When I was twenty-two...

I borrowed a Sinatra CD from my brother-in-law called "The Very Good Years" which was a compilation. So, I've been listening to that since yesterday. And the songs are all in my head.

I don't know what it is, but Frank has a way of making everything fade away. No matter what is going on in my life, or the world, none of it matters when I'm listening to these songs. It's really something I haven't experienced before. I have always loved standards, but Frank does 'em right. It's a real mood changer. This is what music should be all about. It lets me escape my frustrations for a little bit, not dwell on them, like a lot of current stuff seems to do.

I guess Frank doesn't appeal to everyone, but... why not?

WAYne

I thought I was good at spelling

I thought "fiancée" was the only way to spell it. But dictionary.com says that "fiancée" means the woman to whom a man is engaged. The correct word for me is "fiancé."

Man, do I feel stupid.

WAYne

I wanted to stay and chat, but I was otherwise engaged

I just downloaded all of my engagement pictures today. I picked my favorite one and I'm posting it here. I know my hair looks like crap, but it was really windy there. We went back and took pictures on the spot where I proposed on the end of the pier in Grand Haven, MI. That's where the second picture was taken.





Enjoy,
WAYne

Have you seen all of the pharmaceutical commercials that are playing now? The commercials don't even tell you what the drugs are for! What is the big secret with what drugs do? Are we supposed to know what they are for? They just show the one woman in her mid-thirties playing with some kid. Soft music plays in the background. The narrator does his voiceover after fifteen seconds are over... "Don't you want to get back to how life should be? Ask your doctor if Drixoracetamorphine is right for you. Drixoracetamorphine may cause abdominal cramps, unhealthy weight loss, impotency, acute bladder control, and a strong desire to dismember a relative." I have no idea how I'm supposed to know what to ask my doctor for my next appointment 8 years from now. How am I even a candidate? Is it even for men? Does my health insurance cover it? That's the real reason you have to ask your doctor, because he gets a cut of it. When you ask him, he leaves the room, but he's really checking how good your insurance is... "I could make out on this deal!" When he gets in the room again, he's all business, "We've determinied that you will be eligible for Drixoracetamorphine." You get all excited about your impotency... When the doctor gets home, he tells his wife, "Great job on those commercials, honey... Kids, we can keep the pool!"

WAYne

mean ol' pole cat

So, I've been splitting wood today. We had the wind from the hurricane uproot a tree and fall onto a car. Plus three large limbs fell in our backyard. One did no damage, one crushed a shed, one mangled a steel merri-go-round.

You might not think so, but splitting wood is a lot of fun. But it's nowhere near as easy as it looks at first. I had to develop my technique a lot before people would sing the theme song to Disney's Paul Bunyan every time I swung my maul. Now, I'm pretty much getting the split in one shot. Which looks very cool, and has a great sense of self-accomplishment that goes along with it.

Once I started splitting this particular limb, I noticed that the wood was rotten. It smells like fermentation, if that makes sense at all. We need to get this tree down, before it falls on something big with me inside of it. And the tree is old and huge. There's so much to do...

WAYne

Cigarette?

How many times have I stayed up so late doing absolutely nothing at all, that I see the sun peeking over the horizon? Way too many.

Today, I watched all six episodes of Police Squad. Man! Can I just say that the show was phenomenal? I laughed like crazy the entire time I watched them. I laughed until it hurt. I can't remember the last time I watched something that funny. It really struck a nerve with me, and I don't think I'll forget about the show any time soon. I hope they come out with it on DVD. This also gives me a reason to really watch the Naked Gun movies, although I don't know if they'll be as good.

I also watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I did not care for that much. maybe it's because I don't understand the "drugs" that the kids are into. I tried paying attention to the first 45 minutes, but I still wasn't really interested, so my mind drifted... back to Police Squad.

WAYne

What Am I Doing?

I just looked at a job offer that was semi-appealing for a web designer / net administrator. Turned out it was for an anti-gun coalition. I couldn't, in good conscience, drive into work every day blaring gangsta rap from my speakers, clock into work and oppose gun ownership, then drive home, attend an NRA meeting, play some Soldier of Fortune II, talk to my fiancee about coming up and shooting with her dad, and sleep with a gun under my pillow. It's not right, is it?

Well is it?

Test Nails Me Again

Conscious self	Overall self

Take Free Enneagram Test

Actually a very acurate portrayal of me, I believe. Good test.

What Happened To Talent?

It used to be that musical performers would write their own songs, practice them, then perform them. That seems like a good system, right? It didn't take long before singers performed the songs written by others. That's fine, we can all deal with that. Somewhere along the line, dance steps were added into the songs to liven it up. I don't suppose anybody minded that, because it added something visually to the song.

I am now realizing that some entertainers have been skipping out on the writing (maybe because they can't read music?) and counting on their practice and performance to draw the crowds to their live shows. That's bad enough, but how many singers/dancers have chosen the lip-syncing over traditional performances in order to save their breath for the extensively choreographed dance numbers? So, what I'm left with is a someone dancing moves they didn't make up and not singing to pre-recorded music that they didn't write. If people want that, can't they just go to a strip club? I could do the exact same performance having never heard the song in my life.

How about this... sing the songs! Why does everything have to be a "One-Stop / Everything-At-Once Shop?" You really don't have to meet all of my entertainment needs in one show. Why can't you just pick one job and do it well? Maybe I'm the only one, but I've seen less show variety under a big top. Do you want to dance? Then shut up and dance. Do you want to sing? Stay put and sing. I mean, how many classy buffets do you know? See what I'm saying? If you can't do both without inhaling oxygen like it's "Glue Bottle Friday" at the local high school, then don't cheat your audience by mouthing the words. Because, these people didn't come to your show to hear the CD played back to them. They already know how that sounds. They want to hear what you sound like live.

I don't want to hear how tough "the road" is, because this is your job. Every person in that crowd spent some valuable nine to fives so they could come see you perform for them. That's all that you have to do, and you can't even do that right? I mean, come on! If your voice cracks and strains from singing all night, then that's good because it's only then that we know that you're really working, and secretly... we like it.

LiveJournal? more like... dead... something something

I don't even know why I signed up for this. Oh yeah, Quinn. That's how a lot of things happened to me on the Internet.
I remember when I was an net infant and I found Quinn's Dana Carvey page. Then we talked on IM for a while. Somehow a few months later, I had my own website (still just as crappy thanks to procrastination of epic proportions).
That was late 1997.
I didn't even know how sloppy her handwriting was then.