Merry Christmas

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas and God Bless from the Troxels.

Last Day in DC

So, with only a little reluctance, I'm happy to be heading home. Washington DC is a beautiful place and has been a great place to visit.

Yet, it's never worth enjoying without Lilah; and yes, we spend entirely too much time apart. This has, however, been everything for my career that we anticipated it would be and now as we have made the decision to move to Japan, we're definitly going to be spending some quality adventure time together. With Lilah taking on the roll of non-employed house wife for the first time, I'm very excited. Of course, there is also the talk of family and that in itself will be an incredible adventure. So many exciting things about to happen.

So Farewell DC! Perhaps we shall meet again.

Ohayo Gozaimasu!

For those who have been waiting on baited breath... we're heading to Japan. I know that there are a million questions that need to be answered, because honestly we're the first in line with those questions.

What we do know is that it will take a number of months to actually get out of here and over there. We are going to do a week or so site visit during the second week of January and then start the arduous task of getting all our house hold items seperated into Pitch, Donate, Store, or Transport piles. There are also quite a few legal issues to deal with, a house builder to coordinate with--yes we're keeping our house and keeping our remodelling plans--there are literally an unknown number of things that need to be done and done as quickly as possible.

And yes, we are very excited!

Lilah's Successful Surgery

Yup, she's out of her oral surgery and doing well. Not much more to say than that... she's doing fine and we'll be making our very big decision on where we're moving to by Monday.

For those who haven't heard, we have two official job offers: one in Washington DC and one in Yokosuka, Japan. Both are senior management positions, both are excellent career opportunities, both have their plusses and minuses. For Japan there is the experience of a lifetime, the chance to learn a new language and culture, more waterfront management experience, and the challenge of tackling a high-profile objective and making or breaking a career on the rocks of success or failure. But Japan is a three year minimum tour and that means not seeing friends or family for a very long time. DC offers the allure of our Nation's capital, the excitement of corporate headquarters and the career opportunities in budgeting and finance, the ability to rapidly rise amongst the ranks, and the better path toward the top echelon of management. But DC is much more expensive and would require Lilah to work instead of focusing on a family and maybe an advanced degree.

As I've told everyone I've talked to about this: there is no easy choice or decision... if there were, it would have already been made. We're up against a deadline for the Japan offer and that means making our decision by Monday.

I guess you'll know when we do.

:j

Subtlety? Yeah, right!



By the way, if you haven't clicked on this link recently, I've updated my list. My wife complained that all I had on my list were boring books about carpentry, etc. Now I have boring books about investing, too! Oh yeah, and quite a list of XBox 360 Games and accessories.

Did'ja Miss Us?

Well, we're back from Texas/Oklahoma. Which is to say, I'm back in Washington DC and Lilah is Back in Washington. We got into Seatac on Saturday evening about 6pm so that I could fly out on Sunday for DC. It's a long and frustrating tale about cancelled Travel plans from my Employeer, etc, but in the end I got a better trip on Alaska Airlines (come on MVP status!) that got me back here at a much more reasonable 5pm, vice my originally scheduled 11:30 pm arrival on United Airlines... through the DREADED Chicago, the great and all powerful cess pit of late (United) flights. Sorry to all my native Chicago friends, but I've yet to ever leave the O'Hare airport on time. Ever. Not even once. If someone sneezes too hard they shut the airport down; and their baggage handlers must have one iron clad union contract because the last 5 times I've flown through there the reason we were late was because of baggage. Not to mention the time earlier this year when I was stranded at O'Hare along with 100,000 of my closest friends for 3 days because of delays caused by... rain.

I digress. The point of the story was that when we woke up Sunday morning and went to check out, there was SNOW!!!! Not just a little snow, but big fatty flake snow! The first snow of the season and Lilah and I got to share the moment together. Now that's God smiling down, eh?

Of course, if you're a Monday night football fan, you saw the Seattle white stuff in all its glory. Not the glory of Jeremy "butter fingers" Stevens, mind you. Sure, he caught a touch down... eventually. But after his Superbowl performance I expected him to make a point of not dropping another ball for at least... oh I don't know, a decade, or something. So when he stopped running the route while crossing the endzone?!? JEREMY STEVENS! How could you? Now, Shawn Alexander... WOW BUDDY! How's that for a triumphant return? 201 Yards on 40 Carries?!? Yes! My only regret is the 3 hour time difference that sent me to bed steaming mad at just after the half. Thankfully, there's TIVO. Sure, I know the score, but I'll still be watching that glorious second half this afternoon after work.

Well, anyway, the next trip home is actually next Monday. I'll be in Bremerton for a week and a day: long enough for a conference and to take care of Lilah as she braves the removal of her last wisdom tooth, via surgery that will result in cracking the tooth into 3 or four pieces and then removing them right off the root. Keep us in your prayers.

Just a short two weeks after this return to DC, I'll be heading back to Bremerton for Good... or is it? We're still waiting on an offer from both Japan and from NAVSEA. Round and round and round we go... Where ever we stop, there better be snow!

Take care everyone. We'll keep you posted.

The Official Holiday Plan

Thanks Giving will be spent in Texas with a trip up to Oklahoma. In order for this to happen, I will be leaving Washington DC on the afternoon of Thursday Nov 16th and arriving late in the evening in Seattle. Me and the Missus will be getting a hotel in SEATAC to save a couple hours of travel time and ... snuggle. We fly out 8am on Friday and arrive in Dallas at 2pm in the afternoon. We then have to drive to the Avis Car Rental place at 15804 Addison Rd in Dallas. That a 20 mile drive, but it was a saving of over $100 compared to the airport so that's that.

Our current plan is to leave on Monday for Chickasha and stay Monday and Tuesday and either come back Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning to Farmer's Branch. On the return trip we leave Saturday afternoon at 2:43 pm (but we can drop the rental car off at the Airport without penalty) and arrive back in Seattle at just after 5pm, where again we will be staying in a hotel vice heading to the house because I have to be up for an early morning flight back to DC on Sunday.

For Christmas we're flying mom (Troxel) up for the week of the 22nd through the 29th. I'm supposed to fly back from DC to Washington on the same day, so we'll car pool it to the house. That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for cutting of the tree, setting it up, decorating, cooking, etc. but them's the breaks.

My lovely wife has expressed interest in doing a three day dog show in San Franciso for New Years, and that has kind of caught my attention. I know Calla had a weak season this year, but I think that was more because of my lack of grooming experience than her not being a great dog. I'm going to have to give Barb a call and see what she thinks, but that might be our plan for the new year. I still need to get firm dates to make sure we can get there and back in time, but it sounds neat.

So, that just leaves Veterans day this Friday. Hey Pattie! What cha doing this weekend? Is it snowing there yet? Want company?

:j

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I know that you are very busy and that you are probably cold right now cause you're in the North Pole and I've been a good boy this year. You get lots of letters and maybe they get lost cause Mrs. Clause hasn't got time to clean up after you all the time, so I'm putting my wish list over at Amazon.com and even though I'm not home right now I know you have your ways of finding out how to get here and my apartment doesn't have a chimney so it's okay if you use the mail.

Say hello to Rudolf for me.

Jason

Lost in LOST

Every one I know who watches LOST has a theory about what's going on, including me. Here's the theory that I emailed into Jay and Jack at lostpodcast@gmail.com.

This is going to require too much to phone in with; I hope you read it because I noticed that you don't read a lot of emails on your podcast. I've been listening to your show for just this season, so if this theory has surfaced before, I apologize. However, I've been checking around and haven't seen this spelled out before and in the episodes that I have listened to this season, I have problems with both the theories and the "crackpot" theories that I hear--they all either have some flaw that can't account for the time gaps and/or plane crash or they require a suspension of the basic theories that are the fabric of our existence.

I have a theory, though, that I have been chewing on for awhile and I think it's pretty sound--I say pretty because there is one scene in the past three years that might throw a bit of a wrench... but first the theory.

There was no plane crash. There is no island. Every one is safe and sound in Sydney Australia, but if they aren't...say they're in LA, that doesn't ruin my theory.

What is going on is that these people are in a Long term deep hypnotic group therapy session.

Here's my supporting evidence: (and I'm sure there's more)

1. People not only survived, but walked away from a an airplane crash--an airplane that was travelling at 500 miles per hour at 40,000 feet. Sorry, but that's not going to happen. One survivor in a million--maybe. 40 or more--fuggidaboudit.

2. Every single main character has significant issues that should be addressed in therapy:

• *Sayid has tortured people including his own superior officers, lost the woman he loved, and lived as a soldier through a traumatic war
• *Claire is pregnant, lost her fiancee (or husband) and was facing the trauma of giving up her baby for adoption
• *Jack lost his wife, ruined his father's career and blames himself for his fathers death.
• *Hugo won a bunch of money with the lottery and his whole world has changed--from him being a fry cook to being an incredibly rich man and this has put too much stress on him, especially since he used to be in a psych ward.
• *Shannon and Boone had an borderline incestuous relationship. Not only that but Shannon was a shallow and narcissistic person. Boone was a mama's boy with a crush on his step sister.
• * Sawyer is a con man who's killed a man because he can't come to grips with the wrongs done to his mother and father by another con man. Years of using people have deeply scared him.
• *Sun had an affair with another man and is carrying his baby, grew up under a domineering father, and lost the man she married to the father she resents. (The baby part is a mini-prediction)
• *Jin resented his father's social status in life but now resents the position he holds for Sun's father; also, I think he knew his wife was cheating on him and the death of Jae (Sun's lover) pushed him over the edge.
• *Kate has almost as much baggage as Jack: Killed her biological father, robbed banks, killed her partner, on the lamb from the law, no hope of redemption, etc.
• *Charlie lost his life to dope, lost his brother by his side, lost his career which he feels he never really gained appropriate credit for, and lost a girl that he really did love because of his buddy and the dope.
• *John Locke is another real prize winner--lost his father, found his father, had his father steal his kidney, lost his fiancee, has no respect at work, lost his new "hippy" commune family, lost the use of his legs. This guy has issues.
• *Michael lost his son early in his son's life because his wife left him for a better job and another man. Having never fully recovered from that, he's been stagnant and lost.

(There are newer characters that I've not included in this list because at some point, new characters might either be plants or they might be new patients. I'm fairly sure that some of the "others" are doctors or scientists there to help the above work through their issues and some of the others are control personnel.)

3. Boone and Shannon didn't die. They worked through their issues, found the peace that they needed to find and were withdrawn from the therapy: Shannon got over her narcissism and Boone got over his obsession with his sister and his dependence on his mother.

4. The island is equipped with controls to keep the patients in the proper observation areas. The "monster" is smoke and noise and violence... what logical real life explanation could this be? I propose that there are none--because this isn't real. It's a control device used to keep the patients from straying out of bounds.

5. Rousso is also a doctor and was the original control device until the patient group refused to be frightened into complacency by her stories of the whispers and the monster. She's only present when she's needed to shift the mentality of the group, from the maps to stealing the baby, to "introducing" Henry Gale to the group.

6. The Polar bear also fits into this "unbelievable" model. A polar bear would die from heat exhaustion on a tropical island. The amount of effort it would take to hunt food would be too much. But a polar bear is big and scary and would be something used to scare people into running away until Sawyer shot and killed one, so the scientists had to up the ante with the Monster and the Others.

7. The Hatch was another control method--used to occupy the patients while they worked through their issues, until Locke started rejecting the control because it didn't meet up with his expectations of his destiny. Desmond is a scientist and he set up the control for everyone to believe in. But then he just magically disappears because he owns a boat? That is until Locke starts rejecting the control, so then Desmond reappears to talk Locke out of it. But he can't; but at the same time Locke can't die or his therapy would have to start over---which is why there was the magic key--a get out of death free card. But while some fans are very happy that Locke is back to being the jungle man, I believe that scientists and doctors are upset because this is a step backward for him. That's why they sent Boone back in to help him find his way back toward recovery again.

8. Another hard to explain situation about LOST is the perceived time gaps and lapses. This is easily explained when you put the whole package into a group "Matrix-style" shared experience. It would be very difficult for the scientists to program out every second of every day; why not just cut out some of the unimportant parts?

9. Why an underwater hatch? Because the doctors needed to put Jack in a situation where he knew he couldn't escape in order to start breaking him down. Having worked on Submarines as a mechanical engineer for a number of years, I can tell you that metal and seawater are at constant war. IF that hatch was really underwater for the length of time they are presenting, then it would be leaking like crazy or just not there at all.

10. This theory also helps explain Jacks sighting of his father on the island, his sighting of the little girl in the corner of his cell, etc. It explains why food falls out of the sky (so the patients wouldn't spend so much time worrying about dieing), it would explain why every time this group tries to get off the island they are repelled back, and why the others know so absolutely much about each of these people. It explains why they have Television footage of the world series. It explains why everyone heals so rapidly from their wounds and why no one ever seems to need to shave or get their hair cut.

The more I think through this theory, the less time I spend wondering if it's correct, and the more I spend wondering who is a patient and who is a control or doctor. My prediction--the next "patient" to die on the island will be the next one to work through their original issues--and I'm predicting Claire, Jin, or Sun. I hope I haven't bored you too much with this theory, I know it's long winded, but I think it's pretty solid. Let me know what you think; enjoy the show.

Jason

Oh, by the way, the one scene I'm struggling with fitting into this model? Season Two Finale--Desmonds woman gets a phone call from some people sitting in an artic listening post. That one doesn't make sense to me yet.

One Weekend Closer to Home

And boy can I feel it! It seems like every time I say I'm going to stay home for awhile and lay off the travel a career opportunity pops up that I can't pass on and takes me away. This has been a VERY good career opportunity; perhaps one with big life changes in the near future. But right now my one and only concern is getting home to my wife and home. Of course, there's plenty of other concerns like our trip to Texas and Oklahoma coming up next month. And there's the house to deal with and all the associated goodness with that. But home is much needed.

This weekend I went back to the National Portrait Gallery and finished out what I had missed my previous trip. It was a good afternoon and I enjoyed getting out of the apartment. Of course, I didn some nesting too. I finished Medal Of Honor 2 on the Xbox 360 and am now working on finishing Kameo. These are video games, for those not in the know.

Anyway, not a lot to say, but I've been noticing that none of my buddies are updating their blogs with any regularity and I was just as guilty, so I thought I better get something out there.

Later.

Ostracized

You ever get the feeling that people are intentionally not talking to you? Maybe it's just me being alone over here on the east coast.

Maybe.

Anyway, on to airplanes. I understand that there are certain reasons that specific things need to happen on airplanes. Like a seatbelt, for instance. If you've ever seen the first season of Lost, there was this great scene shown over and over of a plane crash, and you could really tell who was wearing a seatbelt and who wasn't.
I would even go so far as to understand why you have your tray tables and seatbacks locked and in their upright positions. No one wants to eat a face full of upholstery or Formica in the event of an ugly landing. These things are very unlikely to happen, but it makes sense that we do them if you really strain your brain.

Then there are those other commands that you have no choice but to obey because they're all caveated with FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE, like we all carry around a copy of the aforementioned to verify whether they're pulling our leg or not, and even if they're completely making it up, those same regs say you have to obey the "flight attendants" commands, regardless of sanity. And what ever happened to stewards/esses? The reality of the situation is that soda and a snack is the primary reason that planes are staffed. Oh sure, you hear the smartly modified announcements: "Flight attendants primary functions are to ensure your safety", like they're whipping out an Allen wrench to tighten up the rivets along the superstructure; like even one percent of these attendants are flight qualified in the event that both captain and co-pilot were incapacitated; like one of these four or so underpaid attendants is going to plunge into a carotid artery in case of a rupture.

The whole thing is a placebo. It's the illusion of some critical element that really isn't doing anything.

The pre-flight safety brief? Placebo. If you don't know how to buckle the safety belt that's God's way of thinning the herd.

In the event of a water landing your seat cushion... Placebo: they won't do anything because an airplane has fallen from out of the sky where it was previously cruising along at 500 miles per house at 40,000 feet and it just collided with the water, which resulted in a rather sudden stop.

Oxygen masks will drop from the over head; the bags may not inflate but you will still receive oxygen... placebo, and not necessarily true; unbeknownst to most people, these non-pressurized supplemental systems don't have enough pressure to provide any oxygen to your bloodstream above about 28,000 feet. Don't believe me? Check out this ABC News article. It's not pretty: most people blackout over 15000 feet altitude. If there is pressure loss at 39K feet, you have about 9 seconds to don your mask before you black out... which you will still do even if you get it on in time, because it'll take the pilot about 90 seconds to get you below 28 thousand feet where your safety cones will start giving you the oxygen you need. Is it important to get the mask on? Yes... will it save your life? Maybe; but it's still a placebo.

So what's up with these other not so sensible requirements? Say for instance you want to have your window shade closed during landing because the sun is cooking you. Nope, sorry: FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE... Why? What possible impact will a closed window shade have on the pilot (unless of course it's his window shade.)? How about the reg that says you can't have headphones on, even if they're not plugged into anything? And really, what's wrong with an electronic device that doesn't transmit, like say an MP3 player? FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE...
I guess it could be that I'm just overly sensitive because I travel a lot. Maybe.

Give me a Break

I'll be flying home for the Columbus day Weekend. That's going to be a nice break. I leave on Thursday the 5th and return on Tuesday the 10th. That's the good news.

Whether or not I'll actually be coming home on time, i.e. the end of this trip, is in question. Rumor has me maybe staying until the 8th of December vice the 17th of November. Of course, if that's true, I'll still be flying home for Thanksgiving and on to Texas/Oklahoma. But it complicates things at least a little.

There you have it. :j

Catching up on pictures

200 lbs @ <14% body fat for 6 months

That's my goal. Reach 200 pounds, reduce to at or below 14% body fat. Maintain that status for 6 months.

If I do that, then I'm rewarding myself with one of these:
a Big Dog Motorcycle K-9 Chopper.

Just about everyone who knows me knows that I've been trying to lose weight for a long time. Today, I'm 260 pounds at 34% body fat, and that's the same place I've been for the last 6 months of "trying" to lose weight.

Well, there you have it. I'll keep you posted over time with the progress I make or don't make. But I really want that bike, so maybe this is the encouragement I need.

Oh, and for those of you who don't want me on a motorcycle: bugger off.

Calling All Cars

So, I know I just mentioned Storm and the Balls Yesterday as the band that I entered in the contest over at Engadget, but I'm really excited to tell everyone that their single "Ladylike" had made it onto iTunes! I've been trying to find Storm on iTunes for years, and searching by her name last night I had no luck; but the bands website said which single would be available on iTunes, so I searched for the song and viola! There it was!

Please please please, go and download the song! There are two versions and I will tell you that the explicit version is not for everyone. She uses the F work quite a lot, though I will defend her by saying that the context in which it's used is to express anger and angst, and it's therefore used correctly and not superfluously to merely draw attention. However, I also believe that the clean version is very acceptable replacing "what" for the f-word.

The chorus goes:
What the (f)what is Lady like if ladies like to do what they like, just like you.

where the what with the (f) in front of it is where the words are substituted.

Anyway, that's a really long way of saying, if you own an iPod, and you have 99 cents to spare, please please please give this band your support.

Also, for those friends who are interested in a pilgrimage this February, Storm and the Balls are playing an arena concert in Portland... And I'm going!

Engadget: Sociology 101

If you're a marketing exec and you happen to be reading my blog--well, what the heck are you doing wasting your 6 figure salary on my blog--but, more to the point, if you haven't been paying attention to what Engadget is up to, you're missing out on some invaluable "Free" research in their latest (and may I say much appreciated) give aways today and yesterday.

I put my two cents in on both of these contests, not because I thought I had a remote chance of winning, but because like most people, I'm more than happy to share the greatness of my favorite band and favorite TV show. For the record, my favorite song was listed as Beautiful by Storm Large--even though I think that TOOL is a better band I think Storm is a very close second, and she needs the publicity more. I threw in Numb3rs for my fav TV show and like all other ego maniacs, I started thumbing through the responses to see how many other people were as smart as me. Turns out, I'm more of an elitist... not a whole lot of people chiming in on the Numb3rs show. At least, not on the first 50 pages of responses. As I check right now, there's just under 6000 comments(yes, say it out loud: "Six Thousand Comments"--don't you wish your blog was so popular?) on today's question, which seems a realistic trend considering yesterday's question has had two days to garner comments and its sporting about 12,500 comments.

What really made me trudge all the way over here to the Caffeinated Life to discuss this subject, though, was the sheer number of fans that certain cancelled shows have. I mean, and I'm talking to you again Mr. Exec, I've looked at 50 pages of comments at 20 comments a page (that's a thousand comments for those without a calculator), and roughly 20% of respondents have cited "Firefly" as their favorite show. Firefly was cancelled after only eleven episodes, FOUR YEARS AGO. IMHO, the Engadget survey is reporting that someone at FOX had a cranial-anal inversion. Same corporation (FOX) apparently has a problem with wildly successful shows because Arrested Development is hooking about 10% of the fan base and it, too, was cancelled by none other. Fox is not alone as many weigh in with ABC's cancelled "Alias", at least a memorable amount of times, as their most favoritist show. And I'll throw X-Files and West Wing in the mix because I counted both of these about a dozen times or so.

Ironically, Friends made the list only once (in the 50 pages I looked at). Other shows that one would think appeal to this particular demographic but were only mentioned, on average, once: Star Trek, That 70's Show, South Park (to be fair, more than once, but less than 10 times), The OC, Orange County Choppers, CSI (> 1 | < 10), American Idol, WWE/WWF, Sopranos (though Deadwood [slated for cancellation] and Entourage made strong showings for HBO), Will and Grace, King of the Hill (first mention on page 68), Pimp My Ride was the only MTV show mentioned and only once; (Magnum P.I. got more mentions than The Real World), Saturday Night Live... these are shows that are thought to be the juggernauts of TV? Not according to Engadget readers.

There's plenty of insight on successful shows still in production: LOST is seemingly taking the lion's share, but Battlestar Galactica is doing very respectable, as is House, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, 24, Family Guy, Smallville, The Office, and of course still holding strong after all these years: The Simpsons. My Name is Earl, The Entourage, and Prison Break get honorable mentions, as does the Myth Busters (Discover) and Eureka (a new favorite of mine on SCIFI) and Stargate SG-1/Alantis.

That's my shpeel: Engadget, one of the hottest internet news commodities when it comes to electronics and gadgets is offering up one smorgasbord of collective marketing goodness, free o' charge. Is anyone listening? Because if it get's Firefly or Arrested Development back on the air, itsaboutfreakingtime; the nerve of some people cancelling these shows in an effort to force feed me more reality TV carp. That's right, I might have mis-spelled it, but you know what I mean.

Happy Anniversary to Our Troxel Parents!

Thanks to Jenna...

I was reading Jenna’s Blog today and Wow, what a punch to the old nostalgia button!!!

Sure I remember Sesame Street! And I remember The Electric Company and The Muppet Show--the grumpy old guys in the the opera seats were my favorite along with A N I M A L!.

My 13 inch, black and white (well, not all of it... but a good portion), cable-free childhood was not so much "You can't do that on Television" as it was a show called ZOOM on PBS, ...
Box three Five Oh, Boston, MASS, 0-2-1--3-4... Send it to ZOOM! ...
That was their sign-off jingle where you could Mail letters to the show; That address will stick with me forever. They did cool things like show you how to build a boat out of sticks and and plastic trash bags, or how to make a tripod bike... all kinds of stuff like you'd find in Mother Earth Magazine, but for kids. Greatest show ever.

Come to think, though, those episodes of Fraggle Rock I was able to catch on HBO over at Grandma's house were as influential as any public television show that I can remember. Dun dun! Down At Fraggle Rock!

I also remember evening shows like "That's Incredible!" and "Real People" that were these spin offs of "Candid Camera" style shows. And HEE HAW! There's nothing like Hee Haw.
Well, I searched the world over and thought I found true love, YOU met another and THBBBB! you were gone!

Thn there were Flipper, Skippy, Gentle Ben, Airwolf, Knight Rider, MASH, All in the Family, Buck Rogers and the 25th Century, BJ and the Bear, CHiPS, the Dukes of Hazzard, Simon and Simon, 21 Jump Street, Fantasy Island, Hardcastle and McCormick, Incredible Hulk, MacGyver, Quantum Leap, Magnum PI, Newhart... Some real favorites here.

And how about Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom! Dun dun dun, Da--Da, Dun dun dun dun, da-da, da-da, da-da-DA! Does anyone even remember Mutual of Omaha?

Then there was the not-so-good side: with only three channels on the TV, sometimes you got stuck with yuckie stuff like The Lawerence Welk Show or Donnie and Marie Osmond. Sunday mornings didn't have Cartoons, only church, or politics, or news about farms and plants.

But Saturday mornings?!? Now that's pure nostalgia... Fog Horn Leg Horn, Peppy Le Pew, Porky Pig, Felix the Cat, Mr. Magoo, HeMan, The Flinstones... Every Saturday morning from 6am until noon... cartoons. Ah, the good old days.

East Coast Fun

J.T. in D.C.

I was on the Mad Money Lightning round tonight. I was the last guy and it was a good deal of sitting on hold, but I asked Mr. Cramer himself about Ford (Symbol: F) and Jim recommends a hold or buy. How cool is that?

DC is a whole new world. It's more like Europe to me than America because it's so strangely large and busy. For starters, a lot more people smoke. You don't really notice how many people don't smoke in Washington; or rather you only notice the few who do. Here, it's reminiscent of Las Vegas. Second, drivers suck... but they're polite. It's hard to explain maybe, but for instance, i was lost and driving down town near H street and wanted to be on Connecticut street. At a stoplight I spoke to a gentleman with his window down (yeah, just call me Jim Bob from the country) and not only did he tell me how to get there--which involved making a U-turn and going back toward K street and here I am in the middle lane; not only that, but this guy lets me pull in front of him, make the U-turn and be on my way. That's some serious good will, there. And not a single honk from anyone behind him. Huh.

The work is pretty intense. Really, I'm busy almost every minute of every day... in fact, I would say it's even more hectic because I'm so busy that I don't even realize the day has swept by and that I'm out of time and I should be heading home. Thus far, I've worked a little late every day except today, and that was only because I was having some serious computer problems caused by a profile shift in location from the West coast to the East.

Lilah comes in on Saturday. I haven't seen any of the sights yet and that's by design. But she'll be getting here and come Sunday we'll be out and about looking at everything there is to see.Until then, no pictures, but I have the camera and I'll be loading up with as many shots as I can.

So, for now, later. :j

Ketchikan

This first picture is from a store in Ketchikan, but I really liked the way the light came up from the moulding, so I took the photo to keep it for future use. Curt and I played quite a few cames of darts. He suprised me by beating me at a game or two of cricket; not bad for a guy who said he'd never played before. Yeah Right! Third picture is the trolley that takes people up to this fancy hotel and shops, and the last picture is Experience One, the charter upon which we did NOT experience any fish. I guess we experienced a skunk... which is one, too. ho hum.


 

A random selection from Ketchikan.

just taking photos of things that caught my eye.

 

Caput!

A well deserved nap the day after the hike. We're just too tired to get up! 

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