I haven’t seen the Simpsons Movie yet but I hope to…one day. In honor of this historic piece of film I went to Simpsonize Me.
Here I am before I was turned into a Simpson character:
Here I am after:
I definitely look like I am related to Flanders…oh well!
We are not big news watchers in our home. I prefer to watch happier things…maybe stories on puppies and flowers or something (no, not really). Yesterday on our way home from work we noticed that an area near one of our local gas stations (the one that is always crowded) was taped off yellow. I wondered out loud what had happened.
This morning while getting ready for another exciting day in the workplace, I glanced this story:
Authorities investigating bodies found in business
This location is exactly 2/5 of a mile from my house. That is easily walking distance from a potential murder scene. What has happened to our quiet little hamlet?
It is hard to believe that today at work wasn’t a completely crappy day. A few weeks ago I requested to adjust my schedule to have both Saturday and Sunday off instead of having to work every Saturday. It was approved! Yeah me!
The crappy part of that (because nothing comes through perfectly):
Me: “When does that start?”
My manager: “Uhh, I don’t know.”
Well, whatever, at least it will start in the next month I would hope. This won’t be me anymore:
I don’t know why but everytime I see this I giggle uncontrollably:
I may not be a fan of his music but man that Justin Timberlake is a funny guy…especially if Andy Samberg is helping.
Actually, go ahead and get into my Facebook. Apparently, I had signed up for a Facebook account way back when (I don’t remember doing it). Visit mine here. One of my blogger buds, Hutch, added me as a friend the other day and I have been hooked all afternoon. What is Facebook? I’m glad you asked. It is kind of a grown up version of MySpace. My MySpace page is here, by the way. Come on over and sign up and I bet you will like it. It is a good way to keep connected to friends and such in your community.
I am cheating a little bit, I guess. This is not one of Pops’ records. It actually is one that G-Man got me for Christmas last year and it is spectacular. An amalgamation of rock and roll, classical music and poetry, Yes‘ 1972 masterpiece Close To The Edge mesmerizes the listener.
The album combines beautiful prose with spiritual themes and virtuosic musicianship. Thirty-seven plus minutes of amazingness in a mere three songs give me a near religious awakening. Yes, it is that damn good. When turned up to excessively loud volumes, Chris Squire’s thundering bass lines, Steve Howe’s ethereal guitar work and Jon Anderson’s angelic voice explode in your head.
This amazing piece of music is featured in the book, “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” and in 2006 was voted the greatest progressive rock album of all time by Progarchives.com.
Here is a 2001 live version of the title track:
Here is another classic Yes tune not from this album:
I think this number might be a bit inflated:
My blog is worth $16,371.66.
How much is your blog worth?
Apparently, my blog is worth a lot more than the effort I put into it. Maybe I should put it on Craig’s List.
Little Harry got home after being away a week at church camp today.
me: “How was camp?”
LH: “Not bad, I jammed my finger.”
me: “How did ya do that?”
LH: “Playing flag football.”
me: “What else did you do besides play football?”
LH [read as a sarcastic teenager]: “Uhh, worship the Lord.”
I can’t wait for him to get even more ensconced in his teen years.
Yeah, that’s right. I admit it. I am a fan of the Harry Potter universe and I am not afraid or embarrassed to tell you. I own all of the movies on DVD and all of the books, hardcover of course, including the fake school text books (although I am still missing a hardcover Philosopher’s Stone).
How does a man who is in his early to mid 30s get into this amazing phenomenon? I’m glad you asked me that question. Let’s stick our heads into the Pensieve and find out:
My son, Little Harry (so named when a co-worker thought he looked a little like the famous wizard) was a fan of the books about 4-5 years ago. He had read all of the books, all 5 at the time and enjoyed the first two movies. I had only heard of the books back in 2000 when I saw all of the crazy people going bonkers over the new book that was coming out. I thought that they were foolish and should get a life. These thoughts were brought to you by a life long wrestling fan. God, I am such a dork.
(This is from 2005 when he still looked a little like HP.)
When the first movie came out on DVD I was a member of a movie club and Moms had asked me to order one for her, which I did. Accidentally, I did not send that stupid card back, though when it was the selection of the month and lo and behold I got two of the stupid things. I figured that since Little Harry enjoyed it I would go ahead and keep it for him. I never really paid it any attention when he would throw it in the DVD player.
Fast forward to the release on DVD of movie number 2. I got hosed in to watching this dumb thing since my son thought that I would really like it…yeah, whatever! You know what? I’ll be darned if he wasn’t right! I was mesmerized by the amazing world of Hogwarts and of Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape was just the coolest. I felt that it was my duty as a parent (that sounds so serious, doesn’t it?) to find out exactly what my son was reading.
So I made him bring me all five (at the time) books so I could peruse them at my leisure. I figured that they would be so childish and blah. Yep, I didn’t feel that they would be that good even after enjoying the movie. I can be such a git sometimes. Regardless of my aprehension I delved deep into the first book and was pulled head over heels into this amazing world of good vs. evil, magic, friendship and love. I was hooked. I zipped through the first 3 books in a week!
I laughed with Ron, Hermione and Harry when Neville did something silly and learned to loathe Professor Snape and Malfoy and learned to fear He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! I was very sad at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and sniffled a lot at the end of The Half-Blood Prince.
I have looked for spoiler information on the internet prior to the sixth book but stayed clear of that stuff recently so that I can be surprised. I have had in depth conversations with The School Girl, G-Man, Little Harry, Moms and La Hermana about the story lines as if this stuff is real. You know that you have, too!
The 7th and final installment will be released at midnight this coming Saturday and no I will not be at a Potter Party or anything but I will be reading The Deathly Hallows as soon as I get home from work. In preparation of the end I have re-watched Goblet of Fire, went to see Order of the Phoenix at the theater and just today finished reading (for the 2nd time) Half-Blood Prince. I am stoked but I know that when I close that book I will be sad. Author J.K. Rowling made me believe in The Boy Who Lived and I hate to see it all end. It will all be okay though. I can always just read them all over again…oh and we will have new movies up until 2010!
If you have never read any of the HP books, I implore you to pick them up now. If you have and love it like I do, don’t be afraid to stand up and be counted even if you are older than 13 years old.
So I guess it is just wrong to laugh at the misfortunes of others but something really tickled me this afternoon. The School Girl is still shaking her head at me.
As I was leaving work, about to head down the ramp to I-40 to go pick up my wife from work, I dialed my cell to talk to the parental units. After Moms answered I noticed something just crazy funny out of the corner of my eye:
A homeless man was standing on the sidewalk (not funny yet)
He hadn’t shaved in a long time (still not funny)
He was pushing a shopping cart (wait for it…)
Wearing a t-shirt that said (are you ready for this?)
World’s Greatest Dad!
I had tears in my eyes. This still has me giggling. Yeah, I know. I can be a heartless mean sonuvabitch. I just wish…that maybe I could have…just maybe…had my camera with me. (You still love me!)
So after watching the fourth Harry Potter movie for what may the fourth time, The School Girl and I got ready to head out yesterday to see number 5. It was decided that we would drive up I-65 to Hollywood 27 because it is the closest one that would take our free movie passes that we planned to use.
All seemed to be going well until one mile before the first Columbia exit. There was no evidence of poor weather or an accident (only stupid people) and we were literally stopped on the interstate for a good 10 minutes. I decided that we could not co-exist with moronic drivers all day and changed our plans.
We got off at Columbia and headed into town to visit their rinky-dink, dilapidated movie theater. We arrived at 2:05pm…the next showing was at 2:55pm! Crap-tastic! Oh well, we would wait. My demeanor, as you may have guessed, was heading south. I thought I would just park really fast and sit and wait for the previews to start because I knew that they would start well before the advertised starting time of the movie.
If any of you have ever been to the movie theater in Columbia then you know what I am talking about. The lines for the parking spaces are just too damned close to each other. The spaces accomodate a very nice Model T, but that is all. It also doesn’t help that people who have no business parking here (due to not knowing HOW to park) are taking up mulitple spots. As you can tell, my happy mood was dwindling.
Nonetheless, we finally got to our seats and got over ourselves when we were annoyed that people were sitting around us (ok, it was mostly me, jeez). “Yes dear, I do remember that it is opening weekend!”
As far as the movie goes, it may be the best of the five. It definitely is the most “grown-up”. The acting was top-notch, the visuals were spectacular as normal but the raw emotions in this movie were extreme. Even though I knew the big ending was coming, I still felt total sadness as the character screams in total sorrow and anger. Good stuff. Go see this flick if you haven’t already.
The School Girl got a wild hair…almost literally today. Apparently, she was sick and tired of her hairdo and did a complete chop and stain. This is before:
(Hello there Fandango!)
Now after a visit to the hair dresser and from Miss Clairol I felt like I had my very own Punk Rock Girl! It is growing on me. I am definitely not used to such dark hair.
Little Harry was visiting with my parents in Bama last week. On Sunday we met them halfway down I-65 to pick him up and grab an icecream at the Baskin Robbins (everyone loves icecream right?).
The cool part of making this trip for me is seeing the big rocket at the Alabama Welcome Center…the bad part is crossing the long effing bridge (yes I have a fear of bridges) over the Tennessee River.
Here we are heading south and the rocket will be on your right:
Now the fun begins as we cross the huge bridge for the first time that day (listen for The School Girl to holler out “Virginia” for our license plate game which is cheating as far as I am concerned due to the fact that I cannot pay attention to the road or I may lose control and drive the car off the bridge and kill us…I may have mentioned that I hate bridges):
We finally arrive at our rendez-vous point and I have a Kit Kat Blizzard…don’t be jealous.
I think that those headphones have been surgically attached to the kid’s ears! Ahh, teenagers are great.
Here my wife is having fun annoying me as we re-cross that damned bridge again! If she would have panned out you may have seen the white knuckles on the steering wheel.
Now we get to see the rocket again…hooray! I am not sure why I dig this thing so much.
