Took the day off from Blogging.
High note of the day catching up on e-mails
Posts
Freaky Friday
Oh what a fun movie. I'm sure you know the plot, it's an oldie but goodie, parent and child switch bodies. Here we have Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as Mother and Daughter. I must say that Lindsay Lohan is very cute in this role. Although Jamie Lee is a great actress (stop laughing) I thought that Lindsay Lohan did a better job playing a mom trapped in a 15 yr old body than Jamie Lee did doing the opposite. The soundtrack really was fun, with a ton of Covers by Alternative bands. In fact I bought it for Alex right after the movie. Another GREAT disney movie in the line of the "Princess Diaries".
Well Alex and I are going to watch the DVD of The Two Towers tonight. Thanks for reading.
Alexander Samir Habiby 10 years old.
The multi part Birthday continued this am on his actual day of birth. He came up to the bedroom around 7:30 am wanting to open presents. Understandable but waaaaaay too early on a Saturday of a three day weekend. So he opened one while we were still asleep in the am.
I got up and went to the store for the "Alex's special eggs" ingredients. The rest of the world calls it Eggs Benedict. He loves it. Then he opened presents! We gave him Roller Coaster Tycoon II and a nice silver necklace and cross. Liza took him to the "Great Escape" on Thursday so after wrapping presents last night she is "off the hook". Like I said I made us Eggs Benedict for breakfast and I am taking him to see the new Jamie Lee Curtis Movie " Freaky Friday " at 2:30pm. Then Liza is meeting us up near the theater for an early supper at the Outback restaurant, also his choice.
So far Andrew called from France, with Jerem...
Another Friday.
One possibly two satellite installs today. First one starts btw 9am and 9:30am in Schenectady (that blighted town I used to live in) and then one in Delmar "after". This should keep me out of the office for the day. This is a good thing.
Customer calls yesterday saying she wants to sell her DVD player. I told her we don't buy scrap but we would dispose of it for her. No she says it works.. Her boy friend moved out and she calls herself Old School preferring Video Tapes. How much do you want for it I ask? $30.00. Ok bring it in. Needless to say I bought it not the shop. So now I have an Apex AD-1010W up in the bedroom so I can watch DVD's if Liza is watching something else downstairs. Only problem is no remote, so I have to go find one.
Liza AND Alex walked in the door at 9:45 last night. Seems that the whole freaking day with his friends was a bit much and Liza thought he should sleep in his own bed. Guess the boys got on each othe...
Alex's big day
We are starting the celebration of Alexander's 10th birthday a tad early this year. Liza concocted a wonderful day that I wanted to share.
This am Liza picked up Alexander and his two best friends Lucas and Tyler and took them to our local amusement park The Great Escape. I called them from the office around 9am and they were on the way up there, so they probably got there around 10 or so. Just got off the phone with Liza and they are returning now so they stayed at the park for nearly 10 hours. Liza must be exhausted.
Lucas is Alex's best friend from school, the aftershool program, and sports. Amazingly he and Alex have ended up on many of the same teams in Soccer and Little League. I shouldn't say amazingly because I've drafted Lucas every year I have had the chance when coaching. They play at the same level in Soccer every other year due to Alex's birthday falling late in August, as Lucas is a few months older he always goes up ...
Robert Calvert saw it, do you?
Space is infinite
It is Dark
Space is neutral.
It is cold
Stars occupy minute areas of Space. They are cluttered a few billion here. A few Billion there. As if seeking consolation in numbers.
Space does not care.
Space does not threaten.
Space does not comfort.
It does not sleep; it does not wake; it does not dream; it does not hope; it does not fear; it does not love; it does not hate; it does not encourage any of these qualities.
Space cannot be measured. It cannot be angered. It cannot be placated. It cannot be summed up.
SPACE IS THERE.
Thanks for reading that. It was written by a slightly crazy South African poet named Robert Calvert. Bob committed suicide eventually, but before then he rubbed arms with such luminaries in my underground world as Dave Brock and Michael Moorcock.
SPACE IS THERE. This long mind bend is here because I want to open some minds. And I don't want anyone to think me heartless.
People will d...
Boys night IN
Every other Monday night is boys night in. Usually its DVD night as well. We get what we want from the store for dinner (within reason) and rent a movie we both want to see.
So last night Alex had Pizza and cheeze sticks. I had baked chicken legs. (This is a story unto itself, as apparently our stove is not working now, so I baked them in the dish in the BBQ. Yummy!)
We rented Shanghai Knights. Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. What a gas. It's basically a sendup of the late 60's and early 70's english comedys. Something the casual movie watcher would miss completely. Especially the Pillow Fight scene.
I didn't see the first Chan/Wilson movie but I can assume from Chan's character name that name dropping jokes are the running gag. Here we have Inspector "Artie" who turns out to be Arthur Conan Doyle , and an urchin who turns out to be Charlie Chaplin . Highlight the blank spaces if you wish to know the names and have seen ...
Yesterday I couldn't spell satellite installer and now I R One
KD and I did our first real satellite install today. I say real because last two were easy. The first was simply intalling a new dish where they had an old one, and the second the customer had already put in a pole and run the cable.
So yesterday we did the whole thing. Sight survey. Picked the best spot on the house. Ran Cable to two spots in the house, one upstairs and one downstairs. Installed the decoders and attached the dish to said house. Then came the fun part. "Hitting" three satellites with one parabolic dish. The key is in the tilt of the dish, getting the signals to reflect properly into the LNB's (those funny little things at the end of a satellite mast that take in the signal.)
This took MOST of the day yesterday. But we were in beautiful "Brunswick" approximately halfway from Troy to the VT border. Very picturesque. Got some good sun too. In black jeans. Don...
Soccer season begins today
I have been coaching for 5 straight soccer seasons. But this year I am living the Life Of Reilly and being just a parent.
Alexander's birthday lands on an awkward date, so that every other year he is the oldest on his team, and the other year one of the youngest. This is an "oldest" year and he is showinging himself quite the leader. This may be a good thing for his ego and skill maturation to gain confidence in his playing. Not to mention that I'm not coaching him...
Ok here are some pictures.. The team did not win.. but did rally to within one goal by the end of the game. You can see Alex in each of these except the last.. where he is blocked. The little redhead is Emily, the Coach's daughter and a real star. She scored one of the two goals in the game.
Writing the Great American Novel
I guess for any GAN you need a Great American Character. I've got one for you, tell me if you think he will have the air of believability needed to be a successful Novelist.
First we will start out that this character is rather a sickly child. He/She will fight this tendency towards childhood asthma and other diseases well into his or her 20's.
He will publish his first book at the ripe age of 17, and have it recognized for years as the foremost source of its material.
This character will be accepted to the best college in their region at 18, after no formal public education.
At 21 he will marry a beautiful 17 year old girl, who will subsequently die just 3 years later.
At 23 he will be accepted into one of the best post graduate programs in his field.
At 24 he will be elected to a state wide office and serve two terms.
At 26 he will be elected leader of his party, and be a king maker at his party's National Convention.
In on...
What I did today - aka my thrilling life
I defragmented my Hard Drives at home.
At work I processed paperwork for Electronic Doc. LOTS of paperwork. I worked through my lunch and left at 4.
Three people came in and got their TV's.
Alex had soccer practice. 1st Game is Sunday.
Alex spent the night at Tyler's house.
Liza and I had chicken kabobs for dinner.
We watched the "summer finalie" of SG-1
I watched the tape of Sci-Fi's Riverworld movie. (interesting now I have to dig up the book series and re read it).
I went to bed at 2am after reading more of the Roosevelt book.
Thrilling eh?
The sheer unmitigated gall of some people
Hamas declares an end to their cease fire. Oh this one is rich. Hamas has declared that their "cease fire" is off since the Israelis killed one of their leaders today with a helicopter mounted rocket attack. What cease fire??? This helicopter attack was precipitated by the most recent suicide bombing.
How incredibly absurd for these criminals to have the gall to say that they were observing a cease fire. All the while continuing their policy of filling their young people full of their poisonous and hateful propaganda, which takes the lives of their young men and women and the lives of the innocent. Nothing is more intractable than the problems in the Middle East, but the Arabs do themselves a huge disservice with these acts. How can they possibly take the moral high ground in the eyes of the World while they continue to kill women and children going about their daily lives.
Alabama Judge Ray Moore refuses to remove ...
Concert Review
Well Perk and I had a grand time last night. Slinky Tripp didn't show for the show, not sure if they were ever scheduled to appear, there was some confusion there even though it was on the web site.
Runna Muck was pretty pathetic. I think Perk was more forgiving than I. It was generic Jam music with no direction. Although the bass player had some very funky stops and licks the guitarist was totally lost and probably should just stick to whatever day job or college he is going to. Very uninspiring.
Inspiring is not even a word that can begin to describe Lili Haydn . Supporting her (literally that night) just released new CD "light blue sun" she tore up the stage. Combining progressive, classical, jazz, techno and trance she wove a spell on many in the audience that was mesmerizing. The fact that she is "five foot nothing" and very beautiful certainly helped keep the men in rapture, but her energy on stage was like a dynamo. Her b...
Random thoughts
Perk and I are seeing Lilli Haydn with Particle at Northern Lights tonight. Lilli plays killer violin and PP is a jam band that was at the Bonaroo Festival The small world is that one of the opening bands is " Slinky Tripp " and one of the members is "client" of Liza's. The other band is Runna Muck .
My "distant friends" inspired me to say that the writing in the last season of Babylon 5 was fantabulous .
Dave Brock is going to be 62. This means the leader of my favorite band in the whole wide world is four years younger than my mom.
Marillion REALLY WAS GOOD back then. You know.. when Fish (not Phish) was fronting for them. I'm listening to the live "The Theiving Magpie" right now. I hate the term neo-prog but this is neo at its' best.
The recent Dead tour I thought was just not as good as the previous Other Ones tour, this from listening to all the shows from furthernet.org. Now I feel that ...
Blog Rolling
Thanks to my friend elfslut for this one. This is a great service that keeps your links all neat and orderly as you change templates from time to time. It uses anything from Java to the most sophisticated code available depending on your level of expertise.
As I find new blogs I like and as friends give me their blog address' (not mutually exclusive of course) I will be adding them to the menu bar at the right.
Honestly though its tough finding good blogs. They seem to come in three flavors. The first is of course foreign language ones, there seems to be an extraordinary amount of ones written in Spanish. I have found a few French ones and am trying to read those to stay boned up on my language skills.
Next are the teeny bopper ones. These are by far the most prevalent. Overwhelmingly so in fact. Go ahead to that link I have on the menu bar at the right and hit random blog... you will find oodles of these. Mostly written by angsty teen girls and ...
Quite and interesting few days
Actually Thursday was the day from hell, and I had decided to write it up Thursday night but of course all hell had broken loose. Thursday started with an barely announced visit by our Echostar Rep and his boss. I usually like to be mentally prepared for these things so the hour warning that they were coming was not fully welcome.
Then about 10 min into the meeting an Electronic Doc customer came in the door. Now to give the man fair hearing he had come in two days ago inquiring about his projection TV that we were working on. This was another of our mystery jobs and my tech was frankly having a bit of a time fixing it. So Tuesday I had promised the customer I would call him back and frankly I forgot.
Well this had put he man in to paroxysm of rage. He started by calling me a liar and then proceeded to cuss me out with every four and six letter word in the book. When I asked him to not cuss in the presence of my guests he practically calle...
Global Warming
Scientists tell us that there is NO global warming. Oh thank god. I know I will sleep better at night.
But.. Lets just say IF there was such as thing.. Which couldn't be possibly happening because the scientists say so, and our fearless leader does too... But if there was such a thing.. What would the model be?
But before we do that lets just put our head around a closed system that has a temperature increase. Temperature is energy so we can assume with some certitude that in a global warming model there would be an increase in the violence of weather events. Ok so due to the circulating currents in the Pacific and Atlantic there will never be a simple average rise in temperature in a global warming model. Various areas of the planet will be warmer or drier or wetter or cooler depending upon where they are.
So the models that I have read predict the following. Circulating currents in the Pacific will create "El Nino" and "El Nina...
America's Pastime
Gosh I had forgotten how fun baseball can be. Alex and I attended Scout night for the NY-Penn League (Class A) local team the Troy Valley Cats. Allie Cat... Valley Cat.. I thought of this in the AM I should have gotten something for my niece.
Anyway Alex and I had a wonderful time. Did you know that Troy is one of the first cities in the US to have had a professional baseball team? I did of course because I have read a ton of baseball history. The Troy Trojans were that first team.
They (the baseball pundits) say that it at this level through the farm teams that the "real" game of baseball is played. The historical environment of small parks, low paid and dedicated players, and tons of family fun are surely present at our local Troy Valley Cats games. I could actually hear the opposing players from their dugout shouting encouragement or epiphets!
The players are YOUNG.. oh my. All their birthday's fell within 1980 to 1983. My...
Missing Jerry
Been listening to "the Dead" as you know from reading my blogs. I put on a New Years from 85/86 on Saturday because I wanted to hear Jerry. Though Jimmy Herring is doing a fine fine job on the guitar, Jerry's voice was unique.
From Phil Lesh's solo album sighted below I copy these lyrics written by Warren Hayes from "Patchwork Quilt" I was gardening last summer with this on the headphones when I first really "heard" these lyrics. Warren is very passionate about this stanza and it did make me cry.
_________________
We were at Jones Beach when we got the word
Saddest sound that I've ever heard
The bluest note that nobody could play
Ravens sang with us that night on the stage
Tears of sadness Tears of Rage
But nobody spoke, we all felt
Old and in the Way.
(snip)
And the blood of his music
runs through the veins of our guitars
Bright lights, dark star
_________________________________
Sigh.
What does not kill you makes you stronger.
This is just not right.
Got a call from MW Sunday night with the news that my cousin's widower had passed away hiking. First of all this guy was under 50. Just a few years older than me.
More horrid is the fact that my cousin, his ex-wife predeceased him two years ago. (She was only two years older than me). Now all four kids have lost both parents in the what must seem like a blink of an eye. The older two probably (I can't say for certain) will be able to cope with this. I feel for the younger two, one is right around Alex's age. Apparently the reaction for these poor children was "oh not again"....
CHERISH your time on Earth. CHERISH the people you love and those who love you. You never know when they will be gone forever.
We went to NH today.
Please click here for the Photo Essay of our trip to NH to visit Dad and Kathy.
I didn't want to clutter up the primary blog with this trip for people who were not as interested.
If you have any problem getting the pics to show please email me immediatly. These are the things I need to know.
OBCD in car . MORE DEAD.. finally Liza got tired of it and made me turn it off lol
Now Reading : Both the novelization of the movie "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and the massive first part of Edmund Morris' Teddy Roosevelt Biography. Part one is The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Part two is Theodore Rex.
QOTD: Damn five hours driving is tiring.
-me at 8pm when we got home.
Just a reminder
To My Fellow Americans
In this day of Presidents who award huge reconstruction contracts to his cronies, of Atty Generals who have forgotten what the Constitution stands for, of Administrations who bend the truth or outright lie to get the country to believe in their agenda (bloody sheep), or conveniently look the other way when the facts don't fit their World View....
Presidential Criticism This quote was part of an editorial he wrote for the "Kansas City Star" during World War I.
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame ...
Conversations with the nonagenarian
So maybe twice a month or once a week I call my Grandmother. She is an amazing woman. At 90something she is still going - strong would to strong a word - and sharp as a tack. I catch her driving home via my cell phone my time which is mid afternoon her time and we usually talk for about 15 to 20 min. Well I talk and she listens as she just "loves your stories Michael" as if I lead an exciting life. (Any regular reader of my Blog surely knows I don't).
So the story I want to convey is short and I think very cute. I told her how my domestic partner, my best friend, my wife of 15 years gets home around 7 to 7:30 every night. Oh she says the poor dear, and then she has to cook dinner. Now my generation is gapping big time. Silence. I say Grammie, has MW not told you what I do around here? No she says. So I tell her about my evenings M - F. Leave work, pick up Mr Alex, go shopping if needed for dinner, chill for a half hour...
But I still don't believe in Astrology
Libra-Aquarius Relationship
Libra's indolently sensual nature is stirred to life by Aquarius's bold and experimental lovemaking. And these two have all the makings for a beautiful friendship: harmonious vibes in socializing, artistic interests, even in involvement in public affairs. These two will enjoy the friendship side of an affair as much as the romantic part. Indecisive Libra is delighted with the fact that quick-minded Aquarius likes to make likes to make decisions. With a satisfying love life and mutual enjoyment of living
Ok and here below is one that didn't work out (Though we are still friends) ...
Cancer-Libra Relationship
This pair operates on entirely different levels: Cancer wants love to be emotionally transcendent, Libra seeks perfect intellectual communication. Libra has no sympathy for Cancer's moods, and Cancer is made insecure by Libra's detachment and shallow emotions. Cancer is to...
Finally a new phone
About 9 months ago I was wearing my Audiovox cell phone and had the head set on. I caught the chord on something and ripped the headphone jack off the board. My Electronic Doc guru KD was not able to fix it so I've been stuck with a cell phone that does not allow headsets.
This is a pain for two reasons. One I really don't like putting these things to my head, they are hard to hear and all those waves going through my brain cannot be good. Second in the state of NY it is actually a ticketable offence to drive while using the headphone in a "non hands free manner".
So Verizon told me I could reup my plan two months early. At that point I qualify for a $100 bonus as it were towards a new phone. Today was the day (well yesterday but I didn't make it to Verizon yesterday). I got a really cool flip phone ( The VX4400 ) which was $150, with a $50 mail in rebate.. ie no cost in the end. It's got a color screen and all sorts of co...
A fearless prediction
Powell is leaving in '04. That's a fact.
The prediction is that if Bush is re-elected the entire administration will shift even further right than they are now. Ok Ok I know I'm taking a BIG risk saying this in public LOL.
This will allow this administration to do the all the really nasty things they have always wanted to do. Make life much nicer for the Rich, the Oil and Auto industry and the pour some Fundamentalist Christian Right Wing values down our respective throats. Lower taxes, increase the deficit, wreck the public school system and other Republican Planks - you know the ones they Don't talk about on TV.
It gets worse. I'm betting we will loose anyone with even half a brain if there is a next Bush administration. Except of course Dr. Wolfowitz. Oh Lucky us. Watch out world. If this guy gets Powell's job the Hawks get their most top wonk at State. I never liked this guy and I still don't, but after seei...
Home and Safe
Alex landed safely last night at 11:50. His bags however never left Las Vegas. So they are going out this am from LV via Chi and Balt to Albany. The bag once again travels further than the passenger. This is the truely amazing part of today's technology.... yea.
By the time we were done with the report, home, had his snack, and into bed, it was 1am our time. Needless to say he is on West Coast time so he was a zombie (more than the usual am zombie) this am.
QOTD :Never give a child a sword.
-- Latin Proverb
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The weekend
No political pontificating today. I recorded but didn't watch my talking heads shows today so I'll catch them during the week.
Well as the weekend dawned Brother Greg was scheduled to arrive with Alex at 11:55 tonight. Figuring that it was as good excuse as any for a good cleaning Liza and I did the house a good cleaning. I vacuumed the entire house while she did the kitchen and bathrooms. Its been way hot and humid so I was soaked by the time I was done. Ick. Took a nice hot then cold shower and took a nap listening to Sound Tribe Sector 9 (urban beat fusion jazz jam stuff all instrumental). Barbecued some chicken breasts in Caribbean Jerk Marinade. Yum.
Took it easy last night and watched MIBII on one of the pay channels. I saw it in the theatre with Alex when it came out and didn't think it was very good. Probably from the hype. On a second viewing it was a cute sequel.
Today I did the sunroom and helped with the laundry. I've als...
Daily blah
Woke up late this am because the sun was not shining through the window as it usually does on Summer Am's. Why? Because it was pouring. Now I don't mind a good rainstorm but wow this was biblical. We don't do things by halves here in the East Coast. We get snow 6 mo of the year (last year at least). We have the most beautiful autumns in the country, and when it rains, as they say, it pours. I'm in a decent mood today all things considered. Considering the train is still derailing at work. Considering I haven't seen my son in 5 days. Considering the direction the country is going....
George's homophobia
I have some things I want you to ponder regarding this initiative about gay marriages.
The religious argument: Can anyone show me in the bible (not one of these loosely translated ones by some southern Baptist mind you - but say an RC or Episcopal version) solid proof that says that homosexuality is a sin? And don't ...