David's Tangled Thoughts

My ability to recall dreams is rather dismal. I rarely remember anything when I wake up. I made an effort to recall a dream that I had earlier this morning by writing it down as soon as I woke up. I didn’t get it all but I did get a lot. This dream was worth the effort because it connects with a dream that I had months ago (four?). In that dream, I remember only one thing: driving in a white wrecker with a bunch of screaming Brits hanging on for dear life. Yes, it is an odd thing for me to dream of. Anyways, on to the dream. It began with me and two friends (let’s call them Michael and Jennifer) driving down a country road. I was driving recklessly fast, dodging potholes and road kill. A vehicle coming from the opposite direction forced me off the road and luckily we ended up safe. The car we were in, however, was dead. Since it was Halloween night, we decided that we would go trick or treating and worry about the car later. Again it’s a country road so there aren’t that man

Michelle, a former coworker of mine, spent a lot of her time last year on a film project. Does anyone remember “The Blair Witch Project?” Well, she’s in something similar apparently. Before she left, she promised to invite me to the premier which I was told would be sometime this fall because the movie is a horror film. That invitation got to me today for the premier that will be this Thursday at a local theater two towns away. I really want to go but I don’t know who I could go with. Every person that I would ask is coupled. Freakin’ coupled! So what did I do? I invited them all anyways in hopes that one would bite. Man, I need to go find some single people.

I’m beginning to think more and more that my Aunt is one of those scary Republicans. I hate some of these forwards that she emails me because they play on readers’ fears. One that I got a while ago told me to refuse to use the one dollar coins because “In God We Trust” is not on there. In fact, the national motto is engraved on the coin. It’s on the edges. I wrote her back saying, “People just don't see all sides of the issue. Not only will continue to use the dollar coin. I actually support the discontinuation of the dollar bill.” I also included a picture of the dollar coin with the motto visible just for her future reference. Well now the following has shown up in my inbox: How Budweiser handled those who laughed at those who died on the 11th of September 2001… Thought you might like to know what happened in a little town north of Bakersfield, California. After you finish reading this, please forward this story on to others so that our nation and people around the world

Generally speaking, I hate reality programming. The only one that I am a fan of is The Amazing Race (Say, aren’t we due for another season yet?). Fox is thinking about a show that I may have to check out if they decide to pick it up. It’s called “ Bad Dads ” and it’s about shaking down deadbeat dads. I don’t feel angry over deadbeat dads—more like deadbeat parents. I don’t care if they are the mother or the father, but I know people that are horrible parents and don’t provide for their children. It riles me up even more when I hear of parents who can’t get off their lazy asses. Let me tell you about this gal: A while back, the local judge heard a case about a young woman who was being charged for some misdemeanor. Her actual crime was no biggie but the judge asked her why she wasn’t working (it was pertinent to her case) and she replied that she had kids and because of that, she couldn’t work. I had a good laugh at that one. The judge didn’t buy the lame excuse and ordered he

Every year I try to resist picking up a new show to watch. I say it is because I watch too much TV in the first place but really, I just hate getting into shows that will end up being axed in a few months. The American Embassy comes immediately to mind. A couple months ago as I was puttering down 31*--because my car is a… you know. Anyways, I noticed the billboard about Eli Stone . It piqued my interest. A few days later I found out on abc.com that the show is available online for free viewing. I watched it and I was hooked. The basic story is that Eli Stone is a hot shot lawyer who finds out he has an aneurysm which causes him to have visions. These visions seem prophetic and cryptic and they cause Stone to develop a lawyer with a heart. No really—it’s true. It is a feel good dramedy and a big plus is that it’s a law show that’s not mind numbing. The cast is great. Two of my favorites are Loretta Devine and Victor Garber. And Jonny Lee Miller—what the hell is going on i

One of my best friends, Erin, got married yesterday. She met her husband last August and after what must’ve been a whirlwind romance of titanic proportions, they decided to get married. It does seem really early, doesn’t it? But the more I think on it, I have come to the conclusion that it really isn’t up to me to judge someone else’s decision to get married. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a tad bitter that people have made judgments on whether I should marry but that’s a whole different post. Anyways, back to Erin. I want her to be happy and if Jason is the guy for her than it’s good enough for me because I will always support her. She’s got a good head on her shoulders and can handle practically anything thrown to her. Isle runners are evil. I should have taken more pictures but since I had a job to do at the ceremony, I didn’t think it would be appropriate for me. Then, at the reception, I didn’t feel like taking snap shots. There are couple that managed to find it to the blo

Blizzard Earthquake Flood Hail Storm Hurricane Tornado Volcanic Eruption Call me crazy but there are natural disasters that I want to say I’ve experienced. Granted that’s horrible since natural disasters cost lives and resources but deep down inside me, I’m always looking forward to one. Today we had an earthquake. It was early in the morning when I woke up to my bed shaking. You know how when you are driving your car and on windy days, it tosses you around a little? That’s what it felt like. At the time, I thought that it was the wind and that somehow some strong gusts must be transferring their kinetic energy through the walls which touch my bed. Even then, I knew that something like that has never happened before but I was so sleepy that I just dismissed it. When I woke up, I heard on the radio that there was an earthquake in southern Indiana by Evansville. It was a 5.2 and was strong enough to be felt up here in Michiana. I was just in the middle of saying, “I didn’t feel a

Another article that I read today was the spillway down near New Orleans the siphons off some of the Mississippi River when it floods over. Some of the water that normally would flow out through the city and into the Gulf of Mexico is diverted into Lake Pontchartrain . The story itself wasn't terribly interesting but the comment section was a riot. One person was wondering why the spillway wasn't opened during Katrina (the spillway hasn't been opened in 11 years)--as if that would help protect the city from a storm surge coming from the LAKE. If anything dumping more water into the lake would make things worse not better. My favorite, though, had to be this one: It sure seems as much money and effort are wasted in other places in the country, The Mississippi and Missouri rivers could be diverted in Missouri and channeled to western Okla and Texas, not to mention the eastern rivers to lakes near Atlanta. --Yes, we're going to make rivers go uphill and across other ri

Have you heard about Detroit’s mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick? He’s in all sorts of trouble. There’s so much crap floating around this guy that you should probably check out his Wikipedia site. Or if you are a good minded academic sort, Lexis Nexis might just be for you too. (Hmmm, I wonder if I still have access to that through my university…) Right now, the mayor is facing felony charges for two of which is perjury and obstruction of justice when he lied about having an affair with one of his Chief of Staff. That had come up during a whistle blower suit. The Detroit City Council finally got sick of this guy and called on him to resign which he has so far refused to do. An article turned up today in which the Council refused to hear the mayor’s annual budget address. It’s fairly obvious that the council wants to express their displeasure with the mayor—and I’m putting that nicely. However, I think that the Council was wrong to do so. They can hate the mayor all they want. They can

Wait, didn’t they make this movie already with Julia Roberts? That bit about picking something for the wedding night... [raises hand]... yeah, that was me two weeks ago.

This History of Everything by the Barenaked Ladies h/t to SpikedSoda who posted this.

American Airlines is supposed to get back to normal flight operations today but since this whole fiasco started, I’ve been wondering about something. Now we’d all like to be sure that the planes that we are traveling are safe so you have to give some credit to the airlines for these inspections. However, it still pisses people off that a massive cancellation of flights had to happen. I’m sure that if these cancellations were not made, the number of planes falling out of the sky would not have been significantly higher than any other day. What I was wondering was this: Say you are a passenger for American Airlines and you get up to the departure desk and the attendants says, “We have a potential issue with our planes and they should be inspected to make sure that they are safe for travel. However, it’s a small issue and unlikely to be a problem. If you and enough of the other passengers sign off on this release form, then we’d be happy to fly you to your destination.” Let’s jus

Oh how I hate files. Lately, I think that files have pretty much become part of my life. When I'm at work, all I do is deal with files. When I come home, I try and mess with files on my new computer (because file transfers--especially media files--can't simply be copied over). I had meant to do my taxes today but I was missing my 1099-DIV . When January rolled around, I consciously made sure to keep my W-2s separate because I knew that keeping track of three pieces of paper in my regular file folders would be too complicated for me. So those W-2s were put together with my federal and state tax booklets and in my desk. What I failed to think of was my 1099. So I had to hunt that sucker down in my file folders which is stuffed with all kinds of statements, receipts, and a bunch of other crap. I couldn't find it in the 15 or so minutes I spent looking for it so I just dumped out the whole thing and started over. It's done now and my 1099 is safely together with th

Question put to me: “What did she have?” My answer: “A baby…[pregnant pause]… boy .” I’m amazed how thick I can be. So yes, the gal that I’m taking over for had her baby last night. It was a boy, 7lbs 7oz, named Brady*. Sorry gals, my ability to remember other stats for newborns hits its limits right about there. It was surprisingly fast. She only started having the contractions yesterday, or so I heard. That kid came running on out and she’s such a small thing, I bet ya he just needed to get out of those cramped living conditions. I feel a little bad that I didn’t send a congratulatory note through email. However, I doubt that she really cares about anything else at this moment besides her family—and sleep. I still have access to her email so on Monday, I’ll just slip in my note and delete a couple of the other ones. *Anyone want to guess who the baby was named after? Think local. Think sports.

Some guy that I came across on YouTube was doing one of those meme things. He was answering a question that asked if he had ever had a choco taco. He had a funny look of disgust. but I have not seen a choco taco in a long time! Since high school. I'm gonna get one. Anyone know where they are sold?

This post is mainly in response to the comments in “I wish I could write this off.” A few days ago I made a comment on Kaptiano’s site. Where I said that I had an expectation of life that probably could not be met outside the Anglosphere. What I mean by that is that I love the American lifestyle that can arguably said that is fast, free flowing, cheap, materialistic, excessive, privleged, etc. Relatively speaking, I live a life that is many times more easier than most of the people in the world. So I did have a certain reservation about making the previous post. Compared to all the other western and industrialized nations, the price for my gas is quite a deal. I’m very much aware of that. However, I also know that the reality of American living is that alternative sources of transportation is almost none existent. There is no public transportation where I live. Well, that’s slightly inaccurate. There is a county dial-a-ride but I’ll get to that in a minute. So, when gas price

Gas hit $3.45/gal today. That's the highest I have ever seen it. Last summer it got up to $3.36/gal but today it zoomed up from $3.29 this morning. Shoot. I was running on empty that morning too. I should have filled 'er up. On the way to Wal-mart to get gas, I noticed the new prices. Pretty much all the gas stations had the same price but when I got to the Niles Wal-mart, I could see that their price was $3.25. Now I can see the pricing sign before I see the station so I just kept driving. I knew that it was going to be a mad house. And I was right. There were lines three or four cars deep with some circling out of the station. Frak that. I'd rather spend the extra buck and get my gas over at the Speedway station than put up with that load of BS, and that's exactly what I did. Enjoy the cartoons. H/t to my friend Season. As always, click on the image to enlarge.

I haven’t slept until noon for a long time. I got back home a little late after attending a bachelorette party for Erin that lasted from 12:30pm until 12:30am. Well it ended for me that time because I decided to go home and get some sleep while the rest could have stayed up to play more games, drink, hot tub, hit on men, or whatever. I was having issues whether I should go or not. I’m a guy and well… it’s just weird. At least that was how I was raised. There were things that only guys did and there were things that only girls did. But what the hell, I’m not exactly living to conform. And it’s not like I was would have been happy trying to go to Jason’s party which I later learned was pretty much a bust. To start, we went to the Tabor Hill winery for lunch and wine tasting. I’ve been to formal dinners before but I’ve never had wine with my meal. I’m not much of a wine person in the first place but this was an opportunity to try out my dining skills. …Yup—continental still su

<<---See also: “Sci-Fi Got More Boring” After a long year of waiting, Battlestar Galactica is back. I’m still frakking pissed that I had to wait this long and I probably would have gone homicidal if the writer’s strike had killed off the show. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t go that far but it sure would have been close. So we left off last year with the conclusion of Baltar’s trial. But let’s glide over the other story arcs and jump to the very end where the fleet jumps to a nebula that is supposed to be a signpost to Earth. When they arrive, the power goes out for some unexplained reason. As soon as they get their bearings, the Cylons show up but because of the power outage, the fleet can’t make a getaway. Apparently, FTL drives in this show require a significant time to “spool up.” With the Cylons bearing down on them, Galactica throws out the pilots in hopes to hold off the toasters long enough for the fleet to jump away. While Apollo is out in his Viper, he runs into Starbu

Wow. Getting crap moved over from an old computer to a new one takes a lot of time. Argh. Anyways, I will be getting back in a few days. Nothing has been happening lately for me. It's pretty much a routine of sleeping and going to work. But, I do have some exciting plans for the weekend so I can't wait for the work week to end. Good thing that it is hump day! Anyways, y'all take care.

The new computer came in today so I may be off for a while. Hopefully not.