In Sunshine or in Shadow

Here are a few notes from the observation deck:

1. LOST is really a great show.  Only two shows have ever had me glued to the TV every week--The West Wing (The early years) and LOST.  The producers of the show have addressed the reruns issue and I am satisfied with their explanation.  Bottom line--you get 23-24 episodes each year, and with this show--a lot of extras to keep you guessing.  I understand they are launching a website this summer which ties in to the show.  Fans of the show can go on this site and get extra clues and hints.  I think the site is www.thehansofoundation.org  Something like that.  If you want to learn more about the inner workings of this show, the episodes and characters, go to abc.com and check out the LOST site.  Read the boards and listen to the weekly PODCAST by the producers.  You learn a lot about what has happened and what is to come.

2. This is what T-Blog has been for the last 2 weeks: 

• Strange icons (and numerous hits) on my clicks list. 
• Featured profiles on the front page--there seems to be a random group of 10 or so that keep getting featured.  I don't care if I am on it or not--I just want to see some new faces.  Also--if people aren't on the site anymore drop them.  Most everyone on the featured list have been off for 2-3 years now.
• Very few, if any, updates.
• Where's Rocky and Co?

Rocky--you guys did a good job with the changes--don't let things get run down!

3. The weather here is starting to break--spring is here and I am excited for it.  I am tired of cold.

Keep in mind, I am just over a week into this so I have much to learn.  This is what I have learned so far...

1. You don't matter nearly as much and it's perfectly ok!  Your life changes on a dime.  Your routines, your nightly television viewing, your journal time...golf, eating habits...everything.  You become a caretaker and provider--the sole method of survival for this little wide eyed thing that needs you more than anything in the world.  It's a powerful thing.  What you want and need takes a backseat and it's perfectly ok because now you have much more important things to worry about. 

2. You learn to love poop.  We have talked about pooping more this week than anything else.  The trick is not to let it spill out into your conversations with the outside world (like this blog entry!).  Outside of eating, pooping becomes the second biggest highlight of your day.  It's sad, but in a funny sort of way it's also kinda cool.

3. Helplessness.  I now can relate to all first time parents.  When your child starts to cry you immediately start thinking of 5000 things that could be bothering them.  And like the pediatrician said...outside of being hungry and having to poop, it could be anything at all.  It's a helpless feeling, but you have to learn to accept it as part of the process.  As long as you are there trying your best, that's all your baby could ever ask for.

I am sure there will be more to come on this.  Parenthood is my life now and I love it!

Can anyone help me with linking?  I tried pasting a link to my post, highlighting it and then clicking the link button, but that didn't work.  I need to know what I am doing wrong!

 Any help is appreciated!

My posts are always more interesting after drinking a Red Bull...

Weekends are a lot different now!  Actually every day is, but that was expected.  Thanks to everyone for the kind words!  Everyone is happy and healthy, which is all you can ask for!

Do you like lemons?  You should check out this  http://reuters.iwon.com//article/20060326/200 6-03-26T150214Z_01_L25262 811_RTRIDST_0_ODD-CYPRUS- LEMONS-DC.html" title="http://reuters.iwon.com//article/20060326/200 6-03-26T150214Z_01_L25262 811_RTRIDST_0_ODD-CYPRUS- LEMONS-DC.html" target="_blank"http://reuters.iwon.com//arti... It sounds like someone has some big ones!

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.

 Walt Whitman

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

- Aristotle

Mar 17, 1756, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated for the first time in New York City at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Enjoy and be safe.  Today is a very special day for many reasons.  I'll have more to say on this later.....but a hint:

Slainte!!

Welcome to I believe Wednesday...

I believe...

That when historians look at the Presidency of GW Bush, it will be rated among the worst 5 of all-time.

That LOST is the best show on television, and ABC is ruining it with so many repeats in-between episodes.  The show 24 does it the right way.  Start it later in the TV season and run it for 24 consecutive weeks. 

Katie Couric will be the next anchorwoman at CBS, joining a laundry list of journalists who cannot rescue their nightly news program.  Incidentally, Elizabeth Vargas (and Bob Woodruff when he is there do a great job).

I believe that Diet Rite is one of the worst tasting liquids on the planet.  Only sewage run-off, watery poop and Nyquil are worse.

I believe that Rowe v. Wade will never be overturned, despite all the press that it will.  Would you want to be the person in office when it did?  Talk about political suicide. 

I believe that father time and mother nature did it once and she got pregnant.  The end result was Kid Gloves who they had to handle very carefully.

You can go to lunch and stuff yourself, and when you return to the office if someone is eating Chinese food, suddenly you feel like you can eat 6 cartons of General Tsao's Chicken.  It just smells so good.  It stimulates your taste buds and makes you its bitch.

That reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld when Jerry and George are ordering Chinese food when Kramer walks in.  Kramer decides he wants some, and asks Jerry to ask for "extra MSG".  

Apparently, the former Miss Deaf Texas was killed by a train. Tara Rose McAvoy, 18, was walking Monday near railroad tracks when she was struck by a Union Pacific train, authorities said.

I'm still not sure how I feel about this.  I feel badly for the girl and her family.  I must say that the question "Why would you walk by train tracks unless you're a hobo?" comes to mind.  Especially since she couldn't hear the train coming.  It must be horrible to be hit by a train in the caboose.

(Sorry, couldn't help it....)

We did.  Twice.

 I quote the venerable idiot in today's NY Times in reference to why Congress should have passed the port security deal as-is.

''I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East,'' the president said. ''In order to win the war on terror we have got to strengthen our friendships and relationships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East.''

I'm concerned about the broader message that the President is sending the American people by offering a port security deal to a company based in a country with ties to terror.  I'm concerned that even if they have port security deals elsewhere, the thought never occured to President Bush that this would not be popular at all. 

Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
- Thomas Jefferson

Spring used to be my least favorite season.  Why?  Well, I like winter and fall and spring means that hot temperatures are coming.

As I grow older, my love for winter is starting to change a bit.  Cold gets to me more than it used to, and I don't skate or sled like I did as a kid.  Spring now means golf season is upon us, and more than ever I start getting hyped up for golf earlier.

March Madness (NCAA basketball) is also a big thing along with the Masters (golf).  I normally do not watch much college basketball, but I do watch the tournament.  It is one of the great things about American Sports.

 My question of the day is, what do you like about spring?  What things do you look forward to?

 

It seems that Paris has a little problem letting go.  Paris, if you are reading this--it's over.  We gave it a shot, but I just don't like that dog.  It's too little and it craps everywhere.

 

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A court commissioner has signed off on an unusual restraining order against celebutante Paris Hilton, ordering her to stay at least 100 yards away from an event producer who claimed she threatened him -- unless they're at a party together.

Brian Quintana was granted the three-year restraining order against Hilton last month after he testified that the celebutante harassed and threatened him after their friendship soured.

Because Quintana, 37, and Hilton, 25, occasionally attend the same social events, their attorneys drafted an untraditional restraining order that was approved by Superior Court Commissioner Tim Murphy on Monday.

The agreement stipulates that when they attend the same parties, "the stay-away distance may be shortened to 25 feet," according to court papers.

This is just plain stupid.  If you are going to allow females to run for homecoming king, and males for queen, then just end the tradition.   

FREDERICK, Maryland (AP) -- Hood College is reviewing its homecoming rules after a lesbian was crowned king, a college official said.

Jennifer Jones, the 21-year-old senior who beat out three men for the honor, said the crowning was a positive step for the private liberal arts college.

"It is cool that Hood allows people to be themselves," Jones told The Frederick News-Post. "If people didn't want me to be king, they wouldn't have nominated me and voted for me." (She should have never been allowed to run in the first place.)

Jones, of Newark, Delaware, received 64 of 169 votes cast for king last month.

More than two weeks after Jones was crowned, criticism and praise were still rippling through the 2,100-student campus in western Maryland.

"She is not a man," said Singleton Newman, a 22-year-old senior who was nominated for queen. "It is a gender issue, and she is a woman."

 My question is--what is the purpose?  Just because you don't identify with your own sex doesn't mean you need to run for homecoming KING.  Now people will say "well, they voted her in".  How many of you think her being voted in was sincere?  What college campus wouldn't vote her in as a joke?  (America also voted in GWB).

I am liberal in many ways, more so than ever.  I do though fear that we have confused gender roles so much in this country that we may lose them altogether.  And it is NOT a good thing.  Please do not confuse this with being gay.  There are many openly gay women who go for homecoming queen, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

Imagine what would happen if a homosexual male ran for homecoming queen and won.  There would be uproar.  The female contestants would feel so cheated and they would cry foul.  I bet you college campuses would act on that situation.  Males run for king, females run for queen.  That's how it is.  If you don't like it...don't run.  Time for pizza....

I watched the Oscars last night and here is my report: First off, Jon Stewart was very good. I love his humor and it really helped make the Oscars enjoyable this time. The whole night started off well. The set was cool, everyone was dressed in a classy manner. I didn't see anything that made me want to barf. I am not a Joan Rivers "What are you wearing?" person. I just check out my top 5 hot babes and see if they look classy enough to ask out to dinner :) (My wife will love that one.) Charlize Theron, Selma Hayak, Reese Witherspoon....need I say more? I loved that the acceptance speech time seemed cut down this time. Even with that, there were a few that insisted on thanking their third-cousins and their barbers. (They need to work on this even more for next year.) Jon Stewart's jabs on the number of clips "we need more--please send them in--even if they are on BETA." --classic. That was too much. Now for the winners. I'm sorry, but if 3-6 mafia is the best song they could find in a movie this year, something is very, very wrong. The academy could not have been more obvious with this selection. I am all for equal opportunity, but it has to be earned. Denzel Washington finally got his due, Jamie Foxx last year...but this time around I thought the song of the year was a gross attempt at "making the playing field" seem even. It was laughable. Phillip S. Hoffman--awesome. He has always been a great character actor. I hope he gets many more offers! As much as I love Reese Witherspoon, I was surpized she won. I didn't see the wife of Johnny Cash as a leading role--more supporting. The final question I have is--how can Memoirs of a Geisha win so many oscars for this and that, and not be considered a film of the year candidate? And so goes another Oscar blog today...what did you think? Did you even watch? Did it seem different to you?

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week. - Charles Darwin

Irish quote of the day... That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end. - Lise Hand, describing Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, who was killed as a result of her investigations of Irish organized crime.

Mar 03, 1845, The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. Presidentýs veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

My how things change in a year's time.... St. Patrick's Day is a fun day for me. I am not talking about going out to a bar, getting t-shirts with Kathy Ireland half-naked on them and drinking green beer. They don't like green beer in Ireland--at least when I have gone the people laugh at America for instituting such a tradition. St. Pat's is a day for a traditional irish dinner and about 1-12 Guinness. Although this year I have a feeling that St. Pat's is going to be alcohol free :) I usually have a family party that rocks, but it was cancelled due to a lil' baby that might be making her presence known on March 17th. How's that for a Pot O' Gold? I am still making corned beef and carrot soup, which is what I look forward to the most. That and about 1-12 Guinness. What are you planning to do this St. Pats Day?