Small town America

Agh, the joys of a small town. I imagine many small tows struggle with
coming up with front page stories for their local newspaper. But your
front page picture is the high school band? And your big lead story
is that the window service at the post office is going to change?
Might want to consider going to every other day.

Vacation blog

Ok, so I am thinking about putting up some stories from our trip.

Explosivewife is running a 50 mile race this weekend In Amarillo. We
are currently on our way there. We just stopped at a little gas
station on 287 that proclaimed to have "Lean Restrooms". Obviously the
"C" was missing from the sign, butthat didn't stopy genius son from
asking " what is a lean restroom?". Mind you, he is a 13 year old
straight A student.

While waiting for the mens lean restroom, the gentleman that was
occupying it was taking quite some time, so we jumped to the womens
restroom (the place was empty). Upon returning to the car, my lovely
wife asks what took so long. I replied that the guy in the restroom
was giving birth to a baby so we used the other restroom. I jokingly
mentioned that he kept asking fir hot water and towels.

My wife believed me. "really?" she asked.

This is my wife and son. They tend to lack the common sense gene that
most people seem to have. Or don't, I have noticed quite a bit lately.

Sorry if there are typos. I am typing this on my phone as we drive.

Well Hello, Blog!

Hi Blog! How are you?

Lonely.

Porquois?

You have abandoned me.

Moi?

Oui.

Sorry, Blog...my French skills notwithstanding, life has been crazy. I would like to see you keep up with a Blog when you have a son playing football and baseball, a cheerleading daughter, and a wife who goes insane if you are away from her for more than 3o minutes.

But I do have those. I have several sister blogs that are very needy.

BS.

No, seriously! Have you read some of the blogs that are on the side of the page? Take 10 minutes and read the comments on Barry Green's blog...that will make you understand.

My bad, blog...those people are insane. Although I do wish that sometimes I would get crazy commenters on you, because it would give me more to blog about.

Trust me, you don't want that, dude.

Don't dude me. I deserve your respect.

Not when you ignore me for weeks on end.

Touche. Mind if I put down some random thoughts?

Nah...go ahead.

I don't get U2. Never have...probably never will. Worth an occasional listen when on the radio, but I have never owned one U2 album, never put them on the favorites, never listened to them on purpose. They just never have spoken to me like they have with others.

But I am very excited about the new albums from Bowling for Soup and Atreyu. That should give me plenty of listening material for quite some time.

Ordered and Apple TV this week. Hopefully I can get some thoughts up about them.

Received some good feedback when posting the pic above on Twitter. You can follow me...@spoonerstreet

It has been said a thousand times, but I am sick of rain. Sick, sick sick of it!

I actually had a celebrity or two reply back to me on twitter...that is my favorite aspect of it...the pseudo-personal communication with people who two years ago I had no chance of ever interfacing with.

Later, Blog!

Yeah, right. Later...

Daily Grind...

• I need to create a twitter account where no one knows it is me. There are a lot of things that I think people would be interested to read, but in no way do I want those thoughts associated with me.
• I went to see Metallica last night. I can't tell you how happy I was to get to see them again, especially after the new album and with the new bass player.
• I also heard that one of their engineers developed this new cool way to distribute low end at a concert that is supposed to be revolutionary. I will definitely say the sound was good. There is an entire register in my hearing that isn't there this morning.
• Here is a link (warning, really technical stuff here that will bore most people).
• The show was, for lack of a better word, incredible. I can't believe that these guys can put this kind of show at their age, for having done it so long.
• Interesting story from the night: A really drunk guy behind us started putting ketchup and mustard on my buddy's hat, and my other buddy stood up for him. Turns out that they were in the wrong seat, and the AAC upgraded our seats for the trouble. So, I went from sitting in the corner up high to the 15th row, dead center. That was awesome. Thanks, drunk asshole!
• My new Sony Reader is so awesome.
• I am currently reading the Dexter series that inspired the Showtime show. I am glad it just inspired them, because I don't think the books are very good, especially compared to the show.
• I have professed my love for Michael C. Hall before on this here blog, but reading the books to Dexter makes me even more impressed at how he is able to convey emotion in the most subtle way.
• ExplosiveSon is 3-0 on his football team, and he hasn't even touched the ball yet this season. But, I love his attitude, as long as they win, he doesn't care if he does a thing.
• Baseball is really his sport, anyway. He made me proud this weekend by doing very well in his tournament. I was happy to hear him say that he was sad that they didn't get to play more games, and how he wished he was playing baseball right now.
• It has reached the age group where he has to start showing that he can hang with the big boys, and he is starting to show it. I am very happy with that development. Next year, he is eligible to play on the JV team at the high school he will be attending.

Community, Chevy Chase and movie references...

Ok, so I just got finished watching the pilot to the show Community, starring Joel McHale and the legendary Chevy Chase. It was actually pretty funny, and I am looking forward to watching the next one.

Watching the show brought up an interesting thought (or at least I think it is interesting):

Why don't people in shows recognize the people they are acting with?

Let me give you an example from the show.

In the pilot, several students of a community college get together for what they think is a study group for their Spanish class, but it really was a chance for the lead (played by McHale) to get a chance at a date with a pretty girl from class.

He is surprised when several people from class show up, including a former CEO (Chevy Chase).

There is quite a bit of 80's movie references thrown about during the episode, specifically to The Breakfast Club, but to other 80's movies like Meatballs and Stripes.

My question is, if someone in the show has such a great knowledge of 80's movies (including being able to recite perfectly a key line from The Breakfast Club), shouldn't he look over and say, "Holy Crap! You look JUST like Chevy Chase!"? I know that if I was in that room, and a guy who looked just like Chevy Chase walked into that room, that is exactly what I would say.

This has always bugged me when the TV shows and movies cross that 4th wall. If they are going to reference things that aren't supposed to exist in that universe, they need to take it all the way through.

Another example was from an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" last year where they encountered Summer Glau from Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. They instantly recognized her as someone from the TV show. Therefore, shouldn't she have instantly recognized them as the cast from "The Big Bang Theory"?

All I am saying is that that 4th wall is no longer sacred. You could cause some kind of time vortex that could doom us all.

Toys on Cars (hey, that might be a good band name)

Jurassic Park: "

People of Wal-Mart is a really neat blog. What I don't understand is how they continue to come up with these pictures of cars with toys all over them. I have never seen one of these in my life! Is it because I live in Texas and toys would melt in the sun? Or is this a localized phenomenon?

"

Rainy Grind...

• Good lord, if it doesn't stop raining soon, I think that mass suicides might start happening.
• My dog is going insane being cooped up in the house.
• Went bowling this weekend at the Brunswick lanes in North Richland Hills. When we got there, there were no less than 13 lanes that weren't being used, but we weren't allowed to use those, since they were being "readied" for birthday parties that didn't start for an hour and a half. Nice job on creating false demand for your crappy bowling lanes.
• Ok, I will admit, the Federer between the legs shot was cool...but go to any tennis tournament, no matter what level, and you will see that shot at least once. It was great and all because it was on the big stage, but most people who play tennis regularly can pull that off. I'm just sayin...
• I purchased a Sony E-Reader off of Craigslist last week, and it might be the greatest thing I have ever owned. The best part is that I can "check out" digital books from the Frisco library for 14 days. So far, I haven't spent a dime on books and I have PLENTY to read. It is awesome.
• I just finished Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Great, great read about medieval times, cathedrals, monks and Earls.
• I am currently reading the "Dexter" series, which is what the show is based upon. Good stuff.
• Man, is it great to have football back. Seriously, it might be the happiest day on my calendar to see the first Cowboys' game. (Especially if they win)
• I feel bad for the Rangers. They have done so well this season, and it looks like they are going to fall just short of the playoffs. It kills me.
• On the latest iPhone/iTunes update, you can upload Genius mixes to your phone, which is great. There is also an option that you can check that fills up the remaining space on your phone with music. Great idea, right? Not so much. Unfortunately, it fills up every inch of space, so you can't download any new apps, nothing. I think they need to add a setting so that it always leaves 50 mb or so, so this won't happen.
• I love technology (just like Kip Dynamite), but every once in a while, I am reminded how behind technology a lot of people are. I just had to teach someone how to use their new work-issued iPhone, and she looked at the thing like it had 3 heads and came from Jupiter.
• Speaking of Jupiter, I love me some Martellus Bennett, but he will only be popular if he can perform on a week to week basis. If he starts to screw up, people will be all over him for being unprofessional. Just be careful, MartyB!