So I'm watching Drag Me To Hell on the Monster Penis System, with surround sound Dolby. And the problem I'm having is with every goddamned horror film in existence:

Step 1: Can't hear actors speaking. Turn up sound.

STEP 2: SCARY THING HAPPENS, WITH BOOM-STING THUNDERCLAP THAT GINI HEARS THIRTY FEET AWAY IN HER ROOM WITH THE DOORS CLOSED.

Step 3: Turn down sound. Dab excess blood from ears.

Step 4: Actors are saying something. What? Probably relevant to whatever's passing for a plot. I should hear this.

STEP 5: SHRIEK! WHAM! BAM! GINI YELLS, TURN THAT DOWN.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Tags: food, house schtuff, tired, to do

Bah My dryer stopped working this morning!
Woot fragbert works from home and lives close by so I could scoot over there to have clean, dry clothes to wear to work tonight!

I've decided to not worry about the dryer until after January. If it's a belt, that's a relatively easy fix. If it's more than that I'll pick up one from Craigslist. Easy peasy either way.

Had a lovely visit with my sweetie while my clothes tumbled. We caught up with each others' lives, ate donuts, drank coffee, and laughed over 'Lego Star Wars'. It was a nice cap to a decent day off.

My day off started by chatting with beloved james_the_evil1 as I drove to the EvilEmpire for groceries and cat food. I decided that this week would be simply microwave meals instead of trying to cook either after I get home or before I leave for work. I did some chores, gathered up some things I'm gifting to a co-worker's children, worked on present for my cousin, made some black bean soup... all in all a nicely productive and relaxing day.

I'm off to bed in a few hours so going to unwind and read :)

Current Mood: good

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their lives, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute! Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating THAT PERSON? Since when?" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! [Or don't, or post in comments, as you like.] Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-word answers seldom help anyone out.

FIRST NAME:  David

AGE: 41

LOCATION: Cibolo, TX (near San Antonio where I work)

OCCUPATION: Senior Lead Consultant for Catapult Systems.  I used to manage the SharePoint Practice for San Antonio, but now I am in charge of Federal Bids.  So, I read bunches of e-mails and try to figure out if we should bid on various projects.

PARTNER: Moonsinger and I have been married for over 19 years, dating for 21 and known each other for 23.  Its great to find someone who completes you.

KIDS: In October of 2000 we were given the gift of the most beautiful little girl in the world…Rhiannon.  She has gotten more beautiful and wonderful with age.  Keeping her in books is proving to be the most challenging part of raising her (so far…she hasn’t discovered boys yet).  Then in late 2005 we were surprised to learn that we would be a family of four.  Alastair joined us in April of 2006 and he has brought even more joy to our lives.  I am lucky to have such a family.

BROTHERS/SISTERS:  My oldest brother is Charlie.  He is known for his sense of humor and always sends me a funny B-day card.  He is a Vet working for a global poultry company.  Ed is my just older brother and was my idol growing up.  He is a lawyer for the FBI.

PETS: None currently.  We lost our dog Hunter in October (http://dbroussa.livejournal.com/556365.html).  He was a great dog and we miss him.  We are gonna wait on another dog until Al is a bit older.

3 THINGS GOING ON IN MY LIFE:

1. Work – when we moved back to SA it was for me to take a job where I am in much more of a management role.  As a result, it is much more difficult for me to compartmentalize work away from my life as it tends to consume all my time.  Its proving to be a tough balance and I am not sure how it will get resolved.  I recently changed my role a bit and I am still figuring out how that will affect me.
2. Family – Moonsinger and I still do a lot of RPing between the two of us.  Rhiannon is still in Karate (though her interest in waning as she appears to have hit a progress wall).  I am not sure if she is still getting benefit from Karate anymore.  Al is making huge progress with his speech therapy and is such a joy to have around.  We recently got a second working car and Moonsinger is picking up the kids from school (and taking Al).  This is likely going to make out lives much easier
3. Friends – We try to get together with friends every weekend.  It doesn't always happen, but we try.  I was running two D&D games (both 4th ed, which I rather like).  One is set in Eberron (and is a continuation of a 3.5 Eberron game I was running for the same crew), and the second is in a world of my creation with a nasty Human-centric empire to the South of the area of the adventure.  The humans that live in the Kingdom of the Three Rivers were expulsed from their lands to the south by the Empire about a hundred years earlier.  To the north the Elves and other Fae live in the forests and gave the humans leave to settle the plains.  Now the humans are growing and starting to infringe on the forests.  This has almost lead to war between the Elves and the Humans when the Empire strikes from the South.  Its a neat political drama that the PCs aren’t seeing a ton of (mostly because I appear to have problems being creative currently…see item #1).

PARENTS: My parents just celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary on Nov 25th.  My Dad just had his knee replaced (well almost a year ago), and my Mom is a Type II diabetic.  As they grow older I dread the phone call that I know will come someday.  My second set of parents (In-Laws) have been another huge blessing in my life.  They love me like a son, and I love them like my parents because I am, and they are.

CLOSE FRIENDS: My closest friend is Moonsinger, outside of her, my closest friend is Paul Arnold.  He and I have been friends since I was in college.  Mack whom we knew many years ago in the Cam and reconnected with when we moved back to SA has become a great friend.  It helps that we live about 2 miles apart and our kids are very close to the same age.  Andrew, Jess, and Cat are also great friends.  We have known Andrew since the late 90s and he has been a steady and loyal friend.  I have numerous other friends, but these are the ones that I spend the most time with right now.

Post something. I think the holdover from my friends and the people who belong to weirdjews2 is less these days than it used to be. And that's great because when I started that thing it was only my friends joining it.

So yeah, if you could post something that would be great. Nothing sadder when the only person posting to a community is the moderator.

The fascinating thing about The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is not just the way Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankster presented a bridge between the Beats (who were largely New York intellectuals with a self-destructive streak) and the hippies of the late 60s, but how it described a movement that was traditionally American and part of this strange result of the Freedom of Religion in which Americans need to have religions that speak to them on an emotional level and how we sometimes need to have revivals.

The main difference between the religious revivals of the 60s and 70s and the religious revivals of the 19th century is the general guidelines. In the 60s and 70s there was a need to find non-Christian faiths like Buddhism or Hinduism adapted to 20th century American standards. Like when Jack Kerouac describes a Boddhivista as "the chick that has sex with a bunch of dudes for their enlightenment" in The Dharma Bums. In the 19th century the religious revivals were mostly Christian - very weird versions of Christianity (Mormons, JW, Xian Scientist, etc.) with a few non-Christian varieties like Transcendentialism. And the communes were a little different. The Oneida Community had a free love feel but there were some very rigid rules over who could shtup whom (similar to the Waco compoud).

Anyhow Ken Kesey would provide a template for the new religious revival of the 60s which produced or fostered the Wiccans, the neo-Buddhists, the Manson cult, the Jesus Freaks and a revival in traditional religions like Charismatic Christian and Orthodox Jewish (particularly Chabad who suddenly decided to start revivalist preaching and sending out missions). As with the 19th century revivals, some were mind control cults, some died out and some survived with the next generations calming the fuck down.

Got a last minute appointment with my doc tomorrow at 11am. My depression has steadily gotten worse over the last week. I'm fairly sure the only reason I didn't have a full on breakdown this weekend was being around friends on Saturday, running around with Mom on Sunday, and Cthulhumas shopping. Yes, retail therapy works for me even if I'm not buying stuff for myself. So, I go in, see the doc, and see what we can do. *tries to be hopeful* Any good thoughts/prayers/sacrifices to Cthulhu will be appreciated.

Current Mood: blah

So the Governors race (primary) has started to get underway.  There are four major candidates running in two parties (which is a big difference from last election with four major candidates in four parties).  The main people are:

• Rick Perry – incumbent winner in 2006 with about 35% of the vote in a four way race
• Kay Bailey Hutchison – current US Senator originally was going to resign, but has decided to stay in the Senate through the primary
• Bill White – Mayor of Houston and considered a “moderate” Democrat
• Kinky Friedman – came in fourth last go round as an independent and running now as a Democrat.

There were some others who were running on the Democrat side, but when Bill White announced, they dropped out.  Overall this field leaves me a slightly bad taste in my mouth.  I flat out refuse to vote for Rick Perry and would likely even vote for Bill White over him for Governor.  His conduct after the primary in 2006 through the general election was so disgusting that he permanently lost my vote.  His initial ads in the race this year have all been attack ads against Kay Bailey and that has further alienated me.  Kay Bailey has run a few ads that have been positive.  Her only dig (so far) against Gov Perry is that she uses his quotes praising her in her ads.

Bill White has done a decent job as mayor of Houston.  The one thing that he did that I was opposed to (off the top of my head) was instituting the Safe-Clear program, thought to his credit the program was modified when the citizens yanked out the pitchforks and torches.  However, since I didn’t live in the city of Houston I didn’t get too fired up about someone that I had no say in electing.  I have seen much worse as a mayor (the current mayor of San Antonio comes to mind).

Kinky was the person that I voted for last election.  I am sorry that he didn’t do all the well in the election as I liked some of the things that he campaigned for.  Unfortunately, he has turned out to be more of a chameleon/politician then most regular politicians.  In ‘06 he was on the radio in Houston a fair number of times.  The stations that he was on were conservative in nature and he talked a good Libertarian/Conservative platform.  A bunch of getting the gov’t out of our lives and letting Texans do what we wanted to.  A few months ago I was in Austin as Kinky was getting ready to announce his run in ‘10 and I heard him on a Liberal station.  Here he was spouting every Liberal talking point and how he, as Governor, would use the gov’t to solve all of our problems. 

So, Perry is a non-starter (for a number of reason, but first and foremost because of how he screwed property owners in Texas with his property tax rebate in ‘06 and using that as a reason that he would not reduce the property tax appraisal cap from 10% to 5%.  Sure, my taxes went down…for a year…by year two I was paying what I had been paying two years prior and in year three I was paying more.  By year four I had paid back the “rebate” and then some.  All without the mill rate ever increasing.  Since Perry is vehemently opposed to realistic property tax reform, violated his campaign promised on border security, and now feels that instead of further lies about what he will do as Governor he will just attack Kay Bailey…Perry = FAIL.

Should Perry win the nomination from the GOP, then I will consider voting for White.  Sorry Kinky, after hearing your pandering to the far left I feel that I cannot support you anymore.

We have concluded that Leo gets his outgoing personality from his mother and his attention span from me.

Yesterday was a busy day for the David Family. Peter went up to Sacred Heart for Ariel’s Winter Concert and met up with Gwen there. Caroline and I went into New York City to see the holiday sites and meet up with Peter to see The Princess and the Frog at the Ziegfeld with a trip to the a Disney exhibit as part of the package. We had dinner with Gwen at a very nice deli and went to see the movie. I am glad we went to see it when we did. It is nice to see a film where the entire audience wanted to be there. There were no cell phones in use during the movie in my range of vision. There were three generations of families sitting together watching the film. The reaction was very positive and the audience applauded at the end of the various musical numbers.

At the end of the film, we hot-footed it to the Roseland Ballroom which was transformed into a Disney Wonderland. Caroline met all the princesses including Tiana and got to talk to them. Her face was glowing with happiness as were a lot of other little girls there as well. She did arts and crafts, played in a playground based on the Bayou as depicted in the film. We drew with one of the Disney Animators and got our picture taken as a family reacting to one of the characters in the film. We had a splendid Disney Evening.

Behind the cut are my thoughts on the film. I am trying to stay away from spoilers and I ask that others leave it in rather broad strokes until the film opens nationally.

( Enchanting )

I am grateful that we took Caroline to see this film for her birthday weekend.