Monthly Archive

….. That I am not a man of my word:

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

You have no idea how satisfying that was.

I just got back from the gym and I’m feeling extremely aggravated. My cheap ass CD player decided it was only going to play half of any song if it was going to play anything at all, so the whole workout was just one long bout of frustration. This thing has been nothing but trouble since I got it and I spend way too much time at the gym to put up with this on a daily basis. So, now I get to go out and spend money I don’t have on a new CD player I can’t really afford. Then, I’m going to come home, get a hold of a heavy, blunt object and smash this friggin’ thing into little….tiny….pieces.

Free association is described as a “psychonanalytic procedure in which a person is encouraged to give free rein to his or her thoughts and feelings, verbalizing whatever comes into the mind without monitoring its content.” Over time, this technique is supposed to help bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Inaugural ::Address
2. Pledge ::Furniture Polish
3. String ::Theory
4. Trot ::Hot to
5. Fitness ::Goals
6. Cinder ::Block
7. Edge ::On the
8. 31 ::Highway
9. Blue ::Black
10. Leather ::Restraints

Last night I went to a fantabulous Halloween party given by the always amazing Lez and her equally fantastic boyfriend Jon. I had much fun. There was good food, good drink, good people, and (of course) costumes!

(click image for larger size)

Here we have me embracing my inner demon.

(click image for larger size)

Lez rocking out.

(click image for larger size)

Lez and Jon being all kinds of cute together.

(click image for larger size)

That’s Jon’s brother Sam on the left. I don’t remember the names of the other two.

(click image for larger size)

Murad (and I probably misspelled that) being a living drinking game.

(click image for larger size)

Three slightly blurry badasses.

(click image for larger size)

Jon and yet another person who’s name I can’t remember. The word of the night was phalanges!

Yep, all in all a very good night. The hard core partiers went until four in the morning and I ended up sleeping until two in the afternoon.

Whether a woman fakes her orgasms or not is something the
majority of men would rather not question. This is in case they
discovered that she has been all along, and that they are not,
in fact, the stud they thought women go wild for. Rather, they
are a pathetic creature with a problem, who needs to be
patronized.

For those of you who would prefer not to ask her, but would
still like to know, there is a simple checklist to help you.

1. In the middle of lovemaking, and just before the moment it
sounds as though she is about to have an orgasm, stop and take
away the magazine she’s been looking at. If she says, “Dammit,
I was reading that!” she was faking.

2. If her panting, groaning and screaming are in tune, or sound
like a familiar song, she can’t be concentrating enough on the
“job at hand,” and must therefore be faking it. Or else she
really likes the song playing on her iPod.

3. A rule of thumb, which is usually very accurate, is: stop at
random and record her response. If every time you stop she says,
“Mmmmm, you were wonderful, baby,” she is faking it. If she
says “Don’t stop!” she isn’t. However, if she says “Don’t stop!”
hours after lovemaking has finished, it is possible that she may
have fallen asleep, and missed most of the excitement. Remember
these guidelines for future reference.

(click image for larger size)

There’s a ghost in my room!… Well, not really. Just a trick using a long shutter speed on my camera and then moving my hand while the picture was being taken.

Sometimes, I truly think I’m an idiot. I was reading an online tutorial about capturing motion blur in your photos for artistic effect and fiddling around with my camera, wishing I had a way to manually set things like shutter speed and aperture. Well, long story short, it turns out that I do. Actually, it turns out I can do a lot more with my camera than I thought I could. Yep, after over a year and a half of owning my camera, I finally broke the seal on the advanced manual that came with it. There are all kinds of settings and options that I haven’t been taking advantage of.

Like I said, I’m an idiot

So, after I blogged earlier, I decided to head out to Frenchtown, NJ to take a walk along the Delaware river and see if I could take any good pictures. I thought the trip would be a bust because as I arrived, there were a bunch of clouds rolling in:

(click image for larger size)

Luckily for me, no rain happened and I did get some good pictures taken. Thanks to an especially cooperative squirrel (or two), I even got some good wildlife pictures:

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

I was really pleased with those. So, on the whole, I’d say it’s been a pretty good day. You can see all the pictures I took today in my Smugmug gallery or wait for them to appear on my photo blog. Myself, I’m gonna relax for a bit.

(click image for larger size)

Well, I’m feeling pretty damn good about myself at the moment. I just got back from the gym and I had one of the best workout sessions I’ve had in quite a while. For the past few weeks, I’ve been concentrating on cardiovascular exercise exclusively and I have to say that my energy level has been going through the roof. The plan is to take a break from the weight training and push the cardio for overall conditioning until the end of the month when I’ll get back on track with the lifting. So far, it’s been working very well. In the past ten days, I’ve done 11 hours of exercise, burning 8,813 calories and putting in just over 30 miles of distance. Considering that two out of those ten days were rest days, I’m feeling pretty proud of those numbers. The intensity of my workouts has also jumped up up, with my average physical index increasing from an average of 15 to 20 per workout.

All in all, I feel really good. I’ve been in a better mood, more sociable and a way better attitude about everything. I’ve just got to keep this up.

And here we are on yet another Monday.. My weekend was pretty good, though not very eventful. I had a pleasant dinner out with Jim and Kendra on Friday night, than spent Saturday and Sunday mostly sitting out in the yard, sipping good beer, and reading Dungeon and Dragons supplements in preparation for starting to run the Game in a few weeks.

I’m actually getting fairly psyched about moderating again. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done it and this will be my first moderation since we switched back to playing D&D. Plus, I’m basing the campaign in the Forgotten Realms and the supplement books are frankly fantastic. I can feel ideas churning in my head for what I want to do and it feels good to have that creative flow going again. Now, I just have to get it down on paper and flesh things out a bit. Ahhh, taste the geeky goodness.

(click image for larger size)

The picture above is my fantabulous niece’s hair.  I took it at the spur of the moment while we were out at the Great Swamp taking pictures and i thought it looked kinda cool, so I kept it.

Today was kinda of a blah day. I decided to give myself the day off from working out as a recovery day and I was looking forward to sleeping in, but last night was a lousy night for sleeping. I’d crash for an hour, then wake up and not be able to sleep, then crash again, then up again. Grrrrr. So, of course I was all discombobulated today, just tired and achey. The weather didn’t help at all either. It’s been raining on and off all day. So, all in all, just blah, blah, blah.

Right now, I’m just killing time until my friend Jim shows up, then he, Kendra, and I will be going out to dinner.  That, at least, will be fun. We were supposed to have a Game tonight, but Ken is busy taking motorcycle lessons, so that was canceled. Too bad to, I could use some hack and slash.

Husband says, “My olympic condoms have arrived tonight so I am going to wear a gold one.”

Wife says, “Why don’t you wear a silver one and come second for a fucking change.”

(click image for larger size)

Y’know, that’s a little too true for comfort. This bit of wisdom brought to you by Home on The Strange.

There’s a meme going around for people to show a snapshot of their desktop. Since the blog I saw it on actually gave instructions on how to get said snapshot, I decided to go ahead and do it:

(click image for larger size)

The two figures in the lower center are Sugar and Spice, a pair of deskmates that run around the desktop and do stuff for the twisted entertainment of the computer owner.

In other news, there has been an upsurge of views on the ol’ blog in the past couple of days. Seems that when you  update regularly, people actually come read your blog. Whodathunkit?  I should probably come up with some interesting things to talk about then, eh?

So, burning scrotal pain aside, today was a pretty good day. I won a new gym bag in the fall workout challenge at my gym. Basically, the contest was to spell out the inspirational phrase “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”. Every day (for the past 30 days) that you worked out, you got to pull a word chit from the game bag. Despite my amazing talent for pulling the ‘try again’ chit instead of an actual word (note to self: Avoid Atlantic City), I got the whole phrase spelled out and won a brand new gym bag as my prize. Heh, it was that or a twenty five dollar gift certificate to a tanning salon. Now, a gift certificate for a massage (or better yet, a “massage”) I could use, but tanning? I’ve never seen the point of paying to lay naked in a human sized fryer when the sun does the same job for free.

I also went Halloween costume shopping and finally got inspired for an idea. While nothing will out do the true horror of last year’s costume, I think this year will be pretty good too. After all, I have to look good for Lez’s party on the 27th, not to mention that it’s nice to have something to look forward to. Heh, and no, I’m not going to say what the costume is. You’ll just have to wait for the pictures.

Random thought for the day: If something like the babel fish did exist, and was cheap enough so everyone was supplied one at birth, would people continue to actually learn to talk or would language devolve to simple grunts and gibberish while what you meant to say was translated for you?

We all know what the ‘taint‘ is, right? Well, if you ever should happen to rub a raw spot on that particular area ( Perhaps by spending forty five minutes on a treadmill with oddly bunched underwear, just sayin’ ) do not, I repeat, NOT spray the irritated area with Lanacane First Aid Pain Spray. OH…MY…GOD! That was almost as bad as the time I got the bright idea to use Ben-gay as a “personal lubricant”.

Judging by the extremely aggravated bird that exploded into my room earlier today, those bird nests I found underneath my air conditioner were still in use. I opened up my window and the bird flew back out to yell at me from a tree for a while. I considered trying to get a picture of it while it was in my room, but I figured it was more important to get it outside before it hurt itself. Later on, there was a stink bug flying around my room that got snagged in a spider web:

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

Yep, my room is just Wild America these days, mainly because my window screens haven’t been replaced in my lifetime and I like fresh air.

Kathy, over at Becoming Kate, and some friends are calling for “from the loo” pictures. Always willing to break out my camera, here are mine.

First I took this one:

(click image for larger size)

Then I opened the screen and took these two:

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

Man, I remember when that view didn’t have any houses in in at all. Still, at least they’re far away and there aren’t all that many of them.

You know what’s sad? Cleaning out your closet and finding the lonely third of a three pack of condoms that’s over a year and a half past it’s expiration date.

Speaking of sad, I also came across this picture:

Recognize anyone? Left to right; Me, my sister Karin, my niece Kendra, and my friend Jim. It must have been taken in 1998 or 1999 at Six Flags Great Adventure. Wow, that was a long time ago.

So, all summer long at around the time the sun begins to brighten the sky, I’ve been awakened by extremely loud birdsong from (I assumed) the bushes just outside my window. Not exactly the worst way to wake up, but it was occasionally annoying. Well, since the Indian summer heat finally broke, I took out my air conditioner and what did I find?….

(click image for larger size)

(click image for larger size)

I suppose that under my air conditioner was a nice comfy place for the birds to nest. I just hope they weren’t planning on spending the winter.

It’s been a fairly productive weekend. I cleaned and organized my room (again) as well as going to a job fair at our local Big Chain Book Store. Although, my understanding is that a job fair is supposed to be a bunch of potential employers in one place, while this was just open interviews for that particular store all day long. I had to wait an hour and a half from sign up to when they called me for the interview…. Heh, imagine how hard it was for me to kill time in a bookstore…. and then when the extremely pregnant woman who was interviewing me realized I was interested in a more supervisory position, she had to pass me on to the manager. The interview itself went well. I was in high BS mode, which is always good for those things. They have two assistant manager positions available at that store and there might be better opportunities at one of the other stores if I’m willing to commute. My main concern is the pay. They start anybody ‘on the floor’ at only eight bucks an hour, so I’m thinking an assistant manager might make around ten an hour. If that’s the case, even if they offer me the job, I’d have to turn it down….

… Then again, I have all of five more checks due me from unemployment. That will keep me fed until December third. After that, I have nada, so how fussy can I afford to be? What I need is more options.

Free association is described as a “psychonanalytic procedure in which a person is encouraged to give free rein to his or her thoughts and feelings, verbalizing whatever comes into the mind without monitoring its content.” Over time, this technique is supposed to help bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Illicit ::Relationship
2. Go ::Fish
3. Jacket ::Pocket
4. Blow ::Me
5. Coach ::Team
6. Effort ::Less
7. Leadership ::Failing
8. Snore ::Loudly
9. Fearless ::Leader
10. Network ::Affiliate

Chopping Block celebrates Choptoberfest all month long. Go check ‘em out.

I’ve come to the sad conclusion that, much as I may want to, I won’t be making a living through photography any time in the near future. There’s just too much equipment I don’t have and too much information I don’t know. I need more practice, better technique, and a much broader range of subject matter…. All of which I can acquire, but not before my unemployment benefits run out. Since my freelance cartridge technician idea, as well as every other ‘outside the box’ concept I’ve come up with, has also gone absolutely nowhere, I’m going to have to face facts, bite the bullet, and get a real job. No more squirming, no more dodging, it’s just got to be done. Unemployment doesn’t last forever and I only have a couple months to go, so it’s time to get serious about the job search….. damn it.

I know my head’s all messed up when I get a serious jones for Harry Chapin’s music. Don’t get me wrong, the man’s a freakin’ genius and I love his songs. I grew up on them and they touch me like no other music does. That’s why I need them when I’m feeling wonky. His songs play on my emotions, filling me with joy and sadness, with anger and with hope. I can play them, lose myself in them and come out the other side emotionally wrung out and cleansed. As I said, the man was a genius. Listen to the second song, which was written in the seventies, and tell me it couldn’t have been inspired by modern headlines.

The third song is one that inspired me as a child/young teen.  Every time I listen to it, I’m filled with determination. “Not me!”,  My soul cries, “Not ever me”

 And this last one is hope, a reminder of what this country can be….. Because it’s important to remember, America is not our government. America is our people and there is, in every one of us, the spark of a hero.

(click image for larger size)

I was going through some old computer files today and come upon this. It was a school project in package design to make a book cover, so I went with the ’self help’ genre and this is what I came up with. If I wrote it, would you buy it?

*Stolen from Terri

Do you drive the speed limit?
Almost never.

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket?
I have gotten two, to date.

What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven?
Just over 100 mph. Woot!

Do you listen to music in your car?
Hell yes, and loudly

Would you rather be the driver or the passenger?
Driver. i spent too long as an involuntary passenger

Do your passengers like to be backseat drivers?
Nope, they know better.

Whats the longest distance you’ve ever driven in one day?
A little over five hundred miles

Where was the first place you drove when you got your license?
Home from the test.

Did you have any restrictions on where you can drive?
Nope.

What kind of car do you drive?
2005 VW Beetle Convertible

What was your first car?
1977 Chevy Chevette hatchback

How many cars have you owned?
I’m not sure exactly. Around 8

Did you pass your learner’s permit test the first time?
Hell yes

Are you nervous about driving over bridges/tunnels?
Nah

Do you have a lot of junk in your car?
Not this one

Is your car clean?
It needs a washing

Do you sing while driving?
Depends on the song. I notice I tend to sing more with the top down.

Ever driven around without going anywhere?
Oh yeah, that’s a good way to spend an afternoon

Ever followed somone while driving just to see where they were going?
Nope.

Do you use cruise control?
Only on long trips

Do you blast your music?
Hell yes

Ever run a red light?
Not on purpose

Ever been chased by the cops?
Not in my car, no.

Ever been in an accident?
Two

Ever have a flat tire?
Several.

Ever had something else happen to your car?
Sure, I’ve had a few junkers in my day

Does your car have a sunroof?
It’s a convertible. The whole roof is a sunroof.

Is your transmission automatic or stickshift?
Stick.

Does your car get good gas mileage?
Yes it does.

Ever run out of gas?
Yep, I had a car once that registered a quarter tank of gas even when bone dry.

Ever run over an animal with your car?
Not a live one. I did hit a dead deer in January.

What year is your car?
2005. Didn’t I say that already?

Most passengers you’ve ever had in your car?
Three.

Places you usually drive your car?
Used to be to work most often, now I guess it’s the gym and the supermarket.

Ever get your car stuck somewhere?
Nope.

Ever back your car into something/someone back theirs into yours?
Yeah, I had an idiot in an SUV back into me when my car was a year old.

Ever get a parking ticket?
Yep, back when I was 17 in South Orange, New Jersey. It cost me two dollars

Ever driven without a license?
Nope.

Ever race your car?
No, I have all my teeth.

Have a good driver’s ed teacher?
Yes, I did

Ever had your windshield wipers stop working?
I had a baboon bend my wipers out of shape to get at the delisious pussy willow blossoms that were trapped underneath.

Ever lock your keys in your car?
Nah.

Anyone ever throw up in your car?
Heh no, but out the passenger side window and down the side, yes.

Ever lose your keys?
Nope

Ever have a dead battery?
Oh yeah

Ever hit a mailbox or run in a ditch?
Not as the driver. I’ve been a passenger in both those situations though.

Ever leave your lights on?
Not in the new car, but it’s happened.

Do you have a car payment?
Ohhhhh yeah.

Ever drive drunk?
Yes, I have. Hence my DWI conviction when I was 25 and going almost 10 years without a license because of the extreme surcharges in this damned state.

Ever come close to getting in an accident but didn’t?
Not really

Do you like driving?
Oh yes.

Do you like your car?
I LOVE my car.

I am five feet, three inches tall and pleasingly plump. After I
had a minor accident, my mother accompanied me to the emergency
room. The triage nurse asked for my height and weight, and I
blurted out, “Five-foot-eight, 125 pounds.”

While the nurse pondered over this information, my mother leaned
over to me. “Sweetheart,” she gently chided, “this is not the
Internet.”

~~~

A man asked his wife what she’d like for her birthday.

“I’d love to be six again,” she replied.

On the morning of her birthday, he got her up bright and early
and off they went to a local theme park. What a day! He put her
on every ride in the park: the Death Slide, the Screaming Loop,
the Wall of Fear -everything there was!

Five hours later she staggered out of the theme park, her head
reeling and her stomach upside down. Right to a McDonald’s they
went, where her husband ordered her a Big Mac along with extra
fries and a refreshing chocolate shake.

Then it was off to a movie–a nice Pipi Longstocking remake,
and hot dogs, popcorn, soda pop and candy. What a fabulous
adventure! Finally she wobbled home with her husband and
collapsed into bed.

He leaned over and lovingly asked, “Well, dear, what was it
like being six again?”

She half opened one eye. “You idiot, I meant my dress size.”

My back is killing me. It’s been bothering me all week, ever since helping move furniture on Saturday. Then today, while getting out of bed, something went *pop* and I went “Arrrrgh!”. So, now I’m limping around the house and sitting on a heated massage pad while typing this.What makes this especially (heh) aggravating is the fact that back in my late twenties, I actually worked as a mover. I’d move entire tractor trailer loads of furniture in a single day, go home, drink some beer, collapse, get up and do it all again. Now, every time my back twinges, there’s this evil little voice in my brain saying “Well, you’re not exactly in your twenties anymore, are you?”. The fact is, I have exactly 30 days to go until I turn forty myself. Meh, I think I’ll put on a shawl, eat some gruel, and pamper my poor aching back for a while.

(click image for larger size)

Taken out of my bedroom window just a little bit ago.

There’s been a severe lack of posting around here lately, hasn’t there? I just haven’t been in a writing mood lately, but I’ll try to be better.

So, on Saturday, I helped my friends Ken and Linda move furniture into Linda’s new apartment. Ken and Linda have been together for 27 years and married for 15. They first met when they were 13…. and as of Monday, they’re officially separated. You might ask why. What happened after 27 years to drive them apart? There are several answers, but it all boils down to…. the big 4 0. I don’t know what it is about turning forty, but I’ve seen a bunch of people just explode when they hit it. I truly don’t understand, but then, I’m not married. I don’t have kids. I haven’t been in the same situation/ relationship for more than a two years, much less a couple of decades. Ken and Linda were buying stuff for their first house back in high school.

So, what happened? They drifted apart, started taking each other for granted, and stopped communicating. Linda told me she felt increasingly isolated, that Ken didn’t take an interest in things that she liked and that even when they did things together, they each went their own way. There were other things as well, details told to me in confidence that I don’t need to go into here, but really, it was that lack of communication that let things get to the crisis point….. That and both of them turning forty this year.

The good news is that they’re talking now. They haven’t given up on the relationship and are going to both individual and couples counseling. Linda’s going to be living on her own to ‘figure out who she is as a person’ as opposed to being part of a couple. Ken’s staying in the house with the kids. He’s also decided to go the cliché route…. as in he’s buying a motorcycle and getting a couple of tattoos. if that’s the extent of his acting out, it’s all good. Hopefully, in a year when Linda’s lease is up, they can get back together, both stronger and wiser, knowing the true value of their relationship.

I’m going to focus on the hopeful conclusion. There is, of course, a much darker alternative as well as different grays in between.