WHAT'S
NEW
The Archives
6/25/05: Allison; Magnetic Ribbons
4/24/05: Road Trip
2/22/05: Denver; The Airlines
2/13/05: Allstar Game
2/7/05: Talk Radio
2/1/05: Two Weeks Away; Airport Security; Sattelite Radio; 24
________________
So after another long hiatus, I'm finally back with a slew of new stuff. I just spent a week working tech support at the U.S. Open Golf Tournament so this week's column is inspired by that.
The new links are ones I've discovered over the last few months and all have some kind of writing theme to them. One is a gay man's blog with some intriguing writing, another is a blog based on other people's bad writing and the other is an author with several awesome road trip books.
I
have posted a couple new blogs of my own. One is about my recent trip
to Saint Louis.
The other one was probably one of my most favorite blogs to write and
is about a hiking trip I went on in the Southern California desert six
years ago where I very likely could have died. It's a story that I love
telling, yet for some reason had yet to write about. Well without further
ado, here
it is.
You know that Miscellaneous Thought of the Moment at the bottom of this page? Well, I've finally put a link to the archives so you can see all the trivial crap that goes through my head from week to week. Just click on the purple graphic to take you there.
Allison
turned one a month ago and is a walking, talking, mischeivous little girl.
She loves playing in the dirt, and I her daddy love letting her. I've
gotten some weird looks from other parents, and even from other kids who
can't believe I let her get dirt all over her clothes and hair, laughing
all the while. I'm just like, "dirt washes out." And what better
way to learn about the world than by putting your hands right in it.
From the "random things that are bugging me department": can we please just STOP with all the magnetic ribbons on everybody's car? Seriously, is there a person in this country who doesn't support the troops, America, POW's, MIA's or the cure for breast cancer? Must we adorn our cars with all these multi-colored ribbons? Some people have a dozen or more going up the sides of their car, onto the roof, down the hood, on the hubcaps... Couldn't we just have one brown ribbon for the remaining ten people in America that says, "I don't support S---"?
I think the thing that really bugs me about all these ribbons is the fact that they're actually magnets and not stickers. What that says to me is Yeah, I support the troops because it's trendy right now, but as soon as the fad is over, I can peel the thing off and put it in a box next to my Lance Armstrong bracelet. I say if you truly support a cure for breast cancer, donate money towards research or take pledges for the Walkathon. If you support America, work hard to make it a better place, question authority, get involved, vote in every election, and don't whine and say you're moving to Canada anytime something doesn't go your way. And finally, if you support the troops, don't waste your time with yellow ribbons. There may have been a time in our history when those things meant something, and I'm sure there is still a lot of post-Vietnam guilt floating around, but today, those ribbons are a hollow symbol. If you really want to support the troops, write letters of encouragement, donate needed items, walk up to a soldier in the airport and say "thanks for showing up." Personal expressions like these will mean far more to a weary soldier than a thousand magnetic ribbons.
=============================================
Yes, I know it's been a LOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time since I've posted anything. That's because every spare moment I've had outside of work (which has been insane) I've been working on finishing week two of the Road Trip. Well, it's finally here! Whereas week one dealt a lot with Middle America, week two is definitely all about The West. From Monument Valley, the site of numerous Hollywood westerns, to the Loneliest Road in America and several Old West ghost towns, week two has plenty of dust and history to go around.
Click here to jump right into WEEK TWO. Or to read it all from the beginning (including a recently beefed up intro) click HERE. As always, if you see something you like, something you hate, something you don't understand, drop me a line and tell me about it.
I'd write more about what's been going on the last couple months, but I've just spent 30 of the last 36 hours hunched over this keyboard assembling the road trip website, so I'm whooped and friend and can't really form much of a coherent thought. Enjoy, and hopefully it won't be quite as long until we meet again.
=============================================
The Allstar Game went extremely well all things considered and the overtime I made on that job is going to come in very handy in the next couple months since we probably owe several many thousands of dollars to taxes. Unfortunately since I was so busy, and because my hotel was out in the suburbs (in Columbine actually) rather than in the city, I really didn't get the chance to explore and experience Denver the way I would have liked. I will say that they have one hell of a back yard. I'd always thought that Denver was actually IN the mountains, but in actuality they're in the plains at the base of the Rockies. And they are truly in the middle of nowhere. Flying in, it's nothing but flat, wide-open nothing as far as you can see. They tricked me though. The first day there was about 60 degrees. We were setting up in t-shirts. The next day, it snowed and it was pretty much in the 20's for the rest of the week. The air was indeed thinner out there. To get from the parking lot to the TV compound you had to climb some stairs and cross a footbridge. By the time I got to the top, I was sucking wind each time. For awhile there, I thought it was just my being out of shape, but then it hit me, "Hey, I'm a mile up."
There's a new blog up this week in which my anger and frustration with the sham that is airport security finally comes pouring out.
On the positive side though, if you're looking to take a trip in the near future, I highly recommend Frontier Airlines. They're a budget airline similar to Southwest or Airtran, so the prices are low. But what stuck out to me about Frontier was several things. First of all, since it's not one of the major big-name airlines, the lines at baggage check were incredibly short. There was a half-hour line at United right next door, but I walked right up to an agent and was checked in in five minutes. On board, there is no first class, but the coach seating is better than any other airline I've flown. The seats are comfortable with plenty of leg room. There are TV sets mounted into the back of each seat and you can pay five bucks to either watch Direct TV or a movie. Or for free, you can tune the TV to a map showing your flight progress. I love this feature. There's nothing more annoying for somebody with a lust for new places to look down and try to decipher whether I'm looking at the Rocky Mountains or just some low-lying ridges. The food on board was pretty decent too. Breakfast was an egg burrito and lunch on the way home was a Tuscan Turkey Wrap, both quite good and neither of which sent me running for the bathroom an hour later. But the thing I was most impressed with was the beverage service. They didn't cheap out like most other airlines. After pouring their splash of soda into that thimble of a cup filled with ice, they actually let you keep the entire can so you have enough to wash down that breakfast burrito. So check them out.
=============================================
The final installment in my "Unsolicited Parental Advice" series is up, so be sure to check it out. Not much to say this week. I've been neck deep in work since I got back from Jacksonville, and tomorrow I'm flying to Denver for the NBA Allstar game. Hopefully things will slow down after that and I'll actually get to see my wife and daughter for longer than a half-hour before I fall asleep. This next week should be interesting. The people doing the Allstar game are using all new HDTV equipment, stuff that literally did not exist before December of 2004, stuff that we're not completely sure will work. We're going on Avid's good word and less than a month's-worth of testing that this stuff actually functions the way it's supposed to. We'll see soon enough.
=============================================
Around the we moved to Philadelphia I started listening to talk radio. And I really got into it too. My personal favorite was Glenn Beck, but I would listen to Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham as well as local Philadelphia guys. It was good because in a world where it seemed like liberal propaganda vastly outweighed conservative, it finally starting giving me a direction to fight back with words. I think a lot of people recognized that over the last couple years, especially in the months leading up to the election. All throughout the 90's I was afraid to voice my conservative views because I thought I was outnumbered and would be cut down by the majority. But talk radio, especially in this election season showed me that I wasn't alone and I finally had the courage to stand up with others like me and say, "Just because your voice may be the loudest doesn't mean you're right... or even in the majority!"
Since the election has passed, and out guy won... well, I just haven't been into talk radio as much as I used to. I just don't care about politics or current events one way or the other anymore. And to be honest, it feels good. I hit my saturation point on election day and now it feels good to just listen to music again and talk about things like personal goals, beliefs and aspirations without having to worry about how that relates to the guy I'm voting for.
So thanks for the ideas talk guys. I'm sure I'll be back again, but for now, I'm over on Satellite, jamming to tunes.
The
next
column in my "Unsolicited Parental Advice" series is up.
Be sure to check it out and join the revolution. And if you missed last
week's, the link is still up there as well. There's still one more
to come so check back soon for the third and final (maybe) installment.
=============================================
I'm finally back home after two straight weeks on the road. First I was in Pittsburgh setting up for the AFC Championships. Could they have picked a colder city to do that in? I mean, was St. Paul booked or something? After that, it was down to Jacksonville to set up for Superbowl. Professionally speaking, these last two weeks were the most ridiculous weeks of my entire professional life. I set up my systems in each city in less than a day, and then I basically sat around and waited for something to break... which it never did. In Pittsburgh, where it was too cold to sit around in the stadium, I spent the bulk of the week in my rental car with the heat on, reading. I finished two books. (By the way, I am LOVING the Dark Tower series by Stephen King). In Jacksonville, the editors didn't even show up until four days after I was finished setting up, so I went back to my hotel and spent a good deal of time writing. I finished three columns of which the first one is up this week, two blogs which are also up, and I got a lot of work done on a new fiction story. So essentially, I got paid to read and write over these last two weeks.
Personally speaking, these two weeks were the longest I've experienced in a long time. This is the longest I've been away from my daughter since she was born. This is the longest I've been away from Lauren since I moved out here from L.A. Much too long. I don't know who these guys who do these remote jobs for a living do it. When I got home yesterday, I just spent the day hugging and squeezing and playing with my daughter and hugging and kissing and not letting go of my wife. Never again will I let myself go away for that long. The only justification is all the overtime I made (for reading and writing) over the last two weeks.
A couple things to gripe about. First up: airport security. I understand it, I really do, but truthfully, it's meaningless because they'll take away an item in one airport but let you board with it at another. And I really think they're going overboard with this whole business with your shoes. They want me to take off my sneakers and send them through the belt, yet I can walk through the metal detector with my cellphone, sunglasses, belt and spare change and the thing never beeps. I'll throw back to Godfather Carlin on this issue that "airport security is a stupid waste of time, it's a waste of money and it only exists for one reason: to make white people feel safe." It really is just the ILLUSION of safety. Oh, did I mention that they took a pair of sewing scissors (about two inches long) from one lady, but I walked right through with my Gillette razors?
American Idol is back on. Damn people, haven't you had enough yet?
On the positive side, I absolutely LOVE sattelite radio. That's another thing I missed over these last two weeks. Technilogically, they still have some bugs to work out, but Lord it's so worth it when you get to hear songs that they never play on regular radio.
Also positive: 24 is back. If you haven't gotten into this show, where have you been? Hands down, the most consistently exciting hour of television ever. Granted, it does require huge suspension of disbelief at times. Anybody whose ever lived in L.A. knows you can't get from downtown to Burbank in fifteen minutes, even without traffic. But if you can look past the little plot snafus, the rest of the show is awesome. You end every episode by yelling, "OH MY GOD, HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET OUT OF THAT?" And yes, if I were a woman, Jack Bauer would be on my list. Not Keifer Sutherland... Jack Bauer.
