Well tonight is my last show playing for this new band. Our last show was our premiere and this show is our finale. The lead singer is leaving town and all of our songs are his. So our purpose in playing tonight is just to have fun. It should be really good. We never had any CDs or T-Shirts or anything. Those that see it will only have the memories. This band gave me so much more freedom to play what I want lead-wise. I bring a style that's like Santana meets Jimi Hendrix. I've invited a lot more people than I usually do, even my Sunday School class. It should be really good. It is sad that we never got a chance to get better. It does take a while to get really tight. I don't really know what I am going to do next. I've been throwing around some ideas. I know I need to go to some blues jams and play improv and I also thought about starting up a Christian rock band. Then I also thought about retiring from bands altogether. It's weird but I used to think that being in a band would get me the girls. It doesn't and is more like a job. I think that is a misconception because it did happen a lot in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The 90s changed everything when grunge came to town and the "not care" style came into being and everyone started getting into bands. I think the girls wanted to be cool so that was when they started "not caring". It is more-so a job than anything. You have to haul all your equipment to the show and spend a while getting it all setup. Before you go on you have maybe 30 minutes to socialize and it's nothing of any substance. Then when you do the show you pretty much are working, except it is fun, but it is work to get everything sounding right. When I play I am always adjusting everything trying to get my sound perfect. Between songs I am tuning and then when I am playing I get energetic. At the end of the show I usually do my standard play guitar behind my head and the crowd goes wild. After the show I get the standard handshakes and kudos for a good show, but I am in no condition to do any flirting. I am sweating and I have to get my equipment off of the stage for the next act. By the time I clean myself up I am worn out and am ready to go home. The biggest plus is the rush of energy I get on stage. I think it's the crowd, and the love of the music, and my ego getting fed that gives it to me. It's like that is what all the work is for, being able to express yourself in music. I don't know if I want to give that up just yet. Who am I kidding, I'm going to end up playing "Stairway to Heaven" in a bar and grill in about 5 years. I'll love every minute of it...

Thought of the Day
"Didn't you read the sign? No Stairway"
Wayne's World

So anyway, I created a new RSS feed for this site. The rss feed can be located at:

http://www.brianaldenbass.com/brianbass.xml

So now you are saying to yourself,"What in the world is RSS?" RSS is a relatively new way of organizing internet content. For instance say I am running a news site and all people care about is the news instead of the ads. I then publish an RSS "feed" and people can access just the content itself. Usually you can tell when someone has an RSS feed on their site by a little orange picture that says "XML" or "RSS" on it. My site now has the "XML" image tag on it. So what can one do with RSS? Well the answer is: alot. Many sites already carry RSS feeds on them already. Most news sites, forum sites and anything with dynamic content usually use RSS. So I'll teach ya how to use it. First of all you need what is called an RSS Aggregator. This can be another application or another website that contains it. I am fond of Google so I use Google's new portal. I think there is a sign-up process you can go through to customize it.

http://www.google.com/ig

Once you sign-up you can click on "Add Content" and then go to "Create a Section" and add the link I posted above. Congratulations, you now how my site feed on Google's search page. You can find other people's feeds and create your own little portal with weather, comics, forums and news from any site that publishes. If you prefer Microsoft, they also has a good aggregator site at:

http://www.start.com/3/default.aspx

With this knowledge go out and prosper...

Thought of the Day
"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."
Robert X. Cringely.

Today's message is brought to you by the Amish Internet. Notice all my pop-ups... Speaking of Amish, they were in the news again recently. Apparently an Amish boy was arrested for minor in possession who was drunk, stealing numbers off of peoples houses, and stealing their flower pots. They found the numbers and the pots in his buggy. Something tells me he isn't going to stay Amish. Not that I am anti-Amish or anything. Occasionally we will see them whenever I visit Pennsylvania. One time we saw an Amish family and their buggy parked by a Denny's. They were wearing the traditional black clothes and hats. As we get further and further in time, their behavior is going to seem stranger and stranger. Seriously the best thing about the Amish is their corn. If you've ever had Amish corn you know what I am talking about. I wonder what my life would've been like had I been Amish..... I would've played acoustic guitar instead of electric. I probably would have been kicked out for not waking up in the morning and leaving my clothes all over the place. I can picture the town meetings now... "He must go, we have no cheese left, no cheese." "Yes, he keeps on playing his acoustic way too loud at night and we are trying to sleep." "He keeps on writing if-then-else statements and using up all of the ink in our quills." "He mows one foot of lawn and takes a break. A break! It took him 5 days to mow the front, 5 days!"

Thought of the Day
JERRY: So you won't believe what happened with Whatley today. It got back to hime that I made this little dentist joke and he got all offended. Those people can be so touchy.
KRAMER: Those people, listen to yourself.
JERRY: What?
KRAMER: You think that dentists are so different from me and you? They came to this country just like everybody else, in search of a dream.
JERRY: Kramer, he's just a dentist.
KRAMER: Yeah, and you're an anti-dentite.

JERRY: I am not an anti-dentite!
KRAMER: You're a rabid anti-dentite! Oh, it starts with a few jokes and some slurs. "Hey, denty!" Next thing you know you're saying they should have their own schools.
JERRY: They do have their own schools!
KRAMER: Yeah!....

I decided to venture out last night and saw the movie "The Island." It is a standard sub-reality sci-fi movie. It was pretty good IMO and didn't have anything that was annoying. In the genres of movies to have become popular in the past ten years the "sub-reality" movie is the most coolest. Sub-reality movies are where the main character's are in a different world and figure out how to deal with the fact that they are being played by their creator. The Matrix is the biggest one. But even a movie like The Truman Show counts as a sub-reality movie. There are some older ones. George Lucas THX 1138 was a sub-reality movie. So was Total Recall. A lot of those movies make you think, "what if I am in a sub-reality?" As a Christian we actually do believe we are in a sub-reality where heaven awaits us. I think those movies like to take some religious undertones to make it seem cool, except the human is always smarter than their creator. The movie also brought up cloning, as that is a fairly recent trend in pop culture. Although no one really hears much about cloning nowadays. There was Dolly the sheep and a slew of cloning movies and TV shows and then we all kinda forgot about it. Makes me think our food is coming from cloned animals, we just were never told. It takes me back to yesteryear when I was into cloning. I remember at the science fair when I was in 5th grade I shot for the stars. I actually bought a cloning kit with the intention of really cloning carrots. Unfortunately I made a vital mistake. I left all my petri dishes out in the sun and they burned up. The name of my science fair project that year was "The Carrot that wouldn't Clone." I am glad it didn't. I hate carrots... I probably would've had to eat it in the name of science.

Thought of the Day
"Send in the Clones!"
-- Austin Powers

This weekend was a standard weekend. I went to Dave and Buster's on Friday with my Sunday School class. On Saturday I jammed with the band for our big show this Friday. On Sunday I did the usual Church, Sunday School, Homeless, Volleyball thing. We have yet to win a match and the season is almost over. Dave and Buster's has an interesting rule after 10pm. Apparently you have to be 25 or older to get in. For a video game place? Talk about weird. It then got added to list of the ages you can look forward to:
16 - Getting a Driver's License
17 - Legally an adult(for murder cases)
18 - Buying cigarettes, voting, getting tattooed and joining the military
21 - Buying Alcohol
25 - Getting into Dave and Buster's and also getting to rent a car easily and running for the House of Representatives
30 - Minimum age to be a Senator
35 - Minimum age to be a President
62 - Minimum age to start to get Social Security

I never thought about it before, but I guess I can now be a Senator. Vote for Brian for Senate! It takes me back to when I was a kid in 4th grade and ran for class president. I had mom get me tons of bubble gum to give to all my classmates as a bribe. I guess I never communicated it correctly because in the end all of the gum was gone and I only got 2 votes...

Thought of the Day
"Listen to me. We're always sitting here. I'm always helping you with your girl problems, you're always helping me with my girl problems. Where do we end up?"
"Here."
"Exactly. Because neither one of us can handle a woman all by ourselves."
"I'm trying."
"I've tried. We don't have it. But maybe the two of us, working together, at full capacity, could do the job of one normal man."
"Then each of us would only have to be like a half-man. That sounds about right."
- George and Jerry, in "The Summer of George"

Last night was the standard guys night out. It was me, Mr.Turkentine, Peety and Benz. Most of them like to just get away from their wives and such and do stuff not family related. I, on the other hand, just count it as an endless party that I do. I usually go to happy hour beforehand with some old coworkers. Then I come home and go out with the guys. The biggest thing about guys night is the restaurant we go to. It is a never ending debate. Since I am the pickiest I am the least common denominator. For instance, there is this terrible Mexican food place that they want me to go to that messed up my order 3 times in a row called El Fenix. I vowed never to go back there. Then we always have our choice of guys restaurants like Hooters, Bone Daddy's, Scoots and the latest Twin Peaks. Then we have the standard restaurants where we all can be happy like Bennigan's or Chili's or TGI Fridays. Then we have the pizza places like Cici's or Italian Villa. I will do Mexican food, just not at El Fenix, so we also have the Mexican Villa. Then we have a Chinese buffet as well where I usually get plain chicken Lo Mien. The wait staff knows me there, I'm the plain lo mien guy. For burger's Snuffer's is the best, but Fuddrucker's isn't far behind. If there is any wonder how I got so big just thank over 100 nearby restaurants that tempt me every day. Why cook when good food is around the corner? I saw a special on the morbidly obese on Discovery HD channel the other day. It doesn't look that bad. All you need is an over-sized electronic wheelchair and some kind of mumu. However one guy was like,"I hit 250 and then it just skyrocketed from there." Maybe I should order a bigger couch...

Thought of the Day
"Repeat After Me, No intendo Espanol"
"No Nintendo Espano?"
-- The "Learn Spanish" CD I got yesterday

Hmm, today I think I'll talk about my history in caffieneland. It all started when I was a kid. I could down a 2 liter of Coke or Dr.Pepper in a couple of hours. Back then Coke and Dr.Pepper was considered a normal part of growing up. Apparently drinking those in excess is bad too. I didn't realize it then, but I was conditioning my body to be used to caffeine. By college I was still "on" it and my nerves started getting to me, or so I thought. There is a double bladed sword with those drinks. It is not always the caffeine that gets you, it is the acid as well. For about 10 years now I have barely touched anything caffeine related(except for chocolate). I thought that the reason why I had so called "panic attacks" was because I had too much caffeine so I cut all of it out. However I still had them from time to time and to top it off I was tired all of the time. I would tell the doc it felt like I was choking and I would hyperventilate and get sick. The first time I went to the ER was way back in college and that was when they said it was panic attacks. So I bought some Sprite and bid adieu to my caffeine days. Then around 2000 I had a big one in a mall and it felt like I was having a heart attack. I laid down on a bench waiting to die and my friends called an ambulance causing a big scene. That was when they said I had a hiatal hernia and GERD. So then I got on Nexium and all those antacids. It did work, but I had forgotten about the caffeine that I had quit taking. It was never unknown anxiety. There was anxiety, but it was from the heartburn. I still experienced bad heartburn even on those drugs so I went for that endoscopy early this year. I'm paying close to $7,000 just to be told I'm fat and I had a little inflammation in my esophagus. There was acid in those drinks and all along I thought it was the caffeine. Fast forward to these past couple of weeks. I get soo tired in the afternoons that I decided to try something new, Red Bull. And I started drinking diet coke for lunch. I am no longer tired in the afternoons and can get some more work done. Caffeine does have an effect. Exercise though has made the biggest difference. I shouldn't have been diagnosed with PA or GERD, I should have been diagnosed as being fat and lazy.

Thought of the Day
RECORDS NURSE : Are you all right, Doctor?
FLETCH: Where am I?
RECORDS NURSE: You're in the Records Room.
FLETCH: I'm fine.
RECORDS NURSE: Can I get you something?
FLETCH: Have you got a make-shift plywood pillory? Heh Heh, just kidding.
-- The Script of Fletch. If memory serves me correct he changed the joke to "The Beatles White Album"

So I was watching "The Day After Tomorrow" yesterday and remembered with fondness the era of the disaster movie. It seemed like for the past 10 years or so the disaster movie always had a place in summer movies. We had 2 meteors heading for earth, a couple of volcanoes erupting, a couple of big storms, and a couple of killer virus movies. There were also some TV movies about ice ages and killer earthquakes. What if all of those predictions in Revelations was predicting the seasons of disaster movies and not actual disasters? If that is true we can rest easily. A new era is upon us, the era of the remakes. Now we are content with redoing Bewitched, the Dukes of Hazzard, Batman, Wonka and I hear the Smurf's are coming to the big screen. After watching "The Day After Tomorrow" I flipped it over the local hurricane coverage hitting Mexico. I don't think we'll see any of it here in Dallas. I do think though, the most probable disaster to see would be a massive storm that builds up. I figure all we need is the jet stream in the right place and we can get a hurricane to have a path solely on water. It could then build up large enough to cover the globe and destroy everything. This all leads me to my next invention - "Brian Bass's Global Air Conditioning." The idea is to create 2 sheets of plastic encircling the globe. All of the humidity in the air will then be sucked into the void and the clouds will be contained in it. Then whenever we want it to rain we will open millions of holes to let some of it out. When the evaporation happens we will collect it and then redistribute again. We can have a computer monitor it. It will even monitor the temperature as well. I figure we can get a conglomerate of nations to build it. Now that I think about it, that idea is really, really stupid. I think I'll go back to watching movies...

Thought of the Day
"I've been reviewing Darren's internship journal. Doing laundry, mending chicken wire, high tea with a Mr. Newman?"
"Well, it all sounds pretty glamorous, but it's business as usual at Kramerica."
"Far as I can tell, your entire enterprise is little more than a solitary man with a messy apartment which may or may not contain a chicken."
- Dean Jones and Kramer, in "The Voice"

So there I was shaking the hand of someone who I had no idea who he was. It was just now when I met the director over our division. I called myself a "newbie" and said I have been here 2 weeks. I had no idea who he was. It was when he started talking about our operations all over the world that I reasoned he must be important. No one ever announces role anymore. Also since higher ups also wear jeans and golf shirts there is no way to tell them apart. It is weird. I remember when I met the MSD director over the IRS at my last place. He was in from Washington DC and was wearing a temporary badge. I said stupidly,"Ah a new person." I like to give a good impression to the superiors, but since I have no idea who my superiors are I can never make that jump. I'm not really a brown noser. Actually I am kind of the opposite, but I do like to know the order of things. At the moment I think I have 4 bosses, but I am not sure. We're all the same. It is a cool job. So much better than the IRS. I'll probably give this one an 8 out of 10 whereas my last one was a 3 out of 10. I plan on staying till my contract runs out, which will be in December. If I do a good job they may even renew it. It's kinda funny though. I wonder if I insulted him by pretending he was some network guy. I was about to ask the director if he could replace my computer, thinking he was the standard IT worker. I dodged that one...

Thought of the Day

Milton Waddams: [talking on the phone] And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

-- Office Space

Well, I have been busy as usual. This Friday I went with the guys to see the new Willy Wonka. All I have to say is save your money don't see it. Actually I had a lot more say about my beloved film Wonka being ruined by Tim Burton so if you want you can see my review here:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0367594/usercomments-101

Then on Saturday I had the big premiere of Ultimate Day - my new rock band. It started off innocent enough. I went to the mall and got my hair dyed brown and blond streaks. It looks really cool, like a rock star. The girls in my Sunday School seemed to like it too. Then later that evening I loaded up my car and innocently backed up out of my garage into a parked car in my driveway. It did no damage to the other car at all but my back light and panel next to light is damaged. I guess now I am really a Dallas driver (about 80% of all cars in Dallas have some kind of damage). I was a little disappointed but it was my own fault for not looking back. After that I was ready to play. The show went ok. We didn't promote our first show because we really didn't want people to see us make many mistakes. But nevertheless my guitar playing skills were on the mark. The rhythm was a little off. I guess this is because we have a new drummer who uses the metronome all of the time. Most drummers use the feel of the song to keep time. This band's music is really guitar centric so I had many chances to shine. At the end I did my usual behind the head guitar playing. After the show the band that came on after us shook my hand and said ,"How are we supposed to follow that?" My expert band friend said in 3 months we could be better than Corporate Red ever was. I agreed. On Sunday I did the usual church, Sunday School,feed the homeless, volleyball routine and was worn out by the end of the evening. About the homeless. The city of Dallas is systematically trying to get rid of the homeless and trying to prevent us from feeding them. At first they passed a law regarding panhandling, then they passed a litter law that made it illegal to sleep in boxes. Then they pretended to setup a 2.5 million dollar civic center but it got designed wrong and the money somehow vanished. Then they passed a law that made it illegal to sleep in a public place. Now they are passing a law that makes anyone who gives food to anyone else have to have a food handler's license which effects me directly. And another law in the works will effectively shut down the mission where I work at. Basically the people who have very little hope and help to get better will lose all hope and all help. We also go to another mission where they keep the homeless in a fenced in yard so they won't do drugs. If they leave the yard they won't have a place to sleep for the night. Usually they let them out to get some food from us, but this time they didn't. So we had to slip them sandwiches through a big barbed wire fence. I even cut my hand on the fence while handing a guy a bible. It was like we were feeding the animals at the zoo. Some people say if we give them nothing at all then they will be forced to get a job. For one, 25% of them are mentally retarded and about 70% more of them have drug addictions and need drug therapy before they will even be suited to work. The city of Dallas needs to help them. What they are doing instead is trying to make everything related to being homeless a misdemeanor. Since there is a 3 strikes your out law basically they want the homeless to go to prison thereby removing them from the street and giving the state more money per prisoner. The revolving door is in full motion...

Thought of the Day
"Candy is Dandy, but liquor is quicker."
-The Real Wonka Movie

As my Sunday school group put firecrackers inside of a watermelon and blew them up on the Fourth of July I could only think about one man. This man who once was at the height of comedy; whose hi-jinks were known the world over. That man is called Gallagher. I remember seeing some HBO special when I was a kid. People would come to his shows wearing raincoats. He would then wax political comedy and take a sledgehammer and smash watermelon to smithereens. The audience would leave the shows covered in everything he smashed with the sledgehammer. Why pay money though. Why not do it yourself? Apparently he is in the news again. He allegedly hit a man as part of his act and is being sued for physical, emotional and psychological harm. I am sure it was not real harm. It can't be any kind of harm. It has to be a mixture because of all the emotional and psychological harm involved. Only the watermelon knows the real harm. Let the watermelon speak.

Thought of the Day
"Maybe he's an enigma, a mystery wrapped in a riddle."
"He's a mystery wrapped in a Twinkie."
- Elaine and Jerry, in "The Big Salad"

Like a moth to a flame I am drawn to the new Willy Wonka movie. I have seen enough previews to know that it is going to be really bad but somehow I have to see it. The original movie IMO was one of the best movies of all time. When I was 10 and mom would go out on dates we would pop the "kids tape" in our VCR and have hours of entertainment. For some reason when you are that young you are able to view the same thing over and over and over again and have it be enjoyable every time. Now I can't even play a video game for over an hour without getting bored. As time went on I memorized every line and eventually could recite the whole movie. I wonder if the new movie will have the same lines and the same humor. It actually looks kinda dark. The VCR we had was an ancient beast. It had big push buttons and popped open at the top. I think Wonka was copied off of HBO because we were missing some scenes that later on I realized we never memorized. I think the big missing scene was where Wonka tells Charlie Bucket to go home and doesn't give him the chocolate. Next on the kids tape was Mary Poppins and some cartoon show we taped in Alaska. I always remember the commercial for Channel 9 CBS - "Serving Alaska's Great Interior." Yet I don't remember exactly what I did yesterday.

Thought of the Day
You get blue
Like everyone
But me and Grandpa Joe
Can make your troubles go away
Blow away
There they go
Cheer up Charlie
Give me a smile
What happened to that smile I used to know
Don't you know your grin has always been my sunshine
Let that sunshine show
Come on Charlie
No need to frown
Deep down you know the world is still your toy
When the world gets heavy
Never pit-a-pat 'em
Up and at 'em boy
Someday, sweet as a song
Charlie's lucky day will come along
Til that day you've gotta stay in strong Charlie
Up on top is right where you belong
Look up Charlie
You'll see a star
Just follow it and keep your dream in view
Pretty soon the sky is gonna clear up Charlie
Cheer up Charlie do
Cheer up Charlie
Just be glad you're you

As a nerd growing up the one class that I really did think was the most useful out of all the classes I ever took was "Number Sense" in Jr. High. It really was an after school class, but it had to be the most useful. It was there where I learned many tricks in calculating numbers. It showed me that the lazy way is almost always the fastest way. Why do the math in figuring a 15% tip when you can just take 10% and add half of that to get 15%. Or better yet, just multiply the sales tax by 2 since sales tax is usually 8%. One of my other favorites was multiplication tricks like trying to figure out how many packages of bologna makes 300 sandwiches. If there are 12 slices per package then divide both numbers by 2 to begin with: 150/6 then again: 75/3 which easily equals 25 packages without having to think. That's my goal in life, to think without thinking. Ah, the zen of Bass.

Thought of the Day
MR. TURKENTINE: That's ten percent half over again, which
makes fifteen percent. Charlie Bucket, how many did you
open?
CHARLIE: Two.
MR. TURKENTINE: That's easy. Two hundred is twice one
hundred . . .
CHARLIE: Not two hundred. Just two.
MR. TURKENTINE: Two? What do you mean you only opened two?
CHARLIE: I don't care very much for chocolate.
MR. TURKENTINE: Well I can't figure out just two, so let's
pretend you opened two hundred. Now, if you opened two
hundred Wonka Bars, apart from being dreadfully sick, you'd
have used up twenty percent of one thousand, which is
fifteen percent half over again, ten percent--

Willy Wonka

Have you ever had the classic treat Flav-Or-Ice? I bought some of those last week and it reminded me of swimming and summer. I always loved the grape flavored ones, yet I don't really like grapes. I think it must be the sugar they put in those things. It does feel a little like summer except I have to work during the week. After being outside so much on Sunday I am starting to get a tan. We gave the homeless turkey and rolls this Sunday. If I was homeless I would move to a much cooler state. It is in the 100s now and probably won't go down until September. I played sand volleyball last night. My team is like the Bad News Bears. I think we've won 2 games out of 18 so far. I am starting to dive for the ball now. It is fun except for the occasional skinned knee. I think later on I'll get a bike and ride it down to the local convenience store and get some more Flav-Or-Ice, then I'll come home and play Nintendo. Who says youth has to stop at 30?

Thought of the Day
"You've got your shirt in my oven?"
"Well, I didn't have enough quarters for the dryer, but this is better anyway. And it's more convenient."
"Oh, for both of us."
"Yeah, and I have a lot more control. I got a shirt going for ten minutes at 325."
"What's wrong with your oven?"
"I'm baking a pie."
- Jerry and Kramer, in "The Calzone"

The other day my mom mentioned something that I let slip in my weblog. Apparently mom didn't know that I skipped high school from time to time. I seem to remember making a rule to skip at least one day a semester. The key in successful skipping is to pretend to go to school and then wait for everyone to leave the house. Then you can go back and do whatever you want. I seem to remember watching movies and ordering pizza. I always enjoyed skipping. I was never caught and it gave me a sense of freedom which I so desired. Occasionally Mr.Turkentine and I would come home for lunch(which we weren't suppose to do) and I would make Spaghetti O's. In order to at least get out at lunch you have to have the illustrious "hall pass". This one time Turkentine and I were driving home and a teacher pulled up in a car next to us at a red light. He rolled down his window and started screaming "Do you have a pass!?" Naturally we just drove away and acted like we didn't see him. That was pretty close. Mr. Turkentine did get caught one day, but I was like Ferris Bueller and never got caught. I have to bring up that most of my teachers always counted me as there even though I wasn't. I think I was that invisible. Then this one time, all of my teacher's counted me as there, except for Peetey of course who would take roll in Men's Choir. I think mom asked me about the absence on my report card and I said it must've been a glitch in their computers, and she believed me. Since I am coming clean I figure I'll also mention that report cards were easily manipulatable. They were printed on dot-matrix printers. Anyway, one six week's report card I ended up getting a 69 in geometry. It was very easy to take a pencil and fill in an 8 where the 6 was thus giving me a fake 89. I can't believe I was so deceptive. Ah, youth.

Thought of the Day
"Beuller,,, Beuller,,, Beuller,,,,"
"My best friend's cousin's friend told me he saw Ferris get sick at 31 flavor's last night. It must be pretty serious."
-- Ferris Beuller's Day Off

It has been a while. As par for the course I have been super busy. My band is getting ready for the big premiere on July 16th. We practiced on Friday. I went a big Christian concert on Saturday that had fireworks and everything. It was at South Fork Ranch - the place where the house on the show Dallas is. It was about 7 years ago when I was drug by Peetey and his girlfriend and had to take the tour of the house. I then proceeded to put my comedic feelings on video tape about Southfork. Other people on the tour were staring at us as I proceeded to make stuff up about Dallas. Anyway at the Christian concert called Freedomfest there were about 15 separate acts. They were all good. There was probably 100,000 people at the event. It reminded me of the guitar festival I went to last year, except instead of being all about guitars it was all about God. I didn't get home until 2 in the morning. Sunday I did the usual and then on Sunday night I went out to the lake with my Sunday School and we shot off fireworks and I played the guitar. I didn't do anything on Monday because I started my job on Tuesday. It is pretty good so far. It reminds me of AT&T in some ways, the company is so big. There is a good cafeteria downstairs so I don't have to go anywhere for lunch. It kinda reminds me of being in school as well. The atmosphere is very casual; most people wear jeans and carry backpacks. I am in a kind of cube that has 3 walls, but it's a lot better than the bullpen I was in. The work will be the best work though. They already have a very well designed infrastructure that I will be able to use as I do new development. It should be fun. Anyway, how was your week?

Thought of the Day
"Snozwangers, Vernicious Knids, what kind of rubbish is that?"
"We are the makers of the dreams and we are the dream makers."
-- Willy Wonka

Hey everybody,
Peety here. Brian has started his new job with Nokia, but doesn't
have a computer set up yet, so I'll fill in for a day or two. He said he
thinks he's going to like it there.
Did everyone have a good 4th of July? Mine was pretty good. Jessica
and Elaina left on Thursday night to go to Lubbock and visit her
grandmother. I was all alone for over 2 days. This hasn't happened since we
got married. It was kinda nice for a change of pace. I basically alternated
between house chores, video games, and movies. On Sunday, I went to Wichita
Falls to meet Jessica and the kido at my parents house. We ended up going
to the local casino and watching the fireworks show out there. It was
pretty nice and a long show. The government in my hometown is too
stupid/cheap to put on firework shows anymore. Anyway, we spent the night
and came back home on Monday. Now it's back to work as always.