Palestine, TX

The other day I decided to take my son to the park. There is a park about three blocks from my house where Andy enjoys playing. I don't particularly enjoy it, but he does. So despite the fact that it was about 95 degrees outside, he hopped on his bike and off we went. We had been there for about 10 minutes when we were approached by a set of twins. They were boys and must have been about 7 or 8 years old. They were dressed in swim trunks, had no shirts, and were sporting a couple of high-and-tight hairstyles.

Andy and I were playing tic-tac-toe and he wanted to be the 'X' every time (I don't blame him, 'X' was always cooler than the 'O'). One of the twins wanted to play, so I moved aside and let him close to the plastic play board. What followed was not entirely unpredictable, but was humorous none the less. Each boy wanted to be the 'X', so they argued about it; "I'm the 'X'!", "No, I'm the 'X'!" And back and forth it went until I stepped in and tried to convince Andy to be the 'O' just this once. Predictibly, he refused and off the boy went. For now, anyway.

A moment later he came back and decided to give us a second chance. This time he asked Andy to race, which is an offer Andy rarely refuses. So off they go racing and I step off the play equipment to follow. The race is over by the time I get to the ground and one of the boys decides to address me directly. What follows is the dialouge as I remember it:

Boy: (Spoken in a thick redneck drawl) Ya'll got a house around here?

Me: Huh?

Boy: Where ya'll house at?

Me: It's around here somewhere. I don't know. I think I forgot where we live! Can you believe that?

Boy: (Looking confused) Yeah...


After this exchange, the boy realizes I'm not going to invite him over for Kool-Aid and Moon Pies and goes to play somewhere else. I wish I could have taken a picture of the kids, because it would be even more hilarious than you imagine.

Sadly, this is the town I live in. A little look inside my life at this point in time.


Anyway, I've been missing blogging and I've got a lot of built up stuff to blog about. I have a computer and DSL at home now, so I'm going to try to post about once a week. More often if possible.

Thanks for reading.

I Love Tacos Too

courtesy Foxnews.com....

FONTANA, Calif. — A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint.

Police Sergeant Jeff Decker says the 35-year-old victim had just bought about $20 in tacos from a street-corner stand Sunday night and was bicycling home when the suspect confronted him and said "Give me your tacos."

Decker says the suspect grabbed the bag of food, punched the victim in the face and began to flee.

When the victim demanded his tacos back, the suspect pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the man and threatened to kill him before running away.



This really made me laugh out loud. It's amazing to me that some people are as stupid as they are. Also, $20 in tacos from a street vendor? How many tacos do you think that is, 15, 20?

Classic.

Precision Instruments of Precision

Just a quick word....I don't have a computer for the time being, so I won't be able to post much until that situation is remedied. Hopefully I can come up with something soon, but for the time being, my posts will be limited.

You'll probably remember I recently blogged about wanting to post more. While this goal hasn't changed, the main tool used to accomplish that task is no longer in my possession.

Work has been slow, however, so maybe I can just post while on the job.

A cool video for your trouble.




Also, a link I found interesting.

Another gentleman's blog on the history of the mustache.

Since videos and links are quick to post, I'll try to put one of these up frequently, so check back often for updates!

Peace dudes.

Choo-Choo!!

***WARNING! SPORTS-RELATED CONTENT BELOW!!***

I’m watching the Patriots beat down another inferior opponent tonight, and I can’t help but think about their match-up two weeks from now against my Dallas Cowboys. I’m sure the game will be over-hyped and over emphasized, because, honestly, that’s what the media does best. I won’t get started on that because I’ve blogged about that topic once before.

Anyway, back to the Cowboys and the Patriots. Both teams should be undefeated by the time they meet, with Dallas playing the sorry Buffalo Bills and New England playing the Browns. I’m sure we’ll be in store for a great game, with Dallas playing lights out offense and increasingly tougher defense, and New England playing strong all the way around. It will be a true test not only for the Cowboys, but for the Pats as well, as both teams have not faced an opponent with a winning record.

“Possible Super Bowl Preview!”, “A Battle of Undefeated Teams!”, “Just a Reminder, Tom Brady Has Won Three Super Bowls!”, “The Patriots Cheated, But Everyone Forgave Them So It’s OK”, are sure to be some of the ridiculous headlines splayed across newspaper and website headlines as the big game draws near. Because, lest we forget, we should worship the Patriots. (Sorry, I got back on the media again.) They are the easy team to anoint this year because of the flashy addition of the suddenly penitent Randy Moss.

There seems to be a trend in self-absorbed wide receivers suddenly becoming team players, Terrell Owens being another high profile example. Speaking of T.O., he has surpassed my expectations of him so far. He has been a team player, he runs his routes hard, helps his teammates out, and has yet to throw anyone under the proverbial “bus”. I like what I see so far, especially his chemistry with Romo, and support of teammates who may get more stats during a game.

The Cowboys are playing at a level that they haven’t reached in maybe 10+ years. It’s been a long time for Cowboys fans, and hopefully they can come out and make a statement against one of the top teams in the league. The only thing I’m concerned about is the developing trend of the team playing crappy in the first half, then playing lights out in the second half. If we stand a chance against the Pats, we’re going to need to get off to a fast start. I’m sure the coaches will continue to stress this point to the players. I know it would be at the top of my list. “Hey, guys! Good practice today! I’ve got an idea though. This game against the Patriots, let’s try scoring some in the FIRST half!”

Anyway, the game should be good. And hopefully it’ll turn out with the Cowboys notching another win. One more stop on the Romo express!

A New Beginning

Let’s get this out in the open. I haven’t updated my blog in a long time. I’m sorry. I could make a bunch of excuses, and most of them would be legitimate, but let’s not go there. Let’s just forgive and move on, huh? Ok.

I believe an update is in order, since I don’t currently live around or regularly talk to the readers (if there are any) of this blog. I am working for my dad, who is an exclusive agent for Allstate Insurance Co. His office is in Palestine, TX, which is where my family and I moved at the end of July. We lived with my parents for about a month, then closed on our first home August 24, 2007. The job is going well, as is the family.

I’m enjoying being a parent because of all the things that you get to watch your kids do, or not watch them do, depending on the situation. At dinner the other day, Andy stuck his hand in a bowl of pasta sauce and smeared it on his face, then said, “Look! I’m a sauce face!” He then proceeded to laugh as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever said. As a parent, I’m conflicted. Part of me says, “He needs to stop that, it’s bad table manners,” while the other part wants to point at him and laugh.

I’ve also given up the hope that Sara and I can have anything nice. It will be at least 4-5 years before we can start to buy stuff that has any value at all. It all gets torn up otherwise. I don’t know how some people do it. The only way I can think of is to keep your kids confined to a certain few rooms at all times. Even my car is not safe. Andy had gone outside the other day to wait on me while I got ready to go to the store. When I walked out, I saw him with a stick in his hand, using it to scratch the side of my car. Why did he do it? Because the scratched paint looked neat. Good thing I don’t have a really nice car.

In addition to the aforementioned goodness, this is also a great time for both Sara and I on an individual basis. I have realized how much I miss music and how much of a passion I have for it. (A little background: I played saxophone in high school and college band for 8 years, picked up the guitar after that, and will buy a bass guitar as soon as I am able. I also LOVE music theory, and have a decent skill at it, but haven’t thought about it in about three years.) I’ve never really known how to express that passion, because of certain flaws in my character. However, I’m in a position now where I am working a professional job for the first time, I’m a college graduate, a father, a husband, and other things. These things have caused me to really mature in some areas where I have previously been lacking. My attitude has always been to take what comes at me and make the best of it. I guess that’s why it took me almost 7 years to finish college. I couldn’t make up my mind about anything because I couldn’t realize my passion, set a goal, and then make that goal happen.

Because of that shift in my character, I feel excited about my career for the first time in a long time. The last couple of years have been a lot different than I thought they would be. I guess I just expected it to work out the way I wanted to without having to do much about it. As I look back at that last sentence, I realize how ridiculous that was. So even though I’m in insurance sales now, I don’t believe that I will stay in insurance sales for more than a few years. I love music so much and every time I try to escape it and do something else, it finds a way to pull me back in. I was a music major in college twice! And I still didn’t get it! I waffled more than a Belgian in a batter factory.

So here I am, working in Palestine, TX selling fine insurance products. Do I love it? Nope. Is it providing for my family now? Yes. But for the first time, the future is not something that will just happen to me. Of course there will be things out of my control, but the things within my control, will be. It feels really good to realize this for the first time.

I didn’t mean for this post to turn into a personal retrospective. I meant it to be a look at my life right now, but this is what came out, which I guess is honest look at my life right now.

I promise more postings more often. They won’t all be like this. But there will be more of them. I want to keep in touch with you all more than I do. I guess this is a good way to start.

Peace.

State of the Dallas Mavericks

You know, the more I think about it, the more I put the blame of what happend to the Mavs on Jason Terry. I like the guy and think he's a great player, but isn't it the Point Guard's job to run the offense? I don't know about you, but I never saw any type of offensive outside of trying to get guys open on simple Isolation plays. Did you? Look at Steve Nash or Jason Kidd. Those guys run offenses, know where guys are supposed to be and have a buttload of assists.
Maybe it's Avery Johnson's fault for running too simple of an offensive scheme? Who knows. Just a thought I was having. As you can tell, I'm still not all the way over this.

Now that I think about it, maybe that's the real issue here. Watch a Mavs game and try to find the offense. They score points, but it's usually because one or two guys get hot or they have a mismatch somewhere. The Point Guard is the guy who makes it all happen on the offensive side. You can't blame Dirk (at least not totally; he did play pretty poorly).

I think either Avery got too caught up in Don Nelson's ridiculous mind games and overthought everything (very likely), or JT failed to effectivley execute his offensive scheme.

We need some serious gamers on the roster next season. Bring back Jason Kidd! Hell, we could have still had Steve Nash had we decided to pay him what he was worth. What kills me is that Cuban balked at paying Nash, but then went and spent $73 mil over seven years on Erick Freakin' Dampier. I'm not joking. That's what they paid that guy! Seventy Three MILLION!! You how much Nash signed for with the Suns's? $65 million for five years.

Dampier - $10.4 million per year

Nash - $13 million per year

Don't you think Nash is worth the extra $2.7 million? I sure do. He runs the Suns' high powered offense, while Damp averaged 7.9 minutes per game against the Warriors.

GOOD MOVE CUBAN!!

On second thought, maybe the blame should be put on Mark Cuban for not having the balls to give Nash what he was worth.

Sounds good to me.

Newsworthy Journalism

"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."

Hunter S. Thompson, San Francisco Examiner, 1985


What better to bring this quote to life than the killings at Virginia Tech. All one has to do is watch the never-ending parade of "breaking news" on pay-TV's vast selection of 24 hour news channels. As one who has some experience with television news, I can say that this is one reason that I am glad I did not end up working for a news station. The saying holds true for giants such as MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN, just as it holds true for KLTV and the other local news stations.

You are a fool if you think they care about actually reporting anything useful. Ratings drives the entire industry, and if you don't produce, then you're out the door. It doesn't matter how sensational the story may be, if you're watching, that's all that matters. How else do you explain NBC's decision to air the video footage from Cho's "manifesto" (if you can gather enough coherent thought in the thing to call it that), and show pictures of himself wielding the very guns he used to end so many innocent lives. How is this news? Are we more informed citizens now that we have heard the ramblings of a mentally disturbed psycho?

It is irresponsible and pathetic that our standards have fallen so low in this country and evidently, the world. I say the world because I saw the same thing on the BBC and some Spanish language stations.

The fact of the matter is that this media is no longer relevant in the arena of news. Instantaneous news is available on the Internet and cell phones. Technology has changed the way people get their news, and Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and the talking heads on cable news cannot compete.

So what does one do when confronted with this reality? Well, if you are a TV news producer or reporter, you tap into a human beings natural sense of morbid curiosity. Either that, or you come up with ways to scare people. That works pretty well too.

So who's the winner here?

The only person who can claim victory is Cho, and he's in the fucking ground. He's dead, but he lives on through the airwaves. It's disgusting, and I feel sick even believing it's happening.

Way to go NBC. Way to honor the innocent dead and their living, grieving loved ones.

I hope the extra advertising dollars were worth your integrity.