Survived Thanksgiving

Well, that was a long weekend.

Wednesday was chaos. A half day at work, but we had to do things like hit the market, take Lorelei for her Thanksgiving and Christmas studio portraits and then go get charcoal so I could smoke the turkeys. And it turned out that Barbecue's Galore were being sh!t heads and closed at 4pm...I got there a bit after 5. Luckily, I knew that the nearby BevMo had lump hardwood charcoal (no damn briquettes for me) but that added an easy half hour to the day.

Thanksgiving Day involved smoking up over 30 pounds of turkey. A bit of work and stress, but everyone loved it. I think I'm totally stuck for years to come smoking up the turkeys for Thanksgiving, no matter if it's the in-laws or my own parents. Had to drive back and forth a lot though, because Amanda needed stuff from the market and to deliver the pies to her mom and dad and we accidentally left Lorelei's dresses from the photo-shoot at JC Penny's...we had to buy new tights and shoes and we were stressed that the beautiful dresses, especially the Christmas one, were gone forever. And that would have totally sucked to be blunt.

Jim Paladino came over for dinner by the way. He's got no family and it really does him good to come over to ours. He ate like there was no tomorrow. He's a good guy.

Black Friday was another zoo. We left the house about 10 and didn't make it back until after dark. We did manage to get some good stuff on pretty good sales, but man, I'm just not sure it's worth it.

Oh yeah, I managed to get sick Thursday night. Been sick all weekend long; didn't even leave the house for a moment on Saturday. I did manage to get them up, about 90%, on Sunday. Still need a few more extension cords and a few more strings of lights to really round things out. But they are dancing to the music as I type this. I'll try to see if I can't get a few moments or two of video posted.

But we survived. And now it's on to Christmas!

No work today!

It's sort of surreal. Because of the Triangle Complex fires, which aren't that far away, I don't have to work today.

It's a combination of the awful air quality and the fact that Walnut High School is being used as an evacuation center I think. Technically, it's a student free day and by taking the day off I'm using a personal day. But it's not like I don't have something like 40+ sub days anyway.

It's just a bit odd. Mentally I was set to work today. And now I'm not really sure what to do. I guess just enjoy it!

Barack Doomed to Failure

We now know who will be our 44th President. And I think he's doomed to failure.

Quite simply, he's become the Black Messiah, the Great Left Hope, the man charged with changing the entire world. He's supposed to give us Universal Healthcare, lower taxes, get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan by summer, kill the coal industry, save the environment and oh yeah, rescue our economy.

He just can't do it. It's not that he's a bad guy or incapable or anything. I didn't vote for him, but he deserves a chance now that he's elected. But the expectations and hopes surrounding him are just way too high. No one could do everything Obama is supposed to do. There's just no way he can do it all. And he's being expected to do it all.

But he's become the Messiah of the Left and of African-Americans. I saw a t-shirt the other day at the mall for sale. It had his head, his bust, on the foreground. In the background was the presidential seal. Okay. But the way it was put together had it looking like he had a freakin' halo! The presidential seal had been turned into (accidentally or not) a halo for our president-elect!

I almost feel bad for the guy. I just honestly believe he's doomed to failure.

'Cause 7 ate 9

Just a slightly more twisted version of the children's joke...

The Dead Walk Again!

You can do this here.

Decoration update

Sorry, still no pictures.

The money hasn't been there to buy anything else new. I really want a fogger and some bluckys and more tombstones and secondary accessories like lighting and moss and so on. But no dice.

I was able to pick up the parts for a few things though. Some PVC pipe to make my one current blucky stand up and hold out his right arm and more PVC pipe to make a scarecrow, plus a 'costume' for it and a black funkin painted green inside. I still need to assemble the scarecrow; I've cut the PVC and so on, I just need to put it all together and spray it black.

All told though, I think I'm pretty happy with what I've been able to put together. It does look pretty cool outside and I do get a lot of strange looks from people as they are driving or walking by. And that's awesome.

Some Halloween pin-ups

I've seen these scattered a few places...I think they are pretty cool.

It's the Haunting season!

Okay. So I've gotten all my Halloween stuff out of storage and catalogued it so I know what I have.

I've scouted Spirit of Halloween, Target, the Dollar Tree, Big Lots, the 99 cent store, Michael's and Lowes.

I've mapped my little apartment backyard and taken photos for the obligatory "before" picture.

I've managed to pick up a few new items, like a new tombstone and a raven.

I've designed the scarecrow I'm going to build and I've priced out the primary parts for it.

I've registered on a yard haunter forum to connect with other yard haunters and pick their brains.

And I've already driven the wife crazy with all my Halloween talk. And it's not yet October by my watch.

Not much to say...

So I haven't posted in a while...I do have new pictures of Lorelei to post...but haven't been motivated. It's been a tough August and September so far. Being stone cold broke to the point of having to forgo payment on things like cellphones and hoping they won't shut them off before I get paid Oct.1 tends to make things rough. It hasn't been easy on Amanda or I. Thankfully, we have two wonderful families that are helping us out until I finally get paid again.

Amanda has been working at the LA County Fair to help out a little. She also got a part-time elementary school librarian position that starts in another week. So October will be okay...not enough to go to the Paso Robles Harvest Festival like we hoped, but that's okay, we always have fun things to do in October...Knott's Scary Farm, Queen Mary Haunted Shipwreck and the apple ranches out in San Bernadino somewhere.

I am starting to plan out Halloween decorations though...I'm going to start small as a newbie yard haunter. Gonna try to make my own scarecrow, get some eerie lighting, some extra props. I've made a 20 minute sound loop to play on outdoor speakers. I'm real excited about that stuff...I'll have to start posting my plans and the before pictures and some shot of the props I plan on using.

Honestly, I think I'm obsessing so much about Halloween as a means of distracting myself from the current financial straits...but that's human nature I suppose.

Off to surf more yard haunt websites!

Watchmen trailer

This deserves another Holy Shit. The Watchmen trailer was in front of The Dark Knight (as was the crappy 'teaser' for Harry Potter...waste of time and film). It looks incredible.

Go to http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/ right now and watch it. Again and again. I'm pissed I won't be at Comic Con to see what else Zach Snyder has in store for fans...probably extra footage, smiley face buttons, the actors...damn it!

Review: the Dark Knight

Ho

Lee

Shit.

Where do I start? The Dark Knight is an incredible film. We saw it on IMAX last Friday afternoon in a packed theatre. Before I really start, you really owe it to yourself to catch it in IMAX. About 20 minutes of the finished film were shot on the larger format and it is visually stunning. Several of the aeriel cityscapes are in IMAX and they are vertigo inducing.

The film is grim, dark, violent and surprising. There were a number of "Holy Crap!" moments where Christopher Nolan steers the film into territory that isn't normal for a comic or superhero film. The Joker's 'pencil trick' alone was a dark and violent moment that I'm surprised was kept in a PG-13 film. And the reveal of Two Face is quite gruesome.

Much like Wall-E, this film delves into a numbers of different thematic elements. Pick what you want from it; the 9/11 elements, the personal morality plays, the personal costs involved, it's all there.

The acting is of course top-notch. Heath Ledger as the Joker, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent may just be the best of the best here. Incredible acting by all involved, as all of them really sink into their characters. Some films, some actors, you always know who is acting on screen. Jack Nicholson is in that territory now; you always know it's Jack on screen. Ledger? Oldman? They dissappear into their roles and become their characters. There is nothing about Ledger's performance of the Joker that reminds you of the man; he is, for all intents and purposes, the Joker.

Go see this film if you haven't all ready. Go see it in IMAX if you haven't yet; the extra cash is worth it.

Best film of the year so far.

Review: Wall-E

Great film.

Just gonna state that right off. Incredible movie from the fine folks at Pixar, easily the best animation house in the world today. The animation is incredible, as you would expect from them. But what makes Pixar the best in the business, even better than their parent/partner Disney, is the strength of the story.

The story is strong and multi-layered, just like the characters and the thematic elements. Wall-E isn't the goofy little simpleton he appears to be in the commercials. The theme is far more than just an environmental warning.

I don't want to say too much for fear of revealing spoilers, but I genuinely loved the many different layers to this film.

I don't care that this is an animated movie, stereotypically the domain of children. This is a great movie, one of the best of the last five years and is deserving of a Best Picture nomination when the time comes.

July 4th

An okay weekend.

Spent Indepedence Day with the in-laws. The best part of that was watching Lorelei in the small pool they have. She loves the water. Just loves it. She went in twice and loved it both times. She especially loves 'swimming', being pulled through the water. She just smiles and giggles and laughs.

Saturday went to Kevin's house and met his wife and kid. Carpooled to the game with him. Sunday messed around the house and went to my parent's house for dinner. Good steaks.

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet. Summer school is fairly uneventful. Haven't had a chance to see Wall-E yet, though that should happen this week. Just thought I should pop up.

Indiana Jones 4 Review

Okay, so we went to see Indiana Jones - the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last Thursday afternoon.

Pretty good stuff. Worthy of being with the other three films.

Now, it's not perfect. It takes the pulp aspects of the Indy films more than a bit too far in several instances. For example, when Mutt Williams (Shia LeBouf) swings through the vines of the jungle trees just like Tarzan, complete with monkeys swinging with him. That was just epically stupid. Or how Indy survives a test nuclear blast. There's a dash of logic to that one, but it's a bit hard to swallow. Or multiple falls down rather large and apparently rocky waterfalls.

But then again, this is a world in which the Ark of the Covenant is not only real, but has intense magical power and is kept in a wharehouse in Area 51. So let's be honest; this isn't the most realistic of worlds we are dealing with here.

But it was fun. It was thoroughly enjoyable and ultimately, that's about all you can ask for when it comes to an Indiana Jones movie. Harrison Fords owns that character. Even LeBouf did a pretty good job playing the greaser stereotype (well, on the outside anyway, there are actually glimpses of more inside his character).

It'll be on my DVD shelf next to the original three when the time comes. Brilliant film? No. A whole lot of fun? Heck yeah.

Just the most beautiful baby!

These are from the third photosession we did with Lorelei. There are also family pictures, but you don't really want to see my ugly mug, do you? Let's just keep it to the pictures of the most beautiful and talented and intelligent baby in the whole wide world!

Ironman: movie review

Well, we dropped off Sweet Pea with her grandma and grandpa and took in Ironman (we also hit other errands afterwards, but hey, like you care!).

It lived up to the hype as far as I was concerned. Very well constructed film with tight editing, excellent special effects (not always easy to tell where the digital Ironman began and the practical man-in-suit ended) and very sharp acting.

Robert Downey Jr. was excellent as Tony Stark. He brought a certain flippant gravitas to the role. I know, flippant gravitas, what the hell? Downey Jr. was able to be serious as required but also the playboy that is late because he's "doing a Vanity Fair piece." In that case, piece of ass...great line by the way. His transformation didn't seem in-depth, but did seem believable enough and real enough.

I find personally that the great cinematic actors have very expressive eyes. As in somehow, they are able to let you into their character's soul with their eyes. Downey I think is able to do that here.

So excellent film, great way to start off the summer blockbuster season. Don't forget to stay until the final scene after the credits...

Three Summer Movies

There are a number of films I'm looking forward to. Indiana Jones, Wall-e, and The Dark Night are just three of them. We actually have a list of the films we both want to see, starting with Ironman, on the our computer desk whiteboard. Thought I'd drop a few poster images here of the three that I think I'm most excited about.

*EDIT* Just saw the newest Dark Knight poster and had to replace the old one with the new one...

Relearning to be a husband

One of the things I didn't really expect after Amanda gave birth to Lorelei was the fact I would have to learn how to be a husband all over again. Okay, not totally, but enough that I feel like it's true.

I have to make sure I continue to give Amanda enough attention, and the right kind of attention, while not neglecting Lorelei either. I can't just treat her like a mother, she's also my wife and best friend too.

Kissing for example. There's a big difference between how you kiss your mother, your daughter and your wife. It's all too easy to ignore one or more of those things. To start kissing your wife like she's your mom/daughter. As in, on the forehead, on the cheek, but never on the lips. You know what I mean? And you can't just treat your wife like that, as a wife, because she's now a mother too.

It's kinda hard. I didn't really expect it, though I suppose I should have. We're working on it all though!

A rough couple of weeks over

A few weeks back, someone that was very near and dear to friends of mine passed away, Amanda Combs. I barely knew her, met her at the last LA GenCon, she seemed cool enough. But she must have been special to see how her passing affected Jim and Eric H. I hope they managed to find some closure in her memorial services.

A week ago, four Walnut HS kids passed away and another is in the hospital. They were driving too fast, may not have been wearing seatbelts, and crashed going to a church youth group function. Two were current students (though one only technically, he was taking classes at Mt.SAC), two were graduates, and the survivor is a junior here. I knew him and the kid taking JC classes. I've been okay, but it's been kinda rough at school, especially my English 4 Sheltered class, since so many of those kids knew them.

But things should get better now.

A few things

It's weird how much a game can preoccupy your mental processes. I'm in a Vampire LARP and there are days when my brain just returns to thinking about some element or other of the game whenever my brain seems to have a free moment. Strange.

We'll be taking Lorelei to see my grandmother and aunt and uncle in Tucson next week. I'm really excited about it. In a weird way it's like I've accomplished something. That now I'm really a grown-up.

I don't know when the last time they even held a baby was.

I just hope little Lorelei does well with the 7 to 8 eight hour car trip. I think she'll be okay; with a bit of luck the car will lull her to sleep for most of the trip. She does love to be held though, so we'll see...

Moving sucks

That's about all that can really be said.

Yeah, we had a good amount of help from Amanda's side of the family.

But moving a baby, two cats and then ourselves? Total suckage. I feel so beat up that I'm taking a day off of work (Wednesday) just because I'm sore, I'm tired and mentally tired too.

Our new place is nice though. They gave us a two car garage for free, which is cool. But that also means more moving...gotta get the stuff out of storage and into the garage.

Moving sucks.

Domo!

Just another LOLcat...in honor of going to a Japanese restaurant yesterday, Gyu-Kaku. Domo arigato Mr. Gato!

My Cloverfield review

I loved it. It gave me a headache.

It inspired me, it made me want to vomit.

No, really. I've been interested in this film since the untitled trailer this summer. The biggest thing about Comic Con this year was JJ Abrams and I missed it! Still pissed about that. But baby came the day before the film's release, so there was no opening day/opening weekend visit to the local cineplex to check it out.

Instead we waited a bit over two weeks and after visiting one set of grandparents, we visited the others. The in-law grandma had complained of not even getting a chance to change the babies diapers yet! WTF? Oh, she got to change one all right...because we snuck over to the new theatre about five minutes away from their house to catch Cloverfield. Figured at 88 minutes long, it would be an ideal first time out without baby. Not too long.

The film was awesome. I love the concept. I love the lack of a clear ending. I love the lack of explanation. I love the sense of reality for a 'fantasy' film.

But oh my god I wanted to be sick. My urge to vomit wasn't too powerful, but it gave me a headache that lasted for hours afterwards. I had to look away at times, not because of what was on screen, but because everything on that damn screen was bouncing like mad. I did fine with Blair Witch, another "handheld" film that made others ill. But this was hardcore.

I'm not so sure about some of the acting, and let's be honest, who the hell is going into the jaws of hell for a girl just so you can tell her "I love you?" For a wife, sure. A child, yeah. But a friend or girlfriend? Sorry babe, but I'm sure the monster will enjoy you more than all the others it's gonna snack on. No offense or anything. But I gotta go.

Honestly, I do recommend the film, just with the caveat that you better have either a strong stomach or an empty one. And some Advils in your pocket. Might want to take one of those when the previews start...

Welcome Lorelei Leigh Silva-Jameson

Okay, so my last post was about no baby yet. Turned out I may have jinxed myself, as just after midnight I was awoken by Amanda to tell me that her water broke.

So we check into the hospital at about 1 am Thursday morning. Amanda just wasn't having contractions and with her water broken, they really wanted to get labor started, so they put her on Pitocin around 3am. By about 7 am they gave her some pain medication, then around 11am they gave her an epidural. But the problem was she still wasn't dialated enough. It wasn't until somewhere around 8pm that she really started active labor.

Oh. My. God.

It was horrible to see her in such pain, even through the epidural. Not to mention I could see everything. Let me tell you, seeing childbirth changes your impressions of the female anatomy. I'll leave it at that.

But then, at 9:56pm Thursday night, January 17th, 2008, Lorelei Leigh Silva-Jameson was born. She was 7 pounds and 12 ounces and 20 and 1/4 inches long. And just beautiful.

Unfortunately, that morning when the pediatrician checked her out, she had become jaundiced and more than she was comfortable with. So under a sun lamp in an incubator she went. Early Saturday morning, they took her to the nursery to go under two sun lamps. It was heartrending. We couldn't hold her or even touch her, she had to be under the lamps to help get rid of the jaundice. She had to even stay for an extra night at the hospital, which was even worse.

But she's home. As of Tuesday, she had already gained two ounces (which is a really good sign for a newborn) and her jaundice scores were well down and the pediatrician gave her a clean bill of health.

She's quite active for a newborn and she opens her beautiful eyes so wide and she seems like she's really trying to see and understand everything. Being the proud papa, I think this is a good sign of her obviously high intelligence...

I'll have to write more about being a daddy later. It's an amazing experience and it's only beginning.

Still no baby...

Despite what the ticker is saying above, no, she hasn't arrived.

I'm starting to get the feeling when I talk to people that they aren't really sure I was telling the truth about having a baby soon. You know, the whole thing of "no, really, I'm telling the truth, it'll happen any second now!"

Like when you were in the second grade and told all your friends that Mickey Mouse was gonna come to your birthday party or something.

I know it's all me, all my perceptions, but still, it's a bit weird.

The apartment is as ready as it'll ever be, the car is loaded up with what we need so we don't have to waste time packing, my sub plans are written for the rest of the month, it's all ready. Now we're just waiting for Lorelei to make her grand entrance and she's being stubborn and refusing to show!

Her due date was last friday, the 11th. I know it's very common for first time mothers to go past their due date. And the ultrasound and fetal heart rate check on Monday showed everything was fine. I'm kinda worried that Amanda hasn't had hardly any contractions of any kind though. The longer this goes on, the more worried I get that she'll have to be induced or even deliver via cesearean. Neither of us really want that.

I'm starting to lose sleep over this (not like Amanda who gets up every hour to go to the bathroom) and I'm really feeling it in my back. Of course, Amanda can now barely walk, so she automatically trumps any complaint I have.

I'm just ready to be a daddy and I just want everything to go nice and smooth and the longer things go, the more time I have to worry...