Jazz and Shizz

I thought about getting a beer to go with today's installment then I thought better of it because I really don't feel like having a beer just to have a beer you know, especially some domestic beer like Miller Lite or something... Now if mayber, per chance, there was a Southwicks... then maybe... Nah, I still wouldn't want one, and if I did I am pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be writing here at this point in time any more than I do at the moment. So you know what that means right?

If it is to be it is up to me and all that jazz!

I love how I just took two different phrases and melded them together into some sort of weird mantra that gets me slightly motivated about doing this writing thing which I would think would not be needing any motivation especially since I have written over one hundred and fifteen thousand words over the past three and one half months.not that it means that much unless you want a book of gibberish, half truths some wicked expose and a lot of, but not as many as you probably think, I I I I I I  I I I I I I  I I I I I I I  I I I I I I  II  I I I I I I  I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I II I  I I II  II I I  II  II I I I I I I I I I II I II I I I II I II I I I  II 'S

So whacked out I am that I feel justified in writing several I's and feel like I have written several other words that I can string together to make wonderful sentences, mesmerizing paragraphs and sensuous chapters that make up such a loving book that generations will cherish and share with their children and grandchildren and which someday a rare first edition of it will be auctioned off at Christie's and fetch over seventy seven million dollars, of which I will see none of, but whomever does sell it for that, I hope you do good things with it.

Hey have I told you that I am some sort of freak genius that knows stuff that others just cannot comprehend - either that I know it or that I know it, you know what I mean? Maybe I should put some sort of emphasis on there and then add at the end of the paragraph a parenthetical stating that the emphasis was added. Because that is what the cool people do and I just know that I am one of the cool people at least in my mind although there has been some recent stirrings going on in there that make me somewhat nervous due to the fact that there are way more of them than there is of them?

Anyway.

Yesterday I said that Michelle Bachmann would drop out of the race for the good old party's presidential nomination, and guess what? She did. I also said that Rick Perry would probably think long and hard about his choices and then decide to quit the race as well... okay I didn't actually say all that, the Rick Perry part I am so owning the Michelle Bachmann part because , well, you know I actually published that shizz on my blog and who knows maybe this will go there as well, only I need to start insulting more people and causing a stirring in the controversial pot, so to speak, because you know life around the blog is rather boring and dull and out of specifications when it comes to the almighty SEO and shizz.

No, I have no idea what SEO and shizz actually stand for or mean, but I do like dropping them in here every now and again because like the good Doctor would say "they are like bow ties, so they are cool." I'm am pretty sure that he would say that and I firmly believe that the only reason he didn't like the apple that Amelia Pond gave him was because it was neither a Gala nor a Fuji apple which are BY FAR, the absolute best apples ever made/created/ hatched/grown/harvested - whatever. Funny how just by adding that slash in between those five words, it made it look like and only count as one. What "it" is - it is definitely not some freaky freaking clown that lives in the storm sewer, but rather the program that I originally typed all this shizz (see I cannot stay away from it) on for 750words.com and that is where I am at write now, so to speak in a purely metaphysical manner - at least I think it is an a metaphysical manner otherwise I totally use that word wrong and it takes my whole genius claim and throws it out the door.

Got it?

Pax!

A Rant, of sorts

This is getting to be a bit nuts, I mean here I go and plan everything down to the minute, more or less, okay maybe it is closer to the hour, but still. Here I am with fifty nine minutes left to write my seven hundred and fifty words and I have nothing to say or write about... The Iiowa caucua weas today and wow, did I ever butcher those three words... Iowa caucus was today  - much better, and you know what we found out? That they cannot decide between the ultra social conservative Catholic Rick Santorum, who by the way supported a pro choice candidate over a pro life one which is a big no no in my book, so he will not be getting my vote in the primary (if he is even still around) and the somewhat wishy washy conservative wanna be who is more of a moderate than anything else and who has also flipped on the whole pro life dealy and brought Romney Care to Massachusetts which is just as bad, if not worse than Obama care, Mitt Romney.

*** just because spell check says that I have misspelled some words does not mean that they are misspelled okay? Just saying that some of the words I use are words that others just haven't thought of yet***

Where was I? Oh yeah, Iowa. So what have we learned? Let's see; Rick Perry spent a boatload of money to finish in fifth place out of six candidates that were running in Iowa. Technically there were seven on the ballot but John Huntsman decided to not even try and win the state and is sitting back enjoying some martini's in New Hampshire. Michelle Bachmann will probably start concentrating on her reelection campaign for her seat in the House from Minnesota (she came in sixth by the way). Newt Gingrich didn't do too bad considering that he never really started putting people in the state to help him until about a month ago when he became the candidate du jour. Ron Paul, that crazy Republican, er Libertarian from Texas came in third with about twenty percent of the vote, which is not bad for a crazy old man that claims he isn't a politician even though he has spent nearly thirty years in political office of some shape or form, including the past twenty four years as a congressman from the great state of Texas. I think I have that right, if this is posted and I am wrong and my son Benjy sees it, he will correct me no doubt. He is a huge rEVOLution guy and believes that Ron Paul is the bees knees so to speak. I like his stance on the Fed (a waste of government expenditure), the UN ( a waste in general), but do not agree with him in regards to national defense, in particular our current policy of trying to help keep the peace world wide and bombings those that disagree with us.... wait, I don't really like that either. Maybe that candidate predictor thing that I took was correct and I am a Ron Paul supporter. News to me, but I digress.

Which leads us to our two top dogs in the Iowa caucus, Mr. Santorum - a Catholic that apparently forgot what the Church teaches with regards to the sanctity of life, when it came to supporting a pro choice weasel (Arlen Spector, over a pro life candidate Pat (I think) Toomey - and Mitt Romney the multi millionaire former governor of the fine state of Massachusetts, who said he was pro choice to get elected in the pro choice state and then when it came to the national audience he is now pro life and says that he has always been - oh and he is also a Mormon which I really don't care about, but those crazy evangelicals will I am sure. And you know what? I got so long winded there that I completely forgot where I was going...

Or did I?

That is the point I think. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been determined here today in the caucus of Iowa. I do believe this though, Mitt Romney will be rolling over every single candidate - including you and your martini's Mr Huntsman - in New Hampshire and will then probably roll to a couple more victories on the way to the ultimate prize on Super Tuesday and he will be the candidate for president of these here United States against the bozo that is there now. And I don't mean to besmirch Bozo the Clown with that comment, because I actually like that clown. Anyway, that's how I see it and that is how it has been written by me. I think I will post a briefer version of this on my blog for the world to get mad at me about. I love that sort of thing, don't you know.

Since this will be posted there, I should point out that this entire piece was written in about twenty minutes without any supporting documentation, so in other words it is an opinion piece and it is mine, so take it or leave it as I am not really caring. Oh, and any misspellings are more than likely intentional, as is the piss poor grammar. What can I say, it is late at night, my back hurts and I think I need to lie down and get some sleep.

Pax!

Happy New Year!

Wow, can you believe that it is 2012 already? Where has the time gone? Let's see if we can do a recap here for you - by that I mean, let's see what I can remember.

January - Cold... Grey... COLD. Pretty much wraps that month up. Well, that and I continued to work out at the gym to lose my winter weight that I have acquired over eighteen plus winters of marriage. What can I see, I like being the jolly guy apparently - and in case you were wondering, I still have a bit of weight to lose, not as much as before, but still more than I am proud of.

February - Work is starting to take its toll on our hero as he is coming to the realization that he has a job that has no description and has two bosses that have no idea what to do with each other let alone with him. This will prove to be an interesting time in his life as he tries to work out all of this while keeping his multiple bosses happy, as well as, those who look to him for guidance and the like. I also think that we had a "snow day" for work - paid even, because of a pretty big snow storm. Or it could have happened in March, like I said I am trying to remember these things, and I am not relying on the blog, which seems odd to me now that I think about it.

March - Danny turned five, which means there is a Disney trip in his near future- lucky kid. Oh wait, what's that, we get to go too? Sa-weet! Now June is gonna rock way more than it normally does. Jenni also had a birthday, and if I say so myself - which I always do - she looks great! I am so blessed to have her as my wife and best friend.

April - Pretty blase' month to tell you the truth, as I don't think anything really happened then, other that the promise of a great vacation in two months and some better weather.

May - Maggie received her first Holy Communion in May, she is growing up so fast. Andy also finished his sophomore year at Loras.

June  - Dominated by a certain trip to a certain magical place in Florida, I am sure I might have mentioned it a few times, and I bet I added some pictures as well. And since I didn't blog nearly as much as I liked in 2011, it shouldn't be too hard to find, right? Jenni and I celebrated our nineteen years together in Orlando, granted we weren't there on the actual date of our anniversary, but it was close enough.

July - the shoes started dropping at work. I was put back on the bench, which really wasn't a bad thing, since I really don't believe that there was much focus on the top and it enabled me to feel productive once again and start working and earning some over time pay again, which is always very helpful, let me tell you. The country celebrated it's 235th anniversary, even with the knuckleheads in Washington doing their best to bankrupt us and make us start to burn like Rome did so many centuries ago. Will 2012  show any kind of changes, probably not since they are all politicians that care more about themselves then anything else, which is really sad and I am pretty sure that the founders are rolling their eyes while rolling in their graves over what has become of this once fine republic. Oh yeah, and Timmy turned two!

August - brought the school year back to a start and a trip to Wisconsin for me - my first work onsite in almost five years. It was nice to get that change of pace, but I really do miss my family while away, and I don't think that I could ever see myself doing that kind of work for very long. A week every now and again, might be okay, but I would really rather just hang loose at home and soak in the atmosphere and climate.

September - brought Katie closer to the teen years and brought a close to a chapter at work that involved my direct supervisor for almost five years leaving the company to pursue other opportunities - in other words he was shown the door because they felt that the issues brought up by him were just too dang logical or something and we can't have anybody thinking like that now can we? Never mind the fact that in the few months he has been gone, we have started to implement changes that he wanted to do all along. Guess he was just too smart for them.

October - brought Benjy closer to the end of his teen years and Jessie fully enveloped into hers. Oh and I had a birthday as well. I also started writing daily at 750words.com. I have well over 100,000 words written that will make a great work some day. Only if it can be deciphered by the few that are as crazy as I am I imagine. It also inspired me to get back to blogging here on a regular basis, starting with today, we'll see how long and well it will last and go. I do want to make the time to pursue it though, as I think I am finally realizing how important it is to me.

November - Maggie has one year left in the single digits, and apparently still rules the roost when it comes to me. Yes, she is my baby girl and all but there should be better limits set by me I think. I may learn this one day. The weather hasn't been to bad and there was this quarterback for the Denver Broncos that started doing some pretty amazing and heroic things, well that and his awesome defense and special teams - more on them later, and by later I do not necessarily mean in this post.

December - Saw the end of an era for one of my children, illegal drinking. That's right, Andy became a full-fledged legal drinker at the ripe old age of twenty-one. Talk about culture shock, and the fact that he can drink me under a table does concern me, until I look back at my early twenties and say "Thank God I am still alive." Hopefully he will be able to look back in twenty plus years and say the same thing. Jenni got herself an iPad for Christmas, I got a Kindle Fire, Benjy and Jessie got iPod touches, Katie got a Kindle... So we will be ignoring the rest of the family now I imagine. I am kidding, besides Maggie has used my Kindle more than I have.

Not much of a review, but it really wasn't going to be anyway, I mean 365 days is a lot of stuff to remember. So here is what I hope to accomplish for this year - which has 366 days in it by the way, I plan to write more and take more photographs - at least one entry of both per day on the blog, although the pictures might be posted once a week - I haven't decided yet. I also want to try to read three books per month, and write a review for each one read, there will be pages dedicated to these things, so if you want to just see my pictures look at the picture page, if you want to see what I have read, look at the books read page and if you want to see what those voices in my head keep saying, well just keep on coming back.

Together we are going to make 2012 an awesome year, so let's get on with it, okay?

P.S. - That is totally my artwork at the top of the page, it took me all of thirty eight seconds to make, I hope you like it.

A Cry For Help

So now that I am back from the euphoria of reaching fifty thousand words in a little over a month (not even the month of November), I have come to the realization (finally!) that I can indeed write a lot of words in a fairly short amount of time, but I have a problem.

Focus.

Or lack thereof, to be exact.

Oh sure, I can write thousands of words, heck even millions of them, but without any kind of focus, what good is it? So I am here to ask for some guidance, pressure, focus, whatever you can think of by helping me to focus on a goal. The goal of actually completing a complete story, as opposed to throwing bits and pieces of tease here and there - although I do like a good tease...

Like I said, I think I need some focus, so I am coming to you who still read these pages to assist me with this.

Should I write about...

 A pregnant woman that gets bitten by a werewolf, while he is in human form, and then gives birth to a litter of puppies that are actually a kind of hybrid werewolf, in that they are only human during the full moon (or I was thinking even during say the 90% phases of the moon, you know before and after the actual full moon). I would follow their story and see that not all werewolves are the same, I figure I will have a good wolf, a bad wolf and a confused wolf - or something like that. I'm sure if I focused enough on it I could make something work.

****

The pyramids that are near the Mississippi River and that hold secrets never before seen by men in modern times. Yeah, I know that there aren't pyramids in Illinois near the Mississippi River, or are there? I have a story in mind that tells the tale of some Spaniards coming across these great pyramids and seeing that there is an expansive cave underneath one, they start to stash their gold and jewels, etc there. Or maybe I can have people from even farther back doing this. And then sometime in the early twentieth century an explorer stumbles upon an entrance to these caves and as he is working his way out of the cave, he gets trapped, along with the secret, by an earthquake that closes the entry off.  Move forward to modern times and another explorer, make that a hiker/camper finds something interesting which leads him on an amazing trail...

****

There is also a story in there (there being inside my head) that takes us to a wondrous world where everything is just wonderful and idyllic until tragedy strikes (darn that evil tragedy) and ruins every one's day. This I will admit is very vague, and probably shouldn't be considered, but it is a beginning - not like any other beginnings, right. Yes that was sarcasm.

****

I have a tale of space exploration that is tickling the inner brain and making me want to share it, but like the previous mention, it is very very vague and may just be a little spark. You need sparks to get that fire burning though, so it's not bad.

****

I also have ideas about time travel that I would like to pursue more, especially since history has always fascinated me and I think that it would be interesting to see what would change if one could go back in time and change an event in history. Of course it will all go wrong, because what fun would it be to have someone kill off Napoleon before he gets into trouble, if you can't have someone else take his place that is even worse. So you come back to your time and see that you made things worse.

*****

 I have countless more in there that are just ideas, even just a word or two that for some reason don't want to leave my subconsciousness, but because I lack in this whole focus thing, they never turn into sentences or even paragraphs.

*****

So my friends, I am looking for some help, and if you have come here because I shared this on Google+, welcome and please feel free to help get me out of my rut and give me a nudge in a direction that will produce results rather than words. Also please realize that I feel like I am standing here naked now, because I am usually a very shy person, and don't like to shine any kind of spot light on myself, so I am really stepping out of any kind of comfort zone I have.

I really, really would appreciate any kind of help..

Thanks,
Roger

50,000 in 43.

Okay, I love pulling practical jokes on people.

Especially gullible people.

Now is this nice, probably not, but it is all in good clean fun.

I just noticed that the font here on this site is a little different than it had been in the past, almost like it is trying to mimic the font of my blog. How cool is that? Talk about your flattery.

Okay, not really.

Guess what? At some point today, during whatever it is that I am doing here at this point in time, I will surpass 50,000 words in just forty three entries or days of writing here. That's right fifty thousand words. Amazing. I have nanowrimo'd myself in a little more than a month. Am I awesome or what?

probably or what.

Shut up.

Anyway, as of the beginning of this entry I had less than five hundred words to go to reach that milestone of fifty thousand, so somewhere in the next four hundred, or so, words I will be closer to one hundred thousand than I am to zero. I'm so giddy about this that I cannot write any faster than that of a crawling snail, which I don't think actually crawl more than slither from place to place - I honestly don't know.

Now for the caveat...

I hate the caveat, just saying.

There are a few entries where I did the writing before hand, but I think they should still count, so there.

****

Big plans for today the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the twenty first century. We're talking partay for Jessica! She turned fourteen a couple of weeks ago, but because of volleyball, and Halloween and what not we decided to have her party today. I suggested that it should last until eleven eleven post meridian (did you see what I just did there?), but she has to get up and take a test tomorrow, a Saturday no less, so the festivities will be winding down around ten.

There will be ten teenage girls in addition to my one hanging out, in what should be an epic occasion that will be spoken of for years to come. Or something like that.

****

Yesterday I was bragging about my forty seven words per minute pace (did it again!), only to have slowed down to a mere forty three for yesterday's pace. Today, I feel like I might break thirty if I am lucky. This must be what it feels like to walk through molasses in January or something. I think I have used the word something somewhere around too many times in this post, so from now on - at least with regards to this post, there will be no more somethings - after that one of course.

*****

Did you see that I shared yesterday's post on my blog? Dis you see that I have had more posts this month than the previous three months combined? I think I am coming out of my no blogging phase, which means that you will need to stop by more often to catch up on the comings and goings of your favorite Roger, er blogger, er whatever. That's a cool blog to visit as well, very well attended and he gives good advice on writing and has quirky pictures of cats and all - which I really don't understand, so if someone would care to explain that to me I would really appreciate it. Who knows, maybe I'll start posting pictures of my cat more - and then get a couple more to have even more fun, if that is even possible.

*****

Well, I have now broken into the plus fifty thousand club, if there is such a thing, so I think I shall have to party along with my daughter tonight - we're having chicken tacos, that are so, so good. Dare I say that they are awesome? And easy to make as well. Here's the recipe.... chicken breasts (de-boned and de-skinned), chicken broth and taco seasoning (you choose; hot, medium or mild) and a crock pot. Throw everything in the crock pot, turn up the heat, and six hours later a meal has been made. We roll the chicken in tortillas, but i imagine that they will be just as tasty in a crunchy shell as well. Pretty awesome and easy, not to mention cheaper and better tasting than something similar from Taco Bell.

Well, I should be going now, I hope you enjoyed the visit, and like I said, come back for more later.

Pax!

11/11/11 11:11

That's a lot of ones!

What does it mean? I have no idea but I have been told that if you make a wish at 11:11 it will come true. Apparently that is only for wishes that don't include large payoffs from lottery winnings. Alas, I will make a wish on this auspicious occasion, is it really auspicious, gonna have to check Webster's to see if I am using it correctly, but I will do that later, after all I have a wish to make....

There, done!

What? You expect me to share it with you? I think that is against the rules or something. Let's just say it has something to do with all the insanity in the world around us and such.

Anyway, have a great day, and don't forget to hug a Veteran, which is way more important than a silly wish anyway.

More Phone Photos

First Day of School!

Maggie playing in the sunroof (no I wasn't driving at the time)

Bath Time!! Check out the Mohawks!!

Danny, Katie and Timmy

Our college junior, Andy!!

All the kids, except Benjy - he's camera shy apparently. Not really.