VJ is Dead, Long Live VJ

Bye Bye Vanishing James, Mister JimmyJam has a new blog.

http://itsthekitch.wordpress.com

See you there.

Random Thoughts + an announcement...

Thought 1 - This Jon Benet Confessor is a wack job. Dollars to donuts this is not the guy.

Thought 2 - How much worse can it get for Floyd Landis and his family? What a tragedy. Hopefully it's true that the main causes were not the doping scandal.

Thought 3 - I have been with Riz, or he has been with me for both the worst loss ever in Yankee history, the longest 9 inning game in Yankee and MLB history, not to mention a Jet playoff collapse. What's that mean? Absolutely nothing.

Announcement -- My friend and family and the very scant few of you out there that read this fairly neglected blog might know that we have been pursuing adoption. We announced it and started the process and you'll have noticed that the adoption conversation has fairly dried up until right now. Our thanks to all of you for not pressing the issue at all. As you might figure, we freaked out about it for a bit, and then CK was going to get a new job. The freakout combined with the timing of her new job put the kabosh on adoption for a bit. By the time we had our minds wrapped around and committed to it, life threw us a curveball. A nice fat one though that we can drive into the gap. It just makes sense to let CK get time in her position at work so when she goes back to work if she takes some time off that she can go back into the same position. So we have pushed things back about a year and are working with Spence Chapin to make that happen.

So, we will be adopting, just not as fast as we thought. Adella Jennifer Kitcher will be with us soon. :-)

Cheating Bastard or Victim?

Given the witch hunt that's pursued Lance Armtstrong in regards to cheating during the Tour De Lance, specifically the charges levied at him by L'Equipe, a French rag and Dick Pound, head of the WADA; I was not going to be surprised if allegations were made about Landis -- who rode with Lance, and is an American.

Another American winning the tour, worse, one with ties to ESPY winner and Tour De Lance record holder Lance Armstrong is an anathema to the French. Well, not all French, but definitely Dick Pound and his crew.

Is it possible Landis cheated? Yeah. Thing is, it's retarded cheating if it was, because a one time steroid use is going to be enough to wreck a test, but not increase performance. That's according to Dr. Gary Wadler in an AP article published on ESPN right here. All Landis' other samples were clean except for that one day. Further - he knows they test for EPO, one of the substances found in his urine sample.

So, Floyd, if you did cheat, you are as dumb as you are tough, because if you did, they did not do a thing for you and you still won the tour and pissed it away at the same time.

Is it possible someone at the WADA is gunning for Floyd in Lance's wake? Sure. Just Google the backstory on all of that. They were after Lance forever. However, barring someone coming forward and admitting tampering, the burden of proof is all on Floyd, and unless he had some other samples taken and notarized on that day, he's got an uphill battle ahead of him.

Bob Roll from OLNTV.com had some good questions though -- and they need to be answered by doctors from the cycling equivalent of Sweden. Here they are:

• Can one sample be nearly three times different in 24 hours than a previous sample?
• Can the body absorb, metabolize and convert any substance into a controllable sample that has been recorded to be a ratio of 11 to 1 of testosterone vs. epitestosterone -- almost three times the allowable ratio in one single day?
• Can any doctor explain the findings in a way regular people can understand?

You can read the rest of Roll's comments in this article on OLNtv.com. Here's my question, why only two samples - an A sample and a B sample? How about four samples? Two could be taken before the race by one anti doping agency two after the race taken by and  and two after the race and those samples mixed up and sent off to different labs for testing. For so serious a charge, one would think they could afford the extra control measures. Of course my suggestion lacks some detail, but I think the general gist of it has merit.

Sigh. The French hate us winning their tour. Often athlete's cheat.It's hard to say I have anything but doubts and reservations all around.

Tour de France - Floyd Landis: A$$ Kicker

Kudos to Landis for putting forth what every cycling expert has already called the greatest single day effort in Tour history.

I know I'd written him off after he bonked and lost 11 minutes to his main rivals along with the Yellow Jersey as well. To me, it seemed to say that he had not been riding conservatively so much as he had said and had finally hit a wall and put himself out of contention.

That's what everyone else thought. Except for Floyd. He destroyed the peloton and his main rivals today in an amazing display of guts, determination and focus. When the stage ended he looked in good shape and was waaay fired up for a bit after. The stage win put hims in position to reclaim the Yellow Jersey in the upcoming 56K time trial of Stage 19 -- a race event he excels at. Barring a crash or a super-human performance from Sastre, Landis should take the lead and win the Tour.

They (his competion) thought he was out of it and ignored his early, unconventional break-away early in the mountains of Stage 17. No one attacks in the lower portion of Col des Saisies, about 65 kilometers into the 200.5-kilometer stage. Away he went and they let him go.

Everyone wanted Landis to put the hammer down so to speak, a la Lance, and then just when it seemed he had no hammer at all, he pulled it out.

Way to go.

Tornado Hits North Of Elmsford.

An F1 sometimes F2 tornado hit towns just a bit north of our home in Elmsford on Wednesday afternoon this week.

We'd been in a vacation bubble and had no idea it had happened until our car service guy brought it up while he took us back on Thursday.

To say the least, we were shocked and surprised it had happened. Apparently, at around 3 PM or so, the tornado developed on the Rockland County side of the Hudson River and raced across just north of the Tappan Zee Bridge and touched down in Sleepy Hollow. It then cut a swath across the county all the way into Fairfield County in Connecticut.

• You can read about it here on MSNBC.
• Westchester Journal News coverage can be found here
  

Backtracking the timeline of things, we discovered that the tornado hit just as we were on the "Twister" ride at Universal Studios. Freaky. As part of the experience, they show clips from the movie, including the bit where Helen Hunt's character speaks about how a tornado can miss this house and that one but come right after yours. She's right.

I got to see the randomness and wildness of the destruction when I drove up to work out at the NYSC in Hawthorne. The tornado touched down just east of the Eastview exit on the Sawmill Parkway, shreded all the trees it touched, cut across the parkway and through the exit, demolished part of a gas station, crossed 9A and somehow cut in between an Applebees and the NYSC I go to and took out the north wall of a California Closets building. Totally random. Totally destructive. The trees look like the trees portrayed during the Ardennes scenes in Band of Brothers. Exploded. Each one sheared off and spintered at about 15 ft.

I took some pictures with my film camera and if I can find a lab to print them at I'll scan them and post some here.

Happy Birthday, Jenn

Happy 29th Birthday, Jenn.

Mom & Dad, Mary-Alice & Michael and a few other family friends are gathering in your memory today -- perhaps you know about it? There's a service with Father Rock, lunch at the Culinary Institute of America and then company over at the parentals. I know there will be fresh flowers on your grave from them and some other people that knew and loved you. As luck would have it, it's the first sunny day in these parts in something close to two weeks. I'll give you some credit for that. Thanks!

As for me -- I'm at work doing work things. I'm thinking about you of course, but that's not too different from any other day. I'm sad Jenn. We all are. God, we are so sad and miss you so much. Finally though, I seem to have worked past being devastated. The depression, the deeper depression and just when you thought you'd hit bottom and the bottom falls out depression have abated. Am I healed? No, I don't think so. Healing though. Getting better. Do I still have regrets about things between us? Yeah. I do. The difference is that I've learned to accept that. I try not to dwell on your untapped, unrealized potential or on how much pain you were in and how lonely you were or how frustrated you were. I know all those things were true and it hurts to know that but I cannot be consumed by it. I know you don't want me that way and I sure don't like being a wreck.

Anyway, I was laughing to myself back on the 26th of June, the day I spent most of my life thinking really was your birthday. I'm not sure why I thought that, but I did. Remember how I used to show up with a gift for you, on the 29th no less, with a belated birthday card attached? Or I'd be calling you and wishing you a happy birthday and you'd be wondering why? Speaking of which, I remember trying to enterain you and your gaggle of 1st/2nd grade friends in our back yard. Mom made me put on a clown wig leftover from your Halloween costume and I tried to be a clown with just the wig and perhaps some lipstick of Mom's I used as face paint.

You look really happy in the pictures from that day.

My one gift to you, if it is in my power to give at all -- is that you be happy just like you were then. No baggage, no crap. Just the happiness that goes with being 8 or so. Let the rest fall away.

Happy Birthday.

Love,

Jimbo

Not so big a confession

I love comics. LOVE them. What a great, compelling medium filled with great story lines, great art and great characters.

Of course -- it doesn't hurt that the female hero's are drawn like an Amazonian CK alight in something from the Madame Xavier's Midnight Lightning Collection. Gotta love Ms. Marvel -- pictured over to the right there. She's ex Air Force, CIA, and S.H.E.I.L.D Agent -- a New Avenger -- an ass kicker and a hottie. Yeah yeah - typical male attitude. Thing is, last I looked -- the male heroes' aren't exactly hiding much either. Lets go to the tape of CK reading the latest installement of Civil War and pause a moment while we let her reiterate what she said when she saw the second to last panel of the book -- which features Spider Man.

"Holy Crap! That's Hot!"

And there you have it.

I've been away for a while -- decades I think, but now I'm back and the love affair has started all over again...thanks mostly to working two blocks down from one of the best, if not the best, comic store in all the land - Mid-Town Comics. It took a year for the store to work its voodoo on me, but now I've got an account there and find myself looking forward to Wednesdays more than ever.

Right now, these are my top reads:

1. Civil War - The art is fantastic. Just compare Spider Man in it to the art in one of his titles, like Sensational Spider Man and you will see what I mean.
2. Annihilation - It's fun to watch the Super Skrull get betrayed and the Silver Surfer reborn and once again, very very vengeful and PO'd.
   
3. New Avengers - This is the best regular series book out there right now IMHO
   
4. Daredevil
   
5. Lucifer
   
6. The occasional dose of Ms. Marvel or her DC equivalent, (kinda-sorta) Power Girl. Ms Marvel started out well enough, but this last one with her fighting a wizard and hanging out with Dr. Strange annoyed me. Fight the space creature and the world threat, not the magical ones. Ms. Marvel does not come from that base. Stay on your base!
   

What was old is now new again (hockey, comics, guitar) What next?

06.06.06

Welcome to the apocalypse, the end of days, Armageddon...or maybe just Tuesday.

Random Omens from today: (All For YOU blog readers! All for you!!)

Grand Central Omens:

• A woman arrested outside the Duane Reade in Grand Central. I could not see her face.
• A man gave up his seat on the train.

Times Square Omens:

• There were naked men playing guitar in Times Square
• Some guy wanted cash donations for literacy for chickens.

"30 Rock" Omens.

• I saw the "Queer Eye" Guys dishing with fans in the Today show crowd whilst Roker did an interview with....someone.

Whatever. It's Tuesday. All this friggen extra security all over the city. For what? A friggen movie. It's a stretch to equate 6606 with 666 in the first place. Nimrods.

Pwned.

As in Matt Hughes pwned Royce Gracie.

Granted, MMA fights can end suddenly no matter what and that events in the octagon (and just about any sporting event) can and do turn on a dime. For example, it wouldn't be crazy to to see Hughes finish off Georges St. Pierre in a hurry or vice versa, but I think the chances of it happening are slimmer than I thought the chances were for a drawn out bloodfest between Hughes and Rocye.

I thought Hughes would win, and he did. It's a different UFC now. It does not diminish Royce Gracie at all. It's been a long time since his last UFC fight and he's older and isn't used to time limit fights. The fighters are much more well rounded and if not submission specialists, are pretty decent at defending against submissions. And lets not forget Hughes is one bad motor scooter. Pound for pound, I think he's the best the UFC has to offer right now.

Still Royce got pwned. And he wants to come back and try again? He better switch some shit up.

For an alternate reality ending, you can check out this version of the fight on Utube.

As for a fight I would like to see, I wish Wanderlei Silva could lose about 12 lbs and Huges put on about 10. That would be a fight I'd like to see.

On the Set of Saturday Night Live

For a few hours today I was in Studio 8H - the set of SNL for the past 30 years or so. Not in the audience seats, but on the floor and a bit left of center with the Grand Central backdrop with it's New Haven line off peak train leaving from Track 30. A co-worker joked that no matter how many times I came out of Grand Central, that he bet I never came out of that one. That was funny, but about an hour or so later I was on that same stage, right next to Track 30 eating some ice cream and wondering where this NBCUniversal ride might take me and the rest of my tiny IT department.

We were there for a town hall style meeting to discuss and learn about the digital media plans at NBCUniversal. Of course, they are aggressive and right off the bat you can see the executives leadership qualities and their embrace of ideas. It was great to hear them answer an audience question but follow up with "So it seems like you must have some ideas about that - lets hear them."

The thing is, ever since I left Texaco and the Strategic Management Group there - I've missed that type of thinking. It feels good to be back.

Martha Martha Martha

I managed to get out of work at 5:20PM yesterday -- and that's a major feat these days for those of you unfamiliar with the fun factory that is my work life. I stopped by Midtown Comics to indulge myself with copies of Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel and the latest Nova installation in the Anhilliation series and then headed off down 42nd St. toward Grand Central. Home sweet home bound and before 7pm.

Just as I get in front of the Grace building, I think I spy my Aunt Maureen cutting in front of me. It's not Aunt Cool, though -- it's freaking Martha Stewart right there in front of me and we make brief eye contact and I give here the universal "What's up" head nod and she smiles back in that made for TV smile of hers and raises her eybrows a bit.



In that brief moment I thought,

Holy Crap that's Martha Stewart! Should I go over to her? Nah what the hell would that be about? What do you say to her? There's nothing in common there, really. Why hassle her? Maybe I could ask her about jail?
Or just tell her she kicks ass, yeah tell her that.
Or ask her for a bag of money -- she'd hardly miss it. Just a garbage bag filled with hundreds...
Fuck! You should have some script or some shit to pitch to her. She's right there! Arrgh!

Give her the what's up nod. Ok. Yeah. Ok, we're cool. This is retarded.

And that was my moment with Martha. Yay.

That gets me thinking about all the other celebrities I've passed in the streets of NYC in the past year or so...

• Martha Stewart
• Spike Lee
• Jackie Mason
• David Brenner
• Kris Angel
• Chris Mullen
• Jalen Rose
• Giselle
• Joe Torre (2x in NYC and once at an ATM in Larchmont)
• The Donald
• Christina Aguilera

All of a sudden I'm Ken Griffey Jr.

Ok, not really.

I exaggerate to make a point. Mr. Griffey Jr., it seems to me - the casual baseball fan - that you are injured as much as Samuel L. Jackson in that piece of dreck, Unbreakable. You seem brittle and made of glass. Perhaps it's fairer to say that you are a fine but tempermental Italian racing car that is always in the shop for some odd reason. Nonethless - injured all the time. Seemingly.

These days, anything I try to do sport's wise and I get injured a la Griffey. I know that's part of the deal with sports, but I went through all my teens and college years with just minimal stuff like

• a concussion
• a broken wrist
• a torn knee ligament (medial something or other)
• a sprained neck
• a dislocated shoulder
• shin splints
• another knee injury
• cuts
• contusions
• abrasions
• a broken nose
• broken toes
• plantar fasciitis
• multiple sprained ankles

See? Hardly anything. :-P Of course, once I try BJJ, I get a dual torn biceps, a wickedly sprained foot (my toes actually touched the back of my heel on that one. Oy.) and a sprained neck. Time passes and I decide I need to do something to motivate me to stay in shape. So, I start playing hockey again. What do I do? I injure my right knee. I have no idea what part of the game it even was that did it, but it started to tighten up in the car, ached like hell over night and has been giving me some problems ever since. If it does not get better by next week it's MRI time. It does not hurt so much to walk as it does to move it sideways a bit or kneel on it. That really hurts.

Me and Griffey Jr. Bound together by pain. Separated by talent and money.

NBCUniversal

A year and a half ago or so I signed on with a small dot com called Healthology. Two acquisitions later and I'm an NBCUniversal employee. Wow. Life takes some odd turns.

Here's to an excellent future with the world's "employer of choice". I can only hope they don't over look little 'ol Healthology and that we get the resources, training, and management we need to get better or barring that -- that things open up elsewhere in the company. Right now it's too early to tell anything except that we are part of NBCUniversal. Witness that so far, in the form of "Welcome! We are not dismantling you!" gifts, I have received a tote bag, a $15 iPod gift card and DVD's of King Kong and the Constant Gardner. Zoom!

Plus, that trip to Universal Studios in July just got a bit cheaper. Nice!!

The Bachelor Life

Clarisa left on Tuesday night for Cottonwood, CA. She's out there visiting her aunt Melba and uncle Ted. Melba's sick (sick sick, not cold sick) and Ted's old as Methuselah, so she went out there to see them for a bit because she knows there's not a lot of time left. I'd have gone, but I don't have the vacation days she does and I want to take off when my brother in law, Matt comes out here and take another week in the late fall or something. So she's out there doing the family thing.

As for me, here I am, biding my time. Tick tock tick tock. Basically, life without CK has led me to work out after work and work later (and believe me, I already work late. When your express train pulls into White Plains and 8 people get off with you, it's late). As for the weekend - thus far I worked out and did a little shopping at Barnes and Noble and DSW. It was an amazing discovery. When you need to kill time, shopping like a chick works.

First I went to DSW to get some shoes and maybe pick up a shirt. While CK carries with her some of the same zeal and zest for shoes as Imelda Marcos and Carrie WhatsHerName from Sex and the City, I've got none of that. One pair of sneakers. One pair of black dress shoes. One pair brown less dressy shoes. Basically, that's the usual inventory. Probably not too uncommon. Still though, I've been getting sick of wearing the same old crap every other day. So what did I do, I picked up another pair of Diesel's that are pretty much the same style as the one's I have now but a different color and pattern.

While I was wandering the aisles in my socks trying on shoes, a couple was trailing me a bit and I could overhear them arguing. She'd brought him there to buy some shoes and the guy did NOT want to be there.

"This ain't no good shoe. Never heard of a Rockport shoe. What the hell is a Rockport Shoe?" he said.

"Rockport is the brand. A big brand." she said, exasperated.

Time passes...we are in the next aisle. I'm trying on the Diesel's I wind up buying and they are going around me, stepping over my shoes. I think, "don't trip"and "I hope my shoes don't smell" . They are still arguing. He is interested in nothing. There is no indication of a foul odor response.

"Are you telling me you want to leave? Is that what you are trying to say?" she said.

"Nah" he said, eyes downward.

I think, "Yes he is. You know that."

And so it went, aisle by aisle with the frustration and friction mounting. I felt for the guy. I'm not sure if they ever bought anything. I left them arguing about if Steve Madden was a good brand and whether or not John Madden had anything to do with it.

Anyways, I got my shoes and picked up a shirt as a reward for having dropped below the 200lb mark. The scale reads 199.5 lbs and 17.25% body fat. Finally! Just 17 lbs to go and it's new wardrobe time.

I picked up a few tech books at B&N even though my better judgment was screaming at me "No! What the hell are you doing?" After killing two hours skimming through a stack of books in the cafe and downing a some tasty lemonade chai tea concoction, I wound up with these books:

• PHP and MySQL by Larry Ulman
• Foundations of Ajax by Ryan Asleson
• MySQL Tutorial by Luke Welling

The reason being is that I've installed two applications (Flyspray and QATraq) at work that run on WAMPP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PhP) platforms and I figure it would be a good idea to know how to support them. Plus, open source stuff is free and available and given the good work of the people over at ApacheFriends and their XAMPP project it's pretty easy to install all that stuff versus the nightmare of configuring each one by itself. I'm into geekery, but hey, I like the easy road as well.

Truth be told, I am making one last ditch effort at work on a few different fronts to make things better and to enhance my reputation and my experience. As bad as it is there, I do not see how I can move on and upwards without doing a few key things first:

1. Empower the employees. We waste tons of time in IT implementing text changes to web pages. This takes hours and could be done by anyone, provided a content management system of some sort or an automated process. On the CMS side, I think we might be able to adapt Macromedia Contribute with DWT's or WordPress. On the automated process side, I think we could just create a Word document that represents the launched program and tie it to an XML schema, mark up the Word Document with XML tags and then just parse it when we need to do the update.
2. Get the whole company using Flyspray for work requests and bug reporting.
3. Implement and use QaTraq. It's an application to support a full testing team, so adapting it for Healthology is going to be difficult but at least I'd have something to point to that shows I can organize and execute tests.
4. Get better at database development and learn php.

I figure it's worth a shot. If I can't make it work despite my best efforts and I am really stymied by the organization I can chalk up some good experience and move on without reservation.

If you are interested - here are the books on Amazon.com:

Hockey Catchup. Hockey Frustration.

Lets go over some numbers.

• 4-2 -- WTF happened to the Red Wings? How does this happen? Frustration. Despair.
• 18-1 -- that is the total my adopted men's league hockey team has been outscored in two (count 'em) games. Futility. Hopelessness.
• 3 -- my total shots on goal.
• 2 -- my total shots completely wiffed like I was trying to hit a bee on meth.
• 2 -- my total questionable, but gratifying, checks in a no checking league. The first one happened in the first 3 minutes of my first game in 12 years. There was a shot on goal and a rebound and a bunch of hacking at my goalie's hand going on. That earns you a trip to the boards. The second was probably an unconscious effort to mar the game late in the third period with the score 9-1. Pleasure. Kasparitis. Tikkannen. Claude Lemeiux.
• 2 -- my total number of brawls due to said checks avoided. Touchy.
• 155 -- the estimated number of pounds of Swiss cheese it would take to replace my boss in goal with no ill effects on the outcome of a game. [Grin]

It's not a ton of fun to haul equipment down to NYC on the train and lug it across town and then take it on the subway and drive out past Amityville to play and just get creamed. Still though, it is fun to just play and occasionally lambaste someone. On the brightside there are just 6 games or so left in this league and then I can look forward to joining a league here in town. My boss, Mike will probably make the switch too. It's quicker for him to get up here than to drive all the way out there. Plus, his wife is backing that play. That makes it pretty golden. So, I'm willing to suffer for now.

Skating. Hockey Gear.

I just got back from an open skate at the Westchester Skating Academy. Basically I just tooled around and dodged people and broke in a new pair of skates. Well, dodged almost everyone. I managed to bump into a lady skating with/holding up her kid. She cut in front of me unexpectedly and I just clipped her shoulder. For a second she hung on and looked like she was going to make it but then her kid did a freakout move and out came both her legs and down she went, right on her butt. Thankfully, she was in once piece and not hurt and the kid was alright. On top of that she was not pissed. No harm no foul. No guilt.

When I was done for the session a Chinese guy sidled up to me and quizzed me on my skates. His kid had been taking lessons and he wanted to learn and was none too thrilled about the big blue molded cloddhopper figure skate rentals he had. They killed his feet. I told him I could sympathize - my skates had killed my feet for a long time. His English was decent, but in the back of my head I thought how great it would be if I could just talk to this guy in Chinese. It would be great to be able to do that. In 18 months or so, I might even have a real need to know a little Chinese.

The thing is, I feel a lot different - a lot better than I have in a long time after a skate. Specifically, my feet aren't killing me and my feet aren't killing me because I've got the new skates - a pair of Reebok 4K's. Not a top of the line skate, but an improvement over my old Bauers and most importantly, they are skates that fit. My old Bauer 1000's were just too narrow, even from the first and as I've gotten older my feet have gotten bigger and bit wider -- a recipe for foot problems and pain and a good excuse to not skate or play hockey. Anyways, these new skates are sooo much more comfortable even from this first break in session than any other skate I've ever had. Plus they are a lot lighter too.

My shoulder pads, elbow pads, pants, helmet, skates -- it's all a lot better than the stinky pile of pads my parents threw out. Hell, all the hockey equipment that's out these days is light years better than the gear that was available when I was playing in the 80's and early 90's. Generally it's all lighter and it all fits better. And the sticks -- sheesh, they are lighter than friggen pool cues. It makes my old Koho Silver Fibres look like warhammers compared to rapiers. Glad to see things have progressed!

Anyway, the plan is not to just sit home and admire the new gear, but to actually start playing again. On Monday I'm supposed to bail out of work early to go play in a pick up game out on Long Island. While I don't think I am going to be super winded, I do think it's going to be pretty awkward trying to stickhandle and shoot. I'll be lucky if I don't look like a complete n00b out there when it comes to any sort of stick work. But maybe not. Sometimes you can surprise yourself. And if there is one thing I can put down, even for over decade, and pick back up and look like I know what the hell I'm doing -- it's hockey. I figure I'll see how it goes and work my way into a league, maybe look into coaching at the youth level.

The Catchup

It's a great day because I just finished my first novel, "Inscrutable Logic". It's a novel about a OCD control freak wife, her cuckolded husband and the comi-tradgedy that unfolds when he snaps and kills her. It's been something I've kept under wraps for a while now.

And as luck would have it, I've been accepted to NYU Film School, The French Culinary Institute, SVA's MFA in Photography Program and, after three years of waiting, the US Marsall Service.

Man, do I have some decisions to make now.

Picture Time

I've started to shoot people on the street. Um, out of context that probably sounds really really bad. I mean I'm into street photography. Right now I do not have the guts to sidle right up to people and I don't have a long lens so a lot of the shots are like this one - from behind. Once I get my new digital with a 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens I'm planning on taking a stronger approach. Feel free to comment.



The picture of this building on the Phillips Manor grounds in Sleepy Hollow has been sitting in a CF card since the summer of 2005. The original had a decent amount of parallax I tweaked out in Photoshop. I boosted the saturation a bit as well and tweaked the shadow/highlights. The lower right portion of the horizon could have benefited from a circular polarizer. Feel free to comment.

I've entered a gallery exhibition that kicks off April 1st and I'm trying to figure out if I want to use any of my digital work, some of my black and white prints or what. The exhibition is no big deal, it's open to any member of the Westchester Photographic Society. All I needed to do was add my name to a list. Even so, its fun just going through the process of evaluating my limited body of work and then matting and framing it for people to see. It's a small step but a very important first one.

Those Darn Cats

Ours is a house divided. A little after we got Macbeth, we took him to the vet for a checkup and, as wallowing in the filth of a shelter would have it, he's / has got / had ringworm. The vet instructed us to separate the kitties and go Mommie Dearest nuts with the cleanliness lest the ringworm spores settle all over the place. Plus, we also get to grab up Macbeth once a day and shoot some foul medicine into his mouth and rub his ears and neck with a topical treatment. He puts up with it pretty well instead of going into Cuisinart mode.

So, MacBeth is in the bedroom with us (smaller area, easier to clean) and Little Guy (aka Faust) has the run of the rest of the place.

Well, we are four weeks into it just about with one more week to go before we go back to the vet for an all clear.It won't be a moment too soon either. Our little cherub goes king-ass-wahoo-fucking-bunga-bunga-nuts at exactly 6AM every morning. My head's been used as a cat version of a 1m springboard, feet have been pounced, toys have been dropped on our face. Throwing them off the bed does no good either, because, this cat fetches. Let me repeat - this cat fetches. You toss it, he runs off, tackles it and hauls it back to you for another try. Remarkable. Still a pain in the ass at 6am though.

As luck would have it I was reading dooce and she pointed out how she and her husband blacked out their kid's room to make her go back to sleep after waking up at 6am. I think we need to try that.

Shocked, and then Amazed

Ok, so I'm perusing ifilm.com and come across, rather easily mind you, a purient video of Sienna Miller. Ostensibly, it's a clip from a videography of the 2003 Pirelli Calendar shoot, another piece of vile purient rubbish. Judge for yourself.

Given what I've heard, Sienna in the natural state is not rare, and one can only imagine the horrible and absolute drudgery that comes with a Pirelli calendar shoot. If that's torture, chain me to the wall. Of course, it's just not any shutter bug that does the Pirelli shoots - it's the likes of Annie Leibowitz, Richard Avedon and Herb Ritts. All true talents that I admire. Just look at the shot from Avedon on the right. Now that's January.

Alright, back to this ifilm.com clip... or rather list of film clips.

Once I got past past the distraction and of Sienna Miller, I skipped down to the "Amazing Juggling Finale" performed by Chris Bliss. Totally amazing. Choreographed, melodic juggling. Crazy ass juggling. So crazy it gets a standing ovation from a packed house. What retard street clown have you seen that happen to? Well, ok - in the street people are probably already standing but that's besides the point. They're already standing and clapping. It's never a standing ovation type clap, at least none of the performances I've ever caught in Washington Square Park. It's been more like "Yay, you have a sword, a matchbook and a bowling ball. On fire." Sure, it takes a ton of skill. But, let's face it skill is just a part of the equation. Choreography takes planning. It takes thinking. It takes inspiration. It's transcendent.

Ok - maybe it's just juggling. Maybe I'm getting entirely to worked up about it.

Nah.

The only way to make Chris Miller's perfomance better would be to clone like 50 of him and turn his act into a large scale Riverdance juggling extravaganza. There'd be fucking ballz flying everywhere. In perfect timing. It would be GREAT.

Alas, it seems Mr. Miller has moved on from juggling to just standup comedy.

Microsoft iPod

Those two words just don't go together....

I found this link over at zeldman.com, and am happy to post it here in order to boost views by 3 to 4 people. Per month. :-P

It's a parody. And it's reality. Mostly. It's the iPod, Microsoft style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&search=microsoft%20ipod

Web 2.0 this Web 2.0 that.

D2stuff.com just posted an article pimping the new Windows Live Search beta.

My kneejerk anti-evil empire reaction is "So what?".

Then I actually went and clicked the link to check it out. What the hell. I could be leaving for work and get in early, but that just means I'll be there longer since I'll have to stay late no matter what. Screw that shit.

Back to the point - this search thing. According to D2Stuff, it's got a Web 2.0 look. I still have no idea what that means. A quick search on "What the hell is Web 2.0" on Google turned up this result from O'Reilly Digital Media. A quick scan of the article gleans the following:

• There are a lot of blogs
• There are more and more blogs
• Content delivery is getting better (via AJAX for example)
• Hardware is getting better (man what a tiny iPod.)
• These things mix up some how and become Web 2.0

Nothing there about a certain look, though. If there is a certain look for Web 2.0, whatever the hell it is - say the way there is a certain look for graphic design sites because everyone borrows and steals from the best and from each other combined with a shared Jungian archetype of taste - it will be because of pretty much those same reasons.

What I do see though is Web 2.0 function. It's the function, wrapped up in a pretty package that makes up the "look" I think D2Stuff means. For example, the Yahoo mail beta -- you can drag and drop mail and there are lots of little widgets. It's web based, but behaves like an application. Google Maps, you can click and drag the map from sea to shining sea. On the MSN search, you scroll through a pane of results by clicking a scroll control rather than paging through a set of results. Or, you can move a little slider to control the verbosity of your results. Whatever. Yippee. I guess it's really just simulated analog.

Anyhoo, it's getting close to that time where my day gets considerably worse, so I need to go make that happen.

Another takeover

I work for Texaco , Westcon, Healthology, iVillage, NBCUniversal.

Yep. We just got bought. In a month or so I'll work for NBCUniversal. Maybe we live through it, maybe not.

That silence is my 2nd career on hold.

I took one class at SVA in Photography and decided that I'd rather join the Westchester Photographic Society than pay the 500 bucks per class in tuition and fees each semester. The WPS costs just 40 bucks a year, has a ton of members, is very active with gallery displays, competitions, shoots and tutorials. Plus they have a dark room - or so their website says.

I've wanted to join since late December 2005, but I've only been able to come to one meeting since then because I've been trapped at work every Friday, QA'ing video launches. Why the videos need to be launched on a Friday is beyond me. Or even if it's going to be on a Friday, that stuff should be done early enough so that when I look at it I'm finishing by 6PM instead of starting.

It's very very frustrating that I cannot get home in time to make a meeting that starts at 8:30PM. On a FRIDAY.

The one meeting I did make it to was definitely worthwhile. First off I got to join the club and sit through one of their competitions. For the most part, the images being judged were very very good and from my pov, of professional caliber. Some of the Photoshoped stuff was a bit too much "look at my swirl filter" for my taste, but aside from that there were some powerful compositions nonetheless.

I also found out that they've pretty much junked the darkroom. No one uses it anymore. Not one of their members. The funny thing is, they all seem to be a lot older than me and I'd thought there'd be those who want to "preserve the old ways". Nope. Not a one. I asked whether or not they would be willing to open the darkroom for me and they said that it could be done, but that I would be on my own for anything that might be missing and would have to supply my own chemicals. I have not been back for another meeting so I have no idea what might be missing that I might need. A grain enlarger? A negative carrier? A timer? I have no clue.

So, this idea has turned out to be a disaster. I can't make the meetings, I am not shooting anything and I am not developing or printing anything - and I have lots. About 4 rolls of negatives without a print made and another 5 rolls of film undeveloped. Man that just pisses me off.

Granted, I could buy a darkroom bag and some chemicals, but devleoping does not mean squat if you cannot print. And, it's not like there is room for a darkroom at all here. No basement, no space under the stairs.

Of course, I can get what I have custom printed or just sign up for another SVA class or NYU class and get it done there - but that does not fix my problem of not having a place to work permanently.

Hello digital world. It's the only way for me to go right now. I can half ass it and just get the Canon Digital Rebel SLR or I can spend the cash and get the Canon EOS SLR - about the best pro-sumer gear you can buy. Throw in a copy of Photoshop, get a bigger monitor and a printer and I am good to go. Well, almost. Theres lighting. And lenses. And flashes. And reflectors. And even if I have all of that I still need to find compelling subject matter.

Then there's the part of me that says, "Hey man. While you are at it - get one of those new Macs and a copy of Premier and Final Cut and a digital full motion camera and get busy with that idea of being a film editor. Just do it. Stop thinking and just do. Take your vacation and spend it at one of those NYU Summer Intensive classes."

So far I have not answered that voice. I remain silent and for reasons unknown, scared as hell to pull the trigger. Photography itself is great and is something I want to do, but even still represents a bit of compromise. A failure to commit. The rationalizing (or is it the objective?) part of me tells me that breaking into digital photography is a good first step. A stepping stone. Or is it just a way of putting off what I really want?

D2stuff.com relaunch.

Dennis of D2stuff.com fame has updated his site. The new design and approach represents a a focus shift from product (tools for the horror show that is FrontPage and the legions who use it but have no idea about the tools because they are most often neophytes) to content.

Go check it out. Send him an email. Tell him to write more. And if you happen to use FrontPage buy his products while you still have the chance. They do stuff. Stuff you probably had no idea you wanted the program to be able to do. Then you'll be all impressed and more productive and you'll have helped the economy and by extension, helped defeat terrorism. Or buy it anyway and then go here if that last sentense smacks of sarcasm to you.

It's also noteworthy to point out that site is valid XHTML and valid CSS and that it was built, of course, with Frontpage, the most maligned product in the web wyswig universe. See folks, it's not the product so much as it is the author. It can be done!

"Experienced programmer and business analyst builds valid site using Frontpage!" That's a sentence that most people think should be headline on the April 1 edition of Slashdot or some such. Yet here it is just March and it's been done. Stop the presses.

Sure, FP will let you churn out some hideous themes based site and sure there's the pure evil of their navigation bars and such and other "built in Features". But lets face it, that's for newbies. If you are an advanced user and you open the program and can't figure out any other course of action than that you should just close the application fire up monster.com for new career ideas.

Finally, I would like to point out the validity of D2Stuff.com to my troops at work. Boys, Mr. Derobertis is not a designer. He is not a card carrying member of WaSP, or the Meyer or Zeldman cults or a contributor to CSSZenGarden. He is, like you, an experienced programmer that works on the front end. Witness the valid code. Done with Frontpage no less.

I'm not trying to insult Dennis here - far from it. He lives and breathes Microsoft technologies and, as demonstrated, will "eat his own dogfood" and his passion and committment to what he believes in is laudable. My point is that it is not so hard to do if you just pay attention and invest some time in learning how to strucuture your markup. Lets face it - some people use "professional" level programs and can still turn out a hacked up pig of a site. And the funny thing is that same person, whose site might wind up on the front page of web pages that suck, will still deride Frontpage. It boggles my mind.

Folks - they are just tools. Bob Villa can perform with a Black & Decker Hammer or a Stanley Hammer. Feel me?

It's a brave new web standards plus CSS world out there. Put your jacket on and go visit:

www.alistapart.com - for people who make websites. Read and learn. Implement.
www.zeldman.com - patriarch of the web standards movement
www.webstandards.org/ - deals with, uh - web standards.
www.csszengarden.com - view the source. Wow. It's always the same. How can that be?
www.quirksmode.com - because browsers suck and the rest of us need guys like this.
www.w3schools.com/- the educational branch of the mothership. Learn for free.

New Shoes.

I hate shopping for clothes. Perhaps its a leftover from my childhood and all those times I got dragged to Flah's or the Dress Barn or anyplace where I would have to wait while my mom tried things on or - lord help me - I had to try things on myself and then get tugged on and spun around. Oh the trauma of plaid pants and a three way mirror. And all those freaking pins in the dressing room just scattered about waiting to go through your foot. Good times!

That being the case - my wardrobe is pretty limited. Not like two shirts limited but limited enough that after two weeks you will pretty much know my wardrobe. I am not a fashionista.

Not too long ago I broke down and bought some Sketchers and Diesel shoes. The kinda a shoe / kinda a sneaker types. Of course, I am all impressed with myself because I have made this monumental decision to get new shoes after, oh a few years.

I wear them to work.

Later on when I'm home on that first day of the new shoes I tell my wife

"No one noticed my new shoes."
"What are you - a girl?" she asked.
"Hahahha."

Gotta love her.

Coarse Political Commentary

How much of more of this does even the staunchest Bushie need to finally figure out that this administration is full of shit - a bunch of conniving, prevaricating, bubble dwelling, reality denying putzes.

To wit the pre-Katrina knowledge and inaction (on top of the 9-11 knowledge and inaction etc etc)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11627394/?GT1=7850

But he believes! A very strong believer! Plus, he did not get a BJ in the White House. And that seems to trump everything in Idiot America.

Folks, unless you have 5 million in a hedge fund -- this is not your guy. He is not for you.

Believe it.

McCain is your guy (and look how the Bush machine did their best to slander him - they should be ashamed). Barak Obama is my guy, but I certainly respect McCain and even agree with him on many points and issues. These two US Senators represent two different points of view, but I'd back either one of them because to me they have integrity and intelligence to go along with their convictions that Bush just does not have.

Pain in my Ass Blogger

Ok, this is a royal pain.

I write a post. I go to do spell check. Freaking XP blocks the pop-up Blogger uses. I allow the pop-up and presto, my post disappears and there is nothing but a Zen like koan left. If there are no words, is there a spellcheck?

Bah. Damn you Google.

I've been thinking of moving to TypePad for a bit now in an expansion move. This sort of crapola along with the joyous server errors that occur regularly (and it's not like I post a ton, so if it's bugging me, it's got to be bugging a lot more people. Of course, Typepad is not without their own problems from what I hear. (comment - nice to see another company is as puzzled as we are by performance issues) But at least when you pay, you feel you have more of right to bitch and demand good service.

This here blogger dealio be free, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is cheaper than wholesale...

Ok, that said, I really don't feel like re-writing my entire post. So here it is in short form:

1. We miss Jules
2. We got a new cat.
3. We miss Jules still
4. New cat is not a replacement
5. A door closes a door opens
6. Faust is pissed.
7. The new cat is named Macbeth. He's 8 months old.
8. Adoption paperwork is going in later this week. Chinese?
9. I point out that I laughed at this earlier today.
10. Introducing Macbeth:

For Juliet: 1992 - 2006

We couldn't wait till Wednesday. She was having too tough a time of it.

Clarisa and my cousin Jodi (who was up for a fun weekend) just took Jules to the emergency vet clinic. I'd go but I'm already a wreck. I don't think I could handle it. Clarisa, God bless her is going to be strong enough for the both of us this time.

No more pain. I love you and miss you Jules.

The Catch Up

To continue from my last post - my computer problems continue. I've got a new SATA HD, a GE Force 6800 and 2GB of (supposedly) compatible RAM but the same dang shit keeps happening. So, it looks like I will have to RMA the motherboard and hope a replacement fixes this weirdness.

But, that's just become the least of my problems. My best and favorite pet - Juliet, has cancer and we've decided not to prolong her death. She'll be leaving us Wednesday this week. It's a hard decision, but an easy one considering the pain she'd go through otherwise. It's her time and I don't want her to suffer.

We adopted her a long time ago -- Jules has been with us since a month or two after Clarisa got back from Korea and the Army. She was 2 - 4 years old then and we've been married over 12 years now and that puts her around 75-85 years old in human terms. A good run.

I can still remember how Clarisa waited patiently on my parents back steps and coaxed a very beautiful but skittish cat to actually come up to her and eat grilled chicken from her hand. This kept up for a few weeks until she really trusted us. My mom as a rule has not been to keen on cats on her life, but for Jules she made an exception and she let us adopt Juliet. That first night we invited her up into our bed and Jules just jumped up, curled into a ball at the foot of the bed and purred like a motorboat most of the night. She sure seemed grateful and we were just happy she'd claimed us.

Like I said, she's been with us ever since and has been an absolutely great companion. She's been in each apartment and in ritualistic fashion has decided to bolt in protest each time we moved. When we left Poughkeepsie, she took off in a rainstorm and ran across three yards and hid out under a truck. An hour later I had her in the car. Soaking wet and pissed off, but safe. When we went to move from Peekskill, both her and Little Guy made a a great escape out a kitchen window only to wind up in the cottage's basement. Again, it took about an hour and some chicken to coax her out, but I got her - and that was after Clarisa and Jennifer had combed the area for them for hours and had to leave. So there I was, in my work clothes, halfway into a crawl-space in and waving chicken at a pair of glowing eyes.

I cannot believe I have to do this again so soon after Sasha.

Again I find myself talking to someone I love with the knowledge that there is nothing I can do to save them except let them go. And again I'll be telling someone I'm sorry.

It's the right thing to do, but that doesn't stop the hurt or the frustration.

Fuck fuck fuck.

The Sound and The Fury

A little while ago I posted about my forthcoming PC upgrade(s). To say the least, it has not gone swimmingly.

For starters it looks like the screen defects from my expensive video card were not because of my old mother board, but just because the the card is hosed. Damn you to heck ATI and your crappy 800XL 256 MB AGP card and your worthless support.

On top of that I cannot boot to windows. The PC posts, the monitor goes into power saving mode for a second and then it goes to the "Windows shut down abnormally" screen and no matter what option is picked, it never boots and just goes back to the "Windows shut down abnormally" screen. I change the boot priority and cannot even get the thing to boot to CD. I've checked the wiring, the jumpers and all that shit and the BIOS seems to recognize everything, but Windows is fried and will not cooperate. Surprise surprise. At least I got my 25GB + of music off of the old HD it before it crapped out totally. Oh well. At least I got my 25GB + of music off of the old HD it before it crapped out totally. Oh well.

So, I just ordered a new hard drive. Who wants to bet a new video card is next? Hello complete re-build.

Overheard Passing By on 7th Avenue

Grizzled Black Man #1"It was like all hard and lumpy and that shit just blew the fuck up! Yes it did"

Grizzled Black Man #2 "Yeah - it's like that. It's what it does."

Groundhogs Day

It's Groundhogs Day.

Rejoice! Phil did NOT see his shadow and so we will have an early spring. Or something.

A member of the Fordham crew reminded me it's also the 15 year anniversary of our wild ass Groundhog's Day Party at Walsh Hall during our senior year. Holy crap that was a crazy night, a night which found me immortalized in film and eventually in the 1991 year book committing a Drunken Act. The photo editor, Tony, was a friend of mine at the time and I guess he thought it would be great fun to put THAT photo in the yearbook. Thanks Tony! Well, I can't get too upset -- he did talk the cops out of picking me up for trying to lob some NYC property (in the form of one metal street trash) can at a car of tough assholes that had thrown a brick at the car we were in for no reason.

It went something like this:

[brick gets thrown]
[crashing noise and the car stops on Jerome Avenue]
["MotherFuckers! Did they just do that!!?? Oh, those fucking sonsofbitches"]
[Drunken Kitch gets out of car, picks up trash can on corner and heads off toward the car full of tough assholes]
[Kitch's friends pull up and start pacing him in the car. The window comes down and they strongly encourage him to calm down. To breeze it, buzz it, ez does it play cooly cool boy because, and mainly, an NYPD patrol car was right behind them.]
[Gingerly lower trash can and put it down and pretend like nothing is going on. Facial expression tries to read "Oh? I had THAT? Oh, wow. No idea. Must have got stuck in my shoe."]
[Tony talks to cop and somehow convinces them that they would take me home]
[Of course we go to a bar full of nurses.]

Speaking of Groundhog's Day, I looove the movie. Great movie. Fantastic.

When I think about it, history is repeating itself for me as well. A year ago this month I was on the Abs Diet for a week or two and working out. Now I'm at it again. I managed to sloth my way all the way back to 218 not too long ago, dropped down to 213 and stayed there until I started AbsDiet v2. The disgusting thing was the 25% FAT reading from the scale. Argh.

Twelve days into AbsDiet v2 and I'm 210 and 20.2 % FatAss. All I can say is man - that's fat. It needs to come off before it can do any more damage than it has. This time around I'm going to NYCS for the workouts and the membership is a good deal - I can go to anyone of them anywhere. The new one here in White Plains is ginormous. Vast. Huge. Spacious. Really. Really. Nice. The ones in NYC around work are tiny and shitty in comparison. If it were not for the White Plains club, I'd feel ripped off.

We can rebuild it. We can make it stronger...

A while back my PC decided to stop being a PC and become a POS. Like so many things and people, it was electrocuted in it's sleep.

Or so I thought.

I just had a buddy from work check out the hard-drive and miracles of miracles it's intact. It turns out it was my new CPU that crapped out. Everything else is 5x5.

So rather than go ahead and blow like, 5K on a sweet-ass gaming rig, I'm content to rebuild the system around my necromanced hard-drive, existing 2.4 P4 and the ATI 800XL 256MB video card that never ever worked in my old rig with the exception of one tantalizing hour of Battlefield II. So, after an hour or so on tigerdirect.com and for about 10x less dineiro than my dream rig, I've got a pretty new system. It's not GeForce7000 dual SLI new, but whaddya gonna do.

Here's what I got -

1
ULT31368
Ultra Blue Dual 12" Cold Cathode Light Kit (trickin out the rig...)

1 ULT31048
Ultra 3.5" Hard Drive Cooler w/2 60mm LED Fans BlK

1 A455-1028E
Asus P4P800E Deluxe Socket 478 Motherboard (8x faster FSB...nice)

1 C250-1144
Cables Unlimited Blue UV System Slot Turbo Fan (to cool down the ATI pig)

1 C13-2920
Corsair Value Select 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (brings the total to 1.5GB)

1T925-2070
Thermaltake Armor Alum Silver Full Tower w/ Window (this is a gorgeous case and I will name it something retarded for sure. Suggestions welcome)

1T925-2084
Thermaltake Silent PurePower 680W ATX PSU + EPS (you better not die on me like that weak ass Antec CPU)

And that is going to go with my 2.4 Ghz p4 and the aforementioned 256MB ATI 800XL AGP card. Is it a monster? No. It is Division I, but like Atlantic 10 Division I, not the ACC. The case is kick ass though and has plenty of room for more storage, the mobo is easily upgradeable to a 3.2 Ghz P4 and I can always throw a little more RAM at it. I'm pretty set.

Poor Clarisa... she is about to become a gaming widow for a few weekends until the buzz wears off.

Because In New York No One Can Hear You Scream

Funny, funny stuff. Go see Abe and Preston now:

alienlovespredator.com

The Catch Up - Adoption Focus

Hey there.

Well, we are on our way to parenthood. Hopefully. Maybe. That is to say we took the first step and went to an international adoption orientation meeting at Spence Chapin. Clarisa drove down after work and I managed to get out of work and schlepp it over to 6 E. 94th Street just in time for the start of the session. We were one of the youngest couples in the group, which figures. It seems that for a lot of people, adoption is the last resort and not the first, like it is with us. In fact, we decided a while ago that we just did not want to go the route of IVF and hormone therapy or what have you. If it happened for us, great. If not, keep knocking boots and hope for the best. Of course, we haven't had any luck and as times gone on adoption just kind of entered into our conversation as something we want to do. Like sfumato said, it's probably going to be the best thing we can do with our lives and that is pretty exciting.

The people at Spence were well spoken and gave a thorough overview of the program - outlining the basics of the process involved with of each country they work with to include time, costs and requirements. Each country has it's own peculiarities and pro's and con's that may or may not make the program that country offers a good fit. From what we learned at the meeting, it looks like our two best options so far are Guatemala or China. Neither are perfect, and no program really is. The requirements vary, the stability of the programs vary, the wait times vary, the fees vary, the age of the child varies, the quality of their environment varies from orphanage to foster home and of course the experiences there vary greatly as well. The available medical history varies as well. A lot of damn variables and one big leap of faith.

Two families were there at the beginning of the meeting to talk about the process, what they went through and answer questions from the group. Coincidentally, one family had adopted a girl from China and the other had adopted a girl from Guatemala. Of course, the stars were the kids - both of whom were just adorable and remarkably patient over the hour they were there.

So, Guatemala or China. China or Guatemala...

Guatemala - the kids are in foster homes, not orphanages and they get monthly medical care. There also is a medical history of the birth mother. The process is pretty smooth, albeit a bit random at times.

China - the kids might have been in a foster home, but probably not. There is no information on the birth mother. Medical care is good and the process is pretty structured and you go through the process with a group of other adoptive parents from Spence-Chapin. Evidentally, there's a hotel over there that is just chalk full of adoptive parents there to take home a baby and lot's of support.

I have no idea how we are going to weigh all of that and come up with a decision. I'm sure at some point it will just occur to us what is right for us and there we'll be.

P00F!

One more thing...

Thor's BJJ comment got me pumped up a little about BJJ, MMA and all things grappling. That said I started perusing and I found this - a clip of Royce Gracie UFC highlights - just look at how he dismembers and submits everyone. Wearing a gi no less - which should be a big handicap. Take special note of any dickhead that thinks he's a kung fu master and tries to throw a kick. It does not end well.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/jiujitsu/Royce%20Gracie%20Highlights.mpg

The Catch Up

Hey all. Got some stuff to talk about so here we go:

We've decided to adopt. Right now we have no idea about anything except that we've made the decision. We'll be better informed after we go to an orientation meeting at Spence-Chapin later this month. More than likely our future son or daughter will be from eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria et al). Basically we want a healthy kid - maybe even siblings. We figure siblings might be the best way to go. Something like a one year old and a three year old maybe?Like I said - we have no details except for the fact that we've decided to move ahead with this. It's way to early to say anything other than that and that we are jazzed and eager to get the process going.

That said we're probably going to look to switch jobs and re-locate to a more kid friendly environment. Where that might be is up in the air as well, but I'm pretty positive it won't anywhere like, oh, Bedford Hills or Scarsdale or Chappaqua. The idea is to move and take the cash from this place and get a bigger one somewhere outside of the raised ranch for $650,000 range. We'll see.

Other than that things are going pretty well. New Years was spent with some friends in Hyde Park - other than a death defying drive through a blizzard on the trip up AND to pick up some pizzas later that night it was pretty calm. We hung out, played guitar a bit and noodled around with our "nephew" Zack. With the guitar, I'm still at the point where I just know a handful of material but I do know lot of variations on the 12 bar blues and that's always a blast.

Let's see, what else is up - a quick recap:

Last weekend, my parents came down for dinner to celebrate my birthday. I cooked up some chicken marsala a la Tyler Florence. I've decided to take Black and White Photography II at the School of Visual Arts. Work continues to not be very satisfying and eating into way too much of my time. In the meantime I'm thinking about what I would really like to do and where I would really like to be. I also bought a PSP. The commute goes MUCH faster now that I have Burnout Legends and Virtua Tennis to occupy my time. I also bought Bob Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles. So far it's an enjoyable read and interesting to hear Bob talk about himself and his influences. One things for sure, I had no idea he was so well read. I'm not surprised, but I had no idea that Bob Dylan would ever tell me he thought Balzac was hilarious.

A short post

I was told that sometimes my posts get a bit long.