Okay so I'm back from Baltimore now. I'm just home for one night and then I'm driving to OK for the weekend. Going with my Dad to his Doctor Appt in Wichita,KS on Friday. So that means I'm in for a lot of driving this weekend. And Of course, work can't give me a break so after I drive home on Sunday I have to immeadiately do laundry and pack again to go BACK to Baltimore, hopefully only till Wenesday. Maybe this time I WILL get a chance to go to a game at Camden.
April 2004 Archives
I didn't write this Essay. I wish I could write this well. A friend of mine used to have a printout this hanging in his office,I thought I would share it with you.
I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer.
When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby-Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.
I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.
I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")
On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds Got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."
Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and collected "The Great Muppet Caper" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.) My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air conditioning unit.
I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.
I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.
My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.
I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday. Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music and plants. They just loved Beethoven.
Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song. Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.
I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't remember ever doing anything.
The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.
Did a teacher come in and tell your class?
Half of your friends' parents got divorced.
People did not just say no to drugs.
AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from cancer.
Somebody in your school died before they graduated.
When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too.
We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.
Don't call me "Generation X,"call me a child of the eighties
by Bryant Adkins
published in The Reflector
January 20, 1995
I'm heading to the airport soon for my flight to Baltimore. Shouldn't be too bad of a trip even if, IMO, I didn't need to LEAVE untill later tonight rather than 1 pm in the afternoon. Oh well maybe the Orioles are at home and I can catch a game at Camden Yards. I should spend the flight reading some backgroud info for the job, but I have a feeling I will sleep. Didn't sleep well last night and then got up at 6:30 this morning and went and worked out and now I need a nap.
Short weekend summary cause I don't have time for a long one:
Played poker, lost $25, played golf, in the rain, shot pool at friends bday, went to Scarborough Faire. Pictures were taken, they may or may no get posted, kinda busy this week.
My city is
"Which American City Are You?"
Cleveland
You are blue collar and Rock n Roll. You Work hard and party harder.
Well Wenesday night I lifted wieghts with my legs alone, for an hour, then last night I played Racquetball, and then for some reason, I decided to work out on the elliptical this morning. My legs now hurt quite a bit. As people have explained, this is a good thing, it means my muscles are expanding, but it does really make it hard to sit here on work on ip access lists when every third thought through my brain is . "Damn my legs hurt."
I think I need a beer, of course, I always think I need a beer.
Where are you people lately? That Rhino Story was some funny shit.
In other news....beware of Rhinos.
A while back I decided Wal-Mart was the earthly manifestation of hell. I think Home Depot has also opened thier own gateway. I went there last night to aquirre four needed Home repair objects. The first, a hammer, was easlily located. The other 3 were in this order, not where they said they were (eletrical timers) , not sold there (17 gague wire), and last but not least, even after asking twice, no one could be bothered to get a drill out of the tool cage for me.
I'm pretty sure the check-out girl was flirting with me though, so I guess it wasn't all bad.
Today is also "Bring your Child to Work Day" here at M-corp. I'm not sure if this just something we do here or if a lot of companies do it. Of course, the kids all seem to congregate in my office. I think they inately sense that I'm a 31 Year old kid myself. Either that or its the Star Wars and Godzilla toys.
Here's to all of you out there that keep your offices running and people like me from being completely insane. Our admin here at work got 2 sets of flowers and 1 free lunch so far with another coming up this friday. (Our Boss is out of town.)
In other news, I managed to play racquetball last night without getting hit by a ball, whacking myself with my own racquet , or Phlome running into me. My arms are hellasciously sore though. Monday the trainer had me do arm exercises till a couldn't move my arms. He then had me do a pushup. I fell. Three times in a row. His response? "Good. If you could do a push-up I was going to make you lift another set." I'm guessing I won't do arms again tonight. I'm still really sore, but that probably means I'll have to do abs, which is what I both need and hate the most.
Looks like next week will be busy. I may be in Baltimore till Wednesday and then driving home to OK next Thursday so I can then go with my Dad to Kansas on Friday. Nothing like the ole 4 states in one week trip......
Okay So I've been drafted to participate in some corporate Team-Building. This Thursday I will be playing T-Ball with my fellow co-workers. Should be fun and anything that gets me out of cube-land for an hour can't be all bad. Here's where I need some help from you all. Our T-Ball team needs a name. Last time it was "Dark Ninja" which is just atrocious. So help me out here and sugest some non-cheesy names.
In other News, Bunny is back among the internet-connected, so go and give her some traffic. Though I don't know why I'm saying that most of you apparently find my site from hers.
Okay I better write this now or I'm going to put it off and forget.
Friday night we had a small happy-hour type gathering at the new Ruby Tueday's that just opened up down the street from work. It had just opened on Tuesday so their first Friday night was a little "rough." No happy hour specials, and the way-to-young-to-be-a-bartender had to look up how to make a 7 and 7. Our waitress also dissappeared for long periods of time, depite the fact we were her only table. She did make a huge effort to take care of us though, and did a decent job for it being only her second night. As almost always happens, "happy-hour" lasted well over 5 hours, with people coming and going the entire time. I'll have to try Ruby Tuesday's again soon but maybe after thier waitstaff get a little more experience.
Saturday, Phlome and I scored a great golf lesson. The course pro was giving a beginners clinic, but we awere the only ones signed up, so we basically got a private lesson from the course pro. Afterwards, we proceeded to, once again, try and fix the backyard so Mira will not dig out under the fence. I bought 2 of small fi-shock eletric fences, and after much wrestlling with wire, we manged to get the first one installed. it didn't seem to be working. Till we realized that our shoes were grounding us from being shocked. Phlome then proceeded to "ground" himself by grabbing the ground then then touching the wire. He declared that yes indeed the wire was hot. The second fence had to be installed right along the edge of the driveway. The intructions said that if the fence is installed near concrete that you need to run a ground wire in addition to the hot wire as the concrete may prevent the fence from operating correctly. Phlome decided that since he had been shocked once already it was my turn to test the fence. I touched the ground wire and then touched the hot wire. I immediately shouted "FUCK!" and let go. Apparently using the ground wire makes the fence quite a bit more electric. It made my teeth hurt. Luna also delcared the fence working when she sniffed the wire and the jumped about 4 feet back. She won't even go near it now and gets a really sad look if one of us walks near it. I think the first fence may need a ground wire.
That night, we went out to Deep Ellum and hung out at Blind Lemon/Club Clearview/Art Bar. Sadly thay have painted over the blacklight bar, so it's no longer as cool as it once was. Art bar was playing some really great music that night, a lot of old alternative like the Cure, Sisters of Mercy, and the Smiths. Mental Note: I want to try Limelight some time. I've walked past it on the way to the car 3 times now and every time they are playing cool music.
Okay this is getting really long so I'll sum up Sunday. Phlome and I went to LB Houston and played a full round of golf. I took 13 stroked off my game! I guess the lesson really paid off.
I found this picture on Dork Tower today. I think USA Today might want to re-think their ad-placement strategy.
In my Family, we treat new pets just like new babies. Here's our latest addition, Sadie, my brother's new Boxer puppy.
I get a LOT of spam email. Some of it is pretty darn funny too.....
1 Acre of Land on the Moon $29.99
(You astronauts stay off my land!)
A Larger Penis
(unnecessary , or so I'm told)
Two Famous Millionaire-Makers Want to Teach Me to be a Millionaire.
(I'm guessing by making money from suckers on the net.)
Larger Breasts (Also unnecessary)
Jewerly, Art, Moto-scooters, and Computers are available for only $1 on an "Ebay-like" Auction site. (Moto-Scooters?)
Prescription Drugs without a Prescritption
(now that doesn't even sound legal)
Hot Single Women are dying to meet me
(Well of course they are.....)
I can get 10,000 Ebooks for $50
(Who could read 10,000 books?)
I can lose weight by eating cheeseburgers, pizza and Chocolate shakes
(OH Come on now!)
A Patch that will make me lose weight.
(Yeah there are pills like that as well, they're called Speed.)
I can make $20,000 a year by donating by body to science.
(It scares me that someone might already be doing this.)
Haven't done proper entry in a while, so there's a few things to get caught up on.
Thursday I took my first of six network certification exams and failed. Missed passing only by a few points. Ah well, back to studying this week, and another attempt soon. I think the older you get the harder it is to make yourself study, though I don't remember it being particularly easy when I was young either.
Headed for Tulsa that afternoon and got to meet the Fabulous Lizard in person. We had a great time together.
Friday I spent the day with my Dad. I know some of you are interested in how he is doing. He's doing very well. We were supposed to go fishing, but the OK weather had other plans so we just stayed in and watched movies.
I did get to see Redhead for just a few minutes on Friday, but we didn't get to hang. Next Time Red!
Saturday was supposed to be a big day at the lake with the Fam, but again the weather had other plans. I ended up helping Lizard get a new TV. It only managed to maim both of us a little before we got it up the stairs and hooked up.
On Easter Sunday, for the first time in a long time, I went to church. It was a Unitarian Church. After reading about them last week I was very interested in finding out more about them. I was very impressed, it's quite unlike any church I'd been to before.
Had Easter Dinner at Mom's and got to play with my Brother's new little Boxer puppy, Sadie. I'll put a picture of her up later, for all you Dog Fans out there.
Forgot to post yesterday, before I left. Spent most of the day driving homt to OK for Easter weekend. I won't have much access to a computer this weekend, so this is probably the only entry till Monday. I know it will be hard to survive without me but try. Happy Easter!!
Okay I was going to write about just how cool Hellboy was but I saw this article on CNN and it was just to good not to point out.
I'm wallowing up to my elbows in binary math, access lists and routing protocols today. My CCNA exam is scheduled for tomorrow. God I hate these things, only 4 to go after this one, of wait scratch that, 6 to go. ( I forgot about the design exams.)
So anyway get out there and do your part to stop cancer. :)
Hmm I haven't really come up with anything to write about today. Phlome put up some pictures from his Birthday. He got most of the good ones, including the only picture taken of me. I may put up a few more later, don't hold your breath though.
Started reading Snow Crash, last night. It's very good, very William Gibson, too cool.
This weekend was Phlome's Birthday extravaganza. Friday night we started off at Bone Daddy's. A disreputable BBQ place if I've ever seen one. It's a favorite of the Dallas Crew. Then headed down to Deep Ellum with Ninsi and Phlome, where it happened to be both "Deep Friday" (one cover charge for 8 clubs) and the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. It was also very nice outside, so there were a ton of people around. I drank too much and was appropiately hung over Saturday Morning.
Saturday was spent cleaning and running errands in preparation for the Big Party that night. It seems like it took way too long to go to Sam's and th Liquir Store. The hit of the party was, of course, the strip-o-gram that Ninsi ordered for Phlome. Never have done that kind of thing before, we didn't realize prep work was involved. Luckliy, Phlome was partying to hard to ponder why we had to all of sudden re-arrange the living room and burn a CD with 3 songs only. He did wonder why Ninsi had to keep running in the other room to talk on the phone but it soon became clear. Out of the 200 + pictures that were taken at the party I think 150 or more were of the stripper. I'll put up a page of the tamer ones later.
Sunday was recovery mode again. Somehow ended up back in Deep Ellum for most of the afternoon, strolling around the art festival, tattoo shops and clothign stores. That night we went out to the Chruch in Lizard Lounge, which is just a great place. I wish they did it on nights other than Thursday and Sunday. Awesome Music. Oh here's a picture of what I wore to the club last night.
Since we all seem to be such huge NIN fans. Here's a little something from The Smoking Gun, the NIN Backstage Catering Requirements. I really don't want to know what the Corn Starch is for.
New NIN album by years end. BAM!
So in the Month of March 2440 people found my blog to be interesting.
The most popular Entry was "Green Hair and Beer" with 185 hits for that entry alone.
In the battle of the refererrs Bunny wins again with 249 people coming from her site to mine. Phlome is second with 178, Ninsi is third with 152, and the newcomer, Non-Girlfriend, is 4th with 92.
In fifth place is my buddy Hagrok, Sixth goes to the lovely and talented Neko, just barely edging out our glowing bastion of motherhood-to-be Jessy. The rest of the top ten are all blog indexes so they don't count.
Most searched on phrase that got people to my site...
Boobs
Give it up people this is not a porn site.
Other interesting Search phrases that found my site:
every artist is a cannibal
mage of julius caesar
job glassblower signs
drunken bunny
what is boobs (Look if you don't know you aren't going to find it here.)
And one person who searched on my entire actual name.......weird.
