Beers Of The Year 2017

I just felt like listing out my top couple beers of the year for 2017. I went through my data and found the top couple highest rated beers and tried to remember where I was and how the beer was at the time. These were the best IMO. These are not in any order.

• Hazedelic Juice Grenade - Grist House
• Pink Yoga Pants - Insurrection
• Exquisite Beast - Dancing Gnome
• Surf Wax IPA - Burial Beer Company
• Hoodoo - Voodoo Brewing
• Flesh & Blood IPA - Dogfish Brewing

If I had to pick a #1 beer of the year I would have to wrap that up with the holy trinity combo from one of my favorite breweries, East End

• Partly Clahdy / Chance 'A Shahrs / PA Handshake

TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Be Like Marc

I've been searching for a place to dump things like this and although I haven't found the best place yet at least I can start here and make updates until I find somewhere better.

Marc does not care about nor does he want to hear yours or anyone else's opinion on the following things. If he does that will immediately be deleted and ignored.

• Award shows
• Sarah Palin
• Your dog (or pet in general)
• Ted Nugent
• Kim Kardashian (or anyone associated with this family)
• That famous person that literally no one talked or cared about anymore until they just recently died
• Wendy Bell [added 2016/03/30]
• Pokemon Go

Think about how big the universe is for a second. Now come back here and read this list. You see what I'm saying? You've wasted your time just reading this much now please go do something that matters to somebody.

*I reserve the right to add anything I want to this list at any time. 

America Great

I'm sorry I just don't understand what is being asked when you hear that we need to make America great again. I have a few questions:

• What does that mean exactly? Be specific as possible.
• Why stop at America? Why not make the entire Earth great?
• How different would you be if you weren't born in America? Would you still want to make America great again if you were born in Russia or Japan or would you want to make that country great?
• Does making America great also diminish other countries? (a finite amount of greatness available)
• What has America done for you exactly that you owe it your time and effort ensuring its return to greatness?
• At what point was it great and at what point did it stop being great?
• Do we know the cause of its decline in greatness? What exactly?
• How will you know when it is great again? What measurements are you using exactly?

Thanks for your time. 

Don't Forget

The happiest time in my life is right now. The best time in my life is right now. I love spending time my wife and boys. This is why I've toiled and suffered for 40 years to get to this point. When they look at me and smile because they are satisfied, it's the best feeling in the world. I can see now that this is time I will look back on when I'm old and say 'Yes, this is the time I knew I'd made it. When I was at my happiest.'

Continued Success

I own 2 acres of land. I have an 11 year old son and a 3 month old son. I have the most beautiful, real, soulmate that anyone could possibly hope for. I have every amiibo released so far. I get to play all the awesome new games that come out on the best systems. I have plenty of awesome bike trails to ride to my hearts content. Now I just got a promotion at work. It doesn't feel like a promotion you see on TV or in a movie but I think it's pretty darn good. Certainly turned this year around from the way it started. Let's hold this together and keep moving forward to even better stuff.

Have I Finally Made Positive Progress?

I feel like I'm happy. What's wrong with me? :O

Usually when I accomplish things I feel as though that was expected to be accomplished and I barely get any joy of them but lately it has been different. I don't know if it's the meditations or the babby or what but I feel happier recently, more appreciative and I think I like it.

THE MEDITATIONS
I read a bunch of meditation books towards the end of last year and got some guided audio meditations on my phone I have been listening to. I've been learning to clear my mind and be in the moment more. In my life so far my brain just runs future scenarios. Whether they be I wish this interaction would have came out differently this way or planning for a future interaction I know will be happening that what it does always. Maybe doing that distracts me from being able to do other things I don't know. I have been clearing to clear my mind and then focus on what it does, label it and put it behind me. What I try to picture I try to describe as Super Mario Galaxy when I talk to someone about it. I picture the nothingness of space and myself flying through it and extraordinary speeds as when Mario gets propelled from planetoid to planetoid in the game. I picture a huge star that more than fills my field of vision but I am still far away from it but that is where I'm going; enlightenment. When I get distracted and my brain goes off on tangents as soon as I realize that I picture that line of thinking as an asteroid or something I temporarily landed on but the realization breaks it up and it crumbles behind me as I once again continue forward towards the light. I think that is working for me. Some days I can calm myself and clear my head rather easily, some days it just doesn't happen for me but I think continuing to try is worth it. I can push my brain to do more for me.

THE BABBY
Maybe it's the babby. He is super cute after all. Ale and I came up with the idea of Pax long before she ever moved here. When she finally got pregnant and he turned out to be a boy and then was born healthy things all seem to go according to some plan. I haven't had a newborn baby in so long I almost forgot what it was like but it's wonderful. I feel I love Ale even more for successfully producing such a wonder. Her family visited for almost a month to come see him and help her take care of him and they just left this past weekend and dang do I miss them. It was wonderful to have them here. I really enjoyed their visit and was sad to see them go. I feel sad when I think they will miss the babby being so far away. I feel like more of a family than we were before somehow. If I can just get my mom, Aunt Dee and Elaine to cooperate and help us with daycare we could even entertain the possibility of another little bundle of joy. That has to happen real soon though.

Quick substory to the babby I wanted to add.
We did have a bit of trouble with him at first. The feeding part did not go as planned. Unfortunately Ale's body was not cooperating with the plans to breast feed him and was only producing a few ounces of milk per day when Pax required much more. This is upsetting to Ale and that made me upset but I understand and it's not her fault. There's nothing you can do. The doctor's keep saying 'Oh it'll probably all work for the next baby'. Well that's great and all but what the hell is this one supposed to eat. He's the one screaming right now that he's hungry. >.< It took us the whole first weekend to figure that out (which was miserable) and that somehow set some red flags off when we took him for his first doctor's appointment. They expected him to lose a little bit of weight but not as much. We told them what we found out but they scheduled another appointment in a week to make sure we were on track. Then when we went to that appointment weight was good but now his temperature was low for some reason and the lady was alarmed about that. I may have taken this the wrong way but it seemed to me it was a threat that she would insist the babby go to the hospital if it doesn't rise in the next 20 min. I definitely did not like how she imparted that information to us. I had to jam the babby down my shirt, skin to skin, to warm him up enough so we could leave but at least that worked. A few other things that may have caused me some slight worry:

• There is the red mark on his nose and one between his eyes that hasn't gone away yet. 
• He had some skin issues at first too, flaky and such but that seems okay once I started using that lavender smelling babby lotion on him. 
• I feel weren't weren't washing him enough and he got some bad babby acne before I started taking care of that.
• Also after a bath one day and a few other times I've noticed his had a weird pattern of small red circles all over his skin. People have since explained that away to me but I still didn't like it.

Besides all that though he's perfect. :D


Anyway the point of all this is I'm happy. I feel happy. I am noticing that I am and feel happy which makes me even more happy. I don't think that used to be the case. Whatever is going on I like it and want it to continue. I love my wife and family!

No Good Year

I can't say I've had a good year so far. I feel a lot of negativeness.

JOB
First off my supervisor Kristen has put in her two weeks and quit. We all went to Social on 01/16 for her last day party. From what she tells me there was just too much pressure and something finally pushed her over the edge, she couldn't do it anymore. I don't like that. A bad place to work uses up every ounce of everything from a person and then discards them. A good place cares for their employees and makes sure they are happy and healthy and taken care of so they can do the best job possible. I wish her the best but I need to worry about myself and my family. I know they are not going to promote me to her job but I figured if I can help with as much as I can hopefully they can help me in return. If not we'll have to see who will. I"m going to need a bunch of money to pay for things (see below) and I am not yet where I think I need to be here.

BOY
Apparently the boy is still missing school because of this whole big thing with his mother's van. This started before Xmas break and is still going on. I don't know what the problem is over there or why in the hell does it persist for so long. Obviously it ended up me being the one that had to throw money at the problem to resolve it. I sent a letter to the boy's school to make sure they knew what was going on and there were things out of our control that we were doing our best to maintain.

MONEY

• At the end of January the car insurance is due. That's a grand. 
• This stupid high interest loan needs paid off as soon as possible. We have to pay that off to start with the mortgage stuff and building our house. 
• The baby is coming. It's going to cost a fortune to have and to keep since we both work. Ale is hesitant about asking Aunt Dee about babysitting. 
• We will probably have to pay a little bit when we file our taxes instead of getting money back because last year was a year that she claimed the boy. 
• Now Chuck has raised our rent like $80 a month out of nowhere.  

I am not enthusiastic about our financial future.


BABBY
One day Ale got really upset when she felt the baby was not moving enough. I know at one point they told us 8x in 8 hours and then I think it upgraded to 10x in 1 hour twice a day. Well she didn't feel it was moving enough and got super upset which then upset me. Luckily the doctor was the next day and when I kept pressing her about it she seemed to think if she paid attention that the baby was moving enough. We brought it up to the doctor and she suggested to take an hour off and just sit there and pay attention. Apparently everything is okay now but that was a scare I didn't need.

VIDEO GAME CONSUMERISM
I had Majora's Mask 3D pre-ordered on 3DS as soon as it was available to do so. One day I came home and read on the internet that there was going to be a Limited Edition version with an awesome Skull Kid statue. I checked the websites but it sold out in less than 2 hours. I kept poking around and even visited a store to check but apparently that was the stock. It's gone now. I am not very happy that I was not given a shot at buying this as I most certainly would have.
Also a new wave of amiibos have been announced so I have to worry about getting my order in before they all disappear again. I need to keep my collection at 'obtaining one of every single one available'. This is not a fun game to play. Me and my stupid possessions should not cause me such anguish.

MORE MONEY
I got ripped off at least twice so far this year on food purchases. I swear I have always checked my receipts but I must not be doing a great job lately. That and I don't like the conflict of bringing it up to somebody.
It took me 3 years to fully fill a punch card for Brooklyn's Pizza to get a free X-Large pizza. I finally went to cash it in and ordered a pizza and wings. Somehow that order came out to $22. Somehow I got ripped off there.
We stopped at Sheetz just the other day to get food for the boy who was home alone after school while we were at the party for Kristen. I got him a thing of popcorn chicken and fries. It came out to $13. Somehow the lady added all these coffees on my receipt and only minused off one or two so I ended up paying for one or two. WTF!? I must be more vigilant in stopping and checking my receipt after I buy something and say something if I notice it's wrong.

FAMILY
Blair is still having trouble with MaryJo and it seems that whole thing may be done with. It all starting with drinking and her kids were worried she was partying too much. (Yeah thanks for interfering in a grown couples business kids) So it started out they both quit then I noticed at family gatherings she was allowed to drink but he wasn't. Then I hear he could drink if she drank with him but not by himself. Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. You can't make someone stop doing something if they don't want to. Especially if you feel you can do whatever you want. So he drank by himself one day and she flipped. He took it very hard and the decision was made to leave. I had to help him this past weekend get all the crap out of his house and to a place out in Ligonier by his buddy and funny enough his first ex-wife's sister (who recognized me!).  He seemed to be in a daze the whole time. I feel bad but you don't want to have to deal with shit like that. The best part was when she came out screeching what a horrible inconvenience this was for her. Seems like you made the right decision Blair.

HEALTH
Health-wise I had a crazy thing going on with my right ear for a few days. I was hearing out of it very strangely in a way that I have never experienced before. Some people said I was getting an ear infection, others said it was just ear wax. I tried to clean it out then Ale bought me some drops and a few days later it seems to be okay but it was still worrisome to me.


Anyway some of things are bad, some may only seem bad to me but damn if you compile them up like this I truly am not having a good year so far. I need to focus, do what I can to fix what I can and not worry about the rest. Here's hoping this is the worst that I have to worry about for a while and that the rest of the year turns out to be a good one that moves my life forward and especially that the baby is born healthy and happy.

So what are you for?

In some way most of these things affect you. Are you going to have your voice heard?


#BigAgra #BigCable #BigFood #BigOil #BigPharma #CitizensUnited #CleanAir #CleanWater #ClimateChange #CorporationsAreNotPeople #Deniers #DrugDecriminalization #Education #Environment #EqualPay #Fracking #Gerrymandering #GMO #GunSafety #Healthcare #HumanRights #Ignorance #Inversion #Loopholes #MedicalMarijuana #MilitarySpending #NetNeutrality #Obesity #OnePersonOneVote #PatriotAct #PoliceMilitarization #PrivacyRights #RenewableEnergy #ReproductiveRights #Science #Space #StudentDebt #Taxes #TPP #WallStreet #War #WomensRights #WorkersRights #WorldPeace


http://www.isidewith.com/

PAX

Not only has it been confirmed earlier in the year that Pax exists as a person, we found out today that he should end up male when he's ready to come out. That is unbelievable. I am super happy. I'd have been happy either way but this is just so awesome. I feel super great now. I like thinking that things are happening, aligning and 'I'm on'. I am absolutely going to buy some lottery tickets right now and ride this!

Highlights 2013

Well I wanted to make a Top 5 list of the best things that occured in my life this past year but as I was looking for notable events that happened I found way more than 5 things I wanted to remember. Without further ado here is a list of things that happened this year that are memorable to me and a brief explanation of each. This is somewhat in chronological order.

Ear Of Luigi - According to Nintendo after pushing Mario down our throats for 20 some years it is finally time for Luigi to shine.

Data Analyst 2 - At work I have finally been recognized for my hard work and effort and after they retooled the job titles I have been promoted. Long overdue but at least I finally got a noteworthy bump in salary to help pay for the things that have gone up in price in the last few years when they skimped on giving us more money.

Attended 100th Pens Game - I've been to a lot of Penguins games and luckily I have a lot of friends that are fans that went with me. I don't know how much longer I'll have the tickets but I am super satisfied with what I have achieved so far. (add my record here)

May Trip To Argentina - Well I have been out of the country before. This was actually my 3rd trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in my life but this time we were able to take Isaac. He is now an international traveller. I think this was super good for him to see another culture. Hopefully it sticks with him.

1 Year Anniversary - On 2013-06-08 I have been married to my wonderful wife for a whole year now! How is that not awesome?!

Took Isaac To See Weird Al - This wasn't the first concert the boy was ever at. We took him to see Phish before but we haven't been able to get him to a Weird Al show until now. Unfortunately due to the venue we were not able to meet up with him after the show but it was still a great experience.

Bushy Run Battlefield 250th Anniversary - Despite living only a mile or 2 away and it being around my birthday ever year, I have never been to the Battle Of Bushy Run Battle Reenactment before. We finally made it this year and it was the 250th anniversary to boot so it was a good one. I got some cool swag.

Ale Got Her Driver's License - She failed the test 5 times. I was admittedly not very happy. I couldn't understand how someone as smart as Ale could not grasp the concept of driving. She's still not a pro at it but finally at least she passed her test and is a licensed driver.

Green Baycation - I had on my 'bucket list', if you will, to attend an NFL football game at the holy mecca of football stadiums, Lambeau Field in Green Bay Wisconsin, for several years now. The problem is due to the way they make the schedule the Steelers only play Green Bay once every five years and of course last time they met they played here in Pittsburgh but finally this year it was our turn. I have been pushing this to all my friends for years and it seemed like I had a following but when it came time to put up or shut up, no one came forward. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had to shanghai Ale and take her instead. Luckily the whole trip worked out better than I imagined. We saw Chicago and the game went down exactly as I pictured it, snowy and wow what a game to boot! (link doc and pic album)

PS4 - Sony released a new system. Pretty impressive. I hope they follow it up with some good games. There wasn't really anything good that I craved at launch so I am still awaiting justification. Hopefully Infamous Second Son, Watchdogs and Destiny are kick ass.

Xmas Vacation - I took the rest of the year off after December 20th. Not only for the Green Baycation but to spend time with the boy and play with him and play video games of course. I had a lot of stress this year so it was nice to be off and not have to do anything for a while. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing.

Babbies - To say this was the year a lot of my friends had a baby is an understatement.

• ADELYN MAE WEYANDT  - MAY
• CARTER RYAN MEALS - AUG
• DANIEL MOOK FREY - SEPT 
• ZACK WEIN - OCT
• GALL - NOV 

Health - Also did a lot of things to stay healthy.

• I walked 4 million steps (4,322,302 to be exact)
• Did 10k push ups (10,220 to be exact)
• Read 50 books (52 to be exact)

IN CONCLUSION 
Well if you look at it like that it seems I had a fairly awesome year. Hopefully in my mind I can change my perception to think of this year in these terms and that should help me stay happy and positive. Next year as Ale and I have already discussed won't be filled with as many trips and events as we have been doing because we need to start saving money but I think it will still have some noteworthy happenings going on. Here is a small preview:

Big Stuff Planned for 2014

• Paying Off Student Loan
• Buying Property For Dreamhouse
• Groundhogs Day
• Cartwright Babby :D

Who are the Terrorists again?

I saw this picture on the internet the other day and found its message disturbing. We need to pay attention to our own affairs and leave the rest of the world alone for the most part. A lot of these events are none of the United States's business and these actions have caused the major of the rest of the world to have a negative opinion of this country. I do not abide these actions. We need to shave money off the defense budget, off Congress's bloated salaries, close the loopholes so the rich and corporations pay their fair share of taxes and then use the money for science, education and mental health issues instead of this kind of crap.

Satisfaction

I still don't understand my internal set of values and things that allow me to feel satisfaction. I think accomplishing certain things should make me feel good and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I do things that I feel are unimportant or insignificant and feel great satisfaction after completing them. It's strange.

I was super impressed with the help the boy provided this weekend. I had a huge list of chores that needed done, from cleaning, to phone calls, to errands run and everyone was extremely helpful in getting them done. The boy himself personally oversaw the cleaning of the bathroom and vacuuming. I again was very thankful and I've conveyed to him several times now how much that meant to me. I hope he gets my feeling and it helps him build on it and grow into a better person. I do wonder why most of my satisfaction comes from chore related tasks. I think I have my mother to thank for that.

Also I don't really like barking commands to be followed out to my wife. I like to bring them up in regular conversation at earlier points and be like 'Hey we're going to need to do this soon. I'll need you to do this.' Sometimes we reach the point where I can't continue until she comes through though so sometimes I do have to say to her 'Hey, get up, let's go with this'. What is absolutely wonderful about her is even if she not in the mood she is smart enough to realize the advantages of taking a few minutes of her day and getting up and getting things done. It's not like I'm trying to inconvenience anyone or that I'm asking some back-breaking, effort-intensive activity that benefits no one and I'm asking simply to irritate her. If you put a halt to what I'm doing here I may become cranky and who knows when I'll work up the gumption to get on this kind of a roll again. She realizes that helping me out really helps our whole family out and damn, after what I've been through in the past this is indescribably beautiful to me. I love that woman so much again I don't know if whenever I feel these waves of emotional thankfulness and I try to convey that to her if I could ever possibly come across in a way that she can understand. I love talking to my wife. She is my best friend. Most of the time I get the feeling that she listens to me and cares what I say and think. That is a good feeling. She shares my concerns. We are in this together. Sure some times I talk about stupid stuff that doesn't matter but even then she still half-listens. I can't really remember connecting like this with someone in the past.

I guess I'm just trying to say I love my wife, I love my son, I love my family and I am super lucky to have them. I am trying my best to be the best for them. Doing so makes me feel good. 

Isaac's First Taste Of Fail

Last night was pre-test night at karate class and I'm sad to report that Isaac will not be testing for his gold belt this weekend. I'm pretty sure this was one of his first tastes of fail and I hope he learns to not like it.

I did my part to help him as much as I could. For the last 2 weeks I made sure he was practicing all the time especially on days before class. It is helpful for him to have it in his mind before he goes I noticed. The Saturday this started (which probably would have been the 11th) he had the worst class of his life. He got yelled at constantly, repeatedly had to do push-ups and Mrs. Romano even asked him to sit down as he didn't seem like he cared or knew what the heck was going on. I had a talk with him at this point about what he was going to do. I found out that his mother (*shudders) hadn't be taking him to class for the last 2 weeks she had him. I think I detailed this before. Anyway he followed that up with the two best classes I've ever seen him have and I thought he was on track to earn his belt.

I have noticed that when we start practicing he never actually punches, he just raises his arm up and same with kicks. He also just moves his legs forward taking a regular step instead of properly going into a stance (legs wide apart, knee bent). Usually I see this and tell him about it and he does a little better. Apparently this was one of the main things that kept him from testing. I made him go and ask what the problem was. I felt it was a good idea to teach him that. Can't learn from your mistakes if you don't know what they were.

I didn't watch it go down. I sat in the car. I felt I gave him all the tools and assistance he needed at that point and it was up to him now to perform. I didn't want to be a distraction for him as he always seems to look at me to see if he thinks I think he's doing well or not. Well he didn't. He went about it all lackadaisical and it ended up biting him in the butt. All in all Master Romano clipped 9 kids this time and I saw several run over to their mommy's crying about it when they discovered it was them. Isaac was very disappointed in the car. I had sweetened the pot with promises of rewards if he did well and I don't think I like this but it seemed he was more upset about not getting the rewards than not earning the belt.

I keep getting asked 'Why push him to do this if he doesn't like it or want to do it?' and I have to answer like this: He's 7 years old. He doesn't know what he wants. When he's 10 or 12 or 15 THEN he can pick what he wants to do. It's my decision as his parent to do what's best for him. I made the decision to enroll him in karate because I discovered through research that it :

• Builds character, discipline and self-esteem.
• Teaches respect.
  
• Gives him an activity to do so he isn't sitting around the house on the couch playing video games all day everyday or getting into trouble because he's bored with nothing to do.
  
• Related to that, it's good exercise. It helps build his muscles and gives him self-control.
  
• He gets to hang out with and talk to other kids doing the same thing.

I stand by my decision. If someone else can come up with a alternative solution that provides as much benefit as this then I would definitely listen, if not then stfu. Anyway he's paid up until November of this year so he might as well get used to it. In life we all have to do plenty of things we may not want to do. He needs to acknowledge that and learn to develop a way of dealing with it. I will not see him cower and avoid this things. I want to teach him to conquer and overcome these types of obstacles. It's going to be a tough road ahead due to this setback. Now he's stuck doing the same things for the next 3 months and that's going to be hard to keep his interest. Also with his mother finding it easier herself to give in and not take him. I can't go over there everyday when she has him just to ensure that he gets there. I don't know what he does or doesn't do over there but it seems like the work I'm doing with him gets undone to a degree. I hope that is not the case. I want Isaac to be prepared for life and know what he needs to know to succeed and most importantly be happy and although it's hard work and I get confused and depressed sometimes wondering if I'm doing things right or if I made a good decision I know that at the end of the day I am doing a good job and I will do my best to continue that. Hopefully this setback will actually end up being a good thing and he will learn some valuable life lessons that will help him in the future.

Still Super Happy

My awesome gf linked me to a leaked copy of Weird Al's new album ALPOCALYPSE so I don't need to wait until they actually sent it to me and it's AWESOME!! The unusual thing I find about Weird Al's album which has happened again is that I don't really get it the first time I listen to it. Al is my absolute favorite artist ever and you would think I would instantly be falling in love with everything he does but it's so weird that not only do I not get it the first time I listen to a new album but sometimes I actually don't like some of the songs. I find that very strange. What turns out to be awesome though is that the more and more I listen to it though the more it starts to jive with me. [My current Top 3] I don't know why that happens but I think it's even better than immediately liking everything. It kind of bonds and grows on me and that makes it be awesomer longer somehow. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

The best part is that even though I'll have heard and learned all the words to all the songs before I even get the album I still can't wait to get it because he made VIDEOS for every single song on the album. I don't know if those have leaked yet or not because I haven't looked for them but I can wait. I'm sure those are going to be a hilarious bonus to what he's already created.

That reminded me how bad the last album went for me. I started ordering the albums directly from Al's website. I do that so all the money goes directly to him and he has my name somewhere in his database so he knows who I am and that I definitely have his stuff. Well the last album (or maybe it was 2 albums ago, I forget) was released and every one bought it and listened to it but the shipping from Al's site took so long that I didn't get it until almost 7 full days after everyone else and they already knew all the songs and everything and it sucked.

The other thing that is going good right now is that Isaac has kicked butt the last week or so at karate. He had a really bad class last Saturday where he got yelled at like 3 times, was made to push-ups a bunch and then actually was told to sit out due to his lack of trying. Since that day however he has bounced back strong. I think he was doing bad because his mother decided that she was no longer on board to take him or practice with him or anything. He finds it easy to manipulate her I guess. So because of him being out of the swing of things for so long he had a rough time getting back on track. Luckily with me he has resolved that. We've been practicing a lot everyday because his belt test is coming up soon (June 25th) and he would really like to make sure he knows enough to test so he can earn his gold belt and move up in the ranks. I am very proud of him and I made he a deal to help motivate him. If he is permitted to test and he passes we will immediately go to the hobby shop and buy him a model for us to put together and I will also take him to go see the new Cars movie that will be debuting that weekend. He is really excited about that and I think as long as I continue to work with him he should have no problem accomplishing that goal.

I have also been watching the Smallville TV show lately. Ale had watched all the Star Trek: Voyagers with me so in turn I decided to watch her favorite show with her (Although we're not exactly watching them at the same time so far). The weird thing is that I always thought this was a 'teen' show and that I wouldn't really have an interest but I'm finding it's a very well written show. A little too much drama and dialogue sometimes but like I said there is good writing and the story is constantly progressing, there is lots of action, semi-good (for a TV series) special effects and you can always tell when something happens you don't understand that it's a part of the mega huge underlying plot that is running throughout the series as a whole. I am really enjoying it and that makes me happy.

Of course I can't close this post out without reiterating how awesome Ale is again. She is so awesome that I don't know what to do sometimes. She's always there for me to talk to and to get advice from and just to be there for me when I need someone. I hope that I am doing enough back for her to show her how much she means to me. I think I am but I always want to try harder because she so deserves it. I just am so amazed every day because I have never had a connection like this with anyone in my life and it just makes me so happy I want to puke. We're filling out the immigration stuff now together and it just sucks that paperwork takes so long to process. Before we even do anything she needs to fill stuff out and mail it to me because some of the forms have to be signed by her that go into this packet we submit. That right there is going to take a while. The only thing that could make my life any better at this point is for her to be with me physically. We are going to tear stuff up when we get together.

Although I still get depressed sometimes and feel things suck, thinking about her and trying to pick out the good stuff that is happening in my life so I can write about it always makes it seem better. My life may not be as awesome as someone reading this might make it out to be but if I could just find a way to get over the bad stuff quicker and stop it from bringing me down, it would be damn close.

Immigrate

Well we've decided during the course of #mayvacation that Ale and I will go forward and begin the process of obtaining her a fiance visa so she can move up here to be with me. I think that is great. I've never had a connection with someone the way I do with her. It's amazing and every time I get on one of these gushy rants about it I love to make sure she knows. It's going to be hard. I can't imagine what it would be like to totally move out of your country and far far away from everything you've ever known. Love won't fix all our problems but it will sure feel awesome. I'm confident that we can pull this off and live long happy productive lives together. Buno

Quick Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I have been doing so much (that I probably should have been writing about).

I finally got my new job in December. I moved from my old Miller project group to my new Stores group. I"m finally getting to learn new things and be useful. I love this job. I'm writing SQL and learning Appworx chains and all kinds of things. There's so much to know that somedays I feel like, 'Oh yeah I"m getting it' and then the next day I'm like, 'OMG I'll never ever understand all of this'. It's all okay though. I'm just going to do the best I can and I know good things will happen.

I finally got a new car to replace my beat down Buick. I bought a 2001 PT Cruiser from a junkyard that was totaled. Someone Chuck knows does body work so he fixed it up. It took 2 months but I finally have a sweet car that hopefully won't give me problems for a long time.

And lastly, I am finally back out on my own (w Isaac). It took about a month of constant hard work but we fixed and cleaned up Chuck's old farmhouse and I moved in there. It's pretty nice and big and we like it. It's just nice to be out by myself again. I'm scared about paying all the bills with Lisa still hounding me for money but I can't stop living my life just because she's a freak.

The best part is the #mayvacation is like less than 70 hours from now. I finally get to see and be with Alejandra again. She's so awesome. So many people were asking me, 'What's going on' and we finally get to sit togehter and figure out when she can move up here and stuff.

My life is rocketing off towards good things and I love it.

US Congressional Reform Act of 2011

My father forwarded me an email with this in it and usually I hate emails like that I immediately agreed with what it said and felt it needed re-posted here.

US Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work..

Getting There - MoobeeDeeBee V1.0

I have christened the first version of the MovieDB last night. It's not to where I want it yet but it does work and is serviceable. I used it for the first time last night to enter the latest batch of movies and it worked fine.

I feel this was a very simple task for a first project collaborating between myself and Ale and I am happy with what we have produced so far even though it probably took way longer than it should have. It is still a bit rough to work over Skype with each other. I feel if we were in the same room we'd have made better progress but whatever. Something is better than nothing.

The task was to create a database so that as I acquire digital copies of movies I can log them in so I know what I have, when I got them, file size, etc, etc. I thought to put several other attributes in associated with each movie as well so I pull different reports on them. Say I want to know what horror movies I have or something along those lines. I have been using a regular Excel spreadsheet to keep track of this but it was getting too much and it was time to start a database.

So we hashed that out and started making tables and a form. Not too difficult. Ale thought typing in the information for each movie was stupid though when in the file properties that information already existed so she branched off trying to invent what we have come to call the Magical Button. Apparently you can use the internet to acquire movie information from a bunch of different websites (Amazon, Netflix, IMDB) and she found a site called TagChimp where you can register and get some information on APIs to do just that. She got it up fairly quickly but it's not working 100% yet. I figure this will be something we will work on for version 2.0 of this project. I didn't mind the typing but I can see where once finished this could be a powerful tool plus it would be valuable experience in coding and development so I am happy she was able to research that option.

There were a couple additional issues working with new version of Access I had on my PC but we hammered through those. I was happy to be using a current tool for once. We still use ancient versions of Access and Excel at my work.

After the main form was established I got a switchboard working and made a few reports and it seems like we were ready to go. It worked just fine as I entered data in last night. I didn't have any problems but I already see room for improvement. We still have to get the keyword system implemented. That is another big fix that will bring some benefits as any crazy word we feel like entering and tagging to a title will be able to be searched on. I think that is when it will really feel like we did soemthing awesome.

Again I am very happy with how this turned out. I think it did take way too long to come up with it but oh well. I'm glad Ale was there to talk to and assist me with this. She is wonderful and the only person I've found in my life that cares about my concerns and it makes her happy to help me. She is so smart and awesome. I can't wait to start another project. (We are thinking about making a Firefox extension that can add a movie to your Netflix queue from any web page anywhere) I just know that working together we will become smarter and better than we would separately.

Pet Peeve: Sunoco gas pump too slow

I've been annoyed by this for some time now but this was the first time I thought to write it down. Sunoco gas stations in my area here have all seemed to have upgraded their pumps within the last few years and I'm sure they are nice and new and shiny and have pretty colored lights on them but damn, they are slow and clunky and take too much time to begin dispensing fuel!

I go to the gas station to put gas in my car. I do not want to have to answer 50 questions to make the electronic pump menu system work. No, I do not want a car wash with that. No, I do not want a free bumper sticker or credit card application or GRRRRRR!@*@^%!!

The optimal solution is pull in, swipe card, push button selecting grade and go. That is not how the pumps at Sunoco work. Not only do you have answer a series of questions, the machine is maddeningly slow between asking and responding. Shouldn't your swiper machine know if it's debit or credit? If I swipe it and don't enter my PIN then guess what, it's credit. I'm sure this new crop of gas reward cards are very useful to some people but not me. There shouldn't be a specific question asking me if I'm going to use one. If I scan it, accept it, if not then I don't have one. Duh. Let's go here!

In short, speed up the process. Customer surveys are for people that actually go in the store. You should feel lucky that the owner of this store chose to locate it as he did and the route that I take to go to work intersects it or some other petrol company would be getting my money instead of you. Please take my feedback in mind when rolling out your next series of pump upgrades. I do not appreciate this minute or more of my day being wasted this way.