Random Thoughts and Whatnot

June 30, 2005

Babelize it

Babelize with this translation "tool". I tried a few that didn't babelize well, until I tried the classic, "Open the pod bay doors, Hal."

Spirograph: a complete waste of time.

Written at 2:37 PM by David.

0 comments

June 29, 2005

Melancholy

I'm melancholy. I don't know who this artist is, just came across his images a few minutes ago. But that pretty much sums up melancholy.

Listening to Emm Gryner's "Running Back". (I know she didn't write the song.) Now that's some melancholy lyrics. Songs of Love and Death is tops.

Out.

Written at 7:17 PM by David.

0 comments

June 27, 2005

I don't know how long I will keep this posted...

A delete of this post is imminent.

You've been warned.

Click at your own risk!

Written at 2:33 PM by David.

0 comments

June 26, 2005

Sermon, Party, Swimming, Drinks

My Men's Circle group was responsible for the church service today at UU Church/Congregation today. The service went great. When it was time for the sermon, I was the second speaker. I presented my 4 pages pretty well and even got a couple of laughs. There were 5 speakers who presented 5 minute speeches for the sermon and that might have gone a little long, but we got tons of compliments when it was finished, so I guess we didn't put too many people to sleep.

After the service the 9 men in my group stood outside the doors and shook hands, and I was amazed at the number of kudos we got for the service. Several people came up to me and asked if I took the job in Dearborn or Farminton Hills. I replied that I thought it was implied by the context that I took the job in Dearborn. The bottom line: I really felt comfortable up there speaking for my 5-6 minutes.

After church I drove home and went over to the neighbor's for a birthday party. They had a Dora themed scavenger hunt and a pretty serious Dora cake. After the party my wife and I and the neighbor's and all our kids hung out and played for hours in the back yard in the small pool, sand-box, and playhouse.

After the after-party, the wife and I were trying to decide if we should go out for dinner and then I reminded her that the men's circle was going to meet at a local pub for drinks. But she had plans to swim at the Rec center to get in some exercise. Time to decompress. Well we did some quick thinking--and we ended up eating a quick dinner then all of us headed over to the Rec center. I swam and hung out with the kids while the wife swam some laps.

After the swim, I went to the local pub, met up with the guys in my circle, then had a tall Bass Ale and listened to stories about fly fishing. Got home by 9:30 and had some quality time with the wife.

Now it's time for bed.

Oh, the link of the day (LOTD), comes from a program I watched while rocking my son for his nap: America's Test Kitchen.

Written at 10:41 PM by David.

0 comments

June 25, 2005

Artwork

Here are some works of art my niece taught me to draw last weekend. I am forever grateful.

Click on the thumbnail for a full-sized image.

(The drawing at the bottom (third from left) is one my daughter drew.)

Written at 4:48 PM by David.

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We Are (not) The Champions

The Pistons played their last game as NBA champions on Thursday. Another game that ended at midnight. As you all know, they came up short--short on bench players, short on points, short on defense, short on energy, short during the regular season when it comes to home court advantage (which they did not have in two series in a row).

Cut the grass after dinner yesterday, then Julie & the kids made a fire in her little outdoor fire pit grill thingy. It was only about 95 degrees outside, so we thought it would be a good day for a fire & smores with the neighbors. I had a Michelob Amber Bock and the kids had smores.

At 8:30 the wife put the kids to bed and when she came downstairs, I put in a movie purchased at the rental store for $1.00, Supernova, entertaining for a buck, but I wouldn't recommend it to a close friend.

Written at 7:52 AM by David.

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June 22, 2005

And I was blogging earlier today

I was blogging earlier today and I canceled the blog. Didn't publish it. No that would be a movie... what if all the cancelled emails & cancelled blogs got together in cyberspace and combined into some kind of Frankenstein content. Whoa, what a concept. Then this cyber-frankenstein would post itself (because it would be self-aware (duh)) and it would terrorize the people who cancelled those emails & blogs.

Look out! It's the attack of the cyber-frankenstein. Don't touch the keyboard, or it might give you nightmares for the rest of the millennium.

Watching Supersize Me right now. Good movie.

Written at 9:40 PM by David.

0 comments

June 20, 2005

Injury again?

Yes, I got injured again Saturday in soccer. The problem wasn't that I got injured, but I got hurt during warm-ups! Even worse than that was the fact that I hurt myself the first time I kicked a ball in warm-ups. So then I played the entire first half and limped along. Then at half time I tore off my shoes and socks and iced my shin. I stayed out until 10 minutes left in the game, and then I tried a shift and played fairly well, as well as a limp can do. Then I came out. During the last 2 minutes of the game I ran with and tied up the best player on the other team when he was bringing the ball up on the left side of the goal. That was my play of the game.

I limped to the car after the game. When I was driving the Corolla home, I had to used my right hand to lift my right leg to brake and to accelerate. The pain was at a 10.

I did score a goal. Weee. Scoring isn't everything. If I get injured, hurt, broken,

Anyway, here's the moment you've all been waiting for: The Definitive Meaning of Those Damn Lost Numbers.

Written at 10:07 PM by David.

1 comments

June 17, 2005

Bust?

Went to jury duty today. This was the morning when we were supposed to hear the trial & make a decision on a guy's fate. It was a misdemeanor.

So I got to the courthouse at 9:00 a.m. and was sent to the juror's deliberation room. After an hour of chatting with the other 6 jurors (one of us would be an alternate), the bailiff came in and said the case was settled. There was a plea agreement.

So then I got to have lunch with my wife and daughter at Quizno's. Good sub.

There are things I cannot talk about in my blog. If I were to refer to some of the things going on in my life, there would be some serious problems at the home front. So having a blog is not about showing oneself to the world. Actually many blogs now-a-days are about sharing interesting tidbits from the internet with strangers. My goal with this blog is to share something about myself. Kinda like a personal bulletin board.

Is anyone interested in this bulletin board? I hope to have more readers tomorrow than today, and so on for the rest of its life. So there is an ego involved here. My ego. But then again, I would be perfectly happy if I kept this blog for 54 years and had something to show my grandchildren about life in 2005 and beyond. It's not unique to journal, but it is electronic and semi-permanent. The medium is unique.

On that note, here is a unique photo of a squirrel. And turn your volume when you play this squirrel game.

Written at 2:25 PM by David.

0 comments

June 15, 2005

No running again today

No running again today. I keep telling myself that I'll run the next day, but each next day comes & I'm full of excuses. Today, the excuse was that my commute was 60 minutes and I met the family at Aubree's Pizza for dinner. When I got home I crashed on the couch until the kids went to bed. That's unfortunate that I made an excuse, but I was tired from staying up till midnight watching the Pistons take care of San Antonio.

I have jury duty on Friday. It will be my first time sitting in a trial and deliberating as a juror. Maybe it will go past noon so we can get a free lunch! Actually when I was in the pool of jurors, they made it clear that the township would not pay for lunch. So I don't know about Friday. But the hope is that the trial is quicker than the selection of jurors. That's what the judge hoped.

A lot of stress at work right now. And the commute doesn't help.

What do you think of the coming attractions of The War Of The Worlds? It looks good, but then I'm not sure.

Don't forget your nightly cat launching here.

Written at 9:38 PM by David.

1 comments

June 13, 2005

Not something new

I dropped my son off at pre-school this morning at 8:00 a.m. This is not something new. What was different was that my daughter was with me & I had to drop her off for her first day of Fun Camp at EMU. So now she's back to EMU camp, the same kind of camp she was at last summer. She was nervous and I probably shouldn't have went down to the pool area to say good-bye a second time. The only thing is that I didn't really say good-bye to her a first time. So when I met her down by the pool she was about to break down.

Later in the day I called the camp and spoke to one of the head counselors. It sounded like she was doing very well. All I know is that her dad needed some takin' care of.

I don't like this concept of summer camp. When I grew up, every summer day was spent at home or on the dreaded summer driving vacation. Now it's 8-5 for my kids every day of the year. Makes me want to quit my job and become a teacher or something.

Link of the day: www.webjay.com. I haven't made a playlist and probably won't, but it's fun to discover new music there.

Speaking of new music, check out a song from Soft called Droppin'

Written at 3:51 PM by David.

0 comments

June 12, 2005

Once Again, The Meaning Of Life, Please?

In church today and the "sermon" was the life credos of the 8th graders, who just finished their "coming of age" class. There were 17 credos and I heard two. I don't remember much of the two credos that I heard, but the jist of it is the thesis of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: "Be excellent to each other." Now I've written about this in a previous blog life, and I'm bringing it up again. So it still is a question that interests me: what do I believe?

To answer that question, I have to ask what aspects of belief are important. Let's make a list:

other people
myself
self improvement
good actions
good thoughts
sincerity
taking care of the Earth's resources
independence and interdependence
expression
meditation

And I'm sure there are more things that are important concerning belief. But from this short list, there are 3 main categories: others, self, world.

Now one thing I do know is that I am something like a humanist.

When I was in 12th grade, I took a humanities class. It covered topics such as the cave drawing in Lascaux, Plato, Socrates,
and we ended with contemporary works like Shakespeare & the always popular Waiting for Godot. The bottom line is that this might have been the single most important class I had in my life.

Did I discover then that I was a humanist? Probably not. But I did discover myself and acknowledge the fact that I am human and this is the greatest privilege I can think of.

Now it's time to watch the Pistons take care of business in San Antonio (I hope). Happy Blogging.

DT

Written at 9:04 PM by David.

0 comments

June 06, 2005

Race

Ran my first 10K race in 3 years yesterday. It was a
bit warm, and that is my excuse for walking twice in 6
miles. But I finished the race averaging 7:56 per
mile. Not bad, but my goal was around 7:30s. After
the race I went and bought some jeans, then called my
wife on the cell phone and we ended up meeting at home
and taking the kids to a water park for the heat of
the day.

Now I'm back to the same old question: do I use my
kids names in this blog or should I use something
else. In Random Thoughts and Whatnot (the original),
I used the silly convention of calling my son B and my
daughter H. I'd like to get away from that somehow,
but I feel concerned about too much identity sharing
on the internet. This will take more consideration later.

Written at 12:27 PM by David.

1 comments

June 04, 2005

Day Two

On day two, me and the wife and kids went to our son's
soccer practice and he decided he would rather eat
crackers than play soccer. He is 3. I couldn't
imagine being in any organized sport when I was 3
years old. Because my wife has torn ligaments in her
ankle, I helped coach the team.

I have soccer tonight and then a small party at a
friend's house. The problem is that I'm running in
the Dexter to Ann Arbor race tomorrow, but I'm only
running the 10K portion of the race. So I'm not going
to drink anything but water tonight and hopefully get
home at a decent hour.

Here is an interesting link: Rock Videos

Written at 1:09 PM by David.

0 comments

June 03, 2005

More Random Thoughts And Whatnot

I've been encouraged to create a blog that is more traditional, and one in which others can post comments to my random thoughts and whatnot. So I've acquiesced, this time, with the hope that I can one day have more than 6 hits per day and possibly even be known as one of the world-renown bloggers in the universe.

God this is shameless.

Written at 11:45 PM by David.

2 comments