While the rest of you are out in the heat, I'm relaxing in my house. This is a helluva lot more fun to me than spending a bunch of money of a few seconds of *POP* and being way too hot.

I'm celebrating this by having a new drink. 1 part sweet tea vodka and 1 part Southern Comfort (I suppose you could also do equal shots of vodka and SoCo in very sweet tea, also). I'd call it the "Liquid Panty Remover" if that wasn't both cheesy and already done, so I think I'll just call it "South In Your Mouth" and love every sweet, tasty drop. Holy shit, this stuff is dangerous. Yes, you can come by and have some, but you better hurry, it's goin' fast.

Happy 4th, y'all.

Game was canceled due to various pre-made plans, so it ended up being just Jen, Di, and myself, watching Cecil B. Demented, Good times. Sadly, it did remind me that I need to drink a lot more than I have in the house to get tipsy, anymore, which is both good and bad.

In other news: moonchylde, I got that Jet Li flick you were looking for.

And now, screw it, I'm going to bed.

So, last weekend, a guy came to my door. My last payment to ComCast didn't go through (some annoying banking SNAFU, as it turns out), and they'd issued a disconnect order for my service. This guy was a ComCast rep (Jay), and he was seeing if we could clear it up. Short version is that he offered to hold off on the d-con, and we agreed to pay him today (gotta wait 'til we're paid, after all). He was personable, friendly, understanding, and all around, a nice guy about it. Sure enough, he called this morning to make sure we were still on, showed up, never made a big deal about the money, and all went fine.

Now, for those that remember my "siege of ComCast", you know that my opinion of them if low-to-middlin', at best. This guy., though, improved my opinion a lot. I know how much shit these guys take from the general public, and they're just doing their job, so I wanted to make sure he heard a good response for a change. I made a point of letting him know that I appreciated him working with us the way he did, and I told him about my previous experience. I was amused by how shocked he was by the incompetence of the techs involved in The Siege, and as I got to the end of it all, he was looking over my bill and asked if we had an old bill.

Di and I looked at each other. He'd gotten quiet, serious...why did he want an old bill? he only said he wanted to make a phone call. it seemed to do with the part where I mentioned that I wasn't paying for the new modem they'd installed back then, and the thought crossed my mind that this WAS irregular, and either he wanted to clear it up or he wanted to see if I was pulling this out of my ass. We do all this online, so, no, we didn't have an old bill, but I glanced over his shoulder (I'm 6'3", he was MAYBE 5'1") and looked at my current bill...lo and behold, I see that they ARE, in fact, charging me rent on the damn thing.

He looked a little pained. After all, I'd just gone on about how the company acted like a bunch of morons and screwed up my equipment and my service for 3 months, and then praised him and how he'd done a lot for improving my opinion, and here he was about to have to tell me that they'd screwed up again, or outright lied to me, or something. They didn't charge me for buying it, but it's the standard $5 a month equipment rental.

In the end, I blew it off. I know that the thing I was told was from a tech, who may or may not have known better, and that it was a highly irregular situation, anyway. I'd hate for the situation to bite me in the ass later, so I just shrugged and said it wasn't a big deal, because it's not. It's not HIS mistake, at any rate, and this had such a good feeling, I wanted it to stay that way.

So, no interruption of service, paid up, and all's well that ends well. Still probably change services if I ever move, but it looks like they'll keep getting my money for a while longer.

Ha, I turned Erik on to Manowar.

I'm the coolest Dad.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Dianna's got the day off, and it totally threw off my remembering that it is, in fact, Friday. Still, better late than never!



( Hang On, It'll Be A Bumpy Ride )

Historic anti-smoking legislation sped to final congressional passage last month, which will have sweeping changes in the industry. I'm torn. On the one hand, yes, I don't like how smokes are advertised in a way that entices younger people to try smoking, on the other hand, that's what advertising is supposed to do, bring in new customers. Sure, I'm all for making sure the health hazards of smoking are shown and known, on the other hand, there's no way to not know these things anymore. Yes, I want them to be regulated, on the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of the government telling me I can or cannot do something that only truly affects me. So, yeah, I'm torn on my thoughts.

Under the legislation:

- Cigarette packages will have warning labels that cover 50 percent of the front and rear. The word "warning" must be included in capital letters. - Like Denis Leary pointed out, it's not like we just haven't noticed. This is superfluous and obnoxious.
- Any remaining tobacco-related sponsorships of sports and entertainment events will be banned, as will giveaways of non-tobacco items with the purchase of a tobacco product. A federal ban will be imposed on all outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds. - But beer will still be allowed to host sports events? Alcoholism is just as bad, if not worse.
- Point-of-sale advertising will be limited to adults-only facilities, and remaining vending machines will disappear except in places restricted to adults. Retailers who sell to minors will be subject to federal enforcement and penalties. - Well, if you're gonna kill the ads, kill them all, I guess.
- Smokers, particularly the younger crowd, will find they can no longer buy cigarettes sweetened by candy flavors or any herb or spices such as strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon or vanilla. Cigarettes advertised as "light" or "mild," giving the impression that they aren't as harmful to health, will no longer be found on store shelves. - So, wait, I won't be able to smoke cloves anymore? I can see why you wouldn't want to market this to children, but what about the perfectly legal adults that enjoy these? Hey, you don't want us thinking that "lights" or "milds" are more healthy, fine, you're OMGHUGE warning should handle that. Maybe people just prefer the taste. Me, I've NEVER enjoyed regular cigarettes, not in any fashion. I do enjoy cloves, though. I smoked for a while and then quit smoking for a long time, and now I enjoy them in extreme moderation (a pack of cloves lasts me nearly a week). Now, if I know the health risk, and I'm a legal adult, why can I not do this? And, on that same note, why can one smoke regular tobacco cigarettes legally, additives and all, tar, chemicals, you name it, and still not be legally allowed to smoke clean, natural marijuana?

I see where they are going with it, and I can understand and agree with their reasoning, but, as usual with the government, I think they are going overboard on it. I guess we'll just have to see where it goes from here (as far as I know, it's not signed into law, yet). In the meantime, consider smoking alternatives. I have it on good authority that things like the Blu electronic cigarette work fabulously. Frankly, if they'd make a clove flavor, I'd consider it myself, even with as little as I really smoke.

Sad to say, another pair of deaths.

Karl Malden has passed away at the age of 97. No cause of death listed, but I'm betting it was simply advanced age. A great actor, he won an Oscar in '51 for A Streetcar Named Desire, and continued a career in Hollywood for dedcades.

Mollie Sugden has also passed away. 86, she had suffered from a long illness. She was best known for playing Mrs. Slocombe in the long-running BBC sitcom “Are You Being Served?” in the 1970s and 1980s.

Getting that seriously disconnected feeling again. If I wasn't driving to the game tonight, I'd be getting sloshed, right now.

Happy birthday neurotica69!

Let the record show that Dianna not only just handled my monkey, she was petting it, stroking it, and got it up.

My monkey is now back where it belongs.

For whatever reason, i slept late this morning. It was 9:30am by the time I got up, and that's unlike me. Knowing that Erik is supposed to be up by 9am (we don't want him sleeping the day away), I thought "well, I can't very well give him shit for being asleep, since *I* was." I sit up, rub my eyes, and out my bedroom door I see him just coming out of his room with an armload of stuff.

*blink*

Yep. Not only was he up on time, he got right to work on his room. This is the same kid that usually drags ass downstairs right as he's supposed to be awake, falls on the couch, and stares off into space. I dunno, maybe he made coffee, y'got me. All I know is he's got more done today than I've seen, and he's still going strong. I went up for a bit, helped with a little planning, and let him know I was proud of him for stepping up and doing right, so if he gets the closet done today, he can wait and clean up the rest of the room tomorrow.

Every now and then, the boy surprises me.

I'm trying to pick my reading back up, lately. I read voraciously, but it's usually re-reading stuff I have around the house. Last week, though, I finally dragged my ass out to the library with a list as long as my arm of things to find.

- Grabbed Paul Zindel's Rats, and was disappointed. Now, being fair, it's written for the "young adult" market, which I was not aware of until I found it, so it was bound to be a bit cheesy, but still, damn. Long slow build-up leading to a "and then she did this and everything worked out fine" kind of ending. Add to that the sheer unbelievability of, oh, 90% of what happened in the book, and I don't recommend it. Some of the deaths are downright disgusting, though, and that was cool.

- On the opposite side of the coin was Richard Morgan's Market Forces, which was fabulous. Some of the writing style took a little getting used to, but the story itself was excellent and inventive, the action was stimulating, the dialogue felt real, the descriptions were just deep enough to make visualization easy without being overwhelming. An absolute page-turner that I could not put down. Pretty sure I'll be buying a copy for myself at some point, as well as tracking down his other two books.

- My mother-in-law gave me The Gospel According to the Flying Spaghetti monster, which honestly was amusing but got old quick. Like most internet jokes, the seed is funny, but it gets run into the ground.

- Re-read the first half of Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom and actually finished it this time. Not bad, a bit of a downer with a sweet ending. very "slice-of-life" with a bunch of strippers, bikers, lesbian bikers, a painter, an over-bearing mother, and a damn fine hat.

- Working my way through The Sly Pass, which turns out to be the second book in a series. Hate doing that, but oh well. Not bad, I'm having to make assumptions based on things that obviously happened in the first book (The Bold Stroke), but for all that, I'm curious to see where it goes. Lots of action, gritty hard-boiled pap, but funny in places.

- Recent re-reads: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (no surprise, I know), The Book of Lists, Angry Women, Time Travel in Einstein's Universe.

Next on the hit list is Skulduggery Pleasant, which appears to also be written for a much younger crowd, but I think may be a fun read.

OK, so, it's been a long time since I did this, so, why not. I'm charging up my camera batteries, and my place is up for the view. Ask for it, I'll take the pic, anything in the house. Be as specific or as vague as you want. Be direct, be cryptic. Ask for one, ask for ten. Just be careful what you ask for, as you might damn well get it.

I'll give it a few days, then I'll post all pix.

So, the next big content issue for CoH went live today. Needless to say, that had my attention. A new Task Force and Strike Force (similar stories, different story lines for the different sides), plus a bunch of 'quality of life' fixes. I knew I was going to want to spend my time 'in The City'...

...of course, I have things that needed to be done. Dishes, laundry, making sure Erik gets his lazy ass to work on his room/closet (time to spring clean, as it were). I'm happy to say that I managed to get all those things done as well as play both the new content runs.

( Opinions on the new TF/SF...skip if you're not a CoH player, or you don't want spoilers )

Not sure what I'm gonna do about Erik. He's just the foggiest-headed kid I know. He's not stupid, far from it, he's just a complete Zone Trooper. Mind is always elsewhere, sits around and stares at the wall for long periods of time. I suspect it's because his video game time is limited and he's waiting for it to come up, but, damn, it's frustrating seeing him spend hours just laying on the couch. He's got no answer for it, either, I tried. Anyway, we decided it was time to clean out his closet of all the crap he doesn't want/need anymore...and it's an uphill battle. I've tried to help with suggestions, we've given him deadlines, we've discussed what and why...still, he claims he's worked on it and I go to check, and I can't tell that anything has moved. He's got until Tuesday end-of-day to get it done (this is after he blew it last week, mind you, so it's ending up 4 days instead of 2), and he's going to discover that he gets no screen time until it's done tomorrow...which will be most of the day, since he's done so little. Gonna be a long summer...

*sigh* And so it begins. The constant hammering of fireworks in the parking lot, which will continue for a fuckin' week. Most of these low-rent idiots can barely keep their car running or their house a step above a shit-hole (apart from their huge honkin' TV, of course), but they'll spend tons o' bucks on fireworks.

July 6th can't come soon enough.

The Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted by the army on Sunday after pressing ahead with plans for a referendum that opponents said could lay the groundwork for his eventual re-election, in the first military coup in Central America since the end of the cold war.

Good grief, they're dropping like flies. Television pitchman Billy Mays, who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets, died Sunday morning. Police said there were no signs of forced entry to May's residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon. He was 50 (just like Mike!).

Cripes, man, who's next?

According to German news site The Local, Lost scenes from Fritz Lang's legendary 1927 silent film "Metropolis" discovered in Argentina last year will be sent to Wiesbaden for restoration.

In July 2008, Paula Félix-Didier, head of film museum Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, discovered an uncut version of the 1927 science fiction film when she looked into reports that a tape in the archive was unusually long. She traveled to Berlin with a copy of the film and met with experts who say they are certain it is the missing original-length version of Lang's masterpiece that reveals key plot scenes and an expansion of minor roles. The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Institute's film preservation experts have agreed to finance the restoration and transfer it to a digital medium.

Could this mean that one of cinema's most renowned films might finally be able to be seen in it's full length? After the massive restoration project of a few years ago, it's already being seen more completely then it has since it's debut showing, but even then, there are many scenes that were considered lost. If this pans out, those scenes, as well as the full scope of the story, may finally see the light of day once more.

If you're anywhere near the Hollywood area, then you have plans on July 7th. You heard me, you have plans.

You'll be headed to the Whisky A Go Go to see Satiate play. You'll wonder if this is worth it, but you'll go. You'll have a drink, you'll see the lights go down, and then you're going to thank me. Seriously. You'll call me from the show, and it'll take you a few minutes to actually say "Frank? Thanks for making me come here. I'm hearing the music the band is unloading on my ears, annathema667's vocals are doing a hoodoo number on my brain, and my face is being rocked off of my ever-lovin' skull. My life is now complete." You'll stay on the phone so I can hear it, too, and when you wake up the next day, your world will be a little more expanded.

No excuses. It'll change your life.

Death, death, and more death (and more death!)...man, this week downright needs the Friday Pix.



( Don't Think About It, Just C'mon In! )