Right now, I'm addicted to the pain and stiffness the morning after a good workout. I'm not really doing a professional workout, like, I'm only doing situps and pushups for the past few weeks. But the idea is to just lose some weight, not necessarily sculpt anything right now. Although, I can feel that I'm a lot stronger, more windful, less stressed, and more healthy in general.

After a few more weeks of pushing my limit and pain every day, I think I'll be a badass motherf@#%er. Today, even, some guy came to turn our electricity off (we're two days late... PECO are a bunch of bastards), and I popped my head out the window and he was still there. I said "Hey, we paid this morning." I told him how much. He said "Alright, let me call and see if it's ok that I turn it back on." So I went down there with two gigantic guns. He looked at me, held back some tears, and said "I'll turn it back on, we won't tell them." This guy was a big dude too. He feared my presence. He figured I could probably power an entire city with kinetic energy from one of my fists.

Ok, maybe I'm not that strong yet :P He was a nice guy too, so that might have something to do with it. Also, probably because I begged him to turn it back on and not whoop my ass. Plus my coffee would get cold. He saved us money. So thank you nice Mr. PECO worker. So, if you try that stunt again, when I'm strong enough, I'll remember this and only whoop your ass a little.

That's when I know it's time to get back to work. I've been jobless for just over two months now. Let's review what I've been doing during the days.

For the first 3 weeks or so, I was heavy into programming.

For the next 4 weeks or so, I played video games mainly.

For the last week, I've been playing my guitar a lot, looking for a job, emailing people, planning parties 3 months in advance, emailing again just to make sure they read my first email, actually leaving messages on myspace for people, planning on getting my car inspected since it has 3 days before it's due, playing my guitar more, reveling at the size of my blisters on my fingers since I haven't played that hard in months, avoiding video games and programming like it was my job, dreading another day of the same thing. I need to f@#%@ing work, and not just for the money. Why did I wake up so early? Do I only need 5 hours of sleep now? That would rock, sleeping sucks. I should write more software.

Oh, and this is the worst, as it had been stricken from my mind as soon as I thought of it and I needed hypnosis to bring it back... I considered doing Pilates (no idea of that spelling). That's the exercise thing. I'll stick to my situps and pushups, thanks, it's already working wonders. That and living on toast helps. I don't have a scale, but I've lost about a half of an inch from my cheeks. At least I think that's from working out, it could be the fact that I don't smile lately since I'm bored to tears, so my face just looks thinner. Plus I shaved my head. It looks awesome, ask anyone. I'll take a picture though, since I could probably submit only a headshot to Playboy and they'd put it in as the centerfold, g@#damn it I'm beautiful. HAHA I kill me. Anyway, keep an eye out for fabricat... err... fabulous tales of gainful employment, and hopefully a happy Episode Two to my dream last night. Feel free to psychoanalyze that one.

[Update] Here's a new picture of me, notice how f@%#ing bored I am



I also uploaded some other pictures lying around on my digital camera, like this one, which happens to be bad-ASS



There's no "photoshopping", since I can't afford that program, only ones like The GIMP, which is like PhotoShop, but requires much less money than the entire GNP of a small country.

Also, this one, which proves that I got a hole in one on Tiger Woods 06 for the PSP.



It was the 8th hole, I believe. However, this picture is no longer that important since I made another hole in one and saved the replay! I f@#%ing rock at that game. You can view video of my second hole in one by visiting Downloads and searching for downloads under the label "psp".

Here's a couple of pictures of the kids:





[Update #2] Truth be told, may it be a bit disturbing, my Mom came over for a short visit (she came bearing gifts!!! I got new socks!!!), and she said I'm a hottie. Now it's official, ladies. Of course, she thought the gorilla that is my Dad was attractive about 40 years ago, so I may be reading more into that than I should...

I had to get this on "paper" since I just woke up and it's still fresh in my brain.

Ok, so someone sells me a CD store for $10,000. I have a few employees. It's an old type of store with a back room, on a corner, with a blacktop area between the store and the next house, and a front yard. It's really a house converted to a CD store. Of course, the logic in buying a CD store right now with digital music being so popular hardly exists, but I did it. I sleep there, probably since it's a house type thing. The first day goes by, there's people lined up outside on the blacktop ready to get in and buy music or coffee, which I sell both of. I talk to my cute blonde employee, and we went over how to order more stock, and tell her my strategy will be to find out what sells best, buy any CD that we sold out of, and buy a steadily decreasing rate of the top 20 brand new albums, by popularity... so like 20 of the most popular band's newest album, down to 5 of the 20th popular band's newest. So we're set on that. I walk around the store, and notice I have TONS of CDs, laid out in boxes on fold-out tables, sorted by genre, the alphabetically, with a "rare" section. I remember thinking "Was the $10,000 a one time deal or do I have to pay it again next month?? If so, I'm F@%#ED!!" The store, which I don't know the name of, is winding down, and for some reason, I'm beat and leave it to two of my employees to close it down. In dreams, I don't sleep, so instantly I'm awake and it's morning. I walk out and start brewing up some coffee, and I notice the front door (which is one of two front doors, this one leads out to the lawn, the other to the blacktop, and they're right across from each other) is WIDE open. I hoped someone decided to show up early. A horror sweeps over me, and I look at the first table I can get my eyes on... my store, in the beginning of its first full day of being mine... was robbed completely blind. Every CD is gone, but bless the robber's heart, he didn't take one drop of coffee, and left every other coffee related item. I see a Scotch taped message on the wall that simply says "Thanx!" with a skull type smily face drawn on it in blue marker on "college ruled" paper. The day fast forwards to lunch, where I pay for the food that was ordered by my employees without my approval, but it's stromboli, so I really don't care. My rastafarian/Jamaican employee ask me if I got the change. I did see some money lying on the lawn, and wondered if that's what he was referring to. Then I find out what happened. My one employee (I have 3) takes me aside and says "Dude, I'm so sorry about leaving the door open. Jenny (my other employee who I talked with about stocking the place earlier) kept talking to me as I was leaving, 4 times, she wouldn't leave me alone, and when I left, I was sure it was closed and locked." But, I was more upset about not having a CD in stock, being a CD store and all, and having customers come in and say that we don't have any CDs.

Then I woke up. Weird, huh?

I realized this the other day, and it lacks any realistic explanation. I haven't watched a Phillies game that ended in a Phillies loss in many, many months. The last game I went to, they got their asses handed to them, which was like June 17th or something. Then their was the All Star break, and the trades. It could be that the team is just a whole new team (which is true), but then explain this...

If I happen to turn on the game in session, it will be tied or a close game, but as I'm watching, the Phillies will break out and score a lot. The other day, I turn on the game. It's in the 4th inning, 0-0. Phillies break it open with 4 runs. That's like every time I catch a game not from the beginning. Last night, I turn on the game going into the top of the 9th. The Cubs just hit a home run to go 1-1, but I missed it. Howard had homered earlier to reach 44 on the season. I watch and the Phillies win. Of course, I don't believe in circumstances like that. It is all just coincidence. But it's eirie (is that spelled right?).

Like, down the shore (in Delaware), Steve and I got done watching a movie and turned on the Phils. They won after it was a close game, with them losing at first. I missed a game that Saturday, and they lost. They went 6-4 on the home stand, and I saw only the wins, and wasn't at my TV for the other times. This is a 10 game road trip they're on now, and I've seen most of each of the games, they're 3-0 so far. They play today at 2pm. I might have jinxed them, if there is such a thing, or I'll be further delusioned into thinking I'm good luck if they win. Of course, I want them to win. Maybe I'll go down at like 2:40 and watch, to see if they score runs only when I'm watching. That would be crazy whack funky.

I had this weird dream after I fell asleep watching the replay of the Phillies game last night. It was around 12 midnight when I finally zonked out. If you've never watched a Phillies game, you still might have heard of Harry Kalas. He's the Phillies' TV and radio voice. Well, he's getting old, and his vision is fading, as well as his memory. Sometimes he'll botch calls like if a ball is caught at the wall or if it goes out and the guy there tries to catch it but it's obviously way out of reach of him, he'll report the opposite of what happened. This dream was along those lines. Basically, it was a ground ball up the third base line with nobody on base, and Harry Kalas reported it as a two run homer. I was like "WTF?".

I turned on CNN after waking up this morning, and caught a majority of "In The footsteps of Bin Laden", which is an interesting, two-sided show. It ended with me feeling rather informed about where bin Laden might be, why he "hates America", why al Qaeda was formed, and all this other stuff that will cause the FBI and CIA to beeline to this website and flag it as "terroristic". Anyway, it was over, and Anderson Cooper is on the screen, informing me of the next time the show will be on. Of course, the bad part of it was, he was basically calling bin Laden a slew of names that I wouldn't say around my neices or nephews. So, I realized I didn't like news shows telling me what to think of these people. If they realized that intelligent people watch their shows, then they should assume that most people can come to their own conclusions, and they just need all the facts in order to do this, and that's why we watch the news. Telling us that Osama bin Laden is evil is not a fact, that's an opinion. It might be a widespread opinion, but it's an opinion, and one that most people would find to be "right", which doesn't necessarily make it fact.

I bought "Munich" with my limited funds, and I've watched it three times. It's a good flick. Anyway, there's this part where the dude who plays the Incredible Hulk is in Germany trying to find answers, and he comes across this German frauline, and she's a Philosopher. She comments from a work entitled "The Philosophy of Right" I think, by some philosoph. I immediately became intrigued. I haven't researched it, but I'm sure it's a real work. Now I have to read it. Because what's right to someone is completely wrong to someone else, and therefore couldn't possibly be recorded in history books as "fact". Of course, we record it as fact, and therefore it's propaganda.

Yes, the show "In the Footsteps of Bin Laden" is also propaganda. But there are a lot of facts in it, but we see just the facts about al Qaeda attacking US interests, and the US retaliating and weakening al Qaeda interests like their safe harbor in Afghanistan, the Taliban. Facts that try to sculpt a conclusion, in this case that al Qaeda is doing what they do just because they felt like it... with no motivation. The show brushes aside the fact that the US has held military posts in Saudi Arabia, Islam's holy land, for many years. This would be like going and taking a dump on an altar in a church. Because of oil, of course. They may be right. All they want is for the US to leave their land, which may be impossible without an alternative source of fuel. It just so happens that the biggest source of oil also happens to be a desert filled with people of another religion, and that religion's holy land. They'd drill for oil under Rome or Jerusalem if they knew there was a well there.

Oh well. Time for coffee. I'm not on bin Laden's side here, just saying that propaganda sucks, we are smart people, most of the time, and we don't need opinions of news reporters to shape our own opinions. It's weird how the two topics of this post intermingle. I like to watch a sporting event where the announcer is rooting for the same team I am, but I can't watch a news show where they are rooting for or against anyone. I don't know... does that seem weird?

It's been a while since I've been at a computer... I went down to Delaware on Wednesday and didn't get back until today, Sunday or something, 13 Aug 06 @ 10:20 PM. My "Check Engine" light came on during the 1.5 hour ride home, which serves me right... I haven't done anything to that car but put 8000 miles on it since my last oil change. I'm taking it in this week. I need it to last me a while. It smells funny.

I went golfing with my Dad and my brother Steve on Thursday. I sucked. It was funny. I blame the course. See, the fairway was pristine, and so unbelievably soft. I'd take a regular swing at it and take out a divot the size of my foot each time (I'm a size 12). This wasn't good because I wasn't planning on it, and my ball would go half the distance I would have expected. I bought a new golf bag. The label read "$99.95" and I paid "$99.95" for it, thanks to Delaware's tax laws leading to a lack of sales tax. I saved $6 compared to buying it in PA. PA could learn something from Delaware... like.... hmmm.... no sales tax might be the only thing. Although, I think their liquor regulations might also be a bit light compared to PA, like they could sell beer in gas stations, but I don't know for sure.

My trip down was exciting. I decided to go Route 9 which runs along the bay. I wrongly assumed that there'd be civilization down that road, and I'd be able to get gas on it. Boy was that a mistake. I went on "E" with a corn field on the right of me, a bay on the left, and hadn't passed anything, not a telephone pole, or a street light, or even a f@#%@$@#ing stop sign in 10 miles. I was pretty sure I would not make it to golf the next day at this point. I kept going, passed a random farm house here and there, then when I'd been on E for about 10 minutes, I decided that I would die if I didn't just turn right in search of civilization. Luckily, about 2 miles up the road was the quaint little town of Smyrna, Delaware. I passed a bar on the way and was so tempted to go in, but decided against it because it was cut out of a corn field, I swear to God. There were 3 pickup trucks in the parking lot. I'm a city boy, I would be either laughed or kicked out of that bar. Anyway, found Smyrna, got gas, got on Rt. 1 and said F@#%$ 9. 9 sucked. I travel at night, in case you're wondering. It was about 9:40 PM when I found civilization. I had gone 40 miles down a lonely and dark country road and about 20 of them on E. It was an adventure, and if I had it to do all over again, I would have done the same thing.

Nothing like spending the weekend with Kira, Caden and Ethan, too. They're so cute. Today we went to the arcade and fun place... rides and stuff. And on the beach. During one 10 minute stint, I was in charge of Caden. He's four. I point to this one ride, and asked him if he wanted to go on it. I hadn't seen it in motion, but it looked like a normal kiddie ride; one that goes in endless circles and relatively low speeds... very predictable and boring. He goes on, in a car all by himself, and this thing takes off. It's not the Himalayas or something, but it's like that in that it changes elevation while it goes in a circle. It's moving pretty fast, and I'm watching Caden for tears, and hoping his parents didn't see what I did! Phew, it's coming to a stop... wait a second, the operator says something about "reverse"!! Oh f@#$@!! It goes at the same exact speed in reverse. This time, I'm panicking. However, no sign of tears or parents made me relax a bit. The ride stopped... finally. He comes off, and we go find Patty who's with the other kids. I'm like "I'm sorry, I put him on that ride not knowing what it was like." At which point Caden interjects with "That was THE BEST!!!" HAHA!! Huge sigh of relief. But Caden, if no one else, could handle that ride, and he's been on a rollercoaster with his dad, my brother, Steve. Thinking back, he was absolutely bored to tears on the other kiddie rides.

Not much else happened. I'm still looking for a job, but that will be coming to an end soon. I lost only a few hours being down in Delaware for four days though, so that's pretty good.

It only takes me about 5 minutes of watching CNN to hate it and pretty much every news show. First, there's the incidents in Lebonon which I'm OK with watching. But then, they talk about Mel Gibson's anti-Semitist remarks, which he apologized for, leave it alone, and his DUI. Then they say his blood alcohol level was .12, and in California, the legal limit is .08. From my "alcohol" class in college (I did actually take an alcohol class... hoo boy, there's a good story to do with that too), they said that .08 is like drinking two beers and hitting the road. So .12, from math, is only 1 more beer. It's the law, and he rightfully got a DUI because of that, and that's not my issue. I know I get buzzed if it's been a while and I drink three beers in an hour or so, but comon... people are still pretty much capable of anything, and in some cases more capable of other things, after three beers. I speak of course of Beirut (AKA beer pong). CNN brought it up like it was a huge deal, and that Mel Gibson is now a lesser person, like "We can all now laugh at Mel Gibson when on coffee break." I'm not particularly fond of Mel, I'm more attacking peoples' attitudes towards someone who makes a mistake then I am defending Mr. Gibson. Give it up, Perfecty O'Perfect.

Sometimes I love TV though. Yesterday on Comcast SportsNet, on the show Daily News Live, was Charles Barkley. He's a great interview. Comcast should release that interview on DVD, and any other interview with him. He was my favorite player growing up. In fact, in third grade, I guess for my 9th birthday, I invited him to my party. I was the talk of the whole school, since I told one person that Charles Barkley might show up. I had hookups, since my Dad went to school with John Nash, then GM of the Sixers. Sir Charles couldn't make it, I'm afraid to say, but in the side door of the house, my brother noticed the door had been held open by something. We never use it but it's on the street, so easily accessible to delivery trucks and whatnot. To help you further imagine, the house is on a corner, but the front door is not on the street that the address is listed as, that door is the side door. Anyway, he checked it and it was a box addressed to me!! Charles Barkley, via John Nash, had sent me an personal autographed Sixers basketball ("To Jason Charles Barkely"), a note from Charles, and a bunch of assorted Sixers stickers. I don't know what happened to the rest, but the basketball is currently on top of our Philadelphia sports dedicated entertainment center, along with a Chase Utley bobblehead, a Donovan McNabb bobblehead, an Allen Iverson bobblehead, and I think Peter Forsberg represents the Flyers. I'd have to go check, but I'm too comfy. Anyway, I wish I'd kept the note. Oh well. Some of the stickers made their way onto various spots around the house, like the insides of closet doors (because who ever paints there!?). Definitely an exciting time, and now Charles Barkley will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame! That thing just shot up in value, but you don't ever, ever sell it because it's Charles Barkley for Pete's sake!! Oh, and it's to me... another "Jason" just wouldn't get the same satisfaction out of it.

The only channel I watch regularly now is the History Channel. I love Modern Marvels, Mega Disasters, and their special on the American Revolution, among a ton of other shows. I will watch Mail Call... hell, I watch anything on that channel. I used to be a Discovery / Learning Channel guy, and the History Channel is from the same blood, but I just find that THC has more of the stuff I'm interested in... all the time. And their paid programming doesn't kick on until 4am, which is huge for me during my time off :)