Perfect Gift

Sometimes its great when you find that special someone of 13 years a perfect gift. I mean I always get her something I like but this year she's going to love it. Giving is a lot more fun then getting, although a Troy Polamalu jersey is really nice.

Surreal

Today just seemed so surreal it was freaky. I had three different phone conversations that all seemed so out there it was weird. It wasn't bad or good per se, it just out there.

Chopper To Chipper

RIP Skip Caray. Skip Caray long-time voice of the Braves died this past Sunday. As much or even more that Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine gave me great memories over the past 15 years so did Skip Caray. You will be missed Skip, enjoy a nice cold one with your dad.

Words to live by

Pretty Bird and I are re-watching a tragically short but brilliant TV series and I just came across this great advice.

"When someone tries to kill you try to kill 'um back."

Truer words were never spoken.

Bah

Some days are just shitty.

Memorial Day

For those that laid down their lives because their country asked, thank you.

The First Time

For the first time in over five years I went to work and I wasn't working in the hobby game industry. I'll update and ramble more about it later.

December 7, 1941

When I was about 13 or 14 my mom bought a brand new card, the first new car I can remember her buying. I remember her being very happy and exciting about her new car. The biggest thing I remember about the car however was how upset my grandfather was at her buying that car. He hated that her daughters would buy a Japanese car. My aunt had already owned an RX-7. To me it was just a car and we'd owned a Volvo before so I know my grandfather didn't preach Buy American as his reasoning. He made sure his computer was an Apple and his TV was a Zenith. I got a Sony stereo when I was 12 I think and he was upset over it.

When I was 17 my US History teacher was a little weird, in a good teacher kind of way. She wanted our papers on 20th century history to involve actual research and reporting, not just books. Her theory was there was still people alive to talk about it, go talk to them. I decided to do a paper on World War 2 and its affect on people in the United States. Obviously I talked to my grandparents.

My grandfather was a very outspoken person, talking to him about World War 2 was interesting. It was the first time I really got to understand his hatred of all things Japanese. He lost friends and people he knew at the attack on Pearl Harbor and then throughout the war in the Pacific. He talked to me about standing in line for four hours to join the Navy. He talked about being upset he was that he wasn't allowed to serve. He talked about how in 1941 America didn't care about the rest the world and no one understood how some island nation decided to attack us. He sure didn't understand. He never forgave them for it either.

A lot of people died on December 7th 1941 and the many days afterwards of World War 2. I reflect upon it and think how tragic it is. I also feel very guilty. On Pearl Harbor Day I usually just get sad thinking about my grandfather and our hours of conversations instead of remembering the people who died. I was very close to my grandfather and miss him a lot and it is odd that my brain decides this day as a day to think about him.

I do honor the servicemen who paid the ultimate price but I really do miss my grandfather.

Color Blind

Most times I can fake it in the world of color, I really can. I actually see most reds and greens just fine, other times not so much. I guess it is okay the Christmas chain The Little One and I made is okay being green and pink instead of green and red. She didn't seem to mind.

Beginning to look a lot like Chirtsmas

Around here it is. We put up the tree, stated putting on the ornaments, got the lights ready to go, all of the usual things. Even the tacky snowmen my mom likes to buy the Little One are out. One thing I really enjoy putting up the Christmas stuff is how it is a time capsule. To see an ornament with a picture from our first Christmas together or The Little One's ornament. Both of us have ornaments from when we were younger and living at home. There are ones we bought together or ones we bought for each other. It is just a good time remembering our lives through ornaments. One of the best parts of every year.

Free Taco Day!

Don't forget to get your free taco between 2 and 5 today.

Sick

The only time in your life want to be sick is to trade places with your sick child. It is so tough to watch her be sick. She is close to getting better though.

Goodbye Jason

Today was Jason's last day at Press Pass. He decided he had enough designing games and wanted to try something else. Not really much else to say other than to wish him luck and say it has been a really good two and a half years. Of course Jason will be at my house a good bit this fall/winter because he isn't moving and I get NFL Sunday Ticket. Good luck Jason.

Holidays

Given the day we've had and the fact the women are asleep I guess it is weird I can't sleep and I'm feeling very open to being insightful about myself. I am watching a incredibly entertaining Braves game but I'm exhausted, I should be sleeping. Anyway, onto my personal insight.

I really don't like holidays, almost any of them including my birthday. About the only one I do like is the commercial American version of Christmas. I take that back, I really do enjoy the Little One's birthday. I don't really like any of them, for various different reasons. But I'm talking about birthdays mainly now.

It isn't that I mind getting older, I don't care about that, although last year was tougher than I expected it to be. I just don't have found memories of birthdays. I only remember a few that didn't go well so I assume the others went well but like most things you remember the poor more than the good. I also remember poor experiences with other family member's birthdays as well.

This just causes me to hold birthdays in poor regard. This really hasn't effected how I treat The Little One but it has unfortunately caused Pretty Bird to have some blah birthdays. It also causes me to forget or at least do a poor job with other family member's birthdays. I feel bad for them but I also don't see myself changing despite any efforts I try to put forth. It isn't because I don't love them but I'm sure on their birthdays they don't care. Sorry about that.

Some days

Some days are just better than others, today was not one of those days. Long day at work, some family stuff, and I miss the Little One. That is the nice thing about days though, there is always another one tomorrow.

Sleep

I'm so excited I get to sleep in a little tomorrow. I haven't had a weekend in almost a month when I was able to get a little extra sleep. A combination of travel, work, and some around the house stuff has just made things hectic. I really just want to sleep in tomorrow but I'm sure I will be up early enough with the family running around. It is nice to at least hope for though.

My Hats Off

I really must applaud the Washington Nationals for wearing Virginia Tech hats during yesterday's game versus the Braves. It was a great showing by a bunch of professional athletes. Other than game results most of what you hear about sports is how an athlete acts like an idiot. It is really nice to them do something really nice.

Opinions are like...

We'll they're like something.

I've wrote a few times now about that I'm going to write about my opinions on race in the US and I'm still going to. Today's horrific events at Virginia Tech however prompted me to want to write about something else.

Even with events like tragedy in Blacksburg I don't think the world or United States is any worse now than it was before. I truly believe the number of sick bastards in the worlds, the kind of person that thinks their personal problems merit shooting up a school, or they should sleep with a student, or molest one of the members of their church, whatever sick ass thing that shows up in the headlines. The number of those bastards in the world hasn't really increased, in my opinion, at least percentage wise.

There are over 6 billion people on the planet, if X percentage of people are going to be sick fucks and you have three times as many people as some 30 or 40 years ago, you're going to have three times as many sick fucks.

Instant news has made the news global and quick. If some psycho in another village 200 years ago freaked out and killed 20 people you didn't hear about it. Hell even 15 years ago it took the evening news or the next day's paper for most of the world to catch, if not days. Instant news isn't making these things more prevalent it is just making these things more on our collective consciousness.

Jackie Robinson Day

Like I wrote earlier this week I'm going to write about my opinions about race relations in the United States. Today makes perfect sense to do it, it is the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in Major League Baseball. I'm still going to write my opinions on it just not yet, I'll summarize real quick though. I think it is incredibly naive to think there isn't still race issues in the US. I think those relations are even worse when it comes to American sports and sports fans. I do believe however most things that are viewed as race issues are actually economic issues. Like I said I will write more on it later.

Back to Jackie Robinson Day. I think it is great that Major League Baseball was way ahead of the rest of country in allowing a black player to do something equal to a white player. My biggest thing about Jackie Robinson personally, yes I have a Jackie Robinson story. My grandfather, the only man long term in my life, was a huge mentor for me. He knew baseball better than anyone I've ever known and was far and away the biggest baseball fan there was. I don't hold it against him that he was a Phillies fan but still a huge fan. My grandfather however didn't hold people who weren't white protestants in high regard. He kept it away from me until I was in my teens. I do not share his opinions and I really think they are out of place. However when I was in my teens I felt it wasn't my place as a 14 year old to tell someone in their late 60s, who had raise three daughters, been with their wife for 45 years, lived through World War 2, how to think. If he wants to think that way it is his right. Actually 15 some years later I still believe that. I think everyone is allowed their opinion and to think what they want.

I came down to visit him when I was 18 or 19 for a week or so. We went to a few spring training games. One of the games he made sure we went to was the game with the Expos. He knew I was a Braves fan so we went to a few of those games. But we went to see the Expos play and I wondered why and he asked him. He said he wanted to make sure to see some kid play, someone who was going to be a huge star, someone in his words he was going to love watching play. My grandfather was excited to see a player he was going to look forward to watching play for years in the bigs. He comes up to bat and I was pleasantly shocked, it was Vladimir Guerrero. If you follow baseball you know how correct my grandfather was, Vlad has been incredible. During the game he was 3 for 4 with a homer and a triple, the triple was just nuts watching him move around the bases. I just really wasn't expecting a non-white player.

Later that week I asked him who the greatest player he'd ever seen play was. This was 50 years of baseball players, maybe Ted Williams, maybe Mike Schmidt, even Pete Rose, or Steve Carlton, lots of different options. My grandfather doesn't even hesitate and the words that come out of his mouth, "Jackie Robinson. His career numbers don't match up but that is because MLB took too long to allow blacks to play." He went about the time he'd seen him play, how good he actually was, how good he could have been. My grandfather, a man I love, a man I respect but with this personality issue I can't stand, him disliking everyone who isn't white. The sport he loves as much as anything in the world (except probably his family) and he thinks Jackie Robinson was the best player he'd ever seen. He spent 20 minutes talking about Jackie Robinson, it wasn't just respect, he really liked watching him play. He even went on to say that Baseball was dumb in not letting him play. He even added that players like Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson would have really put up incredible numbers if they were allowed to play in the bigs.

So that to me is one of the great things about sports, the great gift that Jackie Robinson gave to the United States. He gave us as a country the gift of being color blind. We don't care if the person is Japanese or black or Jewish or even orange, if they are good and help our chosen team win then more power to them. Sure when they act the fool off the field we destroy them but on the field there is no color. You root for your team, if your a Braves fan than everyone is red, white, and blue, if your a Yankees fan then everyone has pinstripes. You don't care about the person in the uniform as long as he is in your uniform and he performs and helps your team. I've seen lifelong racists root for Michael Jordan or Emmit Smith, color doesn't matter in sports, at least on the field.

That is what I remember about Jackie Robinson and I really must say thank you. The country has a long way to go but at least for the most part sports shows us what it is like when we get there.

A whole lot of wireless

We first got our wireless router about three years ago in Norfolk. In our neighborhood we were the only wireless network at the time. When we moved to Charlotte two years ago we were also the only wireless network at the time. I've helped my mother (no other network), aunt (no other network), and a friend (one network in range) all hook up wireless networks about two years ago.

Now in my neighborhood, which I'm soon leaving, my laptop can detect two other networks, progress I guess. Today I set up the wireless network in our new house. My laptop detected 28 other wireless networks. That is just a crazy number. This is a subdivision sure but that is a huge amount of people who are looking at porn without wires. Typical in a wireless home network about half of them aren't password protected.