Boogaloo Dudes Carry the News...

Cities 97 played Gotye

2012-01-10T16:35:00.001-06:00

Here we go. Cities 97 advertises that they are all about new music which I cannot disagree with more. Sure they play songs that haven't been around very long. But they play those songs every two hours.

Now Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know has been getting some good airtime on 89.3 The Current- but we're talking maybe twice in 24 hours. Today I heard the song for the first time on 97. That can only mean we're about to hear it to death.

Who cares?

Well, this is the song that Spud introduced to me last summer as mentioned in a previous post. It sparked my minor obsession with the guest vocalist in the song, Kimbra.

Kimbra

2011-12-15T21:04:00.001-06:00

I have a crush

It started when Spud sent me this...

She's back up for Gotye.

So naturally I looked into who that wonderful female voice was and that
lead to this video where she performs as vocals for a Daft Punk kind of band called Miami Horror...

and then to these videos, her own music...

(this one's my favorite)

Here is that first song wonderfully performed live... (watch her hands)

Some added thoughts about Kimbra...

She isn't a diva. Lets instrumental parts fill where you want to hear more of her voice unlike other female vocalists. She doesn't use sex to sell her talent. She definitely doesn't need to. Her classy style is quite sexy enough in a wholesome way.

Israel

2011-12-04T16:03:00.001-06:00

Here we are in the Holiday season with it's music and all. Almost every time The First Noel is sung you will hear the name Israel pronounceable Is-RYE-El. I have heard it pronounced the way everyone says it in real life, but not very often. Why do you think this is?

Now, you can't unhear it!

Yeah, I didn't know Crash Test Dummies did this either!

RAS

2011-07-23T17:01:00.001-05:00

On this day Haile Selassie was born in Ethiopia... and so was my wife, also in Ethiopia. So for her birthday we met her folks at an Ethiopian restaurant that we hadn't been to yet. The food at RAS is excellent and is served in great portions. It is a bit spicier than other restaurants in the are that we used to frequent. There is an abundance of space inside the facility as well as for parking behind the building. Access is very convenient right off of West 7th or coming in from Davern. The owner was extremely friendly and has been in St. Paul for twenty years. His family opened RAS three years ago and has seen great business. He is sure to get more from our family. We were quite impressed.

www.rasethiopian.com

Father & Son and Fight Test

2011-07-22T14:02:00.001-05:00

Here's a post with a bunch of good and similar music...

Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips) said this of the two songs:

I want to go on record for the first time and say that I really apologise for the whole thing. I really love Cat Stevens. I truly respect him as a great singer-songwriter. And now he wants his money. There was a time during the recording when we said, this has a similarity to "Father And Son". Then we purposefully changed those bits. But I do regret not contacting his record company and asking their opinion. Maybe we could have gone 50-50. As it is, Cat Stevens is now getting 75 per cent of royalties from "Fight Test", We could easily have changed the melody but we didn't. I am really sorry that Cat Stevens thinks I'm purposefully plagiarising his work. I am ashamed. There is obviously a fine line between being inspired and stealing. But if anyone wanted to borrow part of a Flaming Lips song, I don't think I'd bother pursuing it. I've got better things to do. Anyway, Cat Stevens is never going to make much money out of us.'

It's my (probably bias) opinion that the Flaming Lips song is the greater of the two. It seems to me the Coyne's spirit about it all is the better one.

Ten

2011-07-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

I found myself between audiobooks and looking for something to listen to quickly. The first CD that came to my hand was Pearl Jam Ten. It's been a long time since I gave the album a good listen. Sadly it's lost a lot of the magic it held for me back in 1992. And it held a lot of magic for me then. It's angry tone meshed well with my angsty high school dramas (which weren't that many, really). To me this was THE ALBUM of the Seattle music scene. And I loved every moment of the CD. My music interest has come a long way from those days. Now the album is rather dull- not interesting enough. I have a much more critical ear for production and Ten's production level seemed standard, not too creative. I'd like to know what my opinion would be if I could somehow listen to Ten for the first time now. Or is it's place in my history an inseparable part of my music opinion and interest now? This I do not know.

Pearl Jam's predecessor, Mother Love Bone, is the better band in my opinion. The music was more interesting and had an element of humor that Pearl Jam lacked. Mother Love Bone was essentially a '70s glam rock band in the '90s and this is probably why I like them better. Pearl Jam took themselves too seriously, at least for the debut album. I dismissed all albums by Pearl Jam after this one as I was moving on in my music interest and they were not living up to what Ten was to me. It's clear now that this was no fault of theirs and entirely mine. To which I conclude that I ought to give the rest of Pearl Jam's catalog another try.

6 Years and The Happy Gnome

2011-06-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

We've been married for 6 years today. Cara secretly made reservations at a restaurant called The Happy Gnome! This place had a huge menu of beer and very good food. I ordered a dark beer mixed with coffee which was very good. And for dinner Cara had bison steak and I had lamb ribs. Fantastic. Comfortable place.

After dinner we lazily walked around Harriet Island which neither of us had ever visited before, made our way all the way to the end of the mighty pier, watched a couple of red-necks catch a pretty big catfish, watched a tugboat push 9 barges upstream and finally went to retrieve our kids from the Browns. A very nice evening.

Even Better?

2011-05-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

Peace Graffiti by MechanicalLazarus

The dramatic events that lead to some strife at work is way back in my rear view mirrors. The cool thing about the aftermath is that the person that I fought with and I seem to be closer than we were before that confrontation. Not that we're best friends and helping each other move or anything, but there is genuine small talk.

For example, he talks about how a high-school sweet-heart found his number and sort of tries to seduce him and how he ought to resist. I feel close enough to agree and encourage him to resist. I wonder if that encouragement is exactly why he tells me these things.

I can only guess why he shares these things with me. I'll keep on giving him my honest opinion about them since that seems to be working and what he wants.

At any rate, I told him I was glad things are cool between us and he agreed.

Eagle River

2011-04-05T21:10:00.000-05:00

Life in a Northern Town. This video was shot in the summer of '93 and edited in '98.

Perspective

2011-03-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting thing. A friend of mine is taking a few days off because he's having a baby tomorrow. His wife is scheduled to have a C-Section because their baby is breech and a week overdue. Even though everything should be fine, he is anxious because in his homeland this condition was almost always fatal for the mother. Think of that. She will be fine simply because she lives here and not there. Do we even realize how nice we have it?

This must be an extension of the earlier post about taking things for granted.

This is a nice alternative to the news I heard this morning- a man who delivers the diesel fuel to our bus company returned today after three weeks off. He was off because he had come home to find his wife dead on the floor in their house.

What would you even do?!

Another employee of our company recently found his grandson dead in their basement, he'd committed suicide.

A day of extremes. Make sure you tell your family you love them. Don't go to bed angry with anyone. Reconcile as soon as you can. You never know what day is your last.

School Bus Drivers

2011-03-17T20:52:00.000-05:00

In my line of work we can often see the absolute worst behavior the kids of today can provide. Transporting students to and from school is a job with a lot of responsibility. Each school bus driver is responsible for the safety of every single child on their bus. The demands on a driver's attention are just plain overwhelming. To be aware of everything around that size of a vehicle is daunting enough. Then add the other drivers in a metro area like the Twin Cities. On top of that there is the weather (which is becoming less and less of a problem every day this time of year, thank God). But the worst distraction for a driver on a school bus are the very students they're working so hard to protect and transport.

The attitude that manifests in some of these kids is astounding, vulgar, disappointing, and sometimes down right evil.

When there is a problem with behavior on a bus, the driver's only course of action, really, is the almighty Write Up. That's all a driver can do. Threaten to do it, and then actually write them up. Whether or not the write up has any effect or consequence for the student is entirely up to the school and/or school district. It's sad when the school falls short on that end of the process. This just shows the student that there is no negative effect for them for their actions on the bus. Almost every time I've had to write up a student with that horrid attitude, their reaction is- "Go ahead! Write me up!" I've heard that so many time.

The sad thing about this is there are plenty of adults who are exactly the same. This rant exists because of an incident at my work this evening with one of these bus drivers. A very minor situation of not following a simple simple company rule- a rule that exists to help all the drivers and their ability to safely maneuver these large buses in a very small yard and park in a way that allows the next drivers room to do the same. This one driver didn't follow this stupid little rule. No level of informing him that he had to worked. It very quickly blew up into a vulgar shouting and threatening scene! Not by any action, but by word I was actually threatened! They wanted to resolve the argument outside, physically! This person drives your kids home every day! The remarkable thing in the end is upon mentioning a write up for the behavior, his response was EXACTLY as a students would be- "Go ahead. Write me up".

Parents: make a point to meet your kid's bus driver. Divine what kind of person this is. There are a lot of wonderful people driving school buses. And then there are...

This rant is about the problem students. While it is a real problem, there are hundreds of students that ride the bus with no problems at all. Those that abide by the rules, treat others with respect, sit safely, and act mature are wonderful and deeply appreciated by all bus drivers. Thank you to every one of you kids who fit that description. You make this job quite rewarding.

Mood is a Choice

2011-03-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the idea today: Do you realize the effect you have on the people around you?

I work with someone who seems miserable. I suspect the circumstances really have nothing to do with me, but are outside the work place. The problem spills over to the co-workers and effects all they encounter. I allow this to impact me more than I ever should. Nothing I do is ever good enough and they are able to find something wrong with my best efforts. I go out of my way to try to improve the relationship, but that is either not recognized or not appreciated. Everyday I need to work with them and its something I do not look forward to every time. I even take delight in relaying information that might upset them!

This morning a short conversation with them was completely different. I could sense a happiness in voice that has been missing for several months. For the first time in a long time we seemed to be on the same wavelength.

What amazes me was the effect hearing that had on my mood and attitude toward the person and for the day in general. I wonder if they felt as much relief as I did. Did they recognize my reaction? Did the conversation flow easier today for them as it did for me? Does my attitude to them have the same effect on their day? These things I do not know. But I do know that it's all so much better when the mood is positive.

What frustrates me about this is that I strongly believe most of this comes down to choice (whether we realize that or not). And that means this person is, probably subconsciously deciding to be miserable. Even though they'd probably rather not be miserable if they only realized it was a choice!

Maybe none of it is choice and it's all beyond our control determined by chance and chemicals! Perhaps some people just are not compatible.

There must be some kind of science or study to psychic wavelengths or something along those lines that explain how some people can communicate near flawlessly and understand each other so well, while other people cannot, just simply cannot no matter how much effort is put in. Maybe it depends on body chemistry and/or circumstances. I suspect it is heavily influenced by your role and position in your family, like where you line up in your sibling's birth order if you have siblings at all. A few years ago I worked with a school bus aid on a route and we enjoyed this kind of communication and kind of had a theory mapped out about it. It'd be cool to find out if there really is this type of study.

words

2011-03-14T17:35:00.000-05:00

I like how if you focus on one word and say it over and over, the word sounds really strange. I suspect its a take it for granted thing. When it starts to sound strange you have broken this and are no longer taking that word for granted.

Take it for Granted is an interesting phrase, actually. I think I take that phrase for granted. Who granted it?

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T17:51:00.000-06:00

An observation: This season I've heard WAY MORE people wish me a Merry Christmas than a Happy Holidays. Sometimes I'll thank the person for the Merry Christmas instead of the Happy Holidays. Usually if I say Merry Christmas to them, they'd return it with a hint of 'oh, it's OK to say it with this guy' in the inflection- or that could be my imagination, just wishing the thought there. Perhaps it's my appearance for some reason that prompts people to use the term I'd prefer over the politically correct one the ACLU would have you use.

By CookevilleTimes.com

Story Published: Dec 8, 2010 at 10:21 PM CST

Story Updated: Dec 8, 2010 at 10:21 PM CST

School superintendents across the state were reminded by the ACLU this week that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, addressed to 137 public shool leaders across the state, stated that it was responding to a number of complaints from families about school party activites this Christmas season.

Hedy Weinburg, ACLU executive director in Tennessee, cited several U.S. Supreme Court decisions about the matter.

But several area citizens, like Jim Brown, think that such admonitions are misguided and potentially dangerous. Brown commented on the news, saying "We are a Christian nation. Let's act like it." and said that he hopes that the teachers and administration will celebrate the Christmas season.

Said one area teacher (name withheld), "I respect people of different faiths, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to eliminate my own from my work and and my classroom. I can enjoy Christmas as Christmas without worrying that I'm going to offend someone. My money still says that I trust in God. Are they going to stop me from using that, too?"

The letter was sent from the ACLU to the top administrators across the state. What those administrators do with the information is yet to be seen.

Some co-workers and I were joking about it. We said we should show the love of Christ to people who wish us a Happy Holidays with this return- Piss off! It's 'Merry Christmas'!

I really don't know where we sit with that one this year as I've pretty much cut myself off of political talk radio and the like. I'm hoping it's a backlash of the political correct pushing this type of thing too far down America's throats. Whatever the reason, it's nice to hear it more often than not.

TRON and the Purple Sandpiper

2010-12-18T20:46:00.000-06:00

Rob and I scheduled a play-date to walk and talk, watch TRON, and eat- in that order. We walked around the MOA for a while while we waited for our showtime. We also toured our old neighborhood back when we lived for very cheap in Bloomington. The movie was great. Next our plan was to find the Bloomington Falafel King for a Mediterranean buffet. But the Falafel King was gone and instead stood the Purple Sandpiper!?! We were defeated. But after looking at their menu we decided to accept defeat and dine there anyway. First of all the sweet potato fries were amazing! We both ordered omeletes that were excellent (mainly because of the goat cheese). The service was very nice. When she overheard us talking about Doctor Who she pretty much joined right in saying her husband likes it but she's more into... RomCom. While I didn't get my desired gyro meat, the Purple Sandpiper was pretty good.

Six Years Ago Tonight

2010-11-26T23:13:00.002-06:00

... I asked Cara to marry me.

She said yes.

Pasties at Jerabeck's

2010-10-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

For lunch, today, Willis East went to Jerabeck's New Bohemian Coffeehouse just because they sell pasties. What are pasties? Not a question anyone from Eagle River should have to ask (and nothing to do with adhesives, I'll have you know!). Jerabeck's pasties taste exactly like I remember from Trigg's, but they were much smaller than I remember. Missing were the large potato wedges that often accompanied them in the north woods.

I had been by there hundreds of times on various school bus routes and was always curious what the joint was like. I'd say it's definitely good enough to return.

www.jerabeks.com

New Command

2010-09-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

A strange and wonderful evening with New Command.

We received an invite to a concert in a tree house and a pot luck. The invite came from the Browns, a family in our Bible study small group. The concert was held up in the most amazing tree house I've ever seen at the Brown's parents house... the Browns... uppercase B which is up in Stillwater, MN. Wonderful music. Most of the music was from a new album called Damascus Journey performed by a band called New Command featuring my friend, Greg Wollan. They started the show with an old track of his called Glorybound (see this post, this post and this post) which he dedicated to Cara and me. That was a very nice way to start off.

The whole event was a totally free concert performed for special and invited guests. It was informal and very relaxed and right outside up in an elaborate tree fort! Totally wonderful.

When we get the chance, Greg and I share our music obsessions and its surprising how many bands we both are very passionate about. Most of it is progressive rock such as Peter Gabriel and 10cc. He and I went to lunch a couple of weeks ago where he discovered that we were going to be at the this show. It surprised me that he didn't know. Apparently, he wasn't privy to the guest list. So somehow through our big church we happened to cross paths for this.

He was very happy we were able to go and my family and I had a wonderful time.

Taxes

2010-02-11T20:25:00.000-06:00

Our taxes are done... sort of. We sat with the guy this evening. He's going to actually do them and they'll be done within a week. The gathering of the info was done by Cara. I pretty much just earned most of the money and attended our little tax meeting tonight.

So Long, My Friend

2010-01-13T20:14:00.002-06:00

Today I sold the good old green Jeep. I purchased him in 2000 making him the longest I've ever owned and drove any vehicle. We are now purely a Honda driving family. You will be missed, old friend.

Productive Day

2009-08-22T15:22:00.014-05:00

I feel productive today. Tackled two projects that actually went very well. First one was computer related. I have an Asus EEE netbook. After a couple of less than successful runs on various Linux based operating systems I found Eeebuntu that has proven rock solid for quite a long time. Pretty much every other day there are updates that are installed, constantly improving the little bugger. A week or so ago one of these updates resulted in the netbook no longer being able to access our wifi- or any wifi connection. I took the time today to find the problem. It was one update that created this problem for many people with the exact same system. This made the fix easy to find. After that it was only a matter of time learning how to add the one line of code to the boot menu.

The second project was our garage door was ajar...

Two major problems with the door was one of the track wheels came off and the cable unspooled off it's wheel, coiling around it's axle.

After securing the kids, Cara

and I worked

together and with leverage and body weight we balanced everything, created enough cable slack, got everything reseated, and successfully fixed our garage door. Cost = $0.00

Jack and Simon

2009-07-27T18:32:00.002-05:00

2

2009-07-27T08:08:00.002-05:00

Jack Elliot Willis turns 2 years old today. Happy Birthday, Action Man!

Jack's Bible Stories

2009-07-19T18:37:00.002-05:00

Maggie grew hungry while we were at church this morning. So Cara took her to the nursing room and fed her. There was a technical problem with the video feed in the room causing the moms to miss a majority of the sermon.

At dinner, this evening, Cara asked what the sermon was about and I started to describe it's theme. While I was explaining the message, Jack gets out of his seat and starts asking Cara to read him a Bible story. He wouldn't let up, either, running off to go retrieve one of his Bible story books. Finally Cara had to page through it as she listened to my retelling of Greg Boyd's message.

It seems he picked up on enough of my words to know what I was talking about and associated that with his Bible stories. He is amazing.

(This image is not from the book Jack selected. It's here jsut to add humor).

eBay

2009-07-10T10:55:00.003-05:00

I joined eBay on June 12, 1999. Today I received my 500th feedback. That means in ten years I have made 500 transaction (buying and selling).

Jeffrywith1e on eBay

Pictures of Maggie Mae

2009-07-09T22:06:00.005-05:00

Maggie Mae

2009-07-09T16:13:00.001-05:00

Maggie Mae was born today.

She started the last leg of her voyage at 10:05 this morning when the midwife broke the water. That started the strong contractions that we've been waiting for all week. With only 2 pushes Maggie was breathing air at 11:47 AM! She weighs 9lbs 2oz. and measures 20.1 inches long. Lots of dark hair. her head is perfectly round because her delivery was so short.

chess

2009-07-08T16:13:00.002-05:00

I won again against Alfredo. This is been great. He is a better player than I am so when I play him I go all out. No holding back. Usually I can hold my own but will eventually make a fatal mistake. The last two games, though...

Leesha and I have been playing a lot of chess, too. She's got all the piece's moves down, but very little of the strategy. She's coming along though.

Maggie Mae where are you?

2009-07-07T09:01:00.001-05:00

We are in a familiar holding pattern with Maggie Mae. She was due last Thursday. If she's still hiding when Thursday comes around again the midwife will induce labor.

On a far less exciting note, I beat Alfredo at chess today at work.

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

2009-07-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

Jack had some misadventures at around 1:30 in the morning last night. After he was all sorted out I was up. So I settled in and finished Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana.

I thought this was much better than the first book. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to write from the P.O.V. of Christ, but I think Rice captures His voice masterfully. I was surprised to find myself feeling sorry for Jesus through the first half. In the 2nd half, however, we see a transformation that reminded me of Neo in the Matrix. The dialog between He and Satan in the desert was interesting in that Jesus was portrayed as having the upper hand, not something that I think is traditionally taught with the passage. It usually seems like Jesus' ability to resist temptation was the victory in the desert. In this book He clearly out maneuvers the devil conversationally. Basically, Jesus verbally kicked his ass. I loved the way Rice planted characters from the biblical account throughout the story. She is a master storyteller.

Through high-school I was a HUGE Anne Rice fan with the vampire books. Having moving on from my interest in the dark gothic stuff, she has followed me out of it. It is great having her familiar voice continuing to tell me great stories. They're still stories about immortals.

Maggie Mae

2009-07-02T23:04:00.002-05:00

Today was Maggie's due date. She is late now...

2009-06-28T09:47:00.002-05:00

My Grandfather died this morning. My mom was with him.

Father's Day

2009-06-21T23:09:00.001-05:00

Father's Day was good. It started out pretty normal for a Sunday.

We went to the 11:00 service. While Cara was submitting the young ones into the Hero's Gate (Woodland Hills' children service/daycare) I went to the audio/lighting booth to talk to the crew. It was there that a co-worker of mine approached me. Tom was the very last trainee I taught at Monarch before they stopped hiring new drivers. He and I had absolutley nothing in common (until now, that is- now I know we're brothers in Christ) as I'm a full through and through geek and he's a minor league hockey player. His buddy disappeared or something so Tom sat with Cara and I. He mentioned that he heard the usual sermons here at WHC are not the typical kind, they make you think. I confirmed that and added that if you want a sermon that makes you feel good this was not the place for that. As soon as worship was done and announcements were out of the way Boyd introed his message naming it PAIN. Tom and I laughed about that.

After church Cara, Jack, and I (Leesha went out with her dad after church) went out for my Father's Day lunch. I chose The Uptown Bar and Cafe for their gyro omelets and their bloody marys. That's exactly what I got, too. Didn't even need the menu.

We went home and I crashed - thats what you do after you eat an Uptown omelet and a bloody. There's no avoiding it. Cara cleaned the cars and I watched Jack- rather we watched Flash Gordon. At some point Leesha came home. Later, Eric and Keesha came over to help install our air unit in the window. When they left I called my dad and by the end of that conversation it was around 10PM.

It was a full and relatively active Father's Day.

4 Year Anniversary & NCC 1701

2009-06-11T22:01:00.009-05:00

Cara and I have been married for four years. Each year has been better than the last.

To celebrate we took Jack to our friend's house and went to an early showing of STAR TREK:

Cara and I saw it finally for our 4th anniversary yesterday. It was fantastic. I agree with Jesse that it cleaned out every bit of its arse with the Star Wars movies. Kirk was great. Pine made the character his own without falling into a Shatner impersonation. Quinto, however, channeled Nemoy with his performance. Spot on. I thought Nemoy, himself, was a bit off character, actually. They succeeded in re-imaging an old and great franchise while keeping with the original continuity in a way. The one criticism I have is there are a few HUGE plot holes requiring a great deal of suspension of disbelief. More than usual for Star Trek. The action and thrill makes it easy to forgive these plot shortcomings. It was beautiful and has made me really like Star Trek more than ever in my life (like, I actually want to own this movie!). But I think Firefly/Serenity and Battlestar Galactica are still superior sci-fi products. [link to discussion]

We left the theater and went directly to Red Lobster. When all was said and done, we were home again with Jack around 5PM. It was a great and relaxing anniversary.

The Venture Bros.

2009-05-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

The Venture Bros. is an animated TV show for targeted for adults. On the surface it appears to be a comedy parody on Jonny Quest. I resisted watching it at all because I happen to like Jonny Quest a lot and felt that parodies are sometimes offensive, but I finally gave it a chance and absolutely loved it. I see this is more of an homage than a parody and at times the quality of writing goes beyond it's original. Where sometimes Jonny Quest may have taken itself too seriously, Venture Bros NEVER is guilty of this. Venture Bros. homages and refers to many many other pulp adventure and pop icons using allusion in the plots and dialogue. For example, there was an episode that opened with a flashback where the characters were speaking the lyrics to David Bowie's Space Oddity. The show has fantastic music. The art is stylized and solid. But it's the writing that really does this show justice.

I've become a fanboy.

Otherworld

2009-05-17T23:17:00.001-05:00

Wow, I found a television relic. I have memories of a sci-fi show that I just loved - Otherworld. I remember seeing the promo over and over for a short period of time and having an idea that it was about dimension travel. So I dressed up about four of the most futuristic G.I. Joe guys with cool gear and posed them when the ad would come on creating my own opening sequence using the music form the promo.

Tonight I found a fansite through Wikipedia about the show.
otherworldonline.org
They have all eight episodes on the webpage. Watched the first one. It was better than I thought it would be. About a family who are lost in the pyramids in Egypt and found their way out but have somehow come out into a different dimension. They spend the episode discovering this and avoiding the authorities who are searching for them.

Another kind of cool thing about this show is the youngest family member's name is Smith.

Route 196 in Bus 179

2009-05-15T15:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was a bad day. I was covering the 2nd school on a route and my bus came in contact with another vehicle's mirror. This is considered a preventable accident and carries a lot of consequences.

So I was suspended from driving today and I am no longer part of the Training Department. I am to report to work on Monday for re-training. Usually an accident is a mandatory 5 day suspension at minimum. That would cost me and my family far more than the damage done to that SUV's mirror. The conversation with my manager left me with the impression that he seemed to feel like I did this on purpose. I found that interesting.

I'm trying to fill my time with anything to take my mind off of this.

Some of the frustration I'm having is the reason I was covering the route. Apparently the regular driver wasn't able to do his 2nd school because... wait for it... wait for it... he had to go to the bathroom! I heard this today and I'm still not sure what it means. We had random mandatory drug tests for some drivers yesterday and I guess this driver was one of them and drinking a whole bunch of water caused him not to be able to drive his route. So they had him come back to base and go home to pee or something like that. So that was weird. The way that this is handled is dispatch calls me to head over to the school and do a route. Now usually when you do someone else's route you take their route copy that includes a map. Here I only had a list of stops and it's assumed I know my way around like google maps. I can manage through a route like that with no map. But having NEVER done this route before, my first time I'm constantly calculating where I am and where I need to go sorting through my memory of St. Paul WHILE keeping the kids controlled AND safely driving a bus through the streets of St. Paul. This no map detail just added to the load my attention was dealing with.

So for one moment I forgot this bus rides too far to the right or something.

I have no excuse in the end for hitting a mirror, but I feel that it does need to be mentioned that this whole thing happened in a transit style bus- the flat nose kind of bus. These buses ride differently than the regular conventional types. The driver seat is right up against the left wall of the bus and this causes drivers to drive more to the right I guess based on where you're used to riding in the road. I believe this was a major factor in the incident.

While on his route I had to contact dispatch over a kid who has been getting off at a stop all year that wasn't on the route copy. That was also weird and probably added to the strangeness stress of the day. Good that it was exposed finally, I guess.

Jonny Quest

2009-05-10T16:12:00.003-05:00

I've been sorting my comics downstairs over the weekend with varying piles around. Jack creeps around and runs his cars over some of them with a careful sense that dad wants caution, so it seems. He asks- "Whatsat, daddy?" as he examines the topmost comic. And I answer him.

He runs over to the futon in front of the TV saying something over and over. It looks like he wants to watch something but he's not saying "Clifford" or "Emily" or "T-Bone" or "Cleo" which is what he usually says when he gets to watch a show downstairs meaning Clifford the Big Red Dog. This time he was saying something like 'choneetrest' or something 'dressed'. So I went to him and said "what are you saying?" And he repeated it. Didn't help me much. I asked again and he said "Airpane in da sky!" Now I got it! He's saying Jonny Quest! That was the comic he was asking about just a minute ago. He remembered that title because we watched it a couple of times. Just a couple of times!

We watched a few episodes several weeks ago and stopped because it seemed to only lightly hold his interest. The show's intro has an airplane and that's what Jack remembered and communicated to tell me what he was talking about.

This was the best example I could find.

Earth Day

2009-04-22T19:11:00.001-05:00

I was driving a route in St. Paul today when I noticed colors falling out of the sky in my left hand mirror. I was unable to figure out what I was looking at. When I looked in the overhead mirror for a different perspective I noticed a couple of boys looking, too. Then I noticed what I had seen was a couple of pieces of paper. Garbage out the window is not something we can tolerate as its one of the bus offenses that actually violates the law! So I go to the back of the bus and ask whose paper it was. You can count on the other kids to always point them out. I tell him he needs to ride up front now because you littered on EARTH DAY! And the other kids had various reactions to this comment. Some reactions interesting.

We were about to get under way again when I asked the whole bus - "Raise your hand if you care about Earth day". One kid raises his hand. "Raise your hand if you DON'T CARE about Earth Day". Everyone raises their hands and shouted. I applauded them.

I think there is still hope.

Warlord

2009-04-16T19:15:00.008-05:00

On my way home from the license bureau I stopped at Half Priced Books to flip through old comics, an activity I find therapeutic. I found 8 old Warlord comics I didn't have!

After entering them into the database I did a run on my comic collection statistics. Warlord is now the title I have the most issues of at 86 (of 133). Nearly 100% of those are purchases from Halfpriced Books or other cheap bins over the last couple of years. Also and a good deal of tracking which issues I already have has helped.

This month DC Comics re-launched the title! They attempted to launch a reboot of the series a few years ago and that was a complete fail. This new relaunch continues the original comic and is written by the same guy who created the book.

Warlord's setting is heavily inspired and pays heavy homage to Edgar Rice Burrough's Pellucidar series which is set in the Hollow Earth. Warlord has more fantasy and science fiction elements than that of Pellucidar. The original comic ran from 1976 till the mid '80s.

In the savage world of Skartaris, life is a constant struggle for survival. Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal sunlight, one simple law prevails: If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead.
—1st Issue Special #8

One man's trash is another's treasure. It's amazing what you can find in those cheap bins.

Air-Brakes

2009-04-16T18:10:00.007-05:00

One week ago I returned back to the base having finished some St. Paul School route to discover the cabal of bosses thought I was driving and training people air-brake buses without having an air-brake endorsement on my license.

It appears that the State of Minnesota issued me a license granting me the privilege of driving air-brake commercial vehicles even though I was not trained or tested on them. For the first two years at Monarch Bus Service I correctly did my job having some recall about not having the air-brake endorsement and it wasn't until last August when I joined the training department that anyone even looked at my license. When I was in the process of becoming a trainer I correctly assumed I had to go test, but someone looked and saw that my license stated Restrictions: None meaning that I was OK to drive any school bus. So I figured I was mistaken. Alright then, I guess I am Ok to drove air-brakes.

Well the State's error surfaced and now its on me to correct it. This small fact has made the training schedule complicated as the training needs to be done on a vehicle I can't drive or take trainees out on until the problem is corrected.

I went to the test facility up on 35W and County Rd. I as per my friend/co-worker, Melissa's advice. I sat in the parking lot and read the whole air-brake chapter. Went in and aced the pretrip test and missed 4 of the 25 questions on the air brake test successfully passing that one, too. It felt good lifting that weight off my back.

Now I just have to do the Behind the Wheel test.

Saturday

2009-04-11T23:42:00.003-05:00

It was a good Saturday. Jack and Leesha playing in the yard with the neighbor kids today.

It was a good Saturday. Jack and Leesha playing in the yard with the neighbor kids today.

Cara's folks came over so Cara and I could go on a date for dinner. My folks gave us a gift card to a place called Sgt. Pepper's. Great place, OK food, HUGE servings. We don't do that often enough. After dinner we drove around a bit and took a walk in a park down by Battle Creek. It was really nice.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

2009-03-29T18:33:00.000-05:00

Leesha and I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This is a series I've been aware of for as long as it has existed, but never bothered to explore. It always appeared to be some ninja cartoon that happened to have pretty good art and some imaging that resembled Miyazaki slightly.

What is this show about?

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called "Benders" who have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation. The show’s creators assigned each Bending art its own style of martial arts, causing it to inherit the advantages and weaknesses of the martial arts it was assigned. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

link to more...

Leesha and I have developed a tradition of sitting and watching a show together when we can. I use this as incentive for getting chores done as well as spending time with her in an activity that truly interests both of us. We've watched Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, ROBOTECH, Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Dungeons & Dragons, Oban Star-Racers, Sarah Jane Adventures, and now Avatar: The Last Airbender.

We're 4 episodes in and this show is good. It's aimed at an audience of her age almost directly, but has enough fantasy mixed with realism to keep geek adults interested. So far I'm quite impressed. Impressed enough to start this thread.

Very Good Saturday

2009-03-29T08:36:00.004-05:00

The last week was coming close to overwhelming. At work there are people in training. That means the training department is putting in 9 or 10 hours a day all week as we cover or evaluate morning routes and afternoon routes with training for 3 hours in between. Sometimes that even includes afterschool routes like it did for me on Monday. Thursday I sat on a Minneapolis charter route which clears around the same time as a St. Paul after school route. Then I have small group bible study on Tuesday night. And we had a small group church meeting Wednesday night. Very busy week. One nice thing was every moment I worked on Friday was overtime. So I needed a fun-no-work weekend.

That's what I got.

Saturday was gaming. D&D at Rob's house. When I got home it was Jack and Leesha and Hazel in the back yard (Hazel is our friend's dog we're sitting for the weekend). Cara grilled brats for dinner. Pretty good day.

After dark and after Leesha was ready for bed we watched the 3rd episode of our new show - Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is an American anime. Three episodes in and its proving to be very well made. It's targeted to Leesha's age, I believe, and has enough fantasy elements to be interesting for adults with that geek gene. We're both really enjoying this show a lot.

Easy Day and Lunch

2009-03-04T18:20:00.001-06:00

I had lunch at Cecil's with a former co-worker at KSTP. We used to go to Cecil's after the morning and midday news and we both left 5 around the same time. Hadn't seen him for a couple of years and he looked good. Too long. Good people.

Easy day at work. During the AM routes they had me go out and observe other bus drivers which is a default task when all the regular drivers show up to work. Then I had said lunch. And for the PM routes they sent me out to stand-by, which is like what I did in the AM, but with out the observing. I'm just a set of wheels available if something goes wrong. And nothing did. I got to choose a flat-nosed or transit style bus. Those are fun to drive.

An easy day was what I needed, too. Because I'm sick AGAIN! This variety of cold is the ever-running flow of snot out of the nose along with more sneezing than I've ever experienced in my life. I wonder if this is actually allergies.

And I also found time to get comics today.

Woodland Hills Church Usher

2009-03-01T21:53:00.001-06:00

Leesha has been serving Woodland Hills Church as an usher for about a month now. She helped collect the offering today at the 11:00 service.They have her in a purple vest and everything and they've given her a name tag. She's doing a great job, too.

Backsliding In Communication

2009-02-25T21:21:00.000-06:00

I wanted to mirror something I wrote on the other blog...

I think Jack is starting to backslide with his communication abilities, SOMETIMES. The kid is amazing and creative with the ideas he has for conveying a message. For example, Cara tells me he's running around the living room playing with a ball. She hears a noise, one of those noises that goes along with something bad. Before she could check what happened, Jack comes around the corner saying "Ooopity, flower"! It was obvious that his ball knocked over the vase with the flowers Leesha got for Cara. That's amazing.

However, I think he's collecting so many words in such a short period of time that he's simply overwhelmed by them and can't keep them strait. He used to point at the staircase and say something like "David, Gnome!" which was his translation for David the Gnome which is an animated television show I was showing him for a while. Or he'd say "Dolphins!" meaning the stain-glass mobile that hangs down by the bottom of the stairs. Jack and I often count all three of them when we get down there.

But lately when he tries to say something it is often babbling noise.

Just an interesting observation. He's sleeping at the moment of writing this blog entry, no doubt his little mind is sorting all the new words and images his eyes and ears took in today.

Ultrasound Today

2009-02-24T21:56:00.000-06:00

We had an ultrasound today and the tech said that she'd be surprised if it wasn't a GIRL!

Drugs and Dollhouse and LOST and Battlestar

2009-02-14T23:53:00.003-06:00

I got drugs today. After a week of pain in my teeth and pressure behind my eyes, I finally went to the clinic to find out if my sinus infection is bacterial or viral. After an hour I left with my drugs. Hopefully this will kick it's ass. At least I had good reading material with me.

I have been sick more days of 2009 than I haven't. This year has not been fun. Over the winter break I had that horrible sore throat with a fever. That eventually passed. As I posted in the last entry, Leesha passed something to Jack. Naturally, both Cara and I got it, too. Whatever it was, it got worse for us than it was for the kids, which is a blessing of sorts, I guess. Cara had/has it but it seems to be moving out of her system. Now for the last week I've had the said pain all around my face and teeth and an irritating caugh that doesn't help anything and can't seem to be avoided. It's gotten so bad that my caughing is also now gagging. So hopefully these anti-biotics will kick it out.

Cara and I watched Joss Whedon's Dollhouse tonight. I didn't want to like it as much as I did. I posted about it on Cinema Judge's website...

* this review contains spoilers*

We just finished watching Dollhouse this evening. With so little time I didn't want this show to be as good as it was. Foolish of me to doubt Joss Whedon. He is a master storyteller. Fantastic start. Dollhouse, if you noticed, is partially produced by the star, Eliza Dushku. I imagine it's going to be a challenging role for her as she will play many characters throughout the show.

All the standard characters are in place, Eliza plays the empty husk Echo who is programmed with personalities [of previously real existing people] and is sent out on whatever job a client needs. When the gig is done, she returns and is wiped clean, no memories. There is the ruthless and focused Adelle DeWitt (the not-so-hot-as-she-used-to-be Olivia Williams); the savvy computer nerd that explains things for us, Topher Brink; DeWitt's lapdog, Laurence Domonic, loyally do anything she says; Helo from Battlestar Galactica, Paul Ballard, who is an FBI agent on the Dollhouse case. My favorite character so far is the company's moral pillar, Boyd Langton- Echo's handler and ex-cop.

I think this show has so much potential. How many episodes will air before FOX kills it?

While this show starts, its seems like the production quality for LOST has started to slip. If LOST jumps the shark and if Dollhouse gets yanked by FOX (which happens to almost everything Whedon does) we'll still have our Battlestar Galactica.

Raising Sand

2009-02-14T11:10:00.001-06:00

I purchased a CD for Cara for Valentine's Day. I got Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand. Didn't know much about it other than it won a lot of awards and we really like Alison Krauss and I like Robert Plant. It's a very nice album. I think my dad would like it, too.

Gaming

2009-02-01T00:48:00.012-06:00

Felt like running a bit of a game this evening. So I printed up a couple of pre-generated characters and gave them to Leesha and Cara. Tossed in a few goblins and we ran a skrimige using the True20 rpg system. I wanted to get familiar with the combat system and give the girls a feel for some more gaming. I think it was a really fun time. True20 is interesting at first. I think it will be smooth if we keep at it. Leesha was getting into it, cutting them down with her longbow. Cara's passive character was trying to achieve a hit. I had the remaining 3 roll a Will save and fail so they all ran. One got away, one got cut down. And one was wounded, begging fior mercy. So it was granted to him, and Cara's character healed his wounds. The encounter ended with that last goblin following the pair at a safe distance, now a loyal and amazed companion to the healer.

It's been a rough weekend. Leesha was sick last weekend and throughout the week. Now, all of a sudden Jack is sick, pretty much because Leesha can't keep her [dirty, germy] hands off of him. Poor guy. Killed the weekend. He is miserable and needs to be held. His cry sounds like a bark because of the crap in his lungs.

Pellucidar

2009-01-31T13:02:00.001-06:00

Reading another Edgar Rice Burroughs book - Pellucidar. The 2nd book in the series about the Hollow Earth. I like this series far more than the John Carter of Mars and its quickly gaining on Tarzan. This book is better than the first one- At the Earth's Core.

Facebook

2009-01-18T21:21:00.001-06:00

A friend from long ago and I were marveling about Facebook, on Facebook this evening. It was really fun revisiting memories like these. I really appreciate Facebook for the opportunity to re-connect with people I haven't talked to or even thought about for 14 years. He happened to be the person who demonstrated what the internet was about back then, simply chatting with friends across the country. And here we are today chatting about it across the country. It seemed pretty common place for him at the time, but I was trying to keep my head from exploding. Tonight it was common place all around. I'm still amazed at what the internet really is.

Busy

2009-01-18T19:29:00.000-06:00

Recovering from the New Years 'break' and it's been go go go. This weekend finally had some down time.

It Never Seems To End

2009-01-04T13:35:00.006-06:00

I caught something the very night of my last post. I thought and was expecting to throw up, but never did. Instead my throat became extremely sore and I was very chilled. This lasted through Friday and Saturday and is still going strong today. Saturday we did go to a clinic to get swabbed for strep-throat. Turns out that is not what I have and that would've been the thing to have to get a remedy. Whatever I have has to run its painful painful course. They said probably just over a week. If it goes for longer, I'd need to go back and get tested for mono.

At least everyone else is feeling well. Jack did throw up again last night. Not sure why, but he's acting fine today. Cara is going crazy from just being in the house for so long and battling Leesha's devious ways of finding attention. She continues to antagonize Jack. Its getting rare that he allows her to hold him. Sometimes he gets mad if she even comes near him. It's all her own doing, though. From day 1 she was in his face too much. No amount of warning from Cara and I could give her a clue. Now its Jack's screams that seem to actually give her pause. Sometimes they don't even do that.

With all of this literal down time I've been reading and watching old shows. Finally finished Edgar Rice Burroughs' 2nd book in the John Carter of Mars series - Gods of Mars.

I've also been watching old '80s episodes of Doctor Who when the Doctor was played by Peter Davidson. Davidson is a very dorky awkward Doctor. Not at all doing the right thing at the right time. He seems more flawed than most of the other Doctors I've seen. I never understood why he wore a celery on his lapel. Perhaps that will be revealed. I must keep watching...

As I watched these episodes some big Doctor Who news broke...

The official 11th Doctor. Here is a link to the article and a discussion board about it.

So all the things we cancelled on this week...

Holiday Celebration with Mom and Dad at Greg and Mandy's
Small Group Social with Parents
New Years Day with Trelevens
Work on Friday
Gaming on Saturday
Church on Sunday

The Bad Cruise Ship Holiday

2009-01-01T11:16:00.001-06:00

This is my blog, so I'm going to use it to vent.

I'm looking forward to this holiday break ending! From the perspective of possibilities it looked fantastic and fun. Having gone through most of it now, there were some nice times with family and some of it was actually fun. And the best part wasn't actually officially planned. Saturday we got everyone together. Sunday on Jack got very sick and it took several days for his recovery. And he's not completely back, actually. This morning we gave him milk for the first time and he rejected that pretty quick. So Jack getting sick was a big drain on everyone and completely derailed much of our holiday family plans. Also put a stop to small group and seeing the Trelevens today in Wisconsin. But the kick in the face happened last night.

Leesha got sick. She started throwing up around 1:30AM and she still is at it. Bless her heart, she's obviously much more capable of taking care of herself than Jack was, so we're leaving her to sleep where Jack got cuddled and cared for. But she's also kind of attempting to make it more miserable for us, which Jack didn't/unable to do. So yeah.

I've had enough of this crap.

And Cara is nausious in the mornings, too!

Oh, and Happy New Years...

HollyWillis on DeviantArt

2008-12-31T20:12:00.004-06:00

We had Secret Santa with our family this year for the fun of it and to cut down the cost of the holidays- our gifts were to be something made. My pick was my mom, Holly Willis. For her gift I gave her a GMail account and set her up on DeviantArt.com, also providing her with a basic user's manual for the accounts.

She has given me some art over the years and what I have here I posted on her art gallery. This evening we posted some of her more recent work online. As we were posting her art, some people started marking her paintings as their favorites and sending her messages. Mom was thrilled about this as this demonstrated the potential for networking and just getting your art out to people who appreciate it. It was fun to see her reaction.

Here is a link to her gallery

hollywillis.deviantart.com

Jack Is Back

2008-12-31T19:54:00.003-06:00

Jack is almost completely back. The last time he spit up was about 5:30AM yesterday (Tuesday) morning, so its been a good amount of time past the worst. Now its just getting his strength back and making sure he's drinking lots of fluids. His spirit has returned and it is so wonderful to hear him laugh and blab. For short periods of time he seems back to 100%, but he mellows out fast and needs to rest. He's been using far less diapers, too. He's basically refilling his system.

Wow, it was scary. If I could step out of the situation and take a look I'm sure it never was that critical, but as dad- that just wasn't possible and I didn't like seeing the little guy so uncomfortable. I thank God for placing us in a time and place where this kind of thing is not such a big deal because of modern medicne. A different era or country and Jack may not have recovered. I didn't think such a small guy could derail a holiday's plans so effectively.

All Better

2008-12-30T21:00:00.005-06:00

Jack is home

He came home yesterday late evening. We checked in to the Children's Hospital Sunday afternoon. He stayed over night and was there all of Monday. Jack was able to spend the night at home last night. He was sick every half hour or so from around 1:30PM to about 5:00 or 6:00PM on Sunday. He got sick early afternoon, yesterday.

I think he got sick one other time besides that while we were there.

They put us in a very nice room at Children's. Cara did stay the night there and failed to get good rest due to a poor little kid in the room next door who cried almost our entire stay. I went home to use my CPAP and retrieve a list of needs for the next day.

One of our favorite nurses was Catherine from Uganda. She was thrilled to find that Cara lived there for a short while years ago. She took to Jack and kind of gave him special treatment- ordering a red wagon for him.

Monday evening my parents came with Leesha to see Jack as well as feed us. Around the same time, Cara's folks came too (they had fun meeting Catherine, it was cool that they were able to meet). Jack was maxed out with visitors. Not much later, the doctor came to check out Jack and said it was ok for him to go home.

Around 1:30AM he chuck up a bunch o.f fluid and a little piece of peach he had eaten during the day. He got sick a few more times through the night, the last one around 5:30AM.

It is Tuesday evening and he hasn't spit up anything worth reporting. He's drinking a lot and eating a little. I think Jack even loaded his diapers- a breakthrough!

Not Quite The Day I Was Hoping For

2008-12-28T23:45:00.004-06:00

Today was going to be fun. Our plans were to go to Greg and Mandy's house and open our Secret Santa gifts and just hang out, maybe play some games and definitely eat. We went to church and picked up Leesha and then started driving to Willis West. About 1/4th off the way there Jack exploded. Something caused him to throw-up everything he ate for breakfast. ALL OVER himself, and the car seat. Quick thinking we diverted our course to Cara's parents house which is sort of on the way. They were there and we all got him and everything else cleaned up. However, Jack threw up again. And soon it was apparent that this wasn't going to stop anytime soon. We decided to call off going to Willis West and started on our way back home. Jack then upchucked something yellow so we decided to change course again to the Children's Hospital.

He was poked and prodded, and x-rayed. They seemed concerned that he was getting dehydrated and finally they I.V.ed him- which he was a real champion about. Having an I.V. put into your little guy is a scary ordeal. It did help to hear that the ladies doing it had done 8 already today. And they pointed out that that was just her count, there were other nurses doing them, too.

When it seemed he was finished he was fed some pedialight or whatever. But that came up pretty quick. But that was the last.

All said, Jack threw up at around 1:30pm and continued to around every half hour till around 5:30. The poor little guy never had a nap and was completely exhausted.

Cara's dad came and took Leesha to stay with them for the night. They are so great.

They moved us up to a real fancy room with the fanciest crib you've ever seen. TV, toys. Jack is definitely coming back. He started to get chatty again. What a wonderful sound that is. Looks like Cara's going to stay here to sleep and I'm going to go home to my CPAP.

A doctor says this may be the beginning of it and this may carry on for a few days.

Post Christmas Reflection

2008-12-27T10:50:00.000-06:00

Having some time to ponder the virgin birth, as we tend to do at this time of year, I submit this idea (now bare with me, I'm not sure I'll be able to word this correctly):

Because the King of kings' arrival to the world was so insignificant and so completely normal, does this make it more amazing? My birth, and probably yours too, was more glorious than His. He was born in a barn. Mary didn't even have wet nurses. No family. Nothing like that. And He is the KING!?! I imagine when a King is born there is usually an amazing amount of fanfare and celebration. There was nothing like that. There was the host of angels and that's no small thing, but the only guys to see it were some lowly shepherds.

This last year or so's studies are showing me how exactly appropriate this for the Kingdom of God, actually. The upside-down, backwards Kingdom of God. If there was a huge to do about the King of kings' birth, it would go against the nature of this Kingdom He is revealing (at least to me little by little).

I hope I'm conveying my thoughts clearly enough about this, because its profound.

Survivors

2008-12-27T00:37:00.005-06:00

We don't watch TV. Well, sort of. We do watch programs that have been downloaded and watch them right off the computer. Why not? No commercials, 16x9 presentation, not quite HD, but cleaner than what would be broadcast over the air... And the shows... We pretty much watch BBC. Doctor Who, [ spooks ], and now Survivors (we do watch LOST, but that's not currently on).

Survivors is a re-imaging of a show that was on BBC in the 1970s about a breakout epidemic that wipes out 90 some % of the Earth's population. The show is about those who are left alive and how they deal with the lack of society. We've seen 3 episodes and so far it is fantastic.

According to Wiki there will be a 2nd season. The original series lasted three seasons. Its a great show.

Christmas

2008-12-26T21:11:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was Christmas and we spent the afternoon at Cara's folks house. We had a nice quiet time there. Opened a few gifts, had a nice big dinner, installed a universal remote. It was also the usual- getting on Leesha's case to leave Jack alone, finish eating, eat with her mouth closed, not speak with her mouth full, enjoying Jack's ever-increasing vocabulary, etc. Leesha got a couple of gifts, but they were two things that she was very very excited about getting.

One was a Webkin dragon. She had been asking for this particular Webkin for a long time, long enough ago that she probably forgot about it. This was also kind of cool, because the dragon is no longer available anywhere other than places like Ebay (which is exactly where we got it).

Webkins are a fantastic marketing ploy, plush animals that include a code that you plug into a webpage and you can navigate your newly purchased animal through an online community featuring games and chats and all sorts of things like that.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an MP3 player that she really wanted. An amazingly cheap little thing that didn't seem to work creating much drama this morning. Leesha is now with her dad and reports that she got it to work. That's good.

Tonight we finish the Doctor Who Christmas Special. We started it last night but put the 2nd half on hold because we were both fading.

The Willis East Posting Board

2008-12-18T12:39:00.010-06:00

As an attempt to kickstart this blog back into gear, I'm going to promote another blog. The other one is focused on the children of Willis East. Cara and I are the main contributors so far. Since that blog has such a defined focus, this blog will become (or return to, rather) an outlet for my geeky interests and general observations about this strange world I live in.

So here's the link to the other blog...

The Willis East Posting Board

Its coming along well and it has been fun recording all the things Jack discovers everyday.

Its been a while since I've posted regularly here. A lot has been going on. My role at Monarch Bus Services has changed to where I'm now a trainer. My schedule is all over the place as I don't usually drive the same route anymore. I'm more of a stand-by driver when not training. So in anticipation of having days with downtime we saved up (during the early part of the school year, when we were overworked due to all the training going on, resulting in some extra cashflow) and I got a new laptop or notebook, but technically a netbook. What I'm using now is an ASUS EEE PC. And the model I chose runs on Linux instead of Windows.

It also turns out that I'll be working through the break. That's kind of nice and kind of not, too.

Jack Elliot is one today!

2008-07-27T10:43:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday, Jack Elliot!

Jack Elliot's one year video. Most of the pictures were taken each Friday night for the last 52 weeks (there are also other pics sprinkled about). You are more than welcome to look at more pictures of Jack and the Willis' here...

The song is Seasons of Love from RENT.

First Day of Summer School

2008-06-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

First day of Summer School and I feel like writing.

Got to work early. I like it like that. Early. Had little problem with either route when dry-running it last week, but still. There is that anxiety of not really knowing what it'll be like till your on the other side of the experience. Cara, Leesha and Jack all got up early with me. They dropped me off at work so we can save on fuel costs. Works for me. I have to get up early anyways. We'll see how long the rest of the fam can handle that kind of schedule.

First school, Highwood Hills Elementary, was going very well. Nearly 80% of the bus were Hmong students. This is very good. Hmong are the most well behaved kids I've ever seen. 2nd to last stop brought on a kid who seemed to have a lot of potential of being trouble. But he's 2nd to last before we head for the school. Can't do much better than that. On top of that almost half the stops were dead - no one got on or off at those stops.

Second school is one I'm quite familiar with- Wellstone. Not this route, however. Pretty evenly balanced between African American and Hispanic kids. I didn't recognize any of them. I asked a couple if they knew some of the names from my regular school season route (which is another Wellstone route, but in a different area of St. Paul).

I was able to steal some time at home between routes. As I pulled up in front of our house I waved at Carla, our neighbor who frowned. What?

Taking the kids home was just as smooth as picking them up. Except for one thing, on our way return from Wellstone, a small Somalian girl got sick. It wasn't too bad on the bus, she caught most of it in her dress fabrics or whatever they wear. I had a whole bunch of towels which I gave to her and she used up. It was a striking orange, whatever she ate. Hopefully that was it for the summer and got it out of the way.

Called Cara when I was finished with work and the family came and picked me up. When we got home I was able to lay down for a nap.

David and Darlene came over for a late Father's Day dinner. We grilled pork and steaks and had a good time.

Turns out that our neighbor may be upset seeing the bus return to the neighborhood. Geez, some people need to relax. Cara said she told her school would be out in five weeks about six weeks ago. Cara failed to mention that summer school would follow shortly there after.

Father's Day

2008-06-15T21:06:00.003-05:00

My Father's Day was simple. I did lights for the church services last night and today. Got to hang out with Greg Wollan more than usual as he lead worship. He/they performed one of his own songs - Glorybound. That's one of the songs that inspired me to approach him which has lead to a nice friendship. The song reminded me SO MUCH of Paul McCartney way beck in 2003 at the Small Group Leadership Retreat. There was someone shooting a documentary at Woodland Hills today while we were doing the service. That stuff adds a fun energy to church service.

Cara and I came home and put Jack down for his nap. We had a small lunch and watched a fresh episode of Doctor Who! It was a creepy one. One of those good ones. Then Cara took a nap as Jack continued his. Quiet time. About the time everyone was getting up, Leesha came home.

We had our regular routine. Getting stuff done and ready for the week. Jack started to figure out his toy- the toy with four balls that get smacked into their holes by a hammer and proceed down through an obstacle course and exit again. Until today I don't think Jack recognized any purpose to the main piece, the balls, and the hammer. Now he realized the application. It was wonderful to see him working it all out.

After Leesha went to bed I took Jack to the couch and we sat and watched over the neighborhood and he fell asleep on my lap. That was the perfect way to end my father's day.

3 Years

2008-06-11T17:48:00.000-05:00

Married for three years today.

It stormed a lot today. It also stormed a lot three years ago.

For our anniversary, Cara painted a picture of us dancing from a photo taken at our reception. She did a wonderful job.

I got her three red roses and wrote her a love letter.

Leesha made a very nice card for both of us from her and Jack.

We bus drivers had our St. Paul route picks today. Starting at something like 6AM the most senior drivers choose first. Mine came at 7:56 or sometime around then. I think that means I'm moving up, or older drivers are quitting. Yay for me.

I chose a route that winds to and fro all around this side of St. Paul (this being closer to where I live). The first school is Highwood Hills, which is the school I was driving for on my noon route over the regular school season. The second school is Wellstone. I have a good history with Wellstone, but this route will be a departure from what I usually drove for them. This route guarantees around 6:30 hours a day. Not too bad for a summer school route. I plan on helping out the Monarch Bus Service staff with training to maybe pick up even more hours.

Comics!
I was hoping to pick up Clandestine #5 (of 5) today because its by Alan Davis and its great. But either the Source didn't get any or it sold out already. There was supposedly a new Indiana Jones comic out today that didn't get shipped. So the only comic I was expecting was Captain Britain and the MI-13 #2. This series started off in the middle of the Marvel Secret Invasion. Its been great so far. For me, Marvel + the UK = goodnes (ala Excalibur). Since I only had one comic in my hand I check out a couple of back issues. I picked up the IDW Doctor Who #1 and White Tiger #1. Haven't read either one yet.

Lists

2008-06-09T00:19:00.000-05:00

I got a lot done today. School is out for summer. Summer school hasn't started yet. No charter routes to drive. No work as a bus driver today. So I had a list of things I needed to do. This is sort of what it looked like...

Call 1-877-322-8228 and request a free credit report (preferably from Experian)

note: you can try it online, just make sure you don't enroll in the thing you have to pay for. We just want a one time deal.

Call Hubbard at 642-4687(?) to see if you have any benefits there still (such as a retirement account) Teresa @ 642 4399
Call Ameriprise at 1 800 297 7378 to inform them that you have beneficiaries (me and the kids) in the event something happens to you
Call Washington Mutual Bank Customer Service at 1 866 892 9268 and tell them to remove you from the Personal Registry thing permanently
Download pictures to Picasa
Help me find a place to hide the key
Clean gutters out
Arrange a time to get together with Greg, Mandy and Simon this month
Decide what you want to do for Father's day (keeping in mind that I'd like to do something with my dad too)
Tabs on Jeep
Sign remainder of June cards

So here's how it turned out...

Credit report - Try 1 888 397 3742 for #1

can't do it without payment info
skip it

Call Hubbard

called Teresa @ 642 4399 at 11:20
called @ 2:15
she said call Fidelity directly at 1 800 835 5095

found 2 accounts: 1 with KSTP with a $0.00 balance and one with Sight & Sound also with a $0.00 balance.

Ameriprise - Sending an update form in mail - confirmation number 0609blahblahblah
Wamu - Done - a less than $3.00 charge will appear on the account for the cancellation
Downloaded pictures to Picasa

finished with all Family Gathering pics.
finished Jack pics

(see the updates here )

did not find a place for key...
Finished. This was the task that was the most physically demanding of the day. Resulted in very scratched up and dirty hands, running a lot of water and very clean gutters.
Sent email

"I'll get back to you on that...soon", said Greg

Determined that father-in-law won't be a factor for Father's Day so looking at possibility of going to a $1.00 theatre or something along those lines
Done, Jeep is tabbed
Sign remainder of June cards

didn't do this yet

After dinner Leesha and I watched another episode of Oban Star Racer. We're coming up on the last five or so episodes. Oban is top notch quality. After the kids were put down Cara and I watched an episode of Spooks or in America its known as MI-5. We're watching downloads directly from the BBC so its Spooks for us. Spooks is far more realistic than James Bond, but it is really the same sort of genre. Bond is an agent of MI-6 where this show is about the MI-5. 6 is to America's CIA as 5 is to America's FBI. One agency covers the globe (MI-6) and the other covers domestic espionage (MI-5). Definitely not a dumbed down show. Not as raw and real as Sandbaggers was, but still fantastic.

Darlene's Birthday and Jack Be Nimble

2008-06-08T22:20:00.004-05:00

We went to church today. Jack was submitted to the Kid's Station area. Everyone likes him. He is a natural charmer. Eric, Keane, Jack and I hung out in the lobby instead of singing worship songs. I got to chat a little bit with Mike Dougherty about the Indiana Jones movie finally. We both liked it a lot.

Tonight we went to Maplewood to celebrate Darlene's birthday. We had dinner at the Olive Garden and then went to David and Darlene's for dessert- poppy seed cake and ice cream.

Jack has been taking steps all on his own, maybe two to three at a time. He's growing in his own confidence.

The Savage Worlds

2008-06-08T17:46:00.003-05:00

Wednesday was a light pull-list day, meaning that of the comics I regularly get, only one title was on the shelf this week. I wasn't really interested in any back issues so I took a peek at the gaming area of the store. I was looking to see if there were any new releases for the Battlestar Galactica RPG. I have the core book and I was enjoying the RPG system, considering it for a home-brewed game with Leesha. What I found instead was Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition.

My favorite role playing game has always been Top Secret/S.I. Over the Christmas break I ran a game for my parents and Leesha and Cara using the Top Secret/S.I. system for a pulp/action setting. They really enjoyed it and I had a blast, but the system didn't feel right anymore. Since then I've been hunting for a game system that would fit my gaming better and be easy to use for non-gamers and young people who have no experience with the hobby. Over and over Savage Worlds was suggested. I was trying to move ahead with games I already had (like Top Secret/S.I. or Serenity/Battlestar or even d20). And Savage Worlds was out of print which made it pretty much an eBay purchase if I could get motivated enough to make that happen.

So when I found it on the shelf I instantly picked it up. And, its only about 1/3 the cost of most other RPG game books. Well, I haven't put it down since. I think this is the game system for me.

The newest edition (4th) of Dungeons & Dragons came out this weekend. Not that excited.

Day II of Garage Sale, the Doctor and Hiromi

2008-06-07T23:37:00.001-05:00

Garage sales are exhausting. Not a big fan of these things. Not nearly as many kids today. Eric, Leesha, and I played 4 Square in our driveway with actually only three squares. Every time a customer came walking up the driveway we would stop and pretend like we weren't playing.

We barbecued again today, two days in a row. Today was hotter. And more humid. I was able to spend a good deal of time hiding in the dark cool basement. Keesha and Keane were here for a better part of the day keeping Jack company. Jack and I spent some time inside giving him some freedom-to-roam time. He is becoming such a clever little guy.

After Leesha went to her dad's, everything was packed up and the Pfeifers went home Cara and I had a light dinner, fed Jack, got him cleaned up and in bed. Then we watched the latest episode of Doctor Who! Not sure when it airs in the UK, but early evening on Saturday the latest episode appears available for download. This show is fresh. They just watched it over there. I was really into LOST earlier this year. LOST's finale was underwhelming, but I almost can't wait another week to see just the next episode of Doctor Who. I'm in love with this series.

Tonight's episode was part 2 of a two parter done by Steve Moffat or something like that. The reason its worthy of mention is that the episodes he writes are usually the season's best ones. Turns out the guy who is executive producing Doctor Who currently is not doing that next year and after. This writer, Steve Moffat or what ever is. The bad part of it is there won't be a Doctor Who season in 2009. I guess there'll be a special or something and then the show returns in 2010.

I've been listening to a new musician, lately. Hiromi Uehara is my new favorite. This evening I created a makeshift micro channel of her live performances off of Youtube. I invite you to see how wonderful Hiromi's music is. Please visit the forum thread here. Not only is she wonderful to listen to, she is fun to watch. This girl is really into her music.

No More School!

2008-06-06T23:16:00.003-05:00

School has ended. This is the first day of summer vacation and we're having a garage sale. We're also having a large number of children at our house.

but first...
We had a meeting at the bus garage about this summer's YMCA charters. After the meeting I talked with one of the office people about becoming a trainer for new drivers. We're going to talk more about that on Monday. Picked up my check and then picked up Dah.

now...
We're having a large number of children at our house. Eric and Keesha have their little boy, Keane, here. Emily brought Timmy and Suzanna over. We have Jack and Leesha invited Dah (the same Dah who rode my bus all during the school year. Leesha and Dah have been hanging more since Leesha invited her to High School the Musical theater show). It was a very windy day. Lots of playing in the back yard. When the time came to take Dah home Leesha came with. On our way back we detoured over to a pet store to buy some fish. Leesha earned the privilege to get a fish from perfect grades in spelling and grammar. She picked out two and paid for the 2nd one. On our way home I noticed one of the fish had only one eye. So we went back and found a different one.

After we ate and everyone was settled in Leesha and I watched the latest episode of Oban Star Racers. This show is a fast paced sci-fi centered around a young girl who is a race team pilot on an alien world. Molly and her team represent Earth in an intergalactic race competition. There are a lot of visual and sound references to the pod race scene in Star Wars I, which was clearly a heavy influence on the action of Oban. The story is very solid and not too simple. Interesting enough to keep me wanting to see the next episode and universal enough to keep Leesha locked in. We are enjoying Oban Star Racers together.

2007 - 2008 Newsletter

2008-03-15T13:18:00.002-05:00

This is from our 2007 - 2008 News Letter which can be found here.

February 2007

Cara's first appointments, hearing "Bopper's" heartbeat
Learned our friends Eric and Keesha were 6 weeks behind us in "infanticipating"

March

Ultrasound - Grandma Darlene, Dad and Leesha were all able to be there due to the snow day
Jeffry felt "Bopper" move
Set up Leesha's "big sister" room
Saw Greg and Mandy

April

Visited St. Louis - taking in the Dog Museum and registering at Babies R Us with Grandma Holly and Great Grandma Mary
Figured out how to work our living room shades after they'd been up for 6 months
Trip to Labor and Delivery to see if Cara was in pre-term labor
Leesha got her first soccer ball
Cara got a 6 week teaching assignment in one of the 1st grade rooms at North Heights (Leesha's school)

May

Mandy's shower
Garage sales - sold Cara's old car
Spent Mother's Day with Darlene (Cara's mom) for the first time in a long while
Dog-sat Sadie for the last time
Started gardening
Took a tour of the hospital
Time with the Willis family over Memorial Day which included setting up the nursery

June

Cara had a pregnant lady temper tantrum over getting the house ready for the baby
Leesha gets her first fish at the all-school picnic
We mourned when Sadie had to be put to sleep
Leesha broke the repaired portion of her tooth off on the last day of school
Celebrated Darlene's birthday with her for the first time in a long while
Celebrated our second anniversary
Took the New Baby class
Leesha learned to sew
Father's Day with David (Cara's dad)
Pre-Baby Shower with friends from our small group
Saw Anu when she visited from Philadelphia

July

Visited our friends the Trelevens in Altoona, WI
Welcomed Greg and Mandy's son, Simon Lee Willis on July 3rd
Saw spectacular fireworks at the lake just down the street
Cara spent time with her friend Kristyn and her kids
Visit from Steve and Holly
Tried to tempt fate (and speed Bopper's arrival) by seeing Spiderman 3 in a theater
Cara turned 32 and celebrated with David and Darlene as well as Jeffry who stayed home because we suspected labor
Finally (8 days late), Jack Elliot Willis arrived at 3am on July 27th weighing in at 8lbs, 15 oz and measuring 22.5 inches

August

Getting to know Jack and becoming adjusted to being parents of an infant
Craig, Tracy, Nathaniel and Aaron arrived for a visit from Kenya
Jeffry takes two trips out of state to bring back new buses
Another visit from Steve and Holly
Cara returns to Linens-N-Things, and Jeffry survives time alone with 2 kids
Eric and Keesha's son, Keane Philip Pfeifer arrived on the 13th
Jack's hair takes on a "sticketty-uppity" style
Jack's first smiles and visit to the MN State Fair
Post-baby shower

September

Jeffry celebrated his 33rd birthday with his parents for the first time in a while
Friends and family join us for Labor Day
Leesha started 4th grade at North Heights
More firsts from Jack - sleeping through a night, cooing, going to the church nursery, and Grandma Darlene's daycare
Time with Bombergs before they moved to Florida
Leesha got her first A+ and went on a field trip
Cara started subbing again
Trip to the MN Zoo with Craig and family
David and Darlene are acknowledged for retiring from their 36 years in Africa

October

Jack's first laugh, and Halloween (this year's clever costume - Jack in a box)
New family joined our small group
Cara realized Jack outgrew some of his new clothes before ever wearing them

November

Cara's grandmother passed away
Jack rolled over, figured out his Johnny Jump-up and started solids
Celebrated Thanksgiving with Jeffry's family early
Replaced washer and dryer
Leesha had her friend Ashley over for sleepover
Dog-sat Hazlenut (the new small group family's dog)
Leesha had all her biological grandparents attend Grandparent's day at school
Thanksgiving with friends and family
Visited the Bell Museum of Natural History
Cara got to do some Christmas goody making with Darlene
Leesha learned to do her own laundry

December

Snow
Leesha performs with her schoolmates at the Mall of America
Anniversary of Leesha's accident
Visit from Anu
Time with family over Christmas
Jack had his first playdate with Keane
Jack got a tooth
Cara ended her part time job at Linens-N-Things
Jeffry took care of Jack, and even took him out on an errand
Jeffry and Cara saw Sweeney Todd
Spent an evening with our neighbors

January 2008

Went sledding with some members of our Small Group on New Year's Day
Jeffry got a new desktop
Celebrated David's birthday
Leesha turned 10 with more celebrations than ever before, including a trip to Underwater World
Got an elliptical
At 6 months, Jack got his first haircut, then he's on the move!

February

Simon's dedication
Cara got her first laptop
Leesha's best friend changes schools : >(
Time with our friends the Browns and their kids
Leesha had her first piano lesson, and got a half day off of school due to the water main breaking
Modifications to the kitchen so Cara has an "office"
Jeffry and Cara got to go out for a Valentine's Day date

Catching Up

2008-03-08T13:44:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I had a day off and got some catching up done. There are now a couple more Jack videos online.

I read another Edgar Rice Burroughs book, At the Earth's Core. Burroughs is fantastic. These books I've been reading have all been fantastically pulpy. Having finished that one, I was on the search for a different author from the pulp era. Kirby O'Donnell or El Borak are some pulp characters by Robert E. Howard that I'm trying to find, but the books are either unavailable or expensive. But it turns out that my friend, Rob, has ALL of Howard's books and he's going to lend them to me. In the meantime I'm reading Burroughs' 2nd Mars book, Gods of Mars.

Leesha and I finished the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. It was fun, and I'm glad we watched it. I saw maybe two episodes back when I was on the air. We took a break for a while because she got into a website based on a toy. She bought a stuffed animal dog or something and in the packaging was a code for their website. She takes this code and logs on and there is the virtual version of her stuffed dog. She can name it, play with it, send it on jobs, and do all sorts of games and things with this online character. We discovered that if she doesn't put it in his bed before she logs off the site, the dog gets sick! And the next time she logs on she has to nurse him back to health. Its pretty cool. We recently started a new series called L/R or Licensed by Royal which is a light hearted espionage anime. I've seen it before a few years ago, but watching it now, I had forgotten how good it was.

Read Read Read

2008-02-09T22:17:00.000-06:00

I took a break from real reading for a bit and re-read the current Checkmate run from DC comics by Greg Rucka. This is such a good book, all 22 issues so far. It ties in nicely with another DC title that recently returned, Suicide Squad. Also an excellent read, though only 5 issues into its limited run.

Upon completing all the said issues, I picked up the next Tarzan novel, The Return of Tarzan. I'm thoroughly enjoying Edgar Rice Burroughs' work.

We were supposed to game today, but gaming was canceled due to Robert being very very sick. Planning on me being gone today, Cara sat for the Browns as they went to a funeral, Timmy and Suzanna came to our house. I was able to get away and go spend some of my allowance on Half Price Books comics. I found a bunch of Warlord comics for cheap. These gems are from the '70s and are heavily based on Burroughs' Pellucidar series.

LOST again

2008-02-02T10:11:00.000-06:00

Cara and I finally got to watch it on tonight. Solid return. Its interesting that all the 'flashbacks' take place in the future, now. This episode , The Beginning of the End, didn't answer any questions.

Jack on the Move

2008-01-30T20:36:00.000-06:00

Jack isn't quite crawling yet, but he is mobile...

2008-01-29T10:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had a job interview and I lost my phone.

Jack's First Haircut

2008-01-27T20:20:00.000-06:00

Jack's first haircut...

End of a nice long Weekend

2008-01-22T22:48:00.000-06:00

It grows late on Tuesday night. It was a good weekend. I finished that strange Challengers of the Unknown book. I'm going to read an Edgar Rice Burroughs book next after re-reading some comics. Got a lot of setting up done on this new computer. Cleaned up my desk area.

Went to McDonald's for lunch today to kind of celebrate Leesha's birthday, tomorrow. That's the first time I've had McDonald's food in a long long time. It will be the last time she does. She can't function well on that crap. She seemed very close to meltdown this evening. It was a good time, though. Darlene pulled her out of school to take her. Jack, Cara and I met her there. I think she had a good time. Darlene took her back to school. Next...

We went to 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment to look at elliptical. Cara's dad is contributing $200 towards one for us. I don't think he has any idea how much they are. I'm not sure his reasons for the offer, but I'm not going to complain. So we go in to look around and get up on a few. We found a nice one for $299. It seemed clear that we were not going to find another anywhere near this nice anywhere near this price. So we bought it. We have yet to figure out a way to get it home.

Later I called Jon from small group. He said he can help with his pick-up truck later this week. They ended up not going to group tonight.

I canceled our membership with Melaleuca today. I've been a member for around five years now and love the products. The problem is I don't take the vitamins anymore and can't reach the minimum point commitment and end up getting charged or whatever. So now that we are no longer members we're going to order products through our small group coach who also is a member. That way we can still get the products and also help him achieve his minimum point commitment.

Like every other Tuesday, we had small group tonight. After we were done studying Esther chapter 3 (Esther is a great book, so far) Ben came downstairs to take a look at my recently dead computer. He pulled the memory card, blew out some dust and put it back in. We plugged it in and fired it up. I expected to hear the 4 beeps like I did before. But the darn thing booted up! Well, now what?!

BRICK

2008-01-20T21:37:00.000-06:00

We saw a fantastic movie last night - BRICK! This is pure film noir all the way through. Some have described Brick as a cross between The Breakfast Club and Maltese Falcon. This is one of those movies that you feel lucky to find. I read about it on Wiki and asked Leesha's dad to NetFlick it and then burn a copy for me, which he did. So now I own this gem. I'm glad, too, because this one will be watched again.

Computers

2008-01-19T13:39:00.000-06:00

So, Ben Brown is helping me upgrade or replace my computer. He was looking into upgrading the memory and asked me what kind my computer already had. So I figured I'd open up the tower and look as well as clean out the dust (which was very badly in need), put it back together and email Ben what memory I needed. Most of these things I did. Got the air spray and the vacuum and started cleaning. Found the memory card, removed it, wrote down what kind it was, and then put it back. Plugged everything back in and booted it up...

But it didn't boot. It just beeped four times, paused and beeped four more times. Nothing on the monitor. I tried re-seating the memory card, same. Tried seating in a different slot. Same, nothing. Just four beeps.

Looks like I'd be replacing instead of upgrading. Damn.

Now I'm trying to figure out how much I can afford for a new or used computer.

Then George Bush says he's going to give me a bunch of money for a computer in the form of a tax refund! Thank you, George.

After work I met everyone at Byerly's restaurant right next to the bus terminal. Everyone being Darlene, Jack, Cara and Leesha. They have fantastic food there! We left Darlene and Byerly's, buying her dinner as thanks for watching Jack so often for us, and went computer shopping! We first went to the Best Buy in Roseville to find the tower I wanted, but discovered they didn't have it in stock. We did pick up a flat HD monitor from the 'open box' shelf. Leesha, Jack and Cara went on home, I found the tower I wanted in the Maplewood store.

When I got home, Jack and the girls had stopped somewhere for a piece of pie.

Spent most of last evening setting everything up. So now I'm surfing in style. More up-to-date than I have EVER been.

2008-01-16T21:34:00.000-06:00

I met a geek at the Source.

Wednesday is New Comic Book Day every week. So I went to the Source today. Found my comics. Wondered on to the back of the store just to see what game books came out this week. Then I saw someone I recognized. I thought I've seen him on the internet. He looks just like that guy that reviews role playing games on Youtube. So I asked him,

"Are you Kurt Wiegle?"
"I am", he replied.
"I'm a fan of your show!"

and we shook hands.

Then five guys (who were in his group) surrounded me and one of 'em said, "Kurt, we found your one fan!". It was pretty cool. I had no idea he was from around here, turns out he lives in Eau Claire, WI! He recognized my screen name, too. Said they were on their field trip to the Twin Cities.

Kurt is the host of a show called Game Geeks that airs on Youtube almost weekly. They've covered many different RPGs and his reviews are pretty good. Check it out - Game Geeks

2008-01-16T10:54:00.000-06:00

Challengers

Jack is always changing. He has already outgrown his gleeful chirps and squeals and replaced them with a grunt or growl. No need to search for his tooth. Anytime he grins, his tusk is clearly evident. He is just a classic little guy.

Cara and I have been having a very hard time with Leesha (Cara a WHOLE LOT MORE than me, because she's with her a lot more). Leesha is in this phase of behavior of control. An example is if Cara tells Leesha that she would like some time to herself to exercises and not disturb her unless there is an emergency, Leesha will proceed to interrupt Cara's time with very trivial, stupid questions, and more than once. Questions we all know she can handle herself. Therefore, she is in perpetual trouble with Cara. This behavior NEVER CEASES! Its amazing how self defeating Leesha has been in the last few months. Cara is almost really at her wits end. Its also clearly a conflict between Leesha and Cara, because Leesha is almost always cool with me. Its becoming clear to me that something is going to snap because it seems to be on a downward spiral, not improving.

Anyways, I finished that Double Agent book almost a week ago. The 2nd one was better than the first book, more epic like a Bond film. Ever since, I've been reading Challengers of the Unknown which is a book based on a DC Comics series from an attempt to make some of their titles more mainstream in 1977.

Its a strange book and I'm not enjoying it a ton, but i'm pushing through it anyways since its short.

Last Saturday was fantastic. I took my change bowl to the bank and exchanged it for cash. Then dragged Cara, Jack and I to a few Half Price Books stores and picked up a bunch of cheap comics- some G.I. Joe, Doc Savage, Indiana Jones and one issue of Challengers of the Unknown!

We had small group last night (every Tuesday) and Ben Brown took a look at my computer. He made some adjustments to the settings and greatly improved the performance of it in moments. He's going to help in finding what I need to upgrade this thing. Thank you, Ben.

2008-01-11T18:40:00.000-06:00

My Thursday

Sleep study appointment could've been done be phone. They insisted that I come in to meet the doctor since I was put on a CPAP over two years ago. Last year all I had to do was call and ask for a letter (and that's all it would've taken this year, too), but NO. They needed to weigh me and check my blood pressure and in person reaffirm that I don't have any allergies other than lactose and that I love my CPAP. Seems like a lousy way to spend money at a hospital. I'm sure this visit was not less than $100.

2008-01-09T21:27:00.000-06:00

Drama at home with Leesha and Jack today.

I received a call on my cell phone while I was driving the school bus. I never will answer it while driving! I checked my voicemail as soon as I was clear of students. The voicemail was from Leesha. She was upset. She told how she accidentally made Jack go sideways in his johnny-jump-up and he fell out of it, hitting his head! And that she was sorry.

...

I drove to my next next parkout in a panic. My mind took off with the worst scenarios. I was convinced Jack had to be rushed to the hospital with a concussion or something! As far as I was concerned Leesha was never going to touch Jack again. I was livid.

I finally got to my spot and called Cara. Jack was fine. She said Leesha was tipping Jack in his johnny-jump-up and tipped too far. He slipped out head first down onto the floor landing on the left side of his forehead. This took place in the doorway by the kitchen and Cara was right there. As soon as it happened Cara SCREAMED Leesha's name (she thinks the neighbors might have even heard) and Jack started screaming, of course. Leesha started to cry, too. Sounds like she was terrified. Something about her grandpa Sorley saying that if Jack ever fell on his head he could DIE! Two minutes after the incident Jack was fine, like nothing happened.

I hope Leesha now got the point about being careful with Jack. This has always been a point of conflict between Leesha and me ever since Jack arrived. I guess it takes something like this to drive it home and I'm glad Jack didn't suffer too much as a result.

As for me, it was an interesting experience feeling so completely out of control and having to let Jack's safety go into the hands of God. It was also interesting to have that wave of anger towards Leesha. I'm glad I wasn't in her presence at the time.

2008-01-08T10:30:00.000-06:00

Jack in a Box on Deviant Art

Jack's Halloween costume picture was featured in a 2007 children's pictures articles on Deviant Art. Here is a link to that article.

2008-01-06T22:45:00.000-06:00

Sunday

I'm still an alleged sockpuppet.

Church was fine. Greg Boyd must've been sick because the sermon was on the screens from video tape. After church we joined a lot of people at Olive Garden, mostly Keesha's small group folk and some FOCUS people (Woodland Hills singles). Next Keesha and Eric, Jack and Cara and I went to Half Priced Books. I spent $1.00 on Challengers of the Unknown comics from 1977.

On our way home we picked up Leesha from her dad's. Once we got home I changed into grungy clothes to work on the tire. Had about 30 to 45 minutes of daylight left.

This is when I discovered that the Jeep's jack wasn't in the garage at all! And either was the CRV's! We think someone broke into our garage and took them! It never stops for this weekend, does it!

I borrowed a jack from Mike who lives across the street and has two Jeeps. Brought it over, jacked up the vehicle and loosened the wheel. The darn thing would not come off the Jeep. No matter what I did, it was stuck. Finally called for Mike's help. He brought over a couple of mallets, some 2x4s and a blowtorch. A combination of all three and we finally got it off.

Never woulda happened if it wasn't for our neighbor, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

Strange Day

2008-01-05T23:06:00.001-06:00

I've been, little by little, adding rpg setting information to the Wikipedia file about Top Secret/S.I. (Orion Foundation and WEB, the good guy spy agency and the bad guys, respectively).
Its fun and I haven't seen this information anywhere else on the internet. Checked my emails and what-nots to find that my articles were marked for deletion by some guy. So I go to a couple of Top Secret/S.I. forums and ask for some help about it. Whatever. Kind of pissed me off. Not a big deal. Here's a link to the interesting discussion about the nomination to delete my articles.

I was done getting ready to go to Patrick's house for Rob's final session of his current D&D game. I had everything ready to go, turned to turn off the light which hangs naked from the ceiling- and broke it. This is one of those new spiral shaped fluorescent bulbs so when it broke, it remained in one piece. I carefully unscrewed it so that it wouldn't fall... But of course it reached the end of the threading exactly when I let go to turn it again. Bulb falls to the floor exploding. But I have to go now! So I warn Cara and Leesha not to go downstairs without shoes because there is glass everywhere and I can't clean it up before I go.

So I go.

Rob's game was great. We've been running this campaign, the Heroes Three game, for over a year. I don't remember exactly when it started, but it ended today. The story has been about our characters dealing with a vampire cabal who are trying to defeat a network of dragons. Today's finale was pretty much the final battle with the big bad Red Dragon and that combat took up most of the day. Patrick's character fell with a fabulous ending as Paul's and mine survive. The random treasure results ended up crazily in our favor with the ability to bring Pat's character back. It was a lot of fun. Paul is up next with the next game in three weeks. This game will go until all the characters are dead and each of us have 4 characters to go through. Should be fun.

Paul, Rob and I were saying our farewells when I noticed my driver-side rear tire was very low, pretty much flat. No problem, I can put on the spare. Only my jack is missing for some reason. Ok. Paul gives me a ride to a nearby gas station to pick up some tire fix kit that you spray right into the tire. Then right back to the Jeep because I left my wallet there. Back to the station, picked up two cans, back to the jeep. The kit seemed to work pretty well. I made it home with no problems. Thank you very much, Paul. You saved me!

I made it home.

I'm leaving the tire for tomorrow when I can see.

First thing I do is clean up the light bulb.

Then I checked my email and my articles to see if they were still there. They were, but now I was accused of being a sockpuppet! A sockpuppet is someone who creates multiple wiki accounts to add votes to an ongoing debate or something like that. This infuriated me! I wasn't mad about being accused, really. But that the guy who did it accused an acquaintance of mine (who I respect a great deal) of being one as well. It has been a long time since I was THAT mad. I literally couldn't see straight. Check out this fascinating discussion about me. We shall see how it ends.

2008-01-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

First post of 2008. Last year I clocked in at 104 posts.

For New Year's Eve we did nothing. We stayed home and took it easy. Actually, this was the one and only day we didn't have something planned or meet with someone else for company or eating or something like that.

For New Year's Day we got up relatively early and got all dressed up for warmth and went sledding! Cara, Leesha, Jack and I met up with the Brown family (Ben, Emily, Timmy and Suzanna) and soon after, Laura Beth arrived and finally Eric. It was loosely a small group event. It may have been a bit too cold for sledding, but that didn't stop us.

We chose a hill by one of the schools I drive for. I was a very steep incline that came to a nice flat area ending near an apartment parking lot. Down towards the end was a lip that kind of became a ramp from plowing the parking lot. It was the goal of the day to hit the jump and land on one's feet. I was afraid to try because I don't have health insurance right now. Ben tried twice and failed. Eric tried a couple of times with no success. We attempted a sled chain. I lead with the anchor weight, Ben was 2nd steering, Eric was next and even Laura Beth jumped on at the last second. However, half way down, we lost Eric and Laura Beth! Ben took little Suzanna down a couple of times, but Timmy wasn't up for it. He kept riding down the plowed snow pile with Emily and Cara. Suzanna even rode down with Eric once! Leesha tried a small train with Ben. She went flying on that run! Then one time I went down the hill. I figured on going down like normal, veering to the right to avoid the ramp. But then my mind said, heck, go for the jump and before I knew it, I was launching off of the ramp! And then I landed on my feet in a full run! First attempt and only success off the ramp and on the feet all day. We called it a day and went home shortly after that.

Cara's parents came over for homemade curry for dinner. Good food. And a game of dominoes after. David and Darlene had never played dominoes before. I caught Leesha cheating, however.

So that's how Willis East started 2008.

Christmas Break

2007-12-27T01:19:00.002-06:00

Mom and dad traveled up from St. Louis on Friday. They spent the night somewhere in Iowa at a hotel. They said it was pretty bad visibility the entire trip up. Thank you, God, for traveling mercies. Mom and dad went directly to Greg and Mandy's house.

Saturday. We each had a list of chores to get done on Saturday. After Leesha was picked up by Jeremy, Cara and I went to the Saturday night service at church. We got home and watched some episodes of Jeremiah.

Sunday. Cara and Leesha left early. Mom and dad came to our house and we spent some time, just the four of us (mom, dad, Jack and me). Next we took off to David and Darlene's. There were a lot of people at this gathering, Kara and Jeff, Scott and Anna and Olie and Elsa, Dealane and Ron, Ruban and Donna and Paul, mom and dad, Cara, Jack and Leesha and I, and of course, David and Darlene. Melanie was meaning to come, but traffic was backed up with many accidents due to a lot of snow coming don. Deserts were served. The drive home was nice and slow. We dropped Leesha off at her dad's house on our way home.

Christmas Eve we spent evening at Cara's parents house. We had a fantastic dinner of Swedish Meatballs. Opened up a bunch of Leesha's gifts and played a game called In a Pickle. Jack was fed and Leesha took him and bounced him. Jack vomited a large amount on Leesha's black shirt. Perfect! The drive home was nice and slow. We dropped Leesha off at her dad's house on our way home.

Christmas morning. It was snowing. Leesha was dropped off late morning and we opened a bunch of our gifts, Cara, Leesha and I. For Christmas evening was over at Greg and Mandy's. It was a wonderful time. All the adults revealed who they had picked for our Secret Santas. Cara and I had each other. She got me a big gray sweatshirt! I've been missing my old one that I recently retired to the trash. Leesha was pretty good. Mom and dad were to come to our house for the night. Leesha was up too late and too tired. She absolutely melted down. The original plan was for her to sleep on one of the couches in the living room, but we changed it so that she would sleep on the twin sized mattress in Jack's room. She chose this point to just fall to pieces about. Just sitting in the room screaming her head off, crying, shouting that since she wasn't given any kleenex that she would have to wipe her nose on Jack's blankets. I wasn't handling her behavior very well, but then mom and dad arrived to witness her horrible behavior. This may have been the first time they've seen this, it wasn't the first time they've heard about it. It was good for them to witness it first hand. Leesha does have some behavioral issues.

Day after Christmas we went to IHOP for a fantastic breakfast with fantastic service. Mom, Leesha, Cara and Jack went home. Dad and I went to Menards (for some electrical stuff), to Target (for a humidifier), to the Library (to check out museum passes) and home. Dad and I installed a different light in our kitchen area, Cara and dad set up the humidifier and changed the locks on our side door. Mom and Leesha watched a bit of Totoro and I did some finishing up on my role-playing game (what does that mean, read on...) and showed my mom a bit of Porco Rosso.

I have been working on a short campaign idea for a game to be run for my family. It started at our Thanksgiving family get together when my dad commented on his lack of interest in my hobby of role-playing games. He later felt the need to apologize, because he felt he may have come off as too critical. I told him he was forgiven and if he was interested I'd put together a short game to demonstrate what an RPG is all about. He said OK.

So my game finally happened the day after Christmas. The game I ran was very different than the first few ideas that got this project going. First of all I was planning on running the game using the True20 system. I found that True20 is superior to d20 and easier for newbies to learn. In spite of True20 being a generic system, I felt confined to running a fantasy setting and that was my original intent. But as the plot developed, the setting started to change and evolve from a fantasy setting to a fantasy/sci-fi setting (Princess of Mars-like thing) to dialing it way down to a simple pulp action temple treasure hunt. I decided to use the Top Secret/S.I. system for this game because a). I've been longing to run a game in this system for years. b). Its an easy system to learn/explain. c). It is my favorite RPG system and game. So, TSSI it is.

I created the characters before hand- stated and named them and threw together a few skills. However, I had the players select the character's advantages/disadvantages to give my folks a feel for character creation. They got into that. My dad, for example, drastically changed the character's appearance by taking the obese disadvantage (and he took at a 2 point value). Fantastic! Totally changed how the character felt.

The story took the characters to a cave in search of a small statue. Upon arrival they find another boat already docked at the site. They gather a bunch of gear from the boat and set off to the cave entrance. Following two sets of fresh footsteps, they make their way through the cave and find the body of an archaeologist long dead (Forrestal, tribute to Raiders of the Lost Ark). Next they find that the Eastern most wall of this cave is actually a steep cliff with a rope-bridge that looks as old as the dead body behind them. Here's where the party surprised me. I figured they'd all just cross, but they got all crafty and used all sorts of rope and crossed one at a time. My plan was for them to have the bridge break and they'd have to find an alternative way up to the other side (which was provided with a tunnel leading up, however, there was a leopard in that tunnel waiting as an encounter). So I was forced to improvise. I moved the events clock ahead and lead the party into an encounter... To make an already long story short, we concluded the story as every good pulp adventure should in time for dinner. If anyone reading this is interested in seeing the gaming notes, I could share them with you. They're not much.

We finally wrapped up the game. I felt so completely satisfied with how it went. It seemed my folks really got into the game and their characters to the point that I think they want to continue with these characters again at a later date. This experience was such a delight for me on all levels- creating the campaign, the characters, and running the game for my family. I'm just so satisfied with how it all went.

Long Busy Week

2007-12-21T22:39:00.001-06:00

It has been a busy week. Started last weekend with the start of a cold. Had a good time gaming on Saturday in-spite of how I was feeling.

Took me over 60 days to finish A Storm of Swords. The next book I read was Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 Tarzan of the Apes. I finished Tarzan last week. This week I re-started a book called Double Agent: Web of Danger.

Leesha had her Christmas concert last night. Going to David and Darlene's immediately after work and then right to the church for the show was a bit rushed. The show was very cliche and cheesy. It seems to me these things are all for the benefit of the lady in charge of the deal. If it wasn't for her, no one would pick up this ball and go with it. All the work and all the parents showing up to watch it all go toward her feeling good is my guess. Leesha seemed 'whatever' about it and I'd guess she'd just as soon not be involved if given the choice.

I found out some frustratingly bad news today. Since I drive a school bus I need a DOT drivers license. In order to get that I need to pass a physical. No problem there except that I have sleep apnea. Last year all I had to do was get a letter from the sleep clinic stating that I was using my CPAP and that it was beneficial. That's all it took to get my DOT license. This year, however, the sleep clinic says that in order to get a letter this year, I have to go to the sleep study and they have to check me out. This is not going to be very cheap. On top of that, the first available appointment date is 1/31 and my license expires 1/23! The bit of hope I had is that Cara's dad is a doctor. He offered to write a letter for me! But tonight he talked with the clinic that gives out the license and they were listing all these technical terms that made him think that he wouldn't be able to write the letter. So now its back to the first expensive plan. This is just maddening.

2007-12-11T09:49:00.000-06:00

BUS

Two weeks ago my School Bus crapped out. Radiator was leaking and the transmission was failing. I wrote the problems up as I should, but the shop only focused on one of the two problems. The transmission failure basically made 3rd gear the same as Drive. Top speed was 31 mph. Not good.

I've been in several buses since then.

253
194
253 again for Monday
back in 242 to discover it wasn't fixed and then into 360! in the AM and 315 for PM Tuesday.
306 in the AM and 315 in the PM again on Wednesday
308 on Thursday and Friday

360 is one of the brand new buses we drove up from Oklahoma this summer. Nicest bus we have.

It is Tuesday and I have my 242 back! The transmission is nice and tight.

See Jack Jump

2007-12-04T20:15:00.000-06:00

See Jack Jump

2007-12-04T11:44:00.000-06:00

Today, I saw a blind man walk down the sidewalk and buy a newspaper and then walk back.

2007-11-23T15:54:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving

We had a very full house for Thanksgiving. This was the fourth year the Trelevens' came to celebrate with us (Terry, Teresa, Lucas and Merriam). That has become a comfortable tradition which I hope continues forever. Cara's folks came, David and Darlene. For some reason Hazel was very intimidated by David. As far as I could tell he didn't make any overt aggressive communications to her. She just didn't like him (I'm not sure he liked her either and I think she could tell). Darlene's sister and family came- Donna, Ruben and Paul. And Laura Beth from small group also came. Leesha was at her dads for some of the evening and joined us as we were eating. Lucas is smitten with her. I think she was getting irritated with him following her around. Jack was passed from lady to lady and was charming them all as he does so well. Even when Darlene doesn't host, she does. So Cara had plenty of help.

Our house was very very cozy.

After everyone left I took a short nap and then got up to go meet Robert outside the Egan Best Buy at 2 AM to see if I could score a new computer for $200 (a $650 or so value). We got in line, chatted for about an hour and discovered shortly after 3 AM that we were out of luck. There were a lot of people there before us and after us. Rob was there pretty much to keep my company. He didn't even really want anything. What a nice guy. Rob was also how I found out about the deal. Perhaps he felt bad about getting me into it. I've never gotten involved with the day-after-Thanksgiving-sale frenzy. I always thought it was silly for people to do what I did. I guess I was right all along.

I got home and realized I was completely jacked up on coffee. D'oh. Went to sleep around 7 and got up around 10:30 AM.

2007-11-20T22:49:00.000-06:00

We are dog sitting for a couple who has just joined our small group. Hazelnut is with us for a week and a half. She is a very good dog. At two and a half years old her behavior is incredible. She seems to have a strong understanding of pack order and is a very good listener.

Not sure what breed mix she is. There seems to be some yellow labrador and what I suspect is some collie. She is real lean, but has a thick coat. Her ears don't stick up like they are in the pictures. She is a very good dog.

2007-11-15T10:50:00.000-06:00

Its been a busy week. My folks were up last weekend which means there will be hundreds of new photos to look at. We had a great time and spent every moment at Willis West (Greg and Mandy's in Maple Grove). Mom got a good chunk of baby time which should tide her over till Christmas. It was fun to have Jack and Simon interact with each other. They're both more aware of their world and of each other now. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday night which works out well considering we get two Thanksgivings this year! I love food.

Dad and Greg got to watch their Packer Game. Leesha did relatively well considering she was in competition with the babies for attention and had no one else her age to play with. She enjoyed seeing Cogswell and Eddie.

We skipped church on Sunday morning for a Bible study lead by dad. It was fun and full of discussion (as well as baby and dog distraction). I would love to do more of that.

I had a gaming book with for when conversation got stale. It lead into gaming as a topic of discussion resulting in dad kind of dissing the hobby (which he knows little about). He later called to say he felt bad about that so I offered to run a game for he and mom (and Cara and Leesha) over their stay for Christmas so he could get a feel for what it actually is about. So I've been starting to gather ideas for a miniature campaign to run for my family. I'm excited about this.

2007-11-09T14:46:00.000-06:00

Jack rolled over yesterday!

Here is video of Jack in action