Author: Dave

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gremlins


Halloween this year was ultimately frustrating. From the moment I got home, things went wrong. There were literally (literally!) a group of kids running around my yard a good 30min before dark, just projecting that Halloween anticipation.

And it was with that example of youthful expectation fresh in my mind that I set about getting things dialed in just right for the evening’s parade of candy-whores. First up, I had to fix the dangling blacklight that illuminates the crank ghost, as it had fallen (for the billionth time) off of it’s ceiling-mounted screws. While up on the ladder in the fading daylight, I noticed that the crank ghost herself had gotten wrapped up in her motor pretty badly – so I untangled the mess and set her straight. Next it was off to get the witch turned around to face her spotlight, as the wind had spun her around and had her facing the wall. A witch’s back is a lot less scary that her wart-nosed profile.

Next up, PicoBoo’s connection to my speaker was touchy and every once in a while would vibrate loose and emit an unbearably loud buzzing. Fixed that, and came back out to find the ghost – now working under motorized power – had spun herself right up into knots again, and with the motor driving, had completely bent her rotating puppet arm. Beyond repair, I unplugged the motor and settled for a static prop. Finally, after about the 3rd sortie of trick-or-treaters, the string controlling the ceiling dropper snapped right in two. I had no option but to clumsily break out the ladder and attempt to do nighttime repairs while the kids were forced to maneuver around me. After several minutes of cussing and swearing and sweating, I had a rough working fix that would have to suffice.

But despite all the drama and prop-fallout, things went off OK. Once again, we had a pitiful turnout, handing out candy to what I’d estimate was about 25 total trick-or-treaters, and that’s a generous accounting. So, the night itself was somewhat of an anticlimax… but I still enjoy the holiday. Moving on from Halloween then…

Lately, I’ve become quite enamored with the “Deep Tracks” channel on XM radio. I don’t pay for XM, but I get a pretty sizeable chunk of their offerings as some freebie piggyback on top of my DirecTV. My old buddy Kyle has been telling me now for two years that “satellite is the future of radio, Dave,” and maybe he’s right. Still though, I don’t want to pay for radio. And even though my “free” XM doesn’t come with anything as hip as Sirius’s “Left of Center,” I’m really into the unique tracks they seem to play on “Deep Cuts.” No, I wouldn’t pay for it – but to hear things like a Leon Russell cover of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” is kinda refreshing.

Goodnight.

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buy her a lottery ticket


Happy Halloween friends! Welcome to another mundane Tuesday where, in real time, I’m likely already sitting at my desk lamenting the eight or so hours of work that lay before me. At least tomorrow I can, for a short time, escape the stupid humdrum of work and experience some happier times while scaring kids and giving out candy. Then, I take it all down… the motorized ghost, the coffin, the tombstones… I take it all down and store it away for another year. After that, I’ll focus on Thanksgiving and Christmas… because, after all, I guy has to have something to look forward to. Now then, let’s get around to this blogging business, shall we?

Keaton’s second tooth is just crowning, and I think it’s causing her to be a little cranky. She’s also spending a lot more time “scooting” around the floor and “raising up” onto her knees – like she’s showing us she’s almost there, teetering on the edge of mobility. I get so excited when I see her move herself around, but I also get kinda sad to think she’s changed so much from when we first met just a few months ago. I mean, we’ve not even had the pleasure of each other’s company for a year yet and she’s changed more than anyone I’ve ever known. She sits up, she ba-bas and ney-neys and ma-mas, she eats food… she’s too big.

Last week, mostly due to the furious preparation for our Halloween party, I forgot to mention to Sharaun that Jeff had told me he’d read in the paper that tickets for Justin Tenderlegs’ upcoming show here in town were going on sale this past Saturday morning. (Is that a run-on?,sure seem like a run-on…) Anyway, she’d been wondering, and had been checking daily online to ensure she wouldn’t miss the onsale. Well, she did miss it, like I said, because we were both preoccupied with party prep, and she was completely bummed. Now, for me, missing a Tenderlegs onsale wouldn’t sting at all, but for her it was a source of profound grief. The situation became worse when it was revealed I had know, and neglected to inform her, of the early morning post-party onsale. Moving forward though, she tuned into one of the local radio stations to see if they were giving away tickets; they were. About three hours later, she had, of course, won a pair by being the designated caller. This win brings her 2006 radio contest tally dangerously close to the-IRS-might-wanna-know earnings. Concerts, shopping sprees, iPods, Xboxes… you name it she’s won it. I don’t know quite how she does it, but I think it’s awesome.

Figured out my stereo-only-on-the-right-speaker thing tonight, turns out I’ve got a dodgy connection on the back of the TiVo. A little plug jiggling and all was well. All that for a loose connection. And to think, I almost went out and bought a brand new 60″ flatscreen because of it. Glad I didn’t, because the rear brakes on the Ford (the ones I didn’t ever change even though I’ve been planning to for weeks now since I changed the front) are making some God-awful scraping sound in both braking and non-braking situations. I have no idea what this is, but the sound tells me it’s not something good. I plan to at least change the brakes and see if that helps, but if not… who knows. And, now that that’s all over with…

Don’t forget to pop over to the Halloween costume contest leaderboard and see who’s ranking highest… If you’re not happy with the results, go and change ’em by casting your own vote.

Goodnight.

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feeding at the trough


Good Monday morning to you, readers. This was a heck of a weekend. My parents in town, Keaton’s first night away from mom and dad, and our 4th annual Halloween bash. We had a great time, and the party seemed to go off swimmingly – a rousing success by my standards. And, since it’s now 11pm on Sunday night, it feels like midnight, I’m still on the hook for posting Keaton’s regular weekly updates, and I want to get the costume contest gallery up for the party – the entry is gonna be lean today. This paragraph, which only serves to setup the links to the Halloween and Keaton galleries, and then the little one below about my fortuitous Saturday evening e-mail surprise, and that’s it. So, sorry for the slim pickins, but I did what I could, and here’s the bulk of it:

Halloween 2006 Costume Contest. Use the voting stars to rank your favorites, and don’t forget to comment.
Keaton’s week thirty-three gallery. No voting, but a whole lotta cute baby.

In closing, I checked my gmail account Saturday night and was thrilled nearly to Christmas morning tears to see in my inbox an invite to one of the underweb’s best-kept tunes-downloading secrets. And even though I’ve mentioned it here before by name, becoming a member has encouraged me to use discretion. Anyway, some kind user had taken the time to toss an invite my way, and I immediately used it to setup an account. Now, I must say that, due to the skyrocketing visibility of what is probably the scene’s most prolific private tracker, I am a bit leery of even using the account. Honestly, the whole nature of trackers and IPs and whatnot is scary to me – but the content is just sooo good. I suppose I’ll use it, y’know, here and there…

Until tomorrow, then. Look for Halloween candids later in the week as I get downloads from various cameras. Goodnight.

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a truly awesome way to spend an evening


Hey hey friends, I want to pre-let you know that I have next to nothing to write about tonight. In fact, before logging into WordPress and typing this I had actually planned to go entry-less tomorrow. Then, I got the vapors and decided to go for it. I’m crazy that way y’all, it’s just a part of my chemistry. Don’t leave me alone with your women, I might get all crazy and pitch woo (in blog form, of course) at them.

Tonight I got home from work and almost immediately hopped in a car with Sharaun and Keaton. Sharaun had, in an awesome display, cooked soup for an older couple from church with whom we’ve become acquainted. We headed over there and had an outstanding meal with this couple we barely know. We traded abridged life stories, theirs much more abridged than ours (by necessity,) and just sat and talked. I had a terrific time, listening to stories from a former WWII B26 tailgunner in the European theater; stories about his children, his time in the army, his various home-improvement exploits, his thoughts on aging… it was like sitting down in front of a living, breathing piece of history. Not just history though – a man with experiences, a piece of history you can interact with and ask questions. Honestly, I had an outstanding time, simply taking 3hrs to have a meal with people; to listen. Don’t misunderstand me, this isn’t the same “high” that you’d get from dishing at the downtown soup-kitchen – not a charity high. What I am beaming about is some kind of “human contact” high, some idyllic Mayberry porchswing thing. I place high value on sharing experiences with people, even if just by listening to accounts of past events. When we got home, I made sure to thank Sharaun for her selfless act of non-charity – it was a truly awesome way to spend an evening.

And now for something completely different. I have no idea quite how this happened, but last night I somehow happened to find scans online from a 1935 Santa Barbara, California highschool yearbook – one of the years my grandmother attended that very institution. Amazing, right? So, curious, I began “thumbing” through the scans to see if I could spot any photos of her. Turns out, my grandmother was quite active in school clubs and activities, and as such I was able locate her in several different group photos (apparently, only the graduating seniors got headshots, and she must’ve been an underclassman that year).

Anyway, I had already posted this blog by the time I found the yearbook after midnight – but I came back just to add this bit, so I apologize if the writing is hasty. Pretend I’m conveying all sorts of amazed sentiment at such a random online find – the only digitized Santa Barbara yearbook online and it’s the one my grandmother’s in. So, without further ado, here is a picture of my grandmother in highschool, as a member of the “Welfare Council” (click for larger versions):

But wait, as amazing as that is – want to see something even more incredible? In this particular picture, the young woman standing next to my grandmother is none other than my great-aunt. That’s right, my grandmother standing alongside her future husband’s sister in the same Spanish Club – now that’s a true internet find! Check it out (grandma on the left, her sister-in-law to-be on the right):

Seems my my great-aunt and grandmother were also both members of the apparently less exclusive “Scholarship Society” and “Girls’ Athletics Association,” although they’re not standing next to each other in these (my great-aunt in green, grammy in red):

That internet y’allz, that thing is wild… OK seriously, it’s like 1am and I haven’t even taken out the trash yet – goodnight lovers.

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now it’s now


Tuesday night, almost-finished-but-didn’t the final Halloween prop, I ended up missing a few minute but crucial bits and couldn’t leave the house as I was alone with Keaton. Tomorrow it is, then, for the finished product – time is ticking though, and I’m ready to have it done. Maybe I’ll come home tomorrow at lunch and finish it off. After working on, and quitting working on, the prop, I came inside and worked a bit on December’s “Best of 2006” post a little… then stopped to take a dump… and now it’s now. Sharaun’s busy fabricating our costumes for Friday’s soirée, and I should be working on making a replacement tombstone for the one that got jacked – but I’m not… I’m just not motivated. So instead I’m listening to music.

I absolutely loved this article (and the comments are particularly good too), the seafaring metaphors make for an entertaining read, and the meat is nice and meaty. Lamenting the many IED-pockmarks in Great Britain’s road to from March 19, 2003 to now in the Iraq war, the writer makes some interesting statements – including this one:

It is no small thing to find oneself on the wrong side of an argument when the debate is about the biggest disaster in British foreign policy since Suez; … no small … to have shackled our own good name to a doomed US presidency and crazed foreign-policy adventure that the next political generation in America will remember only with an embarrassed shudder.

Anyway… remember when we hastily invaded Iraq without international backing, the administration’s reasoning firmly based on the “overwhelming probability” of WMD (despite what revisionist history may say)? Fast-forward to now: North Korea most certainly has WMD, not one nation on Earth would question that. Remember the fear that the administration whipped up on the “likelihood” that Iraq might be producing and plotting to use WMD? Where is that fear for North Korea? Why is the nation not being whipped into a frenzy this time? (More stunningly, but slightly off-topic, why aren’t people taking note autonomously… must we wait to be told what to fear and who wears black?) We’re not seeing the same fear mongering because we can’t afford it. We’re completely committed to a theater of war that is now, without a doubt, a solid loss. We fucked up, fucked up big. Invaded a country on false pretense, blowing the horns of WMD and Democracy when we were really after a toehold in the Middle East and a more secure supply of oil. Oh sure, way back in 2003 this foreign policy may have seemed logical.

But oh, my friends, where we are now. Now – it’s crystal clear that Iraq, while it was no poster-child for human rights or fair government, was no imminent threat. But, while we were busy spreading ourselves thin and spilling blood for pure lies – the world was not idle. North Korea got the bomb, shadowy extremist networks like Al Qaeda mobilized and struck in far more sophisticated plots than we imagined them capable of. And all the while, we tore down a country that was, at its most threatening, a sticky situation for international diplomacy.

Anyway, the whole thing made me wonder, when I help Keaton memorize names and dates on flashcards for her 10th grade American history class, how this war will be memorialized in the books…

Anyway, we need to get off this war crap. The big ol’ Halloween party is in a mere two days, and things are pretty much ready. My mom and dad are coming down to spend a few days with us and Keaton, and are going to help out by babysitting the night of the fête (apparently English didn’t have enough synonyms for “party,” so we jacked a bunch from the French). I’m going to try to not get too ridiculously loose as the shindig, so Saturday won’t be a complete waste. Anyway, I have high hopes for what will be our fourth annual bash – and I’ll try and get some pictures of the costumed action up sometime early next week.

Goodnight lovers.

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self-centered focus disorder


Monday and I’m wishing I had some more time off, work is not sitting well with me of late. I’m depressed by how much stupidness goes on there, sometimes that happens. I waffle between one strategy where I master the politics and bullshit and just ride the wave, and another strategy where I try to “fix” things and make things better – and sometimes I get torn between the two and feel… ineffective… or something. Also, sometimes I just get discouraged, need a vacation, need time to do nothing.

I get these irrational peaks of emotion, where I just sit at my desk thinking about how much I’d rather be at home with Sharaun and Keaton, or how I wish it was Thanksgiving or Christmas and I was with friends and family. Sometimes, when this happens, I get an almost uncontrollable urge to “run,” to just get up and go. I can’t explain it really, it’s like I just get this sudden influx of what’s important in life and I want to go be with those things instead of at work. Sometimes these peaks align with particularly busy or hectic times at work, which is logical being that those are the times when a body’s mind would naturally turn to things more enjoyable – but other times they happen quite randomly, seemingly unprovoked.

Anyway, this morning at work I had one of those… and I wanted nothing more than to run away from it all. Get in a car with Sharaun and Keaton and head somewhere quiet, turn off the phone, lock the doors – hole up with what really matters.

You’d think one paragraph would be enough to cover that, right? But no, I think I’ll continue. I often get these mental interrupts when executing on a task, and I’d almost always classify them as “selfish.” What I mean by that is, when I’m doing something that’s anything less than exactly what I want to be – I’m frequently interrupted by thoughts of doing that other preferable thing. Typically these thoughts aren’t enough to derail whatever I’m doing, but they can certainly add delay.

Thing is, there are precious few times where I’m actually completely content doing what I’m doing, where my mind isn’t racing thinking about other things I could be doing instead. I wonder sometimes if this kind of thing is normal, or if it isn’t some kind of ADD-thing. I’ve long come to terms with my own selfish nature – and have pretty much stopped feeling ashamed when I want to abandon one thing for a different one that makes me happier or serves me better – I’m just a dick that way. I guess, whatever it is that finds me sidetracked so often, it doesn’t really wreck things for me – I function OK despite, so that’s good.

Maybe I’ll coin a new disorder or something: SCFD (Self-Centered Focus Disorder); symptoms include always wanting to do what you want to do.

Pavement’s newly reissued and expanded Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinals Edition leaked the other day, and I’ve been spending a good bit of time examining all the Zowee-era goodies that I’ve never heard before. Some good stuff on there, from what was a landmark album to me – the album that truly got me interested in the indie-rock sound. Several tracks are ones I used to have on various singles, but haven’t heard in a long time – and some are just brand new or live. I’ll be honest though, I never have been a huge fan of live Pavement… but there’s some interesting stuff on here. Particularly intriguing are a couple versions of cuts which are labelled as “recorded in Holland” and are significantly different from their previous incarnations (albeit for some reason centered far to the left of the stereo image).

Before I go, I did manage to get some pictures up for this week’s installment of Keaton-in-pictures. Check ’em out here. Goodnight.

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so long, long weekend


Sunday night coming off an extremely short-seeming four-day weekend. Shame, really, I enjoyed myself so much at Ben and Suzy’s wedding that the time flew by. Saturday was largely spend loafing around the house catching up on a night of little sleep and letting my stomach recover from fried food, wine, and clove cigarettes. It’s Sunday morning now as I write, I’ve got a Twilight Zone episode playing on TiVo while Keaton plays on her blanket on the floor and Sharaun’s getting ready for church. After she gets out, I’ll strip the baby down and take her in with me so we can both get cleaned up for the week. Gameplan for today is short – work on the finishing touches of the new Halloween prop and maybe grill some burgers if the weather holds.

Today I finally bugged Sharaun enough that she let us all sit down and attempt teaching Keaton to feed herself some small solid food. Sharaun is deathly paranoid of her choking, and I think if it were up to her we’d hold off introducing small solids until she had a mouthful of molars. But, in the face of my prodding, she relented and we laid out a smorgasbord of cheese bits, sweet potato puffs, and smooshes of pear on her highchair tray. While she’s good at picking up most everything and putting it into her mouth, she didn’t show much interest when it came to things actually edible. Instead, she pushed around the food, picked it up and looked at it, and nudged it around the tray. Finally, I helped her by plopping things into her mouth, all of which she dutifully chewed and swallowed with nary a gag or cough. It was cool – that baby is getting biiig.

Speaking of Keaton, I just barely managed to not get her week thirty-two photos up before heading off to dreamland sometime after midnight – but (much to your pleasure, I’ll go ahead and assume) I’ll pledge now to get them up tomorrow night just as fast as I can. Apologies. To tide you over, go ahead and reminisce with me as we look at just how much she’s grown up since her internet debut.

It’s been a massive couple weeks for music, a virtual opening of floodgates, the amount of new and potentially exciting stuff to listen to being almost too much to handle. But, some how, I’m managing… pulled on my waders and walked right into the deluge to sort the flotsam and jetsam for the good stuff. So far, I’ve been digging the Fratellis, Malajube, and with the recent Shins and Mogwai leaks it’s shaping up to be an awesome year-end rally. I’m especially looking forward to sinking my teeth into the Shins album, and with it not seeing the streets until January, I should have plenty of time to form an opinion. For now, though, I’m completely hung up on the Malajube album… it’s simply outstanding, even if every word is in French and I can’t understand what’s being said.

You guys see Obama’s verbal dance around his previous assertions he wasn’t considering an ’08 bid? Seems he’s changed his mind, and I find this extremely interesting. Spent some time last night wading through the Digg comments on the news to see what other “young hipsters” had to say about the whole thing. If any crowd represents the tuned-in youth of today, it’s Digg, although that’s honestly quite a small percentage of voters (remember the digital divide?). Anyway, check out the comments yourself if you’re interested – I, for one, think it’d be a heck of an interesting race of he did officially cast in his lot.

Well folks, I’m off to bed – that’s enough for “an entry,” even though it’s less cohesive than that one glue that those 3M scientists accidentally invented while trying to invent a “super” glue that was so weak it was deemed useless until one scientist started using it to temporarily stick notes around the office and was then subsequently marketed as PostIt Notes and made millions.

Goodnight.