiences and personalities and outside influences that you can't help but develop some crazy. Then you go off to college where part of your job is to act crazy and hang out with even crazier people than you.

So by the time you are in your 20's, everyone is crazy in their own way. We all develop our own quirks and eccentricities. Something that if a stranger walked by you and caught you doing it or saying it they would be thinking to themselves that you are a nutjob. It's just a fact of life. Those 'normal' people are every bit as crazy too.. don't let them fool you. They are just less outwardly obvious with their crazy. Go check their closet and you will find how they have to organize every shirt and pair of pants by color/pattern/style and how if even one is out of place they won't be able to sleep soundly. EVERYONE has their own crazy.

So the key to relationships in this world full of crazy people? Compatible Crazy™ What you need to do is find someone who's crazy you can truly appreciate and who understands and appreciates your crazy in return. It is delusional to think that you are not crazy, or that you can find someone else that is not crazy to have a relationship with. Give up that notion now and it will make your life a lot easier.

Be yourself. Embrace your crazy. Wave your crazy flag high for all to see. What you will find is people that 'get' you. That see you and your craziness and think to themselves "I like his/her crazy" Those are the people you will truly connect with. If you find yourself hiding those parts of your personality to be what you think someone else expects or desires of you, STOP. You are doing yourself a disservice and besides, that person might just surprise you and appreciate you all the more for sharing the other parts of your personality. If they don't, at least you are being yourself and it's their loss at that point.

If you think you are having one of those days where your mental instability is overwhelming...just remember there is always someone a step ahead of you still. Like her:



Life is too short to try and be anything other than who you are. Embrace that bat-shit crazy person living in your head and be happy. Find people with Compatible Crazy™ and enjoy being you. Anything else is lunacy!

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Happy Birthday!

Today my YOUNGER son turns 12 so I had to wish him a happy birthday, despite the fact that he doesn't read my blog. Hard to believe that I have managed to keep not one, but TWO children alive for 12 and almost 14 years. Here's a picture of my boys.. many years ago:



Hard to believe that those adorable little faces are now 12 and soon-to-be 14. 6th and 8th graders. No longer do they want you to sit on the couch and watch Teletubbies or Barney or some other show designed to make and adult's brain ooze slowly out of their ears. No longer do they spend hours playing with blocks and little action figures. The days of giving them cardboard wrapping paper tubes and watching them become medieval knights for an afternoon....gone.

They are products of this generation for sure. I was thinking about this the other day and some of the things I came up with were crazy. They don't know a life without internet access or even high-speed internet access. They don't know life without CD's. They don't know about 8-tracks and records, rotary phones and having to look stuff up in books and encyclopedias.

Last month my cell bill came in.. and my two youngsters put up big numbers. B managed to clock in around 1300 texts for the month and G just over 1100. When you factor in that they can't have them on or even out of their locker during the school day, that is a LOT of text messages in the remaining time in the evenings and weekends. Yes, both boys have cell phones now and I know there are those of you think they are too young, and you are entitled to your opinion. Just remember the fact that they are my kids and I don't give a shit about your opinion! :P

My kids are done with Spongebob and High School Musical now. They watch Scrubs and House. They play the 360 and Wii and computer games. They will never understand Atari or Pong. The only Daisy Duke they will know is Jessica Simpson. They don't know who the A-team or MacGyver is. If I asked them what KITT was...I would probably get an answer like 'Half a Kit Kat bar?' /sigh

I am constantly amazed these days about how fast they are growing now. I know everyone thinks that they don't change as much as when they are infants / toddlers, but I am starting to disagree with that. I see changes happening faster and faster. They are not learning to roll over or walk for the first time, but they are developing as young adults at an alarming rate. Somedays so fast it seems like a blur that I can't get to slow down. You know when you watch something with your kids and you see the adult humor go over their head and chuckle to yourself? Now they are laughing along with me! They are getting into the deeper issues that are brought up and actually THINKING about them. Sure a lot of their responses are still that of a child or teenager, as they should be, but I am still shocked by some of the thoughts coming out of those heads.

This time next year I will be attending events for my HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. How scary is that? I am not one to get all misty eyed and nostalgic, but I can't help but wonder where my little guys went? The ones that would wrestle around with dad on the bed and not stop laughing? Oh don't get me wrong, they still like to wrestle and roughhouse, but now the two of them against me is starting to be in their favor and if they are not careful they could certainly hurt someone. And by someone I mean me. :P

So Happy Birthday to my BABY boy, my young man. 12 today. Growing up and making me proud to be known as Gabe's Dad.

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The Little Bastards

As a parent, I have come to terms with the fact that my boys are moving into that teenager age group. It was inevitable I suppose. And while the changes were subtle at first, they seem to have accelerated as of late and if I stop and think about their actions and attitudes even a year ago, the difference can be staggering. I know all parents are shocked by how fast their kids grow up, but I honestly can't remember this kind of rate of change since they were toddlers and it seemed like every week was a new milestone.

So what's the big difference? They are not driving yet (thank god) and although B is in 8th, they are both still in the middle school. They are still doing the same activities for the most part. They have the same group of friends. They have the same responsibilities at home. So other than them getting older, there hasn't been any big dramatic changes. So the only real difference is attitudes. They are becoming little bastards. Or as my ex put it so well, "When did my boys start acting like assholes?"

Now before I freak out my poor Mother, they really are the same great kids they always were. When interacting with adults, teachers, parents of friends etc., they are generally as well behaved and respectful as they always were. However, when it comes to their siblings or friends.. sometimes I just have to shake my head and walk away. The teenage attitude is there. The "I am the greatest and you should all bow down before me" is there.. in full force.

I have siblings and I know what the whole sibling rivalry situation is. My boys have always had that as well. Antagonizing each other. It's changed now though. Often times now its not the joking and wanting to be a pain in the ass to the other. It has morphed into false sense of superiority. The whole "I know everything and thus anything you tell me is stupid and I shall look upon you with disdain and mock your stupidity." I am just waiting for that to transfer to parental stuff as well. Maybe it won't happen....maybe my boys will be the exception to the rule...maybe? /sigh

It is still fun to watch them grow and change. Even if I am not a huge fan of all the changes. I suppose them being assholes is part of their rite of passage into manhood. Much like girls getting their cycles and becoming crazy bitches? :P

Regardless, they are still good kids and no matter what, I still love those little bastards!

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Angry Turtle!

I stumbled across the coolest drinking acessory today in explaining what a Black and Tan was and how they were poured. I give you.. ANGRY TURTLE!!



How fuckin cool is that? An angry turtle that both opens your beer bottles as well as helping you pour the perfect B&T. It comes in a kit with matching coaster and pint glasses. Absolutely awesome. You can see it here.

I need to get one of those.. and two kegerators. One for my Guinness and one for my Bass. Then I big 4-season porch so I can sit out and enjoy my beer and a good cigar to relax. Ahhh.. someday. When I am rich and famous. Or something. :P

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Let's Reverse It

The normal work week is 5 days on, 2 days off for the weekend. After just having a 5 day weekend, I am suggesting we reverse that setup. Let's work 2 days and have 5 days off every week. Hell, I would be willing to put in 2 15 hour days to get 30 hours in if I could have a 5 day weekend every week. Think about it.. you would come to work refreshed and relaxed every week and know you have 2 days to focus and get stuff done. Well.. one can dream anyway.

I feel like I should have done something productive with all that time off, but other than getting a few workouts in and a couple of small errands run, it was all just relaxing. The boys and I did a marathon on Sunday for Scrubs season 8. I hadn't seen most of the episodes, so it was a blast to sit and watch them and just laugh and laugh with my boys. They love the show as much as I do and we were all a bit sad watching the last two episodes which were both the season and series finale. I can't say enough good things about this show. The combination of the off-the-wall craziness and the very down to earth way they deal with real issues was just incredible. If you have not watched the show.. do it.

I also watched season 5 of House, MD. I have been waiting for this season to be released on DVD and been looking forward to watching it even though my Mom gave me a huge spoiler last time she was out to vist with the whole "Hey.. you like House right? Can you believe SoAndSo died?" Never mind the fact that she KNOWS I watch shows like that on DVD when they are released and not during the year when they are on. Still, the show is awesome and I really enjoyed this season. I won't discuss anything here though in case you are still waiting to watch it. I won't be a RUINER!

Having the 5-day weekend at least took the edge off my jealousy that my two nephews are on the beach in Hawaii with my sister and BIL and my parents. Seriously.. Zane at not-even-one-year-old has already been to Hawaii more times than I have. There is something not quite right about that picture. :P All I know is that it's a good thing I can't ear flick someone through a text message. When your sister whines about having to do a load of laundry for an hour .. IN HAWAII .. on facebook, you should be able to reach out and give her an ear flick IMO.

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Peace and Quiet

Finally I think things are starting to settle down. It seems like life has been one non-stop whirlwind for the last month or so. Going back to before my Grandfather passed away, it has been one big drama or stress situation after another. But barring anything new coming down the pipe, I think we are finally back to our version of normal around here.

The kids are ready to head back to school on Tuesday. Well.. they are not READY, but they are prepared. I am READY for them to go back to school. It will be good for them to start putting their brains to use for something other than absorbing radiation from TVs and computer monitors. Both have started training for their fall sports. G is playing soccer in the club league and B is running cross country again this fall.

Work has finally settled down as well. After back to back major projects that we were woefully understaffed for and several VERY long weeks, we are hoping for some downtime around here as well. I finally got caught up on over two weeks of work orders that had to sit while we took care of these projects.

The weather has had a touch of fall already here and we haven't even hit Sept. yet. It has been a beautiful 65ish during the days and the evenings have been quite cool. I'll take this over the desert heat anyday!

Time to get through a Friday and get on with the weekend!

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