"Plunger." Isn't That A Cool-Sounding Word? Say It With Me...Plunger... lol

Discussed or disgust, which one?

Up early today for the church fund-raiser. Jogathon, t' raise money fer camp'n such. Twas a rollickin' good time for one and all. I just made that last part up, sorry. Sounded good. Well, you know how it is when you compensate for not enough sleep with a dose or three of coffee. Ah, Starbucks... you alone understand me...

Daughter #2 ran 17 laps today, wifey ran with her. She might've run more, but her knee was giving her grief. I did a lap or two with the 3 year old, just to get her good 'n tired (pronounced "tarred" just to keep the psuedo-western jargon thing goin').

Saved the world playing Battlefield 2 fer a stretch today as well. Then I played me some Fallout 3... couldn't save the world in that case - twas already good n' nuked when I found it...

Then I watched the first disc of season one of the HBO series Deadwood. That's where the half-baked western vibe is coming from. HBO has a tendency to do everything half-baked, I've found. Rome was half-baked, that's fer durn shore. Buncha pasty white actors in crisp, clean costumes with lilting British accents pretending to be ancient Romans. You'd think they could find some good Italian actors, eh? Made it one disc in.

Carnivale was half-baked as well. Over-the-top weirdness in a depression-era circus freakish setting. Definite eye-roller, for the most part. Made it one disc in that as well. Also tried The Wire, one disc as well. That show wasn't half-baked, per se, but it had more F-words in it than yer average Websters Dictionary... should have been called The F-Wire.

Sopranos, in spite of all the love it gets, was pretty half-baked to me as well. I actually watched the whole first season of that show. Then I pulled the plug.

Haven't seen much else that they have to offer. You have to put up with a lot of nonsense with their shows. The profanity and the "adult eyes only" stuff is easy enough to minimize. I watch it on the computer, and a quick click removes the video in case the youngins happen in. You'd think knowing that, I'd quit trying out HBO shows. I guess I should. I just appreciate quality writing/acting, and I keep convincing myself that "maybe this particular show won't be that bad." I usually regret it. Deadwood is not bad - I'd say about three-quarters baked. But I don't think I'll get another disc.

I know what you're thinking (here we go with THAT again...). You're thinking ""oh, gee, nice polished holy christian dude, watching entertainment that you'd be embarrassed to watch in front of your kids or your wife or your wholesome Christian friends! Hypocrite!"

My response to that? Well, I suppose you have a point. "Christian" entertainment is so vapid. Disney is overdone. And there's only so many times I can watch Anne of Green Gables and/or Pride and Prejudice. Life has a hard edge to it. And at this point in my life, I like strong acting that has teeth in it - because I know how hard it is to do, and how powerful it is when it's done right. If I have to wade through some muck in my search, I guess I'm willing to do that to a point. If it gets too lame, I certainly stop watching.

I guess that holds no water. I wonder if the King is offended by course language? I suppose so. Then again, perhaps Pastor's picture of Jesus is correct - a King seated at His table with His men of war around him, big hairy burly men roaring and pounding their steins on the table, like a bunch of half-crazed Vikings or something. Paladins is probably more like it, but you know what I mean...

Ah, well, food for thought, I guess. I can't rightly say I'd recommend any of the above shows carte blanche.

I'm working on a new comic. No promises, but it should be soon. I guess, being in the opening stages of the comic, I'm still establishing the cast. Look for a new character to be added soon...

Swung by the mall this afternoon for a quick bite. If there's a recession/depression going on, someone forgot to tell the jillions of people swamping the place. Had to double-check the calandar - thought it was Christmas time again...

I'm basically a financial retard, for the most part, but I've been chewing on the idea of buying some Citibank stock - not just because they are my bank, but because it seems like such a no-brainer. The stock has inched up to about $1.75 per share (up from under a buck a week or two ago). Here's my thinking - follow me here, it'll just take a second...

A hundred shares sets me back about $200. No biggie, really. If Citibank tanks, I'll have more to worry about than losing a measly $200. But they announced Friday that they don't need anymore bail-out dough, that they are in really good shape - they are in no risk of being nationalized, even in part. So they aren't going anywhere.

So if they stick around, there is absolutely no reason to think that the stock won't at least go back to $10 per share, which is their average up to the mid nineties boom. At that point, the stock shot up to almost $60/share - it was around $30/share as recently as a year ago. Chances are, this time next year, it will have leveled out and be somewhere north of $10, possibly even higher.

Anyway, again, maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems like a no-brainer, with little risk. Wish I had a clue as to how to make such an investment. Maybe I'll go into Citibank on Monday and ask. I have an IRA - maybe it already has Citi stock in it.

I couldn't help but think, as things hit the tank and the market fell, that yeah, people were losing a lot of dough, but things always come back up, and when it does, people will make a lot as well. I've always kind of pictured money as a necessary evil - which is part of the reason (I suppose) that I'm under such a mountain of debt. I shunned learning how to handle it correctly, since it carried an offensive air to it, like a rank egg fart... maybe if I had a clue, I'd be free from debt and paying on a house or some such...

Bah, what am I mumbling about, sorry. Perhaps next year, I'll stumble upon this post, and then kick myself for not having acted when I could/should have.

Bottom line, I'm a scatterbrain.

Until tomorrow, save that last glazed donut for me, eh!