Terrell Owens and his media circus come to Buffalo ... and tear it apart?
T.O. In the B-lo. Really?
Random Update about Myth Books, Guitar Playing and Church Camp
Rather than pump-priming with this post, I'm "work-priming". I can't focus and have no chutzpah to be able to do anything. To me, those are the worst times: when you just sit there, wanting to be able to do stuff, but physically and mentally you're just shot, stuck in 1st gear and can't get out of it.
I attempted to break out of the rut by posting tweets but found I couldn't pack what I wanted to say into 140 characters, so here we are in this blog post.
Last night was gorgeous out. The church camp next door has started filling up with visitors and the ambience emanating from it feels great. It's just nice to have people nearby, especially lots of kids running around playing. If not for the church camp people, the only other sounds are from the many frogs in our pond, or occasionally from our neighbor's rooster. I guess the air is also punctuated at times with kids shooting guns across the street as well, but I digest.
So I sat outside with the dogs last night and played guitar for the first time in weeks. It's nice to feel like I finally am pretty good at it, but the acoustic I have is a little tough to play. Maybe all acoustics are like that, I don't know.
Earlier in the day I had gotten my car back, $500 in repairs later. It sounds and runs pretty good and will be the backup vehicle to head to Buffalo, in case Mom can't go and we don't take her car. Lynn will be scared to drive in it, but it'll be fine.
When I got home from work (around 6:00) it was over 90 degrees out - too hot for the dogs AND for me. I used to like the heat, but maybe I haven't gotten used to it yet this year. So I napped as I waited for it to cool down when I could run the dogs.
Woke up and Lynn was playing with her brand new iPod touch (she seems to really like it, natch). About 8:30, it was cool enough to run. Despite it being my first jog (or "yog") in a while we went fast and far, which is a testament to cross-training with biking really helping out.
I then made some Kahlua Mudslide and sat down to play WoW for the first time in months. I made a new account, referred from Lynn's, so we could get the 3x XP bonus. I rolled a Troll Shaman to go with her Troll Mage. It's fun and ok so far and I've played an hour each of the past 2 nights. The bonus XP rocks and we made it almost to level 10 in those 2 hours. Being able to summon each other is a nice bonus as well. Not sure if I will continue playing or not - if it stays around an hour a day that'd be ok, but I can't allow it to get more than that. Stupid Warcrack.
I realize this post is all out of whack timeline-wise, but we are jumping back to when I earlier said I played guitar. Then I settled in for some late-night reading. Myth Inc. Link was the book dujour and it just ROCKS. Why should you read it? Because one chapter comes from the point of view of a pet dragon with a one-word vocabulary, and you learn that the dragon isn't the pet but instead a supremely wise being using these humans as an experiment.
That is it, your quickly-written, barely-edited blog post. It's been a while, but I suspect I'll be posting more often for a bit what with the Buffalo trip coming up tomorrow. Peace, my homies!
Buffalo Trip (Saturday) - REDO!
Well crap --- I found an old blog post from weeks ago that I had since rewritten. I figured I might as well slap it up here for those couple of people that actually read this site!
How to break through productivity walls
When you can't get work done, can't focus on things, what do you do? Well what I used to do was pound my head against a wall and FORCE myself to do it. That resulted in little production, poor quality and not being happy.
Buffalo Trip (Saturday)
I made plans to spend time with my sister Mary Kay and her family. I hadn't talked to her in like a year and had felt horrible about it (I blame World of Warcraft and my own built-in shyness that I still fight to this day). I stopped at Walmart in Hamburg first for some fresh clothes (I had run out of undies and socks!), some throwaway cameras and an iPod touch case.
Buffalo Trip (Friday)
Well crap - I lost a whole blog post I wrote up last Sunday morning. But that's a blessing in disguise and perhaps I can give a better story after getting some perspective on my trip to Buffalo. I left off the story on Thursday, the day Michelle and I went to see where brother Bob wrecked.
Some Closure For Everyone (Allegany Trip)
It started off as an ugly day in Buffalo, cool and rainy. I headed over to my niece Michelle's around 11:30 with plans on grabbing lunch. We caravanned in two cars with her b/f and his friend to Bella Pizza. Bella's was fitting because her kid is named Bella (or Isabella) and I used to work there (plus my cousin owns Bella's Italian Grille in Celina, Ohio). We both had a deep-seated longing for making sweet loving to a chicken finger sub. If you've never been to Buffalo for a CF sub, you simply MUST have one before you die. (get it shaken in barbecue sauce and with mayo or blue cheese on it.)
Her boyfriend Zenni treated us, which was very cool. I ordered a water, but then I saw they had Loganberry and just HAD to have some (if you've not had it, it's another reason to visit Buffalo, kind of like a non-carbonated black cherry sugared drink). So I went to pay for the loganberry and talked to Dave (the owner and my former boss), figuring he wouldn't remember me, but he did! The dude looked good, like he hadn't aged a bit and he ran down the list of people I knew that still worked there. I'll fast forward through the meal, but we did talk hockey a bit and it was great.
So Michelle wanted to head down to Allegany to see where her Dad wrecked, for both closure and to see if there was any wrongdoing in his death. As we understand it, he sat on the side of the road for 2 hours until help came. On the way, we talked about her Dad and she filled me in on the last several years when we didn't talk. Apparently, he cleaned up shortly after Michelle's 1st kid, no pot, nothing and really became a great grandpa. He told Michelle about a few things to give me when/if he died. It seemed that he knew he was going to go soon. It really filled me with regret that I hadn't talked to him before he died - I had totally forgiven him and him me, but we hadn't talked since '98.
(Note - by the start of our trip everything had cleared up and it was sunny and beautiful)
We went thru the absolutely stunning hilly countryside that Bob loved to hunt and fish in around Allegany. His girlfriend has 50+ acres and that must have been a wonderland for Bob. We stopped for ice cream but realized we were hungry again, so got some Texas Red Hots (is that another Buffalo food? I think so.) Then we got some Perry's Ice Cream (ANOTHER Western New York food that can't be beat). I got my Dad's old favorite: Butter Pecan (and we say it like "butter pee-can", deal with it)
Then we went to the place Bob wrecked. It took us a bit to find it, but we pieced together the scene CSI-style and found where paint scraped off his bike. This was really tough and emotional, but good in the long run. Michelle asked neighbors for info and the once guy was a state trooper who was on the scene within 5 minutes. He also said it didn't look like Bob's injuries were life-threatening: Bob had tied off his broken leg and wasn't bleeding too badly. Not sure of the rest of the story, but if it's true he sat there on the road for two hours, there may be cause for legal proceedings. Michelle says some other questionable stuff happened while in the hospital, but I don't remember exactly what. At the very least she was able to talk to him before he passed.
It was rough, but I was glad I could be there for her. She thanked me for joining her on the trip, but I got a lot out of it too. We reconnected in many ways, and I think she got a lot of closure.
I had possible plans with my friend Scott to hang out but I was too tired after the day's events and had to head back "home".
On to the next adventure, brother Bob
I was hit by bolt of information out of the blue yesterday: my brother Bob died due to a motorcycle accident.
Yellow Springs and Clifton Gorge Trip

Alright, I posted this on Facebook but figured I'd make it public too. Steve (@maninblack) and I headed down to YS and Clifton Gorge on 4/27/09 and this is the lil writeup I did. Here are the photos we took.
Movies that define me
I made a list of the top 5 movies and it was extremely difficult. I looked at the list I had eliminated and loved them all. I wanted to refine and add to it and have something to check back on when I needed a laugh or pick-me-up. If you want to know me, this might be a good insight.
Top 5 movies:
Road Warrior
Billy Madison
40 Year Old Virgin
Empire Strikes Back
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Others (loosely categorized)
Falling Down
The Big Lebowski
Ghostbusters
Red Dawn
Die Hard
Sin City
V for Vendetta
Back to the Future
The Fifth Element
Pulp Fiction
All Pixar Films these in particular:
Incredibles
Toy Story
Wall-e
Ratatouille
Kill Bill
Fight Club
A Clockwork Orange
Pitch Black
The Terminator
The Matrix
Lord of The Rings Trilogy
War Games
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Empire
Serenity
Tron
Raiders
Labyrinth
Krull
Austin Powers (Original)
Old School
School of Rock
Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny
Napoleon Dynamite
Tropic Thunder
Groundhog Day
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Goonies
Revenge of The Nerds
Big Trouble in Little China
Beetlejuice
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Life of Brian
This is Spinal Tap
Police Academy
National Lampoon's Vacation
Wayne’s World
The Jerk
Blazing Saddles
Ace Ventura, Pet Detective
Clueless
Zoolander
Half Baked
Dumb and Dumber
Kingpin
Clerks
Clerks II
Dogma
Recent comments
39 weeks 6 days ago
51 weeks 4 days ago
51 weeks 5 days ago
51 weeks 5 days ago
1 year 3 weeks ago