to the dads of kids 6-14, i'm sorry

right now I am waiting for my teen afterschool program at the local imax so i can give them their tickets, but they are running late (by like25 minutes, not impressed). but as i am waiting here I get to see all of the young kids who have been waiting for this day like they would for the norginchewer at lowemannzeit, and the one consistent thing I have noticed today is that everyone who is coming with parents, its 95% dads who are here. I'd like to know how that happened.

I am of course talking about opening day for the hannah montana movie.

having only 3 tv channels on a good day, I have been subjected to watching it on saturday mornings from time to time, and while it is not the worst show out there for kids (thats so raven and suite life of zach and cody however, are) its not really that great by kids standards. So how come its so great and how come dad has to take everyone? If this is the way of things to come when I have kids, I am really hoping that their mom takes them to see rambo 8, cause I would not wanting them to miss out on good parts of their childhood.

well, thats not true, I work with kids who have seen all the saw movies in one sitting and can repeat them verbatum and that is scarry. I guess the moral of the story is I don't like pop culture for kids today, and they should all listen to NPR.

The Script Frenzy NWWBW Challenge

Suzanne told me (as well as everyone else) about Script Frenzy over at the NWWBW boards and has been rallying everyone to get with the program and do it, and I think I am going to try (and hopefully do better than my 5 word NaNoWriMo masterpiece).

Script Frenzy in a nutshell is that you have 30 days (April 1-30) to write a 100 page script, be it a screen play, graphic novel, tv show, or something else. With at least 5 or 6 people on board at NWWBW, it seems like a pretty good idea to at least try, though I have to be honest with you - going in, I have no plan. My approach will be simple though; be rediculous. I have no notions that my writing is amazing, and I have no intentions of being intentionally deep and/or metaphorical, but rediculous and stupid I can do, maybe even be entertaining in the process (at least to myself while its being written). It'll be a good challenge to do personally, even if it is just to find out I don't want to do it again.

If you think you are going to do it, head on over to NWWBW and talk about it. Thats all I got for now, just felt the need to share.

Being Busy is a Busy Thing

Its been almost 3 weeks now with a job, and its a crazy thing going from having absolutely nothing to do to not having enough time to do it all in. I'm not complaining, but I'm just saying.

So you know, I took a job at a local Y as the after school and camp director. Its a bit of a change for me since my last job (where I was the camping and youth services director) it was about 85% all about camp, 15% youth enrichment programs (like sports, drawing, painting, and rocketry classes) with support by proxy to the after school program as needed. The new job is about 80% after school programs and 20% camp, so its a drastically different game now that I'm thinking about it, but its been very good. a good working environment, with new responsibilities and a great working dynamic, whats not to love? perhaps what I need to clean up.

The previous guy left back in January, and the position was filled by an interim who did exactly as she was trained to, but the problem was that the old guy trained her to do just the daily stuff, not the billing, not the grant work, not the payroll, etc. Basically all the administrative bits that keep the program going, so I've been working nonstop to try and sort it all out. And I'm happy to say that for the most part, its all sorted out, so now I can actually focus on getting the program better. or getting camp off the ground. Did I mention how there is nothing done for camp yet?

Typically promotion and registration, etc for camp would have started in January. I do not even have a location for the camp to be housed in. Looks like there is a bit more work to go. Again, don't think I'm complaining, because I'm not (venting maybe? don't know, but definitely not complaining). I love this sort of stuff, fixing the chaos. I also knew going in it was going to take some time to get things running how they should.

Oh, also, I finally got an xbox 360 to play in all my spare time. Oh the irony. Been trying to get on it for at least a little bit each day, and a friend loaned me a bunch of games to get me going, but I need to pick up a few new games to play, maybe something that doesn't involve me physically ducking and diving out of the way due to sniper fire like I do with COD4 or absolutely paranoid to whats around the corner and screaming like a girl when something comes out of the dark I wasn't expecting in Bioshock. is there a coloring game maybe? microsoft paint 360? lego games are a must, and will be acquired soon.

Every day is a great day

What I've been watching

Today marks the 6 month"anniversary" of being laid off, which is pretty amazing to me because it also is the day that I officially have a new job (more on that later, but yay!) The last couple of days I have actually been posting again, which is good because it does serve as a way to inform my avid fan club of my happenings (the MKAFC for those of you in the know), but moreso a chance to look back on things, and what I've done. unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, not much of it has be uber productive. So, what have I done?

Caught up on some TV that I didn't know existed

This has been on and off as I start getting sucked into things. I've managed to successfully watch the entire run of the new Doctor Who series, which, if you have not watched, is absolutely wonderful. Its light-hearted with just the right amount of dark and seriousness for when it needs to be with an overarching plot over the course of each season, while still being able to be watched episodically without having to be aware of the "big picture". In turn, it led to watching Torchwood, its spinoff series, though I've only managed to make it through 2/3rds of the 1st series of this show. Its good, but I just need to be in the right mood for it. Its perfect for those who want a Who-flavored noir show full of sex and sci-fi.

Of recent days I have been devouring Dexter, a show about a serial killer who works for Miami PD who are in turn trying to catch serial killers, but they don't know that he (Dexter) is also a serial killer. For the most part, its fairly predictable, meaning I've been able to properly deduce whats to come a few episodes before it happens, but I've been happy to see that even though I've been right, I didn't see the path until I was on it. Good stuff.

Transitioning from Dexter to another show starring its main character (Michael C. Hall) brings us to another show about death - Six Feet Under. Its a show about a family in the funeral business, and has been enjoyable though we only made it about 4 episodes into the first season, which is right around the time that Beccas mother had died, and suddenly we were ready for a new show for a bit. Not to create awkwardness in my own post.

But, around the same time as that, i was introduced to a Sci Fi channel mini series called the Lost Room, which is the coolest idea for a show I had heard of ina while. There is a room that goes missing (gasp!) in time and space, and many of the rooms contents are shot into the world, except now they each have a power to them, like the bus ticket will teleport whoever touches it to a road outside of a small town in Arizona, or the room key that will open any door into the lost room for you to enter into. once inside, you can then reopen the door to anywhere else. theres more to it, including cults and factions that are searching for the items for varying reasons. The mini series ends with it set up to potentially become a show on Sci Fi, but considering what they had done within the show, it sort of made it difficult to really justify basing a series around it. Now, a RPG would be pretty cool though.

I also have finally gotten around to starting to watch Battlestar Galactica. I've had the original mini series and all of season one for a while now, but just never made the time to watch it. Finally sat down to watch the mini series, and damn. Just in time to have no time again,right?

Exciting News!!

Today is my cat Elwyns 8th birthday!! Yay!!

Now, I know what you are thinking - why the hell is he talking about his cat, because I do not give a fuck. Well, let me respond to this with my cat is the best cat ever. As in throughout all of time.

Becca and I adapted him through a coworker of a friend who needed to find a home for him quickly. He was her daughters cat who was supposed to take him with her when she moved, but ended up moving into a place that wouldn't allow cats, and then the mothers living situation changed, and Elwyn unfortunately needed to go. He has been living with us since about the beginning of November, and was a bit skiddish, but quickly settled in (like 4 days later, which is pretty quick for a cat this old to be at ease with new owners).

To best describe him, Elwyn is a 200 pound orange and white cat with green eyes. He sleeps, as cats do, but he also secretly fights crime, just like Phantom Zero. When not doing that, he loves to make the rounds sitting in everyones laps or on top of computer keyboards. He fucking rules, and you can be friends with him on facebook if you are not already.
Also, I heard back from the job I was waiting to hear back from. I am their #1 pick. I meet with them again on Thursday to discuss specifics. Thats pretty cool too.

It's been weird lately

It's been a while, but I haven't really been motivated to do much pertaining to writing of late. I tried to once a few weeks back, but opted to save and reread later when I was able to focus better, which worked out well since it was an absolute train wreck of a post starting with real life superheroes and ending with porn ("how can that be bad?" you say).

This times a bit more focused (and much more sober). I lost my job last fall, and have been unemployed since then. I'm hoping to hear back from an interview today, and from everything I have heard from people is that its all good, but I am not hoping to jinx it until I hear officially one way or the other, though with a nor'easter happening, and the majority of the state in a lockdown, I don't know if that will be happening today. In any case, on the verge of having a new job, I've been thinking back over the last several months and its just been so strange. It's been the first time ever since high school that I have not had a job, and I somehow felt overwhelmed by the fact that I had nothing to do. Typically, when I have nothing to do I like to try and do anything, usually involving building or planning something rediculous (say 13 hour engagements or internet decathlons) but this time round, I just couldn't focus. I had an "awesome" idea for the greatest contibution to the scientific community and had even built a team of intrepid and charismatic science enthusists, but it sort of off and died without meaning to.

Now that I am possibly going to be doing something again, I am almost aprehensive to return to the world and contribute something meaningful once again. The funny thing is that it would be in a job that does pretty much the same thing that I was doing before getting laid off. Go figure.

Like I said, its still to early for anything, but we're all hoping here that it'll happen, apprehension or no. actually having an income will be good again, especially since we have a wedding to pay for.

The Great Crap Swap 2008

Welcome back friends, this time I post with some more joyous stuff. My last posting was a bit required almost, but now its all bullshit all the time. So lets get started.

So, for the past 4-5 years, We have gone to friends house for New Years Eve to ring in the new year with debauchery and incessant drinking (or something like that), and its a good time for all. One of the things that happens is the Yankee Crap Swap. For those of you not in the know, the Yankee Crap Swap is the same thing as a yankee swap or a white elephant except where as with those you give ho-hum gifts that are not bad but have no use for, in the crap swap anything goes, so long as its not trash (as in literal trash) and you did not buy it. In years past, I have given a night light Jesus and a framed picture of me holding a jug. This year, I feel that I did some pretty awesome gifting. Read on to find out more!

Starting things off right, I thought I would share one that is near and dear to us all, except I took the time to make it PG:
Printed onto a mini postcard sized canvas we had laying around, naked princess leia playing guitar hero also got a second stamp of a golden bra. this makes it 200% sexier than before because if you look closely, you will not that the bra is see through, so it has that extra bit of alure that everyone loves.

Up next, was this picture printed and wrapped in an old package of double stuffed oreos with 3 stale cookies remaining:
the printed one is better looking, but you can follow this link to see it in all its HD glory. Thanks Bill from Pawtuckett!

Now, this one you may or may not recognize, but this is an original by Luke Milton for an event in a contest I held over the summer of 2007, the CMX Decathlon:
This was printed to 8 x 10 and framed. I was happy that the person who got it was excited because apparently she was a closet KBZ fan. Who knew?

And finally, the gift that I loved to give and thought was hilarious when someone opened it and didn't know what the hell they were going to do with it:
Drywall. Man, this was great. I don't think anyone else thought it was quite as funny, but thats why I rule.

And thats it. I ended up with a pretty crappy gift (I think it was an animatronic George W. Bush dressed as a cowboy. I'm not really sure because it was taken outside and I haven't seen it since. I hope he's ok, its cold out there, and i don't think his winning smile and rheteric is going to get him out of trouble in the wilds of Southern New Hampshire).